Spellbrand

Alchemical Mishap
"..."
Lab assistant to Magus. Always on hand with exactly what he needs, sometimes before he even knows that he needs it. His companion Spellwrought Ambassador treats him as her own chick.

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It was the day the egg should have hatched. Its siblings had already crawled from the nest and begun to pounce and play, but no young life yet breached the shell. Anticipation turned to disappointment turned to disinterest. There were living drakes to tend.

An untended nest. An abandoned egg with a strange resonance. This would be the perfect offering to gain the interest of a teacher of the Arcane arts. The harpy stole away with her prize. A furtive journey through the Starwood Strand. A harrowing climb to the peaks of the Crystalspine Reaches. A chance gale changing the course of Fate.

"Harpy trash!" the warrior snarled at the bedraggled beast on the clan's doorstep. "Wait," came the calm voice of another. "Oracle, stay back," the warrior insisted, but the koi-pattered imperial brushed past, unperturbed. "She has a gift for Magus," said Oracle, holding an inviting claw out to the little creature. Clouds billowed and swirled from the seer's blind eyes as she inspected the harpy. "Come with me," she indicated kindly.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" the Alchemist asked flatly. "You will know," Oracle said airily as she floated away. Typical, Magus thought wearily, rolling his eyes and snatching the egg from the nervous harpy. "If you want to learn from me, pay attention and stay out of the way," he said, turning from her. "Pay attention," came a nearly identical echo from the other side of the lab. "He warms up eventually," a green-splattered Nocturne added as an aside in a much different voice.

"Back to work apprentice!" Magus instructed crisply.

"Back to work," she repeated in her imitation of her master, then a chirped "Yes sir!"

The pearlcatcher returned to his latest brew, paying no mind to the harpy as she lurked by at a safe distance. Instead, he inspected the egg. Surely, it would be better off in a nest or with someone more parental. And yet the seer had declared that he would know what to do with it... Well, he knew it was his inclination to set it on his shelf and get back to his potion.

Once that distraction was out of the way, Magus resumed mixing. The concoction was unstable at best, but it had come along further than his last three attempts. He had to be cautious - extra cautious that is, Magus was always cautious - in this uncharted stage of the elixer's brew.

The cauldron sizzled and frothed, as the pearlcatcher's careful claws dropped in each ingredient in turn.