Quinlan chuckled as she turned back to the plants. "So the alchemists in the market stalls are just distributors, while this family has the recipes on lock." His alchemist had marked the unfamiliar varieties in her notes, leaving spaces beside them for the answers she still wanted. "Must be nice."
"Would be a shame if someone got their hands on it," Vex smiled.
Telvaren lay east of Sarthal, an old kingdom of fey and gnomes with its own crown. The powerful noble families known as its Great Houses competed to sponsor the kingdom's finest work. Even the catalogue's illustrations of workshops and performance halls displayed the crests of the families funding them.
"They own estates, towns, workshops..." Jallen said. "If you can make something impressive, they'll want everyone to know whose money paid for it. We've been looking at their offers too."
Aurora turned to an illustration of the estate's alchemy workshop.
