Fresh hums to herself as she stirs the water of the cauldron around with a big stick.

There’s nothing in the water, it’s just water. The cauldron isn’t hot either, so the water isn’t boiling or bubbling or doing anything witchy. She just feels like she needs to stir it because… because that’s just what she needs to do.

It just is what it is.

Swaying with her head from side to side, she continues to hum as she looks up towards the window of the library that she’s standing in front of, together with the cauldron. This is all going to go down into the basement in a minute. Shamrock is standing behind her and waiting to carry it downstairs. But first, she has to make her batch of moonwater.

Though, today, there is something different.

Fresh continues to hum and to stir as she looks at the water in the cauldron. It’s mineral water, from the bath down below.

The clouds part, rays of cold moonlight shining in through the whisper thin glass of the house, which she really ought to replace with something more isolating. Another thing for the never ending to-do list.

She pulls the stick out, tapping it against the pot to dry it off. The water is ready.

She doesn’t exactly know how or why it’s ‘ready’. It’s still just water and all she did was stir it. But it’s right now and it wasn’t before.

That’s just what it is.

Fresh hums, lifting her hands. This is her third time making a cauldron of rebirth and this time, as with the last time, she hopes it will be her last one.

Who knows? Maybe this time, in this house, everything is going to go great? Maybe here, they’ll all get to grow old together? She likes the idea of being an old lady and walking after Jubilee, nagging on them about not eating enough. It sounds like a fun way to live.

Fresh smiles, taking in a deep breath and then letting it out as she casts her spell and begins her work.

It’s going to be a busy life.

“Why is it bubbling?” asks Basil, peering over curiously from the side.

Fresh scratches her cheek, staring at the bubbling cauldron for a moment before turning back towards Basil. “Uh… bubble bubble?” She shrugs, turning back to look at the water inside of the cauldron.

It certainly wasn’t bubbling last night when she made the cauldron and it wasn’t bubbling when Shamrock had carried it downstairs. She had gone to bed after that. Now, on the morning of the next day, Basil had dragged her downstairs and pointed out that the cauldron is, in fact, bubbling.

There’s no fire or heat. The metal of the cauldron is cold. But still, somehow, it bubbles.

“Maybe it’s the mineral water?” guesses Fresh. It’s her only idea. Otherwise, everything is exactly the same with the spell and the recipe as it’s always been. Same process, a store-bought cauldron, it’s all one-to-one except for the water. This time, she used water from the mineral pool.

“Ah!” She has a realization, hitting her fist into her open palm. “It’s juiced up.”

“…Juice?” asks Basil, looking over into the cauldron. “It looks like water to me.”

Fresh shakes her head, pointing at the tip of a root that sticks out of the basement wall. “No, Basil,” she says. “It’s juiced up. You know? It’s stronger,” she explains. “The spell is already super resto… restorative,” she says, tripping over her own tongue for a moment. “I bet with the healing water that has like… world-tree minerals, it’s super juiced up.”

“Huh…” says Basil. She looks around the room. “Do you think it’s safe?”

Fresh tilts her head. “Probably…”

“…Probably?” Basil frowns. “We better ask Jubilee about this.”

“Jubilee is gonna be mean to me,” sighs Fresh. She can hear them yelling already. She rubs her arm.

A loud cracking fills the room.

(Basil) has destroyed [Rare-wood wand]

Fresh looks over, staring at the broken rare-wood wand in Basil’s hands. “Ah!” she yelps in terror. Jubilee is going to be furious with both of them now. Making a weird, bubbly cauldron is one thing. But destroying merchandise? Expensive merchandise at that? By the end of the day, the two of them are going to be the only thing left inside of the cauldron.

“We can’t have that,” says Basil, shaking her head. “Our secret,” she says, dropping the pieces of the wand into the cauldron and nodding to her.

Fresh smiles in relief, looking at the cauldron. She nods her head to the side, motioning for Basil to step back. The priestess obliges, taking an extra step afterwards for good measure.

Lifting her hands, she holds them over the cauldron and focuses on channeling her energy into its bubbling waters.

“Bubble bubble,” she says. Not for any reason, it’s not a part of the spell or anything. It’s just the right thing to say, is all.

A vivid purple glow encapsulates her hands and surrounds the cauldron. The water begins to bubble twice as fast as before, almost coming close to ‘over-boiling’. The cauldron shakes and a second later, it spits the wand out, sending it flying straight upwards into the air.

