“Some knowledge of medicine is entirely sufficient”, Doran assured Vega when she told him that she didn’t know anything about chemistry, but that she could do medicine alright. He didn’t mind her comment about ‘Boffins an’ Big-Brains’ at all, although he supposed that he belonged in the aforementioned group due to his position as Dean of the Institute of Sciences in Viden, among other things. On the contrary, he smiled slightly. He had to admit, he found her directness and her honesty refreshing - and far preferable to the somewhat stiff attitude that some of his fellow academics unfortunately exhibited.
“Attunement is a domain of magic”, he explained in a calm tone of voice when she asked him about it. He was rather ambivalent when it came to magic, especially his own magic – he had decided to never progress it any further – but at the same time, he acknowledged that most domains of magic could be useful, and that they did have their good sides. “It constitutes a form of magical focus. Every person, every object and every power in Idalos has a frequency, and every frequency consists of Notes that Attuners can examine”, he continued.
“Attuners can also learn to be aware of their surroundings and see without eyes though”, he added, remembering his meetings with Balthazar Black and the blindfold that he had imbued with Omnivision. Their last meeting had been a disaster – his old acquaintance had exhibited an overwhelmingly reckless attitude and a lack of common sense and spoken positively of necromancy, among other things so that he had been forced to throw him out of his office – but some of their earlier meetings had been quite interesting.
He momentarily wondered how the man fared nowadays – he had heard that he had been removed as leader of Hopetoun before he turned to look at Kisaik who had just drawn the shadow sword that he had used to free himself from his potato prison with obvious curiosity. When the Tunawa wanted to know if he’d be able to imbue it with something, he furrowed his brow for a moment before he replied, “I can’t tell for sure as I don’t know which material it is made of and what kind of power it contains, but I would say that it’s not impossible. Have you ever had it analyzed?” he asked.
“Effects that have been created with natural reagents are permanent”, he replied when Kisaik wanted to know if the effects of alchemy treated items faded. “Unless you are dealing with potions. Potions are always temporary – as are the effects of Blood Magic. Ether is fleeting. A Blood Magic item can be recharged by treating it with more mage blood though, for example”, he explained – Vega would know that already since they had talked about it when he had alchemificated the Beacon the season before.
Having said that, he listened to what Vega had to say. She wanted to make a blouse that was always cool – which sounded useful, especially considering the curse that her father had put on her. “We can definitely do that”, he told her. “We could use green sand from Scalvoris, for example, and create an alchemical solution with it that we submerge the blouse in so that it absorbs it. If you bring me one of your blouses, or another kind of top, we can alchemificate it right now”, he offered, smiling slightly when she raised her hand, much like a child in school before her answered her question regarding triggers.
“Pretty much everything can be a trigger. In order to make an item whose effect is triggered by a certain amount of light or darkness, I would use a photosensitive material, for example – a material that is sensitive to light”, he explained as Vega might not be familiar with the word ‘photosensitive’. “In order to make an item whose effect activates when it comes in contact with blood, I would make it react to one of the components of blood – or simply wetness. You could even make it react to the presence of ether, if you wanted to. As I said, almost everything is possible with alchemy”, he remarked, smiling slightly once more. That was one of the things that he enjoyed so much about alchemy – the nearly unlimited creative potential.
“I can write the title of a book – or a couple of books – down for you”, he offered when Vega asked him if he knew of any good books on chemistry. He truly appreciated that she didn’t want to take any risks and was willing to go slow and make it as safe as possible.
That was not something that should be taken for granted in his opinion.
Finally, Vega called him a peach. He looked at her – and at Kisaik – for a moment before he smirked, inclined his head and replied, “Thank you, Vega.”
Once she brought him a blouse, or a similar article of clothing, he produced a small bag that was filled with green Scalvoris sand and handed it to her. “Green sand will make your blouse always cool, as I said”, he explained to her, and to Kisaik, in a calm tone of voice. “I would not recommend using the sand as is though, but purify it with a sieve and remove possible particles. Since we’ll be working with very simple and natural reagents, there is no risk of injury, but if the sand is contaminated, there might be gaps in the effect, or your blouse won’t be as cool as it should be.”
“Would you do that?” he asked her – sifting sand was a somewhat boring and monotonous activity, but it was an important part of the process – before he produced a small metal sieve and ultimately turned to Kisaik. “You can make a piece of clothing that is cool as well, if you like. I have enough material for both of you”, he offered. It would be better than making Kisaik watch and wait until it was his turn; besides, he might yet learn something useful.
“Sometimes, it’s necessary to treat an item with a primer beforehand – a reagent that will prepare the item for receiving the enhancement. Since we’ll be alchemificating clothing, a liquid primer that the clothing can be submerged it works best in my opinion. I have a primer here that contains a hint of resin”, he explained and held up a bottle. “I’d like you to do that next – and let your item dry afterwards”, he added.
“In the meantime, we’ll make the actual alchemical solution. Since we’ll only be using a single reagent, a binder – which is a substance that ensures that the different reagents don’t negate each other – won’t be necessary. First, we need a base. Water will be sufficient in our case as the density of green sand is lower than that of water. I’d like you to add that much sand to the water”, he told them, stating the correct amount – Vega and Kisaik could see that he had removed a scale from his alchemy kit. “And stir it carefully before you add your item that is hopefully dry now, and leave it in there until it has absorbed the alchemical mixture completely.”
“With a little more experience”, he continued and glanced at Kisaik. “You could modify the process, add a binder, such as ground seashells, to the mixture of green sand and water and then add a metabolizer in order to render the alchemical effect more powerful. You could actually give it a try now, Kisaik”, he offered – the Tunawa was more experienced than Vega and thus there was no reason why he shouldn’t give him an additional challenge, especially since the reagents were safe and very simple.
