The Verran Teachings 1: Alchemy Safety Rules
Andaris, 10 Cylus Arc 717
The painter Yrmellyn Cole had arrived in Rynmere in Vhalar 716, not long after the end of the civil war. She had earned the money she needed early in the season, by painting a portrait if the university professor Doran Thethys. After this she had secretly travelled to Yorick’s Keep, the last camp of the remains of the defeated rebel army, in order to keep a promise to the immortal Vhalar and to her benefactor of the past, “the fallen false queen” Zvezdana Venora. Yrmellyn didn’t know it at the time, but it would be their last meeting. Her friends was cursed by Syroa and would die a violent death as sessfiend in Rharne. Yrmellyn knew nothing of this, but she kept a low profile in Rynmere during the rest of the cold cycle, while the rebels were hunted down and killed or imprisoned.
During that period of time the painter often thought of the things Doran Thethys had said about alchemy. She was fascinated but not until Cylus 716 did she meet the professor again. At this point Yrmellyn had already given up about ever getting the demonstration of alchemy the man had promised her, so she had gone to Water Street Marketplace, the shadiest district of Rynmere, in search of books that could give her a shortcut to alchemy knowledge, without needing to go to the expensive university she couldn’t afford and didn’t find inspiring. She had come out of there with a new apprentice named Rudi and several books about alchemy, a bribe from his grandmother for taking the boy on.
There had been a scary experience with the professor Doran Thetys and an attraction potion down in the alchemy lab of the university one night, when that dangerous mortalborn (she had no idea he was mortalborn though) had become affected by the smoke arising from said potion and tried to snare her with the powers of Syroa’s blessing (though she didn’t know this was what she had encountered). Yrmellyn had fled from the lab. After this event, Yrmellyn decided to skip the academic approach and move on with alchemy herself. She would become an autodidact of the art. She would rely on her recently received books and on the acquaintance with Luther Verran, the owner of the potion shop. For this reason the painter was in Verran’s shop this evening after closing hours. She had convinced the shop keeper to aid her in her studies by offering him a discount on a new painting to decorate the shop with in order to inspire customers to impulse purchases. Here she was now, and her unusual studies in alchemy were about to begin! “Laurits, this is Miss Yrmellyn Cole, the painter lady I told you about. Miss Cole, this is my brother Laurits Verran. Laurits has agreed to help you out a bit, because I have to go somewhere else...I am sorry for this but I assure you that Laurits is man of knowledge, and you can learn from him as well as from me.”
Luther Verran hurried out from the shop. The door closed behind him with a soft clicking sound. Laurits Verran crossed the floor, locked the door and hung the key on a small hook right inside the door. He moved with a natural routine, like this was something he had so many times before that he didn’t even need to think of it. Then he turned to the painter, who stood there perplexed and confused by the instantaneous change of her plans for the evening.
She gave her unexpected company a once over. Laurits Verran’s appearance wasn’t particularly similar to his brother’s looks. He was a quite tall man, dressed in casual attire like a laborer or craftsman and he moved with the smooth grace of a physically fit man. His brown shoulder length hair was brushed back from his brow and he sported a short beard. The whole man emanated energy and he seemed somewhat misplaced in the neat shop.
Laurits, she thought, was a name that somewhat resembled Mariuz. Even small details like these could easily remind Yrmellyn Cole of the dead painter whose spark of magic she carried on. The memory of her dead lover and mentor in magic and art popped when she met new people if there was even the faintest chance of finding something of him in them.
Thus we look for our dead in the living.
The name was although the only similarity, as far as she could see.
Laurits Verran interrupted her musings by opening a conversation.
“Well then, miss Cole, my brother told me that you have a books about alchemy and want support for your studies...if I understand it right you aim to study on your own. Dare I ask why you aren’t going for a university education?”
“I cannot afford it.” Yrmellyn spoke frankly, because she wasn’t ashamed of not being wealthy. “The fees are terribly high.”
Laurits Verran nodded. “Of course. It’s expensive. But are there any other reasons?”
“Well. The other day a university professor in alchemy told me that the quality of the education has decreased. He actually gave me a demonstration and what I experienced did nothing to convince me about the worth of academic education.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.”
“Can you explain your thoughts a bit more in detail miss Cole?”
