Raven crossed the city. It amazed her that very few people wanted to come down to the alchemist shop to talk to Master Kobach in person. They sent a messenger with the order and the messenger didn’t stay to take the order back. She supposed she should be happy because it was letting her work, but it seemed stupid to her.

If you were already sending a messenger, why not have the messenger wait to take the things back to you.

That was what she would do.

She reached her destination and climbed rickety stairs to get to the third floor. She looked around, glad there weren’t any toughs trying to rob her as she went down the hall. She found the apartment and knocked on the door.

Delivering things could be a dangerous job. Someone was always ready to try to take whatever concoction Master Kobach sent out. She hated having to knife these thieves but she had to protect herself and then the delivery.

A few times they had got away with it, and she had gone back to the shop in defeat.

She listened to the building. No one was moving inside her delivery address. Should she take the drugs back? Were they home to take the package from her?

She knocked on the door again just to make sure no one was inside.

Footsteps approached the door. She stepped back to give the person room. She liked standing at arm’s reach in case there was trouble.

“Hello,” said the old woman. She was covered in wrinkles as every part of her body had decided that gravity was too much. She didn’t have the new dentures that was going around so a lot of her teeth showed they were missing. Her hair had thinned out on top.

“Mrs. Guddy?,” asked Raven. If the person confirmed their identity, she could hand the delivery over.

“That’s me,” said Mrs. Guddy. “What can I do for you?”

“I need you to confirm the delivery so I can head back to Master Kobach’s

chemistry,” said Raven. She handed over a slip of paper to be signed and a pencil. Once she got those back, she handed over the package she had been given.

“Thank you very much,” said Mrs. Guddy. She gave Raven some coins before turning away with the package in hand. She closed the door.

Raven tucked the coins in her bag. She could add them to her bottle at the chemistry. She kept the money there so she could use it to move out if she wanted.

One day she would be too broken down to deliver packages. She needed everything she could get if she wanted to live in her older years.

She had her eye on a small house on the edge of town where she could putter around, and still make runs into the city market for food she couldn’t grow. She could spend all day reading about chemical processes and sleep all night.

She imagined there would be problems but she could sort them out with enough time.

Until she got her dream, she had to keep working and gathering tips. That meant she had to get back and grab the next package to be delivered.

She wondered if Master Kobach would recommend her as a messenger to another shop if something happened to him. He wasn’t going to be around forever in her opinion. He was old.

If Master Kobach died, his rivals would come to the front, and they were all terrible according to what she saw. None of them seemed capable of what he could do in half the time.

She paused when she came within sight of the chemistry. Someone had knocked out the window in front since she had been gone. And windows were expensive. She remembered Master Kobach talking about a week’s profit went into getting a new one the last time it was broken.

She wondered who had broken it this time. She thought it had to be the neighborhood protectors, or maybe an irate customer. The alchemist didn’t use anything that would do that type of damage.

His friend, Eisen, had been known to blow some things up and had burned down his shop before he left the city.

Raven glided to the window and peered inside. She frowned at the interior. Someone had wrecked all the shelves, throwing ingredients on the floor. Some of the stuff had mixed and was throwing a caustic cloud in the air.

Who had done this?

She heard a groan. Was Master Kobach still inside? He could die from the chemicals mixing in the air. She noticed that no one else in the crowd was stepping forward to help out.

She jumped over the window sill and headed for the desk. She didn’t see him on the floor, so he had to be behind the desk or through the open door in the back. She needed to get him out before the smoke made her sick too.

She didn’t know how she was going to do that. He was a much bigger man than her.

She decided the best thing she could do was drag him along by his legs. The rest of him would have to follow, or else.

Someone came into the shop behind her. He joined her behind the desk. He nodded at her as he picked Master Kobach up and slung him over his shoulder. He turned and made his way back to the window. He carried her boss across the street and set him up next to the wall of the shop there.

