"Before you turn to page twenty-two can you already tell me what the main purpose of aloe vera is in most potions?" Vaunn asked me as a school teacher would.
He actually was like a teacher at the moment, as a private tutor.
"It's like a supporting pillar, a stabilizing unit, so to say. It also often dampens the negative effects of potions if the purpose of it was to be drunk. Thirdly is helps against burns though not in potion form, there it losses that property or is reduced dramatically."
He looked at me, smiling, "very good. It also tastes extremely bitter if one would be to lick it raw."
"Are you talking from experience?"
"Maybe," he blushed a bit, "we can skip aloe vera, something harder should suit you better."
He flipped through the pages of a copy of the book 'Beginners alchemy' by Theoroderick Huevs, a name which I saw quite often when searching for books about magic in the guild's library.
Huevs must have been a genius in most fields of magical sciences when in any given subject his name would always be omnipresent.
Though not all of his written works are accurate to this day, a lot of his research and information was outdated, some may even call his ways primitive or brutish.
When Amou once talked about him even he, a student of only two years, found a mistake in one of his books.
In essence, the claim was that healing magic would work better if the practitioner was already aware of medical care outside of the magic itself, of vital organs and their function, of blood vessels and nerve endings.
Though Huevs claimed this almost two hundred years ago, for only fifty we actually know that it only depends where one focused the magic, most if not everything else doesn't matter.
Being aware of medical care outside of magic does help if the mage is tired or cannot see a wound but looking back at this now it seems silly, to know what works and what doesn't.
"What seems silly to me," Vaunn said like he could read my mind, "is the reason you want to learn so much about alchemy this early in your school life. You do not have to learn it until your second year and with the upcoming tests should you not rather focus on studying the subjects which they are about? But I guess a head start can never hurt."
"Except for math, I'm confident of my knowledge in the subjects. And I already planned on studying it later this day."
"Oh, lilies," he stopped flipping through the pages and started to read intently, "how about a little test and we're done for today?"
"Do we need to prepare something first?"
"Just a few things," he put down the book, "do you know what lilies are used for in general?"
"They're used for pain and fever."
"What about in potions?"
"I don't know, not yet."
"We'll brew one today, a perfume of spirit. It's not to drink, though."
"What does it do?"
"It smells nice."
We relocated into the kitchen to use its pots, pans, and other utensils.
While Vaunn read the instructions in detail, I put out a knife, a ladle to stir, and a cauldron onto the table with some water and I heated it up myself.
When I saw bubbles rising I stopped and then looked over to Vaunn, "what do we need to do?"
"We need lilies, of course, a bushel of them. Take the ones next to the window," he pointed behind me.
I did as he told me, "should I just throw them in?"
He nodded.
"Two pinches of salt, in the cabinet behind you. Cinnamon should also be there, two spoonfuls."
After I threw in the ingredients Vaunn said, "now a bit of arella. If you would do the honors, weigh it first."
Per his instructions, I measured the right amount of it then added it into the cauldron.
"Stir it in a sunwise rotation until it turns blue."
I stirred until the mixture gained a soothing blue color.
"Now add a lot of arella and superheat it then stir sunwise again, that should be it."
Again I poured in arella but this time a large amount of it.
"What does it mean by superheat?" I asked, "just make it hotter or something more specific?"
"Just make it real hot, but you have to do it alone. I may be able to light a fire magically but I fear my flames are not good enough to heat it as instructed."
I touched the sides of the cauldron, feeling the heat on it I did as I usually would, and not a minute later the parts of the cauldron where my hands lay turned a fiery red and began to bubble.
"I think that's enough, now just stir a little. We should know when it's finished."
Not long after Vaunn held out a hand, "do you smell that?"
I breathed in deep.
There was something in the air.
It reminded me of something that I held very dear.
"What do you smell?" He asked.
"It smells like the perfume my mother used to wear. Lavender and jasmine."
I felt the tears building in my eyes, I wiped them off before even one came down.
"I smell lilac and currents. Oh, this is divine," he inhaled deeply.
"How come you're smelling something different?"
"That's the magic of it. The perfume kind of transforms to what the smeller loves to smell."
This was a strange kind of alchemy.
"What is this delicious smell that I am smelling?" Magister Eeming said while bursting into the kitchen.
"We made a potion. Can you tell us what you're smelling?" I answered his question and asked another.
"Oh good lords," he smacked his lips several times, "it smells like apple pie and pudding. Do we by any chance how some ready?"
"I'll inform the kitchen to prepare some now," Vaunn answered with a slight bow.
"Good, good. Would you like to join me?" He directed the next question at me.
"No, thank you. I just wanted to finish this with Mister Vaunn, and it looks like it was quite a success."
"Can I take a closer look at your guys' potion?"
"Of course."
He stepped closer and looked at it with squinted eyes, "a perfume of spirit, is it?"
Unsurprised I answered, "yes."
"Nice shade of blue."
He put a finger into the potion and then lick it and started retching, "yep, perfect taste too."
He spat into the fireplace, "did you heated it up yourself? What am I saying, course you did. Normal flames can't get hot enough to get such a great smell."
In a sudden motion, he sprayed out some fire from his hands.
If it was carelessness or intentional I do not know but he full force hit me in the face with one of his handfuls.
I staggered back and fell down, breathing heavily.
I held my hands to my face expecting the worse but there was no pain nor any kind of wound.
I stood up and looked into one of the mirrors in the kitchen, hands still on my face.
I put them down, first thinking my face would be burned to a crisp but it was my regular face, not even a single singe.
Eeming looked at me confused then his expression turned from that to understanding, "magical fire cannot hurt you if it didn't spread from or onto something else."
Out of breath in anger, I said, "someone should have informed me about it! It should be one of the first things that a student should learn about."
"Sorry, you'll learn it in the second year. There are strange interactions with magic when it comes to humans. Here let me show you."
Out of nothing he conjured a little ball of water, "open your mouth."
"I hope magical water is clean," I said mouth agape.
He guided the little ball from his hand into my mouth. I could feel it floating inside.
"Close it," he ordered.
And as I did the water lost its form and splashed down inside my mouth.
"Now it's just normal water. Except for healing magic, you cannot, ehh... influence the human body with pure magic, know what I mean? Why do you think there aren't any combat mages?"