What Blooms in the Dark

by Ryan Muree

  What Blooms

  in the Dark

  A Last Elixir Series Prequel Novelette

  Ryan Muree

  Copyright © 2017 by Ryan Muree

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by Holabird Editing

  www.ryanmuree.com

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  Also by Ryan Muree

  The Last Elixir Series

  What Blooms in the Dark – Shenna’s prequel novelette

  What Rises from the Ashes – Izan’s prequel novella

  The Last Elixir (Book 1)

  The Fallen Gate (Book 2)

  The Shattered Core (Book 3)

  Enclave Boxed Sets

  Of Beasts and Beauties* Available April 2018

  Instruments of Ether Series

  Instruments of Ether (Book 1)* Available Fall 2018

  Chapter 1

  Shenna hovered over her healing-salves exam while it was graded. She wiped clammy palms on her pants.

  Not life or death. Just a test. There was no reason to worry. No reason at all.

  Unfortunately, nothing else in the classroom helped distract her from the inevitable. It wasn't too different from the other lab rooms. Wood shelves stocked with vials, herbs, and tools. Wood benches and stools for the students. Large circular windows with plants dangling in them.

  She picked at the dark leather strap of the occhemist bag draped across her chest. Her nails dug deeper every time Mentor Chaak scratched his pen across her paper.

  Not good. She had failed again. She must have.

  Chaak’s veiny, bald head gave it away. His thick glasses teetered on the tip of his nose. His wrinkled hands made hurried scribblings that still managed to carve into the paper. Maybe she could make a potion for him, something for patience. Potions she could do. Salves, apparently not.

  No. Don’t be negative. You studied extra hard this time.

  So maybe she hadn’t gotten the two sample salves completely right for the practical exam, but they were close. Maybe. She had answered all of Chaak’s questions properly. Maybe she didn’t ace it, but she had to have passed. Then she’d be ready for the final test in a few months’ time, and she’d be a level-two occhemist—

  “What are you doing here, Shenna?” Chaak’s gray eyes bore into her over the rims of his glasses.

  “I—I’m waiting for you to score my salves practical.”

  She pointed to the paper in front of him and the two glass vials she had produced. Their color was a little off. The thickness might not be perfect. But she was certain she had made two healing salves. One for scar removal. One for burns.

  “I’m not sure why you even wanted to take this thing,” he bit.

  Here it comes. “Did I pass?”

  Silence.

  “Barely?” she added.

  “Barely? Barely! What exactly would you like me to score? The viscosity is poor. The sheen lackluster. Were you even trying?” He tipped one of the vials upside down. It was supposed to be a green oozing liquid filled with healing properties. Instead, the pure-white mass dropped to his desk with a thud.

  She sighed.

  “I mean, seriously, Shenna? What is that? What is that sitting on my desk?” He pointed at the chunk. “I don’t even want to touch it. And this one?”

  She clenched her eyes shut.

  “What color should this be, Shenna?”

  She imagined him dangling it in front of her eyes. She slowly opened them to find she was right, and lowered her chin. “It’s supposed to be orange—”

  “Rose-orange, Shenna. Rose-orange. What color is this? Am I deficient in my sight? What color is this?”

  She bit her lip. Black. Jet black. Putrid black.

  “It wasn’t a rhetorical question, Shenna.”

  “Black,” she muttered.

  A snicker came from the corner. Colter, Chaak’s personal assistant and advanced-studies student, at his work station.

  Why did Chaak have to do this in front of Colter of all people? And why did he have to be there right then? Colter was three years her senior, and he had already earned his third-level ranking in occhemy a few months prior. He was Chaak’s prodigy and an adept at salves. Worse, he had a nasty habit of being distractingly attractive when he smiled.

  Shenna glared daggers at him. He flattened his lips, hiding another one of his mocking grins, and returned to cleaning jars.

  Chaak continued. “You’ve failed this twice already—”

  Three times, actually.

  “And you think you’re ready for your actual level-two exam? The work of occhemists is sacred, Shenna. Sacred! Occhemists create potions and elixirs to keep the people of Eien thriving and happy. The ranking and the testing protocol is not to be taken lightly! You’re mocking it by thinking you can breeze through to level two as fast as you did level one!” He pointed to her occhemist bracelet.

  Four silver coins with holes through their centers had been strung on green ribbon and tied around her wrist. Each coin had been etched with a recipe she had invented for her level-one ranking. And no matter what Chaak said, she had earned that bracelet at seventeen, a full-year earlier than anyone in Eien before her. Four more coins would be added if she passed to level two.

  “Sir, I earned my level one. I didn’t breeze—”

  “How many times have we had this conversation about you not taking salves seriously enough?”

  She shifted her weight to her right foot and slid her hands down the strap of her bag to her hip. “Sir, I promise you, I’m not trying to mock this exam. I know how hard it is. I really want to do well—”

  “You have proven otherwise. At this point, I should recommend to the Occhemist Circle that you shouldn’t even be taking the practice exams!” He slammed his pen down onto his desk’s lacquered wood surface.

