Jeb forced himself to put down the book of Druidic plants. Even though it was fascinating, he could not afford to fall behind on any of his courses. The book kept tempting him, and he ended up feeling the need to leave it behind in his room as he left for the day.
When he read what he would be doing in the next Alchemy class, however, he found it much easier to stop thinking about the book. Making distilled water had hardly felt like Alchemy, probably because there was nothing inherently Magical about anything that he was doing. In the next class session, however, they would finally be performing Magic.
The syllabus explained that students would be expected to pull the properties of a Magical plant into a vial of Distilled Water. The Distilled Water would be provided for each student, which made Jeb wonder why it was so valuable. Ounces of precious metal were hardly so cheap as to be reagents for an introductory course.
Shrugging, he turned the page to learn how he would do the transfer. Jeb was a little disappointed at how easy the instructions made it seem. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that just because the syllabus described something as straightforward, that did not mean that it would be easy for him. His first Theoretical Enchanting laboratory session had taught him that.
Jeb took notes on what he was going to be expected to do, even if he didn’t think that it was going to be particularly necessary for the class. The habits that Professor Bearson and Candidate Therese had drilled into him over the past two terms hadn’t had time to fade yet, and Jeb wasn’t sure if he wanted to let them. Being able to enter the laboratory and know what he needed to do, having run through it in his mind while writing directions to himself, was incredibly useful. When they had begun working with dangerous Enchantments the previous term, the practice had prevented Jeb from needing to see the medics more than once. After one disastrous day, when more than half of Jeb’s class had been forced to leave due to injury, he committed to knowing exactly what he was going to do in each laboratory section before he entered the room.
With that in mind, Jeb arrived early for his next Alchemy class. Professor Quicksilver, unsurprisingly, was already in the room when he arrived. He looked up at Jeb and nodded once. “Are you here to ask about the syllabus for today?”
Jeb shook his head. “No, I just wanted to get to class a little bit early so that I can make sure everything is in the right place before class starts.” He saw a glimmer of respect in the Professor’s eye at that comment, and got to work laying out all the different apparatus he would need for the period.
Jeb did his best to ignore it, instead focusing on making sure that everything was the way he had visualized it would be. As the rest of the class slowly filed in, he began to read through the directions he had made, confirming that they matched what the syllabus expected of him. He finished his checks before the bell rang and spent the rest of the time just relaxing, a part of him wishing that he had brought the Druidic book with him.
As the bells finished tolling, Professor Quicksilver stood up. “As I am sure you all saw, today will be your first experience with a project that can be reasonably called Alchemy proper. I also have another apology to make. I created the syllabus for this course by working from a number of syllabi from prior terms. In the early versions of this course, students did create Distilled Water in the first session, which they would then Alchemize in this, the second. Over the years, however, the Academy has encouraged Introductory Courses to assume less prior knowledge, which the Alchemy Department has attempted to do.”
He paused, clearly replaying what he had just said in his mind. “As I was saying,” he continued after a long moment, “I will be providing the Distilled Water that you need for this experiment. However, as I mentioned, Distilled Water is relatively valuable. Although I would prefer to trust that all of you are here for no reason other than a desire to learn Alchemy, the Department has informed me that I must mistrust you. Therefore, I will only be providing sealed vessels of Distilled Water, and that only when you have demonstrated that you can extract and purify the required Essences from Fireleaf. I do not expect that to be an issue for any of you. I simply do not wish to mislead you as to why you will not be receiving all of the necessary reagents for this project at the beginning of the period. Now, then, if you would like to form an orderly queue, I will be happy to distribute the Fireleaf.”
Jeb stood eagerly, though he did not rush to join the line. The Professor’s request for the queue to be orderly made him hesitant to go too quickly. Due to his hesitation, Jeb ended up near the end of the line, not that he was particularly concerned. Nothing in the syllabus or his plans for the period made him think that he would be particularly pressed for time.
Professor Quicksilver handed him a packet that was labeled both with the Alchemical Symbol for Fireleaf and the name inked neatly in Republican. Jeb excitedly took it back to his seat. Fireleaf had been one of the plants that he was somewhat confident he would be able to grow, and he was curious how it felt in his hands.
As Jeb opened the packet, he was forced to take a moment to decide how much he wanted to stop the System from influencing his actions. He had already known that he would do all of the Essence extraction, distilling, and recombination as unaided as possible, since he wanted to earn the Alchemy Skill. As he went to analyze the plant, however, he felt his Pollination Skill try to assert itself for some reason.
After a short moment of consideration, Jeb pushed the Skill down. He could explore what about the plant had triggered a reaction with Pollination after he had finished preparing a flask of Alchemical Fire. Until then, however, he was going to work as intentionally as possible.
Jeb poured the leaves into the mortar, grinding them carefully with the pestle. As he did, he felt the Fireleaf start to release some of its Magic. The syllabus had explained that Fireleaf’s Essences were among the more easily separated from their host plant, which was one reason that it was commonly used in Alchemicals that needed Essence of Fire. Although it contained multiple Essences, only its Fire was of note.
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Jeb had wondered what the other Essences were, but the syllabus didn’t seem to have the information anywhere inside of it. As he looked at and tasted the Magical signature Fireleaf gave off, he took a moment to wonder about how similar or different Essence was to the concept of Attunement he had grown used to in his Enchanting and Managrass experiments. The Magical signatures coming out of the small bowl were almost exclusively tinged in Fire, though Jeb felt touches of what he could describe only as “Leaf,” which was strange. He had never seen a Magic like that before, and yet something in him instinctively recognized it.
