The bell over the door to his father's once abandoned shop rang. Just as Kaden remembered it would every time a customer entered. He hadn't set foot in the apothecary since that day when Prince Relastin had his father executed for treason, and Kaden hauled off to the catacombs to slave at creating essence.

The new Karo Shar stood in the doorway, frozen with his memories. Like the old shop, he looked quite different now as well. With his armor on and his royal purple urk signifying his his new status, he surveyed the devastation before him.

A thick coating of sandy dust covered everything. The shelves, once packed with wares to be sold, had been stripped bare of their contents by looters. They hadn't been worried about any bad luck that might befall them for entering a place where once a traitor dwelled. What remained on the shelves were only broken fragments of bottles that once contained things more precious and useful.

About the only thing untouched was the testing stones. They still laid in the same spot as they always had. It would have taken a dozen manly men to haul those away, and they were worthless to almost everyone.

But what really held Kaden in place was the clearly visible stain of blood remaining to this day on the counter and the floor where his father had been executed and his head had fallen. The sight of it forced Kaden to confront what happened that day all over again. Remember his father's dead eyes staring up at him recalled emotions brought forth by the vision burned into his heart.

Something still didn't seem right about it, and Kaden found himself recounting all he knew about what had happened.

The stills had produced plenty of Rage. Kaden knew that. And the the purity he had tested himself and confirmed.

There were even more tubes in the back waiting to be packed and sold to Ison for use in their wars against the other cities of Imeron or the demons below. And there was still more being produced every day. So why would his father have cut the amount in each of the tubes in the prince's order? Why would he have shorted him and risked being found out and labeled a traitor?

"So nice of you to finally drop by." Sahl emerged from the back room, wiping his filthy hands with an equally dirty towel. Even the door separating the two parts of the shop was missing.

"Finally had some free time," Kaden said, finally allowing the door to close behind him with a groan of an old hanger crying for oil and an eventual bang.

"Oh, I bet. When you aren't training or studying, Hernah's got you shackled to the bed. And her pelvis."

Kaden ignored his friend's playful complaints. "What's the status of this place?"

A small laugh was Sahl's first response. "The place is a dump. Anything of value was taken long ago. And what's left is broken and worthless."

"I see that." Kaden shook his head and then said, "Show me the back."

"Just to warn you, it looks about the same. But be my guest." Shal made a sweeping motion that urged Kaden into the back room and through where the door should have been.

Kaden made his way to where his father's stills used to be. It was just as Sahl had prepared him for. Other than things that were nigh unmovable, like the hearths, all that remained were broken pieces of glassware and wood from the tables that had been confiscated by the locals for nighttime cooking fires.

"Wow." That was all Kaden could manage to utter.

"Did you think I wasn't telling the truth?"

"No. I was just kind of hoping—"

"You didn't seriously think that this place being marked as belonging to a traitor would keep people out, did you?"

"I kind of thought maybe it would have." The agony Kaden felt at seeing his father's hard work destroyed crushed Kaden's heart all over again. His father had labored so hard to build the finest distillery in all of Ison. And now it was all gone. As though it never even existed at all.

"People just don't believe in bad luck like they used to." Sahl threw his rag on a pile of debris. "Not if they're starving."

"Is it that bad?" Kaden asked. "Even in the Upper Ring?"

"Ah, the Upper Ring is doing all right. As far as I've heard. War upon the Barrens and in the Abyss is good business. And that business keeps the Upper Ring turning. But nothing stopping those from the Lower Ring from sneaking in under the cover of night and doing what they must do to survive."

"I only ever went to the Lower Ring when I had something to hock in the Black Market. But even at that, I could tell things weren't good down there. I didn't grow up there like you did."

"Yeah, well, to be honest, being a slave is a step up from life in the Lower Ring." A pause from Sahl, and the added disclaimer of, "But only a slight step up."

Kaden didn't want to get sidetracked. He'd have to get back to the palace soon. Or Hernah would start wondering where he was.

The Karo Shar formed a plan. "To get started, I want you to go breakdown my rigs in my old lab at the palace, and bring them here. They're not anywhere near as good as my father's were, but I was limited in what I had to work with. You should probably get yours as well. That will give us enough to get started."

Sahl paced around the vacant area. "I'd suggest we get started with some of the more productive essences. Rage, Courage, Fear—that sort of stuff. Things we can sell to the prince for his wars. Even Sorrow. We don't need to putz around with things like Love or Joy until we get the production established."

"No, I agree with that." Kaden nodded. "We could make a lot of money off of Love, but it's too difficult to tune that production still. We don't need the whole operation running at once, that's true. If we can get a good Sorrow still running, the shop will make enough money just off those addicted to Rage to afford the other stuff later. What the prince pays for Rage, Courage, and Fear isn't going to be enough on its own."

"Not when he's got slaves that can make it for him," Sahl pointed out.

"Well, he's got two less now. And his two best. Like I said, let's get our equipment down here and set up. We'll just need to see what we need to get in terms of new equipment then."

"You got money for that, Karo Shar?" Sahl chuckled. "Because, hate to tell you, that stuff costs money. And a lot of it these days. And I can only image how complicated your father's setup was from the stories you've told me."

"Oh, it was quite a work of art, actually." Kaden began visualizing the distillery as it had once been, with all its flowing streams of color. "He spent years fine tuning it. Tweaking the length of every run and the capacity of every flask. Figuring out exactly how much heat to add and when."

"Well, hopefully you can remember how it looked and worked."

"I remember. Down to the very last detail, I remember. I'll put together some sketches, and then we'll use those to figure out what we'll need to get."

Sahl recovered his filthy towel. "That's a good plan. Problem is, I can't be here every hour of the day and night to watch over the shop. And even if I were here all the time, I don't think that would deter the curs that would seek to pilfer a place like this. We'll just get robbed again. And again. And again. So unless you plan on hanging around, or hiring someone and taking your chances that they're trustworthy and competent, we'll be chasing our tail is what we'll be doing. Never getting ahead."

"I don't trust anyone but you, Sahl. And we both know I can't run the shop. The prince needs me at the palace." With a snap of his finger, Kaden had an idea. "However, I do have a solution. Since I have a squad of soldiers available, I can post a guard."

"You're seriously going to ask Royal Guardians to protect a distillery?"

"Not just any distillery, my friend." The slap from Kaden on Sahl's shoulder shook the older boy. "What is soon to once again be the official distillery of Ison."

Shal rubbed his should. "Damn, you've been putting on some muscle it feels like."

Kaden flexed, showing arms that were still not overly large, but definitely bigger than not long ago. "That stuff Touran concocts really works."

"Yeah, well, sorry to tell you this, but those still aren't going to scare anyone." Shal laughed.

Kaden prepared to leave. "I'll get a guard down here, and I'll see you later, friend."

"Yes, I'll see you too."