Chapter One

••••Adalynn's Perspective••••

Slowly and cautiously, I opened the door, squealing softly as the man fell into the shop at me, almost knocking me to the ground in the process. Taking a few deep breaths, I tried to calm myself before speaking.

"Um... Are... Are you okay?"

After a few moments of no reply, I stepped forward and nudged him with my foot, speaking more to myself than anything.

"Well fuck, please don't be dead I don't want to have to relocate to Stantòn."

When he still didn't move or reply I cautiously stepped over to him to check that no one outside had noticed yet. Placing my hands on either side of the doorframe, I peeked out trying not to be too suspicious.

After a second, I was sure no one had noticed and stepped back into the building, before bending down and grabbing the man's hands, so I could drag him into the shop the remainder of the way. Once he was fully inside, I closed the door behind me and sighed, speaking to myself yet again.

"Well shit. Maybe I can fix this. Now where was that Mend-All?"

•••••Saber's Perspective•••••

As I was pulled into the building, it was almost as if the sun had risen, and I could hear someone moving around me. Curious, I slowly opened my eyes, only to find that the light was coming from candles in a shop. Spotting a woman, with beautiful dark purple curls, scouring through the shop for something, I weakly tried to stand up.

I wasn't sure who exactly this beautiful stranger was or if she was a threat, so despite everything, I knew I had to force myself to a standing position and defend myself if I was going to survive. Quickly and quietly, I grabbed my dagger, preparing to fight if it came to that. The blood dripping down my stomach quickly pooling at my feet.

"Who are you and where am I?"

I spoke in as demanding a tone as I could muster up, despite the fact that I was barely holding onto consciousness. Waiting for her response I lost my grip on my dagger, and it clambered to the floor with a loud clang that rang through the shop.

••••Adalynn's Perspective••••

As the man spoke, I peeked around the corner at him and sighed in relief.

"Oh, thank God you're not dead. Bleeding on my floor sure but that's far easier to take care of than a dead body."

Not bothering to answer his question I went back to searching for my Mend All. After a good minute, I found it and quickly made my way back to him, thrusting the small vial with an almost glowing purple liquid in it at him.

"Here, drink this, while I go get something to clean that up. The last thing I need is someone coming in and seeing you like this, they'll shut me down for sure this time."

I waited for him to take the vial before turning to walk off again, only to stop a few feet from him to turn back around. Speaking in as calm a tone as I could muster, given the situation, I hoped he would listen.

"Oh, and don't touch anything please, especially if you don't know what it does."

With that, I turned around once again and headed to the back to grab a towel, not bothering to tell him what was in the vial. After all, had he actually looked at it he was sure to see it was Mend-All and know that it would help him.

•••••Sabers Perspective•••••

Taking the bottle I slowly turned around, fighting through the excruciating pain, so that my back was to her before undoing my illusion magic. As the magic faded, I quickly drank the contents of the vial and recast the spell. Noticing that the pain quickly began to fade, I started to feel extremely tired.

Clearly the spell I had used to create my dark mist took more out of me than I had expected. Watching the woman as she continued to search for something, I mumbled softly to myself.

"Dammit, that spell shouldn't have taken that much out of me, then again, this injury is bad. I must have lost more blood and energy than I thought trying to get safe."

After several seconds of standing there, I finally decided to try and get my dagger off the floor, only to lose my balance and collapse again, this time clearly from the blood loss and exhaustion.

••••Adalynn's Perspective••••

As he collapsed, I had just grabbed the towel for him so he could clean up his mess. Sighing softly to myself, I walked back out and blinked at him.

"Jesus, how much blood have you lost, and I don't mean on my floor. Look, since you're already down there how bout you clean up your blood while I find the blood tonics. I know they're around here somewhere."

Tossing the towel at him I walked over to the wall directly behind him and began searching the shelf. After about a minute I finally found what I was looking for. It was a light blue vial which held a deep red almost shimmering liquid in it.

"Ah-ha, there you are."

Turning to him I held the vial out for him to take.

"Here, take this and please for the love of god don't get off the floor, unless you feel better that is."

