-What the hell were you trying to do? - I asked, turning back to her.

She was slumped back on the floor, sitting and staring right at me. Right, I definitely did not look… presentable. At least she was not screaming bloody murder, so that was a plus…

-W-what do you want?

I rolled my eyes.

-I want to know why are you trying to blow up a part of the castle. With this much infused material, if that fire was to spread…

I don’t think she was listening. Her eyes were still a bit too wide for me to consider her as “stable”.

-Eh… just calm down. I know my face does not exactly look peaceful nor reassuring right now, but…

-Wait… that voice… is that master Mor…?

Oh. So she recognized me?

-Well, I wouldn’t call myself “master” but yeah.

-I’m sorry… it’s just… one of my experiments…

-Yeah, no, I’ve been watching you - I immediately said. - I wouldn’t call that one “an experiment”.

She clearly looked distraught.

-I don’t know what you’re talking about…

-Eh… It’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this, and let me tell you, an obsession like this is not healthy. But that’s your problem to deal with…

-I… I… thank you for the assistance - she finally said - but what are you doing here?

-Talking a walk - I simply said. - The smell lured me here.

-Smell…? Ah. I kind of forgot…

-How do you forget that much of a stench…?

-I do live here, so…

As she was saying that, she pointed towards the furthest part of the room, where the window would normally be.

Here, it was covered with another set of shelves, between which there was a small bed sandwiched.

-Hm. Well, maybe. Anyway, sorry for intruding, I’m going to leave you now. Just be careful.

She was still shaken, silently sitting on the ground.

-Ah. I almost forgot. - I said as I was about to leave. - Don’t try using magic again. Or, I mean, you can’t. There’s been some… changes.

-What do you mean? - she asked, standing up. - I can’t…?

-Well, just go meet with your boss… I mean, with For. She’ll explain it and most likely will grant you the permission once again.

-Oh. But… What about my work…? I can’t exactly just leave it and I need to… I guess I can use fire again…

She gestured towards the desk.

-I can’t really help you, I also can’t use magic right now. So you’re on your own. But are you really going to try blowing up the room again?

-I never wanted to! It’s… I told you, that was an accident.

-Suure… The clear pyromaniac tendencies were an accident. Of course.

She suddenly got defensive.

-The “pyromaniac tendencies” as you nicely had put it, would’ve never surfaced again if not for that large fire! I wanted just a tiny flame, just like a candle… but…

-Ah, so that was supposed to work like that… - I nodded. - Strange that you used infused water for that… I mean it was definitely very flammable…

-It was not just the infused water - she quickly said, happy that I somewhat changed the subject. - It’s a concoction of my own production. While it is based on water, there are a lot of other ingredients mixed in, all to boost the mana.

-Mhm… that’s why I feel warm… - I muttered, looking at my hand, a bit bright.

-I am thankful that you’re worried about me, but are you alright yourself…? You did put a hand inside the fire…

As she said that, she gazed at my hand, and overall at my whole crystal body.

-I guess that thing has spread… - she muttered. - I am sorry…

-Sorry? That’s not your fault, I did that to myself… - I waved her off. - Or… well, there have been a lot of things happening to me lately.

She nodded, clearly not convinced.

-Anyway… what are you trying to do here? - I asked, looking at the herbs and the pot filled with what I thought was infused water.

-Ah! Right! Since you’ve shown up with that pure water and the potion, I have been trying to replicate it. Especially now, since we’re a bit low on manpower…

-No wonder you have that much infused stuff here… But I don’t think that you’re going to be able to reproduce that. I fear that the main part was just the infused water, and yours seem… hm.

I wanted to say that the water she had was not powerful enough, but while it was the case with some of the bottles here, few of them were definitely even more infused than the water from “the bowl”. Especially the one which got set on fire just a moment ago. If she was to use that…

-I changed my mind. It might be possible. With those… - I pointed to the purple liquid. - That’s powerful stuff.

-I mean, sure, that’s powerful stuff, but I fear that this one is not good…

-Why? It definitely has a lot of mana…

-Of course. I think it has about 70…? I think. But sadly, it’s not edible.