  But she had to take it. She had to get this right. If she didn’t pass this, she’d have to wait forever for the actual exam. That meant forever to rank up and improve. As many occhemists as possible had to be prepared to leave Eien and go to Revellis to find the Last Elixir. It was the only thing that would stop their people from dying from the Necrophaise at random. At any moment, the disease could take Zoi, or Aulos, or…

  She shook her head.

  Thankfully Chaak wasn’t the only elder in the Occhemist Circle. Zoi, her mentor and caretaker since she was a child, was also in the Circle. It’d take more than just Chaak to prevent her from testing.

  He inhaled and puffed his chest up as a result. “Perhaps I need to discuss this with Zoi.”

  Oh, no. She swallowed. “Sir, I don’t think—”

  “You’re right! I don’t think she’ll be very pleased at all to hear her pupil slacking off like this, producing terrible salves that would sooner kill people than help them!” Chaak’s saggy neck skin jiggled when he spoke.

  She blinked and refocused, rounding the desk to him. She put her hands together in a plea. “Please, don’t give up on me. I don’t want to wait that long to take the next one—”

  “See? Rushed!”

  She checked to see if Colter was listening and lowered her volume. “No, sir. It’s just that we don
’t know how long we have before…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “We don’t know how long we have left before we die—”

  “Shenna, death is no surprise to any of us. We’re all dying. Everyone in Eien has their days numbered, and we never know when our time is up. You could be gone by tomorrow morning.”

  Her world spun. At a sudden wave of dizziness, she rested her hand on Chaak’s desk to steady herself. Did he have to use her as an example?

  “But that isn’t an excuse to rush. We send only the best volunteer occhemists to search for the Last Elixir and only one has ever returned alive—”

  “I know—”

  And you think that you might be sent to find it? With work like this?” He scoffed at her.

  Of course not. She didn’t expect they would allow her to go now. But if no one had found it by the time she was ready, she’d volunteer. Anything was better than sitting by and watching loved ones die.

  She shook her head and refocused. “I just need to work harder. I’ll study. I’ll study every day.”

  “You say that as if you haven’t been.”

  He adjusted his pale-green robe. The embroidered vines and leaves on the sleeves glimmered when it shifted. His occhemist necklace with twenty-four silver coins etched with his own recipes jingled on his chest.

  She had been studying, though—sometimes. She just had other chores and responsibilities, too. Practicing salves in her lab came between potion deliveries for Zoi, cleaning, cataloging, journaling—normal occhemist things.

  “I’ve been trying, Mentor Chaak. I have. I’m just—”

  “I suggest you get good at salves, or I will pull my vote and make you wait the full two years!”

  Her heart sank. That couldn’t happen. “I will. I’ll try really hard. Please, sir, please give me one more chance. Give me two weeks—”

  “So you can come back and waste my time?”

  “I’ll pass it. I promise.”

  “Two weeks! And if you don’t pass this time, you can wait the two years like everyone else!” He threw his arms up and stormed out of the classroom, mumbling about wasting time and breath.

  She groaned and kicked the edge of his desk. Solid siennawood, the stupid thing didn’t budge. Her two filthy vials and marked-up exam lay still. Failed. Zeroes all the way down the rubric. She snatched the paper up, stuffed it in her bag, and walked the vials over to Colter’s washing station.

  “Here. Something else for you to clean.” She meant it to come out bitter, to remind him that he was just as stuck doing Chaak’s bidding as she was. It didn’t seem to work.

  He was smiling the biggest, stupidest smile. Too tall for the lab table, he was hunched over the bench with his long arms and thick hands drying the jars he had just washed.

  She scoffed. “What’s so funny?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “Something.”

  “How?”

  “How what?”

  He paused from his chore to glance at her. His wide-set jaw, his rectangular glasses, his strong nose. Meadow-green eyes dared her to maintain eye contact. “How do you fail this bad?” He sniffed her vial of black gunk and jerked his head away.

  “Just clean it, all right? Do your job.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I’ve already gotten enough scolding.”

  He placed her failed salve under warm water and pulled out a small glass bottle of cleaning solution and a brush. “So, how do you plan on getting magically better in two weeks?”

  She forced air through her lips, leaned back slightly, and shook her head.

  “You need a plan,” he said, holding the last word longer than necessary, as if to taunt her.

  He was right. Though they’d never shared a class together, he had been an assistant to several of her teachers. He loved to poke at her skills now and then while she worked. Sometimes it was annoying. Sometimes he was helpful.

  “I know,” she mumbled. “I have to pass this.” She lifted her hands and rubbed her temples.

  “Then you have to try again, Shenna. Salves are very easy.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Of course you would say that.”

  “They are.”

  The gall. If he was so good at them, then why couldn’t he pass on his knowledge? He had no problems giving hints before. He should put his rank where his mouth was. “Then why don’t you teach me?”

  Chapter 2

  As soon as the suggestion left her lips, she regretted it.

