“The trick is to use your hands,” Cira gently rolled the demon seeds around in her hands, imbuing the water they were submerged in with more mana each knead, “That’s my fault for not being clear.”
The girls each had their hands in the basin, pushing the seeds around or sifting them through their fingers. Nanri wore a complicated expression, “What a strange form of alchemy. It’s… most unpleasant.”
The gurgled whispers of the demonseeds eventually settled down and once the crystal in the center of the holy basin shined, they were purified. “Alchemy is often unpleasant in my experience. Now you just have to squish the oil out of them. I have a void press over there unless you can conjure a tool you’re more comfortable with.”
Nanri said she could do that much. Making oils was common in alchemy, and the tools required were relatively simple. She could navigate her way around Cira’s workshop to clean it up as that didn’t take any special apparatuses.
Cira had plenty of time to return to her samples. The spring water had finished distilling, leaving her a small clump of mixed dust, like the others. She quickly separated the varying components into neat little piles.
“Twelve…” That’s how many piles there were. Some were easy, like salt or iron. The first thing that stuck out was the noticeable lack of an extras pile. This would be typical of a direct spring water source—it just meant the water was at its cleanest. Next, this sample had the fewest number of trace compounds, be it metal or mineral. Also typical of spring water when compared against the same water miles down the river.
The size of these piles was truly miniscule. You can’t really get much out of water, but you can trust a sample to be consistent to the area it was pulled from. Everything was evenly dissolved. Cira laid them all out on a tray based on where they came from. First, she knocked out salt, calcium, and magnesium. These were the easy ones because she knew they’d be there. Deep Falls was the next lowest with Uru close behind.
It was hard to say how much of Deep Falls’ water came straight from the spring, but it made sense that it would be the runner up.
Uru only had a couple more, but the pump had the most. Next was a painstaking process of using geomancy to manipulate a specific material, whether or not it was present. Cira got an easy one by pulling rust particles out, but those weren’t present at the spring or Deep Falls anyway.
Aluminum, copper, lead… No effect. Phosphorous, only the dirt had it, but that was expected so it told her nothing. Cira had dreamt of crafting a spell where she could wave her hand and a voice in her head would identify everything for her, but life was not so simple.
Cira did this for nearly an hour with a book in one hand running through all the different rocks she knew about, along with pulling any superfluous stuff from the soil until she finally narrowed it down as much as she thought possible. After pulling the remaining minerals from the spring water, there was nothing left, and the other piles lowered by the same number. The pump still had three while the soil had a few more, but Uru and Deep Falls were down to two.
Cira then eliminated the minerals only found in the soil, leaving just one present across all remaining samples.
“The question is… What is this?” The largest amount of it came from the second pump and would fit in the eye of a needle. Cira needed to use an eyeglass to look at it. Faintly red, but that’s all she could tell so far. Geomancy applied to it, so there’s that. It was present in Deep Falls at such small amounts it was a wonder she detected it at all. With that done, she put the four instances in separate jars and labeled them. There was a specialized tool on Breeze Haven that could help her get a better look. It was her fifty-first item, so it got left behind.
Since any accomplished alchemist has a ridiculous surplus of jars, she put everything else away and labeled it too. Cira realized she’d need some different hats to inspect the water and organic substances, so that made three items left before she could say the samples were exhausted.
“I suppose it’s time to boil some dimnuts.” It looked like Nanri was distilling away, so she had time to kill. She smiled at her, but the witch was focused.
Cira brought over a cauldron that was shaped like a barrel. She specifically designed it to be the absolute largest object her ring could carry. Unceremoniously scooping the dimnuts off the table and into it, she telekinetically stole a handful of completed demonseed oil from her assistant before grabbing a bottle of regular limroot oil off the shelf.
She poured the whole jug in then filled the rest with water, conjuring a large spoon with which to stir itself with. Boil and stir for an hour, then boil for an hour more. “Well, that took five minutes…” She walked across the room, “How’s the oil coming along?”
“Almost done!” Nanri wore a proud grin, “How’s it look?”
After scrutinizing it up close, “Hmm, I’ll give it a seven out of ten. Well done.”
“Only a seven? I was top of my class in alchemy!” She sank.
Cira smirked, “Please, that’s a better score than I ever got.” She didn’t experience some alchemical awakening or anything, her father was just hyper critical and obscenely skilled. “Now you’re ready to make your elixir. This is done like most others, so you should be fine after we work out the portions.”
The sorcerer conjured a few utensils out of titanium because it was fresh on her mind. One would hold about a handful of thunderbrook tree bark. Another was a ladle to scoop the right amount of oil out, while there was also a bucket of water.
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“Is this really all we need of the bluecaps?” Nanri held a long spoon with an incredibly small scoop on it. It was so little you’d need to use the tip of a blade otherwise.
“It’s very potent too, so make sure you scrape the excess off. Pour the bucket in last and I’ll refill it for the next batch, but that should be all you need.”
“Alright, I’ve got it.” She looked confident, “What are you doing with all those dimnuts, by the way?”
“I’m making an elixir that reinforces the mind. Thought it would be useful for overnighters.”
The witch leaned in and stared, “Overnighters aren’t healthy, you know.”
Cira scoffed, “Just in case!” She left her assistant to her task and tried finding something else to do. Her poison was still trickling away. The dimnuts had some time. It was a good chance to run home. “Hey, I’ll be back!”
She opened the door and turned to leave when she saw the man with glasses leaning against the wall, “Hey, you’re still here?”
He looked tired, “Yes, well Pappy told me to keep an eye on the situation down here. I was just taking a break somewhere he couldn’t see me.” He laughed nervously.
