Chapter 69: Bubbles

Syryn stood before Lumi's cage. After his conversation with Salem, he was enlightened. It was quite simple, wasn't it? If it made Magnus happy, he would make nice with Lumi and help him integrate into their growing household.

"Lumi, can you shift? I wanna talk," he told the avian. Lumi blinked his eyes at Syryn and flew out of the opened cage door. Syryn turned away and gave him privacy while he shifted and dressed. A white robe was hung right next to his cage for his use.

"What did you want to speak about?" Lumi uneasily asked.

"About you. You don't attempt to communicate with anybody in this house. If we're going to live together, I need you to get out of your shell."

Lumi twisted the edge of his robe in his restless fingers and nodded quickly. "I- I'll try."

Syryn didn't know what to do with the avian. He wasn't a traditional healer but he would have tried if Lumi had physical ailments. What went inside his mind though was something out of Syryn's scope of ability to treat. Was he even mentally ill though? Syryn wondered.

"Right, you can join us for dinner instead of eating bird seeds all the time. What do you want to eat? Salem's baking chicken tonight if.. is that cannibalism?" No, it wasn't but it didn't hurt to ask.

Lumi shook his head and hid a shy smile. "I can have chicken. I'll join the table tonight if you'll have me."

It was going well, Syryn thought. He should have done this on the day that very Lumi had arrived. " Okay then. See you at dinner."

Early morning brought Sebastian and Rain carting along an entire trunk filled with ingredients. Stacks and stacks of high-quality herbs were laid out in front of Syryn like a display.

"Why? Why Sebastian? Why?" Syryn estimated that the amount in the trunk was enough to make 30 phials, and that was a conservative estimate.

"S'the least I can do for my comrades at Nunox who are also sufferin' from pregnancy. I'll pay ya double of whatever you're chargin' Syryn." The sandy-haired mage had cleaned up very nicely. Syryn could finally see what all the fuss about him was. Sebastian was built more like an anti mage fighter than a mage that didn't see much close combat. Pretty face, dreamy eyes, a body that looked powerful enough to break a man in half, all wound up tight with power that could level a small city - Sebastian was the whole package.

Syryn turned back to the trunk, his happy feelings evaporating all over again. He stared at the ingredients willing them to disappear. He couldn't do this alone. Salem would have to help.

"4 days. Until then, keep drinking blistrewort juice. And show me your arm again."

Syryn pushed back the sleeves and studied the progress of his symptoms. The purple was spreading just as fast as he had anticipated.

"Your insane capacity for mana has backfired against you, Sebastian. The baby is eating a lot. In a month you will turn into a vegetable."

"Syryn! Do somethin'!" Sebastian grabbed the shorter mage's shoulders.

"You'll be fine. Just wait a couple of days for the poison."

"Yer feedin' me poison?" It seemed like Sebastian's accent was getting more pronounced. "I trust ya because Rowan told me to. I'll drink whatever ya give me. Yer not tryin' t'kill me are ya?"

Why didn't anybody tell Syryn that Sigil's best mage was just a big baby? "Sebastian, go home and perform magic till you've exhausted ninety per cent of your mana. Do it every day, all day, till your medicine is ready."

"That makes sense," the mage said.

While they were conversing, Rain was blowing bubbles for Luci who caught them in the air with his ice. Magnus was a regular at the adventurer's guild but he spent as much time as he could training the redhead. Under his strict tutelage, Luci's precision and control had improved by leaps and bounds.

"That's a real cute kid," Sebastian smiled in Luci's direction.

"He's Artemus' favourite."

"Oh." Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous tic of his. "Is he doin' okay?"

"Artemus? Why don't you ask him yourself when he gets back?"

Sebastian pushed his hands into his pockets. "Yeah. Anyway, I gotta go. I'll see ya after four days."

"Okay. Don't forget to discharge mana and drink your juice daily."

"Right, I'll do that."

Syryn dragged Salem away from Riha's room where he found them pouring a fragrant liquid into several large jars. It turned out they were brewing a very strong spice wine.

"You're telling me that we have to stay awake all night stirring the cauldron at regular intervals?"

"Yes, are you up for it?" There was no doubt in Syryn's mind that Salem would help. He hadn't expected the blonde to get excited by the prospect of a sleepless night.

"Just one night of stirring? And Isn't it counterintuitive to disturb a mixture so often when it contains volatile ingredients? Nasrus won't mix unless you add an emulsifier. Oh, that's what the yolk is for. What about this? I'm not familiar with the poison but I seem to recall that Lacewings can substitute for wisp residue."

Syryn was grateful to every deity that had lead to his meeting with Salem. The half-elf was a treasury of knowledge and an indispensable assistant in their poison making. That night, the alchemists stayed up watching the volatile mixture. And if a few drowsy kisses were shared between moments of sleepiness, neither acknowledged it in the morning. It was better that way.

A day before the poison was ready, Syryn and Salem were in the workroom laughing at an incident that the younger mage had narrated. It started with a nudge from the blonde. Syryn elbowed him in the ribs, and like the boys they were, it turned into a tussle. They landed on the floor, Syryn on top of Salem. The half-elf put his hands on Syryn's waist and that's how Lumi found them.

