Since when did my life become an episode of some shitty daytime soap opera? I grumbled silently to myself as I ran a knife down the center of the cobra’s stomach.

“Oh, you were a mommy. Sorry, Miss Cobra.” I said to the jar containing the snake's severed head as I squeezed several partially developed eggs into a bowl.

“Kads, can I come in?”

“Come in, Markion,” I called out reluctantly, keeping my attention on the snake I was skinning.

“I brought you some aloe vera. It grows near the oasis,” Markion said, plopping three large, spiky leaves onto the bench near where I was working.

“Thanks.” I muttered, still not looking up from my task.

“Darius said he talked to you and was worried he might have upset you.”

I sighed, putting down my knife and turning to the hulking Minotaur.

“Do you have any idea how weird this is?” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air. “People are insinuating there is something going on between Darius and I. Plus, he clearly has some kind of weird pseudo-sibling fantasy about me being a stand-in for his sister. I thought we were becoming friends, but now…”

“Firstly,” Markion interrupted, holding up a hand. “Most people don’t believe the rumors. Everyone knows the only woman he is interested in is Yuki, and she’s got the poor bloke shoved so deep in the friend zone he’s drowning. Secondly, if he wanted a pseudo-sibling thing with you, he would have been doing that in Avalon. I think his behavior recently is due to him seeing what it would have been like for his sister if she did enter the capsule with him. He does consider you a friend, but like me, he is worried about you.”

We were both silent for a long moment, before I let out a fake laugh, trying to change the subject. “Yuki, huh? I kind of thought she and Noctus had a thing.”

“They did back in Avalon.” Markion revealed his bovine muzzle warping into a smirk.

“Oh wow, that’s—damn,” I muttered, shaking my head with sigh. Poor Darius. “Why’d they end things? I mean, they still seem friendly so I guess it wasn’t a bad break up or anything.”

“They weren’t dating, more of a friends with benefits kind of thing.” My brother said, meandering over to peer into the bowl with the snake eggs.

I snorted out a laugh at that. “Mustn’t have been very good benefits then.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because if they were, she’d still be collecting them.” I quipped with a grin.

“I’m using that line on Noctus next time I see him,” he wheezed, smacking a hand on his thigh.

Once Markion managed to get his laughter under control, he left my tent, after informing me that Arion was tethered with the other mounts and had been fed.

Alone once more, I turned my attention back to the snake and finished removing the skin. It appeared the cobra contained three alchemic components, the first was easily identified as the snake's venom, while the second had been the eggs and the last was the snakeskin.

The Chinese used snakeskin to treat many skin conditions historically, and I think there was even someone who won a Nobel Prize in medicine using cobra venom as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease. I discarded the snake meat into a bowl. I’m guessing the snake eggs are a component due to containing unhatched cobras. I don’t really have a way to store them, so I’ll discard them for now.

After carefully extracting the cobra’s venom, I added the head to the pile of remains for disposal and carried the bowl outside to find somewhere to bury it. The moment I walked out of the tent, heat hit me like a wave and I staggered back a step, having been fooled into complacency by the cooler temperature inside the tent. Pulling my hood over my head, I quickly walked around to the back of my tent and began using the toe of my boot to dig a shallow hole.

Snake disposed of, I rushed back around to the front of my tent and practically dived inside, breathing a sigh of relief. The tent was still warm, as the effectiveness of the enchantments were lessened by the temperature outside, but it was far better inside than out.

Caw.

Turning at the sound of Zosimos’s call, I saw him push his way through the closed tent flap and hop up onto the raised wooden floor. With a second hop and a flutter of wings, the crow landed on the workbench where Markion left the aloe vera leaves. Each leaf was easily as long as my arm and as thick as my wrist.

Caw. Using his beak to pick up one of the leaves, the crow began to drag it across the bench to where I’d left the chopping board and knife.

“Zos, wait, I haven’t cleaned that yet.” I called out, rushing over to the chopping board and knife.

After cleaning them with a wet cloth and alcohol to sterilize it, I placed both back on the workbench. By that time, the annoying crow had dragged over the other two aloe vera leaves and was staring at me impatiently. Grumbling under my breath about bossy birds, I grabbed a large bowl and set to work extracting the aloe vera.

Some mint oil should give it a cooling element, the consistency isn’t quite right for spreading over my skin, it looks and feels too sticky. Perhaps if I incorporate it into a mixture of beef tallow and beeswax I can create a more balm-like consistency. Humming softly, I used a pestle to mash up the aloe vera flesh into a smoother consistency.

