Jeb hurried back to his Brewery, only half paying attention to see if Quicksilver was following after him. By the time that he had finished cleaning his workspace, Jeb realized that the Professor had not left his laboratory. Jeb shrugged and returned to his work. Since he did not have any non-Magical bittering agents, he decided to try to make another barrel of the Eyebright Ale.
Once again finding the song, Jeb steeped the grains, letting the soft scent of a light beer wash over him. When they had steeped, he added the Alchemcal Eyebright and then pitched the yeast. Taking a deep breath, Jeb forced himself to stop listening to the music of Brewing. He needed to act as an Alchemist now.
Jeb found one of the vials of improved Yeast Energizer he had made and carefully poured it into the wort. All at once, the world seemed to stop, and Jeb was unable to move away from the brewing beer. The Eyebright’s Essence was screaming, taste slightly out of tune. Jeb tried to focus past it, remembering his time learning Glyphs.
After what felt like hours, Jeb tasted the slightest strain of Ale Essence. He carefully coaxed the Essence to the forefront, forcing it into tune. To his surprise, the Essence seemed to want to tune, quickly reshaping itself to be in perfect agreement.
When Jeb tried to tune the Eyebright’s Essence, however, he ran into an issue. The two Essences were both tuned, but they were in different temperaments. It was a subtle difference, and Jeb wasn’t sure if he would have been able to hear it before his latest term in the College of Song, which had focused exclusively on the different shades that a slightly different tuning system could bring to a piece.
Neither Essence seemed willing to change its temperament, and for a while, Jeb considered letting the two simply be in different tunings. As the seconds turned to dragging minutes, however, the beating between the chords grew more and more grating, until Jeb felt like there were nails clawing at his eardrums. He forcibly detuned both Essences, uncaring that some of their Magic escaped.
Jeb mentally shook himself and tried to clear his mind. Being sloppy now would not help him tune the Essences, and giving up would never give him a solution. He carefully picked up the pieces of Eyebright Essence, tasting the slight differences in pitch that he had caused. One felt close to what the Ale Essence had tasted like, and Jeb tried to muscle and plead the rest of the Essence into place. Just as he felt the Essence give up, Jeb found himself forced out of the barrel of beer. It had finished Brewing.
Jeb stood and, half in a daze, sprinted around the Brewery, trying to find anything reflective. He stopped beside a window, noting that he could see his eyes, if only vaguely. He also saw that his hair was plastered to his face, and Jeb wondered how long he had been sweating. Refusing to wait long enough to think of an answer, he hurried back to the newly finished beer and poured a small taster.
The flavor was slightly off, and Jeb frowned. Apparently trying to wrest the Ale Essence into place did more than simply affect the Magic of the beer. Taking another sip, and suppressing the urge to grimace or spit it up, he ran to the window. Bright golden beams of light stared back at him, and he let go of the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Even though this batch of Eyebright Ale wasn’t up to his taste standards, he had not messed up enough that the Magic ceased working. Sighing, Jeb hefted the barrel onto his shoulder and walked back to the Alchemy laboratory.
Because he had used Alchemical Eyebright instead of mundane hops, there was far more potent Essence in the second barrel of beer that Jeb distilled. He vaguely waved to Professor Quicksilver as he started filling another alembic. Jeb saw the Professor’s mouth open, but no sound came out. Shrugging it off, he once again started to concentrate the Essence of Ale.
Eyebright Essence boiled up and out of the liquid, only for Jeb to break it down into its Magical potential and force it to become Ale Essence. Unlike the last barrel, where gallons of liquid had become a scant few ounces of Distilled Essence, Jeb filled the alembic’s reservoir with less than a quarter of his new barrel. Professor Quicksilver came over, and once again seemed to speak, though Jeb still could not hear anything.
As he thought about it, Jeb realized that he had no recollection of actually hearing anything since the last time that he had left the Alchemy laboratory. Before he could dwell on it for too long, though, Quicksilver clapped his hands, and the background hum of reality started to play in Jeb’s ears again.
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“Can you hear me now?” Quicksilver asked. Seeing Jeb open his mouth to respond, the Professor nodded and continued speaking, “I see that you decided to make more Distilled Ale Essence. Might I ask why?”
Jeb raised his finger, ready to list off his reasons. As he looked at it, though, he realized that he did not have any specific reasons for doing what he had done. “I tried to make a barrel of Eyebright Ale with both Essences in tune,” Jeb said, “but I couldn’t get the two Essences to align together. The final result tasted wrong, and I couldn’t think of any other use for a barrel of Alchemical Beer.” He looked at the Professor, hoping that he had not made a mistake.
