"Ah, Melanie." Elise greets a tall woman of around twenty-five, with straight dark-brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail. "You're just in time. Sorrel here has made us all a lunch from his homeland."

"Oh?" She perks up at the mention of food. "Is he the one your messenger said that you wanted me to meet?" She looks me up and down, but her expression doesn't give anything away.

"Yes, but you can talk while we eat. Granville snatched the food away right before we could get at it." She shoots the chef a dirty look that rolls right off of him like water from a duck's back.

The chef in question waits until everyone is seated before placing the pizza on the table, each sitting on the wooden platter I made for them. Melanie and everyone that wasn't in the kitchen looks suitably interested, while those that were have already grabbed a slice or two of whatever looked good to them.

"This is called pizza." I announce to the room. "These are the most popular toppings where I'm from, but there are nearly as many different variations as there are types of food. Please enjoy."

"Hear. Hear." The baron cheers and takes a bite from a slice of meat-lovers.

"Oh, what is this sauce you put on the chicken?" Reinholt skipped right over the no cheese and went straight for the barbecue chicken.

"Barbecue sauce, it's a very common condiment used on meat, especially grilled meat." I explain. "So much so that outdoor grilling is generally referred to as barbecuing, even when you aren't using the sauce."

"I can see why." His dad says after taking a bite of a slice for himself. Looks like both of them are big meat-eaters.

I went for a slice of supreme, and 'pepperoni' myself. "This is close, but it's just not the same without the red color."

"I'll introduce you to my sausagemaker." Granville says. He's been trying out small bites of each type. "But, I'd like to know more about how you made that cheese."

"Stamens from bull thistle." I answer after washing down a bite with some tea. "It's best with sheep and goats milk, and no good for aged cheeses as it turns bitter after a couple months. But for something like this mozzarella it works fine. Nettle leaves work too, but you need a lot more of them. I typically use some calcium chloride and citric acid, but lemon juice or even vinegar are decent substitutes."

"Calcium what?" The alchemist asks, interested now that I've touched on her subject.

"Oh..." I draw the word out. "I don't know what the common name is. But, it’s a white powder, heats up when added to water. Uh... I think we covered this in class... Limestone!" I snap my fingers. "It's extracted from limestone with hydrochloric acid."

"..." She just gives me a blank face at the name.

"Also called muriatic acid." She shakes her head. "Okay..." I pause for a second to plumb my brain for memories of chemistry class. "You mix it with nitric acid to melt gold."

"We call it salt acid." She nods. "And, that calcium stuff, pickle crisp. But, you seem to know something about alchemy."

"Oh, I wish." I shake my head with a sigh. "I had a really bad habit of sleeping through anything about that class that didn't cover plants or the odd explosion. I don't even know where I pulled that limestone memory from."

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"You're some sort of scholar?" She tries to raise an eyebrow, but she needs a bit more work keeping them separate. "But, they let you sleep in class."

"Oh, I got in trouble for it -more than a few times- and my professor. Heheh. She'd get that exact same disappointed expression on her face. Especially since I would always rank at or near the top of the class when tested; I just wasn't interested in anything that didn't involve plants."

"..." She eyes me up and down again before shrugging and going back to her pizza.

"Give him a shot Mel." Elise roots for me. "Sorrel clearly knows what he's doing when it comes to plants. Just wait until you try this chocolate stuff he made. And, Holt. Do you still have that ball?" She holds her hand out for it. "He calls this stuff rubber, and knows how to make it, and make it better with the right compounds."

"What is it?" The alchemist examines the ball from all sides while squeezing it. She even goes so far as to sniff and lick it. "I caught the barest whiff of vinegar, but that's all I can recognize."

"Good nose." I rinsed it well, and even cast cleanse on it. "It's usually made with formic acid -distilled from ants-. But, vinegar is in the same group of acids, and I didn't want to distill ants."

"Eww." Amelia wrinkles her nose. "Please don't talk about bugs while I'm eating."

"Mhm." Melanie grunts. "Fine, I'll save my questions about that for later, but I want to know more about this now." She bounces the ball on the table. "You said you can make this better. In what way? And what are its properties, besides being stretchy?"

"Latex rubber is waterproof and even air-tight." I start listing off its major properties. "Safe against most caustic substances can be melted and molded into nearly any shape. It will rot, especially in its natural form, and in strong sunlight and some oils. But, this can be mitigated with a bit of alchemy. Rather simple alchemy that can drastically change the rubber's durability, stretchiness, and hardness."

"I want to know more." She declares.

"And, I want a partner to make it for me." I counter. "Rubber is extremely useful, but I have better prospects to pursue. And, frankly. I'm just not very interested in focusing on it."

"If this can do even half what you say it can, then it will make you rich." She looks at me like she just doesn't understand. "Why would you want to just hand that away?"

"Cleanse." I clear the pizza grease from our hands and bring out my dress shirt from storage along with that first painting I did by the creek. "These take me minutes to make, and already have a market. No one knows what rubber is, so it might take years before it catches on."

"This..." She peers at the shirt. "This is starweave. You can make starweave?"

"Almost as easily as painting your portrait." The sound of Elise's laughter rings out as I hand Melanie the picture I just made of her startled expression. "I can also make one of the best treats known to man, but that's a much more involved process. Though, very much worth it." I take back the shirt and replace it with a bar of milk chocolate.

"Oh, my." Her eyes dilate and a soft moan escapes her lips as the chocolate melts on her tongue. "Why even bother with this stretchy stuff if you can make all this?"

"I told you, it's extremely useful." I try not to roll my eyes. "Having a business set up to produce it would be better than just running off a batch whenever I need some."

"I'm in." She licks her fingers to get every last morsel of chocolate off them. "Even if the rubber is a complete failure. It's worth it just to be close to the source of this... what did you call it? Chocolate?"

"Yes, and we can discuss details later." I nod at her. "I just got into town yesterday, and don't even have a place to stay yet."

"We can help with that." The baron speaks up. "What kind of place are you looking for?"

"Oh, I do best with a lot of plants around me." I answer. "So, I was hoping to pick up a small farm, maybe by the river since the blight shouldn't be an issue for me. And, yes I plan to look into that, though I'm not sure how much, or even if, I can help."

"Very well, I'll have some people make inquiries for you."

"If I may?" William says from the other end of the table. "Most of my neighbors are very much willing to sell. If you can offer them a fair price, they'll make the deal in a heartbeat."

"Maybe you can introduce me to them tomorrow." I nod my thanks to the farmer. "At the rate I'm recovering, I should be good to heal Myra again around suppertime. But, there's still a fair amount to do, so I'll probably have to do another pass in the morning."

"Thank you." He bows to me and then Erick. "And, thank you Baron for letting us stay here."

"You're very welcome." The city lord smiles back at the farmer and his family. "I'm just glad that we were able to help out a little."

***