“See you…?” The man’s face froze like he’d let something slip, “From here?”
Cira stepped into the open and pulled out her spyglass. There she saw Pappy leaning into a telescope in his window. After a moment he jumped, then shifted around in a panic before hurrying back to his desk and sitting down. Then he picked up a pen and pretended to write.
“I understand now,” Cira said to the guard, “You didn’t want to tell him Lomp was with me because he already knows.”
“I’m so glad you understand, madam sorcerer, what do you think I should tell him instead?” Cira could see the weight lift off his shoulders.
“Tell him he’s doing important work.” She shrugged, “You’re fine there too if you’d rather.”
The single bird’s chirp and aromatic roses invited Cira to lay down in the garden for a nap, but she pressed on downstairs to retrieve the Priest Robes, Cerulian Robes, and Botanomancer’s Vestments. They each followed her in their own basket. The last item for retrieval was a device her father called the compound magnifier. It was like a table-mounted spyglass to look at small things with.
Without wasting any more time, she returned to the clinic. The guard with glasses was gone, but curiously, another was in his place. He stood there unsure if he should knock on the door, “Yes? What is it?”
“Oh! There you are. We finished grouping everybody up for you. Am I relieved?” There were dark circles under his eyes.
“I’m almost ready for them. Make sure they stick around, and you can take off when I show up.”
He bowed, “Thank you madam sorcerer!” and left.
I Need to get those elixirs ready… She opened the door and went back into the workshop. Uru had nearly cleaned Cira out of mana, and she needed more to get everybody here in one go. Her poison was almost ready for the next step, and she hoped to be able to finish it before they left.
Nanri was on her second batch already. Cira held some up to the light to make sure it was coming together alright and moved on, satisfied. This was going to be tedious. First, she conjured a salt screen and changed into the cerulean robes before peering deeply into the extracted water samples.
“Hmmm….” She squinted, “Yep, that’s water.”
She should be able to see aethereal contaminants quite easily with her boosted water affinity, but there was nothing noticeable to the eye. They would stand out as if she were seeing spots on a mana stalk, to use inspecting plants as an analogy.
Cira turned to the bubbling jewel on her shoulder, “What do you think, Nina? You’ve been remarkably quiet.” The nymph’s face popped out, before receding again. “Oh. Alright then.”
The final step to inspecting the water would reduce it to nothing, that’s why it had to come last. Still, it would be confirming what she was almost sure of at best. The arcane separator removed any sources of mana present in the sample, destroying everything else. If there’s an aethereal contaminant it would be fed into a different vessel than the pure water mana. They were incredibly rare.
And it would solve the case!
She deleted four cups of water and was left with barely enough mana to conjure a single ice cube. Nothing else.
And thus, the process of sorcerous deduction continued unwavering. This was a concept known by stuck-up magicians as the scientific method.
Aethereal contaminants were the layman’s curse. They’re not far off from the real deal—sometimes worse—and discovery of one would ideally close off an island. It could be a serious matter that threatened all life, except for the blessed few without an ounce of mana in their soul. Of course, Cira had only seen a sample of one from the forbidden archive long ago, but she’d also heard stories of people destroying islands to deal with them.
She was glad she didn’t solve the case here. Back to the salt screen it was, to don the Botanomancer’s Vestments. Now she’d finish inspecting all the extras from her samples. Bark and leaves were easy enough. There were trace amounts of skin flakes. Tons of things related to bugs. Multiple types of fecal matter. She was doing all this work with telekinesis, mind you.
She picked it apart pretty much into nothing. The rest could be stray dust or some exotic feces of which she’d never seen anything even remotely similar. Point being, nothing suspect was to be found among the organic substances collected.
“Well, finding nothing’s not a bad thing…” Cira took the organic remains of her five samples which had them over to their last stop, the hallowed calcinator. Like a small oven with a vent on top, covered by a blessed crystal bell jar. She loaded the first one up, and it burned away. Then the second. And the third, fourth. When the same thing happened on her fifth and last sample, Cira knew without a shadow of a doubt that none of the organic traces had ever been a part of something afflicted with a curse.
Had they been, the curse remnant would have risen up to be trapped within the bell jar.
“Well, that’s a relief!” She wiped the sweat off her forehead. “Now I just need to whip up that poison—”
Cira gasped, snapping her neck around in alarm, “My dimnuts!” She removed the spoon and continued her work.
There were leftover false brimhorns, and she used them for their intended purpose, making a fine paste. Stealing some more demonseed oil, she put them in a smaller cauldron. From the other table she grabbed her pure brimbane, adding the final ingredient.
This was a small batch of medicinal poison, and the recipe was dangerous. If it worked, Earth Vein would have to contract her to stay for a while and throw money to the clouds bringing mushrooms her way. It was regrettable, and would complicate many things, but that’s life.
“Nanri, it’s almost time to go heal people. How are you looking?” She walked over to see most of the ingredients gone.
The witch brushed a stray hand of silver hair out of her face, “I think it’s turning out really well. What do you think?”
She looked exhausted, so Cira scooped some into a bottle and handed it to her, “You tell me.”
The witch smelled it first and winced. After steeling her nerves, she pinched her nose and drank it. Cira swore she could see color returning to her skin. Her whole face perked up and she started lightly bouncing in place, “Wow, I feel great! Can I even hold this much mana? Why do you make them so strong? I’m totally ready to go. Anytime, Cira!”
“Whoa there,” She put a hand on Nanri’s shoulder, “My dimnuts are still boiling. As soon as they’re done, I’ll pull the poison and we’re off.”
Nanri’s robes fluttered as she jumped, throwing her fists up, “Alright!”