Siren and Conni led Tristan off to the side. There was a cave just out of sight, with a cloth over the door. Unlike the map cavern, it was decently furnished, at least as far as caves go. In its center was a table with seventeen chairs around it, eight on each side and one at the head. There was a desk in one corner and above it was a skylight cut straight through the stone above. If Tristan’s sense of direction was accurate, they were directly under Conni’s little cottage.

A stairway was set into the back of the cave. It led to the surface, and if Tristan was correct about Conni’s house it would lead directly inside. Tristan was not sure if it was laziness or genius to build your house right over the top of where you work.

“Take a seat young man,” Siren said.

He pulled out a chair for Tristan and walked around the table. Conni and Siren sat across from him and when they had their seats, Siren removed a bag from his robe. Tristan watched cautiously as the warrior started removing various vials. The vials were all a smokey black and Tristan could not see what was inside them, they were all small so around thirty of them fit inside the bag.

Conni started talking while Siren set his experiment up, “What we are checking for is the capability to tell the difference between metal and nonmetal items. In the future, we may be able to use this ability to find metal. Unlike most mines in the Caldera, we don’t mine veins, we are digging up a deceased civilization. That means we often don’t know what direction to dig.”

Once he removed the last one, Siren folded his hands on top of the table, “Separate these between metal and nonmetal.”

Tristan frowned, but he complied. If he couldn’t see the material then he would just have to use his other senses. Picking up one vial, he shook it. Expecting a rattling sound, he was surprised to hear the light tinkle of a powder inside. His first thought was that it was sand, but he did not actually know what sand sounded like.

Frowning he set the vial down and noticed that the stopper had the number seven on it. All the vials were labeled one through thirty. He was not sure how that helped. Deciding to start with one he picked up that vial. There was no clinking inside this one either. Something inside was rustling, it took Tristan a moment to place it. Leaves, it sounded like leaves.

Leaves were not metal so he set it off to his left. That is where he would put all the non-metals. He picked up the number two vial and shook it next to his ear. This one sloshed, not quite like water, it was more dense. He went to set it with the leaves, however something felt wrong. It was like his gut was saying that the liquid inside was indeed metal. Metal was hard unless it was superheated. Tristan let his experience win and placed the liquid beside the leaves.

Glancing at the two older men, he saw Siren had a smug smile. He motioned for Tristan to continue, so he picked up the vial labeled three. This time it rattled, but it had an odd sound that he actually recognized. It held a dice, it was most likely made of bone or wood, probably taken from this very table. Tristan confidently placed the dice next to the leaves and mysterious liquid.

He continued in this manner, setting the things that clinked like metal in the metal pile. Tristan placed the items that were obviously not metals and that pile was significantly larger and about a third of the items gave him an uneasy feeling. There was actually a third pile that was filled with sand, or at least some sort of dry powder.

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Tristan had no idea what to do with these. He looked up helplessly at the warrior and shrugged. The only thing he was sure of was that the goal was not a random sorting of materials.

Siren sighed, he had been expecting better, “Young man, do you know how essence works?”

Tristan shook his head, so he continued, “Everything is made of essence, I can feel shadow essence and earth essence because my kern has the same essence. Normally, I would compare it to a magnetic attraction, however in your case that might actually be how it works. All essence pulls on its own kind, it is the current theory behind why we don’t see earth mixed with air essence or water essence unless they are physically disturbed.”

“What makes metal different from earth?” Tristan asked. The theory Siren proposed had to be wrong, as earth and metal essence naturally mixed. It was actually hard to find a case where they did not mix.

Siren sat in thought for a moment, “I don’t really know. The working theory is based on conductivity and oxidation. However, no one truly knows. All that we are sure of is that it is it exists and that people with reasonably tiered kerns are ridiculously dangerous with it. Thankfully all you need to do is tell the difference in the material, not why the materials are different.”

Tristan understood what Siren was saying, but there was a monstrous difference between a bottom tier zero and a peak tier three kern. However, that was an assumption based on their output. He was completely unaware of what the input side of the equation was, there was sure to be a difference, but Tristan still had a kern. It was shallow and couldn’t do anything, but it still contained metal essence.

Siren saw the understanding in Tristan’s eyes,” Please continue.”

Now that Tristan had an idea of what to do, he picked up the vial. This one was labeled eleven, he closed his eyes and tried to feel something, anything, but nothing. So he set it down and picked up a vial at random. This one was nineteen, still nothing. It did not help that he had no idea what he was feeling for.

Tristan was starting to lose hope. He picked up vial twenty-two, and there was a difference. It was odd and he only caught it because he was looking for it, however this vial was more comfortable to hold. That was a preposterous thought, as each vial weighed barely anything. It did give him an idea however, he set that vial aside and decided to split the sand into two groups.

A few minutes later he had four different groupings, but he still had no idea if what he felt really worked. So instead of separating by noise, he separated the vials by the feeling that they gave. This was an odd experience, vial two was placed in a different pile from the leaves, while many in his metal pile were moved over to the leaves.

In the end, Tristan had split the vials into two equal groups. He was extremely unsure of the quality of the job, but there was not much else he could do. The sand was the most problematic, as it had no qualitative difference that he could use on them. Tristan hated uncertainties, but it looked like his whole life would be based on uncertainties.

“I guess, I’m done,” Tristan said.

Siren raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure?”

“No, “ Tristan admitted. He wasn’t sure if he had done it right.

Siren sighed, “Well, which pile was metal?”

Tristan looked at the two piles and pointed to the right pile, “This one is metal.”

There were several things that led to that conclusion. First was that both the leaves and dice were identified and in the same pile. The second reason was that everything in the left pile felt uninteresting while the items in the right one intrigued him.

Siren grinned, “You’re correct.”

Tristan let out a sigh and picked up the liquid metal, “What is this, metal can’t be a liquid.”

Siren waved his hand, “Of course, it can, it is just rare. That is a toxic metal called mercury, it looks like melted silver, but it is a liquid.”

That was something new, another question came to mind, “How can you tell the difference between the vials when I barely can?”

“Oh, that’s easy, all the metals are marked with an even number and all the nonmetals have an odd number,” Siren said.

Tristan turned his attention back to the vials and saw that was indeed how they were separated.