Ashan 41, Arc 717
His new laboratory, the son of Ziell decided as he stepped across the threshold, was for the most part preferable to the one that he had used to work in, back when he had still been a largely harmless and unknown chemistry professor at the University of Rynmere. He didn’t have to share it with imbecile students and incompetent colleagues. On top of that it was located only a short distance away from his apartment in the Tower. He also appreciated the fact that it was underground so that there were no outside distractions.
It was still chaotic and disorganized though. When Vuda’s people had set up the new laboratory after the old one had been destroyed during the shadow beast attacks, they had apparently considered it to be superfluous to also furnish it properly – or simply been too lazy to do so. The majority of the equipment was still in large crates crates. But no matter, it would only take a couple of breaks to take care of that. Besides, if he did it himself, he would be able to organize his laboratory exactly the way he wanted.
With that thought in mind the Mortalborn locked the door behind himself – he didn’t want people to be able to enter unnoticed – and went to work.
The first crate contained table top braziers, five to be exact, that he arranged on a table. The necessary fuel went into a cupboard far away from said braziers as he considered it to be highly unwise to store flammable substances anywhere near a fire. The next crate contained vials, beakers and pipettes. The beakers and pipettes went into another cupboard while he neatly arranged the vials on the vial racks that he found in the third crate. There were also scales and a centrifuge and even a couple of litmus strips that he would need to determine whether a substance was acidic and basic.
Once he had finally put his equipment away, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand and sat down on a chair to take a deep breath and a short break. Cleaning up and organizing the laboratory had taken a surprising amount of endurance and left him slightly exhausted. A moment later he already stood up again though as he disapproved of being idle and inspected the two large vats that were located in specially reinforced circular stone niches. They were reasonably clean which was important since any residue could have unexpected and possibly dangerous consequences. In fact, he had known a few people that had gotten seriously hurt because they thought that cleaning their equipment was unnecessary during his time at Rynmere University.
There was only one thing that was left for him to do now before he could finally turn to more intellectually stimulating activities. He gathered the crates that were scattered all across the laboratory now, dragged them towards the door – even empty they were somewhat heavy, and moving them put a bit of strain on his arms - and then stacked them neatly on top of each other. He would dispose of them when he was done with his work for the trial – or find a servant that would be willing to do that - if there even were servants in that part of the Tower.
~~~
Vuda had generously also provided him with a few materials as well as a few products that had been created by his predecessor. The latter interested him especially as it would give him a clue as to what kind of man the old alchemist had been and how skilled he had been. He walked into the storage area. When the so called Chief Adviser had given him his new job and shown him the laboratory, they had not taken a closer look at that part of the laboratory. He would take care of that now though.
To his relief the storage area was better organized. All the reagents were safely stored in containers, and everything was clean. The various bottles and boxes were even labelled for the most part. Only one small flask did not have a label anymore – judging by the white substance on the outside of the flask the label had been removed or ruined because the flask had not been handled with enough care.
Furrowing his brow, he took it and went to where he had previously set up his equipment. “I will try to identify this substance now”, he spoke as he put on a pair of gloves to protect his hands and arranged a notebook and a pen on the table next to him. “First of all I will determine whether this substance is an acid or a base and analyze its physical properties that include, among other things, color, viscosity and odor.” With that he uncorked the flask and carefully brought it closer to his nose. There was only a very subtle, barely noticeable sour smell. The substance was a milky color, and as he poured some of it into a fireproof container he noticed that it was slightly more viscous than water.
The blue litmus strip that he dipped into the substance quickly turned red which told him that he was clearly dealing with an acid – but what kind of acid was it? There were a couple of acids that had a similar viscosity, smell and color. Carefully heating it didn’t lead to any conclusive results either. He needed to take a look at its chemical properties and determine how it interacted with other substances.
By the time that he had filled a bowl with water to determine the unknown substance’s solubility what was left in the container had dried and turned into some sort of thick gel. Furrowing his brow, he removed some of it and poured it into the water. It didn’t dissolve, but floated on top instead. That reminded him of something. He had heard of an acid that acted like that during a lecture that he had attended in Viden.
The Golden Salamander! That was it! The Golden Salamander that was most common around the city of Sirothelle produced a milky, acidic substance that could be used as a fire-proof coating if left to dry. He could already come up with a number of different alchemical uses for this substance. He would be able to make fire-proof lab equipment with it, armor and even weapons. He might even be able to use the skin itself rather than just the coating.
