"Fuck!" I breathe out the oath before first light the next morning.

"You okay?" Apricot stirs and looks over at me with a worried expression.

"Don't tell me you still have that ward up?" I want to be angry, but I know she's just doing it because she cares. "I'm fine. It wasn't the wolves this time, just a city full of starving people. Because apparently, I don't have enough weight riding on my shoulders."

"Oh, Sorrel." She shifts to lay herself on top of me, her head resting on my chest. "You already know the treatment works; today is just about making enough of it and that's hardly going to be a problem for you."

"I know, I know." I stroke her back with my vines. "But, Like I told Erick. This started out as a puzzle for me, now it's this huge thing and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed."

"Forget about that huge thing, and think about this huge thing." She reaches a hand between my legs and quickly brings me from flaccid to full mast. "That's better." She purrs before sliding herself onto me.

...

The sky is starting to lighten by the time I finish inside of her, my worries washed away by our gentle love-making.

"Mmm, I love watching you two." Amelia says in a throaty voice from beside us. She must have woken up earlier and stayed still to not disturb us.

"Morning." I smile over at her in the pre-dawn light as Apricot collapses on top of me. "You feel up to a day of distilling oils?"

"Sounds fun." She deadpans. "It's not difficult is it?"

"No, you'll just need to run steam through the plants after I harvest them." I explain. "I'd like to just draw the oils out directly, but this is one case where my visualization works against me. But, I'd be surprised if you weren't able to do it after a few batches.

"That sounds like a challenge." She smirks. "I have to admit that it would be kind of nice to be able to do something you can't."

"There's that competitive streak of yours." I slip out from under the pixie and give each of them a kiss before casting cleanse and getting dressed. "I'm going to make a quick breakfast and then get started before the army shows up. I just hope this only takes one day, we never did get a chance to buy that cook set I wanted."

"Hahahah." Her trilling laugh follows me downstairs.

...

After breakfast, we head outside and the first thing I do is start growing another copse of trees. The extra mana regen they'll provide will be needed, along with some extra lumber for barrels.

I don't lose myself in the growth this time; I just keep it going with one corner of my mind while I get everything else ready. I'm just getting started growing dandelions to make more rubber for all the sprayers when several wagons come trundling up to the farm.

"Sir." The guardsman driving the lead wagon salutes me by pressing his right fist to his chest. "We have all the supplies you requested courtesy of Baron Pepi. I've also been instructed to teach you the farsight spell."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." I nod to the man before wave Blackthorne at the wagons and vanishing everything stored on them. "Thank you, guardsman..."

"Nicholas, Sir." He struggles not to goggle at the casual way I just used magic, or at the trees that are growing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Nicholas, then." I send him a smile. "Now, let's get that spell out of the way, so I can show you how the sprayers work. That way you can show the others while I make enough for everyone. And, no need to call me sir; I'm neither military nor noble."

"Yes... uh, Mister Sorrel."

"Just Sorrel, please."

"Alright, then." He nods and walks me through the spell.

"Huh?" A slight frown comes over my face. "That's not exactly what I was expecting."

"Sir? Sorry." He ducks his head.

"No, it's alright." I wave his concern away. "It's just that spell won't work for me, it works by collecting the light from far away and moving it closer through a mana conduit. What I need is a way to bend the light so I can tweak the spell to look at really small things."

"Ah." He nods. "There is another spell that we're supposed to use when spying on enemy mages, but I've never been very good at it."

"Show me." Apricot steps forward. "As long as you get close enough, I can fix your casting." He does so and then jumps in surprise when she wrenches his mana into the proper channels. "There, that looks like what you want."

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"Thanks, Sweetie." I bend over, and then over some more to kiss her because I haven't shifted back to my pseudo-human look.

"You know, it's alright if you want to shift back." The pixie looks up and up at me with a loving smile.

"No, this is my face, I might as well get used to it." I smile back. "And, besides. This way when the attention, which I'm sure is bound to happen, gets too much, I can just shapeshift to hide from it. Though, I still want to bulk up a bit."

"You are kinda pointy." She pokes my hip with a laugh.

"Mhm." I grumble and rub the spot she just poked. "I'll have to see if Ed can make me some heavy weights. Putting on muscle with this strength of mine is going to be a pain."

"Uh..." Nicholas hesitates to interrupt us until I give him a nod. "If you're anything like a beastkin, those in the guard have special equipment and a training regime. You may want to ask them."

"Ahh, thank you." I bow my head to him. "Now, let's see if I've got this spell down." I aim it across the river and can easily make out individual stalks of grass. "Very nice, thank you again."

"I swear your sensitivity is going to be better than mine soon." Apricot huffs.

"Have you been infected by Amelia's competitiveness?" I tease, earning myself a raspberry from her before she stalks off. "Alright." I turn to the guardsman. "The sprayers are pretty easy to use. I don't have the ingredients mixed up yet, but it'll be one scoop of powder, one ladle of oil, and then fill it up from the barrel." I proceed to explain how to handle the equipment and spray the plants.

