The lead apothecary, a broad woman named Drest who had been running Branklore's most respected apothecary for thirty years, looked at the pharmacy. At the herbs on the organized shelves. At the clinic through the connecting door.
Then at Renna.
"You." Drest said.
"Drest." Renna said pleasantly.
"You left the palace." Drest said.
"I did." Renna said.
"To come here." Drest said.
"I did." Renna said.
Drest looked at the Chilper on the counter. At the Aphrodesia in the sealed section behind Renna. At the row of varieties along the back wall that she had never seen in any market she had ever worked in.
"You have access to all of this." Drest said.
"Daily." Renna said. "Fresh harvest. First selection before anything goes to the marketplace stall."
Drest looked at the other six people she had come with. They looked back at her with the expression of people who had traveled a significant distance and were finding the destination more frustrating than expected.
"How." Drest said.
"I applied." Renna said. "Through the standard process. Background check, two recommendations, council review."
"You left the royal palace." The Branklore court healer said from behind Drest, unable to help himself. "For a clinic in a mountain settlement."
"I left the royal palace." Renna said. "For a clinic in the only place in Philantria with reliable access to herbs that the royal palace has been trying to source for years and cannot." She smiled. "The mountain setting is a bonus. The air is very clean."
Drest looked at Elder Elka.
Elder Elka looked back with the warmth she brought to everything.
"Is there somewhere we could sit." Drest said. With the tone of someone who needed a moment.
"Of course." Elder Elka said. "Azylan's restaurant is just through the marketplace. His afternoon tea service uses the Chilper blend."
They sat.
The tea arrived.
Drest drank hers and was quiet for a moment in the way people were quiet after the Chilper blend did what it did, the warmth settling in and the tension in the shoulders going somewhere else.
She put the cup down.
"What would it take." She said to Elder Elka. "To have access to these herbs. Regular supply."
"The standard merchant arrangement." Elder Elka said. "Application through Millhaven's post office. Background check, two recommendations from existing pass holders, council approval."
"And the clinic." Drest said. "Could there be a second one."
"That would be a question for the council." Elder Elka said. "And for Renna, since the existing clinic is her lease."
Drest looked at Renna across the table.
Renna looked back.
"You could work for me." Renna said. The pleasantness still present. "I've been meaning to expand the staff."
The expression that crossed Drest's face was the expression of a woman who had run her own apothecary for thirty years encountering a suggestion she found professionally offensive.
"Work for you." She said.
"I have the lease." Renna said. "I have the access. I have two months of established patient relationships and a pharmacy that is currently the only facility of its kind in any territory between Medalline and Winterly." She tilted her head. "The herbs aren't going anywhere. The clinic isn't going anywhere. But if you want to be here, working for me is the fastest way to be here."
Drest looked at the herbalist from Winterly. The herbalist looked at the Branklore court healer. The junior researcher was looking at his tea with the expression of someone who had not expected the visit to go this direction and was finding it educational.
"How many staff." Drest said finally.
"How many are you." Renna said.
"Seven." Drest said.
Renna looked at the seven of them.
"The clinic is going to need to be bigger." She said, mostly to herself.
She looked at Elder Elka.
"Could I submit a construction request to the council." She said. "And a lease renegotiation. The current space won't accommodate seven additional practitioners."
"Of course." Elder Elka said. "I'll let Aquen know to expect it."
"The new lease rate." Renna said. "Given the expanded space. I want to establish the terms before anyone arrives with counterproposals."
"Naturally." Elder Elka said.
Drest looked at Renna.
"You resigned from the royal palace." She said. "Without notice."
"Two weeks notice." Renna said. "The palace considered it insufficient."
"And you came here." Drest said.
"Yes." Renna said.
"And now I'm going to work for you." Drest said.
"It appears so." Renna said. The pleasantness entirely intact.
Drest picked up her tea and drank the rest of it.
"The Aphrodesia." She said. "In the sealed section. I saw three full shelves."
"We have more than we can use." Renna said. "The cultivation is exceptional."
Drest looked at the ceiling of Azylan's restaurant. At the lamp posts. At the table they were sitting at, the quality of the wood, the craftsmanship of the chairs.
"Fine." She said. To the ceiling. "Fine."
---
The construction request came to the council the next morning.
Aquen read it at the meeting and set it down with the expression he used for things that were straightforward in execution and significant in implication.
"The clinic expansion." He said. "Renna is requesting three times the current floor space. Separate examination rooms. A dedicated preparation area for compound medicines. Expanded pharmacy storage."
"And the lease rate." Favio said.
"She's proposing it herself." Aquen said. "Which is either very confident or very reasonable."
He read out the number.
Elder Elka nodded.
Favio nodded.
Aquen looked at me.
I was looking at the construction plan Renna had attached to the request. Detailed, accurate about the space requirements, the layout efficient in a way that suggested she had been thinking about it for longer than one night.
"Build it." I said. "This week."
Aquen wrote that down.
"The rate." He said.
"Approved." I said.
The council moved on.
Renna had seven new staff starting Monday and a clinic three times the size of the original by Friday.
Eryndor's medical capacity tripled in a week.