My previous thoughts of getting more hours out of getting an Expert code for crafting, instead of the advanced one I had, was true but I didn’t get the increase I predicted. Turns out I’m not cooling down the liquor fast enough after the ink-based catalyst and some aether is being carried by the volatile evaporates the longer it stays hot after catalyzing. So, like Penny said I could, I borrow a pass-through chiller and get what I was looking for.
With a twist? Fewer ranks but longer period. Like an extra hour more than I should be getting—maybe it came from the ranks of insight. It’d be fun if Andromeda let me rename my series to Inspiration Nova, or something that says I did it without saying I did it.
Entered and Approved! Congratulations. Your line of inspiration potions with this recipe will have your fun little name.
No frikkin’ way!
Why didn’t this come up before?!
It’s one of those ‘I can’t do it unless you want to,’ kind of things.
I squee inwardly and use one when my current potion runs out to make the rest of Penny’s ink vial worth of potion. Luckily I have a barrel full of the berry ale I use to make this liquid gold. If Zia was around to see me, I’m sure she’d be laughing about my ‘groove’ shimmy. Whatever, she has a happy tail wiggle, maybe this is my version.
“Patience! You alive?”
“My everything aches. Can it wait?” My assistant groans from a sectional lounge in my living room.
“The aether syphon works better in the office, or your suit would ease the . . . magic swelling. I’m tempted to keep you here for a week so you can just be acclimated, but that would also be cruel.”
“But this room is cooler. Did you have something to distract me from my discomfort?”
“Yes!” I pull out a bottle of
“When we come back here, I expect a proper tour!”
“Great! I’m glad this hasn’t turned you off the job. Don’t die and do good work!” I exclaim before escaping into the hall. “I suppose I should be more sympathetic, but I put on an aether syphon to try and make her comfortable and that’s making me uncomfortable.
When I get to Penny’s, I let myself in on the jacuzzi deck, order a drink with Orem and strip down to my compression shorts and sports top and jump down the waterslide with my damned beer, hooting and hollerin’ the whole way. I pull my giddy self out of the splash pool and head to Penny’s kitchen, find a beer in her fridge and set one out for each of us.
\Kimber, I have work to do, but I could make time if this is important.\
/I’ve got your batch and tweaked it. Would like a consult on future tweaks./
She sighs across the link. I still don’t know how people do that.
It’s an advanced link that you currently share with Zia, Marcella, and Penny.
Oh. Fuck me then. It’s clearly a trust or bonding thing. I obviously don’t mind. I think it’s funny as hell that I’m close with Penny in the first place, but that’s more to her personality than anything I did. Zia explained it to me last year in that she likes the attention and respect that I pay her, while also being playful? Woman basically adopted my financial interests and I couldn’t be more grateful.
“Oh, the pool. The yelling makes way more sense now.” She picks up the beer and drains it before summoning a highball of something pink.
“Show me the goods and then we can spitball.”
I cover up my chest with both arms with fake scandal and my friend flicks a bottle cap into my forehead. “Fine, fine. I have fifty of these ready for delivery.” I hand her the new
“This is basically better for everyone. For Master and above, we want more time and the guarantee, not the inspiration bonus. Three more hours per potion is epic, Kimber. You got another fifty to sell me?”
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“Penny, I have another hundred on me, but I want trade, obviously.”
“Biitch. I don’t have much ink to spare you fucker. I have projects of my own you know?!”
“Penny, chill. Seriously. I’m looking for a bottle, two max. The process and using the new 5-hour potions just made everything much more cost effective.” Her gaze narrows on me, she manifests two boards of sushi and points at me.
“You come to my home, you partake of my drink and food, and you disrespect me?” If she weren’t altering her voice to mimic some culture reference I don’t get, I would be freaking terrified.
“Chalk it up as ignorance?” I shrug, hoping she lets it go.
Penny slumps and shoves a roll of fish and rice into her mouth. “It’s not fun when you don’t play along. Fine, though, I can’t do two bottles right now. I can do one before you leave and another next month. I swear, once I get through these engine trials, I’ll . . . wait, why am I trying to explain myself.” She laughs to herself, teleports to my side and kisses my temple before blipping back. “It’s like you’re my kid and I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“I mean, you’re basically my Mom. Not like this thing between me and Zia is going to dissapear. Unless you don’t want me?” I rest a wrist against my forehead and sigh dramatically? “What’s a poor orphan to do, shunned by such magnificence?!”
Penny snorts hard with laughter, I might have even gotten rice up her nose. The coughing fit after tells me I won that round of surprise. “Like you have the market cornered on being ridiculous.”
“Fair point, little Nova. Oh? You renamed them! Hah! I love it. Good for you. Andromeda, If I didn’t make more per day than I could get from these potions, I’d be tempted to sell them. That said, I hope you learned your lesson from our Wombat incident.”