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"Am I interrupting something?" He sounded breathy and embarrassed at having found them in such an intimate position.

"No, we were fighting and I ended up falling over him. It's fine. Was there something you needed?" Syryn asked while extending a hand to his partner.

"No, I wanted to see if I could help here."

How nice, Syryn thought. "Not really, Lumi. I'll let you know if I do though."

Lumi's gaze then drifted to Salem who was now back to work like he hadn't just indulged in a childish play fight with Syryn.

"I'll see if Alka needs me then," Lumi replied. Syryn and Riha were both very happy to see that the avian had come out of his shell and was interacting with the others. He got along well with Magnus who was also a shapeshifter. Lumi could be seen sometimes sitting in Magnus' room, asking questions about shapeshifter physiology. All in all, he was adjusting to the dynamics of the housemates.

It was the next day that Syryn's happy domestic bubble was rudely popped. Salem was still asleep, catching up on the lack of it plaguing the both of them as they spent long hours working on Sebastian's poison. Syryn had been awakened because he needed to check on the contents of their well-worn cauldrons. Famished but also thirsty, he went into the kitchen to find Lumi doing the dishes.

"Lumi, can you get me a glass of water?" Syryn asked the avian while he spooned some sweet porridge into a bowl. It had several kinds of colourful berries and nuts in it, just the way Syryn liked it.

Syryn could hear Lumi filling his water glass. The avian brought it over to him and suddenly Syryn was soaked all over the front of his shirt.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Lumi put a hand over his mouth and looked to Syryn like he had committed an unpardonable crime. The avian had somehow tripped on a perfectly plain floor without any obstacles in his way. Broken shards of glass glittered in the light of the sun and mocked Syryn. He just knew it then. Lumi's actions had been deliberate. But why? Was it because he felt humiliated for being asked to get Syryn a glass of water?

"It's fine." His reply was stiff. As annoyed as he was, Syryn was going to give Lumi the benefit of doubt. Maybe he was nervous, or clumsy, or just wasn't looking at where he was going.

Lumi knelt on the floor and began to pick up the pieces of the glass with trembling fingers. Syryn's stomach was a cavern demanding to be fed so he left the avian to his task and sat at the table, blowing on a spoonful of hot porridge.

"What's going on?" A new voice joined them. It was Magnus.

"I-" before Syryn could complete his words, Lumi's desperate voice half-shouted out a shaky reply to Magnus.

"It was my fault! Please don't blame Syryn. I'll clean up the floor and then compensate for the broken glass." Why did it sound like Lumi was defending him? the alchemist wondered.

He chewed on a berry, crushing the juice out of it between his teeth. It was sweet and sour. He glanced at Magnus whose eyes were on the avian crouched on the floor, picking up each tiny shard of glass with his shaking fingers. Magnus then turned to Syryn and raised his brows. The entire situation looked bad, didn't it? He thought to himself as he watched Magnus wordlessly bend down on a knee to help the avian.

"Magnus, I-I can do it alone." Lumi bit his lip and looked up at the fire mage through his lashes.

"It's fine," Magnus replied. He frowned and caught Lumi's hand to flip his palm upwards. There was a cut on it and it was bleeding.

"You should have that cleaned up." He informed the avian.

"It's just a cut. I deserve it for being such a clumsy fool." Lumi's self-deprecating words didn't sit well with Magnus.

The fire mage turned to Syryn who was eating his breakfast and ignoring the other two. "Syryn, is there rubbing alcohol in the kitchen? I distinctly remember we had some in the drawer."

"I don't know. It should be there." His voice was flat.

"Lumi, just go ask Salem if you can't find it," Magnus said to the avian who was rifling through the kitchen drawers.

"It stopped bleeding."

"Nevertheless, get some from Salem."

Lumi's gaze darted to Syryn and nervously looked back at Magnus. "It's fine. Would you like some breakfast?" He asked the fire mage. Lumi smiled but it was strained.

Magnus couldn't wrap his head around the information that he was getting. Syryn wasn't like that. Maybe he was just overthinking it, he thought. His dark-haired friend on the other hand was silent, spoon clinking against the now-empty bowl. Syryn wasn't acting like himself.

"Syryn, you alright?" Magnus asked.

"Yep." Syryn was not alright.

Magnus also noticed the avian getting him a bowl. "I'll do it myself, Lumi. Join us if you haven't eaten yet."

Syryn stood up and walked to the basin where he washed his bowl with the precision that Salem was known for. Tight-lipped, his mind went back to the events that had just taken place. Lumi had tripped, soaked the front of his shirt, and then proceeded to act like he had been bullied by Syryn. It was confusing. Was Syryn in the wrong? Had he done something that had scared Lumi? The alchemist was aware of his lackings as a barely qualified human being but he couldn't be this unaware could he? Syryn had never spent time in a household with other humans in his past life.

"I'll be in the workroom," he informed Magnus and walked off, not even sparing a look for the avian whose head was down.

And when he was out of earshot, Lumi sat down at the table with his food. "Magnus," he asked in a soft voice, "do you think Syryn's going to hate me?"

The fire mage didn't know what to say. He felt like he was missing a chunk of context and neither had explained anything to him. "No, Syryn isn't like that."

"I'm glad.." Lumi answered.

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