I get up early the next morning and slip out of bed without waking the girls. I want to go see how the baking soda solution worked against the mildew. So, after getting dressed, I creep downstairs and out into the cool early morning.

"Morning, Sorrel." William is already up and spots me as I draw closer. "You anxious to see how the wheat is doing too?"

"Yeah, I wanted to see how the baking soda worked before I got started on mixing up the other treatments." I answer as we move up next to the plants I sprayed yesterday. "Hmm? The parts I treated are doing much better, but the blight is still going strong in the roots."

"And, you said the baking soda could be bad for the soil." William's expression is hard to read.

"Yeah, it's basically like adding salt." I reply. "A little isn't going to matter, but too much and nothing will grow. There are other leaveners that are good for the soil, but that's only one option. I have a dozen different ideas to test out."

"As long as they don't involve salting my fields." The farmer chuckles.

"Don't worry" I pat him on the shoulder. "I may not have been planning to work on large scale farming like this, but pest treatment was very much a focus of my schooling. I'll figure this out."

"Thank you." He nods. "We've dealt with blights before, but nothing like this."

"Yeah, it's an odd little thing." I pause to think for a moment. "Could you ask around, see if anyone has any plants or parts of their fields that don't seem to be as affected?" I'm mainly asking to give him something to put his mind to. "It might help narrow down my ideas."

"A few people have small patches that don't seem to be having as much trouble, but they're seemingly random." He answers right away. "I'll ask around though, maybe talk to some people outside the south wall."

"Thanks, you all know your fields better than I or anyone else ever could. So, maybe one of you already has the answer and just doesn't know it yet." I leave him with that and head back to the house.

I can feel that the girls are still asleep, so I sit down on the porch and start growing a large batch of all the plants I want to extract oil from. Luckily most of them are used as herbs, meaning I've long since collected samples.

Peppermint just happens to be one of them and since it can be turned into menthol, I figure I might as well give it a shot. It might be useful, especially if there is a cold going around.

By the time I sense Amelia stirring, I've got more than enough of each plant I need. And, far more peppermint than I initially planned to grow, but I started thinking about peppermint candies, and mint chocolate-chip ice cream. So, I just kept growing more and more.

"Mmm, why does everything smell like mint?" The blond troops down the stairs, her hair still messed up from sleep.

"Because I just grew way too much of it." I pull her in for a kiss. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to feel better too." She pats her belly after sitting down at the breakfast nook. "Only another day or two of this annoyance."

"Mhm, you want anything special for breakfast?"

"I vote for waffles." Apricot says with a yawn from the bottom of the stairs.

"That's fine with me." Amelia pats the chair next to her, beckoning the pixie over. "Thank you again for yesterday, you saved us a lot of time and effort."

"Mhm." She nods and snuggles in next to Amelia.

"Did you guys get everything done?" I ask over my shoulder.

"There are a few small things left, but it's nothing Roddy can't handle." She says while playing with Apricot's hair. "I'm just going to stay home today and read, you know. now that I have somewhere to sit that is."

"Hey, it's been a busy couple of days." I put on a faux-affronted look. "And, it's probably going to be another busy one." I add with a sigh. "I've got to test out a bunch of fungicides to see which works best against this blight. And, Melanie will probably be here soon wanting to play around with the rubber. Then I want to refine the music player I got started on yesterday into something that works properly."

"Music player?" Apricot perks up.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that's what I was making this for yesterday." I take out the spinning enchantment and give it some mana. "The first and probably easiest method to record sound was by etching it into grooves on a spinning disc. I have the spinning disc, now I just have to figure out everything else."

"Ooh, do that one first." She practically begs. "I hate having to bother you every time I want to listen to music."

"It's not a bother, Apricot." Finished cooking, I plate everything up and sit down next to her. "You're never a bother to us. But, if it'll make you feel better, I can spend the morning working on this. Might need to make a trip to Ro's later to pick up some more supplies, but I was going to get some enchanted locks for the shop anyways."

"Thank you." She gives me a quick kiss before tucking into her meal.

"Anything to make my girls happy." I say and then snatch a piece of bacon from her plate.

"Hahaha." Amelia cracks up laughing at the look Apricot shoots at me.

