The Principal's Office**
Chen's chair creaked as he shifted under the principal's scrutinizing gaze. Across the desk, Vice Principal Han stood with her arms crossed, while Mr. Yu—Chen's math teacher—flipped through a stack of papers with a frown.
"Chen Li Huang," Principal Wu began, steepling his fingers. "Your recent academic performance has been… *unusual*."
Chen swallowed. "Unusual?"
"From failing marks to perfect scores overnight," Mr. Yu cut in, tapping Chen's last three quizzes. "No corrections. No mistakes. As if you *memorized* the answer key."
Vice Principal Han's lips thinned. "Several students have raised concerns. Cheating allegations are serious."
Chen's fingers dug into his knees. He'd expected suspicion, but this? A full interrogation?
Principal Wu slid a blank sheet and a pen toward him. "Let's settle this now. Solve these."
The equations were brutal—advanced calculus, organic chemistry formulas, even a full cell diagram. The kind of material even top students struggled with.
Chen exhaled.
Then his pencil moved.
---
The Test**
Numbers flowed like a river Chen had learned to navigate. Chemical structures assembled themselves in his mind with eerie clarity. The cell's organelles? He could *see* them, as if Listra's café blackboard had imprinted the knowledge directly into his brain.
He didn't just answer.
He *explained*.
Margin notes detailed mitochondrial functions. Side calculations proved formula derivations. When he finished, the silence in the room was thicker than Gregory's cleaning syrup.
Mr. Yu picked up the paper, scanning it with widening eyes. "This is…"
"Impossible?" Chen offered weakly.
"*University-level*," Mr. Yu corrected, stunned.
Vice Principal Han snatched the sheet, her frown deepening as if hoping to find invisible ink. Principal Wu simply leaned back, studying Chen like a puzzle.
"*How?*"
Chen chose his words carefully. "I had a… really good tutor."
The principal exhaled. "Well. Unless someone's accusing your *tutor* of cheating—" He shot a pointed look at Vice Principal Han. "—I think we're done here."
As Chen left, he caught Min Rui's shocked stare through the office window.
His shadow, unnoticed by anyone, gave him a discreet high-five.
---
The Secret Ingredient**
Back in the tavern, Chen hunched over *Roots from Stone* in the café's storage room. The worn pages detailed a basic awakening potion—boiled moonwater, crushed starlight root, a drop of phoenix ash (optional, *highly volatile*).
Then he spotted it.
A yellowed sticky note tucked near the appendix, scribbled in messy handwriting:
**"P.S. Add a pinch of DREAMSHROOM SPORES (found in cellar moss). Boosts potency x10. Don't ask how I know."**
Chen blinked. Dreamshrooms? Those glowing mushrooms Listra used in the "Deep Sleep Blend" tea?
He crept into the cellar, where bioluminescent moss clung to the walls. Carefully, he scraped a few spores into a vial.
The potion simmered in his makeshift cauldron (a repurposed espresso machine). When he added the spores, the liquid erupted in a kaleidoscope of colors before settling into a swirling, opalescent brew.
Chen hesitated.
Then drank.
---
The Awakening**
Fireworks exploded behind his eyes.
No—*stars*. Whole galaxies, unraveling in his veins. His bones hummed. His skin prickled as if brushed by phantom wings.
When the world snapped back into focus, Chen gasped.
The café was *alive*.
He could *see* the magic—threads of gold weaving through the floorboards, shimmering auras around each teacup, even Gregory's bristles pulsed with faint energy.
Listra burst in, her four arms braced against the doorframe. "What in the *roots* did you just—"
She froze.
Her eyes locked onto Chen's hands, where faint, glowing veins pulsed under his skin before fading.
"…No." She stepped closer, her voice hushed. "You didn't."
Chen flexed his fingers. "S-grade roots. Maybe higher."
Listra's face cycled through shock, dread, then fierce protectiveness. "Tell *no one*. Not Gregory. Not the customers. *Especially* not the upper-floor scouts."
"Why?"
She gripped his shoulders. "Because people *kill* for roots like that."
---
Listra's Past**
That night, Listra broke out the good nectar—a bottle older than Chen's country.
"My mentor," she began, swirling her glass, "was a wildwalker like you. Found the tavern at sixteen. Barely had F-grade roots."
Chen sipped his (heavily diluted) drink. "What happened?"
"He stayed." Her smile was bittersweet. "Bought a crumbling potion shop. Taught himself enough magic to keep the lights on. Took in a runaway cloud-sprite with attitude problems—" She gestured to herself. "—and turned this place into *home*."
She traced the rim of her glass. "He lived to eighty-three. A *long* life for a human mage. But for me?" A shrug. "A blink."
Chen's chest ached. "You stayed because of him."
Listra's glow dimmed. "The higher floors offer power. Longevity. But this café?" She patted the counter. "*This* was his legacy. And now—" Her eyes met Chen's. "—maybe yours too."
---
The Hidden Advantage**
Chen's shadow had become *scary* competent.
At home, it pre-chopped vegetables before his mother even entered the kitchen. At school, it subtly corrected his posture during presentations. And at the tavern?
It learned to *multitask*.
"Stop showing off," Gregory grumbled as Chen's shadow simultaneously wiped tables, sorted silverware, and folded napkins into origami dragons.
Listra just smirked. "Pay raise still stands."
But the real test came when Mrs. Lin from *Golden Lotus* slunk into *Huang's Heavenly Brews*, her nose wrinkled at the crowd.
Chen's shadow tensed.
His mother greeted her with icy politeness. "Table for one?"
Mrs. Lin opened her mouth—
—and Chen's shadow "accidentally" spilled a cup of (mildly enchanted) calming tea into her purse.
By the time she left, she'd ordered three boxes of cookies.
Chen's mother raised an eyebrow.
He shrugged innocently. "Must've been the ambiance."