I sat down bleary-eyed facing the furnace which had a large pot sitting within it. I had not even began adding powders from my medicine belt. Purified water bubbled within the pot.
"Sister Nei-- what next?" Lena asked. During the brewing of the first tonic, I had barred everyone from coming into the overhanging rock cave. For my reasons. Now that they were all one star mages though, they would be able to resist the power flunctuations that came from me while I brewed the tonic.
I chewed my fingernails while I tried to come up with a formula. To raise a weak link's power from nothing to one star, bridging a three-year training gap. And to raise a magus aura from four times less to about ten times more. Certainly two very different scenarios.
I used the laddle in my hand to quietly stir the water, deep in thought. The Restoration tonic had needed a lot of active ingredients that I had collected through the years and grounded into powder. Those were the powders I carried around in my medicine belt.
Active ingredients could raise aura? What had I been thinking when I promised general grumpy that I could raise his aura outside Savitro Zhan? Was I overrating myself? Was I simply kidding myself? Who did I think I was? An alchemist without formal training, who stumbled upon natural ingredients, grounded them into powder and randomly threw them together?
"Sister Nei--" my handmaids had probably noticed my despondent expression.
"Tough," I spat.
They recoiled. Siva came to squat beside me.
"I'm sure sister Nei will be able to do it. Didn't you successfully brew the Reformation tonic? Didn't it work?"
"This is not the Reformation tonic," I sighed, not interested in going into lengthy explanations, "Lena, go down into the camp and ask Grandmother if there are any magical fruits around,"
"Okay," Lena said and exited at once. I concentrated back on the boiling water. No matter the tonic, it still required a base ingredient-- salt!
The water changed color slightly when I added salt which had come into contact with my fingers, imbuing the simple salt with magical properties. I sat back on the stool and fell into deep thought again.
Salt. Purification. Active ingredients.
What could raise a mage's aura?
Training.
I had to simulate the energy generated during training into the tonic. It might turn out not to be a tonic, after all was said and done. It might become something that had to be infused...but I was not concerned about that now.
Fireleaf. If consumed, it could revive an unconscious person. The auras of the Savitro Zhan generals could be said to have become unconscious, dull, when they left their homeland. I needed to wake it up.
"Siva,"
"Yes?" she replied at once.
"Bring me a pinch of that fiery red powder,"
"Yes," she rose up and went over to the rock ledge further into the cave on which I had laid all the powders in my possession. She returned to me with a pinch of powdered Fireleaf.
"Throw it in the pot," I ordered, and she did as she was told.
"Stand back and wrap a protective film around yourself. I am going to project my mind into the energy field of the ingredients in the pot," I said. I realized that I was more or less discipling Siva in alchemy. Pushing the thoughts that came with it into the back of my mind, I closed my eyes, formed my hands into a complex seal, and got momentarily disconnected from the outside world.
Hot! The water was very hot! But then, it was not ordinary water anymore. This was already a rudimentary tonic, like a fast life-saver to revive an unconscious person. Salt. Fireleaf. My own magical imprint.
I sighed.
Big flaw in the plan.
How would I communicate Siva with instructions now that I had entered within the energy field of the brewing tonic?
Except I wanted to make a long term arrangement.
Or else call someone who was already familiar with my mind aura.
Who might also refuse to come.
This was a critical point and I could not waltz in and out of the energy field as I pleased. Either Siva... or Rudolph. I had to make the choice.
Bang!
A muffled explosion resounded as I forcefully exited the energy field which wanted to pull me further in.
"Siva!" I called.
"Yes, sister Nei?" She watched me cautiously through her protective film, "are you hurt?" she asked.
"I'm not. Are you?"
She shook her head.
"Would you like to be an alchemist?" I threw the question over casually. Of course, she drew in a sharp breath.
"Pardon?"
"I said, will you like to be my disciple? Instead of my maid? Would you like to learn alchemy from me?"
Siva looked as if it had suddenly started raining liquid gold. The immature girl suddenly shrieked.
"YES! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
I smirked at her excitement.
