24/07/2023
Hey All! Inkfort Press is excited to bring you Trouble Brewing: A cozy shopkeeper fantasy, Book One of Runes & Brews.
Trouble Brewing is the perfect read for anyone looking for cozy themes, shopkeeping, and a sweet romance subplot.
Romance? Yes
Cursing? Light
Violence? Mild
Gore? No
Shopkeeping? Sooo much shopkeeping!
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How does a coward live out his dreams of adventure?
At last, Theo’s found a way. Vicariously. When he arrives in Romuen, the grand City of Adventurers, his plan is set - establish his shop, and supply the heroes with all the alchemical wares and enchanted creations they might need. Even better, he'll do it for a fair price.
Little does he know, Theo's brewed up more trouble than potions.
When his fellow merchants come sniffing around with threats and thugs, Theo sees through Romuen's gleaming glass walls to the corruption hidden within. Before long, he’s caught up in the middle of a silent war he didn’t realize he’d enlisted for.
With a handsome adventurer on one side and his loyal companions on the other, he has allies. But he's the one that'll have to make the final choice - his dreams, or his safety - and he'd better decide fast, because his troubles are about to boil over.
Want to read? Get it here - https://geni.us/RnLaunch
Want a peek inside? Read below -
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Chapter 1
“Coming!” Theo shouted as he trotted down the—his foot slipped on the top step. A crate of potions careened through the air as he skidded the rest of his way down the flight of stairs.
Landing at the bottom, he laid on the floor, rubbing at his bottom. A small groan left him as he allowed his eyes to slowly peek open.
Bottles drifted through the air, regathering into his crate as his mother tutted at him. “Theo, what do I say about rushing?”
“Haste makes waste,” Theo droned, repeating the oft-heard lesson. He grumbled as he came to a stand, wincing with each motion. “Let me just—”
“Your mother and I can handle customers,” Theo’s father said, waggling a finger at him. A warm smile broke across his face, though. “You finish packing. Philos wants you up by first light tomorrow.”
“And take a dose of something,” Theo’s mom said, gesturing toward the crate on the ground. “You don’t want to be sitting on a bruised bottom the whole ride to Romuen. It’d ruin your first look.”
“A-Are they really glass?” Theo asked, palming a bottle from his crate, tracing a finger over the clear container. He took a tiny swig from it, the pain in his backside receding as the vitalizing taste coated his tongue. “I mean, the walls?”
Theo’s father chuckled. “Theo, your mother and I wouldn’t lie to you. They’re glass. I told you we should have taken him when he was little, dear.”
“And ruin a moment such as this?” His mother’s violet eyes sparkled. “Oh, Theo, it’s going to be amazing.” She pulled him into what must have been her hundredth hug of the day. “You’ll have your own shop and you can write to us and—”
A bell rang out once again. His mother stared daggers through the doorway. “If that’s Jaynor asking if we have anything for his ant problem again, I’m sending him through a window.” She stamped off into the shop, huffing.
“I should probably make sure we don’t have to repair anything,” Theo’s father said, patting Theo’s shoulder. “We can handle the shop. We did before we had you. You worry about packing.” There was a glimmer of wetness to his father’s eyes as the man followed his wife through the doorway.
The pit of anxiety returned to Theo’s stomach as he moved to pick up his crate again. He really was leaving Renwurd, wasn’t he?
Theo walked out to the back room, setting the crate on top of another in a neat stack by the door. He hoped Philos would help him pack the wagon in the morning.
As he moved through the motions of packing his supplies and double-checking lists, his thoughts turned toward his upcoming journey. Excitement and nerves warred inside him as he chanced glances into the shop whenever he could. Surely a small break from packing to help Mrs. Tilhind pick out some salves for her gout wouldn’t hurt.
As he approached, the door into the shop closed in his face. “Mom, stop reading my emotions!”
“Then get back to packing!” she hollered back.
Theo sighed, returning to his work. He wrapped a set of wands together with some cord and covered them with a cloth. He then puzzled over how to properly wrap a lantern he’d done all the inscribing on last week.
Something he hadn’t thought about in advance when making artifices to stock his new shop was that he’d have to protectively pack and then unpack each one. Why had he thought he’d just be able to dump them all into a crate and that’d be fine?
Sure, most of the fragile stock had some form of durability enchanted into it, but he didn’t want to test that against a bump in the road jarring the wagon and breaking a year’s-worth of prep work.
Oh well, he’d manage when he got to Romuen. Besides, he was nearly done, somehow. He spared a glance out the window at the darkening sky.
As the sounds of his parents closing the shop up for the night made their way through the back rooms, Theo finished up the last of his packing. He hadn’t been sure if he’d be able to do it all in time, and yet, here he was, done before dinner.
Sitting down at the table for his final meal with his parents hit him harder than expected—which had already been pretty hard in concept. As they finished their meals and made promises of writing and visiting, Theo helped clean up.
As he returned to the dining room, his mother stood there, offering him a wrapped parcel.
“What’s this?” Theo asked, taking it from her.
“Just a little something to keep our little boy safe,” Theo’s father said from behind him.
“I’m about to be a shop owner, dad,” Theo said, chuckling. His eyes widened as he opened the gift.
“You’ll always be our little boy,” Theo’s mother added, watching his expression with a bit of melancholy.
Theo ran his hands over the spellbook. He opened it, eying the silver runework on each page.
“Go on,” his mother urged, gesturing at the book.
“But this is—” He moved to hand the thing back to his mother.
“To keep you safe,” she said, tears filling eyes. “It’s just a Stunbolt. Nothing dangerous. Your father made it.”
Theo glanced at the book again, recognizing his father’s inscriptions. “T-Thank you. Both of you. I’ll just…” He ran a hand over the page, sending a pulse of mana into the runes. The letters glowed, a runic construct filling his headspace. His legs threatened to give out on him as knowledge and understanding flooded his brain. The command word Stunbolt sat there at the back of his mind, ready to cast the named spell at any time.
“I don’t know what to say I—”
His parents collapsed in on him, squeezing the life out of him. They stood there, holding each other, laughing and crying some more as they spent the night together.
Later, Theo climbed up the very staircase he’d fallen down earlier for his last night in his bedroom, still anxious, but comforted knowing his parents trusted him to be okay. Well, trusted him now that they’d given him a self-defense spell. It was the thought that counted.
As he lay in bed, he uncorked a sleeping tincture. While he wasn’t one to use them regularly, there was absolutely no way he’d be sleeping tonight otherwise. Excitement blossomed in his chest one last time before the potion took effect.
This was it. His first adventure.
https://geni.us/RnLaunch
