Rising early in the morning, before even the sun, Theodore began his day in a bedroom that could be said to be a little too big for him. Having but few belonging to fill the room with, the place gave off the feeling of being needlessly spacious.
Fumbling in the poorly lit room, Theodore found his way to his desk by memory and spatial awareness. Tracing his fingers across the surface of the desk, he eventually felt his way upon a cylindrical object. It was a brightstone lamp, one which Theodore promptly turned open, letting the magical light flood the room.
With the room lit, he moved towards the windows, opening them and letting in a breeze of cold morning air. Breathing in the air deeply, Theodore felt the grogginess of just having woken up leave him.
"Good morning," said Theodore as he spotted a small shadow scurrying on the ground near his feet. "Shall we go find something to eat?"
With those words, Theodore grabbed the brightstone lamp from his desk and headed out of the room. Behind him, a small, fluffy creature ran after him in pursuit. The creature was called Peter, the hare from the second exam. In the end, Theodore decided to keep it.
Together, the two headed for the kitchen at the other end of the building. Though it was officially part of a workshop, the building they were in was an extension built to serve as the living space for Elder Kalman. It was designed so that the elder never has to leave his workshop for anything other than the summons from the Circle of Mages or urgent businesses that he had to attend to himself.
On a side note, the room Theodore was using had previously belonged to Kalman. However, the hermit mage had since made the study on the second floor of the extended building his place of slumber, if he even sleeps, leaving the bedroom empty. Therefore, when Theodore arrived, the room was given to him instead.
Arriving at the kitchen, Theodore found the place to be already lit, a fire burning beneath the stove, and a presence working above it.
"Why, good morning, Theodore. Did you sleep well last night?"
The greeting came from the woman stirring a boiling pot atop the stove. She was the daughter of Elder Kalman, Fiana. While her residence lay elsewhere, each morning she commuted to the workshop to make sure that her father ate properly. With Theodore here, he too was placed under her care.
"Good morning, I slept well enough," Theodore replied mechanically, his thoughts on his schedule for the rest of the day.
Perhaps due to the desire to keep Theodore's identity a secret, for the moment, Theodore was not allowed outside of the workshop and the garden in its vicinity. He was not told this directly, of course. All he heard was that the Circle of Mages had ordered that he remain within the grounds until further notice.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Stuck within the workshop, there was only so much Theodore could do. Even so, if he wished to be ready for the tribulations to come, he had to use his time efficiently and do everything he can to prepare.
After breakfast, Theodore would tend to the garden. He was instructed by Kalman to do so when he met with the elder for the first time, with the elder stating that having a replenishable stock of raw materials is important for alchemists, especially novices, who would require a large number of materials for practice.
That being said, the one who taught him how to best tend to each of the large variety of plants and herbs in the garden was Fiana, who also happened to be the one giving him lessons in the alchemical arts.
Though Elder Kalman was his master on paper, the one who did the actual mentoring was Fiana. The truth was, it wasn't rare for elders to leave the training of their apprentices to masters working under them, but Theodore was unaware of that, and thus he couldn't help but feel some grievances against the elder. That is not to say that Fiana was a terrible mentor, however. In fact, Theodore quite liked her, perhaps more than he would ever like the absent-minded old man that was Kalman.
Once the garden was tended to, Theodore would have his lessons in alchemy. While the Demon Lord had dabbled in the art in their earlier days, it became unnecessary once they had mastered more powerful magic techniques, rendering alchemy obsolete. As such, the Demon Lord never kept too close of an eye on the advancements made in the centuries since.
For Theodore, this was an exciting experience, as it was an opportunity for him to learn things even the Demon Lord had no idea about.
After the morning lessons, Fiana would leave to tend to her other tasks, leaving Theodore to work on the assignments left by Fiana as practice. Fiana would return later in the evening to make dinner and to review Theodore's assignments before finally calling it a day.
Though his schedule during the morning and evening was fixed, he had some flexibility in the afternoon, especially if he finished his assignments early, which he had always done thus far.
(So far so good.)
After grinding down a bundle of roots in a stone mortar with a pestle, Theodore carefully poured the liquid essence squeezed out of the roots into a flask made of Aethervoid glass, a glass made of Aether-phobic sand, serving to keep the Aether within the fluid trapped firmly within the flask. Upon placing said flask onto a stand, he then extended threads of Aether into the mouth of the flask and began removing the impurities from the fluid.
While he was taught to simply boil the liquid by either placing the flask atop a small flame or by creating friction with Aether manipulation, he thought that doing it directly like this was faster. Although mages whose Aether manifested as threads were said to have good precision and control, Fiana surely did not imagine that Theodore could perform tasks of such microscopic scale with ease. It did not seem like she heard about Theodore's talent in the art of healing.
After purifying the extracts, Theodore sealed the flash with a glass cap, also made of Aethervoid glass, concluding his assignment for the day and allowing him to do as he pleases till evening.
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End of Chapter 32
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