*** Kiara ***

  Her grandmother’s proposal had been a trap. It was nigh impossible to complete all ten cubes in time before the sand ran out.

  Individually, none of the early cubes challenged her anymore, but if she had to complete them all after each other, it suddenly became a problem. If she hurried too much, she wasted too much Mana when her technique became sloppy and unrefined. In the end, she ran out of Mana before she could complete the ninth cube.

  If she took her time and worked to the best of her abilities, she was able to just complete the seventh before her time ran out, and her Mana barely lasted through all the cubes.

  Her Grandmother had smiled and left her to her devices.

  Kiara was furious about it. Magdalena must have known the challenge was impossible for her to complete.

  It took her four months of training to complete her grandmother’s challenge. Four months in which she imagined, crafting shock traps into the floorboards of their house, when she knew her grandmother would visit. Or dreamt of small wooden boards which suddenly and violently veered to the side once someone stepped on them. Of two small glyphs which would form a very thin and fragile barrier in a doorway, just above one’s ankle, just enough to make the other person stumble and fall. Trap designs and payback were all she dreamt of while she trained.

  It kept her motivated. She needed the book to realize any of them.

  *** Magdalena ***

  Kiara was a monster. She had estimated it would take her granddaughter over a year to achieve her challenge. She did it in four months, nearly to the day.

  Her speed and control had improved by miles, and her Mana source had grown even further. At five years old, she could compare to an apprentice in his last year of training. The only thing that had her worried was the look in her eyes when she looked at her.

  She felt like prey. A cold shiver ran down her back. Maybe it had been a mistake to get one over her.

  Sia had been informed about her granddaughter and her talents several weeks ago and had agreed to let her help in the preparation of ingredients and with the mixture of some potions and salves, which took precise Mana control.

  She had told her over and over again to make sure not to inflate Kiara’s ego or let her know how exceptional she was. Sia was to be demanding and strict, not that it was really in her nature.

  *** Sia ***

  There they were. Little Kiara and Magdalena. She had been surprised at the request, and if it had been anyone else requesting a five-year-old to work in her shop, she would have strictly denied the request, but Magdalena was not one to be sentimental, nor was she someone who gave out praise easily – or ever.

  She had told her that her granddaughter was special and was talented in handling Mana. Coming from her, it had to mean something, and she was curious to see what.

  On the other hand, she also thought the company would be nice. She jumped down from her little stool and came around to greet them. Now, where had she put the sweet she had prepared?

  “So, you must be Kiara? Your grandmother has told me so much about you. You want to learn a little bit about alchemy and help an old woman such as myself?” she said with a smile, half expecting the child to hide behind her grandmother’s leg like most children would.

  Kiara did no such thing. She stood there calm, offered her hand for a handshake, and said, ”Yes, I am Kiara, what shall I call you? My grandmother told me your name is Sia, but since we are not familiar yet and I don’t want to be disrespectful, I am at a loss for what to call you. It is my pleasure to meet you, and I am very grateful for the chance of learning from you.”

  “No normal child indeed. This would be interesting!” Sia thought.

  “You can call me Sia or Granny Sia if you want. Here, take a treat. Made them myself just a few days ago.” She offered the box of candies. Magdalena raised an eyebrow, probably wondering if they were safe to consume, but I am not a monster and would not play tricks on a child.

  Kiara took one. Her eyes started to glow when she tasted the sweet and sour flavor and felt the invigorating Mana in them flow through her body.

  Magdalena reached out for the box, but lightning fast, my wooden spoon descended on her hand, giving her a painful smack.

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  “Rule Number 1: No snacking or nibbling on anything in my shop, without my expressed Approval. Some of the things here are really dangerous if not handled correctly. And shame on you, Magdalena, for trying to eat sweets at your age.” She said sternly while putting away the box and popping a candy in her mouth.

  Magdalena looked as if she wanted to say something, but instead shook her head and spoke. “Take good care of my granddaughter, I will be back in a few hours. Don’t make me regret introducing the two of you!”

  “Yeah, yeah! Now, shoo,” Sia said while turning to Kiara.

  ***Kiara***

  “I think I am in love! No one had ever repelled her grandmother like this. And she had gotten a sweet on top of it, and her grandmother hadn’t.” Kiara thought. Sia instantly became her personal hero.

  The candy was delicious and interestingly stimulated her Mana. It made her whole body tingle, and she immediately started to channel this additional Mana into her source and internalized it. She had read about Mana potions. Who needed those if you could instead have Mana candies? Her eyes glowed, and she was excited about what other wonders she would find in this store.

  “Second rule: Always wash your hands before you start working on anything,” Sia continued, and Kiara nodded seriously.