“Let me know if you have any questions, please”, he finished. “Otherwise, you can begin alchemificating. I’ll watch you and correct you if it turns out to be necessary.”
“Attunement is a domain of magic”, he explained in a calm tone of voice when she asked him about it. He was rather ambivalent when it came to magic, especially his own magic – he had decided to never progress it any further – but at the same time, he acknowledged that most domains of magic could be useful, and that they did have their good sides. “It constitutes a form of magical focus. Every person, every object and every power in Idalos has a frequency, and every frequency consists of Notes that Attuners can examine”, he continued.
“Attuners can also learn to be aware of their surroundings and see without eyes though”, he added, remembering his meetings with Balthazar Black and the blindfold that he had imbued with Omnivision. Their last meeting had been a disaster – his old acquaintance had exhibited an overwhelmingly reckless attitude and a lack of common sense and spoken positively of necromancy, among other things so that he had been forced to throw him out of his office – but some of their earlier meetings had been quite interesting.
He momentarily wondered how the man fared nowadays – he had heard that he had been removed as leader of Hopetoun before he turned to look at Kisaik who had just drawn the shadow sword that he had used to free himself from his potato prison with obvious curiosity. When the Tunawa wanted to know if he’d be able to imbue it with something, he furrowed his brow for a moment before he replied, “I can’t tell for sure as I don’t know which material it is made of and what kind of power it contains, but I would say that it’s not impossible. Have you ever had it analyzed?” he asked.
“Effects that have been created with natural reagents are permanent”, he replied when Kisaik wanted to know if the effects of alchemy treated items faded. “Unless you are dealing with potions. Potions are always temporary – as are the effects of Blood Magic. Ether is fleeting. A Blood Magic item can be recharged by treating it with more mage blood though, for example”, he explained – Vega would know that already since they had talked about it when he had alchemificated the Beacon the season before.
Having said that, he listened to what Vega had to say. She wanted to make a blouse that was always cool – which sounded useful, especially considering the curse that her father had put on her. “We can definitely do that”, he told her. “We could use green sand from Scalvoris, for example, and create an alchemical solution with it that we submerge the blouse in so that it absorbs it. If you bring me one of your blouses, or another kind of top, we can alchemificate it right now”, he offered, smiling slightly when she raised her hand, much like a child in school before her answered her question regarding triggers.
“Pretty much everything can be a trigger. In order to make an item whose effect is triggered by a certain amount of light or darkness, I would use a photosensitive material, for example – a material that is sensitive to light”, he explained as Vega might not be familiar with the word ‘photosensitive’. “In order to make an item whose effect activates when it comes in contact with blood, I would make it react to one of the components of blood – or simply wetness. You could even make it react to the presence of ether, if you wanted to. As I said, almost everything is possible with alchemy”, he remarked, smiling slightly once more. That was one of the things that he enjoyed so much about alchemy – the nearly unlimited creative potential.
“I can write the title of a book – or a couple of books – down for you”, he offered when Vega asked him if he knew of any good books on chemistry. He truly appreciated that she didn’t want to take any risks and was willing to go slow and make it as safe as possible.
That was not something that should be taken for granted in his opinion.
Finally, Vega called him a peach. He looked at her – and at Kisaik – for a moment before he smirked, inclined his head and replied, “Thank you, Vega.”
Once she brought him a blouse, or a similar article of clothing, he produced a small bag that was filled with green Scalvoris sand and handed it to her. “Green sand will make your blouse always cool, as I said”, he explained to her, and to Kisaik, in a calm tone of voice. “I would not recommend using the sand as is though, but purify it with a sieve and remove possible particles. Since we’ll be working with very simple and natural reagents, there is no risk of injury, but if the sand is contaminated, there might be gaps in the effect, or your blouse won’t be as cool as it should be.”
“Would you do that?” he asked her – sifting sand was a somewhat boring and monotonous activity, but it was an important part of the process – before he produced a small metal sieve and ultimately turned to Kisaik. “You can make a piece of clothing that is cool as well, if you like. I have enough material for both of you”, he offered. It would be better than making Kisaik watch and wait until it was his turn; besides, he might yet learn something useful.
“Sometimes, it’s necessary to treat an item with a primer beforehand – a reagent that will prepare the item for receiving the enhancement. Since we’ll be alchemificating clothing, a liquid primer that the clothing can be submerged it works best in my opinion. I have a primer here that contains a hint of resin”, he explained and held up a bottle. “I’d like you to do that next – and let your item dry afterwards”, he added.
“In the meantime, we’ll make the actual alchemical solution. Since we’ll only be using a single reagent, a binder – which is a substance that ensures that the different reagents don’t negate each other – won’t be necessary. First, we need a base. Water will be sufficient in our case as the density of green sand is lower than that of water. I’d like you to add that much sand to the water”, he told them, stating the correct amount – Vega and Kisaik could see that he had removed a scale from his alchemy kit. “And stir it carefully before you add your item that is hopefully dry now, and leave it in there until it has absorbed the alchemical mixture completely.”
“With a little more experience”, he continued and glanced at Kisaik. “You could modify the process, add a binder, such as ground seashells, to the mixture of green sand and water and then add a metabolizer in order to render the alchemical effect more powerful. You could actually give it a try now, Kisaik”, he offered – the Tunawa was more experienced than Vega and thus there was no reason why he shouldn’t give him an additional challenge, especially since the reagents were safe and very simple.
“Let me know if you have any questions, please”, he finished. “Otherwise, you can begin alchemificating. I’ll watch you and correct you if it turns out to be necessary.”