"That looks easy enough, though I know a couple of meatheads that are bound to screw it up." He chuckles.

"I'll make extra sprayers in case some break." I say with a sigh.

"I'll leave you to your work then." The guardsman bows to me again. "I was told to ask if you have an estimate for when the first batch will be ready."

"I have to build the sprayers and barrels first, so at least an hour." I hand him the four sprayers I have right now and get down to work.

The next hour was likely the most exciting part of what is bound to be a tedious day. Wash the sap from the dandelions, turn it into rubber parts for the sprayers. All while converting the pearlash into baking pearl and growing the first of many, many crops.

Then came making barrels and growing a bacterial soup in them after Amelia filled them with river water in-between distilling the horticultural oils with conjured steam.

Erick showed up with Colonel Baca just before the one hour mark. "Nice touch." The military man says with a smile for the pictograph instructions I added to each sprayer.

"Thanks." I nod to each man in turn. "We're getting into a good groove on production now that the preliminary steps are taken care of. The first batch will be ready for Apricot to deliver any minute now."

"Just topping off the last barrel now." Amelia calls.

"Excellent." Erick beams. "Hollen has his men at the southernmost fields right now. They're going to sweep up the river before spreading out to the east. Do the three of you need anything?"

"I'm good." I answer. "But, I'm sure Apricot would appreciate some sweets for her hard work. And, if you could send some water mages to spell Amelia when she needs a break, that would be helpful."

"I can go all day." She glares at me. "And, I'm getting closer to being able to draw the oil directly."

"I'm sure you can, and that's great news." I reply in a soothing tone. "But, there's an entire city of people who I'm sure would love to help. And, didn't you want to chat with that Struhl woman?"

"Well, when you put it that way." She says with the hint of a blush coloring her cheeks. "Then yes, anyone who can conjure steam for more than a minute at a time would be helpful."

"I'll notify the fire brigade." Erick's smile can be heard in his voice. "And, once again, on behalf of all Riverton, thank you for doing this."

"We're just speeding up the process a little." I am just not comfortable with the look in his eyes right now. "The baking pearl on its own could be made by any alchemist and would likely be enough to treat the fungus by itself. The oils and 'tea' are mostly just insurance."

"Alright, alright." He holds his hands up in surrender. "Anyone could be doing this, but you three are. That deserves some thanks, even if you don't want to hear it. We'll leave you to it, but you can send word with the gate guards if you need anything."

"Thanks." I nod at him and get back to work.

"Sorrel." Melanie comes running up not long after Pepi and Baca leave. "The city is buzzing with the news of what's happening here. They've got the gate guards blocking people from coming over and bothering you, I was only able to bet past because they recognized me."

"Nng!" I let out a low growl. "Any chance the excitement will die down soon?" This is exactly what I didn't want.

"Probably not, but it's not all bad news." She smiles and pulls a large clay jar out of her satchel. "Andy, the alchemist I was talking about, he practically gave this stuff to me when I told him who it was for. Said it was called Breme blue after some overseas city, or something."

"Mhm." I can already tell that this is going to be annoying. "Well, that's something, I guess. Now, I don't remember the exact formula, but..." I walk her through what I do remember.

"Sounds simple enough." She nods along. "I'll just experiment until I find the right ratio that dissolves the cotton fastest. I'm not sure what to do about the spinneret though."

"I've got that covered for now." I hold up a syringe. "Since the reagent would just eat through wood, I made this out of hard rubber when I was working on the sprayers earlier. I'll talk to Edsel about getting us some metal equipment once the process is sorted out."

"Alright, but I want the recipe for this too." She peers at the syringe.

"Linseed oil and a lot more sulfur." I answer with a smile for her obvious enthusiasm. "I'm hoping it'll work as a replacement for the music discs. But it tends to be a bit brittle, so we may need to experiment."

"Yeah." She nods while still playing with the syringe. "I'll get to work then." She practically skips over to the lab and uses her key to let herself in.

"I'm taking off with the first load now." A tiny voice says from behind my ear. "I'll be back soon."

"Fly safe." I wave to the pixie as she flies off.

Now that I can focus on what needs to be done, I find myself bored to tear almost instantly. Try as I might, I can't seem to slip into that fugue-like when I was growing that first copse of trees or the cotton.

Needing something to distract me and figuring that since I'm going to be bored anyway, I might as well write out all that math and chemistry that I promised Rozelle and Melanie.

"Can we get some music?" Amelia asks just as I'm breaking out the paper.

"You bored out of your mind too?" I laugh and bring out the record player. "Want me to continue recording the Beatles, or would you like something else?"

"Beatles are fine." She nods before sighing. "And, gods yes. I just wish I could split my focus like you so I could read while doing this."

"You'll get there, you just need practice." I send her a supporting smile and start up the music.