•••••Sabers Perspective•••••

Groaning, I started cleaning the blood up off the floor, muttering to myself under my breath while the woman searched for something, yet again. Who was this woman, why exactly did she think she had any right to tell me what to do, and better yet why was I doing it?

When she returned, handing me the vial, I quickly took it from her before asking her to turn around, so that I could drink it. No one here knew what I looked like, and I was not about to let some silly injury change that.

"I need you to turn around."

Blinking, at me she did as I asked, speaking in a rather confused yet soft tone as she did.

"You know, I'd get it if you were eating something cause I'm not a fan of people watching me eat either, but drinking... Now that's weird."

There would be a slight pause of silence before she spoke again, and I couldn't help but smile. She really thought I was being strange, yet this woman hadn't done a single normal thing since I fell through her door.

"Do you like drool or something. Oh, and seriously do you feel better yet, like can I turn around, or are you still being weird?"

Realizing I didn't have enough energy to undo the illusion spell, I went back to cleaning up the blood, answering her question as I did.

"Yes, you can turn back around. After all, I can't drink the vial right now."

"Oh, and to answer your question no one has ever seen my face before; however, I cannot undo the spell right now because I'm low on energy."

Turning to face her I handed her the blood-soaked towel with a smirk.

"Also, I'm gonna need another if you want me to finish cleaning this up."

••••Adalynn's Perspective••••

Turning around I blinked at him and slowly put my hand out to grab his disgusting blood-soaked towel, making a rather grossed out face as I did, before tossing it into a nearby cauldron.

What in the gods was wrong with this man? I mean who in their right mind would want to have to constantly hide their identity from everyone around them? Not to mention, who hands someone a towel soaked in their blood. Does he not know what diseases are and how some of them spread?

I wanted more than anything to yell at him, but I decided it best not to and simply rolled with it.

"I'll um, I'll go get you another. But seriously you need to take that. I mean I could try and inject it into you, but I've never done it before."

"With that said I can't promise it will work properly. All I know is it will help you regain the blood you lost, as well as some energy and strength if you drink it."

Turning around, for the umpteenth time since he fell through my door, I walked off to grab him another towel, not bothering to wait for his response. Returning a minute later with a fresh one I held it out to him without saying a word.

I was for some reason so mad at him for being so weird, yet as he looked at me, I couldn't help but find myself quickly calming down. His beautiful vibrant green eyes, drawing me in to the point I almost missed his words as he began to speak.

"Go ahead and just inject it. I mean how bad can it really be?"

Blinking at him, I shook my head for a second, while I processed what he had just said before laughing softly.

"Well, it could kill you but you're right, how bad could it really be?"

I giggled again as all the possibilities ran through my head. I mean this man didn't even know me or what was in anything I had handed him, let alone what they could do if injected versus ingested and yet here he was, willing to let me do it without a second thought. It was clear he had to be crazy right?

So lost in my own thoughts I spoke the words out loud without even realizing it, the thought more to myself than him.

"Ooo, I think I have something in here that can fix a heart attack… Oh, wait never mind that one only fixes organ spasms."

Smiling softly, I finally nodded to him, speaking in as calm a tone as I could, with my excitement to see how the tonic would react when injected, consuming me.

"I'll go get a needle. Oh, and don't move cause I'm genuinely interested to see how this turns out. After all, the last guy I injected with something left here foaming at the mouth and cursing my name."

Turning, I quickly walked off to get my medicine injection gun, which I would need in order to inject the Blood Tonic into him before returning. I was half expecting him to see the weird makeshift injection gun and instantly change his mind.

The gun looked a bit rustic and raggedy, with two glass tubes affixed to either end of a metal tube, that screwed onto a vial. Inside one of the glass tubes was a rather long needle, while the other glass tube held a plunger that attached to a small metal spike I turned into a trigger.

Holding out my hand, I smiled at him, extremely excited to see what exactly would happen when I injected this into him, since many of the ingredients were toxic when administered specific ways. My excitement to see if it would work as intended almost trumping my want to actually help him.

"Well, give it here."