Suze locates a somewhat frazzled-looking Alexius, who muttering imprecations about bronze knives and artificing. He brightens a bit when he sees her and starts over, then sobers again when he catches sight of Bella's face. Uh-oh. He beelines there, with only the most cursory check for mals en route. 

"What's the bad news?"

"Your potion's fucked. I can kind of see how this might not have come up if you were testing it outside school with people who... weren't me, but I take a lot of notes, and I review them a lot, and what is written is not what I remember, not exactly."

"Godsdammit. I tested at least ten different volunteers and they all loved it, they couldn't have been shitting me...can you describe it in more detail?" 

She gestures at her notebooks. "I remember these about as well as I normally would unassisted, I think, except that all the gaps are filled in with details that feel like I remember them very confidently. And that's not what's written down, those details - I remember writing 'twelve' here, in letters, but you see it actually says 'fourteen', in digits, and I have this chart of Old French conjugations here except I remember conjugating a different verb in this chart and that verb is actually over here in a different position on the page. It's not - crippling, or anything, but it... doesn't work and I don't like it."

"Shit, I'm sorry," he says, automatically, without thinking. "I swear, I've been using this potion for two years and I never once had a problem. My affinity must've...must..." he buries his face in his hands. "Shit." He traded those potions to people he liked, people whose judgment he respected and whose trust he wanted to earn; now he has to tell them that he's all but betrayed them, in the first twenty-four hours of their time stuck in a deathtrap together. 

(It does not even occur to him to try to hide the flaw.) 

And here, in front of him, is someone he could have possibly befriended, who for the next five days or more will have a fucked up memory because he didn't do enough testing. Arguments like but ingredients are expensive and you used it yourself for a month before you even let anyone else try it fall flat, swallowed by the enormous hollow feeling in his gut. 

Alexius takes a deep breath. "I...I have to tell the others. I'll reimburse you the mana, a...after." 

"Thank you, I hadn't been going to insist but I appreciate it. I'm going to ask the void for a spell to cancel potion effects in work period, if I get a decent one and you spot me the mana I'll cast it for all your other customers too."

"Oh, good, someone's already told him," Angie says from behind him. 

There's no sign of either Zed or Alexei anywhere around her which, if it's making her tense, and it must be, she's showing no sign of. Her smile does look a little fixed, though.  

Lily sees Bella and Alexius from across the room in the food line, and notices that they are apparently both not happy. 

She drops her place in the food line and comes across the room. 

"What's going on?"

Oh thank fuck she's not hideously furious or threatening to kill him and hopefully not plotting to poison him like that one asshole from Orlando when he refused to...this is not helping. Alexius takes another shuddering breath. "Thank you. I have to go tell -" 

He nearly jumps out of his skin when Angie speaks. 

"Jeschrisfuck. Augh. You too? Memory problems?" 

"Not that either of them noticed, no. Alexei is down with a migraine, Zed is apparently hallucinating things that aren't there. They had Sara knock them out and she's sitting on them, now. There's more?" 

Lily produces her undrunk potion vial from her pack. 

"I believe I'd like to reverse our earlier trade," she says brightly.

Ah, there's the guy he owes an artifice. With... two other potion-buyers and a distressed look. Theun notes the table and goes to fill his tray.

"Bella noticed it was doing fake memories. Shit." He takes off the shield bracelet and hands it over. "I've been on this thing for two years and it's been perfect, people tested it, what the fuck...Bella, anything you need to speed up that possible potion cancellation, besides mana?" 

"Wouldn't turn down an escort to my void to do the asking, and I guess if it's in Chinese I might go faster at interpreting it with help."

"Done. I saw Theun in the lunch line, I need to warn him too." Alexius hustles over to where Theun is standing in line. "You no longer owe me anything," he says bitterly. "And in fact I owe you. Potion's doing fake memories and apparently side effects I didn't find in Jax... Bella's going to look for a cancellation spell and if you'll kindly do her artifice for her I will owe you a favor. Another one," he adds. 

He runs through his still perfect fucking memory for the other people he sold potions to. Checks it against the list of transactions he wrote down. Same names. 

While he's filled his tray we watched it escalate to 'nervous as hell' and then 'coming to him directly'. And... wait, did the blonde swap spots with someone else?*

"Ah. I should...  How'd this get past you?"

(*she did not)

"I don't fucking know I've been on this for two years." Deep breaths. "Not a single side effect, not so much as a mild headache, no false memories or I would have noticed in two years, ten kids and adults tested it back home and went out to buy more ingredients, they loved it so much. I drank it myself this morning and my memory's fine! It has to be an affinity thing, I knew it made a difference but not this much..."

"What's your affinity? I meant to ask earlier." Or. He thinks he did. Fuck.

"Myself." He notices Theun's expression. "You did not in fact ask earlier, in case you were wondering. You might want to write things down for a while. According to Bella it doesn't overwrite memories, just make you think yours is better than it is. Bella's going to look for a counterspell to end potion effects in work period." 

Aaaandd there's one of the empotioned sophomores. "Sorry, Theun, I need to warn the others." He trots off to deliver more bad news, and presumably refund mana. Considering this is the third hardest thing he's ever done, it's at least good for getting a tiny fraction of that mana back. 

"Yeah, go. I should talk to Bella anyway." He pauses for a second. This guy seems unwise, but he's handling the screwup gracefully. "...See you later, Alexius."

He puts down his tray by Bella and the other unfortunate customers. "Metamagic, right? I have a spell that can help get through big books to key information if the void doesn't really cooperate. It's a mana hog, but I can swing it once."

"Wouldn't hurt, if it's not feeling friendly, though it should be solidly in-affinity."

"Here's hoping. I guess I'll be trading for notes for morning classes, I didn't notice anything off until I started watching this table on my way in."

"It shouldn't be very bad, I think, if you didn't have a math class." She shovels mechanically through her lunch. "Let's get Alexius's room number or something so we can find him when we know how the void is feeling today?"

"After Mals I had Introduction to Probability. But yeah, that's a good call... Pfff, bright side, you're probably top of the list for a book ward now, if you want one."

"I confess that I do. Please tell me it's better-tested than the potion."