Prologue
"Freya! Come here—I need your help with this potion!" I let out a long suffering sigh, despite the fact that it was my last day of being an apprentice, Mister Adelbert seemed perfectly happy to work me as hard as he could. Not that it was a problem, when it all came down to it this was work I enjoyed, and soon enough I'd be leaving for Ylisstol and setting up my own shop.
With my arms full of marshmallow root, I kept the grin on my face as I went to work on a potion to soothe sore throats. Evert, Adelbert's younger son cast me a knowing glance as he went to work chopping up peppermint and mugwort for a potion to soothe digestion troubles. "So you're real excited to get out of here, aren't you?" I looked up to make sure that the old man wasn't in ear shot—he wouldn't be angry at me going, but I had a feeling that it hurt him a little bit. After raising two kids as best as he and his wife could, only for one to go off and become a shepherd, he'd quickly fallen into the habit of fathering me.
After I left it'd only be one chick left in the nest. Still, I couldn't deny that I was excited. "I am! You've seen Stahl's letter's, Ylisstol is supposed to be an amazing place." We really weren't that far away from it right now, two days walking distance and a half day by a horse, but like many people in Ylisse, I'd never left the town I was born in.
Until now, that is. Stahl had written back one day about the palace needing a new apothecary after the last died without any apprentices to take up the practice. His father didn't want to leave, Evert was next in line to pick up this business, which left myself. There wasn't much to leave behind, I had no siblings, and I'd lost my parents in the war—if I was to be quite honest, I was looking for a fresh start.
"Mmm, I wouldn't put too much stock in his letters—You know how he can be Freya, glass is always half full." I sensed just a bit of annoyance in his tone, Evert loved his brother, but Stahl as the eldest son was supposed to be the one who took over, and when he left suddenly to join the Shepherds, it left Evert to learn how to run the business. Seven years later, and Evert hadn't really let the whole scandal go. Still, Evert wasn't entirely wrong in his statement, sure I knew Stahl was an optimist, but I didn't really know him.
He was almost four years older than me, twenty six to my twenty two, and while we'd known each other through childhood, it had been Evert who was my age and my best friend, not Stahl. The two brother's couldn't be less alike, sure, they looked almost identical, but if Stahl was a glass half full kind of guy, Evert was a glass completely empty man. You wouldn't know it for a while after you met him, Evert had learned to keep it to himself for the most part, and not to complain lest his optimistic father and brother tried (and failed) to lecture him on the benefits of positive thinking.
"You better be careful with that sort of talk, your dad might hear you." I snickered just a bit at the grumble he let out underneath his breath. "Even if it's not perfect like Stahl says, it's gotta be good at least. Chrom is a very good ruler, and we've had a lot of peace these past few years since he defeated Grima. Those are the types of things that lead to a boom in business."
There was a shrug, from my friend, which I took to mean that he agreed with me. The rest of my last day was smooth sailing, aside from Adelbert being just a tad more gruff than usual when asking me to do something. I wasn't bothered, I was still excited about the rest of my life starting the very next day, and I was completely confident that nothing could shake me.