"Let's wait for Lena. This tonic cannot be made by me alone. I will need you to pick ingredients from the ledge for me and I can't communicate you if we are not bound together in a way. It might be a blood bond, or it might be teacher and disciple bond."
I had to explain all over again when Lena came back with an armful of magical fruits. She was more composed when she agreed to learn alchemy.
I withdrew the fire from the furnace with a flip of my hand. First, I had some things to do with these girls who had become my disciples.
"My brother, Rudolph, is also learning alchemy from me. Naturally, he is more advanced in level; so, if you happen to come across him, greet him as your senior,"
They nodded.
"Also--make sure not to make too much of a fuss about this. Don't tell anyone that you're learning alchemy from me. I am being very liberal by taking you. Naturally, a one star mage does not meet the requirements. In order to quickly bridge that gap, you must train with all your might," I said.
"Yes, teacher," they said.
I grinned. Perhaps this would be worth it.
Now came the difficult part. Stamping them with my magical imprint. That was not fun.
"Uhh--" I sighed, "and now I have to imprint you with my palm. That way, I will be able to communicate you even when my mind is within the ingredients' energy field."
"Yes," they said obediently. But they still didn't know what it meant, what it entailed.
"It will hurt quite a lot," I was very honest with them. They still nodded. Well!
***
The pair of painful screams from the cave brought a number of people up the mountain. Leading them was Iria, wondering if the tonic brewing had gone wrong at some point and whether the person screaming was her beloved sister.
"Nei?" she called into the quite dark cave.
"Yes?" A soft voice responded, "Iria? What's up?"
"I should be asking you that," Iria replied coldly, "what was the noise about?"
"Oh," there was a little tinge of guilt within the reply, "nothing much. Just-- just imprinting on Siva and Lena,"
Iria came into the cave, looking over at the pale faces of the two girls. And me sitting on a ledge, seemingly innocent.
"Why?"
"That-- uhh-- I need to communicate with them while I'm within the tonic's energy field,"
"And so? You had to imprint them? Why not just call Rudolph or me?"
"You?--" I was flabbergasted. Iria was actually willing to be my errand girl? I had never imagined the great and mighty Iria Hakorhi leaving her shenanigans and coming to actually scurry around picking powders for me?
"By the way, you will not be able to communicate with them through the imprint until about a couple of days," Iria growled. I sighed. Everything I did was always stupid in her eyes. Everything I did had flaws.
"I wasn't intending to hurry. We don't have Samahan's consent yet, anyway,"
She said nothing to me. Turning to Siva and Lena, she said:
"Go home and rest so the imprint can heal,"
"Yes, Clan princess," they curtsied and went out.
Iria came to sit beside me on the ledge.
"I know why you don't want to call Rudolph. And why you would never call me. Alright. I don't blame you,"
I rolled my eyes.
"You have a formula?" she asked me suddenly, and I tensed.
"Uhh-- I think I do," I replied obscurely. But of course Iria was not stupid.
"Will throw something together?"
"Yeah," I admitted, "it works, though. How's your arm?"
"My arm?" she was confused, "what about my arm?"
"Your arrow wound,"
"That--? I'd forgotten about it. Healed,"
I smiled.
"I did throw something together, then,"
"Fine," she said and walked over to the furnace, looking into the pot.
"What's this?"
"Rudimentary tonic, Life Restoration Draught,"
"Did you just come up with that?" she grinned.
"I think so," I smiled back. It was as if the horrible memory transfer had never happened. I was glad she was not affected by it, and I was glad to be rid of them.
"And these?" she pointed to the fruits that Lena brought.
"Don't you recognize magical fruits?" I rolled my eyes.
"Oh," she picked one up, "anything will happen if I take a bite off this?"
"Your immunity should be able to resist the side effects," I said carelessly. I wanted Iria out of this cave, "uhh--Iria, can you leave after you finish that?"
"What?" she said between crunches, "*crunch*,*crunch*, chasing me out of here, are you? Duh. I'm here to help you, alchemist. I'm already imprinted with your palm so put on the fire and get your mind into that pot!"
.....
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