“I fear it’s just a lot of stiff theory and...I mean, things can seem very stiff in theory and so, but perhaps it gives very little when it comes to practical applications. I think it can be possible to gain knowledge in other ways than by following a premade course held by people who think the same content is right and useful for all. I’m a painter, not a chemist. I work by blending and fusing materials to create new things, not by separating and analyzing what already exists. I think there’s a difference.”
“I see...” Laurits Verran’s tone implied that he wasn’t totally sure if he understood what the painter meant, but he didn’t ask more about it. “Well. So. Perhaps we should proceed to the practicalities and have a look at your interesting books then, miss Cole.”
Yrmellyn agreed. She had only brought two of her new books about alchemy this evening. These were “The Basics of Alchemy for The Adventurous Beginner” by an Unknown author and “Mixed Alchemy and Alchemic Blends” by one A. Marlon.
The thick book named “The Forgotten Secrets of Alchemy” written by one Anne Brandon, according to the cover a “Former honorary professor at the University of Rynmere” had been left in the painter’s apartment. This was apartment, because she had found it best to start with the basics and the big book had seemed hard to understand.
In addition, she wasn’t sure if it was wise to show the big and special book to other people. Yrmellyn hadn’t asked her young apprentice Rudi if the book was written by his sloppy grandmother “Granny Anne” down at the moldering antiquarian bookshop in Water Street, but she secretly feared it might be so. In that case the book might be the seriously worthless scribblings of a drunkard in the gutter. Then again, the woman’s attire had partly looked like old and worn scholar clothes. It was hard to imagine that the disheveled woman selling books in bad shape in a place where hardly anybody needed books, but maybe she really had been associated with the university in some capacity, in the past? In that case the book might contain the unique research findings of a fallen alchemy autodidact professor, who had for some reason ended up as crazy shopkeeper in the criminal district. It goes without saying that this possibility intrigued and fascinated the painter. She planned to ask from her apprentice, in the future, when she and the boy knew each other better.
Still. She gave the boy this so he could pay for an apprenticeship and get a better life. This implies that she is maybe not as weird as she appears to be. Her methods during the robbery were...as innovative as my own. I give her that.
Laurits Verran picked up the two books and browsed them. Then he looked Yrmellyn and asked her how much she already knew about alchemy. The painter confessed that her knowledge was utterly limited. She knew that alchemy existed, and there were basic safety processes to follow. She also knew that an attraction potion could be crafted of some kind of lotus and that you need the blood of an immortal for making a potion of eternal life. That was all.
“Really ...” Laurits Verran stared at her for a moment.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to find out more yet.”
“So. You may want to start with the basics then. Even if you aren’t interested in alchemy it’s not so wise to try to totally bypass basic knowledge. If it is okay for you, I will start with a repetition of the most important laboratory safety rules listed in this easy book for beginners.”
He handed her the book and told her to read the list of rules and memorize them. Yrmellyn did so and handed to book back to him. Next, Laurits asked her to tell him about them and the painter did as she was told.
“The first rule is about how to dress appropriately, in attire that covers your body well and keeps your hair out of the way, perhaps even use a mask...”
At this point she considered telling him that she had already made the experience of how essential it could be to use a mask in order to avoid trouble, but after thinking twice she decided to leave out her adventure with Doran Thetys. It could come off as carefree.
“The second rule I want to point out is to always locate safety equipment before starting to work. This can be for example eyewash to clean your eyes with in case of an accident, blankets and water to extinguish potential fire with, perhaps a bathtub too in case it’s necessary with a full scale body wash.“
“Good, miss Cole. Please continue.”
“The third rule is that it’s essential to behave seriously in the lab. This includes to not taste chemicals or even smell them, not eat in the lab definitely not play and mix things on a whim just to see what happens. All of it could can become the last thing you do in life.
Doran Thetys had put it more roughly and said he didn’t wish to have to scrape her remains off the walls after a failed experiment.
“Because otherwise someone may have to scrape your remains off the walls afterwards” she added.
“Good point!” Laurits Verran exclaimed.
“The fourth rule is to always dispose of chemicals in a safe way and never by simply pouring them out somewhere thoughtlessly, like you would do with water.”
