For several years while Afia was in University, Kofi had been an apprentice alchemist at an apothecary nearby, between North Port and the University Bridge. But he’d decided the best move for him as an alchemist would be to finally pursue his own practice, and he had partnered together with a few friends and took over a new apothecary on the south side of Bakunini, near the Merle River port. The shop was small and old, but with a few repairs and new paint, it would make a charming neighborhood apothecary.

As was their weekly tradition, Kofi made his way across town to join his sister and mother for potion. Their mother’s potion shop was nestled among the shops on the University Bridge, meaning it was as far from Kofi as Bakunini University was. This was not a problem he had foreseen. Moreover, he underestimated the busy traffic of university students that would be bustling around North Bakunini in mid-afternoon. He found himself wrestling into trolly cars between bookworms and daydreamers, both of which he profoundly disliked.

And as he stood there, uncomfortably squished between nerds, he tried to remind himself that this was for his sister and mother. But honestly, he was too annoyed to care.