Alchemist’s Apprentice

Our earlier activities remained on my mind throughout the morning, and based on the smiles and sly looks my sister gave me during breakfast I was fairly certain it was the same for her.

After we were both finished eating I cleaned up, then reluctantly pulled on one of my home-made dresses. The weather was getting warmer, it was the start of summer and even a light short sleeveless dress felt like too much at times.

"Are you going to the market this morning Valeria?" my sister asked as she dressed next to me. She felt the heat as much as I did now, and opted for a lightweight sleeveless dress for herself as well.

I nodded, "It's time to stock up for the week. Why, did you need me to get you anything?"

My sister shook her head, "I'll come with you, I need a few more ingredients. It'll be nice to get out and get some fresh air."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You need to take breaks now and then."

That made her smile as she teased, "I thought you were in a panic because we hadn't had any sales yet? Now you're saying it's ok to stop working when I feel like it?"

"C'mon," I said as I rolled my eyes. "Let's get going."

I picked up my basket as we left the house together then set out for the market square.

Thanks to the extra time we spent in bed earlier it was already late morning. The sun was nearly at its peak in the sky, and I could feel its warmth beating down on me.

"We should have set out earlier," Cathryn complained. "Before it got too hot."

I grinned and teased, "As I recall mistress alchemist, we were busy attending to other important matters first thing this morning."

She suppressed a laugh then half-whispered, "Shush you, or I'll make you start calling me that all the time."

I giggled quietly as we started navigating the busy market.

Cat followed as I took care of our food needs first. I visited a couple butchers and found the best deal on cheap meat. That was the most expensive part of our budget, but four steeds bought enough dried brined pork to last us a week as long as I was careful with it. Then fifty copper coins covered enough root vegetables to last a week, another forty shields bought us bread to last the same, and finally two and a half steeds got us a small cask of watered-down wine.

Prior to the strength potion I'd have needed two trips to carry all that, but now I was able to fill my basket with all the food and carry the cask under my arm and it didn't even tire me out. Unfortunately by that point my basket was full and so were my hands, so while I might have been strong enough to carry more I wasn't actually able to do so.

As a result, Cat and I ended up walking home again so I could leave all the shopping on the kitchen table. Then I accompanied her as the two of us returned to the market so she could do her own shopping.

Cathryn wanted to visit that stall where she got all her herbs and things earlier, but on our way through the square the two of us came to a halt as we found our path blocked. A crowd had gathered, and I had no idea what was happening as I couldn't see past anyone.

Frustrated, I glanced up at my sister and asked "Can you see what's happening?"

"Soldiers," she replied. "There's a knight on horseback, and at least a dozen soldiers with him."

A few seconds later the hustle and bustle of the market square fell silent as I heard a man's voice from the direction of the soldiers. I assumed it was the knight, since only someone important like that could shut down the whole market just by talking.

"By order of the Duke of Beaumont, one able-bodied man from every household is as of today hereby conscripted into the army of the duke! Any man who attempts to evade his duty will be severely punished! Any household which attempts to hide conceal or otherwise shelter conscripted men will risk being put to the torch! Conscripts shall assemble here in this square by sunset today!"

As soon as the knight finished his speech the crowd in the square erupted in noise and activity. Some people were scrambling to get home, to either prepare or warn their families. Others started rushing to finish their shopping. And others just seemed to be in a state of panic.

I looked up at Cat and asked, "What do we do?"

"Try and finish our shopping then return home and get back to work," she replied with a sigh. Then she added, "It's a good thing there's no men in our household, able-bodied or otherwise."

"Right," I grimaced.

It was even harder getting around the square after that, the soldiers were still there and while some of the crowd were moving away other people were moving closer. I almost wanted to hold my sister's hand to avoid getting separated or swept away in the mass of people moving around.

We managed to reach the merchant she was looking for, and I watched and listened as Cathryn and the older woman talked and haggled and talked some more. Eventually my basket was loaded up with roots and strange fruits and bundles of fresh herbs and things, while my sister handed over a dozen silver steeds followed by fifteen copper shields.

