"Alright, I was worried about safety, so I worked with Sinclair to add a couple of features." I point to a pedal on the floor and a tall red lever connected to one side of the rollers. "You have to stand on that just to make the rollers turn, and the lever functions as an emergency stop. It will not only stop the machine but separate the rollers in case someone or something gets stuck."

"This is fantastic, thank you." She dips into an awkward curtsy.

"Thank me by telling me that the dye tests went well." I reply with a smile directed at Apricot. "And, that you can make me enough silk for oh... let's say a bedsheet."

"That I might need your help with." She admits. "Edsel recreated your plunger device in brass which is working alright, but I'm already noticing some degradation. The thing is fine for running the tests and making small amounts, but if you want a large quantity we're going to need something better. And, yes the tests went great; for the most part, it handles just like cotton."

"Yeah, brass is good, but we would need something less reactive like gold, platinum, or better yet, glass." I pull a coin and a spare glass pane out of storage and start feeling my way around them with magic. "This might take me a while. Just keep working on whatever you were doing before; I should have something for you soon."

I walk distractedly out of the workshop, my mind absorbed by a new puzzle. The glass feels like it would be workable if it was molten, but the gold has captured my attention. It is both highly conductive to mana and oddly resistant to it at the same time. Copper and silver felt much the same; there must be some trick to shaping pure metals that I just don't know.

"Having trouble?" Apricot prompts after I give up and store the coin away.

"Mhm, it's like the magic just wanted to pass through instead of affecting the metal directly." I shrug and bring out the leftover stone that didn't get used on the lab. "I'll ask Edsel about it later, but I'm going to try working with the glass now."

First off, I drew away any and all moisture from the stone while working it in my hands like putty. I'm going to be working with high temperatures here and the last thing I want is to create a steam explosion.

"The glass feels like it'll listen to me if it's molten." I explain. "But, since this is my first attempt, I'm just going to try for a simple mold."

The mold will create what is basically a mason jar with an upside-down U-shaped arm sticking out from the bottom. The spinneret will be at the end of the arm so it can sit inside the acid bath needed to reconstitute the cellulose. I'm also planning to attach an air pump to the lid instead of using an over-sized plunger.

"But first, a test." I encase the glass pane in wood before breaking it, I then take a large shard and place it into a makeshift crucible. "Melt and flow, my pretty. Oh, this is so much easier than metal, I wonder why Ed doesn't work glass himself."

"Maybe because he can't turn his skin to bark to escape the heat?" Apricot says with a laugh. She is sitting as close to the heat as I am, but doesn't seem to bother her at all. Quite the opposite, she seems to be reveling in the high temperature, or more likely the magic I'm using to create it.

"His loss then." I reply off-handedly, most of my attention focused on slowly cooling the glass flower I just made.

I can sense the strain that is starting to build up as the exterior cools faster than the interior. This will cause the glass to shatter if it continues, so I turn up the heat a notch. I need to remove the heat from the inside first, but lack the proper fire spells to do so.

"Or maybe because annealing it properly is a pain in the butt." I huff out a few minutes later. "And, why haven't I read through those magic books Amelia bought yet? I'm sure that would have been much easier than improvising a heat transfer spell from one meant to reduce fevers."

"Maybe, but not nearly as sexy." The pixie purrs, her motor revved, as usual, by my magical aptitude.

"Down girl." I tease. "There are children present." Myra and Willow were attracted by the spectacle, but their mother wisely kept them back from the heat.

"Uncle Sorrel, what happened to your face?" Willow blurts out as tactful as ever.

"Barkskin spell. It's good protection against heat, amongst other things." I answer while returning my dermis to its normal state. "Would you like to see? It's safe to approach now." I hold up the glass flower that is now only slightly warm to the touch.

"Pretty." Myra holds her hand out to touch it.

"Thank you." I bow from my seat to the little girl. "I suppose it's not bad for my first attempt. And, If you promise to share with your sister, I'll let you keep it." The flower is a fairly simple rose shape with thick petals. So, as long as they don't go smashing it against a rock, it shouldn't break.

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"Really?" Her eyes light up. "Thank you, Mister Sorrel."

"You're just determined to spoil them, aren't you?" Their mother laughs.

"It's just a trinket." I shrug. "Melanie needed some new equipment and I just didn't want the first thing I made out of glass to be a piece of labware."

"You did the same with the stone earlier." Apricot chuckles. "It didn't last long, but the first thing you did was mold it into a little tree."

"What can I say?" I shrug while smiling a bashful smile at Apricot. "I like plants and pretty things, not necessarily in that order."

"You goof." She swats me lightly on the arm but a smile plays on her lips.

"Smooth." Sophie adds with a smile of her own for our flirting. "Was that truly the first time you worked with glass?"

"Mhm-hmm." I nod. "I seem to have a knack for working with stone and earth, and well, glass is just trickier stone. The stuff doesn't seem to like being worked cold, so the hardest part is just getting it to cool down properly after shaping the molten material."

