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❝ 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...
"It's not enough." Corvin frowned, staring at the bottle in his hands in defeat. "We need so many more to get them to fill the environment."
"Hey, it's a start, right?" I collected a few more ingredients, ready to prepare my next try. "If we can focus on perfecting the fireflies today, we can-"
A knock at the door cut me off and it opened to reveal a group of royal guards carrying more sealed boxes. They stacked them on top of the others and left without a word, only nodding in Corvin's direction.
"The guards are still here?" I asked with a raised brow. He was only someone who worked for the royals — a servant to their every command. Why did they feel the need to stick around him?
"They're only here to deliver a few more of my belongings. Pretend they aren't there." He used his body to block the entrance of the workshop, forcing my attention back to the task at hand.
"Okay." Uncertainty lingered in my voice but if Corvin noticed, he did a good job at hiding it.
Fatigue clung to the edges of my mind, my energy nearly at its limit — both the kind that allowed my body to function and the magical type. It was only one more perfume for today. One more I could push myself through until I was sure Corvin would succeed with the fireflies.
Surrounding the bottle with the components I needed, I concentrated on the scenery I needed to make and not the details of the insect. However, a strange sensation built inside my chest as I worked. Instead of the heat, a torrent of ice flowed through my veins. My skin itched all over, a painful thorn in my focus, and it became difficult to breathe.
"Elvira?" Corvin asked, his voice low with concern. He pulled my hands away from the perfume and snatched the bottle away, snapping my magic infusion. "Why are you glowing blue?"
When I opened my eyes, my body began to shake. All over, my skin had a faint, glowing sheen with dark cerulean spots scattered across it. If you looked closely enough, the spots were shaped like fireflies — a faint outline of the insect I was attempting to make.
Why had I been foolish and pushed myself? I should have listened to my energy levels before depleting the sparse resources I had.
The rare gift of pulling magic from the air to bind it to other items wasn't always as glorious as it sounded. It stole energy from you, using more than the power needed to perform its task. If you weren't careful and didn't pace yourself with using it, it took everything from you.
Corvin rushed to my side of the desk as the world began to spin, his arms catching me and holding me upright as I struggled to bring air into my lungs. "It's okay. You're going to be okay." He reached over me to grab a jacket off a hook on the wall, tugging it over my shoulders and doing up the top button so it would rest there.
My thoughts clouded as they tried to process what was going on, the scent of vanilla and lavender lulling me into a comforting sleep. It was the same addictive smell from when Corvin had toppled us over in the Client Gardens. The urge to steal the jacket so I could create a perfect scent match for a personal perfume fought against the magical drain. At the state my body was depleting itself, it felt like the last thing I would ever smell.
Corvin tilted up my chin with a finger, fear and a hint of something darker quivering in his eyes. "Did you know you were this close to the edge of draining yourself?"
All I could do was look down in defeat and shrug. The glowing was getting worse. Where the spots had been few and far between moments ago, now they left barely any piece of skin untouched.
"Can you stand? We need to get to the infirmary quickly." The Head Perfumer helped haul me up, offering himself as a support, but my legs gave way underneath me. Before I could reach the floor, Corvin scooped me into his arms.
I buried my face into his shoulder, clinging onto his shirt, as pain seared through my limbs. A muted whimper broke through my lips, tears threatening to spill.
"It's okay. The pain will be gone very soon. Just hold on tight." Corvin's comforting assurances faded into the distance as darkness danced in my vision, taunting me with its fierce steps and choreography, until it claimed its place and pulled me into its never-ending ball.
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