At the same time a younger woman joined the older one behind the stall. I guessed they were mother and daughter, based on the family resemblance.

"What did you learn?" the older merchant asked.

Her daughter made a face, "Apparently the duke's son's gotten himself kidnapped? According to one of the footmen, his lordship's accused the barony to the north of taking the lad. His lordship's raising an army, and means to invade if his son isn't returned unharmed."

The merchant winced then looked at Cathryn. "That'll be good business for us, and for you. Lucky I didn't hear that news before we finished our haggling today, or you'd have been paying double for some of those herbs."

My sister grimaced, "Me and Val better get back to work then. Take care of yourselves!"

"And you," the woman replied.

The two of us turned and started making our way back out of the square again, and I asked "What did she mean about good for business?"

Cat sighed, "Healing potions. War means lots of people getting hurt, lots of injuries. Healing potions are going to be in demand, which means the ingredients will be in demand."

"Ah," I sighed as well. "Of course."

As soon as we got back to the house we both pulled off our dresses. And wearing nothing but sandals my sister and I organized and put away all her new purchases. More bundles went up to dry, while the ones we hung up a couple weeks ago were ready to come down.

"You said some potions were almost ready, right?" I asked.

Cathryn nodded, "Our first batch of healing potions is ready for bottling today. It's a small batch though, we're not really set up yet for making large batches."

With a frown she explained, "I always envisioned us making very small batches of very high quality potions. One-off custom blends, or a dozen high-potency healing potions. I never really considered churning out low-quality batch-brews to be sold by the flask or litre. And we're not set up to do that anyways, we'd need to invest in more tools and equipment first."

"We don't have the money for that," I pointed out.

"I know cutie," she replied. "That's the sort of thing we might think about later on, after we've made some sales and have a steady income coming in. For now we need to focus on what we can do, rather than what we can't."

I couldn't argue with that, and between the two of us we got all her new ingredients sorted out relatively quickly.

After that I headed back upstairs to do the rest of my own chores, then finally it was back down to the workshop to help Cathryn again.

Our big task of the day was bottling the first batch of healing potions, which I thought was kind of exciting. We were using the cheaper vials we got from Lucas, and by the time we finished we had nineteen of them filled with a shimmering pale red liquid.

The last step was sealing the cork stoppers with melted wax, and while Cathryn did that I was left with the job of washing out the bottles and jars and funnel and everything else we'd used.

By the end of the day we had a little stack of finished potions ready to go, and I had my sister's tools and equipment all cleaned and polished and ready for the next batch.

My sister smiled at me, "What do you think Valeria? Our first batch is all ready for sale. Exciting, isn't it?"

"Very exciting!" I grinned back at her. "How are we going to -"

My words were drowned out by a loud heavy banging at the front door of the shop, accompanied by a man's voice demanding "Open up!"

Cathryn and I exchanged a worried look, then she grabbed her dress and quickly pulled it on. She motioned for me to do the same as she called, "Coming! One moment!"

As I scrambled into my dress she moved to the door. She removed the heavy wood post that we used to keep it barred, and finally opened it up.

"Yes?" she asked the men outside. "What can I do for you?"

I moved to stand just behind and to the side of my sister, but I kept very quiet as I stared at the small group of soldiers standing just outside the door.

They were all wearing chain armour and metal helmets, and had swords and daggers at their belts, and some of them also held spears. The two guys in front looked like they were in their thirties, they had brightly-painted metal chest-pieces over their chainmail, which I figured meant they were a different rank than the other soldiers who looked to be in their twenties. One thing they all had in common was none looked friendly. And they were all tall, strong, imposing, angry looking people.

One of the guys in front demanded, "Where is the man of this house?"

"There isn't one," my sister replied in a calm confident voice. "There's no-one here but my sister and I."

The soldier gestured to someone off to one side, and a scribe stepped forward. He was dressed in fine clothes the same colours as the lead guy's chest-piece. The scribe had a heavy book in his arms, and after glancing at it he announced "This property is owned by a Luis Mercier."

Cat remained calm as she responded, "That was my father. He and my mother were both killed by bandits four months ago."