"Which you were able to figure out on your first attempt." Apricot is back to purring.

"Yes, yes, you like it when I do fancy magics." I roll my eyes exaggeratedly. "Speaking of, I should finish this piece for Melanie. Could you girls back up a little?"

"What are you making?" Willow asks, pointedly looking between Myra's rose and me, much to mine and her mother's amusement.

"It's..." I struggle to put it in terms she might understand. "A fancy jar with tiny holes in it. See, I know a way to melt down cotton and when you squeeze it through those tiny holes you can turn it back into a fine thread that is a lot like silk... I'm making clothes for rich people." I add when she still looks confused.

"I thought you just wanted to see me and Amelia in some fancy underwear." Apricot says with a smirk.

"Uncle Sorrel!" Willow sends me a disappointed look. "Boys aren't supposed to look at girls in their undies."

"Oh, no." I paste a worried look on my face. "I hope I don't get in trouble."

"Don't worry Willow. Amelia and I will be sure to punish him." Apricot says in a serious tone while the girl's mother holds in a snicker.

"Ahem. Moving on." I clear my throat and start filling the stone mold with glass. "Oh, my. It looks like I have too much glass for the jar. I wonder what I should do with the extra."

Willow's eyes go wide and a begging look fills her face, but it's her sister that speaks up. "Uncle Sorrel, can you please make another flower for Willow? She'll just hog this one if you don't." Myra's sister looks like she can't decide to be angry or happy for what was just said.

"I think I can manage that." I reply with a smile and start shaping the now molten glass.

The heat is contained in the mold this time, so I don't need to recast the barkskin spell. Most of the glass flows around the mold, coating its walls in an even layer. But, in the center of the jar a flower blooms, supported by a very thin stalk.

I focus on cooling the rose first, so I can pluck it free and smooth over the point where they were connected. After that is taken care of, I make sure that the holes for the spinneret are as small and as even as I can make them.

"And... we're good." Splitting the mold apart reveals a large mason jar with a funny spout coming off of the bottom. "But, I think you're more interested in this." I hand Willow a mirror copy of her sister's glass rose.

"..." The girl is so entranced by it that all she can manage to do is open her mouth in wonder for the shiny trinket in her hands. "T-thank you, Uncle Sorrel."

"You are very welcome Willow." I send a smile her way. "Now, why don't you and your sister run along and play, I still have a lot of work to do before Amelia gets home."

"Thank you, Sorrel." Sophie bows her head to me. "For everything."

"I'm just doing what I can to make the world a little brighter." I say with a gentle smile for the sisters who are already fighting over whose flower is prettiest. Sophie just shakes her head and follows after the two of them. "So, when is Amelia getting back? I thought she'd be home by now." I direct towards Apricot.

"Oh, it looks like her friends are making a day of it." She replies. "She's probably not going to be home until dinner, maybe later. She said I have full rein to tease you about Cat though."

"Please don't, I'd rather just forget it happened and move on." Doing just that, I fashion a lid for the jar with a small built-in air pump. Giving it a few pumps produces a slight whistling sound from the holes in the spout. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to deliver this to Melanie for me?" I ask already knowing the answer.

"Sure." She surprises me. "But, you have to make me something sweet. Amelia is having a big dessert right now, and it's driving me nuts."

"Well, we can't have that, now can we. And, speaking of nuts, I think I have the perfect recipe." I say with a smirk and bring out some pecans. These get chopped up and mixed with butter, sugar, and flour before being pressed into a pan to bake.

"Amelia says that whatever you're making, we had better save some for her." Apricot laughs before dancing into the lab with the glassware for Melanie.

By the time she gets back, I'm already whisking the chocolate and vanilla puddings together, each in their own pan. Once the crust is done, it gets coated in a layer of cream cheese before the puddings get added in. Whipped cream comes next, and it all gets topped by a thin layer of shredded chocolate.

"Here you go." I proffer up a plate after using my new heat transfer spell to rapidly cool the dessert. "One serving of 'sex in the pan'."

"It is not called that." Apricot laughs but digs in right afterward. "Mmm, maybe it is." She moans around her first spoonful.

"Six and sex are just a letter apart in my language." I explain after taking a bite myself. "There are six layers in the dessert, so..."

"Sex in a pan." She chuckles, but her focus is on the dessert.

"Uncle Sorrel?" A tiny voice speaks up from behind me. "What are you eating?" Both Myra and Willow have brought out the puppy dog eyes.

"Pudding and pecans." I answer smoothly, knowing that they were bound to come see what we were eating. "If it's alright with your mother, then I suppose you two can have Amelia's share since she's not here." Apricot breaks into giggles as I give Sophie and her girls each a plate.

"You're just bound and determined to spoil them." Sophie shakes her head but doesn't turn away the treat. "Oh, gods, that is rich."

***