  “That also means no picking your nose while cutting ingredients for me, ok?”

  “Yes, Granny Sia!”

  “Ok, what else is there?” Sia took a moment to think. She was a tiny woman, dressed in long green robes, carrying an old wooden spoon, and on her belt, several small vials of different colors were fastened. A hairband with two big crocheted flowers held back her long gray hair.

  “Follow me!” Sia spoke and walked into the back of her store.

  There, she handed her an old apron with a lot of flowers embroidered into it and a small notebook and pencil. A few stains of different colors had accumulated on the apron over the years.

  “Here, this is yours, while you work for me. Take any notes you want. I don’t like to repeat myself, so listen closely.”

  “Yes, Granny!”

  In the following hours, she was taught about different plants common in the area, what they were used for, and how she could reliably identify them. How to prepare them, and in which books she could find additional information about them.

  She was given a knife and had to cut up several different plants before putting them in the mortar and crushing them into a homogeneous paste.

  Sia took a moment and had her focus on the Mana inside the paste.

  Kiara tried, but it was something she had never really done in this way.

  “You are focusing too much on the small details. Take a step back, hold your hand over the paste. It will help in the beginning. How does your hand feel? What is the Mana doing?”

  She did as instructed and concentrated. At first, there was nothing, then slowly she felt the tingling sensation of Mana, but very weak and only on the very edge of her fingertips. Mana slowly streamed by her hand.

  She described the sensation to Sia.

  “Very well done! Yes, Mana is slowly leaking out of the plants. It starts with the harvesting of the plant, but increases in speed the more you cut up, boil, or generally work with them. This is the reason why we have to prepare most of the ingredients fresh and have to work fast, and can’t laze around. “

  “Ok, so what do we do next?” Kiara said. She enjoyed the way Sia was teaching quite a lot. Becoming a full-time alchemist was not her plan, but it would be useful to know how to treat poisons and injuries when she would be traveling as an adventurer later in life.

  They added a solvent and afterwards carefully distilled the liquid, separating it into different testing tubes and containers. One small tube was partly submerged in an ice bath to cool it down quickly.

  All the temperatures were managed via small weaves recessed into small stone tablets. She was allowed to supply the Mana and take care not to overheat or freeze the water.

  Since it was a finished weave, it took way less effort to get her Mana to flow in the intended paths. She still concentrated on keeping the leakage to a minimum.

  “7% more Mana for the heating tablet,” Sia told her every time she needed to increase or decrease her Mana output, while keeping a close eye on the distilling process. It was difficult to comply with the precise instructions, but she did her best, and in the end, they had a small vial filled with a purple, liquid, slightly glowing, or at least strangely reflecting light.

  Sia’s eyes suddenly glowed for a moment.

  “24% grade Mana recovering potion, not bad for your first attempt,” she reassured.

  “What does that mean, and what did you just do with your eyes?” Kiara asked curiously.

  “Oh, that was one of my skills. You will get access to some skills once you choose a crystal and fully awaken during your initiation, and 24% means that it contains 24% of the Mana that was initially in the ingredients. Imagine a cake and you cut it equally into four pieces, then 3 pieces of the cake were lost in the process, and a little bit less than one of those pieces remains in this little bottle.

  They melted a little bit of wax and sealed the vial. They cleaned up their work station, cleaned their hands, and Kiara put away her apron and her notebook, already partly filled with notes.

  As soon as they were finished, her grandmother appeared. Sia handed her another one of her candies and her first potion, and off they went, back home. Kiara lost deep in thought, mulling the experiences of the day over and over in her head.

  ***Magdalena***

  “How did she do?” she asked, full of curiosity.

  “I am willing to take her on as a full-time apprentice. Give it a year or two, and I might even offer to make her my successor.” Sia answered joyfully.

  “Never, not in a million years. She is mine, and you know it. You're just here to broaden her horizon a little. She will become a full-fledged weaver! She is a Thornwing after all.”

  “Well, we will see about that. I treated her like an adult, she was craving it. I wouldn’t be surprised if today was the best day of her young life. You better step up your game if you want to keep her.”

  Magdalena was reeling. She could not lose Kiara to her old rival. How dare she sink her dirty claws into her granddaughter?

  “I am only joking! Damn for one instant I thought you were plotting on how to get rid of me. But honestly, if you aren’t careful, you will end up in the same situation as with your daughter. She is a bright young girl, and you'd best treat her as such.”

  Sia had the audacity to swing her wooden spoon around as she spoke, and suddenly she felt her hand slightly throbbing again. It had been years since she last had one of Sia’s candies. One time in her youth, she had tried to steal one of them and had been successful, or at least that was what she believed at the time. A few days later, her hair had turned blue. Their friendship in the academy had been weird.