“Yeah. That’s right. Just pouring chemicals right out into the nature can cause a lot of troubles miss Cole. I have travelled a great deal and seen a lot and I could tell you...the habits of the chemists in a city named Rhakros...but let’s not dwell on my personal experiences now. Well done miss Cole.! You seem to have a firm understanding of the basic safety rules for a laboratory of chemistry or alchemy. If you follow them they will greatly increase your chances of avoiding harm. Now ... I think this can be enough for a first lesson. We will soon meet again!”
The painter said her farewells and went home.
It had been a soft start.
During that period of time the painter often thought of the things Doran Thethys had said about alchemy. She was fascinated but not until Cylus 716 did she meet the professor again. At this point Yrmellyn had already given up about ever getting the demonstration of alchemy the man had promised her, so she had gone to Water Street Marketplace, the shadiest district of Rynmere, in search of books that could give her a shortcut to alchemy knowledge, without needing to go to the expensive university she couldn’t afford and didn’t find inspiring. She had come out of there with a new apprentice named Rudi and several books about alchemy, a bribe from his grandmother for taking the boy on.
There had been a scary experience with the professor Doran Thetys and an attraction potion down in the alchemy lab of the university one night, when that dangerous mortalborn (she had no idea he was mortalborn though) had become affected by the smoke arising from said potion and tried to snare her with the powers of Syroa’s blessing (though she didn’t know this was what she had encountered). Yrmellyn had fled from the lab. After this event, Yrmellyn decided to skip the academic approach and move on with alchemy herself. She would become an autodidact of the art. She would rely on her recently received books and on the acquaintance with Luther Verran, the owner of the potion shop. For this reason the painter was in Verran’s shop this evening after closing hours. She had convinced the shop keeper to aid her in her studies by offering him a discount on a new painting to decorate the shop with in order to inspire customers to impulse purchases. Here she was now, and her unusual studies in alchemy were about to begin! “Laurits, this is Miss Yrmellyn Cole, the painter lady I told you about. Miss Cole, this is my brother Laurits Verran. Laurits has agreed to help you out a bit, because I have to go somewhere else...I am sorry for this but I assure you that Laurits is man of knowledge, and you can learn from him as well as from me.”
Luther Verran hurried out from the shop. The door closed behind him with a soft clicking sound. Laurits Verran crossed the floor, locked the door and hung the key on a small hook right inside the door. He moved with a natural routine, like this was something he had so many times before that he didn’t even need to think of it. Then he turned to the painter, who stood there perplexed and confused by the instantaneous change of her plans for the evening.
She gave her unexpected company a once over. Laurits Verran’s appearance wasn’t particularly similar to his brother’s looks. He was a quite tall man, dressed in casual attire like a laborer or craftsman and he moved with the smooth grace of a physically fit man. His brown shoulder length hair was brushed back from his brow and he sported a short beard. The whole man emanated energy and he seemed somewhat misplaced in the neat shop.
Laurits, she thought, was a name that somewhat resembled Mariuz. Even small details like these could easily remind Yrmellyn Cole of the dead painter whose spark of magic she carried on. The memory of her dead lover and mentor in magic and art popped when she met new people if there was even the faintest chance of finding something of him in them.
Thus we look for our dead in the living.
The name was although the only similarity, as far as she could see.
Laurits Verran interrupted her musings by opening a conversation.
“Well then, miss Cole, my brother told me that you have a books about alchemy and want support for your studies...if I understand it right you aim to study on your own. Dare I ask why you aren’t going for a university education?”
“I cannot afford it.” Yrmellyn spoke frankly, because she wasn’t ashamed of not being wealthy. “The fees are terribly high.”
Laurits Verran nodded. “Of course. It’s expensive. But are there any other reasons?”
“Well. The other day a university professor in alchemy told me that the quality of the education has decreased. He actually gave me a demonstration and what I experienced did nothing to convince me about the worth of academic education.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.”
“Can you explain your thoughts a bit more in detail miss Cole?”
“I fear it’s just a lot of stiff theory and...I mean, things can seem very stiff in theory and so, but perhaps it gives very little when it comes to practical applications. I think it can be possible to gain knowledge in other ways than by following a premade course held by people who think the same content is right and useful for all. I’m a painter, not a chemist. I work by blending and fusing materials to create new things, not by separating and analyzing what already exists. I think there’s a difference.”
