“Theo! Theo, wake up! Come on, Theo!”

A worried voice called out to Theo. Somewhere, distantly, he could feel himself being shaken. Something pressed to his lips - a sharp, tangy flavor entered his mouth moments later.

He shot up moments later, coughing and sputtering as potion went down his windpipe. Pain lanced through Theo’s head. Dull ringing filled his thoughts.

“Theo, what happened? Are you okay?” a voice asked through the ringing.

He turned to see who it was. His vision was blurry so Theo found himself looking at an indistinct blob topped with teal. Telsa. Noise to his left potentially indicated his door opening. It was so hard to tell with all of the ringing.

A smooth something entered his grasp. Right. The potion. Theo upended the bottle into his mouth, drinking down every last drop. Warm, comforting energy shifted through him. The ringing calmed down enough that he could focus once more. His vision cleared, bringing Telsa into sharp relief.

Theo turned his head, wincing at the motion. Adam was there now with Pina pushing herself through the doorway just behind him. A thick sheen of sweat coated his skin and he was breathing heavily. He wondered how they knew to come here, but was in too much pain to care.

“Is he okay?” Pina asked, sidling up to Telsa.

“I’m… alright. I think,” Theo said, wincing as a wave of pain roiled through his head once more. “Great Taberna, my head hurts.”

“I didn’t take you for a religious man, The-ow!” Adam said, glaring at Telsa as she elbowed him in the side.

“Ignore him. Theo, what happened? I saw Maraz walk out of your store, I was coming by to check in and I saw you collapse,” Telsa said, kneeling down next to Theo.

“I’m not religious. It just felt good to say in the moment, I suppose. Oh, um, sorry if you’re a follower of Taberna! I have the utmost respect for her-”

“Theo. Focus. What happened?” Telsa snapped, placing a hand on him.

“Ah, right. Maraz came in once again to try and make me change my prices.” He glanced between the three of them, grimacing. “I refused once more, and manual casted my air cage enchantment as a spell to stop him from…” He swallowed, clearing his throat. “Hurting me.”

“And? What happened then?” Pina asked, leaning in.

“He resisted, of course,” Theo said, clenching a fist. “And overpowered me quite easily.”

“Wait, go back a second. You manual casted based on an enchantment blueprint? How?” Adam asked, the concerned set of his brows shifting up with interest.

“Most of the groundwork was in place, I just had to reorder some of the runes to allow me to cast it rather than to function from an enchantment,” Theo said, shrugging, which made him grab at his head once more. “Goodness gracious, why am I in so much pain?”

“Wait, Theo. Check your mana pool for me,” Adam said, kneeling down as a soft green light coalesced around his hand. Soothing mana entered him, helping to stave off the pain. He tried to not let Adam laying his hands on him distract him.

“Why should I-” Theo’s eyes widened. His mana pool was at least double the capacity it had been this morning. “It’s… enormous. Probably double what it was before.”

“Oh, gods. Theo, you Snapped,” Telsa said, eyes widening and darting across his form as if she could see the change herself.

“Snapped?” Theo asked, his voice raising an octave. He immediately checked over his arms and legs, making sure they were in one piece.

“...What are you doing?” Adam asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Snapping has a chance of one’s limbs exploding or their… body… melting… right?” Theo asked, his words petering out at the combined deadpan of Adam, Telsa, and Pina.

“What did they teach you back in Renwurd?” Pina asked, crossing her arms.

“The wrong information, I suppose,” Theo said, electing to not meet her eyes as his cheeks tinged with heat.

“Well, regardless. Theo, that was dangerous! Snapping may not make your limbs explode or whatever but your mana pool could have been irreversibly damaged. You got lucky,” Telsa said, tapping him on the chest for effect.

If his eyes could widen further, they did. Theo gulped. “H-How do I know it wasn’t damaged?”

“You’d know by now, trust me. Mana pool damage is pretty obvious,” Adam said, frowning and continuing to pulse healing mana into him.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. Is that why I only rarely hear of adventurers Snapping?”

“Yeah, those guys are idi- ahem, taking… unnecessary risks,” Adam said, mouth drawing into a grimace.

