A muffled groan escaped the counter lady as consciousness reluctantly returned. She blinked rapidly, disoriented by the unfamiliar sound of voices in the perpetually empty lobby. Instinctively wiping a trail of drool from her chin, she straightened her posture with theatrical swiftness, as though she hadn't been caught sleeping on duty.
"Welco," she announced, her face splitting into a smile that revealed an unsettling number of teeth, "to the gateway of transformation!"
The woman—whose brass naplate identified her as "Brenda, Junior Acquisitions Specialist"—beckoned them closer with eager fingers. Her eyes, now fully alert, assessed them with naked rcantile interest. Each nod, each glance at their attire seed to calculate potential profit with startling precision.
The old sweeper stepped aside with surprising grace, offering Elara a polite, knowing smile. The Archon felt a flush of embarrassnt creep up her neck at being overheard disparaging the guild, but years of noble training and leadership experience kept her chin high, her expression composed despite the social discomfort.
"How may the guild help such esteed custors?" Brenda chirped as they approached the counter. "We have potions of all kinds—clarity of thought, minor transmutations, temporary enhancent of natural abilities..." Her fingers drumd excitedly on the countertop. "And we take commissions to research whatever crazy idea you might have, provided it doesn't violate more than three natural laws simultaneously." Her smile stretched impossibly wider, revealing molars that appeared to have unusual golden fillings etched with miniature symbols.
"Oh, ah... sorry, but we're actually looking for a friend who stays here," David interrupted her sales pitch.
"Huh?" The transformation in Brenda's deanor was imdiate and profound. Her shoulders slumped visibly as the prospect of commission fees evaporated. "So you're not custors," she muttered, fingers unconsciously patting her pockets as though checking the status of her clearly inadequate finances.
The old sweeper chuckled softly from across the room, apparently finding her disappointnt entertaining.
"Hey, you still with us?" David waved a hand to recapture her wandering attention.
"Yeah, yeah." Brenda sighed, enthusiasm deflating like a punctured balloon. "Tell who you're looking for."
"A small individual, quite talented as an alchemist," David replied.
Brenda's expression shifted again, eyes widening with sudden recognition. "Lady Yue?" she asked, straightening once more, all traces of disappointnt vanishing.
"Bingo," David confird with a slight smile.
"S-s-sure," Brenda stamred, suddenly flustered. "Just a second so I can fetch her." She whirled away from the counter with startling speed, vanishing through a hidden door camouflaged in the wall's woodwork.
David and his companions settled in to wait, observing the lobby's peculiar details—glass containers of bubbling substances that defied gravity, star charts with constellations that occasionally rearranged themselves, and a particularly intriguing pendulum that swung in multiple directions simultaneously.
"The Alchemist Guild wasn't always this..." David gestured vaguely at their surroundings, intentionally allowing Elara to fill in the blank.
"Marginalized?" she supplied, watching him with curious eyes.
David nodded, recalling histories that technically hadn't happened yet. The guild's insistence that ordinary people could harness magic through study and experintation—that the proper combination of ingredients could transform reality itself—had earned them ridicule from traditional mages. Yet David knew what Elara and the Empire's scholars didn't: that a singular individual would eventually erge from this derided institution, becoming the first person to slay a minor dragon with nothing but potions, forever changing how alchemy was perceived throughout the Solarian Empire.
The sound of hurried footsteps from beyond the hidden door interrupted his thoughts.
The hidden door burst open with such force that it rebounded against the inner wall. Before anyone could react, a diminutive figure hurtled through the opening like a crimson and gold projectile, leaving startled exclamations in her wake.
"DAVID!" The high-pitched squeal of delight preceded the small body that launched itself at David's back, colliding with enough montum to make him stagger forward a step.
Tiny arms wrapped around his midsection with surprising strength as a face pressed between his shoulder blades. Though they had traveled together through the dangers of the Leviathan's Abyss, Yue's enthusiastic greetings never seed to diminish in intensity.
"Mother! We discussed this behavior just yesterday!" A breathless Litty erged from the sa doorway, her face flushed with exertion and embarrassnt. "You promised to maintain decorum when they arrived!"
David caught Elara's expression—a mixture of amusent and exasperation that matched his own feelings. Despite working alongside the renowned alchemist for a short ti during the travels, Elara still hadn't fully adjusted to Yue's contradictory nature: ancient wisdom housed in a child's form, and childish behavior from one of the world's most brilliant minds.
"What took you so long to get here? I've been waiting since morning! Did you get lost in the city? Or did you stop for those sweet buns at the market?" Yue's questions tumbled out in rapid succession as she maintained her koala-like grip around David's torso. "And have you tried those experintal mana crystals I gave you before we got separated?"
With practiced resignation, David gently pried her arms loose. "We can discuss all of that once we're sowhere more private."
Litty approached, smoothing her practical gray robes with a look of perpetual long-suffering that everyone in their group had co to recognize. "I've prepared the laboratory as requested. Though I believe Mother needs to make herself presentable first."
Yue pivoted toward her daughter, hands planted on her hips. "What's that supposed to an?"
"Your hair looks like you've been experinting with explosives," Elara observed dryly, their previous travels together having long since stripped away any need for formality between the Archon and the alchemist.
Yue's hands flew to her disheveled braids. "It's the condensation from the eastern storage room. The cooling system is malfunctioning again."
"Allow to help," Elara offered, already reaching toward the tangled ss.
The temperature in the room seed to drop several degrees as Yue's expression hardened. "I'm not a child requiring grooming," she stated icily, knocking Elara's extended hand away with surprising force—a familiar interaction that had beco almost ritual between them.
"Three hundred and seventy-two years old or not, your hair is a disaster," Elara countered, completely unfazed by the rebuff.
In a move that had beco surprisingly routine during their travels, Elara simply scooped the protesting alchemist up under one arm. "We'll join you in the laboratory after I help our brilliant colleague look less like she's been dragged backward through a hedge."
"PUT DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Yue's legs kicked futilely as Elara strode purposefully toward the door Litty had erged from. "I SWEAR I'LL REPLACE YOUR SHAMPOO WITH TRANSMUTATION CATALYST!"
Litty sighed, shoulders slumping in familiar defeat. "They never change, do they?"
As the sounds of alchemical threats and dignified fla-sorceress retorts faded down the corridor, Luna erged briefly from David's shadow, exchanged a knowing look with him, then dissolved back into darkness with the practiced ease of soone who had witnessed this particular drama countless tis before.
"How long do you think we have before they stop arguing and rember why we're actually here?" David asked Litty, their shared exasperation a bond forged through many similar incidents.
"Bold of you to assu they'll stop arguing at all," Litty replied with the weary wisdom of soone who had spent centuries managing her mother's eccentricities.
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