Maikana
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Chapter 37 – Explosions?
🕑 Added 2025-03-16 19:29:36 +0000 UTCWith no moss remaining and still hours left in the day, Bolst suggested that she lend a hand with one of their easiest tasks, one he generally left to Kora as it had long been reduced to being rote. “We need to produce some flame liquor. It’s relatively simple to make, just a few ingredients and some pure alcohol that we get from the brewers.” Fishing around in a cabinet and retrieving a sheaf of papers, “This has the process on it. Just follow the directions and it won’t take too long.” Placing the instructions down in front of Kori before turning to face Kora, “Set her up with the right gear to get her started on a small batch, she can scale it up once she’s run through it once or twice.”
“Flame liquor? Are you sure?” Clearly doubting herself after the day’s performance. “I don’t want to cause a fire in here or anything.”
Kora approaches her and waves off her concerns, “Don’t worry, it’s pretty stable as long as you don’t bring it near an open flame.” She explains, “The work is done in stages, everything that needs to be heated is done first and then after you douse the burner you do the mixing. Perfectly safe.”
“Oh… Okay.” She replies cautiously. “What do I need to do?” Still a bit worried, but at the same time a little excited to learn the new process.
“It’s all here,” Tapping the sheets of paper. “Read through that while I gather a few things and I’ll observe and answer questions as you go.” She steps away to gather beakers and flasks and ingredients, making several trips back and forth to Kori’s work station as he hands fill.
Reading through the guide Kori quickly finds that the process is relatively simple, if menial. Mixing several extracts and oils and an acid, she’d need to be very careful with that part, over a burner for several minutes until the colour changes and then allowing it cool and gently adding it to the alcohol. Once allowed to set the mixture would apparently thicken to a slime like goop.
“Bolst? What is this used for?” Her curiosity demanding to know why they’d want something like this.
Peering up from his work briefly at her question, “Hmm? Oh, it’s mostly used in the warning traps.” He answers idly, most of his attention still on whatever he was working on. “Much more effective than the sign saying ‘Keep Out’.”
While the vague answer only raises more questions, Kori doesn’t think she’ll be getting much more out of him while he’s engrossed in his work. Before she was done going over the notes a second time, Kora was finished gathering the necessary ingredients and equipment for them to begin the process.
“Okay. So, what’s the first step Kori?” She prods, letting the younger kobold take the lead.
“Well first, like you taught me, is to verify that I have everything I need.” She replies, clearly not willing to disregard her earlier lessons in safety again. She begins checking off the ingredients one by one until she finds something out of place. “This is the wrong extract.” She notes, “It’s supposed to be…” Looking back at the notes, “Fraxinella extract?” The plant name seeming weird to her, “This is an oil… I think?”
“Correct. It’s from a plant called poison ivy, causes nasty itching for soft skins.” Chuckling as she explains. “Good catch.” Swapping the offending jar for one sitting on a nearby table. “This is the fraxinella.”
“What would have happened if I used the oil?” Kori asks, she thinks it would still produce something flammable, but isn’t sure what the difference would have been.
“It’d probably still work, but could have been too stable, the frax is there to keep it easy to light.” She shrugs as she explains, the results untested but her experience guiding her to a likely answer. “Though I’d have stopped you before you got that far.”
“Fair enough.” A little annoyed at being tested, though understanding why. “We’re also missing the alcohol.” She adds.
“Yeah, we’ll get that while the mixture cools.” She responds dismissively. “Don’t like having it so close to the burners while they’re lit.”
With a last look over the arrayed ingredients and apparatus before her, “Then I guess we’re ready.”
She begins setting up the burner, leaving the wick unlit for now, and the stand to hold the beaker once she begins, before taking a number of small dishes and measuring out her ingredients ahead of time. “Lanolin and sea shells to thicken.” Measuring out a dollop of the oil and powdered shell. “Acid to break down the shells.” Carefully pouring a thin stream of acid into a glass measure. “Fraxinella to keep it flammable.” The fumes spread quickly as she opens the lid on the fraxinella container. A somewhat sickly-sweet odour to them. She places a lid on the measure to prevent them from igniting. With all the ingredients measured out and ready she glances to Kora. “That’s everything for this part. Can I begin?”
Receiving a nod in response Kori slowly begins combining the ingredients, first the seashell powder before gingerly adding in the acid, careful not to cause any splashes. She leans in closer and watches as the mixture bubbles and the powder slowly dissolves into the acid. “That’s kind of fun to watch.” As more and more bubbles form and rise in the liquid, pulling the powder along with it only for it to fall back down in a slow cascade.
“Don’t wait too long to begin heating it. You don’t want to leave too much water in it.” Kora cautions.
Moving the beaker above the still unlit burner she scurries over to light a taper on another that was already lit and returns, lighting her own. The mixture slowly heats and sizzles with the acid vigorously doing its thing as she begins to slowly dribble in the lanolin and mixes the contents of the beaker gently. Once everything is incorporated and the fizzing bubbles stop, she snuffs the burner. Waiting a few minutes as the mixture stops bubbling and begins to darken before adding the fraxinella extract.
“Well done, a little quicker on the heat next time, but otherwise well done.” Kora praises her.
Kori doesn’t really pay the acknowledgement much heed as she continues to watch the now stilled mixture. “How long does it take to cool?”
“A few minutes,” Looking at Kori with a grin, “Just long enough to clean up and reset to do it again.”
With a sigh, knowing she walked right into that, Kori gathers up all the measures and vessels and plods over to the wash basin. “Do I have to worry about washing out the acid?” She calls back, one of Kora’s lessons about safety coming back to her just before she taps the water rune.
