Warrior of the Void Book 1, Chapter 23

“Oh baby, do tell.” Muur said with a grin, bracing herself for some putrefied horse womb grade nonsense straight out of Parcelsus’ books. 

“First, use a clean knife to carefully remove the wing’s membrane. It’s crucial that it isn’t damaged, we will need it later,” He instructed, Muur following suit with the closest thing to a scalpel available in the twelve-set of blades Cocobusi had laid out, “Then, use that same knife to make an incision on the back of the wing. A different knife, while acceptable, would lessen the overall quality. You should be able to peel its phantasmal flesh easily. Be aware that we are now on a timer. The imp’s flesh will start degrading rapidly once exposed to the air. Take out every bone and break them no more and no less than four times. If a break causes them to shed fragments, only those holding the umbral marrow are to be taken into account.”

“Voidsent meat is a fucking prima donna, is what I’m gathering.” The lizard woman grumbled even as she carried out the tasks with aplomb, her hands stone steady as they processed the gore without hurry. Trying to scramble would just make her fuck up.

“It is, yes. You'll recall that I said that it was stable, but that stability is anchored in its overall wholeness. Voidsent are fundamentally unstable, a side effect of their wholly umbral nature,” The words coming out of his mouth mostly made sense to the mage. Context clues were the MVP today, “The ambient Astral aspected aether of the realm prevents their destabilization… or so my brothers told me when I asked at a family dinner years ago.”

Shockingly not a drop of blood or anything of the sort left the wing, “Voidsent blood is far too volatile to be kept without specialised containers,” The lalafell explained with no prompting beyond the arching of Muur’s eyebrows, “In the case of these wings, it's long evaporated to nothing.”.”

“So Light is stasis and Dark is activity. Weird, given how aetheric lightning is.” Muur mused as she shifted from cutting membrane and meat to snapping bones as instructed. “Guess I shouldn’t try to apply too much physics to magic.”

“That would be inaccurate. Astral aether is action, as seen when a raging wildfire causes large quantities of Astral aspected aether to be released. While the desert’s dry heat is composed of umbral aspected fire aether. Now that you've broken the bones,” He instructed her in the same breath, “Place them within the wing membrane and using needle and twine, sew them into a pouch.”

“Truly, Ethers are overly elaborate tea.” The lizard woman chuckled as she got to work, enjoying the benefits of her body being a nomad’s with the muscle memory to match. Sewing together a pouch was nothing.

“Taking the next few steps into account? Not entirely incorrect,” When she was finished, Cocobusi pointed at a second basket, “Remove the inner implement and put the hose directly into the pouch. For this one, liquids flow downwards, rather than upwards like with the one containing the mistletoe slurry. Now for the last two parts of the preparation: First take the umbral flesh and…” Opening yet another flap, he revealed a large pipe under the basket to be made of two different parts. A large watertight enclosure, through which passed the actual tube, which had large star-shaped gaps all over its surface, “Wrap it securely around the inner section, preferably using the twine once again. Mine is a high quality alembic, meaning that the outer casing of this section can be adjusted to be as tight as needed. But less advanced, or plainly more rugged, versions do not have this feature.”

“Didn’t expect to end up using so much butcher’s twine when I came through the Guild’s doors, I’ll admit.” Muur said as she set up the meaty filter in place before popping the cover back on. 

Cocobusi let out an amused wheeze as she worked, “Oh believe me, you will not stop using it any time soon. In fact, the antidote’s preparation requires pouring a mixture of a snake’s ground organs, venom, blood and salt into the animal’s own skin so it can dissolve the leftover flesh. After which everything is strained,” Hearing the loud click that indicated that everything was in place, he nodded, “Now, the last bit of preparation is to have three empty bottles at hand. The last step is particularly time sensitive you see,” Without saying anything else, he took the bottles out of his bag and set them on the counter, “That being said, we can begin. First, turn the valve that controls the water pump. The machine’s aetheric converter will make it function either via ambient aether, or the thunder crystal embedded in it. You’ll want to look at the gauge on the side of the steeping basket, it will tell you how full the basket is. Based on your grind, you’ll want to be filled by… hmmm, I’d say three fourths? Maybe only two thirds?”

Muur bobbed her head silently, eyes glued to the gauge as she finessed the valve, carefully raising the volume to three fifths. “Any cues that’d tell me I need to add more? Or should I just leave it somewhere around seventy percent and hope for the best?”

“Good thing you asked. I would’ve allowed you to make that mistake yourself otherwise,” Cocobusi intoned, “Unfortunately, the only way to know how little or how much water is required is, simply put, experience. My guess is based on the scent, consistency and colour of the paste you made– since I am not the one that made it, I can’t be quite certain, once the process is started, adjustments become virtually impossible with ethers. With this much water, you would end up with a slightly too concentrated Ether. It’d work as required, but would risk causing mild stomach aches, or have an unpleasant aftertaste. Passable, even to our nitpicky guildmaster, but not stellar. I believe any volume between either of the values I gave would do the trick in providing the right amount of dilution,” He told her, before pausing and looking her in the eyes, “If the result is of poor quality due to improper dosage, the mistake will lay solely at my feet. After all, in this situation, I am directly responsible in your instruction. Now! Once you’ve adjusted the amount of water, you’ll want to flick the lever next to the knob with the lightning symbol to its third setting, while turning the knob to its maximum setting as well.”

