How did she keep the shop so tidy? Curious question indeed. A small warm fire was burning in the coal heater in the right hand nook of the shop where the reading corner lay. That is where the owner of the shop was currently, sitting in a padded chair reading up on basic alchemy, note pad in lap and several chewed pencils tucked behind her ears.

A dip of the book was seen as she glanced to the door opening. Golden eyes peered through ruby lenses at the visitor today and smiled. It was someone she hadn't seen in a while. Granted she had been busy with memory issues, avoiding statues and maybe feeling a little uneasy around him the last time they had met and discussed things. Her feelings though towards him, the fears and worries had cooled a bit with the time and the distance she had put between them.

"Hello Crowe. Welcome to the Alchemist's Fire. Please, come in, have a cookie and a drink and enjoy a comfy chair. How can I help you today?"

Closing the book she laid it and the note pad aside. Ammy stood gracefully, all hints of her former limping from the past gone, a gift perhaps from the memory loss and the karate training. The simple red kimono with white wild flowers decorating the fabric whispered as she moved to the counter area. Soon she returned to the reading area and sat a polished wood plate with several cookies on it in Crowes lap and handed him a bottle of mint iced tea.

Ammy returned to her chair and gave him a long, studied look. "Am I okay? I believe I am fine for the most part." a glance to the book on basic alchemy. "Mostly. Some things have come back to me. Family memories, some friends, some nightmares and heart aches . . ." she sighed. " but not the basic things I miss and yearn fo." her hand touched the book.

Ammy took a moment, composed herself and looked at Crowe with those golden orbs. "Now then what is this I hear about pain with you and Eclipse? Can you be specific?"

Her self sacrificing nature was never forgotten. Cry later, mourn losses later, people need your skills and you today That was her inner mantra for the past few days now.

Oh she remembered what they had felt, and more. She had many things was feeling keening for at the moment, but she watched him quietly and listened to him explain what ailed him and his mate Eclipse.

How could I make him understand? I can see it on his muzzle, plain as day. He's still struck with me, but it's not that feverish gleam in his eyes. A bit more sane this time. He's searching me out, trying to see if I am interested. I see those keen eyes.

Ammy shifted in her chair, took up the pencil and note pad she'd put down earlier and began to jot down some ingredients for a possible alchemical remedy. It was enough of a distraction for her to shift her eyes and hide them for now.

I don't have the heart to tell him it's not the lost love I mourn for. Would he even understand . . . how it feels to lose ones touch and connection with magic? Like the loss of limbs or . . . a dear love. Well perhaps he knows the second loss keenly. I'm to blame for that quite squarely.

She looked up from the note pad and gave him a soft smile. "I believe a modified Clarity of Body potion with some infused Monks Beard will help Eclipse in a genteel way and not harm the unborn pups. As for you and the pains from training. Elder Monk Tonic will work just fine. I can get both ready for you quite easily."

Ammy stood and moved for the counter. As to his offer for body guarding. She looked at three statues in the store. They looked similar to ones Crowe and Art had met at the Inn, but these were equipped with weapons and fashioned as warriors. These were her private, custom weeping angels for the shop.

"I have safety in this store, Crowe . . ." she put a hand on one of the statues and felt it pulse with a magic she used to have.

Turning she looked at him and stared long and hard at the man. How many times did she hear people in the past and the present offer this promise.

To protect me. To be there for me. I can't remember how many have succeeded or died trying. Do I risk this path again? Who am I that people so foolishly give their lives for? And if people were protecting me . . . how did I end up this way?

Her side flared up in pain for a moment as the black mist in her rolled again like an angry sea at the concept of being alone. Why was that concept causing her pain? Hands touched her ribs on her right side for a moment or two and she slipped them away as the pain left.

"Crowe . . . be honest with me on something. How . . . many people have tried to protect me? How . . . many are still whole and not maimed?" she asked sincerity.

She watched him hang back a meter then aproach and test a hug as he spoke. She killed a sigh of resentment before ever was born in her throat at how he acted. He had every right to be cautious and worried.

That other him, Raven, made trusting Crowes touch as reliable and safe as touching acid. I'm still not too sure, I have yet to see this 'other' body Raven has, but Crowe doesn't have the madness in his eyes anymore.

Ammy allowed the hug for now. Hearing the question of her limp she gave a nod.

"It seems to have gone with the memories. I still use my cane though but for another purpose entirely. As for a price on the two potions, consider it a gift Crowe. They are easy to make and if you are insisting on . . . being in harms way for me, it is the least I can do for you."

"I suppose you can body guard me at times Crowe. But I may need to warn you about being gruff around . . . my family. My mates get very protective of me and they aren't too familiar with you. So go light on the protective mood. Rather not have friends and family fighting over me." she said with a soft smile.