***

By the time Melanie showed up, I'd just barely gotten the prototype phonograph working. And was looking through the enchanting primer for how to include some sort of battery. Because, as we quickly learned when Amelia tried to use it, not everyone can control their mana the way Apricot and I can.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Is the first thing the alchemist asks when I greet her at the door.

"It is when a certain pixie isn't playing it at triple speed." I send a glare at an unapologetic Apricot. "It's the prototype of a music player I'm trying to build. It still needs a bit of work." I add when Apricot drops the speed down to one quarter.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"So, it's not supposed to sound like that?" Wild Cherry's 'Play That Funky Music' has definitely sounded better. I probably should have gone with something else, but it just felt right for the first record ever in this world.

"Oh, no. She's doing that on purpose." I breathe a sigh of relief when the song ends, and snatch the record player away before she can start it up again. "Would you like to give it a try, it's a good test of how skilled your mana control is."

I'm sure Amelia would be glaring at me for that line, but she's sulking upstairs. Try as hard as she might, she just could not keep the speed steady.

*Plllllaaaaayyyyyyyythatfunkymusiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccc tttttilyoudieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

"See Amelia." Apricot calls up the stairs. "It's not just you that sucks at using it."

A muffled "Not helping!" is her only reply.

"Like I said, it needs work." I laugh and put the phonograph in storage so Apricot can't fuck around with it anymore. "So, you're here a bit earlier than I thought you'd be."

"Mhm, just excited to get to work." She's practically vibrating in place.

"Alright, we can head over to the shop and get started." I turn to the pixie. "You want to come with, or are you going to pester Amelia some more?"

"Oh, she's already caught up in her book." Apricot lets out a put upon sigh. "It's no fun teasing her when she's like that. I'll come bug you guys, but you gotta play some more disco."

"Melanie, just let me apologize in advance for what you're about to be subjected to." I take out my speaker and start up the [Best of the Worst] playlist. 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees is up first.

"Oh, it's not that bad, you big baby." Apricot swats me on the shoulder and steals the speaker box from me. "And, you wouldn't be able to play this stuff if you didn't like it at least a little."

"It is certainly different." She doesn't seem to hate it, so that's good enough for me.

"It'll grow on you." I let us into the lab. "So were you able to get the lampblack?"

"Yes, it's in my pocket." Her hands reach forward only to disappear into nothingness. When she pulls them back, they're holding a small barrel. "I also got a lead on bulk sulfur, but it was for more coin than I had on me."

"Nice, remind me to tell Amelia about that." I take the barrel from her and heft it. "Yeah, this should be enough for now, but we need to produce this ourselves in the future. I'll ask Rozelle about that idea I had for the smoke catcher. But, first. Apricot, oh mightiest of magic teachers, do you think you can help Melanie with the storage spell?"

"Yeah, sure." The pixie shrugs. "If she can handle pocket, she can handle storage."

"Really?" Melanie lights up. "Oh, uhm. I, uh brought you these." She reaches into her pocket dimension again and pulls out a tray full of cookies. "Uhm, Sorrel said you like sweets."

"Well, at least he's good for something, the bacon stealing butthead." Apricot snatches the tray away before I get a chance to steal one.

"A word of advice: never get between a pixie and her food, they bite." I start laughing when the pixie in question sticks her tongue out at me. "Alright, I'm going to go over there, out of biting range, while she helps you."

"What are you doing?" She asks just a moment later when the smell of melting lard distracts her before the magic lesson even started.

"Oh, stearic acid is one of the two main activators used in rubber production, along with zinc." I explain distractedly while using the modified draw water spell to extract it from the molten fat.

The whole process working even better than I expected. I barely needed to add any lye to break up the ester bonds, separating the fatty acids from the glycerol. Like the magic itself is helping it along and only needed that extra hydrogen atom to fill in the glycerol molecule.

"I know I shouldn't be wasting lard, but I don't have any tallow and I sure wasn't going to waste cocoa butter. Most other plant oils aren't even worth mentioning. Why does all the really good stuff have to come from tropical plants?"

"Don't you just love when he just casually does or says something that changes your entire world view." Apricot laughs at the look on Melanie's face.

