Find fabric?
3.
Sew something nice for the shop.
4.
Make amends with Maebh.
5.
Gift for Rowan.
As the only thing guaranteed to bring in money, the first was highest priority.
Briar gathered ingredients and instruments and lit a candle for ambience. Cracking open a tome of elixirs, he flicked to the recipes for arthritis and joint pain. He had no clue which would be best for Diarmuid. Online research yielded inconsistent results, with some claiming any would do, others touting home brews and non-magical alternatives, and still more advertisements for patented market varieties with glowing reviews, which helped him not at all.
He wasn’t terrible with potions, but his master had always chosen the recipe for him. He’d had one project geared toward creating a recipe from scratch; the final test was to imbibe the potion yourself and see if it worked. Healers were on hand, but all the same, Briar had chosen to create a potion that made his hair turn pink.
That would not help him. Or Diarmuid.
Since Briar was the sort of person who required plenty of walks and sunshine to maintain equilibrium, and this task took him past midnight, candle burning low and no affordable solution in sight, he spiraled into histrionics.
“I’m a failure.”
Vatii peeked out from under her wing where she’d been napping.
“I’ll never find the perfect elixir, and then I’ll never find more work, and I’ll go bankrupt. I’ll fail to get my business up and running, and no one will ever love me.”
Gretchen chose this moment to reappear, floating around the kitchen counter. She’d vanished the moment Briar got home and the curtain-cloak pulled her back into the house.
“What’s wrong with him?” she said, perching cross-legged in her usual spot on the kitchen table.
Well used to his moods, Vatii said, “Nothing. He’s a drama queen.”
Briar whined, “What do I do, Vatii?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re the worst familiar.” He pressed his forehead into the wood table. “You’re supposed to advise me. How do I make money?”
“I’m meant to advise you on magical matters and give you guidance of a spiritual nature. Not that you listen when I do.”