The lizard woman stuck out her tongue as she focused, listening to her instincts as the gauge’s needle inched onwards. A twinge from her gut and she cut the flow, leaving it at a flat sixty-eight percent. A few clicks, and the lightning lever was at its third notch with one hand and the knob turned all the way with the other.

“The lever is for manipulating which of the conductive elements will receive the thundershock, while the knob dictates the strength of said shock. The next thing is to put the water symbol’s switch on the fifth notch,” Her instructor waited for her to do as asked, “Good, now, everything is ready. First, press the thunder knob in,” As she did, an arc of purple lightning flashed through the filtration basket, flash boiling the water at once, “Now, put the lightning’s lever on the fourth setting! As soon as you see the gauge for the imp’s bone basket reach the same amount as in the first one, press the knob again! Then back to the third position and repeat the process twice!”

Muur was full on grinning now. This was no longer a soothing practical with idle talk as she worked, it was an exciting test of skill as she translated instruction to action.

With each flashboil, she could see a black and viscous gel gather in a large glass chamber. There was some sort of filtration method going on, as a liquid, nearly transparent and slightly thicker than water, dripped out of the goo and into a glass reservoir, “Perfect, wait until the liquid begins to drip. When the drops take longer than a second to form, take out the reservoir, and throw the mistletoe leaves into it! If you wait too long, some of the byproduct might leak into the Ether.”

“Aye aye.” Muur said as she watched like a hawk, mentally walking herself through each of the motions she’d have to take as she clutched the glass dish with the leaves. One… two… 

She moved like greased lightning, each motion flowing into the next with complete surety. The reservoir, which at a second glance looked suspiciously like a coffeepot, came free of the alembic with a single tug and the click of a tab springing out from the depths of the machine to stop the mixture from dripping down any further.

Flicking the cover up with a press of her thumb, Muur was able to toss the leaves- into the sweet and dark-smelling liquid, “And now we wait. See how the leaves are coloring the incomplete filter?” Sure enough, a near imperceptible haze of yellow started to spread through the potion, “This is where your aetheric sense will aid you the most. It is entirely possible to get it right without relying on them, however it requires far more experience and knowledge. For now, wait until the Ether is completely coloured yellow, then wait a few moments more before pouring it in the bottles– I took the liberty to install a separating funnel.” Glancing at the three bottles, they now had a large three pronged funnel attached to the top.

…

Waiting turned out to be the most stressful part of the operation. Having to stare at the pot as it slowly transitioned from clear liquid, to the translucent yellow of a proper ether. If Cocobusi hadn’t been here to guide her, she would probably be wondering if she’d made a mistake somewhere. Was her grind too coarse? Or not smooth enough? Did she fail to break the bones cleanly? All questions someone without a more experienced alchemist to draw knowledge from would have struggled to find the answer to. In this at least, she could somewhat understand how the adventurer at the center of this mess could have failed.

But that was the only thing she could feel a bit more kind. From the sound of it, and the look of the ethers themselves, the idiot had either tried to squeeze too much ether from the sludge, or just plain didn’t filter it. Probably the latter, frankly. She’d bet good money he’d gotten lazy after the first couple of batches. Although, maybe the leaves turned into black mush if they steep too long? Something to ask Coc–

Just as that thought entered her head, she felt something snap into place with the ether. The colour wasn’t there yet, not quite the perfect yellow of Cocobusi’s example, but the taste that danced on her tongue was exactly the same and she didn’t have to think twice.

“Tastes ready to go.” She chimed, already moving to get the pour going. The senior alchemist had impressed on her that trusting her aetheric sense was one of the best things she could do as a rookie in this profession. Besides, he had a couple seconds to countermand her if need be.

Cocobusi said nothing as the funnel separated the batch into three equal doses as the liquid flowed into their containers. It didn’t take long for the pot to be empty, or the more experienced alchemist to offer her three corks, “So, I take it you believe they are finished?”

“Yes. If I’m going to be an alchemist, I have to trust my senses.” Muur replied with a sharp nod as she pressed in the corks. She’d get nowhere if she constantly looked over her shoulder for confirmation and reassurance, it was a bad habit from her past life and one she wanted to move away now that a fresh start had been forced on her.

“That’s something many an alchemist has told themselves, but tell me. Do you think the adventurer that failed his commission thought the same?” He asked her as he examined the Ether in detail. 

“I doubt he thought of much of anything beyond how clever he was hiding the obviously useless botches at the bottom of the crate.” The lizard woman drawled flatly, “If I were working on my own and my Ethers had come out like that mud? I would’ve gone to a senior, walked them through what I did step-by-step and asked what my mistake was. Rather than, y’know, making another twenty of the damned things like I wanted to empirically test how far Severain can throw a grown man past the Guild doors.”