Taking Stock.

[Faith Augustin]

5th Ashan, 717

She'd come into the house a few breaks after him, as she'd been working at the Order of the Adunih after her classes. After carefully removing her coat and hanging it she'd been quick, as she always was, to take her shoes off and put on her slippers. There was soup and home made bread ready to heat, so their evening meal was sorted. "Hey, hello you!" she chuckled, as Cosmo bounded up to her. She knelt to give the dog a fuss and assure him that he had grown, she was quite sure. Then, as Padraig came into the hallway after the dog, Faith smiled and stood, moving to step into his arms and kiss him. "And hello you, too. Was work alright?" It was tricky for him to keep juggling things with Hamilton-Smith, she knew, and Faith was just on the verge of turning scrappy with said professor.

However, he seemed relaxed she thought and she smiled as they made their way into the living room. Faith was carrying a bag which she didn't normally have, flung over her shoulder. "I've brought some things home, I was hoping you might have time to help me? It's a chemistry problem, I think. But first, I've got something for you." It was a tradition on Scalvoris, she'd told him the trial before, to give a hand made gift of some kind on the 5th Ashan, "I made you this, for your office." Faith said to him, handing him a small package which she had wrapped in a soft cloth and tied with a ribbon.

When he opened it, she had made a name plaque for his desk, crafted from a deep red mahogany which she had polished and carved his name in a delicate flowing script. "It would be dull if I made you clothes. So, I put some old skills to use." She turned it over in his hand, so that he was looking at the back of it. "This is the bit that you'll see, sitting at your desk and I wanted to put a message there, but I thought it best not to use words." Engraved on to the back was a hummingbird. "So, you know, you don't forget me whilst you're being all clever and academic." She was teasing, she knew that she was the only woman he saw, frankly. "And to remind you to eat, too." Which was much more likely, she thought; he was easily distracted.

"Tell me, then, how was your trial?" She dropped the bag next to the sofa and sat down, looking at him with interest. Faith liked to hear about what had happened, it must be said and she had been intrigued to hear of the staff lounge, the restaurant run by Whit from where she worked and all the different personalities there. "Have you got used to being called Professor Augustin yet?"

Once he had answered, she got to the point of the bag. "I was taking stock in the Order, keeping the lists of what we have up to date and so on. I was looking at the eucalyptus." They used it, she explained, to help in the treatment of congestion and colds, by adding it and other things to boiling hot water, draping a towel over the head of the patient and leaning them over a bowl so they inhaled the fumes. "It works because it gets right in there, to where the problem is. I was wondering if we could find out if an anti toxin which is chewed, an antiseptic applied topically, an analgesic which is liquid, if different herbs and medicines traditionally used in other ways can be used in gaseous forms? It would open up treatment options because we could use them on anyone who's breathing." Faith didn't know if it was possible, but she knew that, if it was, he'd know how.

[Padraig]

Faith had returned home just in time to miss Padraig clearing up the last of a mess of scattered feathers in the front room, disposing of the evidence, and then cleaning up a puddle that Cosmo had left in front of the front door. He'd slipped in that on his way in, but could hardly have blamed the pup since he'd been locked in through the trial and they'd both been late returning home.

The cat though? That was different. Quattro had slipped out the door as soon as he'd opened it on his way in, and shown up half a break later with a half dead bird in her mouth. She'd gotten in before he could stop her, and the rest was chaos, sorted out just bits before Faith returned home. In fact, Padraig looked a little winded but no worse for wear.

He smiled when she stepped in his arm, returned her kiss, and grinned a little when she stood back again. "You missed all the excitement. But work was fine." It had been, really. Somehow he'd managed to avoid bumping into the Hamilton-Smith that trial and having to pretend he liked him. Or at the least, didn't loathe him. "And your trial?" He was curious about the sack, no denying. Something in it she needed help with? Of course he would. She knew that.

But there was something else first. She'd brought him a gift? Of course she'd told him about this trial, the celebration, and he hadn't been idle either. Still, he smiled and took the box and opened it. The name plaque was wonderful, better than he could have purchased in the finest of stores. "I guess I forgot you could carve. This is wonderful Faith." And when he turned it to look at the other side, he grinned. A hummingbird. It was perfect.