After another glance at his book the scribe asked in a pointed tone, "And what of your brother?"

"He left three weeks ago to take an apprenticeship," my sister replied without missing a beat. "I'd already taken our sister on as my apprentice, so my brother set out to learn a trade on his own. I believe he travelled south, he mentioned trying his luck at Coresse or Garnerre."

I'd never been to either Coresse or Garnerre, but I knew the former was a town about two days' ride south. The latter was even further south, and barely counted as a village.

The soldiers stared at Cat and me for a few seconds, then the one who'd been doing the talking ordered "Search the building."

Cathryn grabbed me and pulled me out of the way as four armed men barged in with weapons ready. My heart was racing as the two of us stood back against the wall, there wasn't anything we could do but watch as the men went straight through into Cat's workshop.

Then they headed upstairs, and we could hear their booted feet stomping around above us as they looked through our living quarters. After a couple minutes the four of them came marching back down again, past us and back out the door.

One of them stopped to address the guy who'd done all the talking, "No trace of any men or boys."

"Update your ledger," the lead soldier told the scribe. Then him and the others all turned and marched away without another word.

My heart was still racing and I was scared to find out if they damaged anything in the workshop or upstairs in our home.

"What's your name, girl?" the scribe asked my sister. He had a pencil in his hand now, ready to update his big book.

"I am Cathryn Mercier," she stated. "And this is my little sister, Valeria Mercier."

The scribe jotted down our names. Then he asked our ages, and Cat replied "I'm twenty-two, Valeria is eighteen."

Next he asked what trade we did, so my sister told him she was an alchemist. And finally he asked her to confirm that our parents had died. She told him what she knew of their deaths, though by that point it sounded like she was starting to run out of calm.

That seemed to be all he wanted, the scribe closed his book and hurried off after the rest of the soldiers.

Cathryn let out a loud sigh as she closed and barred the door again, while I slumped back against the wall in relief. Then she gave me a hug and suggested, "Why don't you head upstairs Val? I'm going to check the workshop, make sure they didn't break or steal anything."

"Ok Cat," I replied as I hugged her back.

When I got to the top of the stairs and saw the mess I let out a sigh of my own. "They were only here for two minutes, how the hell did they do all this?"

The loafs of bread and the vegetables had been scattered on the floor, and from the look of it someone had helped themself to a fifth of our pork. Fortunately the wine cask was still there, and they hadn't stepped on any of the food they knocked on the floor. I picked up the spilled food and put it back on the table, then checked our bedroom.

That was a mess as well, they'd dumped the contents of our dresser so all my and Cat's clothes were scattered. They also pulled the sheets off the beds, maybe to check nobody was hiding underneath.

I couldn't help feel glad that I'd finished converting my old shirts into dresses, and all my old pants were now towels and rags. Even the sandals on my feet were made from the leather of my old shoes, so there was nothing left to suggest there'd been a man or boy living here in our home.

With another sigh I began picking up the clothes and bedding.

"How's it look up here?" Cathryn asked as she came up the stairs.

I called, "They made a mess, but I think we're mostly ok. The worst is they stole a day and a half's worth of our pork. The stew is going to be even less filling this week. What did they do in the workshop? I hope they didn't break anything, or steal anything?"

She joined me in the bedroom and helped make the beds as she replied, "They knocked down some of the drying herbs but didn't damage anything. Someone handled the healing potions, but none were opened and none were missing."

"Fortunately none of them were foolish enough to go sampling unknown potions," she added with a grin.

I grimaced but didn't say anything.

Once we finished with the beds my sister pulled me into a hug. She gave me a kiss then said "I know that was pretty scary little sister, but we got through it ok. And there's a silver lining too. The scribe took down our names in his official book. That's even more important than the letter you forged in dad's name. If anyone ever doubts or questions that you're my sister, we can tell them your name is recorded in the Duke's official ledger."

That put a small smile on my face, "Thanks sis. That's good to know. It was still scary though, and I hope we don't have any more armed guests like that."

"Me too cutie," she kissed me again, then I finally pulled away and started preparing our dinner.