Sintih, his old student, he thought in a moment of sudden and somewhat uncharacteristic melancholy, would probably have coated his sword with it and then set it on fire and attacked his enemies with a burning sword which Doran himself considered to be highly impractical, dangerous and unnecessary flashy. He wondered what the false Eidisi was doing now, whether he was still practicing alchemy now that their lessons together had ended or was trying in vain to follow in his father’s footsteps again. In the arcs they had worked together Sintih had become almost like a son for him.
~~~
When Syroa had marked him, she had also given him the ability to discard his emotions as he saw fit. He knew that those very emotions would come to haunt him in his dreams later on – they always did - but nightmares were something that he was confident he would be able to deal with. He couldn’t use any distractions now though. He needed to remain focused on his work and not think about people that had disappeared from his life a long time ago and that had likely already forgotten all about him. He despised those mortal weaknesses he still possessed and wanted to get rid of them.
He did briefly turn in the direction he thought Ne’haer was in though – it had been there that she had first appeared to him and closed his eyes in prayer. The Etzori would without a doubt disapprove greatly if they knew that he was still loyal to one of the Immortals and worshipped her in their city, but she had been the one that had ultimately enabled him to become more and step out of his father’s shadow. She was the only one of Ziell’s kind that he still cared about, even though he was aware of her true nature and that most people considered her to be one of the worst Immortals.
If it weren’t for her he would likely still be a simple and largely insignificant chemistry professor, and that was what mattered.
“And for that”, he thought. “I will always be grateful. Everything I do, I do it for you. Together we will change the world.”
With that he turned around again. When they had first met Vuda had told him that he wanted him to focus on Empathy and informed him that he would be able to supply him with the blood of such a mage. He had only recently begun to experiment with Blood Magic. It was one of the most dangerous branches of alchemy and required extensive knowledge of medicine and chemistry in order to practice it safely. Perhaps he would be able to concoct a potion that allowed the user to defend themselves against Empathy, he thought – or replicate some of the abilities that Empaths posessed.
With that thought in mind he finally left the laboratory. He needed to acquire said blood before he could start to experiment. He would also have to pay a visit to somebody called “Miss Givings”. Rumour had it that she sold a drug that offered some protection against Empathy this season. If memory served him right, it was called ‘Brimstone’. But that was something that was better left for the following trial.
OOC: 1.632 words
His new laboratory, the son of Ziell decided as he stepped across the threshold, was for the most part preferable to the one that he had used to work in, back when he had still been a largely harmless and unknown chemistry professor at the University of Rynmere. He didn’t have to share it with imbecile students and incompetent colleagues. On top of that it was located only a short distance away from his apartment in the Tower. He also appreciated the fact that it was underground so that there were no outside distractions.
It was still chaotic and disorganized though. When Vuda’s people had set up the new laboratory after the old one had been destroyed during the shadow beast attacks, they had apparently considered it to be superfluous to also furnish it properly – or simply been too lazy to do so. The majority of the equipment was still in large crates crates. But no matter, it would only take a couple of breaks to take care of that. Besides, if he did it himself, he would be able to organize his laboratory exactly the way he wanted.
With that thought in mind the Mortalborn locked the door behind himself – he didn’t want people to be able to enter unnoticed – and went to work.
The first crate contained table top braziers, five to be exact, that he arranged on a table. The necessary fuel went into a cupboard far away from said braziers as he considered it to be highly unwise to store flammable substances anywhere near a fire. The next crate contained vials, beakers and pipettes. The beakers and pipettes went into another cupboard while he neatly arranged the vials on the vial racks that he found in the third crate. There were also scales and a centrifuge and even a couple of litmus strips that he would need to determine whether a substance was acidic and basic.
Once he had finally put his equipment away, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand and sat down on a chair to take a deep breath and a short break. Cleaning up and organizing the laboratory had taken a surprising amount of endurance and left him slightly exhausted. A moment later he already stood up again though as he disapproved of being idle and inspected the two large vats that were located in specially reinforced circular stone niches. They were reasonably clean which was important since any residue could have unexpected and possibly dangerous consequences. In fact, he had known a few people that had gotten seriously hurt because they thought that cleaning their equipment was unnecessary during his time at Rynmere University.
There was only one thing that was left for him to do now before he could finally turn to more intellectually stimulating activities. He gathered the crates that were scattered all across the laboratory now, dragged them towards the door – even empty they were somewhat heavy, and moving them put a bit of strain on his arms - and then stacked them neatly on top of each other. He would dispose of them when he was done with his work for the trial – or find a servant that would be willing to do that - if there even were servants in that part of the Tower.
