The next morning, I walked down the halls of the Velux Emporium with gifts and cards bundled in my arms. As soon as I entered the building, Nalyn and Salris cornered me like an animal who had escaped its cage because they were concerned. According to the gossip they had heard, a lot of people had seen me being carried by Corvin through the emporium to get to the infirmary and the word was travelling faster than a newly-born Phoenix soaring through the sky.
Nalyn had gotten me a small, plush dragon with a velvet heart sewn into its chest. The words 'be careful' and 'get lots of rest' were embroidered into it with cursive lettering and glittering, white thread. Salris had handed me a card which both apprentices had signed with stunning typography on the front. I had seen them being sold in one of the shops outside of the emporium and the artist was amazing at what she did.
They fussed over me, warning me I shouldn't have come back just yet, but I managed to convince them I was fine. I did feel a little weak still but I was determined to keep working on the perfume for the Miracles Festival.
When I eventually snuck away and finally reached the workshop, I wasn't greeted by the boxes and desk I remembered. Instead, a forest had taken its place.
A woodland scenery unfolded before me, a dark forest clearing with clusters of trees surrounding it. Everything from the ground which was adorned with mud, broken branches, and fallen leaves to the darkness filtering between the trees was perfect. However, some parts of the illusion were off. The odd patch of shadow felt too dark and noticeably fake, distracting you from the rest of the magic, and parts of the forest were transparent, letting the workshop show through.
Despite its flaws, it was an amazing effort. Maybe I didn't need to be worried about us completing the perfume on time after all.
Corvin looked up when I entered the room, turning his attention away from the perfume he worked on. "I thought I told you not to come in early." He crossed his arms with a thin layer of sweat shining on his forehead.
"What do you mean early? I slept in for a whole extra hour today." Placing my gifts down on an empty corner of the desk, I pushed over a sealed box for me to sit on.
The Head Perfumer's brows narrowed. "What time do you normally get here?" He picked up the toy dragon and assessed it, admiring the spikes running along its back and tail.
"Earlier than now," I offered, watching him put the toy back and pat it on the head. I never really kept track of when I came into the emporium, I was always focused on the jobs that needed doing.
"Is the sun usually up?"
"It depends on the time of year." Corvin sighed and I continued before he could think of a way to reprimand me. "It looks like you've made excellent progress on the illusion. What time did you get here this morning?"
"Who says I ever went home?" While I gaped at him, wondering how he could be so hypocritical, he explained his progress so far. "I managed to perfect the fireflies so now I'm working on the scenery, but I can't quite get it to fill the room properly. If I can't master this then I have no hope of transforming the entire festival. I haven't even thought about merging all the magic together or the scent that could pair with it yet."
Picking up the bottle to my left labelled 'fireflies', I sprayed it into the air to see what Corvin had accomplished. There wasn't any fragrance to the perfume like he had mentioned, but balls of glowing blue appeared around us. As they filled the forest illusion, the sketch of the scene from Corvin's notes came to life. There were several more fireflies compared to the last attempt of his I had seen, giving an enchanted feel to the area, but it was clear they were a separate perfume added on top. None of the stunning glow was reflected onto the surroundings and the insects phased through the trees, breaking the magic Corbin had put into it.
"Have you tried adding a blanket of shadow around the outside of the illusion?" I suggested. "It would stop anyone from being able to see through it."
The Head Perfumer tapped his fingers on the desk while he considered my proposal. "I've thought about it, but I want the trees to continue as if the forest is never-ending."
Grabbing a notebook from an unsorted pile beside me, I flipped to a blank page to start making notes about what needed to be included. "I'll give it a go and see what I come up with."
The forest around us faded as I prepared to start, the remains of the perfume wearing away.
"Are you okay to try yet? If I have to carry you to the infirmary again, people will be starting all sorts of rumours. The new Head Perfumer is evil and likes to work his hired help to death. Corvin Pethra loves to carry Elvira because there are sparks of romance in the air. I can hear them now."
"Have you not heard the current ones yet?" They had earned me more stares when I entered the emporium. At least this time I knew what they were for which was much better than not knowing about the promotion thief.
"I don't believe I have." His eyes sparkled with curiosity. "Indulge me."
"Corvin Pethra saved Elvira Grythras from the clutches of death! He's so heroic! The new saviour of the Velux Emporium." I didn't know how much of it was true considering most of what I had heard had come from Nalyn who was dying to have Corvin's arms around her. My source was undeniably biased.
"Is that all? Do keep going. I'm enjoying this."
With a roll of my eyes, I kicked him under the desk. "If you want more, you can leave the workshop and listen to it yourself. I'm sure plenty of people would give you the praise directly."
Corvin sighed. "If only I didn't have an urgent perfume to make. I would have done exactly that."
I placed the pencil I had borrowed in the pages of the notebook so it would keep my place. "Do you think the castle would take you back? I can write a nice letter to send with you if that would help."
