The top-secret Alchemy laboratory, three levels beneath the Lord's Mansion.
The air was filled with the faint smell of blood and disinfectant.
Kael sat on an operating table, his broken left arm set and wrapped in thick bandages. His face was still pale, but he seemed to be in good spirits.
Mia sat on the edge of a high stool, her slender legs dangling and swinging restlessly. Cupping a frost-covered bottle of happy water in both hands, she tilted her head back, her throat bobbing as she rapidly chugged it down. GULP, GULP.
The sharp fizz of carbonation bursting in her mouth made her purple eyes narrow in a blissful haze. A drunken flush spread across her cheeks, and a trickle of the sweet, dark brown liquid even escaped the corner of her mouth, sliding down her pale chin to her collarbone.
"Ngh..."
Behind her, Xiaolan gently lifted Mia's slender, black, heart-tipped tail. She dabbed her fingertips in some ointment and gently rubbed it into the red, swollen scrape at the base.
