The Peculiar Alchemist

10 || Aubrey's First Potion

The potion that was placed in front of Agnes was, without a doubt, a disaster. He followed every instruction written in the book down to the letter, but that didn't change the fact that he was inexperienced.

A loud inhale was heard, and it was Kellen standing behind her trying his best not to laugh at how horribly made the potion was. That made Aubrey look down biting his lip in his dismay, and his cheeks colored in shame. He wished he could cast a spell to curse him, but unfortunately, he was powerless.

Agnes, however, showed no reaction as she brought his potion closer to herself before she carefully opened it. Every move that she did was unreadable, and so was her face, and Aubrey felt himself becoming more anxious the more she examined it.

"What was it supposed to do again?"

He never told her, he just randomly picked it from one of her books, but he decided to just answer her hoping he actually did make something which wasn't a complete failure. "It's supposed to heal simple injuries."

"Ugh," Agnes made a face at that not liking the fact that this potion had healing properties, but she didn't voice out her dislike towards it. She was there to evaluate his skill. "Kel, come here."

Any joy or laughter that he displayed earlier instantly went away when he heard her call his name, and instead he let out a heavy sigh in resignation before he grabbed something sharp. "Yeah, yeah."

There was no hesitation in the way he slit his palm, and he showed it to her not caring that his blood was seeping into his sleeve. With a satisfied hum, Agnes handed him Aubrey's potion and observed as he gave it a wary look.

"I have a feeling that this will kill me."

Agnes smiled at that. "Hope so."

"I would never give you a poison intentionally." It was easy to know that he was being sarcastic by his tone alone, and Aubrey found himself more amused than nervous when Kellen became the guinea pig for his potion. Funny how he hoped his potion would have an adverse effect now, it kind of excited him to see Kellen in pain.

"Does everyone want me dead here?" Kellen grumbled before he brought the bottle to his lips. With another deep sigh, he took a gulp and was about to show the disgust on his face, but he realized that the potion doesn't taste that bad.

A little bit sour, but he had worse.

"So?" Agnes said impatiently waiting for the effects to take place, but Kellen's hand was still bleeding.

He stood there watching his own palm before he shook his head. "Wow, nothing."

Dejection was all what Aubrey felt as he sank back in his seat wishing he had done something different. Maybe he made a mistake somewhere, or maybe his measurements of the portions were wrong, but that didn't change that he failed his first healing potion.

"Good, keep bleeding. I actually want it to work on anybody but you."

His bitter words made Kellen laugh, but Agnes still had hope in him because she motioned for Kellen to hand her the bottle and she surprised them both by cutting her own finger. It was just a tiny cut, enough to know if the potion had any effect on it or not, and they both watched as she drank it before observing once more.

It took mere seconds for her finger to heal, and that made her place the bottle back on the table before she let out a disgustingly loud snort.

Kellen did not look pleased at all. "Don't tell me..."

"Come, come here." She cackled pushing the bottle onto Kellen once more. "Drink more. Go on, drink more."

Aubrey watched the whole thing feeling like he was at loss. There was something about this whole thing that was incredibly funny to Agnes, and equally as irksome to Kellen. Not that Aubrey didn't suspect it, but it couldn't be possible. No, he wouldn't even know how he did it if it was proven to be true.

But then when Kellen begrudgingly took another bigger gulp of his potion, the cut on his palm remained the same without the slightest bit of change in its state.

It just continued on bleeding.

It confirmed that his potion really did work for everybody with the exception of Kellen, just like how he intended. However, this was not possible. Nobody can make a potion and exclude someone from its effects, not even the greatest alchemist to ever live can do that.

Potions were just mixed ingredients, they didn't discriminate, and they certainly don't have the ability to recognize a person to decide whether to work or not. That simply was not possible.

"Maybe the cut you made was too deep?" He tried to reason looking at it with a confused frown, but Aubrey wasn't stupid. He knew what he was seeing, and he made his own conclusion. Something had caused it to not work on Kellen, and it was most likely him.

The question is how?

"Your potion-making skills are atrocious, though I like this one." Agnes did not even acknowledge the impossibility of it even when he knew for certain that she was aware of how impossible this is. Instead, she gave him a pat on the back showing her approval. "Make more potions like this. Ones that are useless on useless over there."

"But I don't know how I did it..."

Kellen shook his head looking at Agnes in annoyance, but she gave Aubrey another encouraging pat on the back grinning down at him. "You're smart, you'll figure it out."

That implied that she knew, but she wasn't going to elaborate any further because she quickly walked to the other room not really interested in sharing anything. All the while, Kellen was still bleeding but he was uncharacteristically quiet.

That did not escape Aubrey's notice. "You know, don't know?"

Wiping his palm uselessly on his clothes, Kellen shook his head. "If I knew, I would have told you."

Aubrey wanted nothing more than to give in to his frustration and hurl something at his stupid head, but he wasn't in the habit of doing so, which is why he kept his cool but retained the infuriated look on his face. This was always a thing with Kellen, and it just made him so angry sometimes.

Kellen was a lot more tolerable when his mouth is shut.

"You're always lying, Kevin. Stop lying and just tell me."

"No, I don't think I will." Kellen grinned at him completely forgetting his bleeding palm, but there was a mischievous look on his face that made Aubrey uneasy. That sense of unease was a common occurrence around him. "I can tell you something else, though. Wanna hear it?"

Tragically, Aubrey was too curious to pretend not to want to know, so he leaned closer with a nod hating how badly he wanted to know. "Tell."

"There is a whole cult after you."

An annoyed sigh came out of Aubrey as he bumped into Kellen on his way to the other room. He regretted ever giving Kellen the opportunity to lie again as he heard him snicker behind him.

He was really sick of all the lies.

And he was even sicker of Kellen.