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“It… I am uncertain I understood. Could you explain again? How is water air water? How is iron water iron or air iron? I don’t understand.”

Joe blinked, a bit surprised. Air water? Water iron? Air iro… oh! Gas water, liquid iron… ah! No concept of solid, liquid, and gas? That’s…

“Hm… there seems to be a misunderstanding. There are concepts among my people. The words are gas, solid, liquid. Can you tell me what you heard with these words? Gas, solid, liquid?”

“Wind, earth, water. That is what I hear,” Gwenvair explained.

Joe nodded, “So gas is wind, solid is earth, and liquid is water?”

Gwenvair nodded, “Yes.”

Joe sighed, “Right… well, there is a lot of … man… there is a lot to explain. So… first… states of matter. Or… wait… atomic theory? No… too much… but…”

He suddenly seemed frustrated, and Joe looked back and forth to those watching before continuing, “Maybe just… states of matter. So there are many states of matter, but the main states of matter that you know easily are gas, liquid, and solid. Gas is the state of the wind and air. Liquid is the regular state of water. Solid is the state of stone, metal, and the earth. There is a fourth you know well, but it is rarer: plasma. Plasma is the state of matter of the flame. You can change the states of matter in several ways. One way, and probably the easiest, is with heat. The second is pressure.

“The states of matter usually shift from solid to liquid to gas to plasma with increasing heat or less pressure or both. They will shift the other way, from plasma to gas to liquid to solid if it is cold or with great pressure or both. So, in the case of ice, heat will turn it to water. Even more heat will turn the water to steam… or air… or as my people call it, gas. All things… well, pretty much all things, can turn from one form to another using heat and pressure.”

Joe watched carefully, and noticed that Gwenvair seemed pretty excited. Allanar seemed so as well and even though he couldn’t really read the Matriarch, she seemed quite interested as well. They remained silent for a bit until Gwenavire continued.

“That seems… impossible.”

“Really?” Joe was a bit surprised by their disbelief. Well… show… don’t tell!

“Allanar, are you able to control water any way you wish?”

Allanar quickly nodded, “For the most part, yes.”

Joe nodded. Hmm… then… “Can you form a blob of water here, between us? Just allow the water to float here.”

Allanar quickly nodded and turned to look at a spot over the center of the table. His face began to grow concentrated and a blob of water slowly began to form in the air in front of him. The water grew to about the size of two fists and then Allanar stopped and looked towards Joe.

Joe nodded, “Then, can you squeeze… no… wait… crap… incompressible… forgot about that! Then…” Magic though… would that? “OK. Go ahead and try, but this may not work. Please squeeze the water as tightly as possible. Do not lessen the amount of water, but try to squeeze it into a much smaller area?”

Allanar seemed to look at Joe with a bit of confusion, “I can try, but, it is not something I have ever done before. My skill at water may not make it possible.”

Joe nodded, “It might not be possible simply due to physics… but hey, all we can do is try. Go ahead.”

Allanar nodded and returned his gaze to the water ball floating before them. His face focused, his concentration returning which only increased, passing over into the territory of a look of constipation as he drove himself to accomplish Joe’s request. The blob of water wobbled and twisted, vibrated and stilled, but it did everything but compress. Joe sighed, but didn’t feel too much beyond that. He waited another few moments before bringing it to an end.

“Alright… it’s fine. Then, well… the easiest is to just bring in heat. Is there a stove in the place? I’m assuming in the kitchen?”

Gwenvair shook her head, “A device to help cooking? That is unnecessary. We have Cooks.”

“They are able to make heat?”

Gwenvair seemed surprised at that, “You need heat? Then… some cooks…”

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Gwenvair turned and made some kind of signal that Joe was unable to really notice. A maid came into the room and bowed quickly to Gwenvair.

“Yes, mistress?”

“Bring any able to generate heat.”

“Heat, mistress? Yes,” the maid replied quickly and left the room. In that time, Allanar continued trying to compress the water to his ever growing frustration. After a bit, he gave up in annoyance and threw up his arms. But, as happenstance would have it, the maid came back with three people in tow.

“Here are those that can use heat.”

The three bowed as well, and Gwenvair waved them over, “Listen to the eccentric and follow his instructions.”

“Maybe you could also bring any who can make something cold, if there is such a thing? Well… wait… you three, can you only make something hot? Or can you make something cold as well?”

The three… heat makers? Heat mages? Fire mages? … gotta think of a name… The three fire mages glanced at one another before the eldest spoke, “No. We cannot create cold.”

Joe frowned, then looked at the maid, “Then could you retrieve any who can ‘create’ cold?” Create cold… you know… my physics prof would flip out…

The maid nodded, “Yes, eccentric.”

