There were three types of potions to make someone like you better. The classic Charisma-Potion, the least invasive of the three simply boosting your natural charm. The Love potion, more invasive but very temporary, giving the user a feeling of intense liking towards the person it was imprinted on. And last but not least the lust potion. As the name suggested this one ramps up the libido of the user quite a bit subsequently making them more susceptible towards advances of people in their preferred gender and age group.
Emiramis usually strayed far from the latter two. She didn't appreciate this problematic approach on such sensible topics. But when a wealthy client had come forward not only swearing to use the potion on no one but himself but also asking for a heavily modified version, her interest was piqued. Two parts lust potion, one-part contraceptive, a yet unobtainable but obviously close lying idea. Emi had been working on it for two days now. She'd tried combining the existing lust potion with different kinds of contraceptives but so far nothing had shown agreeable results. Apparently, she'd have to start from scratch, combine new substances that, put together, had the desired effects. This was going to be fun.
Currently the alchemist was sitting in the kitchen, absentmindedly nibbling on a sandwich and scribbling down ingrediency ideas on a note pad when someone entered the room making her flinch. She looked up quickly to see Abdulon, carrying two big bags, his blonde hair falling into his face. With the quiet way he usually moved around the house Emi sometimes forgot he even lived here. Not that she minded seeing him from time to time. They had decided to move in together and start their own little business after their last attempt at employment with the same guy had failed miserably. With the money they made from selling her potions and his services as a healer they could afford a nice little home on the outskirts of the capital. It wasn't in the best part of the city but saving here meant they could afford better equipment.
"New project you're working on?" he asked setting down the bags, filled with, as she could now see, groceries.
"Yeah, if I get it right this could be rent for the next few months."
"Very nice." he grinned at her and she smiled back. It had taken her a while to get accustomed with him, as it did with most people. She simply didn't like meeting new people, it took her out of her comfort zone. Which was to say she was usually scared shitless when anyone decided to talk to her. Especially someone as tall as Abdulon. He towered her by two almost two feet and his natural charm had actually hindered him in his pursuit of getting to know her. But she had gotten used to him and started to like him quite a lot. He was the only guy she had met who didn't make fun of her for her height or her inability to speak when confronted with unknown people. Instead he helped her make deals and stood in the background as a comforting presence when there were clients over.
In turn she had opted for not asking him about his history, something he seemed very prickly about. They had a good dynamic and Emi hoped it would stay that way for a long time.
Abdulon had finished putting away the groceries.
"You're busy with your potion yeah? So, you don't mind me disappearing for a few hours, do you?"
She shook her head. He did that from time to time. When he knew she was working on something that would take her mind off everything but her project he would be gone for a few hours on some own project he also didn't like talking about. Emi was naturally curious and had contemplated following him to his regular disappearances but she did not want to destroy the one working relationship she had so she kept her curiosity reigned in.
But that didn't stop her speculating. As he left the kitchen she put down her pen and went over her theories. Maybe he did something illegal? Selling illegal substances or going to steal something. But that would be nothing he'd have to hide from her. Not that she was the most law-abiding person all the time. What if he went to see a girlfriend or boyfriend of his? Again, no idea why he would have to hide that from her of all people. She noticed a slight pang of jealousy in her chest at the idea. Of course, not because she had a crush on the kind but mysterious man, but only because he was the first friend she'd made in a long time and she didn't want to lose him to some partner.
What else could he be doing? She mused as she grabbed her stuff to move back into her laboratory. A ridiculous thought made her giggle. Maybe he visited a brothel. That might be something he didn't want to tell her. Not that he seemed exceptionally prude but theirs wasn't the type of relationship to talk about those things. She shook her head when she reached her work bench. Enough mystery solving, she needed to get this potion going if she wanted to earn the gold this client promised.
It didn't work. Emi grunted in frustration as another potion gave no reaction to her analysis spell. It didn't matter which combination of ingrediency she used they all seemed to cancel each other out leaving her with nothing but nice smelling tea. She redid her long thick braid as she thought about her predicament. Maybe if she slowly increased the potency of the aphrodisiac with some alraune it would stop disappearing. It seemed worth a shot. Emi mixed some of the succubus venom with pre-prepared alraune-sud. Now she had to be careful, succubus venom alone wasn't too bad as long as it didn't get into the blood stream but once you boiled it in the alraune-sud even the steam could become very potent. And she really didn't need anything to...distract her now. She fastened the drip above her Rahjani-essence fighting with the lever to keep it up there. A new drip would be the first thing she got with the money from this job she decided. Concentrated on her fastening she didn't hear the door open downstairs. But what she did hear was the slam of it shutting.
It made her flinch hard enough to drop the increased succubus-venom right into the Rahjani-essence. She barely had time to think of an adequate reaction not speaking of doing anything before the two substances hit. A shrill hiss echoed through the laboratory as clouds of violet steam flooded the room. Emi coughed against the sudden onslaught of thick, sweet smelling air in her lungs and dropped to the floor to escape the worst of the smoke. The ground was covered in some kind of powder sticking to her clothes and hands as she blindly crawled to where she imagined the door might be. She bumped into some apparatuses on the way and reached out for the door when someone opened it for her. A gust of wind diluted the smoke enough for her to see again. She kneeled on the floor in front of the open door. Before her stood Abdulon waving his hand through the escaping smoke and coughing as well. Emi got up to her feet swaying slightly from the missing air and pushed him out of the room, smearing his tunic with the purple powder in the process. She kicked the door shut behind them and sucked in the still sweet but less thick air from the corridor.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Abdulon asked, concern obvious in his eyes. She must look like quite the mad scientist, over and over covered with purple powder, hair sticking out of her braid wildly and leaning against the wall in support as she tried to catch her breath. Even though the smoke out here had dissipated almost immediately her head still felt foggy as she looked up at Abdulon.
"I dropped the thing..." she hesitated. She had dropped something, that she was sure about. But the name of the substance somehow eluded her at the moment. Shaking her head she started again, "I dropped something and it exploded."
