After managing to isolate the toxic mushroom dust, Cira got it placed safely in her favorite crystal alembic. The conditions of Fount Salt had separated the toxin so thoroughly that this step was almost unnecessary, but collecting the condensate would bring it to a much easier state to work with and still bring the impurities down to zero.

The poison dust and a high-grade alcohol were brought to just below boiling, to the point at which only pure brimbane evaporated, ripe for the collection. Due to the incredibly low heat, this would take a while. Cira set it up and moved on to the next task.

“How’s that bark coming along?” She took a glance in the bowl and no chunks stuck out.

Nanri had a bead of sweat rolling down her face, “It’s really tough, but it’s coming along.”

“Good. Once that’s done can you atomize the bluecaps in that void chamber?” Cira gestured to a reinforced crystal cube across the room.

The witch offered a nervous frown, “I… know what the bluecaps are…”

She waved her off again, “Stop giving me that look, it’s fine. Just finish up the bark and move the mushrooms over to that table. If you have time left over maybe crack some dimnuts open. I’ll get started on these samples and come help you out.”

The reservoirs were both fed from the same place. They passed the split just before getting shot out of that pipe earlier. So, she only held onto the sample from the lower pump, as it should be close enough for now to the reservoirs. Two dirt samples, each fed from a different reservoir on opposite sides of Uren just for kicks. She also had Uru’s water, that of the spring. And finally, Deep Falls.

By themselves, these weren’t going to be able to tell Cira anything. Well, nothing solid yet. Turning poisons into medicine and throwing out holy magic was all just boxing the plague in from every direction, forcing the wrong answers out to leave the fewest possibilities to choose from. In this way, Cira intended to narrow it down such that she may root out the cause.

Without the brimbane derivative, she couldn’t completely rule out viruses, bacteria, or parasites. Larger parasites might still escape, but those were easier to find, not to mention the least likely culprit. She had cast holy magic that fought against all these strange, miniature creatures, but the stronger ones could be resistant without the caster having a solid comprehension and much more specific spells.

That’s where alchemy came in. The poison she was cooking up would kill ‘em all. But it required intense healing and weeks of convalescence with a steady, healthy diet to come back from. She could only try it on one volunteer patient and hope there was an effect. Even if there wasn’t though, she would learn none of Gazen’s mythical demons were responsible for this plague.

Finding that one poor volunteer would be a huge first step, but Cira did feel bad about it. Especially if it didn’t work, the patient would be in a sorry state.

Now onto the samples, Cira put them all in large, sealed boxes. Crystal, of course, so she could see through them. They were lined up on the counter, and she started with the dirt, separating its various components. Soil, especially that in which plants were grown, tended to contain all sorts of different minerals and compounds. She ended up with over thirty different piles, then another of organic compounds—those geomancy had no effect on.

Repeating the same process on the next dirt sample, she ended up with the same result. The only difference was a couple materials and a slightly different looking pile of organic stuff. This could be compost, bug leavings, dried out bits of leaf. It didn’t require looking into yet.

“What’s all that?” Nanri appeared behind her, “I finished the dimnuts.”

Cira glanced over to see a heaping pile of nuts, each the size of her fist next to an even larger pile of broken shells—she had formed some sort of large, metal wedge to crack them with.

“You cracked all my dimnuts?!” She was astonished. That was a majority of her years-long hoard of nuts that could only be found at low altitudes in warm, humid climates.

Nanri’s jaw dropped, “Was I not supposed to?! I’m so sorry!”

After looking at the absurd metal tool she conjured, Cira laughed it off, “It’s fine, it’s fine… We’ll make something out of them later. This here is Uren’s soil. You’ve got a few different minerals and metals. See, this one is iron. then you have clays and such. This pile here is everything else. See how both samples came out nearly identical?”

The witch glanced back and forth between the two studiously before nodding, “I see. But what does it mean?”

“Not much more than I’d already been told. There’s no difference in soil compositions. There are a few things in here I can’t identify so readily, but assuming the organic piles come back the same later, we can more-or-less rule out different farms having an effect on the plague’s spread.”

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“More or less…?” Nanri asked.

Cira shrugged, “Well, it could be all the farms just as well as none of them. I’ve confirmed consistency.”

“Oh… Don’t plagues usually spread by coughing? Or just being around the infected?”

“I don’t think that’s how it is in this case. I’ve all but confirmed that there are no pathogens responsible, I mean, nothing that should be responsible for the plague transmitting in that way.”

Nanri’s face grew thoughtful, “So what does that leave?”