“I have, and I have my assistant doing research as we speak. I’ll post them under a pseudonym when she finishes.”
Panny sighs, “If that’s the path you’re going to take, I won’t stop you. I still don’t think you should be hocking these things.” She pets the vial of improved inspiration potion.
“How would I pay my bills otherwise? While I don’t owe you, I need to buy millions of credits worth of equipment and facilities to make the Voosel shipment happen. That and I need another million for my settlements on Earth!” I take a few minutes to calm myself down before looking back up from my fish. “Sorry, Penny. I’m also sorry for sassing you the other day. I just, this is a lot you know?”
She nods with a snicker, “Yeah, I do. I wasn’t serious about dropping the whole thousand hectares on you, but you took it. I would be willing to give you a loan for five extra potions each delivery.”
“Twenty five million, and you get five potions each delivery guaranteed for three years.
“Five years, and the five are the newest version of your recipe.”
“Thirty five, and your batches will be automatically upgraded with my recipe for three years.” I reply with a smirk, she opened up to the change and I’m more than willing.
“Done! Provided the changes grant more time and the guaranteed success.”
“Agreed, caveat, as long as you can keep me supplied with ink.”
“Agreed and sealed.” She holds out her hand and I get a notice of transfer. “That was a proper barter, Kimber. I’m glad you finally decided to dip your toes into mercantilism.”
“I feel you still got the better of me.”
“Definitely. I would have gone up to forty without much pushback. I won’t fix that, but I will hook you up with some contacts for the plantation. New trees, expert employees, etcetera. You benefit from my contacts and pay the bill.”
I shake my head with a smile. “Penny. Seriously, you’re too good to be Empress. Or you’re soft on me because of Zia, but either way, you’re amazing.”
“Aww, you are just so adorable. Thank you, by the way. Empress wasn’t the plan, but when I saw the Ordinal being for Humanity that wanted to rule, I decided to make it Impossible for him. My ex ended up putting a Tungsten rod through his secure installation from orbit, but that’s a different story.
“This is where I put in my spiel that a good Ruler needs good people to blah blah, people, blah, public. I honestly need you as much as you seem to need me. I need you to be an example for my future Justicar Corps. Not now! Just, founder’s day is soon, and my bill is coming due.”
“I thought that was next year?!” My original thoughts are completely derailed by her basically offering me a job.
“It is. I just wanted to put that bug in your brain. You seem to want to angle up to Sheriff of your territory, but what if you were the law equivalent in my territory? You’d be working with Zia a lot.”
Okay, fucker, using the object of my devotion like that is a cheap blow. “Gods, Penny. I mean, I’ll probably do it, but I can’t commit before talking to Zia.”
“I get that, I wasn’t trying to coerce you, Kimber. Just voicing my wants. You’re one of the few people I can trust to treat me like a person, don’t betray me now buddy.”
I snort at that. “For a demigod pixie, you are a fucking dork!” I wipe my eyes from laughing so hard. “If Zia was here, we’d jammies-up and watch stupid TV”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time. Side note, I am totally planning your wedding already.”
She seems like a planner. So of course she’d . . . be planning . . . FUCKING WHAT?!
“That is such a you-thing to do. I’m going to curse at you while I’m doing boring shit and hope I interrupt something.”
***
“Don’t fire me, but can we leave yet?”
“Patience, you need some, seriously.”
“Don’t you fucking lecture me. You took me to this damned planet and you can suffer my suffering.”
“Gods, lady. You’re going to fit right in! Next thing you know, the Empress will be laughing at your jokes.” I snicker, knowing she does not like when I joke about the Ruler of the Empire.
“Why must you tempt fate? That’s a kind of attention no one needs! Just finish business and take us back to Vegas. Is that so hard?!” I watch Patience struggle to pack her belongings and feel sorry enough not to call her on being my employee.
“Aria, make sure we do extra barrel rolls when we get to our destination.”
Patience turns on me with wide eyes and grabs my collar with both hands. With her face less than an inch from my nose she whispers at me: “In space, no one can hear me scream, Kimber. No one but my careless bitch of a boss. Who will mourn me if I die from vomiting my guts out?”
“I have a nice garden you can fertilize?”
She stares at me, switching between my eyes at a pace I can’t match, searching for something I can clearly not give her. She gives up, places a hand on my face and says “It is a nice garden. I can die with that.”
I try to do absolutely anything with that in my mind, but the think-ey bits give up so I give her a shoulder squeeze and head toward Aria on the Garden Palace’s port of Entry. Seems as though Patience may be a solid fit for my odd authority dynamic, but I have some questions and reservations about her willingness to backtalk so early. Might just be the stress of being confined to the apartment unless she wants to live in a sweaty HAB suit. Too bad she has to wear it on our transit back to Earth.
I smirk the whole way home.