The Head Perfumer grinned. "You're not getting rid of me no matter how hard you try." Before I could pick up the last empty perfume bottle on the desk, he snatched it away and held it close to his chest. "He's serious, though. Is she okay to work today?"
"I'll be fine! I'm not going to push myself and as soon as I feel weak, I'll stop. It won't be anything like yesterday." I held out my hand so the bottle could be returned to me.
"If you say so." He gave it back to me and watched me intently, ready to step in if he needed to.
Forgoing the extra ingredients for colour and scent, I focused all of the magic into a simple, water base. My mind slipped into my usual concentration, ignoring Corvin's concerned stare, picking out the threads of magic in the air around us and weaving them into the water. I found myself focusing on the smaller details — the fallen leaves on the ground that would crunch beneath people's feet, each jagged piece of bark on the trees closest to us — but I forced myself to stop. That was how I would burn through my energy and wind up back in the infirmary again.
I turned my attention to expanding the forest as far as I could, building the area and adding several trees. However, when I felt the cold claws of exhaustion — a plaguing ice — clinging to the edges of my mind, I pulled away immediately. I snatched my hands away from the bottle and tucked them behind me to force myself to stop.
"What's wrong?" Corvin questioned, leaning forward and preparing to rush over to my side if I needed it.
I shook my head with a frown. "Nothing. I'm just more tired than I thought." I had hoped I would be able to get at least one perfume attempt today, but I wasn't even ready for that. What help was I going to be if I couldn't work? There was no chance Corvin would give me the workshop then.
The Head Perfumer took the bottle away and peered inside, sloshing the water around to gauge how much magic I had imbued into it. "That's okay. There's always tomorrow or the next day to help." He added an atomiser to the top, screwing it on tightly. "Maybe this was enough?" Uncertainty lingered in his voice.
Corvin sprayed the bottle and nothing akin to a forest emerged. A few trees appeared around us, but most fazed through the walls and ceiling. The ones furthest away from us were missing any kind of texture and were completely smooth, as if they had been sculpted from clay.
I laughed at my attempt. This had to have been the worst magic perfume I had made, even poorer than the creations I had come up with when I was first getting into the field. "I doubt this will make a grand Miracles Festival."
"I can work on the forest and perhaps you can think of a way to add the fireflies to it once I'm done. As soon as we've perfected that, we only need the illusion to be wider and we're finished." He picked up a pen and spun it around his fingers, using his free hand to arrange what ingredients he needed for his next try.
"Are you not even slightly tempted by the option to make multiple perfumes to create this? It would solve a lot of problems."
"Out of the question." Corvin dropped the pen as he shook his head. "It needs to be one perfume and probably several bottles of it to cover each guest as they enter. It needs to last the night too as the illusion will be broken."
"I've dealt with perfumes that last multiple days before," I added. It had been a very fussy client who wanted his perfume to be as cost-effective as possible. If he only had to spray himself with it once every few days to achieve the fix of his receding hairline, he wouldn't have to keep coming back for refills. Thankfully, so far he hadn't returned.
If I could use the magic base from that perfume alongside the ones from the perfumes Corvin had made for the illusion, it might not be too difficult to combine them all together.
"That would be very useful knowledge to have. I've never made anything that lasts longer than an hour or so," he confessed.
"Alright. I'll figure something out."
While I wrote down notes of several different ways to extend a perfume's life — using different ingredients, making the scent slowly change over the duration it was worn so the wearer could still smell it — Corvin emptied all of the failed attempts and washed them out so he could try again.
I was surprised he hadn't run out of energy himself, especially if he had been working all night. Glancing at his pointed ears with a plethora of piercings, I had my answer. Maybe it was to do with the fact that he wasn't wholly human? All I could hope was that he was taking his own advice and not pushing himself beyond his limits. There wouldn't be any perfume for the Miracles Festival otherwise.
Corvin finished up his latest attempt and leaned back in his seat. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply, but his rest didn't last for long. The Head Perfumer sat up again and searched for the atomiser which was right in front of him.
"I have a good feeling about this one. I don't know why, but I can sense it has great potential." He accepted the atomiser I picked up for him and beamed a wide smile at me.
"Let's find out then." I couldn't deny the excitement that filled me too — the contagious feeling forcing me to grin too.
As the perfume was sprayed, I could somehow smell the magic that was weaved into the water. The same forest materialised around us with the trees in different places than they were before. Though, this time there wasn't any transparency. The edges seamlessly filled the room, making it appear as though the forest expanded for miles. If it weren't for the furniture, I wouldn't have been able to tell we were in the workshop.
Corvin had done it.
We met each other's gaze with matching joy. "The Miracles Festival won't know what hit them when we're done," he whispered.
"I like the sound of that."
Chapter Word Count: 2,165
Total Word Count: 14,901