| ᴏɴᴄ 2024 ʟᴏɴɢʟɪꜱᴛᴇʀ |
❝ ᴀ ᴍᴇʀᴇ ꜱᴘʀᴀʏ ɪꜱ ᴀʟʟ ɪᴛ ᴛᴀᴋᴇꜱ. ❞
All Elvira Grythras has ever wanted is to climb the ranks of Velux Emporium to become a head perfumer. She has trained tirelessly for her entire life to reach the acclaimed title. Finally, wh...
We walked in silence through the emporium until we reached a side door leading out into the Client Gardens. The grounds around the back of Velux Emporium existed for the sole purpose of talking to potential customers. Most apprentices couldn't invite clients back to their workshops, so the gardens were the next best option.
With a winding path that could be akin to a maze, the Client Gardens was home to an assorted rainbow of different flowers. Roses in the deepest shade of cerulean imaginable, hydrangeas with colours that mimicked a cloudless sunset, tulips with a stunning gradient of lilac. Each bloom was the pride and joy of the gardeners who tended to them. Not only were they a beautiful sight to behold, but the flowers also came in handy when making perfumes.
As we turned a corner, I spied two royal guards following close behind us through the gaps in a trimmed hedge. They walked at an almost leisurely pace, convincing any passersby that they were merely here to enjoy the flowers, but I knew no royal guards ever showed up here. Especially ones bedecked in sheathed swords and throwing daggers.
"Do the guards need to talk to you about something?" I questioned, keeping one eye trained on their movements. Were they here for Corvin? Sure, he was the Royal Perfumer, but he didn't need protecting like he was a prized crown jewel.
He looked back and sighed. "Ignore them. They won't bother us, I'm sure of it."
"Alright, let's get started then." I halted in my tracks, forcing Corvin to do the same. "What do you want?"
"No civilised small talk first? You wound me." He pressed a hand to his chest as if I had struck an arrow through his heart.
"We both have important things to be doing. From what I've seen, you don't seem like the type for aimless conversation."
The guards stopped too, pretending to have a conversation of their own.
"Perhaps you should get to know me a little better. The two of us could have a passionate connection and neither of us realise it." He offered me a smirk as he walked backwards, hoping to continue the trail around the gardens. With his careless steps, he narrowly avoided a pile of soil where a gardener was planting a new batch of roses.
Was he flirting? Or attempting to? The sudden friendliness was suspicious.
"It was worth a try," he murmured. When all he received was a scowl in response, he began to explain. "I wanted to ask for your assistance with the perfume I'm making. The gift I talked about the other day."
"The renowned royal perfumer is asking for my help?" I looked up into the sky, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand.
"What?" Corvin squinted, looking up too. "What's wrong?"
"I was just making sure the sky isn't turning purple and the world isn't about to end."
"I'm serious, Elvira. I haven't been able to make any decent progress on the perfume and the Miracles Festival is approaching faster than I would like." The event was only five days away now. His time was slipping away like grains of sand in an hourglass. "You were meant to have my position of Head Perfumer, correct? You must have the talent to help me with one measly fragrance."
"Of course I have the skill." A bubble of panic built inside my chest, rising with each thought that swirled in my mind. Help him? I was trying to be better than him, not help him succeed and get settled further into the workshop.
"Wonderful!" Unfolding several pieces of paper from his pocket, he handed me the notes I had been searching for when I had snuck into his area.
As I pulled the sheets away from my chest, all I could see were the rushed, senseless annotations of the man before me. Most were scrawled in ink, splatters of it decorating the page, but a few were written in pencil. No matter how much I squinted or turned the paper, I couldn't read a full sentence. I shuffled the pages and came across one with a detailed sketch of what appeared to be a forest. Fireflies floated through the air, giving light to what appeared to be tables laid out for a feast.
How exactly did this relate to perfume?
"What exactly is this perfume meant to do? What is it for?" His scribbles meant nothing to me. I couldn't even tell if I was holding them the correct way up.
"I can't give out many details, but I'm making a perfume that will transform an entire room for anyone who smells it." As the corners of his lips turned up even more, I could feel the proudness radiating from him.
I could only look at him with fear and horror. An entire room. Such a thing was unheard of. I had only worked on perfumes that transformed small features on people, not a whole area where hundreds of people could be gathered at.
"Don't look at me like I'm insane. You'll be sending me off for an execution once you fully read all the notes." Corvin chuckled nervously, glancing between the papers I held and my ever-changing expression.
"You need this done in five days!" When gardeners and other apprentices turned to glare at my outburst, I sent them apologetic smiles and calmed my breathing. "How much progress have you made towards it so far?"
"I have the colour I want," he offered, rubbing the back of his neck.
I was wrong. Why did I need to work so hard to tear the new Head Perfumer down when he could do it all on his own? I didn't even need to lift a finger.
"I wish you the best of luck, you'll need it, but I haven't got the time to help you with something like this amongst all the other requests I have." For the past few days, I had ignored the requests my clients had sent me because I was so caught up in the loss of my title and workshop. I couldn't lose what I had built from the ground up over the past years over this.
As I began to walk away, Corvin tried to stop me. "Wait!" he called, reaching out to grab my hand and pull me back. However, his aim was off and he missed, only brushing my skin with his fingers instead. His foot tangled with mine and we both lost our footing. In a twisted knot of intertwined limbs, we fell onto a bench on the side of the garden path.
I hissed in pain as my back collided with the wood and the Head Perfumer caught himself before he could squash me, pinning his hands on either side of my head. His face was inches from mine, our breath colliding in a dance of delicate schemes.
"I'm so sorry." Corvin quickly stood, a faint dusting of pink spreading across his cheeks and tinging the tops of his ears. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be alright." Heat rushed to my face too, the scent of vanilla and lavender lingering in my senses. Whatever embarrassment I had felt was soon replaced by frustration. This was the second time now that I had fallen to the ground because of him.
"I can really make this worth your while, Elvira. Please, at least consider it."
I crossed my arms, sitting properly on the bench. "How so?"
"You want the workshop, right?" He ran a hand through his hair as he thought over the proposal he was about to give. "You can have it if you help me. I only need a space to work, it doesn't matter where that is."
Despite everything I thought he would say — a share of the money he would earn, credit for the assistance, even a favour of some sort — the proposition of getting my workshop back hooked my attention and reeled me in. Corvin hadn't mentioned anything about the title of Head Perfumer, but it was a step in the right direction. If anything brought me closer to what I had worked for, I would do it, even if it meant working with the man who had stolen it from me in the first place.
"Perhaps I'll take another look at those notes."
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