Thanks to the favor and arrangements made by his teacher, Attilicia—who had been "arrested" by the Drow in the Gloomy Region right before he left.
In the half-month following David's own perceived "distraught and sudden departure," he had initially faced a series of daunting questions: How to steal Century Aroma pollen? Where to find a suitable temporary Alchemy Workshop? How to complete the potion configuration within the three hours before the pollen's pharmacological effects wore off? And how to do so without being discovered by the Public Order Officers patrolling the city, alerted by odorous alchemical waste gases? These, and many other problems, had loomed large.
Later, David was somewhat dumbfounded to discover that none of these were problems anymore.
With the temporary authority granted by Priest Attilicia, David could come and go freely in the Duke of Silver's Alchemy Workshop.