"I'll be the best equipped professor at the university," he told her, then kissed her again. "I've got something for you too. But you've come home late and the sun has gone down," he added with a mysterious smile, and teased her. "You'll have to wait till the morning, and then I'll show you."

"My trial was good. I haven't gotten used to it, no," he admitted. "When anyone calls out to me, I mistake them for speaking to a gray haired old man with a pipe in his pocket. Come to think of it, I probably smell that way too, just from spending time in the staff's lounge."

"Eucalyptus?" So that's what she had in the bag? So it worked, she explained, by way of a patient inhaling the vapors from it. "Makes sense," Padraig said. "It's fairly pungent stuff isn't it?" What she was asking though, that was an intriguing question. "To be honest," he admitted, "I'm not sure."

"I mean, when I worked at the apothecary, I learned that the oils extracted from peppermint were good for an upset stomach. Rub them on the skin, they seemed to relieve the problem. The same, if a few drops were added to a simmering pot of water. It had a similar effect when the vapor was inhaled."

Other oils, such as lemon, lavender, vanilla, those had similar effects, each to their own. "But that's not what you mean is it?" he asked. Did she mean instead, he wondered, could medicines used to lower a fever or fight infection be administered in a similar way?

[Faith Augustin]

Faith looked up at him as he wrapped his arms around her and said that she'd missed the excitement. As they lingered in a kiss, her hand moved up to his hair and pulled a feather. "So I see," she grinned and handed him the spoils of his victory. "Quattro again? I wish she wouldn't." Faith found it quite horrid that the cat seemed to insist on bringing in half-dead creatures and dropping them at one of their feet, usually hers, with a proud expression. "I know you think she's bringing gifts, I think she warning us that she's a dangerous evil mastermind, you know."

Silver eyes regarded him as he unwrapped the name plaque and Faith smiled in pleasure at his reaction. "You should be the best equipped. You are already the most intelligent and undoubtedly the most handsome," she returned the kiss with evident delight on her face. When he said that he'd got something for her, though, Faith looked at him in surprise at the intrigue of it. "The morning? Why? Does it need sunlight, because you know, I can see in the dark." It was true, since being marked by Famula, the dark was no longer dark for her at all. Leaning against him, Faith would have been quite content to spend the trial there in his arms.

As always, though, there were things keeping both of them busy and she explained what she wanted from him. He questioned and she considered it. "Actually, maybe I mean both. I didn't know that about peppermint oil. That's good to know. So, maybe that, too. But not just that, also medicines, yes. I mean, peppermint is a single plant with oils which can be extracted. But what you're talking about is a supplement to medical treatment. I want to..."

There was the key of course, she had to determine what she wanted to do. "If someone is unconscious, currently, our treatment options are very limited for the administration of what would normally be given orally. When an infection is winning, I want to fight it on every front. So, I want to look at existing medicines which we deliver orally, topically and in liquid form and see if we can change their state so that something which is normally chewed can also be administered in vapour, and a salve." She wasn't sure she was explaining it entirely well, but she thought he'd know what she meant.

"So much of what I do is a battle, Padraig, using treatments to attack and I want to attack on all fronts for someone who is able to take that. By doing that, it opens up treatment options currently closed in unconsciousness, for example, or with someone who can not chew because of a facial injury, there are all sorts of things which complicate treatment options. I thought we could start with gases, but I didn't know how to do that, really. Then I thought," she grinned at him and reached a hand out to stroke his cheek, "I know a professor who might."

[Padraig]

"She may very well be that," Padraig conceded. Quattro, evil mastermind, he meant. "It may also be that she is at heart a faithless creature that would sell us both up the river for a nice plate of fresh salmon and cream," he teased. But, he pointed out, as a predator, electrified or not, she was simply doing what predators do, and they could hardly fault her for that.

