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Olruggio rolled his neck. He took a deep breath. The night air was cool, and the stars twinkled above. Surely, at this hour, everyone at the atelier would be asleep. He held his satchel to the side and quickly pulled open the front door.
Stepping quietly into the living space, Olruggio dropped his satchel and removed his shoes in the doorway. He figured he'd get them tomorrow, and that right now, they'd only help to make more noise. It was only when he turned that he realized he was not alone.
Staring back at him, like deers frozen in headlights, were Agott and Richeh. The floor around them was covered in books and papers in all states, as well as bowls, bottles, and home-brewed potions. The hearth behind them smoldered.
"What are you two doing awake?" Olruggio asked in a hushed voice. Agott put down her pen and quire, and Richeh let her head fall back against the couch.
"Master Qifrey's not feeling well," Agott explained.
"We were just trying to make something to help him feel better," Richeh added. "It doesn't help that he's obviously trying to hide it from us."
Olruggio's heart sank.
"Not feeling well, you say?" He took a few steps closer to the girls. "In what kind of way? I can't imagine Qifrey'd try to handle anything too terrible on his own without sending for me."
"It sounds like a cold to me," Agott muses. Richeh nods in agreement. "Whatever it is, though, it's clearly sapping his energy. We thought we might come up with something to give him a little boost."
Olruggio hummed thoughtfully. He leaned over, trying to catch a glimpse of what the girls may have been working on. The text of the books was pretty much unreadable in the darkness, and most of the labels of the bottles were turned away from him.
"How thoughtful of you two," he commended. "It's quite late, though. Don't you think you should get some shut eye as well?"
"We were almost done when you walked in," Agott protested. "Honest."
Olruggio rasied his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Really, we were. You can watch us if you don't believe us," Richeh doubled down.
At this point, it was unlikely that they were lying. Olruggio bowed his head.
"Alright," he conceded. "Let's see it."
As he lowered himself onto the couch next to Richeh's head, he saw Agott lift her pen and quire once again. As she poised herself to draw a ring, a terrible thought crossed Olruggio's mind.
"You're using a spell to help him?"
Agott and Richeh both gave him a sidelong glance. In lieu of words, Agott finished the ring, and a pyreball sprung to life. Yeah, that was certainly easier than re-kindling the hearth. A cursory look around at the other crumpled papers revealed that most, if not all of them had been pyreballs as well, judging by the blackened edges.
"Right. I knew you knew better. I was just testing you."
The girls ignored him, getting right back to work. They grabbed what looked to be the last clean bowl and poured in a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Every bottle they produced seemingly out of nowhere had Olruggio wondering whether they were going to have to replace all of their cooking stores.
At long last, it seemed the girls were putting the finishing touch on their concoction. Agott held the bowl over the pyreball (which looked as if it was about to fizzle out), while Richeh used a spoon to mix everything up.
"And….it's done." Agott announced. Olruggio leaned over to inspect, and Agott held the bowl out to him. The mixture had a sharp scent that made his eyes water. He cleared his throat.
"Good work. I'm sure if that doesn't wake him up, it'll at least clear out whatever's bothering him."
"You really think so?" Richeh looked hopeful.
I have no clue what's in there, but it smells strong enough to kill a wyvern, Olruggio wanted to say. For the girls' sake, he pronounced it a bit more like, "I know so," punctuated with a warm smile. "Now run along to bed before it gets too late."
The two of them quickly cleaned up the mess they had created. Charred paper was thrown away, books were returned to their shelves, and dirty dishes were left in the sink for the morning.
"Will you make sure this gets to Master Qifrey?" Agott holds out the fruits of her and Richeh's labor. It would be a shame if all the work they did went to waste.
"Sure thing," Olruggio assured her. He took the bowl, and watched as she and Richeh climbed the stairs and slipped back into their bedrooms. Once he was sure they were gone for the night, Olruggio grabbed his things from the doorway and headed to his workshop.
The room was exactly how he had left it. That made it easy to drop his stuff at the door (again) and find everything he was looking for. As much as he would have loved to simply fall into bed, what the girls had said about Qifrey worried him enough that he didn't want to wait until the following morning. Surprise entrance be damned.
On his way back across the main living space, Olruggio grabbed Agott's and Richeh's concoction (which he nicknamed "the potion"). If all that was in here was stuff from the kitchen, surely it couldn't be that bad. A fleeting impulse to taste the potion flashed through his mind, but he reasoned himself out of it with a reminder of who it was made for.
The atelier was dark and quiet once more. Olruggio took care to keep it that way. He took each step upstairs softly, and when he came to Qifrey's door he knocked as lightly as he could while still being heard. No response came from the other side. Olruggio figured he was likely sleeping, but something was amiss. A soft, warm glow radiated out from under the door. A candle was lit on the other side. Olruggio turned the handle and pushed the door open.
Qifrey was laying in bed, snoring softly. If Olruggio was a little less perceptive, he would have thought Qifrey had been asleep the whole time. But looking at the candle whose wax had barely begun to pool, the sharp angle Qifrey was lying at, and the fact that his glasses were on his face, Olruggio could assume that he had been awake up until recently. Putting the potion on the bedside table, Olruggio reaches out and gently rubs Qifrey's shoulder.
