"This is useless."

She threw her hands up dramatically before falling forward on the table, crossing her arms over her head, the others shifted around her. Though they had promised to help her remake her journal, none of them had signed on for testing her concoctions personally, thus they had come to a dead end.

"We could give it to them."

They all looked over to her, Gzel motioned to the ones around them, working on their tasks for the day. She was always one to take the opportunity to get one over on the Virtues, it was in their relationship, they had a special kind of bond.

"But…" Inca looked at her in alarm. "But we don't know what it could do."

"It's not like it would hurt them." She waved at the apothecary in training. "Ara would never let someone try one of her concoctions if she thought it would hurt someone."

"That is true. I don't remember the exact side affects are. But I know it won't hurt anyone."

Gzel clasped her hands tightly. "Come on! We could, I don't know, mix it in some juice or something! It'll be hilarious to see what it does!"

"I don't know." Orion curled her fingers around the straps of her apron nervously. "What if they get mad at us?"

Her sister touched her arm lightly, a fleeting feeling, and she turned to look over at her with wide eyes. "If they get mad then I'll take the fall."

"You promise?"

Gzel nodded. "I promise." That seemed to sedate her worries, and Orion nodded, she was never one to pass up an opportunity to play games with their guardian, Akriel always took it with good humor, and Gzel promised to take the fall if he got mad. "Okay."

They watched her part from their group, stop one of the passing elders, and took a clay jug from their hands. She returned a moment later and set it down next to their friend. "Mix it up."

Gzel elbowed Inca lightly. "I love it when she gets like this."

Araton stared at the mental specialists girl for a long minute, and shrugged lightly, tipping the small bowl of mystery concoction into the jug. She stirred it with her spoon, and nodded when the mixture thinned out, completely mixed within the liquid in the clay jug.

"Okay. It's ready."

The quiet little healer nodded, lifting three cups up from the bottom shelf, and poured out equal amounts of the liquid into both of them. They all eyed the cups for a long moment, unbelieving that they were actually about to do this, and exchanged a quiet look between each other in silenced awe. Gzel took her cup and grinned slightly. "Ready?"

Inca nodded, reaching for his own cup, and curled his fingers around it carefully as to not accidently drop it.

Araton nodded in time with him, taking hold of her own cup, eyeing it carefully as though to ensure that it was thoroughly mixed together. Nodding once more, she looked up to her new friends, Zed was her first, and with him came the others.

"Ready."

Gzel grinned, nodding in time with her, and turned on her heel. They watched her for a second, Inca sighed and turned away, crossing the threshold for the Captain on the other side, and Araton turned her head to look at her elder apothecary.

Zed had a good sense of humor. But, was this taking it too far?

"Z, I made you a cool drink."

The elder apothecary looked up from the files he had been sifting through, blinking in surprise, smiling at her appearance. "You made me a drink?"

"Some juice."

He set his files aside absently, reaching for the cup in her hand, and she gladly handed it over. Waiting patiently, she twiddled her fingers, waiting for him to take a sip. Her master eyed her from over the cup, taking in her appearance, the nervous tick playing in her fingers, and he sniffed the drink lightly for any tell sign of foul play.

Behind her, there was two shouts of surprise, Oren and Akriel having fallen for their trick and downed the juice, and the others laughed as they spit out their gifted drink.

Zed narrowed his eyes at her. "Were you..Were you trying to get me to drink something other then juice?"

"No?"

He leans forward, setting the undrunk cup of juice on the table, and slowly climbed to his feet. "Do you know what my master did when I tried to do that to him?"

Araton shakes her head. "No."

"Let me show you."