He woke up abruptly. Hair tangled over his face and neck. He shook his head and tried to brush the hair free, only for his wrists to yank short.
Wryly, Mouse turned his head to regard the chains around his wrists. Here again, old friends?
“Awake?” Cel yawned.
Mouse nodded. He tipped his head at the chains. “Help a friend out?”
Cel stood and wiped her eyes. She squinted out at the early-dawn light. “Been up all night, waiting. And then you go ‘n wake up just as it’s Dayander’s turn to take over…”
“Sorry my traumatic episode inconvenienced you,” Mouse snarked.
“Yep, that’s the Mouse I know. You’re back.” Cel crossed to his bed and undid the straps.
Mouse rubbed his wrists while she worked on his ankles. “Did I miss anything?”
“Not much. Just… Felix left you a thing or two.” She nodded over her shoulder.
He squinted behind her. A brilliant silver flame flickered in the fireplace. “Wha… wow. That’s impressive. Did he enchant it?”
“Gave us a little silver medallion and everything. As long as you feed fuel into the medallion, it’ll produce the flames.” Cel tossed the last chain aside.
“Damn. Now I really want to try making a potion over that flame…” Mouse muttered to himself.
Cel yawned again. “Be my guest. Can I take the bed?”
“Sure.” Mouse rolled up his sleeves and walked over to the silver flames. A faint warmth emanated from them, not enough to call heat, but enough that he couldn’t call them cold. He bit his lip and crouched in front of the flames, thoughtful. I’ll have to use ingredients that don’t need to cook down, or cook them down first before tempering them over the flames. There’s no guarantee it’ll work, so I should start with some cheap ingredients before moving up to the more expensive ones more likely to be effective.
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The bed creaked behind him as Cel settled in. Engrossed in his thoughts, Mouse didn’t notice at all. He drew out a cauldron and hung it over the flame, then moved over to his luggage and dug through the ingredients, carefully shifting his way through the tiny glass bottles and larger vials. Alright, to start…
--
The sun poured through the windows. Mouse crouched over the silver flames, absent-mindedly loosening the bandages with one hand as he leaned his chest on his knees. It’s really a pain in the butt, having these things on my chest. They keep getting in the way, they’re stuffy, they’re annoying… how do girls do it?
Carefully, he fed wilted moonflower petals into the steaming concoction. Despite their lack of warmth, the silver flames still interacted with the ingredients as though they were hot, to some extent. It must be the magic that fuels them operating directly on the ingredients, instead of the heat of usual flames. The idea of flames being baked into the magic must somehow impress upon the items it is acting upon the idea of heat… I don’t fully understand it, but then, I’m no theoretical magician. I’m barely a competent caster. Maybe Moss would understand, but I’m at a loss.
But then, I don’t need to understand how the flame works to brew potions on it.
The liquid popped and turned a thick silver, like liquid moonlight. Mouse stirred it with a silver stick once, then waited. All at once, he snatched the pot off the flame.
Silver liquid bubbled gently in the pot, still warmed by the false heat of the moonlit flames. The bubbling died, the steam fell away, and with it, the silver faded to gray, then black, corroding like iron before his eyes.
Dammit! I was so close. Mouse bit his lip. If I could get the pure flames, the original ones directly from Felix, maybe I could make it work. But then… He sighed. After everything yesterday, embarrassing myself in front of him twice? Do I really have the nerve to seek him out?
No, no! This is for the sake of getting my dick back. And the hot springs! As long as everyone but me takes this potion, the hot springs are no longer a problem!
He nodded firmly to himself and stood, resolved. Alright. Time to find Felix.