Raven joined them, making sure she had the till and her savings in her messenger bag. The store money was kept in a safe in the floor in the back. A shelf stood on it until he needed money for supplies.

The only thing thieves would get was her money, and what she had carried outside.

“Thank you for your help,” Raven told the bystander.

“Ivanoviska,” said the other. “It was my pleasure, but don’t tell anyone I was here.”

The man’s face slackened and then firmed. He looked around. He seemed puzzled.

“What happened?,” said Ivanoviska. He looked down at Raven and Kobach.

“You helped me carry Master Kobach out of his wrecked shop,” said Raven. “Master Ivanoviska?”

“My name is Heart,” said the other man. He checked his pocket watch. “And I have to get going. Good day.”

He walked off, pushing through the crowd. He ignored anyone trying to talk to him while he headed for the next corner to turn and vanish out of sight.

“That was strange,” Raven said. What had she just seen?

She decided it didn’t matter since she still had to do something for Master Kobach. There was nothing they could do for the cloud except wait for it to dissipate in the air. Hopefully no one would be sickened by it.

She wondered if that had happened on purpose, or from the beating Master Kobach had received. Now that she had time, she saw that someone had worked him over.

What was the point? They had not taken any money. They seemed to have wrecked the shelves. She couldn’t tell if they had been after one chemical in particular. It left a lot of questions.

And she didn’t know what she should do with Master Kobach. He lived above the shop. With the air being polluted, there was no way he could live above the shop now until they fixed that problem.

She wondered if this had anything to do with the Keswicks. Had Kobach told the woman he was cutting her off? Had she come down to the shop looking for Glow? Would she go to the other shops and smash them up too?

What could she do about that?

Maybe she could take him to a leech to rest until he could fix some of this. Then she could worry about the Keswicks coming back. She wondered if they had been looking for the charm she was still wearing.

That would explain some of the damage. Had they asked about her place? They might be tearing that up right now. She grimaced as she looked up and down the street. Were they on the street with her, watching for her so they could get the charm back no matter what?

She had to make a decision and do something. If she had to run, she had her savings and the till money. Could the Keswicks chase after her if she left the city?

What should she do?

She looked at the monolith of trouble ahead of her and decided whatever else, she had to get Master Kobach to a hospital somehow. Once she did that, she could worry about what was next.

“Does anyone have a cart I can use?,” Raven called. Someone in the neighborhood must have something she could use. She couldn’t leave him lying next to the street. “Anyone?”

A large shae dropped down to stand beside her. He looked at Master Kobach with wide eyes on his vaguely bunny face. He glanced at Raven.

“I don’t suppose you have a cart,” Raven said. She wiped her face with the back of her hand.

He grinned at her. He held up a closed umbrella. He picked up Master Kobach in one furry hand. He flicked the umbrella open with the other. He started floating upwards, drawn by the wind.

Raven grabbed a foot before he floated out of reach. She gasped as she floated away from the street. She held on tighter as they continued to climb out of the brick sprawl.

The shae made a howling noise, and the wind hurled the umbrella and its passengers faster across the city. They started to drop next to what was marked as a hospital. The umbrella folded closed so they dropped the last few feet to the ground.

She kept her feet but let go so the shae wouldn’t land on top of her. She wasn’t ready to take his and Master Kobach’s weight at the same time.

She ran to the doors to get help. The doctors didn’t want to believe her but they finally sent someone out to settle the problem. He called for stretchers to take the alchemist in.

The shae had fled while she had been busy.

She was forced to wait in the hall as the doctors worked to neutralize the poison in his system. She grimaced as healers went to work, glowing hands emitting magical forces.

What did she do now?

She decided that she needed to check on her apartment, and then figure out what to do so the Keswicks didn’t bother her any more.

They were connected. That meant they had the underworld to help them. Did she really want to take that challenge on? She decided she would wait and see while she waited for Master Kobach to heal up.