Potion making.

That Friday I went home right after school to get changed into regular clothes, played with Cake for about 10 minutes to let time pass, then went out again. My destination? Pleasure Lake Hotel.

The day had finally come.

I was meeting Luke and his team there for the big project. It was time to begin the experiments and see if I would actually be getting the job that would make my dreams a reality.

Honestly, I was nervous. Luke was confident I was the key to his little project, but what if I couldn’t do it? What if…

Yeah, just stop. Been in that ‘what if’ mentality a million times before. I still fall into it from time to time, but I’d gotten better at just pushing through it. You never know what’ll happen until you do the thing.

Pleasure Lake Hotel was closed that day. No guests and no regular employees, meaning Diana wasn’t there, either. Luke said that alchemy was generally a very safe process unless one was dealing with already dangerous substances, but that it was better to be sure. Didn’t quite understand what that meant until later that day.

I called him when I was outside the back door and he went to open it for me. He was dressed in something more casual than the suits I usually saw him in yet still noticeably elegant. A pink shirt with the first button undone and his sleeves rolled up and black corduroy pants.

He opened the door for me with a smile already on his face. “Oliver, right on time! Excellent! Come on in!”

He looked excited, almost like a kid ready to open Christmas presents.

“The others will be here shortly,” Luke said, guiding me along the hallways and down to a basement. “For now, let me explain what we’re about to do.”

We went into a… Um… I want to call it a lab, but really it looked more like a kitchen. A restaurant kitchen. There were empty glass jars, flasks and test tubes but everything seemed recently bought. There were small opened boxes on the counter with things like roots, herbs and leaves. There were also a couple of jars of honey and two bottles of… liquid with dead snakes inside them.

“Um…”

“Ingredients,” Luke explained with a chuckle. He walked over to the counter and pointed at the roots. “Red ginseng, reported to have strong aphrodisiac effects.” He pointed to the leaves. “Coca. Yes, the leaves used to make cocaine, but widely used on its own in South American countries. When chewed, it acts as a mild stimulant, suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, fatigue, and I’m told it helps with the headaches and nausea that come from being at **** heights.” He pointed at the bottle with the snake in it. “Snake wine. It’s found in many Asian countries and it’s used for its medicinal properties, the enhancement of sexual performance being one of them.” He pointed to some herbs, now with a pretty goofy smile. “And then there’s the one with my favorite name, the horny goat weed, so named when farmers saw the effects it had on goats who ate them.”

“Oooh. Okay, now it starts to make more sense.”

“You see, Oliver, alchemy is, in concept, very simple. You use magical energy to extract and strengthen the effects naturally found in the ingredients. Technically speaking, sexual performance enhancement potions already exist. They are made using these same ingredients we have. However…”

“They’re not enough?”

Luke chuckled. “Not for the skill it takes to make them and the price they have to be sold for. They also have some undesirable after-effects. Nausea and headaches like the worst of hangovers. Basically, they’re not worth using, and therefore not worth making. But that’s where your abilities come in. See, the theory is that sexual energy will act as a sort of glue, harmonizer and enhancer, stabilizing the potion, removing the nasty side effects and increasing the potency by 20 times.”

I nodded in understanding. This was all good to know. “So we’re not working blind here.”

“Haha! Of course not. I wasn’t twiddling my thumbs while I looked for someone like you. I was getting ready. That includes finding the skilled alchemist who will be working with us.”

Now… I know I’ve told you all a lot of things. Private things, intimate things, personal things. I’ve gone into very explicit detail on the things I’ve done with the girls I love, even. However, I don’t feel very comfortable telling you about the two alchemists we worked with.

Don’t get me wrong. They’re super sweet people that taught me plenty of things, and that’s why I’d rather not talk about them. They are more deeply connected to the supernatural underworld than I am and I think it’s safer to keep their names out of my ramblings. You know, just in case. Luke is in a similar position but he doesn’t give a damn what I say about him.