Awaking with a suddenly, Qifrey's eye flew open, and his hand shot out, knocking his pen and quire onto the floor.
"Relax, it's just me," Olruggio murmured, but he wasn't sure if Qifrey was listening. He had a far-off look in his eye that lasted for a moment before his face crumpled. Qifrey coughed thickly in the direction of his elbow, thankfully, on the opposite side of where Olruggio was standing.
"Are you alright?" he asked
Qifrey cleared his throat. Some color began to fill his cheeks.
"Sorry about that." His voice sounded rough. "I thought I had heard voices downstairs. I wanted to be ready in case things got out of hand."
That explains why he reached for his pen—he thought Olruggio was an intruder. The fact that Qifrey hadn't come downstairs to check on things was indicative of the state he was in.
"Understandable." Olruggio crouched to retrieve the fallen objects.
"You're home early."
"Only by a few hours. I was going to surprise you in the morning."
"What changed your mind?"
"Remember those voices you heard earlier?"
"…What about them."
Olruggio suddenly found himself in a difficult situation. While he wanted to tell the truth, he knew that if he explained things as they were that Qifrey would never be able to forgive himself. In fairness, it was his fault that things worked out that way, but Qifrey likely already knew that. Instead, Olruggio picked up the potion.
"Agott and Richeh were hard at work making a little tonic for you. They told me you were feeling poorly." He held out the bowl with a lopsided grin. Qifrey accepted it with trepidation.
"What is this?" he inspected it closely.
"I told you, it's a tonic they made. They had nearly finished it when I walked in the door, so I have no clue what's in it."
Qifrey hesitantly held it up to his nose. He took a whiff, and immediately balked.
"Woah, that's—Ohmystars—" Qifrey let out a few strong coughs aimed away from Olruggio again. Even though it seemed like he was still quite irritated, however, he seemed to be trying to hold the last one back.
"Let it out, Qif. Don't hold it in for my sake."
Qifrey sucked in a deep breath before beginning to cough in earnest. It was a deep sound that came from his chest. Somewhat uncharacteristic from someone so soft-spoken. Eventually, he was able to catch his breath.
"Wow." Olruggio could see the blush rising on Qifrey's face. "If I'd known this would have such a strong effect I'd have secretly thrown it away."
"You would never," Qifrey objected. And he was right. Olruggio could never bring himself to throw away anything the girls created.
"You got me there." There was a brief pause while Qifrey tried to compose himself. "Qifrey, why didn't you send for me? You know I would have turned around immediately."
"That's exactly it." Qifrey didn't meet Olruggio's gaze. "I can handle myself. I didn't want to worry you."
"I'd rather you worry me than the girls! Qifrey, you've been worrying me your whole life. I can take it a little longer."
Qifrey stared down at the bed. His gaze flicked up briefly, directed at his pointed cap across the room.
"I'm sorry."
Well, he'd gotten what he wanted, right?
"No, I'm sorry. I wish you didn't feel like you have to go it alone all the time."
Qifrey turned to meet his gaze. However, try as he may to keep his expression resolute, it eventually crumbled as he brought his face to his hands and his shoulders began to shake.
"Dammit, Olly," he breathed between near-silent sobs. Olruggio sat down on the bed next to him and pulled Qifrey's head into his chest. They stayed like that for a short while, and eventually, it seemed like Qifrey was calming down. Olruggio turned his body to envelop Qifrey in a proper hug.
After a moment or two of the new position, Qifrey began to sniffle. Olruggio simply rubbed his hand along his back, but he did notice that Qifrey's breathing was more erratic this time. Suddenly, as he tried to pull away, Olruggio saw it on his face that he was about to sneeze.
"Well, go on then," Olruggio encouraged.
Qifrey tried to protest, but it was futile. He could barely get the words out, and Olruggio wasn't budging. Two sneezes forced their way out into Olruggio's shoulder.
"Bless you, Qif," he offered, finally allowing Qifrey to pull away, who scrubbed his whole face until it was red and irritated-looking. "Why don't we both go wash up? Then at least we'll have some time to discuss what I should do with the girls tomorrow morning."
"Don't you mean 'we'?" Qifrey asked, slowly peeling himself away from the comforts of his bedroom.
"No, 'I'," Olruggio inisisted, standing up alongside him. "You need to recover."
"It really isn't that bad—"
"Says the man who couldn't even stay awake until I came and woke you up."
That shut him up. Olruggio chanced a glance over at Qifrey, but it was clear there was no animosity between them.
"Just you wait, you'll get it too," Qifrey jabbed. "Then who will be laughing?"
"Me, still. Because I'm the one forcing you to stay in bed so we're not sick at the same time."
Stars, what a nightmarish idea. Olruggio pictured all four girls making their own versions of the potion. He shook his head to rid himself of the idea.
After the two of them were done washing up, Olruggio walked Qifrey back to his bedroom. They lingered in the doorway for a long while, neither one wanting to end the conversation to go to bed. Suddenly, Olruggio stumbled, reminding him that he'd been awake for far longer than he'd meant to be.
"I think that's my cue," he said. "Feel better, Qifrey."