“Oh, that stuff? Nah.” She chuckles dismissively, “The humans use that stuff on their food apparently.” A look of shock crossing Kori’s face as she pictures humans drinking acid. “It’s harmless, kinda tangy tasting. Go ahead and try it if you want.”
Her look of shock slowly fading to curiosity. She exaggeratingly slowly lowers a claw towards the residue of the acid in the beaker in hand, giving Kora plenty of time to halt her and tell her it was a joke. No warnings to stop ever come and Kori drags a claw through the remnants before bringing it up to her nose and giving it a sniff, a harsh stinging scent filling her nostrils. Giving it a lick a sharp, sour flavour invades her mouth with a pungent aftertaste that feels like it’s robbed her tongue of its moisture. Her face twists in the displeasure of the entirely new flavour.
Kora begins to laugh at the younger kobold’s misfortune, beginning as a mere chuckle but devolving into a tearful, cackling laugh as she watches Kori’s reaction. Even Bolst cannot help but join in on the laughter as he sees what has occurred.
“Ack.” Coughing and sputtering at the sudden intense flavour coating the insides of her cheeks. Quickly tapping the water rune, she practically shoves her head under its flow. Rinsing and spitting the water out to clear the taste still clinging within her mouth until she’s finally rid of it. “That is just foul! The humans like this stuff?!” Her voice and face both a picture of offended incredulity.
Neither Kora nor Bolst able to control their mirth as Kori gives them dirty looks. With a glare at the pair of them she returns to her cleaning, vowing to get back at them eventually. returning to her station with the cleaned glassware and the pair of kobolds finally done with their laughing, Kora finally apologizes for the prank.
“Sorry Kori. If it makes you feel any better, Bolst did the same thing to me when I first started too.” She tries to commiserate with her, though Kori was definitely not ready to hear it yet. “And yes, the humans enjoy it.” Shaking her head and trying not to start laughing again. “Not sure how. They’re a weird bunch.” A chuckle threatening to begin her laughter once again.
Trying to ignore the pair and seeing that the now much darker concoction of ingredients was mostly cooled. Which she checked by waving her palm over the open lid before feeling the side with the scales on the back of her hand, she looks to Kora before asking, “Are we ready to mix it?”
She receives a quick nod in return before Kora points to a much larger vessel on the nearby table, already filled with over a litre of liquid. “I measured out the alcohol while you cleaned up.”
Carrying over the heavy pitcher of liquid and setting it on her workstation gently took some effort with the size and relative awkwardness, but she managed to do so without spill or mishap. A glance to Kora confirming there were no last-minute interruptions. She raised her mixture above the liquor and slowly began pouring it in. Using the long glass rod made for the purpose, she gently stirred the mixture. Her goal was for the liquid to thicken into a somewhat gloopy and viscous liquid that would splatter and stick if propelled against a surface.
As she slowly worked the two liquids together a familiar sensation began to creep into her senses. A feeling of a missing ingredient. A void needing to be filled. This time around, Kori knew that she wasn’t dealing with some harmless poultice designed to relieve wounds, but a volatile and dangerous, potentially even explosive, concoction. She hesitated to heed that feeling her instincts were practically screaming at her to follow and gripped her mana tightly to keep it from entering the solution.
“Uhhh, Kora!” Panic threading her voice as she kept to her same pace of stirring. “It’s doing something strange…”
Even Bolst hears the note of distress in her voice and jumped up from what he was doing, the thought that he wasn’t fast enough last time with the centipede still weighing on him. “What’s going on?” As he rushes over to her side, ready to drag her away if anything dangerous were happening.
Her eyes still fixed on the slowly gelling solution before her. “It want’s my mana… Like the ointment did.” Her panic not quite as pronounced since she didn’t notice any reaction to not giving it the energy.
“Oh… Oh!” Both Kora and Bolst exclaim looking between each other then back to Kori and her work.
Both of them speak up nearly on top of each other.
“Don’t do it!” Kora exclaims.
Only to be almost immediately contradicted by Bolst’s yelling “Do it!”
With her instincts agreeing with Bolst and driving her forward, Kori let loose her grip on her mana and allowed it to flow freely. The liquid drank greedily from her mana as it began to glow with a subtle fiery orange light and she started to feel a little light headed. She watched on as her mana dwindled, drawing down nearly a hundred points in moments leaving her with just over half of it remaining. As the draining sensation finally abated, they all looked on curiously as the formerly dark brown viscous concoction was now shimmering in a yellow orange as though from an inner flame.
As they all watched, heat began to rise surrounding the pitcher and a rising haze shimmered in the air above the vessel. A wisp of flame ignited in the most distant fumes above but failed to follow them back to their source. The three shared a look, a mix of awe and panic, as they saw this happen again and the spark got a bit closer to the surface of the concoction the second time. Kora and Kori both started to slowly back away in fear, not wanting to stir up the air by breaking into a run. Bolst on the other hand threw that caution aside as he grabbed the nearby lid and hastily slid it in from the side. His eyes wide as the lid passed through the haze filled air just as a flame washed over his hands but was blocked from its destination as he sealed the concoction away.
He joined the others at a distance, watching the dangerous fumes fill the space between the lid and the surface of the mixture. Their eyes wide and their attention transfixed on it as they waited for something to happen. Anything to happen. Minutes passed as the three barely even breathed, but nothing changed. Finally settling from their anxiety, the older pair talk over top of each other once again. Kora berating Bolst for how stupid he had been both for encouraging this and with the lid, Bolst exclaiming at Kori and asking as many questions as the youngling was apt to.
And Kori? She was staring wide eyed at something the rest could not see. Something she’d been waiting on for months.
<<Skill Acquired, Imbue Concoction, Rare, Level 1>>