-Ahh… well, that definitely is a problem.

-Yes. But I was able to make something else! - she announced excitedly. - This - she quickly grabbed a small vial from one of the shelves - is a very similar concoction, although even more powerful! This small vial has almost 80! I managed to make one vial just yesterday, but had to wait till today so the ingredients mature.

She was clearly in her element. Explaining how some different herbs needed to be dried the exact amount of time, with proximity to other herbs or some items even. She already forgot about the whole “master” thing.

Even for me it sounded a bit insane, but I have never been good at alchemy, nor I even was remotely interested in it, so I just was nodding, half-listening.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

-But today nothing’s been going well for me… First the heating crystal went cold on me, magic got blocked, then the fire…

-Heating crystal? I’ve not heard of…

I took a closer look at the crystal in question, but couldn’t find anything that would tell me what it actually was.

-Oh, it’s just a piece of red crystal that has a bit of mana trapped inside - she quickly explained. - It’s one of my creations.

-You made this?

-Yep. It was an accident, but a useful one.

-Accident?

-It was more a spell going wild - she explained. - I was using a regular red crystal to… burn something, and MIGHT have poured a tiny bit too much mana into the spell…

-Who the hell even lets you handle fire magic…

-I said it was an accident! - she said, ashamed.

-Mhm… not my problem anyway. So, what happened?

-Er… it blew up. From inside.

-And yet it’s still in one piece? - I asked, looking closer at the crystal.

-I neve said that’s all of it that I am using… And it didn’t exactly completely explode… it was more like a condensed blast…

-Now you’re making me curious.

-It’s like… I felt the mana swell inside and fill the crystal, but since I poured too much, it couldn’t handle it all and had to escape somewhere… so the crystal cracked.

She picked up the stone and turned it upside down.

On the side there were a bunch of cracks with some pieces missing.

-Some pieces shot off, and as they did, this little hole formed.

Right. As she explained, I did notice the small crack that made a hole that looked like it was pretty deep.

-And from it, a gush of flame shot, expelling the remaining mana. That also made me realize that that thing was hollow. I am sure that’s why it failed in the first place.

-A second-hand mana crystal? Well, that’s possible - I muttered.

-But that was also a blessing in disguise! Later, I was… er, experimenting a little bit. And might have poured a bit of one of my mixtures to the hole, to see what happens…

-And?

-And nothing happened. At least at first. But then, the stone started heating up. It looked like the mana from the mixture was getting absorbed by the stone and used up in some kind of a fire spell.

-Right… it was a red stone to begin with…

-Mhm… and that’s when I realized that it might be handy for my other experiments. I started testing it with different amounts of mana and different liquids. Depending on the purity of the substance, it can even heat up so much as to boil the water. I did try it with other things as well, like mana fruit, or some dried infused herbs, but water worked the best. Later, I ended up dubbing it “heating crystal”.

-Quite unremarkable. But definitely useful.

-Right?

-And no wonder that water worked the best. It is the cleanest form of mana…

-If you say so… Well, in any case it does not work any more… I thought that it might have been an issue of lack of mana, but it seems like it’s not the case.

-Do you need to activate it or something? - I asked. - It probably is still the case that it lacks the mana, but if you now also can’t activate it…

-It might be the case… I need to get my magic back as soon as possible then!

Listening to her, I was thinking if it was even a good idea to let her use magic here again.

Judging from what I’ve seen, she was a bit too unstable for my taste: what if she was to start yet another fire? If she’s able to use fire magic again, and the rock is not working… It’s almost certain she’d want to replace it with some fire spell. And I’ve already seen what she was about to do when the fire was involved.

-Er… Are you sure it’s a good idea? I mean… you, handling fire…?

-I already said I can handle it. I am used to it! I mean, I am used to it, sir.

Ha. I guess my worries about safety brought her back to earth and reminded her of who I was.

-I don’t know about that. Maybe before we let you have full control, you can just work without it?

-Without magic? - she seemed less worried but more disappointed. - But without that I cannot do any experiments.

-What do you exactly need?

-Heat. If the heating crystal doesn’t work, I need to replace it with something, like a fire spell.