~~~
Vuda had generously also provided him with a few materials as well as a few products that had been created by his predecessor. The latter interested him especially as it would give him a clue as to what kind of man the old alchemist had been and how skilled he had been. He walked into the storage area. When the so called Chief Adviser had given him his new job and shown him the laboratory, they had not taken a closer look at that part of the laboratory. He would take care of that now though.
To his relief the storage area was better organized. All the reagents were safely stored in containers, and everything was clean. The various bottles and boxes were even labelled for the most part. Only one small flask did not have a label anymore – judging by the white substance on the outside of the flask the label had been removed or ruined because the flask had not been handled with enough care.
Furrowing his brow, he took it and went to where he had previously set up his equipment. “I will try to identify this substance now”, he spoke as he put on a pair of gloves to protect his hands and arranged a notebook and a pen on the table next to him. “First of all I will determine whether this substance is an acid or a base and analyze its physical properties that include, among other things, color, viscosity and odor.” With that he uncorked the flask and carefully brought it closer to his nose. There was only a very subtle, barely noticeable sour smell. The substance was a milky color, and as he poured some of it into a fireproof container he noticed that it was slightly more viscous than water.
The blue litmus strip that he dipped into the substance quickly turned red which told him that he was clearly dealing with an acid – but what kind of acid was it? There were a couple of acids that had a similar viscosity, smell and color. Carefully heating it didn’t lead to any conclusive results either. He needed to take a look at its chemical properties and determine how it interacted with other substances.
By the time that he had filled a bowl with water to determine the unknown substance’s solubility what was left in the container had dried and turned into some sort of thick gel. Furrowing his brow, he removed some of it and poured it into the water. It didn’t dissolve, but floated on top instead. That reminded him of something. He had heard of an acid that acted like that during a lecture that he had attended in Viden.
The Golden Salamander! That was it! The Golden Salamander that was most common around the city of Sirothelle produced a milky, acidic substance that could be used as a fire-proof coating if left to dry. He could already come up with a number of different alchemical uses for this substance. He would be able to make fire-proof lab equipment with it, armor and even weapons. He might even be able to use the skin itself rather than just the coating.
Sintih, his old student, he thought in a moment of sudden and somewhat uncharacteristic melancholy, would probably have coated his sword with it and then set it on fire and attacked his enemies with a burning sword which Doran himself considered to be highly impractical, dangerous and unnecessary flashy. He wondered what the false Eidisi was doing now, whether he was still practicing alchemy now that their lessons together had ended or was trying in vain to follow in his father’s footsteps again. In the arcs they had worked together Sintih had become almost like a son for him.
~~~
When Syroa had marked him, she had also given him the ability to discard his emotions as he saw fit. He knew that those very emotions would come to haunt him in his dreams later on – they always did - but nightmares were something that he was confident he would be able to deal with. He couldn’t use any distractions now though. He needed to remain focused on his work and not think about people that had disappeared from his life a long time ago and that had likely already forgotten all about him. He despised those mortal weaknesses he still possessed and wanted to get rid of them.
He did briefly turn in the direction he thought Ne’haer was in though – it had been there that she had first appeared to him and closed his eyes in prayer. The Etzori would without a doubt disapprove greatly if they knew that he was still loyal to one of the Immortals and worshipped her in their city, but she had been the one that had ultimately enabled him to become more and step out of his father’s shadow. She was the only one of Ziell’s kind that he still cared about, even though he was aware of her true nature and that most people considered her to be one of the worst Immortals.
If it weren’t for her he would likely still be a simple and largely insignificant chemistry professor, and that was what mattered.
“And for that”, he thought. “I will always be grateful. Everything I do, I do it for you. Together we will change the world.”
With that he turned around again. When they had first met Vuda had told him that he wanted him to focus on Empathy and informed him that he would be able to supply him with the blood of such a mage. He had only recently begun to experiment with Blood Magic. It was one of the most dangerous branches of alchemy and required extensive knowledge of medicine and chemistry in order to practice it safely. Perhaps he would be able to concoct a potion that allowed the user to defend themselves against Empathy, he thought – or replicate some of the abilities that Empaths posessed.
With that thought in mind he finally left the laboratory. He needed to acquire said blood before he could start to experiment. He would also have to pay a visit to somebody called “Miss Givings”. Rumour had it that she sold a drug that offered some protection against Empathy this season. If memory served him right, it was called ‘Brimstone’. But that was something that was better left for the following trial.
OOC: 1.632 words