  He froze, too. Arms locked, jaw clenched. His cheeks flushed as red as hers felt.

  She swallowed—hard. Maybe she wouldn’t have regretted it if he hadn’t acted so shocked by it, too. There was nothing weird about asking for tutoring from him. Completely normal. So why was the room hot? Where was the heat coming from? The windows were open. The air was cool. There was even a breeze. She tried to rub her forehead discreetly.

  “You don’t want me to tutor you.” Colter shook his head, while his hands scrubbed her vials with great force. It shouldn’t have been that hard to clean.

  “I was kidding.” She adjusted her bag, her bracelet, and then her bag again. “You’re just so cocky about it.”

  He grinned, but seemed to fight it a bit better this time.

  “Hold that thought!” Aulos, with her golden hair braided and wrapped like a halo around her head, bounded into the lab room. Her soft yellow robes swooshed around her.

  Shenna jumped. “Geez, Aulos!”

  Aulos looked between them. “What? Am I ruining a private moment?” She waggled her eyebrows at Shenna.

  Shenna drew her own eyebrows together. It was just like Aulos to think she saw private moments where they did not exist. More like Aulos thought that being her friend meant setting her up with dates and boyfriends she didn’t have time for. Their entire lives they had been close, and Aulos had spent the last few years concerned—too concerned—with Shenna’s love life.

  “I can come back.” Aulos spun away to leave, but Shenna pulled her back.

  “No!” Colter blurted. His cheeks flushed caryo-root red.

  “No, it wasn’t private,” Shenna added. “We were just talking about my plan to pass the salves exam. That’s all.” She tried to emphasize her eyes and eyebrows. Maybe widening and narrowing them in a certain way could communicate to Aulos to drop any ridiculous idea of “private moments” in her silly head.

  Swishing her hips from side to side like a child, Aulos smiled. Without looking at Colter, she said, “I heard the mention of teaching Shenna, Colter, and I think that’s a great idea. In fact, if you’re so great at it, you won’t mind helping Shenna, right?”

  Shenna’s mouth dropped open as she jerked her head to catch Colter’s reaction.

  He wasn’t watching them—thankfully. He had kept his eyes on her messy vials. The slight curve of his mouth that had slowly sneaked in evaporated. He cleared his throat. “She wouldn’t want me as a tutor.”

  “Oh, I think she would,” Aulos said in a sing-song voice.

  Shenna shook her head violently, mouthing for Aulos to cut it out.

  “I’d be more critical than Chaak,” Colter added, his eyes still focused on his task.

  “Hardly.” Wait. That was encouraging him to tutor her. Heat rose up the back of Shenna’s neck. “I mean, yeah, Chaak is the worst, but Colter would be super strict.”

  “I think it would work,” Aulos said loudly. Too loudly. Obviously loud. She smiled brightly at Shenna.

  Later, she would torture Aulos for this. For now, how could she deflect the mess? And why in the world was she starting to smile?

  She had to think of something. “Ah, are you kidding me? He’d just tease me until I give up. What is that, Shenna? Why does it smell so bad? That’s not how you stir.”

  He chuckled, and her smile grew.

  “Yeah, you think I don’t remember you in Mentor Lanlin’s class?” she added. “Always over my shoulder. Always nitpicking every little thing I did. No, I don’t want that again. Bes
ides, I went on to ace that course, and it got me level one, thank you very much.”

  “Maybe it was thanks to me,” Colter said, still refusing to look up at them.

  Aulos mouthed, “Oh,” her blue eyes big and wide at Shenna. “See?”

  Shenna shook her head, waving her hands for Aulos to stop it. She forced the smile and burn in her cheeks to subside. This wasn’t funny. This would be awkward. It would be a nightmare. He’d mock her the entire time. She’d just feel stupid working with him. She’d humiliate herself.

  “I think that’s a great idea, Shenna,” Aulos said, again ridiculously loud. “You say he’s always bragging and helping you anyway. Consider it volunteer work. You occhemists love that stuff. You get the help you need. Win-win.”

  Colter placed a cork on the table and stood. His height towered over the counter. “All right. I’ll give you a chance. I’ll tutor you for the next two weeks. I’m pretty confident you’ll pass this test.”

  “What?” Shenna’s face felt cold, like all the blood had rushed out of it, and yet the residual heat felt like a sunburn.

  “Great,” Aulos said. “You’ll do it, right, Shenna?”

  Colter was just standing there, tall and broad. He genuinely seemed interested in helping her. At least he sounded like he did. He wasn’t teasing. And if she said no, she might be losing her only chance to actually pass the test and become a full-blown occhemist.

  She licked her lips and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Sure. If you’re willing to try, I’ll take it. Anything to pass this practical and move on, right?”

  Silence. Maybe he was kidding. Maybe he’d start laughing at her right then.

  “Good. Then I’ll help you.” He cleared his throat and rubbed his chin.

  Oh. “Good.” She nodded about five times. Ten times. Too many times. Nodding made it easier to avoid staring into his eyes. His soft, welcoming—