The Newt and Demon

The space elves had carved a small piece of the void out for themselves. The area had a theme of dense jungles mingling with strange forests containing trees Theo dind’t recognize. Conifers and deciduous trees mingled together with the tropical fare, giving a confusing backdrop to the stone ziggurats. As always—lurking from the jungle or poking their sunken-eyed faces around rocks—were the elves. They gazed on the alchemist and Tresk with a kind of madness that only his potent Reforge Mind potion could cure. Too much time in the void had broken their minds, although he thought of them as having simply lost their senses.

Zarali, Sulvan, and Bilgrob were ready back in town. They had a capacity of 150 elves for now, which was more than Theo had expected. Alongside that was Salire’s efforts to create enough potions to handle the influx. Not only did they need to heal the minds of the elves but also their souls. Things had finally lined up, and he was excited to get started.

“How do we round them up?” Tresk asked.

Theo took a seat on one of the many stone steps leading to the temple. He glanced at the shard behind him, reminded of another thing he had to fix in a short time. That relied on Elrin and his strange connection with the shards, though.

“Wait for them to come. And subdue any that attack.” Theo shrugged. He hadn’t found a better way to handle them. “You brought the rope, right?”

“See, this is funny,” Tresk said, withdrawing a length of rope from their shared inventory. “Because you normally find an alchemical solution to the problem.”

“A sleeping potion would be nice, right?” Theo asked with a sigh. A few elves moved closer to the steps, rushing when they thought no one was looking. One tripped, face-planting on the soft ground. The poor elf remained there as though she had successfully crossed the distance. “If this wasn’t so sad, I’d be laughing.”

Tresk laughed. “I’ll give a good chuckle for both of us.”

The first elf to go down was a woman. She was disheveled, her eyes sunken with a mad look in whatever light remained on her face. Another problem with lingering in the void as a mortal was the way it sapped a person’s strength. Theo suspected it took just about everything from these people. Each attribute was tied to a piece of that person, and the void sucked away every drop they had. Tresk overpowered her with almost no effort, pinning the woman to the ground and tying her up tightly.

It wasn’t the most glorious way to handle the situation. But Theo watched as his companion captured elves. He helped when there was more than one, joining in to use his predictive powers to outclass the elves.But their capacity to control this many elves was lacking. Once they had about fifty, the alchemist realized it was too much for them to handle by themselves.

“We gotta settle,” Tresk said, running after another elf that had broken their bonds. “They’re ready on the other side, right?”

Theo nodded, tightening the knot on one elf. The elven man looked up at him with a wild look, gnashing his teeth. “Right,” he said, expanding his aura to encompass each elf. Through his will, he selected the elves, and not the structure. Shouts of fear rose as they fell into the void. More shouts came when those elves were cut off from pure void energy. The alchemist’s shadowy aura guarded them from the effects. “Stop slapping that one.”

“She won’t stay still!” Tresk shouted, giving the elf a few good slaps on the face. Oddly, it seemed to work. “Just have a nap, lady.”

The floating bubble of condensed willpower and loaned power from Shadow approached the mortal realm. In a flash, fifty elves, a demon, and a newt appeared underneath the temple in Broken Tusk. While Theo wasn’t great at steering to the exact location on the mortal realm, he could alter his course by a few miles if he needed.

Zarali bound over, her eyes wide. Theo was reminded of the difference in her personality compared to when she first arrived. She had gone from reserved to bubbly after getting married. The one thing he loved more than anything about that was the way it seemed to help her care about others. As a Drogramathi Dronon, those emotions were hard to feel. But nothing would compare to the absolute redemption of Sulvan Flametouched.

“This is all?” Sulvan asked, administering the first Reforge Mind potion. He wore a simple robe today, stained with dirt. The look of empathy on his face was clear to everyone around.

Bilgrob wasn’t so empathetic. The full-blooded ogre lifted a nearby elf by one leg, forcing a potion down his throat. “They’re so squishy…”

“Just get them under as fast as you can,” Theo said, helping with the process. “Before they claw your eyes out.”

“That’s a possibility?” Zarali asked, jumping back slightly.

“Not if you hold them like this,” Bilgrob said, dangling the unconscious elf in the air.

“Have more respect, Bil,” Sulvan growled. “These people have been through enough. And they have a long road to recovery.”

Bilgrob shrugged, placing the elf on the ground. The group worked through the elves, giving each a potion to cure their minds. After that came flashes of gold and silver light as the healers took care of minor wounds. They explained something about the power of the god Hallow soothing their souls long enough to cure them, but Theo didn’t understand much about that divine magic. He knew alchemy and the void, and was content with his specialty.

One fact of the Reforge Mind potion that sucked was how it couldn’t interact with the Reforge Soul potion. All healers agreed it would be too risky to give both potions at one time. They feared for the stability of the elves, and refused to give them both at once. That would increase the time it would take the elves to heal significantly. Until then, they would stay under the care of the healers in their cells.

“Time to do a few more runs,” Theo said, breathing out a heavy sigh. “Ready for another late night, Tresk?”

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“Oh, yeah. I love late nights. Hey, let’s bring Alex this time.”

###

The capacity for elves within the temple was apparently two-hundred. And Theo was exhausted. Their plan was to do this in waves. The only problem there was knowing how many elves there were. It wasn’t as though every elf on the island in the void gathered near intruders. Theo was certain most were hidden in the jungles and forests around the area.

“This is going to be a lot of work,” Zarali sighed, placing her head on Theo’s shoulder. “At least we know what we’re doing.”

Bilgrob shuffled awkwardly to the pair, doubling over to put his meaty head on Theo’s shoulder. “Yes, we’re so exhausted. Care to cuddle?”

Theo shrugged them both off, getting enough distance so he could flee if needed. “What about imported healers? Have we had any luck with those?”