“I see...” Laurits Verran’s tone implied that he wasn’t totally sure if he understood what the painter meant, but he didn’t ask more about it. “Well. So. Perhaps we should proceed to the practicalities and have a look at your interesting books then, miss Cole.”
Yrmellyn agreed. She had only brought two of her new books about alchemy this evening. These were “The Basics of Alchemy for The Adventurous Beginner” by an Unknown author and “Mixed Alchemy and Alchemic Blends” by one A. Marlon.
The thick book named “The Forgotten Secrets of Alchemy” written by one Anne Brandon, according to the cover a “Former honorary professor at the University of Rynmere” had been left in the painter’s apartment. This was apartment, because she had found it best to start with the basics and the big book had seemed hard to understand.
In addition, she wasn’t sure if it was wise to show the big and special book to other people. Yrmellyn hadn’t asked her young apprentice Rudi if the book was written by his sloppy grandmother “Granny Anne” down at the moldering antiquarian bookshop in Water Street, but she secretly feared it might be so. In that case the book might be the seriously worthless scribblings of a drunkard in the gutter. Then again, the woman’s attire had partly looked like old and worn scholar clothes. It was hard to imagine that the disheveled woman selling books in bad shape in a place where hardly anybody needed books, but maybe she really had been associated with the university in some capacity, in the past? In that case the book might contain the unique research findings of a fallen alchemy autodidact professor, who had for some reason ended up as crazy shopkeeper in the criminal district. It goes without saying that this possibility intrigued and fascinated the painter. She planned to ask from her apprentice, in the future, when she and the boy knew each other better.
Still. She gave the boy this so he could pay for an apprenticeship and get a better life. This implies that she is maybe not as weird as she appears to be. Her methods during the robbery were...as innovative as my own. I give her that.
Laurits Verran picked up the two books and browsed them. Then he looked Yrmellyn and asked her how much she already knew about alchemy. The painter confessed that her knowledge was utterly limited. She knew that alchemy existed, and there were basic safety processes to follow. She also knew that an attraction potion could be crafted of some kind of lotus and that you need the blood of an immortal for making a potion of eternal life. That was all.
“Really ...” Laurits Verran stared at her for a moment.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to find out more yet.”
“So. You may want to start with the basics then. Even if you aren’t interested in alchemy it’s not so wise to try to totally bypass basic knowledge. If it is okay for you, I will start with a repetition of the most important laboratory safety rules listed in this easy book for beginners.”
He handed her the book and told her to read the list of rules and memorize them. Yrmellyn did so and handed to book back to him. Next, Laurits asked her to tell him about them and the painter did as she was told.
“The first rule is about how to dress appropriately, in attire that covers your body well and keeps your hair out of the way, perhaps even use a mask...”
At this point she considered telling him that she had already made the experience of how essential it could be to use a mask in order to avoid trouble, but after thinking twice she decided to leave out her adventure with Doran Thetys. It could come off as carefree.
“The second rule I want to point out is to always locate safety equipment before starting to work. This can be for example eyewash to clean your eyes with in case of an accident, blankets and water to extinguish potential fire with, perhaps a bathtub too in case it’s necessary with a full scale body wash.“
“Good, miss Cole. Please continue.”
“The third rule is that it’s essential to behave seriously in the lab. This includes to not taste chemicals or even smell them, not eat in the lab definitely not play and mix things on a whim just to see what happens. All of it could can become the last thing you do in life.
Doran Thetys had put it more roughly and said he didn’t wish to have to scrape her remains off the walls after a failed experiment.
“Because otherwise someone may have to scrape your remains off the walls afterwards” she added.
“Good point!” Laurits Verran exclaimed.
“The fourth rule is to always dispose of chemicals in a safe way and never by simply pouring them out somewhere thoughtlessly, like you would do with water.”
“Yeah. That’s right. Just pouring chemicals right out into the nature can cause a lot of troubles miss Cole. I have travelled a great deal and seen a lot and I could tell you...the habits of the chemists in a city named Rhakros...but let’s not dwell on my personal experiences now. Well done miss Cole.! You seem to have a firm understanding of the basic safety rules for a laboratory of chemistry or alchemy. If you follow them they will greatly increase your chances of avoiding harm. Now ... I think this can be enough for a first lesson. We will soon meet again!”
The painter said her farewells and went home.
It had been a soft start.
