Witches' Brew

She needed ingredients for two different potions she planned to make. One was something to calm her down without making her feel tired throughout the day. The other... Well, that wasn't exactly for herself. Laverna was just being hopeful. She was dreaming if she thought she could use it immediately. She never even had a stable relationship with anyone. All she did was... Arrive in the night and leave by morning, without leaving a trace of her visitation.

Well, dreams were infinitely more satisfying than reality. But she was hitting one hundred and eleven. Maybe she should think about going steady for once. All that time in Hell, working non-stop, and suddenly it felt like her days where she felt love and somebody in her arms was just... Gone.

Maybe she was just desperate. But she wasn't going to sign up for Brimstone.com and put up a profile.

Ugh, she absolutely hated to use such old-school techniques. The herbal tea blend with dragon's blood was understandable. But this? At least she could ask her workmates to hook her up with an incubus once in a while. Summoning stuff with a spell circle was so 14th century. That was like dial-up internet back in the 90's.

She held up a dark red, almost burgundy vile up to the dim light, inspecting it with her glasses.

"This stuff has been heat-treated. Don't you have anything, y'know, fresh? I'd prefer Chinese Dragon Blood. They at least haven't been in contact with fire." Laverna asked.

"Thanks sugar," Laverna said. That woman looked so delicious, but she wasn't as sweet as Laverna nicknamed her by. She smiled alluringly.

Even though she couldn't tell how old this mysterious woman was, she had to be careful. Eric was already enticing her far too much, being akin to her favourite flavour. If she was a student, she could find herself in hot water than fire and brimstone. Délise looked like she was a spicy meal that would put Kimchi to shame. Laverna loved it and it would burn her inside, but she would slather on more chilli despite the pain.

"Hey look, this one's Longjing. I'll take one of these babies." It was also the name of a popular tea where the leaves were flattened against a wok. The province where it came from also had dragons that were prized and greatly revered.

"You into old-school magic and brewing potions, honey?"

"Only starting?" Laverna took a slow, seductive peek into Délise's own basket. Holy hell, she was going to use that stuff too, and she was just beginning? Even when she was being taught in Hell, she wasn't allowed to touch those ingredients until she had at least 5 more months of experience with basic potions on her own.

"That's some complex ingredients you got there. If your chemistry is rusty too, that's a recipe for trouble. It's not like cooking a stir-fry or baking a cake. A rebound ain't pretty."

She gave a low, smooth chuckle when Délise immediately put herself at her service.
"I think you got that the other way around, Délise." She sauntered over to the counter. There was a bit of a line, with the old man with age spots weighing out ingredients. The back of the counter was arranged like a huge apothecary, and there was a strange, smoky smell in the air.

"I can teach you, but I won't have to charge. How 'bout you pay for my Longjing and we call it a deal?"

"A woman like me needs no introduction," she flipped her hair audaciously, her full lips bold and dripping with confidence. "You'll learn who I am when the time comes."

Before Délise knew it, she was transported into the world of Laverna. Her car was a bright red convertible, slightly retro in appearance. Something about its design was like carefully applied glossy red lipstick.

"Everything jake? It's gonna be a windy ride. I suggest to apply your lipgloss later, hon."

She seemed to have come from a different time, a different era even. She still wore driving gloves, a scarf over her hair and dark sunglasses. It was nostalgic, but it seemed perfectly natural for Laverna to do this. Like she was a witch from the Gatsby Era. The engine purred in the background. She drove fast over the smooth gravel, though the wind would still run through Délise's hair. If she were wearing sticky lipgloss, it definitely would've attracted hair to her mouth.

Laverna lived just 10 minutes from the Central Business District of Manto Carlos City. The apartment had an abstract sculpture in the courtyard with perfectly manicured gardens. They took the elevator.

"Welcome to my home."

Her apartment had a lot of personality in it, her personality. At least, if you could call organised clutter personality. There were binders on a desk with a laptop charging near it. She had a large coffee machine, and the smell of morning espresso still lingered in the kitchen. A mug with a lipstick stain on the rim was by the computer. In black san-serif font, it read:
<div align=center>Quiet
Desperation</div>
"Let me set up the supplies. Want anything to drink?"

"Easy," Laverna said with a gentle smirk. Watching the senior succubus make coffee looked half like a scientist at work, half some sort of sensual artist or performer. The way the coffee beans grinded and formed a fine powder, the way the hot water that gushed out with steam to form the espresso, and to top it all off, that languorous, single stroke of a Chux cloth wiping down the milk-drenched nozzle was just dripping with what needed to be said, but could not. Laverna operated it like a fine piece of machinery, but also as though she was one with the machine. She poured the microfoam milk so that when Délise would peer into her mug, she would hold the design of a heart.

"I don't get much company, so this is all I got until I get some new stuff." She handed over the mug of cappuccino. Like Laverna's own lipstick-marked mug, it also had a sassy line of text:
<div align=center>F—— the dudes
give me money</div>
"Enjoy,"

The quality of the liquid could not compare to the container it came in... Much like the barista herself. She used another espresso shot and the rest of the milk foam to make herself a small macchiato, which she served in a glass for herself. She finished hers quickly and rummaged through her kitchen for a medium sized cauldron, a tripod, some clamps and some vials, and a... bunsen burner? Was this science or magic?

"With the ingredients we both have, we can make a relatively more challenging ageing spell. I'm sure you know basic things, like simple love potions and rudimentary healing potions. Those you can even make on your own, if you follow instructions carefully enough. We can extract the finished product into a gel pill form too. Does that sound okay, or any other requests?"