Searching through my bag, I pulled out a large jar containing a mixture of beeswax and tallow, which I used as a base for making most of the basic salves.

Scooping out the premixed salve base into a metal bowl, I placed my hands on the side of the bowl, heating it until the solidified mixture softened, before scraping it into the bowl containing the aloe vera.

As I used my hand mixer to blend the mixture, the muscles in my arms began to ache and burn with the effort.

Once the ingredients appeared to be fully incorporated, and had a nice smooth consistency, I poured in the last of the mint leaf oil that was left over from when I decided to make mouthwash earlier in the week.

It looks a little thin, but hopefully it will thicken as it cools.

With the quarter-sized measuring cup, I scooped out some of the balm, setting it into a second bowl. After retrieving the snow flower oil from my bag, I added a single drop into the mixture under the watchful gaze of Zosimos.

As I mixed in the snow flower oil, I could feel the coolness radiating from the bowl as condensation coated the outside. The balm thickened to a hardened mass, and I pressed my hands to the sides of the bowl, heating the mixture to soften it back to a mixable consistency.

It took longer to heat than the salve base had, but after a few minutes passed, I began to see the balm soften. Even after I removed my hands, the mixture no longer radiated with the same cool intensity.

Did heating it nullify the snow flower oil’s cooling properties? I wondered as I pulled my alchemical construct from my bag.

The construct I’d purchased with my settlement looked like the featureless wooden dolls used as drawing aids by artists who were practicing how to draw human figures. However, unlike those dolls, its body was covered in dozens of tiny runic circles, which I hadn’t been able to replicate even with Noctus’s aid.

The vampire theorized the construct was powered by a mix of enchantments and the magic circles which were something he’d not seen before, thus destroying any plans to recreate the construct to sell.

As I set the construct on the table, I sent a pulse of power into it, activating the enchantments. The wooden construct stiffened, then jerkily got to its feet, waiting for a command. Scooping a tiny bit of the balm onto the tip of a spoon, I placed it on the bench in front of the doll.

“Spread this over your skin.” I ordered, watching as the doll reached out and touched the balm.

The doll began to spread the balm onto its arms and shoulders all the places that weren’t covered by the basic dress I’d clumsily made. If it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to hide the doll, I would have asked the guild clothiers to make an outfit for it, but that wasn’t an option.

I had to resort to getting a quick sewing lesson under the guise of learning to repair my own clothes when traveling. The dress the doll wore was nothing more than a tube of fabric, with two straps stitched to the top half. While the doll had no discernible features, leaving it naked didn’t feel right.

No immediate reaction, and no signs of the change in skin color that I noted during contact with undiluted snow flower oil. I noted down in my journal, as I continued to observe the doll.

Ten minutes later, after the doll continued to show no reaction, I reached out to touch a finger to the top of its head.

Closing my eyes, I pulled at the power within the doll and felt a cool soothing sensation ghosting across my skin. This was the best ability of the alchemical construct, as it allowed me to feel the effects of what the doll felt without placing myself in danger by testing directly on myself.

I continued observing the doll over the next hour while I flicked through Barlow’s Bestiary, searching for the cobra I’d slain with Markion’s help.

As the hour mark passed, I noted that the cool feeling began to fade, and by the second hour nothing could be felt from the construct.

Time to up the ratio of snow flower oil, I want to know how much I can mix into a quarter cup of the balm before it becomes dangerous. I should also mix up another batch and try spreading it on without heating it this time. I set to work adding another drop of snow flower oil to the already mixed balm.

Three hours later, I’d determined that three drops to a quarter cup of the balm was enough to make the construct cold enough that it caused the skin to prickle and its teeth to chatter. Any more than that and the construct showed signs of hypothermia.

I’d also discovered that not heating the balm resulted in signs of hypothermia and frostbite five minutes after application. In the end, I decided on using a one drop to one quarter cup ratio and began mixing snow flower oil into the larger bowl of balm, dividing it into small clay jars which could hold a quarter cup of balm.

The cost of two hundred gold for a jar would likely cause the group to balk if I didn’t let them see the results for themselves first. As I only had a limited supply of the snow flower oil, I needed to make sure the price reflected the rarity of the product.

I’ll let the group test out a sample on their wrists, to see the effects. Then I’ll let them know the cost. I decided with a grim smile as I stashed away three jars for my own personal use.