The night wind whistled through the pines as a lone figure sat at a battered desk, flipping through yellowed papers and scribbling notes.
A grimy alembic hissed beside him, filling the cramped laboratory with smoke.
Scorched stone walls from previous mishaps.
The shutters rattled in the growing wind.
He pulled his white lab coat tighter around himself.
Keldras rubbed his eyes.
“Still twenty-five percent. Hells…”
Another failure.
Another ruined sample.
He lifted a glass dish and murmured a command word.
His enchanted spectacles magnified the sample.
Corruption crept along its edges.
He cursed and hurled the dish into the stone hearth.
It shattered against the stone, but a rogue shard ricocheted back, slicing through the thin fabric of his coat and nicking his arm.
He peeled back his sleeve and inspected the cut.
No discoloration.
No burning.
“Good. No blood on the shard.”
He exhaled, shoulders finally relaxing.
Outside, the wind rose again, rattling the shutters hard enough to draw his attention.
As he turned toward the window, another gust tipped a stoppered vial from an overcrowded shelf.
It bounced across the workbench and rolled toward the magical burner.
He turned back.
The vial was already at the burner’s edge.
Horror flashed across his face.
Before he could move—
The vial struck the flame.
White light swallowed the laboratory.
Then the blast threw him backward, slamming him into the far wall.
“Keldras!… Kel!… Wake up!”
Someone was shaking him.
As his vision cleared, a young woman hovered over him.
Violet hair brushed across his face as she leaned close.
“Keldras!”
Her yellow, animal-like eyes widened with relief.
“Kel… can you hear me?”
He groaned.
She sighed with relief before quickly examining him for injuries.
Her expression tightened when she spotted the large shard of glass protruding from his bicep.
Her breath caught.
She fumbled through several leather pouches, producing a collection of grasses and roots.
She snatched up a charred stone bowl from the debris.
She tossed the ingredients inside and began grinding them into a thick paste.
She chanted in a language Keldras couldn’t understand.
Ash drifted through the ruined laboratory as she searched the wreckage for water.
“Hells…” she cursed.
She spit into the mixture.
Carefully, she pulled the glass free.
Keldras cried out.
She immediately packed the acrid-smelling paste into the wound.
The bleeding slowed almost immediately.
Pain exploded through his arm.
Darkness claimed him once more.
“Ke…”
Keldras’ ears twitched.
“Kel…”
Someone was calling his name.
The voice was faint, and he didn’t recognize it.
He groaned, rolled over in bed, and slowly opened his eyes.
Morning light flooded the room.
He blinked against the glare, then tried to remember how he had gotten into bed.
As he pushed himself upright, a dull ache shot through his arm.
He looked down.
Bandages.
Memory returned in an instant.
Panic followed.
He quickly unraveled the wrappings and inspected the wound.
As always, Gorra’s druidic magic had been incredible.
The injury had almost completely disappeared.
Still…
He searched the edges of the wound for any hint of discoloration.
Nothing.
His stomach tightened.
His eyes weren’t good enough.
He softly spoke a command word before realizing his spectacles were no longer perched on his nose.
He spotted them on the bedside table.
He snatched them up and examined the wound once more.
Finally, he sighed with relief.
No discoloration.
He had been lucky.
The shard must have come from the alembic’s upper neck.
The dragon’s blood hadn’t reached that far yet.
Had it touched the heated plasma…
If it had, the effects would already have appeared.
He lay back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
This disaster was going to set his research back.
Weeks.
Maybe months.
When was he ever going to get his hands on dragon’s blood of that quality again?
Next time he saw his father, he was definitely cursing him out.
The bedroom door suddenly slammed open, cracking loudly against the wall.
“Brother! Ha! And you told me studying was good for you!”
Keldras stared at him without blinking.
Garrok had to duck beneath the doorway.
The floor creaked beneath his weight.
His crimson ponytail swayed as he swaggered inside.
“If Father would stop storing his explosives in the laboratory, this never would have happened,” Keldras said flatly.
Garrok snorted.
“Training doesn’t blow you up,” he replied, tapping the side of his head.
“Studying does.”
“Did you need something, Garrok?” Keldras asked coldly, already tired of his older brother’s absurd logic.
“Sister told us you blew yourself up again. Just came to check on you.”
“…dras.”
Keldras turned, looking over his shoulder.
Nothing.
He looked back at Garrok.
“Did you hear that?”
Garrok frowned.
“I think your ears are still ringing, little brother,” he said before bursting into laughter.
Keldras stared at him for a long moment, then waved him away.
Garrok smirked.
“Less time with your nose in a book and more time swinging a blade would do you some good.”
Still chuckling, he turned and strode out of the room.
Keldras watched him leave.
That oaf had better not have cracked my door.
He pushed himself to his feet, steadying himself against a wave of dizziness.
Well…
The experiment had ended in disaster.
Still, it could have been worse.
Now he would have to rewrite every page from memory.
Somehow, he’d have to acquire more dragon’s blood.
“KELDRAS!”
The voice slammed into his mind like a thunderclap.
Alchemy Explosion, Gorra Healing, Garrok busting into Bedroom chapter art https://i.postimg.cc/FzYPWQ1D/VOL-1-CH-1.png Doing some re-uploads after editing, the way i write chapters changed in Vol.
2 and i like it better it also feels easier to read.