"I think Hamilton-Smith would disagree," he argued then, unable to completely forget his last interaction with the man. "Equipped, intelligent, handsome, I think he believes he's got the market cornered on any and all." Enough of that though. Thought of her professor didn't nothing good for his mood, and he was currently in a fine one.

And then he grinned and shrugged. "I'm very aware of your night vision and its superiority. But sunlight is better, and you'll just have to wait." So peppermint, lavender, those types of things weren't exactly what she had in mind, but something more complicated. "Well first off, I would guess that a salve, no matter the ingredients, would be a simpler application that would be much more concentrated than vapor."

"Vapor will dilute the ingredients, by it's very nature," he explained, so it would require greater amounts so far as ingredients used. And then? "Whether or not breathable vapors can work as effectively as those ingested or those applied to the skin, depends on what the ingredients are." It might require more than medicine and chemistry combined, he explained. There might be some alchemy required. "I'd need to know what they are," he said. "In order to know if it might be possible."

[Faith Augustin]

"Then he's an idiot," Faith very rarely spoke in such terms about anyone but the simple truth was, if Hamilton-Smith thought that he was in any way better than the man in front of her, he was not just an idiot, but also, "and a deluded one at that. I've got evidence, clear empirical evidence on both of you in terms of intellect and attractiveness and you win hands down and miles ahead on both counts." In terms of whatever it was that he'd made in the garden, though? She rested herself against him, letting out a deep and almost melancholic sigh, "I'll wait, then." He could undoubtedly feel the grin on her face as she teased him. "But it will be difficult, you know. I'm not naturally patient." Which, of course, was about as far from the truth as could be.

However, in terms of the vapour she was talking about, Faith nodded. "That's true," that salve was a more effective and easier thing to apply. "But it's not always possible to apply it. In extreme burns, for example, it's excruciating for the patient and we often need to keep the site of the wound dry or sometimes apply something that counteracts the application of another." He talked then about vapours, of necessity, diluting the effectiveness of the ingredients and Faith frowned, thinking about that.

"Do they have to? Could it be... alright, so in the restaurant, we do this thing. I use smoke to cook some things, but it depends what it's smoke of, I'm trying to make it part of the experience for the diners. So, I use a glass dome and use a sort of bellows like thing and some pipes that Whit rigged up for me. It blows the smoke into the dome. The more I do it, the more and more dense the smoke gets. Could we multiply that?" Did that even make sense, she wondered, but she knew what she was asking. "There's some exquisite glassblowers here, in Egilrun, could we get them to make a recepticle that has like a plunger, like I use to put filling into individual cakes? That could hold the really really dense smoke, then force it into the nose?"

So many of the ideas she had came from cooking, she knew, but the techniques made sense. He wanted to know about specific ingredients and she grinned. "Well, it's funny you should ask." From the bag she'd brought home, she pulled out a number of more 'usual' antiseptic plants and herbs and so on, from honey to lavendar. However, some of the things were specific to Scalvoris. "These are antiseptics, they all aid healing and prevent infection. Dragon sap and snekvine"

Putting them on one side of the low table, she pulled out more things and put them on the other side. "These are antibiotics, so they fight diseases already in the system. Some things appear twice. But we have garlic, echinacea, apple cider vinegar." The snekvine was repeated, but then there were other new things, too. "Yello dragon leaf and yellow dragon bark, both natural antibiotics, too."

Sitting back, she looked at the two groups of ingredients, in their raw forms. "If I had someone with an infected wound, for example, where I needed to get that infection clear or they lose the limb, I'd hit them with all of it I could, topically and orally." She shrugged and looked at him. "Does any of that help at all?"

[Padraig]

Hamilton-Smith was an idiot. And a bore, an insufferable twit. They could both agree on that, Padraig's smile, his shrug seemed to say without him uttering a word. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly impartial. But then neither was he. It still didn't make his job any easier though, or hers, to have to get along with the man or at least appear to. It wasn't exactly Padraig's strong suit when his usual approach was a more straightforward and blunt one. How he hated politics.

