Harper reached the hermit’s cabin with a great amount of relief. The wolf pack that was making themselves such a nuisance still hadn’t been caught and were last seen in this area. She shouldn’t have been too worried; the last sighting was the day before yesterday, and they never stayed in the same area for long.

  Still, the fact that there was an aether nexus close by made it more likely they would stay here. She was somewhat surprised they hadn’t already claimed the area as a territory, instead moving from one location to another.

  Their curious migratory habits had made it incredibly difficult for the Governor’s hunting parties to track them down. Already, two different parties headed by Magnates had found nothing. It was a large waste of valuable time and resources. The failures were made worse by the fact that the wolves seemed to have no compunctions targeting people.

  Two caravans had been ambushed, villages were raided and any of the few cores they held taken, and travelers had mysteriously disappeared. It wasn’t quite a crisis, but they were quite a bit more trouble than they had any right to be. If so many resources weren’t being diverted to the investigations into the Unshackled, the Governor’s people would be sweeping the forest for them. As it was, they were a secondary problem for Arboren.

  Harper dismounted Rusty and tied his reins to a nearby post. Without hesitating, she strode into the building, already pulling Briar out of his bulging pouch. Carrying him inside something would not be an option for much longer. For better or worse, he would be in the open with her.

  The hermit was pacing back and forth in his home. He was clutching his head and muttering to himself. She left him to it. He’d address her when he was ready. Instead, she inspected the surroundings.

  The furniture and layout were much the same as last time, but the miscellaneous items scattered about were different. A handful of bowls and several varieties of gems were scattered everywhere. She spotted a ruby under a chair, an emerald in the corner, a topaz in the center of the floor next to an upturned bowl, and several more besides.

  Her curiosity would have to wait; she set Briar on the floor to roam as he pleased and settled in. She did not have to wait long. This was less because she waited for the hermit to take his natural course, and more because Briar accelerated the timetable.

  Harper stopped paying outward attention and had been working to expand her aetherspace again when she heard something that snapped her out of her revery. Refocusing, she spotted Briar at the hermit’s feet, nipping at his heel. Harper muffled a laugh as the hermit jumped several feet back and into the air and looked down at Briar in complete bafflement.

  It likely wasn’t wise to startle such a powerful being, but the last visit had erased most of her misgivings for the strange old man. He was eccentric but seemed generally harmless. Despite how little of a time she knew him, she couldn’t imagine him reacting violently.

  Her assessment was correct. He looked from the thorny devil to her before his features morphed into understanding. “The experiment.”

  Without any hesitation, he picked Briar up and began inspecting him from several different angles, much to the lizard’s unhappiness. He began questioning her in a rapid-fire manner on his physical development over the past month. Harper answered to the best of her ability.

  While the growth was not particularly dramatic, it was faster than it had been. The bag she had caried him in had gotten noticeably tighter as the days wore on. His consumption had nearly doubled. If she didn’t get so much meat from hunting, she may have been worried at how much feeding him was digging into her funds.

  Even more apparent, he had started molting at an increased rate. Harper had been able to give Susy Alvera, the co-owner of the Arboren Apothecary, more molt this month than any previously, save the first when she had a bunch already saved up. Due to it being more than their agreed amount, she had even received a small bonus.

  Harper was just about ready to begin making her own draughts. The learning process had been frustrating, and she was unable to dedicate much time to it, but she had progressed steadily. It was about time; her active lifestyle left her with a constantly growing collection of bruises and scabs. She had always deemed healing tinctures and pastes too expensive, but making her own should be much cheaper.

  After his questioning was done, he set Briar down on the table and wrote down some notes, before taking off into a separate room. He once again returned with potions. A few for her to take back to Mentril, and one for Briar. Harper eyed the potion warily. “This is the one for Solar Domain creatures, right?” she asked.

  The hermit looked at her in irritation. “Of course! What kind of fool would I be to make such a mistake?”

  Harper refrained from answering.

  The hermit reinspected the vial. “Oh, this one is for mammals, not reptiles. This definitely wouldn’t have gone down well.”

  In a recreation of the last month’s events, Harper’s eye twitched as the hermit went to grab another potion. It’s worth it, she thought to herself. Briar needed to grow; she hated that he was as vulnerable as he was. Soon, he would manifest the capability his species was known for and be able to help her in hunts. Training him wouldn’t be easy, but she had high hopes. Few Domain creatures were untrainable, usually only those who were too aggressive.

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  He came back with another tincture and Harper assisted him in forcing the drink down Briar’s throat. The lizard did not resist as much as he had previously, maybe he was smarter than she gave him credit for.

  As if to disprove her as soon as possible, Briar jumped off the table. Fortunately, Harper was close at hand to catch him and lower him to the ground. The fall was unlikely to have injured him, but it still was uncharacteristically reckless of the lizard.

