Page 35 of Elixir of Strife
Flora examined her nails. “And then there’s the question of you breaking into a warehouse and breaking every last bottle. Good thing I’d already examined the goods.”
Leon’s mouth fell open. “That was you? That was your warehouse? You sell perfume, not liquor. What was up with all that colored liquid?”
“Of course it was me! And you shattered everything. I snuck the Aqueous Elixir in there thinking no one would be crazy enough to sift through hundreds of bottles just to find it. But I never expected someone to burn down a haystack just to find a needle.” She flipped her hair and sniffed. “Very clever. Very costly for me, too.”
I glanced at Leon, never saying a word. We still didn’t know who had actually done the damage, and neither did Flora. She would have babbled about it already.
“As for the color, my next signature scent is supposed to resemble a decanter of liquor. That’s why I had them filled up that way. Very eclectic, very original. I’m calling it Tequila Vanilla.”
Leon wrinkled his nose. “Sounds awful.” I said nothing, but a small, twinging gurgle in my stomach agreed.
“What would you know about fragrances?” Flora stamped her foot. “You’re just a common finder. And anyway, you’re missing the headline here. I know that you were at the warehouse that night. My wards singled the two of you out. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t break the bottles, now, does it? I can easily convince the authorities. I know a guy.”
I pursed my lips in anger. Even in the arcane underground, sometimes, it wasn’t what you knew that mattered, but who you knew. Was it our friendly neighborhood Masque, by any chance?
Flora grazed her chin with the backs of her fingers, tilting her head with a smile. “But we can forget all about this, hmm? I can make it all go away. You, the one with the angry face and the leather jacket. I want you to get me something from someone you know quite well. Divina Brillante. I want you to bring me the Ultimate Being.”
There really was no escaping my terrible family. A shiver ran down my spine. I’d heard of homunculi before, in hushed whispers about forbidden alchemy. The dark art of growing a simulacrum of a human being in a bottle. What had Divina discovered in her travels? Was Divinity just a front for something far more sinister?
Cautiously, slowly, I phrased my question. “And what would you offer us in exchange for this — this Ultimate Being?”
Leon elbowed me, hard. “Max! Whatever happened to work ethic? They were our clients first.”
“It was just a question,” I grunted, clutching my stomach. But hey, an opportunity to screw Divina Brillante over? I might have done it for free.
Flora cocked an eyebrow, then busted out in laughter. “The Ultimate Bean. I said the UltimateBean. It’s the most perfect vanilla bean in existence, you see, taken from the rarest of plants, and if I extract its essence — ”
“Fuck this,” I yelled. Divina could keep her goddamn bean. “Leon. You wanna help her with her makeup?”
His forehead wrinkled as he stared at me in momentary confusion, but his eyes went wide with understanding quickly enough.
“What’s wrong with my makeup?” Flora patted at her cheek self-consciously, her confident veneer crumbling. “I spent even longer getting dolled up today, and I swear that new foundation makes my skin glow better than — ”
“Emanate!”
A jet of water rushed from the palm of Leon’s hand, blasting Flora right in the face. She blubbered and screamed, flapping her hands as if it would somehow get the stream to stop. Leon had been kind enough to put the dragon on a lower setting, just enough to disorient and distract her.
Perfect enough for me to swoop in and steal the Aqueous Elixir.
15
LEON
This was exhilarating, unleashing a torrent of purest seawater from the palm of my hand, fully face-blasting the perfume lady with the big threats and the even bigger ego. The froth at my fingers, the spray and smell of salt in the air — it felt like being by the ocean of my native land.
It felt like home.
And yet I couldn’t help feeling like a glorified squirt gun, all at the same time. As pleasurable as this was, this cathartic release of elemental draconic might — how was I any different than a water cannon shooting into a clown’s mouth at a fairground?
I took one look at Flora’s smeared makeup, her bedraggled head of hair. It only made the comparison starker. I could also feel Bakunawa chomping at the bit, eager to turn up the pressure. I gritted my teeth, fighting him with everything I had. This was only meant to confuse Flora, not blast the skin right off her face.
But the dragon wrenched at my insides, talons clawing harder. Would a time come when I’d lose control of a dragon completely, experience the true definition of unleashing? I hated to think it. I would fucking dread the possibility. And yet — what if that was what the dragons truly wanted?
“Got it,” Max shouted, Aqueous Elixir in hand, grabbing at my jacket as he ran past me. “Let’s get out of here.”
I’d never really bothered to check what running helter-skelter meant, but I must have done the thing as we hightailed it out of Flora’s concrete mansion. Droplets of saltwater fell from my fingers as I followed Max back to his car. I shook my hands off, heart pounding, blood still humming with draconic magic.
Was it weird that I was channeling Bakunawa’s might mainly with the aim of turning myself into a human water pistol? A little bit. But was I proud of using that power for good? Most definitely. Releasing Divina’s hold on her captives was undoubtedly a good thing.