Theo got the memo. His face blistered with heat. “I didn’t try to Snap. It just… happened. Maraz pushed against my spell, I tried to hold it, and next thing I know it feels like someone ran a sword through my head.”

“Snapping will do that. On the bright side, you have more mana capacity and it should be more powerful. So it’s not all a loss, I guess,” Pina said, shrugging.

“He might win against Maraz this time with a little more practice,” Adam said, Telsa glaring at him.

“Don’t encourage him. He might not get lucky with another Snap,” she said, crossing her arms. “Maraz isn’t a lightweight when it comes to magic. You know that.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Adam stared dreamily out the window. “Man, if I could have arms like his…”

“Not helping. Theo, are you doing okay? You should get some rest,” Telsa said, laying the back of her hand on his forehead as if checking for a fever.

“The potion helped most of the pain. And Adam’s spell. Thank you, by the way. I… do think sleep would be nice, however,” Theo said, his head swiveling back to the door to his home. “Oh, and Telsa, thank you for having Adam watch over me last night. That was a really sweet gesture.”

“What? I did-” She shared a look with Adam. “Not totally think you’d know he was here. He was supposed to leave by morning. He can stay again tonight, if you’d like.”

Theo considered the throbbing of his head. An increased heart rate didn’t sound ideal on top of that right now. “I… believe I’ll be okay. Maraz told me I have another chance. I don’t believe he’ll be back tonight at the very least.”

Adam frowned. “You sure? I don’t mind staying. I sort of got in enough sleep.”

“You have your test coming up, Adam. I wouldn’t want you to be lacking sleep for it. I’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll sleep with a wand by my side, which reminds me…” Theo said, scanning the room. He found his wand on the floor.

Pina followed his line of sight. “I got it.” She walked over and retrieved the wand, handing it to Theo with a smile. “Here you go.”

He took the implement gingerly, inspecting it for any damage. “Good, it’s unharmed. This one took me a while to make. It’s a lightning enchantment not unlike my Stun Bolt, but channeled. It’s ideal for monster capture requests. Or Maraz, as was my plan before he made me drop it.”

“You trying to sell us on another wand or…?” Telsa trailed off.

Theo colored once more. “Oh! Sorry, no, I just get a little carried away at times.”

“Mm. Well, we should all head home and let you rest. Snapping isn’t the most comfortable experience but you should be fine. I think,” Telsa said, eyes shifting upward in thought.

“You think? Telsa, that’s not particularly reassuring,” Theo said, toying with the buttons on his vest almost subconsciously.

She waved a hand dismissively. “I’ve known an adventurer or two that Snapped. Once it happens, you’re fine as long as your mana pool isn’t damaged.”

Theo considered for a moment, feeling the subtle throb of a vein on his temple. “Okay then. Sleep sounds nice.” His stomach growled. “Maybe some food first.”

“I’ll run to my parents’ restaurant and get you something to eat!” Pina said, already moving towards the door.

He nodded to her. “Thank you, Pina. I appreciate that. How did you and Adam know to come here, anyway?”

“Of course, I owe you too, y’know.” She winked. “I saw Maraz walking away, so I came running. Telsa told me Adam’s address and had me come get him. You should have seen him running here! He beat me and I was using my Vortex Sprint!”

Hope seeded itself in Theo once more. He looked to Adam. “Really?”

Adam scratched the back of his head, his ears turning red. “Uh, yeah, I was… scared we’d lose such a good shopkeeper.” He laughed awkwardly.

Just as soon as the seed had taken root, it was torn away. “Oh. Of course. Well, thank you all for coming to my aid so quickly. I appreciate it more than I can express. I’ll leave the door unlocked for you Pina and just… lay here.”

She looked between Adam and Theo, frowning. “Okay. I’ll be right back.” Walking out the door, Theo heard her call “Vortex Sprint!” before the tapping of her feet faded off.

“We’ll come check on you again in the morning, okay, Theo?” Telsa asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

He smiled at her. “I’ll be happy to see you both. Hopefully I’ll be feeling better.”

After they stepped out and closed the door, Theo could have sworn he heard a light slap over the remaining ringing in his ear.