Fresh blinks, not sure if she’s seeing right, but her instincts kick in and she catches it before it can fall back into the water, which now begins to recede back to the prior slow bubbling.

There’s something wrong with the wand though.

Well, maybe ‘wrong’ is the wrong word. But there’s something different about it. Two things, in fact.

First of all, it isn’t broken anymore. Fresh blinks, holding the suddenly very heavy thing out to Basil, who also stares just as dumb-founded.

Secondly, the rare-wood has ceased to be rare-wood and the wand now shimmers with a soft, pale, silvery luster that seems to catch a pink shine from somewhere.

Orichalcum.

[Orichalcum wand](Masterwork) An expertly made wand, formed and shaped out of precious orichalcum. It is extremely dense and heavy for a wand, but is incredibly resilient to all forms of damage and offers the same properties to its wielder. +12 to all SPELL-DMG channeled through this wand While held: The orichalcum will absorb any incoming SPELL-DMG not in tune with the wielder’s inherent magic Quality Effect: Inserting this wand into fertile ground will project a SPELL absorbing barrier with a dimension of 3m * 3m * 3m for as long as it remains Weight: 0.6kg Durability: 60/60 Value: ???

“Basil,” says Fresh, looking at the wand as Basil takes it from her and examines it herself. “Is this bad?” she asks. “Are people going to kidnap us for this?” she asks, looking back down at the cauldron.

[Cauldron of transmutation] This enchanted cauldron, filled with the natural energy of the world-tree has the ability to transmute any object placed inside of it to Orichalcum.

“I don’t think we’re going to be doing repairs…” mutters Basil, staring her way for a second as she thinks. She looks at the cauldron and then at the wand, lost in thought. “Well…” she sighs, shaking her head. But then, a smile adorns it and she nods, to Fresh’s surprise. “We’re already all here together. So, honestly, I’m not worried about you being taken to the central-city by yourself anymore,” she admits. “Let’s ask Jubilee.”

“Yes.”

Fresh blinks, looking at Jubilee who sits at the table, admiring the wand.

Basil lifts a finger. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” repeats Jubilee, setting the wand onto one of their fingers and balancing it. “Four times what we’re charging for the rare-wood wands,” they say. “No. Five.”

Jubilee wasn’t hard to convince at all. They were on board the moment they saw the item’s menu.

“A cauldron that can turn shit into orichalcum?” they ask. “For free?” Jubilee shakes their head. “I don’t think you guys get it. We’re retiring.”

Fresh crosses her arms. “I don’t want to retire. I want to work.”

“Correction,” notes Jubilee. “Everyone but you is retiring.”

Basil waves a hand their way. “I don’t think that’s exactly fair.”

Fresh considers it for a moment. Honestly, she wouldn’t have a problem with providing for her friends with her own labor forever and ever -

She blinks.

- and ever.

Is that creepy or sad? Maybe. It is what it is.

“Don’t worry,” says Basil. “I’ll keep working together with you.”

“Me too,” says Shamrock.

Jubilee sighs. “You people are no fun. Fine, we’ll keep the business running.”

Shamrock lifts his hand. “Sword?” he asks.

“Sword?” asks Jubilee, looking his way. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Fresh blinks, and then nods. “Sword.”

“I think Shamrock wants a sword,” notes Basil.

“Yes,” affirms the man.

“Talk like a normal fucking person,” sighs Jubilee, before turning back to her. “How many of these can you make?”

Fresh rubs her arm, thinking. “How many rare-wood wands do you got?”

Jubilee stares at her. “…How many rare-wood wands can you make? I have that many.”

“A lot. But we don’t have the rare-wood for more than five’ish a week, I guess,” notes Fresh.

Jubilee stares at the wand. “Does it have to be rare-wood?” Fresh scratches her cheek as she processes their question. “Does the wand have to be out of rare-wood, or can you make a shitty scrap-wood wand and change it to orichalcum?”

The three of them look her way.

“When we’re rich,” says Basil. “I’d like a big, soft pillow full of gryphons’ down.”

Jubilee kicks their feet up, swishing with the wand through the air. “I’ll settle for a mansion and some servants, preferably as far away from you three as possible.”

“Sword,” says Shamrock, getting up to his feet.

Fresh sighs. But smiles. She’s happy enough with what she has and she knows that her friends are just joking around and that in reality, that they are too.

For sure.