“Then why do you look like you’re going to throw up?” He approached with timid steps.
“Because that’s a problem. It wasn’t nothing before…”
I leaned further into the cauldron to be sure, ignoring the overwhelming waves of magic, but there was nothing remaining. No ashes, no evidence of any kind.
“Before?” he asked gently.
“Before the explosion.”
“Okay… can you explain that more?”
I nodded, trying to gather myself. I walked over to my stool and sat down, and Tandor followed, sitting as well. I massaged my temples.
One of the tiny sprites settled onto my head and massaged my scalp with nimble fingers. Strangely enough, it helped ease the ache.
I explained the situation to the orc, and he listened intently. I told him about how the cauldron had started out as a failed potion brew with too much magical oomph behind it. How the sprites had probably added things to it. How I had let it sit for days, not wanting to clean it. How it started off as half-full, and eventually (damned sprites) expanded.
“You could have asked me for help, I would have hauled it to the Barren Lands for you,” Tandor interrupted.
I smiled slightly. “In hindsight, I probably should have. I thought I could handle it.”
I continued my story. About the cauldron sludge growing. About how I had been shouting at it, and then how I cried, and the boom that followed, throwing me across the room.
“And then you arrived,” I finished. “And now you’re all caught up.”
He nodded slowly, absorbing. “Okay… so the cauldron sludge exploded and just… vanished?”
“Yep.”
“And this is a bad thing?”
“It’s definitely not great. There’s no residue, no ash, no remains. It didn’t burn. It didn’t dry out. So where did it go?”
He pondered this. “Did you cast some sort of disappearing spell?”
I shook my head. “No, no I didn’t cast anything. Not intentionally, anyway.”
“Do things happen accidentally sometimes?”
“They shouldn’t, but things have been so weird lately…”
A new voice called out from across the room. “Hey, Kizzi!”
I damn near jumped out of my skin. I glanced at the door to find it splintered and broken, floating open on its hinges. Standing in the entryway was Linc, looking much more himself than he had last night, aside from a strange sheen in his eyes. “Linc. You’re back. Fantastic.”
I shot an accusatory glance at Tandor to find him gnawing on his lower lip nervously. His small tusks poked out between his full lips. “It was an emergency. Sorry about that. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”
I flapped my hand at him dismissively. “That’s a problem for later.”
Linc stepped into the shop and glanced around. “Your door is broken, by the way.” He picked up a mushroom and sniffed it.
“I had no idea, thanks!” I said dryly. “That’s toxic, by the way.” It wasn’t, but I was annoyed that he was touching my things without asking.
He dropped the fungus immediately and dusted his hands off on his trousers. He spun and faced me with a cheesy grin on his face. “It’s good to see you, Kizzi!”
“What do you need? Are you here to place an order?”
“I’m here to see you, of course,” he stated matter-of-factly.