He shifted his position, laying down and staring up at the stars through his still-open roof slats. The moon was overhead, so he felt a soft trickle of mana flow back into him. Not nearly as powerful as sunlight, but it began to fill the empty vessel within him. It, fortunately, wasn’t painful for him to hold mana like he thought it might be.

Most of the pounding in Theo’s head had reached a more tolerable level once Pina arrived with food.

She opened a small wax paper wrapping. “Tadaa! I brought you some pulled terrapork. I figured with your head hurting you’d want something easier to chew.”

The earthy aroma of the terrapork complemented by various spices grabbed Theo’s attention. His stomach was roaring now. Pina stared at him expectantly. He retrieved a fork from the kitchen and dug in.

Theo’s mouth erupted with fire - or at least it felt like fire. “Oh! Hot!” He fanned his mouth, wishing he had something to drink.

“You like it? It has traditional perren spices,” she said, picking up strips of pork from her own wax paper with her fingers and popping them in her mouth.

Bracing himself, he took another fork-worth of pork and chewed it. The spice didn’t get any better. “It’s, um, delicious.” He forced himself to swallow, feeling the heat in the back of his throat. “I don’t usually eat spicy foods…” His eyes were watering now and his nose was running.

“My dad said spices are the best thing for a Snap. Well, he uses spices for just about everything, actually. Now that I think about it, he might have just been making that up. Huh,” she said, shrugging and eating more of her meal.

Theo took another painful swallow. He wouldn’t want to be rude. “Well, the uh, burning is certainly distracting me from the Snap pain.”

Pina smiled, pleased. “See? My dad knows everything!”

He nodded to her, taking another regretful bite. He eventually had to gulp down a cup of milk upon Pina’s suggestion.

“Thank you for bringing me dinner, Pina. I appreciate it. For as… uncomfortable as it was, I have to admit, it was delicious,” Theo said, electing to not tell her his lips felt like they were on fire and his tongue was numb at this point.

“No problem, Theo. My dad will be happy you liked his cooking! He still wants you to stop by sometime, y’know,” she said, nudging him in the side with an elbow.

“I’d be happy to, I just need to get the whole… Maraz situation settled. The air cage was somewhat of a failure, but I have a new idea I’m going to work on tomorrow after I get some potions made.”

“Sounds good to me, I’m all set on stamina potions for now so I’m gonna head home. It’s past my bedtime,” she said, indicating the night sky from above.

“Oh goodness, sorry to be keeping you up! I know you have to wake up early for your deliveries I shouldn’t have had you bring me-”

“Theo. I wanted to. I’ll just be a little tired tomorrow, it’s fine,” she said, planting a hand on his shoulder.

“Well, you head home now and get some rest, okay? Thank you again for the food, and for bringing Adam. His healing spell really helped.”

She grinned, her pointed teeth showing. “You’re welcome. I tried to swap the runes on that healing spell you showed me, but I had no idea what I was doing. It just kept casting on myself.”

“Oh, it’d be easier at that point to make a whole new spell, yours is specialized for the legs after all. If you’d like, I can add that to the list of manual casting I’ll teach you. We’re still on for this weekend, correct?”

“Yep. I made sure I didn’t have any plans. My dad thinks you’re my boyfriend or something, by the way. But I saw you making eyes at Adam,” she said, waggling her brows.

It wasn’t just Theo’s mouth that was burning now. “Uh, no I was just um-”

“You like him, admit it. You’re like pods on the same branch or whatever,” she said, waving a hand dismissively.

He stared at her for a moment, blinking. “...I’m going to have to find you a book on common phrases or something. And, yes - but keep it a secret! He’s not interested in me so I’d rather not push him away.”

Pina laughed while Theo politely waited for her to stop. She didn’t. For nearly a minute. Wiping sap from the corners of her eyes, she regarded Theo. “You think he’s not interested? Theo. He’s giving you the same looks that you’re giving him. Do you know just how fast he sprinted here when he heard you collapsed? He beat me here. And I wasn’t lying when I said I Vortex Sprinted.”

His heart sped up. “Are you sure? Because he said it was Telsa who had him guard my shop and-”

She put her hands on her hips. “Absolutely sure.”

Theo stared down at the floor, his thoughts returning to each interaction with Adam. “Oh.”

