Standing on a round small stone table was a small pale pink looking creature. It looked like some type of rodent, but you couldn't tell. In its tiny paws it held a purple glass bottle, which had a shimmering blue substance inside. Glancing back at Lucian, he merely smiled at you and signaled you to go forward. Besides the small creature, the room was lined with wooden walls filled with potion bottles, books and other small artifacts. Miscellaneous objects rested on top of the shelves while a single window let in light from outside. However, the dominant light source in the room was the golden flowers that glowed brilliantly. A clock hanging on the rich brown walls ticked away under the vines of various flowers that decorated the top of the room.

All in all the room was enchanting and having reached the small stone table, you watched the little animal carry the potion bottle over to the other side of the table. So far it hadn't noticed that there were two more people in the room with it. Thus your curious (e/c) eyes scanned the rest of the table. On top lay more potion bottles of different colors, ranging from dark purple to medium blue to turquoise. Small potted trees grew in health and shimmered in an otherworldly glow. In the center of the table stood a strange contraption, which you figured to be an aid in making the potions. Steam came out the top while plants and water bubbled on the inside of the glass containers. Intrigued by the contraption, you leaned in closer only to have the small creature turn around at the same time.

Jumping up in fright, it let out a high pitched squeak before falling backwards off the table. Worried you went to catch it, but Lucian caught it first. Looking upwards the creature's eyes widened in surprise.

"Master Lucian I had not seen you there. Please, forgive me," the creature said in a high-pitched voice.

"It's quite alright Pastel. Now I wanted to introduce you to someone."

Pastel glanced over at you, eyes swirling with curiosity. The mouse like creature stood up in Lucian's hand before jumping onto the table. Walking over to you, it bowed.

"Pastel this is Mr. _____'s daughter."

Hearing Lucian's words, the creature's eyes shone brightly with excitement and joy, "So you're the one who will help Master Lucian achieve his goal of attaining the mask. Oh, miss thank you for helping him".

It was obvious that this creature was a hundred percent loyal to Lucian and would never betray him. Though, you wondered how such a thing happened. You never had imagined Lucian as an animal person. Glancing over at Lucian, you now saw him staring closely at one of the glass containers in the contraption. However, the tiny animal pulled your attention away from him.

"Umm, well I guess you're welcome. By the way you can just address me as ____," you stated, seeing the creature continue to beam up at you.

The creature nodded in response before walking over to Lucian. Staring up at their master, Pastel watched Lucian, as if waiting for a response. On the other hand, Lucian rested his right hand against the glass sphere container, which was filled with bubbling brown liquid. To you it looked like root beer flavored soda. In the next moment, he twisted the sphere a little and the liquid inside bubbled more furiously. Next he touched one of the strange runes on the contraption, which pumped in some contents from another container into the brown liquid. Having added some of the purple substance, the brown contents changed into a light purple color while small dark purple crystals began to form at the bottom of the sphere. Giving a signal to Pastel, the creature went over to another rune on the machine and glided his paw over it. At once the machine shut off. Lucian then removed the sphere from its place on the contraption. Grabbing an empty lavender bottle, he poured the liquid into the bottle while keeping the crystals out. Setting the bottle down, he incinerated the crystals in his hand, leaving nothing left.

Turning his attention back onto you, he said, "My pet, I want you to drink that potion. It will protect from the air in the sanatorium".

"Umm, why would I need to be protected from the air? Isn't it just the normal components of air?"

"No, there are the regular components, but its mixed with a powder as light as air. The purpose of the powder was to keep the mental patients docile. However, it affects humans differently. Instead of making a human docile, it will make them go mad. You're still part human, so the powder can still affect you in that way."

"Wait, won't the powder also affect you just in a different way?"

"Yes, but I've already taken my potion. Now drink, it will start to work in twenty-four hours and last for five days, which is more than enough time."

