Apothecary

The sun had hardly even kissed the horizon by the time Zane reached the front door to the apothecary shop. Town had been silent the entire way, not even the gulls had been awake yet. Few people would be up as early as Zane today, apart from a handful of guards and some of the farmhands living in the east of Ashenport. In the dead of winter, with such cold winds nipping at his fingers and nose, no one wanted to be outside before the sun had melted enough of the frost to warrant walking across the slippery cobbles.

But Zane lacked any choice in the matter. Madame Rosevin was away at some fancy magus gathering, where everyone who was anyone could mill about in posh clothes and drink wine at nine in the morning. Archivists, healers, alchemists, court mages, and everyone else in between would be there. Not Zane though.

He had asked, pleaded, begged to be allowed to join Madame Rosevin; he was her apprentice afterall. Every word that came out of his mouth was shut down and silenced.

‘You are not ready for such a thing, Zane,’ she had said, lips pursed and eyes flashing him that subdued anger that warned him to not pursue the issue further. ‘You hardly know how to act when another magus comes into the shop, let alone if you were in the room with the very best. Perhaps you will be ready next year.’

She had said it for the past three years. Three years of Zane asking for months leading up to the event, asking what it was that he could possibly do in order to join her on the expedition. This year it would take place somewhere on the mainland, in the sun-dappled plains of Elmyria, with its wildflower fields and thatched-roof towns. A place that Zane had only heard about in the storybooks, only ever seen in paintings Merrin found on the abandoned ships lining the coast. So colourful and bright; Zane knew it was just wishful thinking that all of Elmyria was like that, but he knew that anywhere would be better than Ashenport, especially in the height of winter.

Of course she did not believe that Zane was ready, he never was. Never ready to learn a new spell, or read a tome she had found at the market. Never ready to do anything but weigh out ingredients, run errands, and clean the shop.

Ultimately it meant that Zane would have to stay on Aedria whil she traversed the isles to the mainland, and find herself on an extravagant carriage all the way to Elmyria.

It also meant that Zane was left in charge of the shop while she was gone, because Gods’ forbid that she lose out on a week of profit despite not doing anything at all to earn it. Zane would have to not only run all the errands to pick up ingredients from the market and from the merchants just out of Ashenport, he would have to clean both the shop floor and Madame Rosevin’s personal floor, weigh out all the ingredients necessary, serve customers, fulfill pre-existing orders and take them to the couriers, all of that while he had to balance his own needs. It was hell.

It was the very reason he was at the shop before sunrise, he would have to start on the jobs as soon as he got inside just to ensure everything was ready for the shop to open at ten on the dot. Of course, everything would have been significantly easier if he had been allowed to stay at the shop overnight, but Madame Rosevin would never allow such a thing, even if he stayed in the attic.

Zane shut the door behind himself but kept it unlocked. It was something that Madame Rosevin would have yelled at him for, but there was no reason to lock it when he knew there would be a knock on the door in less than thirty minute’s time.

Dropping his satchel behind the counter, Zane flipped open the notebook beside the register in order to check the list he had made yesterday. Most of the jars were still stocked from the day before, and the bottles lined the shelf in their neat rows. It was highly unlikely that he would shift any of the stock again today, with Madame Rosevin gone, a lot of people would simply wait until she had returned to set up their orders. He might get a few people asking about scroll or tomes, but they would know the exact thing that they were looking for would not be kept out on the shelves.

It still meant that he had some books to place on the shelves, to make use of the space and slot them between the potions that they related to. Not only would it help sell more ingredients, but it would help prevent people asking him ridiculous questions that the books themselves could answer without any input from Zane. But it did also mean that he could waste some extra time before the shop opened and he had to deal with that first annoying customer to walk through the door.

He had already piled up the books the day before, so all were ready for him to slip onto the segments of the shelves. Shelves which were already dusted and polished, so that was just another thing he would not have to worry about today, and hopefully not for another week.

As he hauled the pile to the bottom of the shelves, Zane already wished that he was allowed access to the music box, but it remained under lock and key, a key that he would likely never be allowed access to. It hung right beside the key to the safe and the key to the specialist display case in her bedroom. The one with artefacts worth more than an entire decade’s worth of wages.

Zane hummed to himself, a tune that he had heard from Merrin’s room time and time again. It would be nice if they could afford one of those new fancy music boxes for the Clocktower, but between him and Merrin they would never be able to afford it anytime soon. Their only chance was if Merrin could find one on a ship that mysteriously found its way back to their living room.

A soft knock on the door came sooner than Zane had anticipated, but with it came the waft of mint tea.

‘Good morning,’ Talthion said as he pushed the door shut behind himself and placed the mug down for Zane to take.

A small paper bag was clenched between his fingers, and Zane could see the grease-stain the pastries caused from where he was.

‘Tea and breakfast?’ Zane asked and put the book he was holding down to greet Tal. ‘What did I do to deserve such a treat?’

‘I thought you could do with a little pick-me-up,’ Tal said and put the bag down to free up his hands to wrap around Zane’s waist. ‘It was awful cold when I woke up.’

‘Freezing,’ Zane agreed and leant down to let Tal kiss him softly.

He may not have been in Elmyria, but sometimes Ashenport could be alright.