Chapter 52

“The collection kit you gave me wasn’t much use,” Zoey said, setting it on the counter. “The shard, uh, took our inventories. That might be a recurring trend.”

Zoey hadn’t told Sabina what her class was, but she was aware that Zoey’s first shard had involved lewdness ... if not the exact specifics. Zoey had also implied, before leaving, that she suspected the second shard would too. Knowing that Sabina was an intelligent woman, and that shards morphed themselves according to the people entering them, she had to suspect it was Zoey, or her teammates, influencing it to be so.

Zoey wouldn’t be surprised if she’d deduced the general shape of Zoey’s class, even. She seemed perceptive enough to. At the same time, she visibly didn’t care; she hadn’t questioned Zoey at all, or even seemed interested, beyond how the shards Zoey was venturing into provided unique ingredients. So maybe she didn’t.

“You found a similar shard, then?” Sabina asked.

“More or less.”

“So reagents similar to the first batch.”

Zoey nodded.

“Perfect.” Sabina seemed pleased.

Sabina’s satisfaction wasn’t from perversion—in wanting to experiment with what effects lewd ingredients could provide. Or ... in a way, it was. But for the rarity, and novelty, more than the sexual aspects. Zoey didn’t know Sabina well, but that she enjoyed experimenting with rare and unique alchemy reagents was a given. She’d outright said so. It was one of the conditions of her teaching Zoey; Zoey had to provide her with a steady stream of interesting reagents for her to see the arrangement as ‘suitable’.

Zoey scooted the kit to the side. She probably ought to bring it along on future expeditions, even if she might never get a chance to use it. No reason to not. Inventories weren’t infinite, but they were pretty big. Plenty of room for the kit.

“So,” Zoey said. “I’ll get to it, then.” She hesitated, briefly, on what to drag out of her inventory and showcase first. She should work her way up. Start with the most normal reagents, then get to the ... more disorienting ones. Like the gigantic toy’s cum, which Delta had extracted, and Zoey had scooped up in emptied-out potion vials. That would be interesting to explain to Sabina, who would undoubtedly want a full recounting of its origin, simply for practical matters.

Fortunately, Zoey didn’t get the sense Sabina would be awkward about any of this. She’d been stalwartly impassive when it came to discussions over the lewd potions and ingredients they’d worked with, in a similar way to Fe, but even more so. Zoey didn’t know whether that was because Sabina was unaffected, or if she was a hard woman to read.

A bit of both, if Zoey had to guess.

So. Start with the normal stuff, work up to the weirder.

Zoey pulled out the small black bag, tied with a tan ribbon at the top, filled with [Pink Fairy Dusty]. She set it on the counter, and Sabina didn’t waste a moment to inspect the item—both, at a guess, the mundane sort of ‘inspect’, and the ability afforded to denizens of this world.

[Pink Fairy Dust]: A shimmering pink powder. Can be used to prepare potions that intensify, and crystallize, dreams.

“This one’s not explicitly, uh, lewd, but considering everything else we got, I think it’s safe to assume the effects won’t be ... entirely normal.”

Sabina pursed her lips as she peered into the bag. She set it down, picked up long, flat metal utensil, then scooped up a tiny portion of the fine powder, inspecting the dust with a steady hand and a keen eye.

“Fairy dust,” Sabina finally said. “A common reagent, all things considered. But pink. I’ve never seen pink fairy dust. How intriguing.” She poured the powder back into the bag and tied it off, pushing it to the side. “I’ll trust your intuition. Though, what precisely do you mean?”

Sabina’s clinical nature helped Zoey not feel awkward about her explanations. And, sheesh, she had a lot worse to get through, so she better get used to saying embarrassing things without stuttering over herself. “Sex dreams? Maybe makes them more realistic? Can’t say for sure, but something like that.”

“We’ll prepare our bases with that assumption in mind, then.”

“Prepare our bases?”

Sabina paused. “Hm. Before brewing, a potion base needs to be primed with ingredients appropriate to the desired, or suspected, effect. And the proper liquid, as well. It influences what sorts of results can be coaxed from the catalyzing ingredient.” Sabina gestured at the fairy dust. “The ‘main ingredient’, in layman’s terms—the ingredients normally found in shard loot, rather than out and about in the Fracture’s natural terrain, or imported from Haven. We’ll discuss all this during our lessons. Not now. Please, continue.”

Zoey had to refrain from further questions. It made sense, of course, that potion brewing wasn’t just throwing a random assortment of items into a pot of water and hoping for the best, but the casual explanation implied brewing might be more complex than Zoey had thought.

Honestly, she was excited for it. The same as how she was excited to learn how spell-casting worked, in depth. Rosalie’s expeditious pace had meant Zoey hadn’t had time to learn her runes in any meaningful capacity.

Zoey pulled the next item out.

[Twinrose]: An unidentified alchemy reagent. Two red flowers entwine into each other, preserved but delicate.

“Honestly,” Zoey said, placing down the two long, healthy flowers. “I’ve no clue what this one does. The description doesn’t give a hint, either.”

Like with the fairy dust, Sabina appraised the flowers with a critical eye. She treated the items as if they would crumble in her hands, though they were, as the description implied, healthy—preserved, two roses entwined, and while severed from their plant, perfectly lush. Certainly not at risk of disintegrating while being handled.