Arcane Innovator

The next few weeks passed quickly and uneventfully. I was still adjusting to life in the city and to my new job as an herbalist's apprentice.

Spring went by almost unnoticed, and summer was already here. Although, with me being shut in the poorly lit workshop every day, it was hard to notice the passing seasons.

The only thing noticeable was the temperature increase. The blazing sun shone mercilessly on the city's stone buildings. The air trembled with an invisible weight.

Waves of heat rose from the sun-baked cobblestones, distorting the horizon and playing tricks on weary eyes.

Windows stood ajar, hoping for a refreshing breeze, but the air that seeped in offered no solace, only a suffocating embrace. The pungent smell of the city's streets, exacerbated by the heat, formed a heady bouquet that clung to the very fabric of existence.

Citizens sought respite wherever they could find it. They retreated to the cool shadows of narrow alleyways, fanning themselves with whatever meager tools they possessed, desperate to summon even the slightest breath of relief.

I quickly found a suitable solution to this problem. I focused my mind on the surrounding air and forced it to move with my magic while extracting the heat from it and funneling it into the ground.

The result was a very comfortable, cool breeze that soothed both my body and mind.

'Ah, that's much better!'

But I couldn't maintain it for too long, giving me only a short respite from the unbearable heat. I was forced to endure most of the day like everyone else.

'Damn this heat!' I thought bitterly as I continued my training in the workshop.

The only bright side to this ordeal was watching Elena sweat under her heavy linen garments without any respite. I smiled as I looked at her from my seat as she mumbled something while trying to focus on her task.

I'm not usually this petty, and I try to maintain my composure at all times. But since the start of summer, Elena's attitude towards me has become even more prickly and unreasonable than usual. If that was even possible.

So watching her suffer under the relentless onslaught of this heatwave as I secretly channeled my mana to cool myself off was my way of getting back at her.

Isadora meanwhile thought of our constant bickering only as a healthy competition between apprentices and didn't pay it any attention.

I need to endure it for now. Elena is not worth arguing with. I can never hope to win an argument with her. She has a phenomenal ability to spin everything in her favor, and in the end, it will only cause a headache for me.

So I will just continue to ignore her. As long as she's using only her words, she can never hurt me. 'And in the event, she tries to take this further... she will quickly discover I'm not as easy a target as she thinks...'

I continued to work relentlessly, trying to make a good impression on my master. I did it in the hope that she would soon give me more responsibility and that I could do things like deal with customers and run errands in the city for her. Getting out of this boring routine I am in right now.

My typical day went something like this: I woke shortly before dawn. Lately, I have finally managed to start waking up on time so I could have a quick breakfast before running to Isadora's shop.

Then I prepared for the day's work while trying my best to avoid Elena. She likes to pick on me early in the morning before Isadora enters the workshop. She is too cowardly to openly bully me in front of her, as she tries very hard to maintain her image as an elegant young lady.

'What a nasty personality!' I thought as I watched her masterful acting. So far, she has managed to fool everyone about her true nature.

'Maybe I should learn from her to act like this too...'

The ability to create a false image of yourself to fool your enemies seems like a useful ability to have.

'Sigh,' but that is something I don't want to bother with right now. I thought as I looked at the big pile of herbs in front of me.

My main task was to dry herbs. Every morning, we received fresh deliveries from the market. I have to sort them out, clean them, and get rid of any unnecessary or damaged parts along with all the residual dirt.

Then I hang them on specially-made drying racks to start the drying process. Under Elena's hard gaze, I have to do everything by hand without magic. If I accomplished something that normally takes days or, in some cases, weeks, in mere hours, it would be impossible to explain.

After that is done, I have to remove the dried herbs and grind them before filling them into storage jars.

Recently, I also started helping with medicine-making. Before I was allowed to try it on my own, I had to carefully watch Isadora precisely weigh out the exact quantities of herbs before combining them into an herb mixture.

The mixture can then be either made into an elixir to take internally or mixed with lard to make a healing paste to apply externally.

Having to memorize all the different herbs and their uses gave me a headache. But the hardest part of my training comes in the afternoon.

It was time to learn that weird, flowing script with which we labeled the jars. I don't understand why we have to do it since most of our customers can't read it anyway.

But apparently, our most valuable customers are the alchemists, who use herbs as one of the ingredients to make potions. And for their convenience, we need to do it, as it is standard practice to use this script in the art of alchemy.

It was an arduous task to learn all the weird shapes and lines of this ancient script. I needed to learn it as fast as I could before I could move further in my training.

Elena was having a much easier time since her family hired a private tutor for her. In addition, she had been learning it for several years already. I have no such luxury, only my determination to succeed.

Despite my commitment, it was slowly driving me crazy. My only consolidation was that this was the language of nobles. I'm very lucky to be able to learn it, as it will prove very useful for me in the future.

***

I continued this boring routine during the summer. But on one such day, I received an unexpected visitor.

Late in the evening, as I was preparing to start my magic training session, I heard a knock on the door to my humble room.

'Who could it be, so late?' I raised my eyebrows as I made my way toward the doors. I cautiously opened them and peeked outside.

What greeted me was my aunt Ingrid's smiling face. "Darian! It's so nice to see you!"

"Aunt Ingrid? What brought you here so late?" I asked her incredulously.

"Can I come inside? I have something important to tell you." She said as her eyes darted across my room.

"Well, sure, come inside." I stepped back to let her pass. I then offered her a chair while I sat on my bed.

"Here, take this. I brought you some sweets for you to enjoy." She presented me with a small satchel full of delicious-looking pastries.

"Thank you, Aunt Ingrid." I accepted it with delight, as it was very difficult to come across such expensive things here in the quarter.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't expect any visitors, so I don't have anything to offer you," I said hoping she wouldn't mind this lack of manners.

"Ah, don't worry about it! I'm sure it must be hard as it is to take care of yourself here all on your own..." Ingrid quickly interjected while waving her hand.

"So what did you want to tell me?" I asked her, not able to contain my curiosity any longer. I wanted to know what was so important that she traveled all the way to the Northern Quarter to see me so late in the day.

"Oh, I almost forgot! I came to invite you to your brother Konrad's wedding... He and Kari will be getting married at the end of next month. In the time before the harvest season begins, since it would be very difficult for your parents to make it here by then."

'Hmm, so it's already happening...'

'But wait... something about this doesn't feel right.'

"Aunt Ingrid, since it's my brother's wedding, why didn't he come to invite me himself?" I asked her politely, but I already suspected the answer.

"Well... he is very busy with preparations and everything, so he doesn't have the time." She said as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

'Ah, so I was right; he doesn't want me to come...' Well, that makes two of us. But not showing up would come across as very rude. Especially since everyone from our family will be there.

"Oh, then it's alright. Tell them I'm happy for them both, and I will come." I forced a smile as I replied to her.

"Great! Then it's settled!" Ingrid became visibly relieved. She then quickly got up from the chair and headed towards the door, as if afraid I would change my mind.

"I will be going then. It's getting late, and you must be tired from work. But next time, you must tell me all about it! Having an herbalist in our family will be such a great honor!"

"Sure, I don't mind telling you." I chuckled at her antics.

"Take care, Darian!"

"Take care too, Aunt Ingrid!" I shouted after her, as she was already disappearing down the creaking staircase. I closed the door behind her as I thought about the sudden development.

'Wonderful, now on top of everything else, I need to find a worthy wedding gift for a brother who doesn't even want me at his own wedding.' I thought bitterly as I returned to my training.