  Harper shook her head and watch as he ambled over to what had attracted his attention. Another gem sat on the floor, sitting against a desk. Briar reached it, and instead of just inspecting it as she had expected, he closed his mouth around it.

  Harper gasped, thinking he was going to eat the gem. His diet was prodigious, and she had seen him put some very questionable things in his mouth, but never any rocks. She crouched down next to him, preparing to fish it out of his mouth before he swallowed.

  She didn’t need to. Briar walked towards her crouching form; gem still clutched in his teeth. Instead of her center mass, he walked towards her left hand, nudging his mouth against her ring. Confused, Harper opened her hand. The thorny devil set the gem into her palm and wandered back off.

  She watched him go in consternation, before turning her focus on the gem. To her surprise, she quickly recognized it as a sapphire. She stood back up with a smile on her face. Briar must have recognized the same gem from her ring and thought she might want another one. She had been worried that any bonding was all in her head and the lizard just saw her as a source of food. This was a small piece of evidence to the contrary.

  The hermit just watched the event in curiosity before making a grunting sound and writing down more notes. Harper set the gem back on the table and looked around at the other ones. Gathering her confidence, she waited until he was done notetaking before asking something that had been bothering her since the previous month. Her curiosity had only grown stronger since arriving back and seeing the gems everywhere.

  “What are you trying to do with the gems? Are you trying to enchant them with alchemy?” That was the only thing she could think he’d be doing. Working with gems as an aethercraft was not exclusive to any one Domain, but was more in line with an aethersmith’s or aether-refiner's work. She had never heard about them being utilized in alchemy.

  To her relief, she got a response. She had half expected to be completely ignored. With her question, all the hermit’s previous frustrations returned to the forefront. He threw his hands up into the air and let out a frustrated... hiss? Whatever the sound was, he was clearly annoyed.

  “Enchant, imbue, grow, anything! The other crafts can utilize gems, so why not alchemy? Except nothing works! These damnable rocks won’t react at all to even the most powerful brews. Crystals can grow out of a mundane solution, but nothing happens when you try to force it with alchemy, and I have no idea why! I’ve gone through every possibility and tested every theory, and I have almost NOTHING to show for it!”

  The hermit continued his rant, his words becoming more indecipherable with every moment. At first Harper could follow along, but as he raved, he began using alchemy jargon that was far too advanced for her to understand. He may have well began speaking in gibberish to her. She didn’t have a clue what “the coagulation of atomic structures in a Domain catalyst” meant.

  Harper frowned and looked at the upturned bowls and scattered gems. She may not have known any of the advanced alchemy terminology, but she did have a pretty good idea of why he was having so many issues in the first place.

  “Are you not using the Auroral Domain in your experiments?” she interrupted during a pause.

  The hermit bit back his next deluge of words before looking at her in confusion. “Not more than any other Domain. Why?”

  “While gems belong to all the Domains, and crystals are heavily associated with the Telluric Domain, the process of crystallization itself is shown to be associated with the Domain of Frost.”

  The hermit just shook his head. “Wherever did you hear such nonsense? Crystals and crystallization belong to Earth and to a lesser extent Sea.”

  Offended, Harper retorted sullenly. “From a study done in north Magnon a decade ago. It was discovered that those with an Apex Aurora Domain could manipulate the crystal structures of their ice far better than the average Apex Telluric Domain user could manipulate other crystals. It was further confirmed when those with the Auroral Domain as a secondary Domain to an Apex Domain of Earth had better crystal control on average than those without.”

  Regaining some of her lost equilibrium, Harper continued. “It makes sense if you think about it. In the natural world, most crystallization happens when an object cools down, something firmly under the Domain of Frost. Plus, ice is just crystallized water, something that is usually firmly under the Aquatic Domain, but in a contest of authority over ice, those with an Apex Auroral Domain usually win over those with an Apex Aquatic Domain.”

  This time, the hermit didn’t bite back with another insult, instead chewing on her words. Harper just smiled smugly and relished the moment. She hadn’t expected to get one over the cantankerous old coot, and she somehow doubted she ever would again.

  She only got to enjoy that victory for a few moments before the hermit began cursing. He wasn’t cursing at her, only everything else. He cursed the Domains, alchemy, aethercraft, gems, himself, and bowls of all things. He let forth a spew of profanity unlike she had ever heard or would likely ever hear again.

  He cursed in languages she knew, and several she did not. She had thought she knew cursing. While sailors didn’t curse in her presence, it was difficult to not overhear on a ship. The trip from Magnon to Vanax had been an education in vocabulary she never would have gotten back home. What she heard then could not compare to what she heard now.

  He was cursing ten minutes later. He was cursing as she gathered the potions she was to deliver. He was cursing as she found Briar and stowed him away. He was cursing as she left the building and mounted her horse. He was cursing loudly enough that she could hear him for several seconds after she began riding away. She didn’t know how long he continued cursing; she just hoped that she wouldn’t arrive back the next month to find him still in the throes of profanity.