“You’d have to ask Alise.” Sulvan peered through the doors of the cells, checking on each patient. “But I think she might be busy.”

With the elves sorted for now, that only left Theo with his next leg of the task. As was her new goal in life, Tresk followed along. Upon leaving the temple, Theo stopped as his eyes turned to the sky. A dark shape looked overhead as Alex swooped around. Her slender neck angled toward the ground as she dove, wings spreading wide as she stopped herself. Her draconic features had really come out lately, especially as she grew. A bit smaller than an Indian Elephant, she bore the features of both a goose and a dragon. Dragon horns, scales, and spikes marked her body while streaking patches of feathers joined them. She had four limbs and a pair of wings. At least her feet were still webbed. The spiked tail was a nice addition for combat, though.

“Coming along?” Theo asked. “You’re tall enough. Maybe you can watch us work on the third floor while you’re outside.”

“Yes, I am quite tall,” Alex said, speaking into their minds.

“You’re the tallest dragon-goose I know,” Tresk said, nodding with agreement.

Within the Newt and Demon were enough distillation artifices to choke out the occupants. If not for the extraction devices—in the case of the second floor, a simple fan in the window—that certainly would’ve happened. Salire was on the third floor, working through an endless line of potions. Theo recognized the scent before he had even entered the building. The Soul Blooms stolen by Tresk resulted in a massive supply of Reforge Soul potions.”

“Theo!” Salire said, looking over to him with a pleading look. “I could really use some help. Pretty sure the essence has a limited lifespan.”

Theo smiled as he rubbed his hands. Salire had already set everything out that needed work. She had even created the Enchanted Water needed to mix with the essence. As expected, this new version of the potion didn’t require a long brewing time within the vial. According to their early tests, if there was a brew time it was less than an hour. With hundreds of the potions to brew, he wanted nothing more than to get it done and move onto the next leg of the project.

Although Salire had overseen most of the distillation this time around, the quality of essence she produced was excellent. With the new system in alchemy, it was all about getting the purity number as high as possible. Theo considered 95% to be their target, since that would almost completely remove the chance for a bad reaction. Salire had hit that number with only minor help, resulting in a batch of incredibly pure Soul Essence. Combined with the pure Searing Regeneration Essence, and Suffuse Essence, the resulting Reforge Soul potions were going to be awesome.

Theo watched as Salire kicked off a reaction, combining the two properties with a Suffuse Potion. The reaction was as violent as the suffuse actions normally were. But Tero’gal’s alchemy was always more subtle than Drogramath’s alchemy, as long as the required materials were of a high purity. The vial sputtered for a moment, releasing a cloud of noxious gas. But the resulting potion within the vial was very impressive, and suffered from none of the expected problems related to brew time.

“I think you’ve outdone yourself this time around,” Theo said, holding the vial high to get a better look. There was a slight cloudiness within the vial, but it seemed otherwise perfect to him. He inspected the item, reading the description provided by the system prompt.

[Greater Reforge Soul]

[Potion]

Legendary

Created by: Salire Hogrush

Purity: 91%

Alignment:

Imbibing this potion reforges a mortal’s soul. The process is extremely painful, but all impurities, imperfections, and scars are cleansed.

“That gave some decent experience!” Salire said, jumping with excitement.

The 91% purity was what excited Theo. He wouldn’t say it to Salire, but distilling the Soul Bloom was devilish work. The reagent was prone to bad reactions, as the flower was incredibly delicate. He suspected the lizard-folk they stole them from had been cultivating the flowers for years. The resulting reagent was impressive, leaving him feeling worse about the theft. But if the choice was between saving a bunch of elves and not offending the lizardfolk, he would save the elves every time.

“That’s a good one, right?” Tresk asked, looking over the potion.

“She’s batting well above her ability,” Theo said. The words forced a flash of red to spread across Salire’s cheeks. “We’re talking about an alchemist that actually knows her stuff. I made things like this around Level 20, but I was Drogramath’s Champion.”

“Yeah, you were cheating the whole way through. Salire is actually good,” Tresk slapped Theo on the lower back, almost hitting his butt. She was just so short. “When does she take over the shop?”

“Stop!” Salire said, covering her face with her hands. “I’m trying to brew potions here. The angry lizard never gives compliments.”

“That’s true, angry lizard. You’re being weirdly nice.”

“Yeah, well, I can do math. I know we’re gonna spend forever with our friends so I’m trying to make a better impression. Less stabbing, more hugging. That’s what I always say.”

“You’ve never said that,” Theo corrected.

“But I could’ve.”

Clearing away the rest of the potions was fairly easy. It was time-consuming, taking the group until after dinner to get the job done. Theo was already tired from staying up the previous night, but it was wearing on him. Tresk actually helped, using their shared [Tara’hek Union] skill to steal some of Theo’s alchemical abilities. At least that made things go faster, finally giving everyone the break they needed to get some dinner.

Theo invited Salire over for food before they left the lab. Before heading out, they double-checked that each of the 150 potions they had brewed was safely stowed away. While the yield for Tero’gal alchemy was much less than Drogramath’s version, he couldn’t have been prouder of what they had accomplished. When the group arrived at the manor, they found that Sarisa and Rowan had prepared some food for them. While it was nothing special—just some delicious meatball and pasta style dish—each was grateful for the meal.

“The good news is we get to do that tomorrow,” Theo said, giving Salire a playful wink. “And the day after that. And so on until we cure the elves.”

“Oh! Do I get to steal more things?” Tresk asked.

“No, you stole enough for us to cure way too many elves.”

“Bah! Can I steal some stuff anyway?”

Theo shrugged. “Yeah. Just make sure you only commit petty crimes. Nothing too crazy.”

“Hooray! Tresk shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “I’m a criminal!”