After the explosion, caused by the violent reaction of the malachite Ophelia was on the ground, completely surrendered, she felt a burning all over her face, tingling all over her body and her hands were so bad that she did not feel the multiple cuts caused by the remains of the containers, in such a bad condition, her eyesight was not very good because she had been wearing glasses for as long as she can remember, but with the lamp equally broken (due to the explosion), it was completely dark in the test basement.

When suddenly the communicator in her pocket began to glow, indicating that Caspian and the Captain were about to arrive at the laboratory, Ophelia suddenly stopped ignoring her discomfort, staggering and still groping the stairs and climbed the steps with strides so large that she climbed the steps two by two, one on the surface Ophelia closed the basement door with a scourge so strong that all the jars on the tables and counters vibrated with the rumble and continued to vibrate even after Ophelia finished changing and cleaning her wounds.

Ophelia quickly took a look at all the windows, doors and loopholes, to make sure they were well sealed with the solid foam, since the experiment they were about to do required the greatest of secrecy. Even so, Ophelia had not yet finished preparing things for the return of her companions, so she ran to the central table and from the drawers under the table, she got out flasks, beakers, silk scrolls, linen and wool, magic ink and many empty bottles, from the upper shelves she took many bottles with substances, brown, gray, translucent, black, green and blue that she was sure they would use in a late phase of the experiments. When suddenly she hear a scream in the distance.

* Ophelia open us! – they shouted

* In a moment I go – Ophelia shouted as she finished accommodating everything

Ophelia ran until the large arch doors, as soon as Ophelia opened the left door, she had to leave all her weight to be able to drag a single door, since the thick metal of the entrance did not let the hinges do the heavy work, then she had to repeat the process alone because her companion Caspian and Captain Lucian could not help her, because they had the package in their hands and could not release it, once the two doors Caspian and Lucia opened they entered with a heavy and firm step, since both measure almost the same, the package remained as straight as possible and during the wagon's journey to the laboratory. While Lucia and Caspian slowly lowered the package, at the speed of a turtle, they bent down, then got on their knees and finally hunched their backs until they felt that the base of the package touched the tile, and at that moment everyone could relax for a while since Ophelia at the same time as Caspian and Lucia released the package and threw themselves on the floor, she had finished closing the doors, and everyone on the floor.

"Caspian... go down to the basement... and... bring me... the goat's foot please," said Lucian choppy

"Please... wait a moment... as I recover... captain..." Caspian said as slowly as Lucían

"Captain, it would not be better to rest a moment before starting the experiments, I do not think it is safe to experiment with whatever is in the box in our current state," Ophelia said with a slightly agitated breath and on the ground still

"Nonsense, we will rest until we have isolated the specimens in the jars and with the corresponding materials to start the experiment, and don't worry, those things can't do anything as long as we don't remove the main packaging," Luían said as he stood up

At that moment Caspian also stood up and almost instinctively, before going down to the basement through the tool he went to the employee room, whose entrance is located at the back of the laboratory, with arch doors in the middle of some Doric columns, on the other side was his robe and uniform that he uses to investigate, which are always clean due to his constant diligence with hygiene in the laboratory, and this would not be the exception, he entered and dried all the sweat as well as removed his overalls and changed it for his uniform, and then he left the room and went to the basement.

At the same time Captain Lucian followed Caspian in his steps and also went to the employee room and cleaned himself as best he could, before putting on his pajama-like uniform, but with a thicker cloth and the robe on top, as he left the employee room, Captain Lucian went through the entire laboratory with such a leisurely pace that Ophelia had time to fully recover from all the physical exertion she had made before and during her arrival, since he finished inspecting the tables, counters and windows on the left side of the laboratory, the captain touched every glass, flask, jar, tap of water, gas, or surface that was on the table, as well as carefully observing the cracks of each window, now filled with solid foam in search of any cracks or imperfections, all the while walking so slow, so slow, that as soon as he arrived at the basement door and at that moment Caspian abruptly interrupted him with his return.

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OPHELIA: "... Were you experimenting in the basement while we were traveling to pick up the package? – said Caspian annoyed

"yes it was my fault, I was trying to extract magic from the Malachite, but the spell of contamination with an excess of magic ink without me noticing, coupled with that, the silk parchment enhanced the reaction which caused a small explosion that destroyed the focus and sent me flying," Ophelia said, as she raised her hands to show the bandages on her hands.