"That spell you made yesterday..." The alchemist is staring at me with adoration in her eyes. "That spell can extract anything as long as it's a liquid?"

"Yeah, I suppose." I nod. "As long as you have a clear image of what it is you're trying to extract. I explained this yesterday, didn't I?"

"Do you know what this means for alchemy? You have to teach me that spell, please." From the look she's giving me, I'm kinda surprised she didn't drop to her knees to beg. "Do you know how time and effort this can save alchemists?"

"Uh, alright." I go through the full incantation with all the hand gestures and everything. "Just focus on the essence of water for now, and try to pull it from the air. No, you're too tight there, just relax and let the magic flow. That's... better, but I think I can see why you had trouble with storage."

"Just let me guide you." Apricot steps in with a sigh and forcefully aligns the mana into the proper path. "Quit thinking so hard, it's bunching up your casting."

"That, how, what? Ack!" Melanie starts up a questioning spiral until Apricot shifts the spell to make it rain on her head.

"Better, now practice what I just showed you." The pixie goes back to snacking on cookies. "I'll help you with storage once you get that down."

"You know, I almost didn't learn that base spell." I say while handing Melanie a towel. "But, then I thought 'what if I find myself stuck someplace without water?' I honestly never imagined I would get so much use out a simple spell that I only picked up in case of an emergency."

"Thank you." She takes a steadying breath. "Not just for the towel either, for everything."

"Don't worry about it." I go back to extracting the fatty acid, more than a little embarrassed by her outburst. It only takes me another moment to finish separating the component I want from the lard.

"Is that the -what was it?- cow acid?" Apricot pokes at the waxy substance with a fingertip.

"Yeah, it was a decent haul too." I nod. "It looks I got nearly a fifth of the total volume. I'll separate everything else later, just use it to make soap or something. But, I've really got to get a contact that can supply me with some tropical plants; Shea nuts would be perfect for this."

"Anything that keeps you from wasting chocolate." The pixie says adamantly.

"We could still use the cocoa powder, but yeah, it feels like a waste to turn cocoa butter into rubber." Just thinking about it feels wrong. "I might try breeding some oil crops to see if can't get one that gives a better yield, but that'd be a much bigger undertaking than making dandelions produce more sap. Though it would let us use the extra oil to make the lampblack."

"Sorrel." Melanie says my name. "I'm sorry about before, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"That's alright." I smile at her. "I understand why you were excited, this little spell is going to be a big thing for alchemists. But, you've got to remember that I'm not an alchemist, despite my education covering a fair bit of chemistry knowledge."

"I'll try to keep that in mind." She bows her head to me. "But, I hope you won't mind if I ask you to demonstrate for the guild."

"Yeah, I guess." I fight not to sigh. "I was planning to head into the city for lunch anyways, we can stop by afterward. But, for now. Where's the zinc powder at? I know I saw some on the inventory."

"It's in the storeroom." She dashes off before I can say anything else. She returns after just a few seconds holding a small jar. "We don't use it much, so this is all we had in stock."

"That should be plenty." I set the jar next to the 'cow' acid, and place the barrel of carbon black next to them. "These two are the main activators, from what I recall. And, lampblack one of the main fillers.

"..." She opens her mouth like she has a question, but closes it a second later and motions for me to continue.

"Now, there's a whole host of accelerators and retardants, most of which are probably outside of our reach. But, playing around with these three and some sulfur compounds should be more than enough to get us started."

"How do you want to proceed?" She's all business.

"I think you should keep practicing your magic, but I was hoping that while you do that you could distill some oils for me while I process the raw rubber." I pull out the plants I grew earlier. "I'm trying to find a treatment for the grain blight, and these oils are all known antifungals. Oh, and speaking of that. Are you familiar with any leavening agents like baking soda, but made from ammonia, and what would it be... refined potash?"

"Those sound familiar." She tilts her head to one side and looks up at the ceiling. "But, I'd have to ask at the guild to be sure. As for the oils, I'd be happy to help. And, we already have some of those in stock."

"Perfect!" I say and then start laughing as 'That's The Way (I Like It)' comes up on the playlist. "Alright, you get started on that, and I'll see if I can't design some mixers while I'm working on this. Apricot, keep dancing."

"Hahahah, can do."

***