Kegan walked with Asopt out of the shop. “I’m not happy not knowing why Lyda went after us,” said Kegan.
“Agreed,” Asopt said. “Want me to see what I can find?”
“Yeah, but let’s keep this between the two of us. I think Sariah is worried it would distract her. If we can handle it without her, we will,” Kegan said.
“Is that smart?” asked Asopt.
“Probably not,” Kegan said. “Kicking a wasp nest is never smart, but I would rather do that then have the nest surprise me.”
Asopt laughed. “Did anyone ever tell you you have a way with words?” he asked.
“No,” Kegan said.
“Good, you haven’t been lied to,” Asopt said. With that he left leaving Kegan stunned with how well he had walked into that one. After contemplating how hard it would be to hit Asopt with a small tripping spell at that range he decided to head back inside.
There he found the store empty. Kegan moved into the back room and found Sariah working over the small pot he mixed his signature purple. “Please don’t play with that,” he said.
Sariah stirred the contents a bit more with a heavily colored stick. “You really do need more iodine.”
Kegan reached over and took the stirrer from her. “I don’t need it really at all.”
Sariah slapped Kegan’s hand to make him release the stick. She caught it deftly before it hit the floor, all this without getting a drop of the dye on herself. Kegan, on the other hand was not so lucky.
“Really Sariah?” Kegan asked as he quickly cast a small cantrip, forcing the ink back out of his shirt and onto the floor.
“You were the one whole rudely took my stick,” she said. Sariah went back to stirring the dye. “I’m confused.”
“Why are you confused?” asked Kegan.
Sariah held up the bottle of iodine. “I added more of this, but the color hasn’t changed.”
“I told you, I don’t need any iodine. As long as I have some of that dye there I can add anything. I crafted the pot to change any liquid into my dye,” Kegan said.
Sariah looked at the pot, then at Kegan. “You were that lazy?”
“Creating a unique magical item that transmutes any liquid into the dye that makes me quite comfortable financially is lazy?” Kegan asked.
“Okay, if you put it that way, probably not, but still, why did the color shift?” she asked.
“The color is still the same,” Kegan said.
“No it’s not,” Sariah countered strongly. She stared him down, daring him to disagree again.
Kegan sighed. “I created the pot, but I made one slight miscalculation.”
“What did you do?” Sariah asked.
“I didn’t realize I had to use so much ink to infuse the pot, so I kind of used all of the original ink to make the pot. I had to whip together a new batch to begin producing new ink,” Kegan said.
Sariah waited, but Kegan wasn’t adding anything more. She decided to push the matter. “And?”
“I ran out of iodine. I figured the purple was close enough,” Kegan admitted.
“Ha! I knew it,” Sariah said.
“That’s nice Sariah, but I would be more concerned how you are going to arrange for an accident for a certain someone,” Kegan said.
Sarah stopped stirring the dye. “I have a pretty good idea how to do it.”
This time it was Kegan’s turn to wait, but Sariah didn’t say anything more. Finally he caved in. “Okay, how?” he asked.
“We need to go to the river and see someone about some slime,” she said.
“Great. Slime,” Kegan said. Sariah nodded. “What are you going to do, make him slip to death?” he asked.
Never Short On Words 