“Wouldn’t we all?“ the Mortalborn asked as Plia stated that she’d be lucky to possess even a fraction of Yvithia’s talents and influence. In spite of his actions on the battlefield in Oscillus and his alliance with the Etzori, he respected and admired the Immortal’s intelligence. Yvithia was likely one of the few beings in Idalos that surpassed him. There had even been a time, when he had been a young man, when he had desired her blessing and wanted to become hers and sought the company of her children, the Eidisi.
“Good”, he remarked as Plia insisted that she wasn’t taking credit. He had to admit, he had been worried for a moment. “And you are not a disaster, Miss Yishnai Velenar. I don’t understand why you insist on constantly belittling yourself. Such an attitude serves no purpose in my opinion”, he told her. As she held his gaze and made that promise, he raised an eyebrow, surprised, before he nodded. He would hold her to her promise, he decided, and make sure that she would not break it. For now, he had to teach a class though. Dealing with Plia’s lack of self-confidence had already taken up entirely too much time.
“Done looks exactly like this, Miss Thrace”, the Mortalborn said and pointed at the contents of the pot, ignoring the mixed blood’s snigger, although he considered it to be slightly inappropriate. He stood between the two girls, hands clasped behind his back and watched as the mixed blood added the silk to the mixture, only to spin around abruptly as the rest of the students started to chat, as if they were already getting quite bored.
“Apparently”, he remarked somewhat sarcastically. “I am unknowingly teaching a group of master alchemists that have already heard what I’m talking about before and have thus decided to talk among themselves rather than watch the experiment. Perhaps I have underestimated you after all and need to make this class more challenging. Can anybody tell me how you would go about creating an item that enables the user to tell when a lie is being told in their presence and which reagents you would use? No? Then pay attention, ladies and gentlemen.”
“Otherwise, I may be forced to assign some extra homework in order to make sure that you understand the topics that are being discussed this class”, he said – threatening students with homework almost always worked – before he turned around in order to supervise the experiment once more. As Plia removed the silk from the mixture, he quickly procured a bowl. “Put it here, Miss Yishnai Velenar”, he told her before he filled a container with cold water and placed the bowl into it so that the silk would cool down faster. “It should be safe to touch now”, he said after a few moments and touched the silk with a finger in order to make sure that such was indeed the case.
“Miss Yishnai Velenar, I want you to take the cloth now and hold it up. Miss Thrace, do you still have the dagger I gave you? Please take it and try to stab the cloth. The rest of you, watch!” he ordered the class. If everything had gone as it should, the dagger would not be able to pierce the silk that now had a silvery shimmer due to being infused with iron, and the students would hear the sound of metal hitting metal.
“Good”, he remarked as Plia insisted that she wasn’t taking credit. He had to admit, he had been worried for a moment. “And you are not a disaster, Miss Yishnai Velenar. I don’t understand why you insist on constantly belittling yourself. Such an attitude serves no purpose in my opinion”, he told her. As she held his gaze and made that promise, he raised an eyebrow, surprised, before he nodded. He would hold her to her promise, he decided, and make sure that she would not break it. For now, he had to teach a class though. Dealing with Plia’s lack of self-confidence had already taken up entirely too much time.
“Done looks exactly like this, Miss Thrace”, the Mortalborn said and pointed at the contents of the pot, ignoring the mixed blood’s snigger, although he considered it to be slightly inappropriate. He stood between the two girls, hands clasped behind his back and watched as the mixed blood added the silk to the mixture, only to spin around abruptly as the rest of the students started to chat, as if they were already getting quite bored.
“Apparently”, he remarked somewhat sarcastically. “I am unknowingly teaching a group of master alchemists that have already heard what I’m talking about before and have thus decided to talk among themselves rather than watch the experiment. Perhaps I have underestimated you after all and need to make this class more challenging. Can anybody tell me how you would go about creating an item that enables the user to tell when a lie is being told in their presence and which reagents you would use? No? Then pay attention, ladies and gentlemen.”
“Otherwise, I may be forced to assign some extra homework in order to make sure that you understand the topics that are being discussed this class”, he said – threatening students with homework almost always worked – before he turned around in order to supervise the experiment once more. As Plia removed the silk from the mixture, he quickly procured a bowl. “Put it here, Miss Yishnai Velenar”, he told her before he filled a container with cold water and placed the bowl into it so that the silk would cool down faster. “It should be safe to touch now”, he said after a few moments and touched the silk with a finger in order to make sure that such was indeed the case.
“Miss Yishnai Velenar, I want you to take the cloth now and hold it up. Miss Thrace, do you still have the dagger I gave you? Please take it and try to stab the cloth. The rest of you, watch!” he ordered the class. If everything had gone as it should, the dagger would not be able to pierce the silk that now had a silvery shimmer due to being infused with iron, and the students would hear the sound of metal hitting metal.