Professor Quicksilver slowly looked Jeb up and down. The longer that his deep metal eyes stared at him, the more that Jeb felt as though every part of him was being lain out for inspection. He let out a shiver, suddenly cold despite the heat of the room.
“You are out of Mana,” Professor Quicksilver finally said. “Or rather,” he waved a hand in irritation, “you are nearly out of Mana, and you are clearly suffering from Magical exhaustion. I realize that it may be somewhat hypocritical of me to tell you that you need to take breaks, but it remains true. Do not do any more Magic for the rest of the day.” With that, he dipped a finger into the container of Distilled Ale Essence and tasted it. Nodding to himself, he walked away.
Jeb heard the bells tolling and realized that he had missed all of his courses for the day. He ran to the Library, hoping that Margaret might be able to tell him where his Professors’ offices were. She was nowhere to be found, however, and he ended up returning to his desk in the Stacks, where he tried to focus on the readings for the sessions he had missed.
Jeb’s mind refused to focus on the page, eyes constantly sliding off of the words. The world started growing brighter and louder, and Jeb tried to tamp the sensation down. When the quiet background hum of the Stacks sounded like a crashing wave, however, he gave up on work for the day. He followed the hallway back to his room, laid down, and went to sleep.
The next day, Jeb woke up just before first bell. He felt refreshed, and was relieved that the symptoms of Magical exhaustion had apparently faded away. Jeb took a moment to debate between going to the Brewery and going back to the Alchemy laboratory, but a rumbling in his stomach pushed him towards a third option.
As Jeb entered the dark cafeteria, he reflected on the fact that he had never come so early. There were a shocking number of people in the room, though most seemed to be post-doctoral researchers of some sort or another. A few scattered clumps of them were chatting or playing cards, but the room by and large was quiet, filled with the soft clatter of silverware on plates. The food was also different than Jeb had ever seen before, and he took his time wandering around the entire space before he filled his plate.
When Jeb sat down, he noticed that the nearby tables were staring at him. He gave a cautious wave, and received sleepy nods in return. Another patron took a plate of food moved to sit across from Jeb.
Jeb noticed that she was carrying a book, though the title was too worn to be immediately clear. She did not acknowledge Jeb, instead opening her book seemingly at random. She started to draw her finger in the air, and complex Magical diagrams traced out where her hand went. As she spooned soup into her mouth with the other hand, she waved the image away and frowned.
Jeb enjoyed the light show as he slowly ate his meal. When the second bell tolled, however, he finished his plate and stood. The person sitting across from him jolted as though Jeb had just screamed.
“How long have you been sitting there?” she asked in a furious whisper.
“I was here before you sat down,” Jeb replied. Seeing other people turn to the sudden noise, he lowered his voice to a whisper, “did you not notice me?”
She blushed slightly. “Never mind,” she mumbled, suddenly focusing much more intently on her reading.
Jeb left the cafeteria feeling like he had intruded on a part of the Academy that was not meant for him. When he made it to his Brewery, he saw that Professor Quicksilver was waiting outside. He looked up from a small pamphlet in his hands when Jeb drew near.
“Are you truly planning to begin Brewing at such an early hour?” he asked.
Jeb nodded. “I missed my classes yesterday, and I don’t want to do that again. The sooner I start here, the sooner I will finish.”
Quicksilver beamed. “I am glad to hear that! Tell me, what new insights do you have today?”
Jeb cocked his head, thinking of how best to answer the question. “I don’t know if I have any new insights. I guess that I was just hoping that without Magical exhaustion, the process would go more smoothly.”
Some of the excitement in his Professor’s face faded, but Quicksilver did not say anything else. Jeb calmly went through the process of making another barrel of Eyebright Ale, pointedly ignoring the growing collection of full barrels. When it had cooled, he added the yeast and Yeast Energizer.
Diving back into the brew, Jeb tasted both Essences singing immediately. Neither was perfectly in tune, but it seemed as though they were at least in the same temperament, at least so far. Jeb carefully took each Essence in one hand and gently coaxed them together. The two harmonies formed into a beautiful melody, and Jeb found that it was easier to hold the two Essences than it had been to simply hold Eyebright Essence. He felt time start coming faster and faster as he started to pull away from the Brewing, and in just a few minutes, he had finished a full batch of Eyebright Ale. As he went to drink a tasting glass, however, Quicksilver put his hand on top of it, blocking Jeb.