Well, what’s important is that the professional alchemists arrived, introductions were made and we quickly got to work. I saw them gather the ingredients, set them aside in small portions inside jars and flasks and do… Well, they worked their magic. I saw their hands glow as they handled the components and felt a strange heat that was oddly familiar. I suppose that was magical energy. But hey, I was there to work, too. So what was my job? It was to put the finishing touches on the concoction the alchemists had made. That meant it was Frey’s turn.

On the counter, right in front of me, was a flask with a clear, greenish liquid. Following the alchemists’ instructions, I put my hands around it. The actual magic was up to Frey, so I did as we had agreed to. I was ready. I closed my eyes, emptied my head of thoughts and felt like I lost consciousness for an unknown amount of time. I saw nothing, felt nothing and thought nothing for what might as well have been a split second. It was extremely unsettling, but when I came to, everything was exactly the same. Everything but the flask in front of me. The greenish liquid had turned a purplish blue.

“That’s the reaction we were hoping for, correct?” Luke asked the alchemists with an excited, hopeful smile.

“Not quite,” one of them said. “According to first-hand testimonies, the latest working vials of the lust elixir were a deep purple. We’ll need to make several vials using different concentrations of components and sexual energy and later test them on the rats to see the results.”

Luke sighed, composed himself and nodded in agreement. “Right. We knew that. Oliver, how are you feeling? Think you can do that again?”

Honestly, I didn’t even know what I did. Given the reactions of the people around me it couldn’t have been anything flashy. Frey had said she would temporarily take control of my body to work her magic through me, and after seeing what the alchemists were doing, I assumed it was something like that.

I checked myself. I didn’t feel tired or feel any sort of discomfort. “Yes, I can do it again.”

We worked for about three hours and ended up with six vials of differently colored liquids. Just being in the room and hearing the alchemists talk helped me get an idea of what they were doing, but I didn’t look like it was something I’d be able to replicate without specialized training. Still, this was all good information to have.

The alchemists tested the different products on the lab rats they brought. Actual lab rats, by the way. The effects were… nearly instantaneous and very similar from potion to potion.

While Luke and the alchemists took notes on the potency, duration and effects of the different potions, I was… um… just a little put off watching the results. I mean… Rat sex. Somehow I think Diana, country girl that she was, wouldn’t bat an eye at seeing this stuff. Me? Not a fan.

We finished our first day of experimentation with the alchemists taking the rats with them. They wanted to look for side effects that could pop up hours after consumption or after repeated doses, all in the name of safety.

Regardless, something was confirmed. My powers, Frey’s powers, worked the way Luke and the alchemists expected them to. In Luke’s words:

“Even if the potion ends up having unexpected side effects and it’s unfit for consumption, you’ve done your part, Oliver,” He told me. “What I needed from you was to provide the final key ingredient, and you have. You will be paid what I promised you, even if this whole thing ends up a failure. Of course, I’m confident it won’t, so I hope you’ll keep working with us during experimentation and eventual production.” He laughed and patted my back. “Take it from me! Having a harem isn’t cheap, and yours is bigger than mine! Hahahah!”

I chuckled along, if a bit awkwardly.

“So? A house, was it? Are you sure that’s what you want?”

I nodded. “Yes. That’s my goal right now.”

“Then we better get started as soon as possible. Leave it to me. I’ll gather a bunch of options for you and your girls to look through. You’ll have your house before you enter university, Oliver.”

And Luke Allen kept his word. Always, has, really. Looking back, I feel like a bit of a fool for not trusting him from the start, but I had no way of knowing he was actually so trustworthy.

Now… There was something else I had to do that day. Something that was, believe it or not, more important to me than a job paying for my new house.

I exited the hotel through the back door and went to a nearby parking lot. There, Diana was waiting for me, leaning against her car, fidgeting nervously, dressed in a white sleeveless blouse and blue jeans.

With a sympathetic smile, I went up to her, hugged her and kissed her before asking her a question.

“Ready to meet my mother?”

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