"Now I'll be just a moment." she went into the laboratory behind that smokey glass gray wall and slipped right through the glass as the wards permitted her.

She was soon adjusting the Clarity of Body potion with some Monks Beard on one of the many tables in front of the glass. The best way for all customers to verify they were getting quality work on the potions and elixirs they ordered from her.

The wall of mage glass didn't zap Crowe when he it touched it as he had feared. It simply felt smooth like glass and hummed with power feeling very solid letting his voice pass through to her as it detected no arcane syllables in his words while keeping non-staff members physically out of the lab. Golden eyes looked up at his green eyes for a moment as she finished sprinkling in the final amount of powdered Monks Beard into an open bottle of Clarity of Body potion.

"The little stuff is coming back to me slowly. It's like working a large tangle of knots. You get a few untied and are left with enough string to get you started in something but then you run into another frustrating knot." Ammy said.

Putting a cork stopper into the bottle she began to shake the potion vigorously.

"And no, there will be no visits . . . to my home... I'm still feeling..."

Yes, dear what are you still feeling there? Have we even sorted out that tangle of knots even? Surrounded by loved ones you barely remember. Flooded by memories you have to swim through. Feelings that they should treat you like some strange woman instead of this person they all really love. Yes, is it really home yet?

"... feeling unsure on things Crowe. Things are delicate at that house. I am safe there, please understand that. This shop and that house have a teleport glyph linked to each other, so I never have to walk there, and often I use Andu's teleport ring to go to my rooms at Bristle Crios Coven. The only times I walk around are in the city, which I thougth were safe . . . until . . ." she sighed.

Until statues started stalking people and some person called the Ebony Knight picked me and those knowing me as targets. I wish I could remember why or have a clue to what this person has against me.

She sat the well mixed potion down on the table and began shaking another one already filled with the Monks Beard. "I'll have your potions done in a few more minutes Crowe."

The potions mixed, capped and sealed with red wax mixed with a scent of lavender and sandalwood to mark it as her own craft work, Ammy placed them in a basket. Hearing the words from Crowe and the confession that his love for her was running deeper an older than the assumed flirt she had thought of had her a bit unsettled.

Few if any have ever cared to look at me more than once. Why should they. Just another being mistaken for some Lycan or creature beyond the perect little box most considered normal. And all of that I drew upon just at how people react by how I look, canine all the time. Few others belonging to the Lupinossai that this body claims heritage to find me attractive either. Yet here is Crowe, saying he loves me even before he met me at that ball in the Humaran guise I recreated with my magic? A man with a wife and children alight with the flames of passion for me... that sparked one forest fire of madness already named Raven.

Ammy glanced up, allowing him to catch a glimpse of those golden orbs he sought so hungrily. Flickers of her thoughts perhaps glimmered in her eyes as she walked through the mage glass bearing the potions of need and sat them on the counter. She began to pack a few extra things. Cookies, some bread, and some wine, all for his mate and the growing children that had already born. Her gaze drifted back down to her tasks at hand.

He wants a woman already possed of one, no two mates now, with several children, who's heart belongs to others. How can I hope to make him understand that I love him as a dear friend, but that no embers glow for him in a passion that leads towards a bed, a home hearth or a family? I refused him once, twice and what became of it? A madman born in a new body bringing terror to the city. Yet . . .

Looking up as she finished packing the basket she put a hand out to him, making an effort to extend some sort contact on her part. "The potions are done, and I've included a few extra's for Eclipse and the children at no charge. But don't go just yet Crowe. The potions need to sit a bit more and settle in with the mixtures I've done. I've missed talking with you."

. . . was it ever really Crowe that hurt me?

Ammy let him hold her hand but was cautious. This was still very dangerous ground. He's been hurts, she's been hurt, hell her husband has threatened his life, she wasn't sure what Eclipse may have said or think if anything has been discovered or mentioned of this yet to her. But they were adults, this was her shop and she could afford just a sliver of humanity to him.

"Come, sit down." She took from the counter two bottles of Wolf's Bite and carried them with her. She'd pay the till herself later.

She handed Crowe one of the Ammy shaped bottles of legal white lightning when had a chance to sit down.

"Look, Crowe. You seem to love me. It's very apparent. Let me be honest . . ." she opened her bottle and took a swig of the rye whiskey and it burned like fire. That deer can make fine good hooch.

"You are attractive. You can be caring to a fault and a bit overbearing with it Crowe. You make a fine man for any woman, and you have that woman. You have Eclipse. You've given her wonderful children. I see this and wonder why you are sniffing around my tree? You can see I have two very happy mates who I have given children to. Happy children. Yes, we have troubles. Families are like that, maybe ours dip deeper into those waters than some others, but we pull through. I am very happy with my mates as well." sipping a bit more rye, she sit her warming golden gaze right on his chocolate browns.