Professor Quicksilver came over, nodding vigorously. “Ah, I see that you are trying to understand how Essences relate to Attunement!”
Jeb didn’t bother to ask how Professor Quicksilver had known that, giving a small nod instead. Professor Quicksilver began speaking quickly, “that question is the main focus of my research. With something like Fireleaf, it seems obvious how the two relate.”
He frowned, picking up Jeb’s syllabus and leafing through it. “Truthfully,” he muttered, “it seems obvious with almost everything you will work with this term.” In a louder voice, he continued, “however, that is only more reason for you to continue studying Alchemy. As you begin to work with more complex Alchemicals, their Essence begins to diverge from the Attunement you would expect, which is a relief to me!”
Seeing Jeb’s confused expression, he chuckled. “If there was nothing more to Alchemy than the manipulation of Attunements, there would be nothing to prevent any random Enchanter from driving us all out of business.”
Jeb nodded in understanding. “I have made a few Enchantments to change the Attunement of different materials,” he admitted.
Professor Quicksilver’s eyebrows rose. “We will need to discuss that another time. For now,” he nodded at Jeb’s notes for the day, “you should work to make Alchemical Fire.” With that, he walked over to another table, where he began questioning the student standing in front of their own setup. Jeb tuned the conversation out, focusing on the work in front of him.
The next step in the process was the only part he was unsure of. The syllabus described the next step simply: “using the alembic, separate the Fire Essence from the Fireleaf.” In Jeb’s notes, he had marked the direction with a question mark. It did not seem quite so straightforward to him.
Then again, he thought, I don’t know if could describe the way that I form a Glyph any more descriptively. Professor Quicksilver’s comment about Alchemy being its own discipline had reminded him that what he was working with was, in fact, Magic. As a Wizard, it was apparently his Class’s goal to learn Magic, which only served to hone his focus slightly more.
Jeb transferred the ground leaf into the alembic, then poured in distilled spirit. He stirred the paste into the liquid until the entire mixture was a uniform texture. The syllabus had been helpful in describing consistency it should have, and Jeb carefully added drops of spirit to the paste until it was just thin enough to move with the swirling of the bulb. He rebuilt the alembic, silently grateful to Professor Quicksilver for having him assemble and reassemble it to the point of muscle memory. The hazards associated with Fireleaf were numerous, especially when ground and mixed with distilled spirit.
Almost as soon as the apparatus was sealed, the liquid began to bubble and steam. Jeb hadn’t been expecting anything to happen before he lit a flame under the alembic and panicked for a second. Breathing deeply, he refocused.
He knew that Fireleaf gave off a fair amount of heat when crushed, and he knew that distilled spirit took almost no heat to boil. It should not have been surprising that the mixture would boil itself, if he had been thinking about it. The reminder that the reagents in this course would be actively changing was a mental shift Jeb had not yet internalized, and he was beginning to see where that could harm him.
As the steam rose, he was grateful that he had started cooling the alembic as soon as he arrived. The distillate collected and fell back down. The syllabus had given a note saying that the Essence would be most concentrated in the evaporate, and he focused on the newly rising steam, trying to look past the Magical signatures he recognized. Underneath the layers of differently Attuned Mana, Jeb felt like he could feel some other source of Fire.
When he tried to pull it away, the Fire Mana came with it. Try as he might, Jeb was unable to separate the two. Professor Quicksilver’s comment about how similar the Essence and Attunement were for Fireleaf played through his mind. When he stopped trying to prevent the Fire Attuned Mana from following, he found that it was easy enough to pull the Fire Essence away from the rest of the steam. Guiding it carefully, he moved the Fire Essence into the bulb at the other end of the setup. As the Fire Essence began to pool, Jeb got his first glimpse of an Alchemical Essence.
It was hard to describe its appearance. It was nothing like Mana, that much was certain. This Essence was a liquid, looking and moving so much like the distilled spirit he had poured that Jeb had a moment of concern that he had accidentally pulled the spirit, rather than the Essence. When Professor Quicksilver came over, however, he was nodding brightly.
“Fantastic job with the separation!” he exclaimed. In a more subdued tone he asked, “how much did you rely on your Skills?”
Jeb frowned. “As little as possible. I tried to do this without the System influence, but it was hard to find the Essence.”
Quicksilver nodded. “Now that you’ve felt Essence once, you will have an easier time recognizing it in the future. Separating Fire Essence was only the first part of the assignment, however.” He pulled out a small glass flask and replaced the bulb that still held the remainder of the mixture Jeb had made. “Guide the Fire Essence back into the flask, and you should have Alchemical Fire.”
Jeb did as he was instructed. Lifting the Fire Essence was difficult. For all that it felt volatile to him, it did not seem to want to travel back where it had come from. As sweat beaded on his brow, Jeb slowly forced it to climb up the side of the jar.
The higher the Fire Essence climbed, the less effort Jeb felt it take to push it higher. At first, he had thought that was because he was getting better at manipulating Essence. When it reached the top of the still and started actively pulling away from him, though, Jeb understood better.
The syllabus had mentioned that Distilled Water, when prepared properly, had negative Essence pressure. Jeb had not understood what that meant, until the Fire Essence was ripped out of his control, shooting into the water below. As the two clear liquids mixed, they became a dark green sludge that was visibly thick. If the syllabus hadn’t described Alchemical Fire as looking like that, Jeb would have been terrified that he had made a mistake. Instead, he carefully disassembled the alembic and capped the flask. Walking up to the front of the classroom, he handed Professor Quicksilver the sealed container.
Professor Quicksilver took it with a smile. “Let us see how well you did,” he said, uncorking the flask.