Time: TC1853.01.20 (Afternoon)
Location: Imperial Alchemist Guild Headquarters, 4th Ring
The afternoon light filtering through the Guild's laboratory windows had that particular quality that came after revelations—sharper somehow, like the world itself had shifted slightly on its axis and everything needed reassessing.
Master Alchemist Feng sat in his private study, staring at the vial of Selene Brenner's perfect potion with an expression caught somewhere between wonder and fury. The golden glow hadn't faded. Ninety-eight point three percent essence extraction. Ninety-seven percent overall efficiency. Master-level work from a woman who'd spent fifty years believing herself incompetent.
Someone had done this to her. Deliberately. Systematically.
His hands—those master alchemist hands stained with decades of herbal compounds—trembled slightly as he set the vial down with excessive care. As if handling it roughly might shatter more than glass.