"I think Crowe, it's really not what I have to say or ask, but what do you have to say or ask? I am beginning to see that deep in you, you are not the one that every harmed me that night. Lust . . . lust and desire harmed me that night Crowe and curiosity. They make a trinity that will drive any man or woman to do many foolish things." she looked at the bottle for a long moment.

"I speak from experience."

Ammy took another burning swallow of rye and nodded to Crowe.

"Yes. Experience. Lust can do more than just make you want someone for love. It can make you want power and knowledge best left alone too. But in the love department . . . " she shifted the black mist, a few fleck of memory dust came up as her prize.

"I've fallen in love before with others even though I should've known better. Been there when curiousity drug it's nails under fur and skin and hooked deeply around my bones and not let me go. How do you think I came to serve a Lich King once? I was in lust for his power and oh he had quite a handsome form and smile that made desire and curiosity join hands in moving into that relationship. It took time to get out of that situation. I feel I am still not out of it . . . that someone out there is a result of it."

Another long swallow, the whiskey was giving her the courage to be open with Crowe. "That trinity is also one reason I now have two mates, Crowe. Two mates, that for lack of better recall I get the feeling have driven me close to insanity or bliss depending on the day, for know this . . ." she leaned forward towards him, golden orbs intent behind those ruby lenses.

"I was a very happy woman, well satisfied with my husband, Fleet. He made me want for nothing. Took care of me when he could and loved me in many ways and yet I found myself in your exact paw prints Crowe. Finding love in another person. And you know what I did? I did what I did best then. What I always seemed to do. I took what I wanted and loved her. I loved Mirius. Now I have her, another mate, but truly, deep inside, I can tell that even though she is deeply in love with me Crowe, she has much yet to grow and has fallen in love with another. Something I've allowed as well."

She sat back and fiddled with the bottle. "I can't grab her heart tightly or it will die, nor can she hold mine so tightly either, nor can Fleet. We are in a mutual relation of give, take, give, take. It is a cycle that can be sweet or vicious and requires all sides to be tried by fire and threaded with steel to the core to withstand the trials of love, hate, fear and worry."

Her eyes settled on him once more. "This is the situation, and the waters you are starting to swim in Crowe."

Ammy felt those fingers on her cheeks, heard his words and could the breath on his lips and smell that rye whiskey on his breath.

Remember, it is resolution and resolve, not a spark of love or to misguide him. I can't let him be fooled or hurt.

She leaned back slowly, robbing him of any kiss, setting the half empty bottle of rye whiskey in her hand down on the coffee table by her. Hands folded her lap now, she sighed and watched him for a moment.

"I'm afraid this path forks, Crowe. Either choice is going to hurt for both of us. For me as I see the roots of love in you for me and those are roots that do not die easily nor do they slumber peacefully without a fit. For you a never quenchable desire and a constant doubting of yourself." she looked away from him for a bit.

I hate being so observant, and hard on myself. It just brings the worst philosophical sides out in me. Talk him down some. Soothe him a bit. He still is a friend. Friends still have a heart.

"Entirely forgetting what you have for me is not needed. You can still love me as a dear friend Crowe and just limit the love to that. To a close friendship and nothing that would harm your relationship with your mate or bring the wrath of my mates down upon your head. I find often coming and just having a good talk with a close friend from time to time a sound method for lightening a burdened heart." she gave him a hopeful smile.

Ammy watched him more. Watched those muddy hues of his. The eyes, always the eyes were watched, the windows to the soul and mind lending to her insight to what the other person thought without invading the mind with psionics or trickery. She saw he was fighting for the right path, the path she had left obscure, scattered clues about.

Listening to his words, she dipped her head for a bit, closed her eyes and put herself into her own thoughts for a long moment. A minute passed as the grand father clock in the shop ticked by every second of silence. Then she spoke.

"You are welcome Crowe. I will be here as well . . . and I know that there is a path we have walked, you and I, perhaps covered in thorns now. I pray it never need be walked down again . . . but I cannot with absolute certainty say we wont." her golden orbs looked at him.

"I know my life and soul too well Crowe. I know my history too well. Too well. A Phoenix is powerful, looks pretty, is sought after . . . but in the end." she looked away from him and out the window for a long moment. "It brings fire, destruction, rebirth and a new beginning. Those that can weather the rebirth are counted valuable beyond belief, purified and refined, those that cannot are burned to ash and mourned for but a second and forgotten . . . perhaps that is why it is a curse for a Phoenix to love."

Ammy stood up with him and gave him a soft smile.

"You are welcome here, anytime Crowe. Do not feel like a stranger and don't hide your worries from me. You'll have a listening ear and a friend here waiting for you. I do hope the potions I made for you will exceed your expectations." She said to him.

She watched Crowe standing there. Watched a man coming to terms with many things. She hoped he was strong enough to endure the paths he'd been walking, for the sake of his children and wife.