Joe turned back to the ‘fire’ mages, “You cannot ‘create’ cold… everything is simply hotter or less hot. If you can control heat, then you can simply move heat from an object… that would make it colder… but… I’m not… never mind.

“OK. Let’s do this. Allanar, do not do anything else with the water. In fact,” Joe grabbed a bowl from the table and dumped its contents onto another plate before holding it up to the blob of water.

“Allanar, drop the water here in this bowl. Make sure it is completely natural water, nothing else. Do nothing else with it, OK?”

Allanar nodded, “Certainly, eccentric.”

Allanar dropped the water into the bowl, not a drop spilled. Joe then set the bowl down on the table and placed it into the middle of the table.

“Right, who can generate the most heat?”

The eldest raised his hand, “I generate the most heat.”

“Good. Please slowly add heat to the water until bubbles begin forming in the water. Allow the bubbles to form until they are about the size of a bit, maybe slightly larger.”

“You want me to boil the water?” The elder asked with a bit of a smirk.

Joe grinned, “Then you know of this. Nice. Yes please.”

The elder nodded, then turned to the water and began focusing on it. Joe saw the mana swirl from the man towards water, filling it. Other than seeing it fill the water then seemingly fade into the distance inside it, Joe couldn’t really tell what was happening or what it was doing. Gradually, the amount of mana streaming into it grew more and more until small bubbles began forming in and around the bottom of the bowl. Joe nodded, but then noticed that the man was growing a bit exhausted. Mana gone?

“Quickly, add your heat to the water. I think your colleague is running out of mana,” Joe called quickly to the other two.

They nodded and then added their own mana to the water. The water quickly began bubbling, the water boiling enthusiastically. Joe nodded and pointed at it.

“Here is the water becoming so hot, that it is turning into gas… or into air, as you call it.”

Gwenvair didn’t say anything, but seemed to watch on with avid interest. It was Allanar who seemed truly flabbergasted.

“How is that… possible! The water is… disappearing!”

Joe nodded, “If you can only touch or handle liquid water, then yes, it will seem to ‘disappear’ to you. But it is not, it is simply turning into air. Here, watch,” Joe quickly added.

He grabbed a plate that was the closest thing to glassware and held it up to the others, “See? It’s dry. No water on it, yes?”

The others nodded and Joe then quickly turned it upside down over the boiling water.

“Look, you will see water beginning to form on the glass… plate,” Joe pointed out before ducking to look up at the underside of the plate.

The other’s quickly ducked and joined Joe, placing their heads almost on the table’s surface. However, all of them were watching avidly as the plate began to bead with moisture, then drip from the water accumulating on the surface of the plate. After allowing it to become quite beaded with water, he flipped it back over and placed it on the table, swiping a finger through it before sticking it in his mouth and sucking on the water.

“See. Water. The water from the bowl is boiling… turning to gas… uh.. to air. Then it floats into the air and when it hits this cool plate, the heat in the ‘air’ water, gas water, is lost and it returns to being ‘water’ water… uh… liquid water.”

Joe ended his explanation and he watched as Gwenvair excitedly swiped a finger through the water and licked it. The Matriarch was much more cautious, but Allanar was just as enthusiastic as Gwenvair, quickly pulling bit of the water from the plate with his mana and floating it in front of him.

“It’s so… pure,” Allanar spoke, awed.

“Oh… yeah… right. Boiling water allows the water to become gas, but any pollution in the water does not become gas as it has a different boiling temperature so it will remain in the bowl. So, the water is purified if you boil it and capture the escaping gas water.”

OK… very … cool. Surprised about what they don’t know… but man… they sure know a lot at the same time… weird mix.

The Matriarch then took a taste of the water, but remained rather neutral in her expression. She did turn to look at Allanar.

“It is water?”

Allanar quickly nodded, “Yes, it is water!”

The people at the table continued talking excitedly, with Joe offering an answer every once and a while. The three ‘fire’ mages soon ran out of mana and the water quickly stopped boiling. This brought its own series of questions and interest, but Joe wasn’t quite sure how to answer it but with a simple statement about the lack of heat. The discussion continued for quite some time before the maid returned with another group of five people.

As before, Gwenvair passed them immediately onto him and he nodded at them before turning to Allanar.

“Can you make another blob of water… but maybe half the size this time? It will make it easier for the heat and cold to have an effect,” Joe said while holding up another bowl.

Allanar nodded and filled the bowl with a bit less water. Joe set the bowl down on the table and turned to the five ‘cold’ mages, “Right. Could you make this water as cold as possible? You may all do so at the same time, if you wish.”

The five nodded and soon mana flooded into the water in a massive wave from all five, then faded away into the distance once it was inside the water. Mist began to form in the air above and around the bowl, and Joe quickly pointed at it.

“That mist is the gas water in the air become liquid water because of how cold it is. That is mist. Allanar, you should be able to play with that mist… that water.”