She nodded. “Mhm.”

He scratched his head. “...What should I say?”

Pina shrugged again. “That you like him? I’dunno. You’ve gotta figure that part out yourself.”

He eyed her pleadingly. “You sure you can’t just… tell me?”

Her face turned deadpan. “No. It’s gotta come from the heart!”

“You’ve been listening to bards, haven’t you?” Theo grumbled.

“...Maybe. Anyway, I really need to get home now. Bye, Theo!” she said, already halfway out the door before he even registered her passing.

Theo kicked the floor. “Gosh darn it.”

Morning arrived and Theo was not ready for it. Most of the pain from yesterday had faded with a good night’s rest, but he felt like garbage anyway. The sun felt like pinpricks in his eyes, reminding him of the singular time he’d let loose with drinking. Never again.

Remind me to never Snap again.

He’d left his window uncovered by the drapes last night, so his mana pool was already decently filled now. This is close to my previous full capacity, just how long will it take to fill up?

A mental probing of his mana pool confirmed one curiosity - his mana density was certainly higher now. Guess Pina was right about the strength boost. At least that’s one positive to come out of all of this.

Theo shuffled through his morning routine, grumbling to himself. He felt grouchier than usual, but that was probably just from the pain. He had a couple of hours until he needed to open his shop, so he dragged himself into his workshop.

Sliding his hand across his alchemy table, the runes lit up and the gemstones glowed brightly. Too brightly. Hm, is my mana empowering the table more than usual? He tried to adjust how much mana he was feeding into the table but his mana pool felt… leaky. It was hard to control.

Well, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the table running stronger. The runes appear to be handling it just fine, he thought, prodding the table a few times.

Theo grabbed ingredients out of his bags on the ground, finding the vindiya root he needed for more healing potions.

Just need to replace some philtres. One additional for the one I used too.

He grinded the vindiya root into workably small pieces, cheering up slightly as he settled into his process. The lively smell of the root helped stave off some of the remains of the headache he had.

Running water through the glass tubing of his alchemy table, he made sure to clean out any potion residue. It wouldn’t do to mix potion types, he wasn’t experienced enough to do something like that yet. Though… maybe I’m strong enough, now? Something to test for later.

Theo rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes, finally remembering to open the roof slats. Goodness, not much is going right this morning, is it?

His water in the glass container was just beginning to bubble up now, so he took the opportunity to begin his craft. Placing the crushed up vindiya root chunks into the water with some gallarant seeds, he pointed a hand at the container. “Distill.”

The sudden shift of color on his table’s stability gem was unexpected. Red. Already?

“Oh goodness. Attenuate.” He tried to slow the stream of mana, but everything he attempted ended up pushing more into the spell.

The previous spread of green root in the potion water pulled back together. The stability gem glowed brightly green once more while the concentration gem changed back from purple to yellow.

Perhaps if I try it again…?

Theo tried to firmly grasp his mana pool, pulling only the mana he needed. “Distill.” More slipped from his grasp. Red again.

“I can fix this. It’ll just be a rather viscous potion. Let’s try Condense.” Mana pulsed into the water, turning it gelatinous in seconds. A teal gem on the table shifted to a bright pink, following suit with his shifting of the potion’s viscosity. Fortunately, the stability gem shifted green once more as the viscosity padded the stability.

“Not that viscous. Come on magic, please work with me here. Diffuse,” he said, pointing his hand at the container once more. The viscosity gem shifted from pink to teal once more, but all the way back. More mana had poured out with that spell, however. His stability gem was an angry red and started to blink.

“Oh no. This isn’t good at all. Cool.” Theo said, chilling the potion. The stability gem was still blinking red. He grabbed a lockbox from the floor, fumbling with opening it. Finally, it snapped open. Shoving the rattling glass container into it, he pulsed mana into the enchantments on the box. It closed. Theo threw it to the floor and covered his ears.

The metal box bounced up from the floor with the explosion that followed inside. His eardrums strained from the shockwave but, blessedly, the box mostly contained the explosion. There was just a small soot line on his floor that he’d have to wipe up.

Theo looked between his alchemy equipment and his hands, frowning.

“Oh dear.”