"Next time replace the lantern before we get there or if you don't let me know before entering the basement I had to fumble for the goat's foot in the dark, plus my shoes were damaged by the glass on the floor," Caspian said as he lowered his tone.

"Okay, I promise that next time I will be more cautious with those things," Ophelia said as she bowed her head in gratitude.

"Calm down both of you, it's fine as long as Ophelia replaces the lantern, we are also magicians in charge of experimenting, making mistakes is part of the job," the captain said with a smile on his lips.

“Promise Ophelia won't happen again,” Caspian said.

"I promise, this will not happen again, it was an oversight of mine, due to fatigue, I have been working for about 40 hours in a row, all due to this urgent government order," Ophelia said, raising her voice more and more.

"We all have days here without returning home or seeing our families, but I promise you that as soon as all this is over the reward will be juicy for the three of us, I understand how you both feel, seriously!" but this is important, so please try a little harder, "the captain said, lying towards an sign to be followed".

Caspian and Ophelia followed Lucia through the entire laboratory, until they reached the entrance (where the box was) and putting Caspian and Lucia one on each side, supported by Ophelia who was behind the box all together pushed her through the hallway to the testing area, just like a turtle at birth that comes out of the sand and runs to the sea trying to avoid the danger of being hunted before reaching the sea, Ophelia felt the same, due to all the secrecy of this matter added to the fact that she did not know what was in the box made her feel the same nerves, as if at any moment a large bird could pass and snatch her life.

Once they arrived at the test area, Ophelia released the box and Caspian and Lucia reloaded the box and took it to the center of the esplanade where the sun was streaming into the building, mainly due to the reinforced glass dome that was used as a roof, the rays of light bounced against the pastel brown of the wood, only the box in the middle of the esplanade was very noticeably opposed to the ash gray of the floor and the walls of the laboratory.

Everyone wiped their sweat for the last time and cleaned themselves well before starting work, when suddenly the captain remembered that he had to tell his superiors when they would start with the experiments in addition to giving them a travel log, so he postponed the start of the project until all the paperwork was ready.

"Hey Caspian and how's your research going?" "Didn't you have to pause her because of all this?" - "Ophelia said while looking at the Captain's office"

"Well, I guess this is like a break, since I don't know what's in the box so I can relax a little more, not knowing the importance of the project" – "Caspian replied with some disinterest"

"Seriously!" "Aren't you nervous to know what nerves to know what's in the box, what if it's something dangerous?"

" I do not think it is something really dangerous, if it were, they would have sent it to a laboratory more capable in this type of matter" – "Caspian replied with the same disinterest"

'But this is a government commission, you know that for them there is not much difference between this type of thing' – 'answered Ophelia nervous'

"No, but when we got to the island on the other side of the storm haze, there were already many experts on the island advising all the politicians there, so you can trust the experts," Caspian said with a small smile.

"True, although since magic allowed us to reinforce our boats and boats enough to pass the stormy mist without destroying them, we magicians have been full of work, since all the new discoveries that are made like this are entrusted to us, did they give you a new plant to investigate it?" " Ophelia said tiredly "

"If that was the investigation that I had to pause for this that they say is more urgent, even classified, but you know that I don't care what the government says, I will only investigate what they gave me and that's it." At the end of his sentence Caspian advanced with an accelerated step and entered Captain Lucian's office

Ophelia saw him incredulous, since the captain used to always have a good temper, but when it came to work and especially serious things, he was not very willing to joke, and to be interrupted like that was a serious lack of respect. Ophelia approached and stuck her ear to the door to hear their conversation, but I only heard whispers and footsteps, sometimes louder and sometimes weaker, and suddenly there was silence the laboratory seemed dead because the voices on the other side of the door stopped being heard for a moment, followed by a pause of all that indiscreet action in the office, when suddenly I heard footsteps getting closer and closer to it, and Ophelia hurried to return to her place before Caspian entered Lucian's office.

"Ophelia hand me a drawer knife of the tools, and also the goat's foot," Caspian said in an annoyed tone.

"Okay, but what do you want them for?" Ophelia said as she went and picked up the tools

"I talked to the captain, he didn't take kindly to me interrupting him, but I didn't take kindly to him interrupting my investigation either, so I talked to him," Caspian said with a tone of satisfaction.

"And what did he say?"

"He gave us permission to start without him, let's start unpacking," Caspian said with a smile that crossed his face.