He had learned to love the smell of acid like mixtures and potions that still somehow reminded him of the time as an adventurer. Or maybe it was more fitting to say he had learned to love the person who made all of them. Antoni Mazuri looked around the office that resembled more of a laboratory than most outsiders would expect. It was filled to the brim with chemicals and devices he had never seen outside of here. Research papers piled up to mountains on the desk while a few books were scattered on the floor. They hadn''t been here the last time he visited. He bent over, trying to read the labels of these books, and even though he managed to interpret the terrible handwriting on their covers into a half functional language, he had no idea what the words could mean. He had never been good with alchemy, and besides consuming a few potions here and there, he had close to no contact with it either. Of course he wouldn''t understand topics that Ms. Minecast, the academy''s leading alchemist, was working on. He looked back at the potions, still not sure what he was looking for. Those actually weren''t supposed to be here. The previous headmaster probably would have never allowed this room to get into the current state, and Mr. Stroff had voiced his concerns more than just one time. Although Mr. Stroff definitely could have been friendlier while doing that, he did have a point. This was supposed to be the officer of the head alchemist of Prestillion. It had been established after the unification of magic and alchemy based teachings around a hundred years ago. Unbelievable how strict these arts were separated before that, even though they were so similar. Alchemy was impossible without a basic magic knowledge to that! Looking at this room, it was once again obvious to him just how different the mindsets of most alchemists and magic casters were though. Even though the studies of most teachers here were a mess similar to this one, their offices were all clean enough to be confused with that of a soldier. And it wasn''t like there were no laboratories here either. It seemed like Ms. Minecast had decided on using both the rooms given to her for her research, and Mr. Harms had seen no harm in allowing her to do so. The pleasure of having talent… he himself would never be allowed a stunt like that, and he could already be counted among the more prestigious professors here. As he was still deep in his thoughts, the door suddenly opened, and the unnatural and probably unhealthy smells of ‘her’ creations were set free. A breeze went through the room, and the voice he had been longing to hear finally filled the room. ‘My my, don''t tell me you went all the way just to visit little old me?’ She laughed, he hadn''t heard that in a while. He turned around, looking her deep in the eyes. He then kneeled down, taking her hand and saying the kitchy phrase he had read in a novel the other day. ‘My lady, no journey would be too far if I got to see your face afterwards.’ He had put all the sarcasm he had into his voice, but it came out more serious than he had intended. His serious expression changed into an awkward smile. ‘I just wanted to see you after this long day.’ he admitted. Relationships between professors were very uncommon, but in no way forbidden. She smiled back. ‘I am glad you came. It''s been a long day for me too.’ Her smile got a bit less wide, less enjoyable. Her expression looked distant, like she normally did. He took a step closer to her and embraced her in her arms. It was a gentle and genuine moment. For a few seconds, neither of them moved so much as a muscle. They looked almost like they were from one of the paintings in the hallway for a second. Her long black hair stood in contrast to his white hair. As usual, he himself wore it in a ponytail. White hair was very unusual among humans. He had heard that there had been an elf in his family tree several generations ago, so maybe that was the reason. Except for the hair colour, he shared nothing with his almost forgotten ancestor though. They slowly went apart. Normally, they often met like this, but nothing was normal anymore. After the murder of Mr. Stellox, the academy had fundamentally changed. They all did their very best to keep up appearances to the students and their families, but the whole staff had been on edge for quite some time now. The culprits still weren''t found, and so the professors were expected to work overtime to keep up the right security. They didn''t even know the number of enemies yet, only that they were strong enough to defeat someone of Mr. Stellox’ caliber. Would Antoni have been strong enough to survive the attack? That question had been present in his head ever since he first heard about it. And even though he could not answer it for sure, there was one thing he definitely knew. Vilvette, the woman he had sworn to give his life for, wouldn''t have come out of it alive. She was focused on alchemy, and while she may be above the average when it comes to some basic magic spells, her true strength were potions. He knew that she was almost defenseless against a dark magic user, and he feared her death more than his own. Maybe that mentality was also a leftover of his elvish ancestor, maybe not. Either way, he was questioning whether he could actually protect her. Another reason he had felt the urge to visit her again. He took her hand. ‘Did you talk to Mr. Harms? He should really allow you to use your main laboratory in the Dame again! It''s much safer there.’ She just smiled. She had never been scared for her own live, and that wouldn''t change today. ‘You know how things are. Mr. Vonstadt is currently using one of the rooms, and they don''t want anyone else near him. His translation work is important and could finally give us a clue about the culprits. You know we can''t risk that.’ Antoni obviously wasn''t satisfied with that answer. Seeing that, Vilvette tried to lighten up the mood a bit. ‘And who knows, maybe I am one of the culprits myself?’ He had to laugh. ‘As if dark magic users could possibly be that weak!’ he teased her. ‘Just you wait!’ she giggled. She grabbed one of the malicious looking brewings close to her and acted as if she was preparing to throw it at him. ‘Just you try.’ Antoni extended his hand and small magic circles immediately began to form. He was in his element. The white-blue colour told anyone about the pride of his skill set, his ice magic. It had been a long tradition in his family to excell at this, and he definitely wasn''t an exception. As the potion left her hand with his face as destination, he mumbled a few quiet words. Suddenly, the air around the potion cooled down very fast. Before the bottle had traveled even half its way, an ice crust had built around it. It only took a split of a second until the whole thing was seemingly ‘swallowed’ by a mass of ice, stopping it mid air. A smile began to form on his face. It wasn''t a daily occurrence that he had questionable brewings thrown at him, but he couldn''t say it would have been the first time either. Just as he was about to give a cheeky comment, he felt something pressing against his stomach. Maybe pressing wasn''t the right word… it felt like he was just hit by a blacksmith''s hammer. His eyes traced down his body, noticing a transparent something. A magic missile, and in the starter form to that. Before magic casters adapted to an element like earth, ice or fire, they used so-called starter forms of magic. Those spells were creations of pure mana, and were basically a very easy level of mana control Magic. Magic missile was one of these spells. Various elements could be applied to it later on in order to strengthen it, but the one he was hit by was just a plain one. He went down on one knee. ‘Ugh… When did you…’ Vilvette just smiled. ‘Who did you call weak again? To think that a basic magic missile could hurt the strong and mighty Mr. Mazur…’ She giggled, and once he managed to catch his breath, he did too. ‘That wasn''t a normal magic missile… how in the world did you get it that strong?’ Antoni remembered how his father used to tell him to always train the basics when he was still young. He had never seen them mastered to that degree though. ''That''s a secret-’ She replied. ''Surprised that the leading alchemist has some aces up her sleeve?’ He got up again, or at least he tried. He still had to heavily rely on the hand she reached out to him. ‘You always manage to amaze me again.’ ‘Expect the unexpected!’ she laughed. They had played like this in their youth often, but that was a thing of the past now. His expression got more serious again. ‘I am not too sure that this would work in an actual fight though.’ Vilvette looked him deeply in the eyes. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but ultimately decided not to. She sighed ‘Yes, maybe not. But don''t think that was all the almighty queen of alchemy has to offer!’ Antoni hadn''t heard that name in a while. Queen of alchemy… When he had started as a professor, shortly after his time as an adventurer, many students and even some professors had called her that. As time went by, the name started to disappear. ‘Oh I am sure, not a single dark mage would dare to touch the queen of alchemy.’ he joked. But it was probably true for most mages. The name Vilvette Minecast was known even in other countries, she had received tons of job offerings in the past. He took a step towards her. His hands softly touched her face. ‘Maybe we should take a day or two off again.’ She looked surprised. ‘Now? When the whole academy is in hectic?’ He smiled gently. ‘Yes, especially now. They won''t let you use your laboratory anyways, will they? And up here, your research is just slowed down. We haven''t taken a single day off in the last three years, I think it is time.’ His face looked nostalgic. ‘You never know when it''s too late…’ Vilvette’s eyes got smaller. She often looked like that when she was deep in thought. After a few seconds of silence, she nodded. ‘Very well, let us do just that.’ Her eyes looked at her calendar. ‘The lockdown shouldn''t count for us if we have good enough reasons… It will be hard, but I think we can convince Mr. Harms to let us go for a few days… I have an experiment I will need to supervise until tomorrow. I can clear my calender after that.’ Antoni was a bit perplex. He didn''t expect her to agree so easily. Something he had said must have been more convincing than he would have thought. Well, there was no use complaining about the good things. ‘That perfectly fits my schedule. I have to stand guard at the Dame tomorrow evening, my lectures after that can be held by a temporary replacement.’ He once again looked at her. ‘I-’ before he could finish his sentence, an alarm went off. He had heard this too often to be surprised by it. Vilvette turned around in a hurry. ‘The experiment I was talking about…’ He just smiled. ‘It’s okay. Go. I will see you tomorrow evening after my turn to guard the Dame?’ She nodded. Without a second word, she grabbed a sheet of paper that was laying around and left the room. Hearing her footsteps, he could tell that she was running in the corridor. Because she couldn''t always be present at her experiments, she had requested and received a device that would notify her the moment anything about her experiments changed. He smiled as he tried to reach the door without stepping on anything. Soon they would finally get some time off again. Where would they go? The north or the east? Or maybe they would try the south this time… since his magic was mainly based on the ice element and it was very warm in the south, he was never a big fan of the idea of going there, but this time he felt like it would be a nice idea. As he slowly went back to his own office in order to prepare for his next lecture, he thought about where exactly their destination would be this time.


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