“Well, I suppose fungus still stands, but that’s low on my list of suspects. I’m not quite ready to rule out parasites though. It could also be some sort of natural contaminant… I’ve even seen heavy metals consumed in trace amounts or absorbed through the skin destroy the body over time. This is much trickier to heal, but I can’t rule those options out.” Cira tapped her fingers on the desk, thinking, “How about we atomize those mushrooms?”

A basket of blue mushrooms sat next to a thick, crystal cube. Cira opened the top and poured the basket in before closing it again. Negative pressure would keep the seal. “Never seen a void chamber before?” She asked.

“Cira, I doubt many have. They didn’t have one at the academy and I never even saw one in my mother’s workshop.”

“You don’t say? Well, now that your materials are inside, pour mana into this rune.” Aside from the ones that needed heat, most of these instruments were activated in the same way artifacts would be.

Nanri did as instructed and a high-pitch grating filled the room, but it only lasted a moment. It felt like the air quaked, but nothing on the table shook.

Poof.

“Where did they go?!” Nanri gasped.

“They’re still there. This device removes all space within the chamber except for the added ingredients. They have been reduced to particles and forced to the sides. Now, do it again.”

The same painful screech pierced the room followed by a tremor, then—

Bang!

“Wah!” Nanri fell backwards onto the floor, knocking her head against her staff-orb. She rubbed the back of her head with a pained face. Cira tried to contain the laughter but started snickering into her hand, “Cut it out! Wh-what did I do?”

“You did it!” Cira’s grin still threatened to break, “Heal. There you go. Now come look.” She leaned in and put a finger on the glass pointing at a dark blue ball floating in the middle, “You added the space back. Now we have our bluecap powder condensed in the center. I guess I should retrieve it, or this could get messy.”

With her finger trained on the ball, she grabbed the lid, and it came off with a pop. Cira moved her finger up and it followed. Then she held out an open jar and moved it inside. When the cork was on, she let it drop and it collapsed into a fine powder which expanded and slowly floated down to settle at the bottom, as if it were nearly lighter than air.

“I must confess,” Nanri said, “I did not know space could be removed.”

“Sure it can. I use this thing all the time. How else do you atomize things?”

“Certainly, there’s another way. Perhaps… a mortar and pestle?”

Cira wagged her finger, “Much too crude, though it would work for most applications. You won’t get as much out of it. Anyway, it’s best to use demonseed oil as a base here. That’s your last ingredient. Ever use a holy basin?”

She continued at the witch’s confused stare, “You’ll need to fill it with water, but it works just like a cauldron. It’s that flat bowl with the loose crystal in it over there. The demonseeds are those little red ones that whisper in that stone box by the calcinator. Just roll ‘em around in the basin for a while until they quiet down and you’re ready.”

Nanri’s confused expression didn’t alleviate, but there were gears turning in her head. Cira waved a hand and the basin filled with water, “Here. I’m going to look at some more samples. Let me know when the whispers stop.” She walked back over to her workstation.

Four water samples sat on the table before Cira and she started with the one collected at the second pump. This process wasn’t altogether different from what she did with the soil. The objective was to separate everything into its base parts. To remove the water wholly and exclusively, there was a device similar to an alembic called the arcane stillatorium. It used mana to extract water instead of heat, easily pulling the corresponding element out.

This was deposited in a new jar, to be inspected later if need be. Some things could bind to the water at an aethereal level, but it was rare. Irritatingly, Cira had only one of these instruments. After ten minutes of impatiently watching water evaporate, she set it up on the next jar and got to work on the dry remains of her sample.

What remained was able to be separated into less piles than the soil—this much was to be expected. All springs contained trace minerals, else the body would wither, and these islands would struggle to support life. There are often miniscule amounts of salt in spring water too, but it was off the charts on this island. It was a wonder these people still got hydrated. She saw tanks in Uru and near Uren’s reservoirs for cleaning the water, but places like Deep Falls may not have such options.

Cira was left with sixteen piles of random metals and minerals. A much smaller amount of everything else. This wouldn’t tell her anything. She would have to compare it to the others. Around the time she finished the first, the second was ready and she moved down the line.

She repeated this process with the Uru sample and the results were similar but with a few more minerals. As she continued with the water from Deep Falls, she noticed the amounts of each pile varied. Some she could tell at a glance were the same mineral, but at different levels across all the samples.

This alone could be expected with water traveling through an island this large, but it gave her some hints for the next round of tests—once she got to inspecting all these ridiculously small piles of rock dust. Cira was on a roll now. She had a helper whipping up mana elixirs in case Lomp didn’t arrive with her Earth Vein potion stash in time, all the dim nuts were cracked, and she was about to tear into the final sample straight from the spring.

“Ciraaaa!” She whipped around to see Nanri looking troubled in front of the holy basin, “I think the whispers are getting louder!”

“Oh, that won’t do.”