Handing you the bottle, Pastel stepped back and watched you bring the bottle up to your lips. Hesitantly, you tipped the bottle and drank the contents inside. When the potion touched your tongue, you went to spit the liquid out immediately due to its disgusting taste. However, Lucian swiftly came over to you and held the bottle at your lips, forcing you to drink the rest. After the last drop ran down your throat, you pulled back from Lucian due to him releasing you from his grip. Coughing, you tried to rid your mouth of the rotten fish taste, but to no avail. Though, you saw Lucian pull off a leave from the shimmering pink tree. He held it out to you, but you shook your head. You didn't want to consume anymore vile tasting things.

"It will help with the taste, now I suggest that you eat it."

Sighing, you took the pink leaf and put it in your mouth. Almost instantly the taste of sweet strawberry cream candy filled your mouth. Lucian looked at you expectantly.

"Yeah, it tastes good. Thank you. By the way why did you dispose of the crystals?"

"Before the potion was poisonous, so I had to remove the toxic element. Thus I combined it with the other substance, which extracted the poison from the brown liquid."

"That makes sense."

"Will that be all for today Master," squeaked Pastel.

"Yes, I imagine the side effects of the potion will be taking place in just a few moments."

"Wait, what side effects?" you asked worriedly, staring between the two of them.

"Oh, it's nothing bad, Miss ____. Just for the next few hours you won't be able to walk."

"How is that not bad?" you questioned in a raised voice.

Squeaking a bit at your suddenly loud voice, Pastel stepped backwards a bit before looking up at Lucian. Giving a reassuring pet to the small creature, he faced you. Removing his right fingers from the animal's head, he came over to you.

"One, two, three ..." he whispered into your left ear.

Right after three, you felt your legs collapse under you. Though, Lucian held you up before picking you up and carrying you bridal style. Now glaring at him, he only laughed at your expression.

"Surely, this isn't that bad?" he stated, smirking.

Rolling your eyes, you looked away from him, as he began to walk out of the potions room. Pastel waved at you, as the two of you left the room. With the door now shutting, you began to wonder something.

"Lucian, how did you get Pastel to work for you, and what is he anyway?"

"Pastel is a nezati, which is the magical world's version of your ferret. I saved him from being burned to death. His kind is looked upon as pests, so most try to kill them. Thus after I saved his life, he vowed to work for me for the rest of his life. He mentioned that the rest of his family had been killed already, so he had no place to return to."

Not knowing what else to say, you merely stated, "That's terrible."

Lucian nodded in response before stopping in front of the study door. Confused you glanced up at Lucian, who merely walked into the room after opening the door.

"I thought we weren't going to the study today?"

"Well you thought wrong. I wanted to give you your potion first, but now onto the relaxing part of the day."

Puzzled, you let him set you down on the floral patterned sofa. He walked off to the other side of the room and retrieved a small golden key. Watching him curiously, you saw him put the key into the clock on top of the marble fireplace mantel. Twisting the key, the three pictures on the walls flipped over and combined together, as the center part of the wall pressed itself backwards, so that the wall could be even with itself. When the process finished, you noticed that the three pictures had formed a flat screen television. Now surprised, Lucian chuckled at your reaction.

"My pet did you think that just because I'm a sorcerer that I do not enjoy useless pastimes. Surprisingly humans thought up of some interesting inventions. I must say watching television sometimes is quite relaxing."

After touching the screen with his right hand, the television turned on. He sat down next to you before pulling you over to him, so that he could lay his legs over the rest of the couch. Furthermore, he sat you on his lap while wrapping his arms around your waist. You blushed lightly at this, but even if you wanted him to let you go where would you go? Your legs currently weren't working because of the potion. Though, to your surprise the channels changed on their own until they stopped on a mystery movie. However, you soon felt yourself being pulled back even more, so that you were almost using Lucian as a recliner. Looking out of the corner of your eye at him, you saw that he had fallen fast asleep and was resting his head against the back of the couch. He breathed softly, as he hugged you closer to him. Sighing and blushing at the same time, you had no choice, but to rest against his chest.