-What about that bottle…

-Well, I still cannot light it without magic…

-But you did. Even set the whole table on fire in the process.

-Right… the stone… It did produce the sparks! - she finally realized. - Is it scratched?! Did it crack?!

That was not the direction I thought she was going to go.

She was now frantically inspecting the stone, looking for, I guess more cracks?

-Come on, the thing is cracked already, it’s not like…

-I am sorry, but I can’t risk it again! I mean, it would definitely be possible, but I can’t risk destroying it even further…

-Eh… well, whatever. Don’t you have any other stones?

-This room is full of delicate equipment, I don’t really have any rough tools like that laying around.

I paused for a second.

-Ah, what the hell - I shrugged. - Come on, get that mana candle out or however you want to call it.

-Mana candle…? Ah the bottle!

-Yeah. How do you call this thing?

-Er… I didn’t really have a name for it. But I like yours. But… Why, though? I thought you said you also can't use magic…

-I am not planning on it. Get it a bit lower, to the corner of the table.

Still not understanding, he looked at me with curiosity, but did what I asked her for.

I took a good look around, to see if there were any flammable surfaces or items nearby, being especially vigilant for the spills of the purple liquid, or any other as a matter of fact.

There were none, as far as I was aware, so I just took a swing and punched the corner of the table as hard as I could.

I didn’t feel any pain, but made a lot of noise and produced a copious amount of sparks that almost instantly set the “candle” on fire.

-AH!

Yeah, I probably should’ve warned her beforehand. But hey, it was kind of obvious.

-There you go.

I placed the bottle in the hole, while at the same time carefully observing her for the signs of anything going… well, weird.

At first she was looking fine, more shocked with me using my bare hands to light the fire, but a moment later I noticed her stare right at the flame.

-Eise…?

She was no longer listening. Staring right at the flame, unmoving. Even when I tried and waved my hand right in front of her face, she still did not react.

I probably should’ve doused the flame and be done with it, but of course I didn’t. I instead wanted to observe what she was going to do. Not like there was much she could do, right?

That was not exactly the truth, but how was I able to know?

For a good minute, she just was standing there, watching the flame, not reacting to anything nor trying to move even. But, as I was about to finally give up and snap her out of it, she started moving.

There was no sudden movement. It was a slow, fluid motion. She almost looked like a cat that was stalking its prey, slowly getting closer and closer to the flame. She even got as close as to make me wonder, how was she not getting burned yet? Her nose was just about a centimeter away from the flame.

But as that was happening, she was also, without looking, reaching towards one of the shelves next to the table. It was quite impressive really: without even a single look, she managed, just using touch and, I guess, her memory, to browse through a bunch of jars and bottles and pull out a thick bottle, the size of my fist, with a thin neck, corked tightly. Inside there was some kind of… well, more of an oil than anything, judging by the way it was sloshing inside. It was also yellow in color and… glowing.

I honestly am surprised that I didn’t notice the bottle sooner: it had to be hidden somewhere in between other ones for me to miss this glow. It was not really that strong, but it somewhat reminded me of the aura I was giving out when I absorbed a bit too much of mana. Definitely was weaker though, and colored differently.

I expected her to try and pour it on the fire, so I immediately stepped forward and wanted to grab it from her, but, surprisingly, she was not doing anything with it. Just moving it from one hand to another, almost like she was contemplating something, although her face was telling me something else.

Right, her face. Since the fire started and since she got close to it, her eyes got so wide I could’ve sworn she had to take a sniff of something from her “incense supply”. The irises were occupying 99% of her eyeball, making her look definitely less than sane, glazed over, like he was not even present mentally.

As I was observing that weird movement, she then stopped and started moving the bottle towards the fire.

-Okay that’s enough - I said, finally deciding to put an end to this strange trance of hers, and attempting to grab the bottle from her.

That is also when things started going… weird.

Her head immediately snapped right towards me. Her eyes still wide, but no longer completely glazed over and entranced by the flames, now only focused on me.

With a movement faster than I’d expect of her, she slammed the bottle right in my face, shattering it and splashing it all over the place.