"Unlabeled potions?" she asked. She knew she shouldn't be confused. The sign was fairly self explanatory. It was a strange thing to be selling. At least, it was a strange thing for Melissa to be selling. Labeling a potion that was to be stored or sold was a matter of basic rigor. Not doing so implied a level of negligence that one wouldn't expect in a professional alchemist, or a level of recklessness that one absolutely would expect in a subset of professional alchemists.
Melissa seemed to understand the subtext to Melona's question, as she gave her a bashful grin. "Well, they were labeled at one point," she said. She raised her hands in a half-explanatory, half-defensive gesture. "It's just that I had brewed them all quite some time ago, and, as it turns out, the ink I had used was better-suited for my homeland's climate than here. A few years with occasional humidity was enough to make all of my labels smudge." She shook her head. "Completely illegible. Total loss."
Melona filed "Comes from a land with a dry climate" into her mental cabinet of facts she knew about Melissa, before speaking.
"So you're just selling them? Isn't that dangerous?"
Melissa took a deep breath and gave a pained grimace. "Probably not," she said. "The recipes I used should be stable enough, and as a rule I don't brew poisons, so anything people buy should be safe. It's just that--" she trailed off.
"'Should' doesn't count for much when it comes to alchemy?"
Melissa nodded. "That. Yes." She bobbed behind the counter and picked up a small display case. Small round vials, each filled with a colorful liquid, sat in rows inside it. "But the good news is that whatever potion you pick, I um--should--have a way to reverse it. And with the prices I'm selling at--"
Melona could hear Melissa's tone switch from "awkward justification" to "sales pitch." Her own thoughts rose up, drowning out the shopkeep's voice. This was a potential opportunity for her. It was a huge, unnecessary risk. It was also completely affordable, even with her meager funds.
"--so what do you think?" asked Melissa. She was coming to the end of her speech just as Melona made her decision. "Are you feeling lucky?"
Melissa looked at the display case, then up at Melissa. "I'm feeling--
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