As for medicines and whether certain of them could be just as effective inhaled, as those taken by mouth or applied, it was a conundrum. "Something like you're suggesting might work," he considered. "But I'm not sure smoke would be enough." Some things, some herbs used at the apothecary for instance, he explained, lost some of their potency when cooked, when heated, when delivered via vapors rather than used topically or ingested. Some didn't work at all.

"I think the first thing we need to know, is how some of these medicines or ingredients react to being heated, ground, powdered, have the oils extracted from them and so on. Will they still work? Will they be as effective?" he explained. "Also, isn't it true that some medicines only work because of the means of delivering them?" Salves for example, applied directly to a wound. Or something ingested that made its way into the bloodstream.

"Also, if smoke doesn't do it, then droplets of extracted oils might be added to a very small bit of water so not to dilute them as much, making for a more concentrated dose. And we can do that with just about any ingredient you choose. A little chemistry applied," he added with a smile. It might even be that something alchemical could be devised so that the removal of a cork in a vial of medicine might cause it to instantly heat up without flame or fire, and create the needed smoke or vapors.

"First though, what we'll need to do," he told her, "is figure out if these ingredients of yours would be as effective inhaled, as applied in another way." It was back, it seemed, to the question of how certain things reacted to being broken down or heated, and whether or not something that needed to go into the bloodstream, would do just that by any method but swallowing or injecting it.

They had the equipment on hand though, so wherever she thought best to start, Padraig was certainly game to try.

[Faith Augustin]

"Alright then. Well, that makes sense." They needed to work out how things responded. She looked at them, one by one and her mind ticked over as she thought about it. "It doesn't make sense to do that with all of them. Not in the first instance. So, lets start with mint. It can be delivered in just about every form known. We use oil, we add it to salves, baths, food and tea. All of them are effective." If this was going to work, she considered, then it was most likely to work with mint so, from the varieties she had, she pulled some and sniffed it before putting it on the table in front of them. "Peppermint. One of the most versatile of the healing herbs." Then, she pulled out the yellow dragon leaf. "There we go. I know only of using this on burns. It's amazing, Padraig, to see it. It helps healing, stops scarring, that kind of thing. Anyhow, yes, Lets try with these two which I would say are the most and least versatile, and we can go from there?"

She wasn't done though, he could undoubtedly tell just from the look on her face. "And those examples you gave, from the apothecary. I'm interested in the why. Why do they lose potency?" Was it, she wondered, because they reacted specifically with the oils in the skin only, for example, or was it about dilution? Did they become so diluted that they ceased to be efficient? "You see, it occurs to me that we have a technique in cooking." She smiled at him somewhat apologetically. "I know that I say that a lot. But we have things.... you know, the sauce that I made with the steaks last night? That's what's called a reduction. It takes something already liquid and is cooked in a slow and particular manner and it reduces down in volume but increases in potency of flavour." It was like the red wine sauce that she made, she explained. It tasted like red wine but without alcohol in it, because the alcohol had been cooked away, but the flavour remained.

The slight frown right in the centre of her forehead told of her level of concentration. "Am I making sense? I don't want to dilute, I want to reduce. Smoke, steam, water vapour, that's largely irrelevant, I think. What matters is the reduction and corresponding enhancing of the flavour in cooking, or the healing in this. So, we have to identify, and then extract what it is that is the active component to keep it in there in all forms, be that vapour, salve or oral medication?"

If, however, it turned out that those things in the apothecary which lost potency did so because they only reacted in certain ways with the oils of the skin, for example? She wondered, basically, if they could add something to them which created that reaction. "I mean, I don't know if any of this is even possible. But if lavendar only worked topically, for example, because it reacts with the oils in the skin then could we identify what oils on the skin, or what chemical it might react with and create the reaction in a form other than topical?" Faith looked at him and suddenly she beamed.

"I suppose I might have learned some things since you had to remind me to carry the two, because I couldn't keep it in my pocket any more." That had been their first lesson together, she remembered and she couldn't keep the smile off her face at the memory. "Turns out you were right about those damn educated slaves, you know."

[Padraig]

He knew less about the dragon leaf than he did about peppermint. But in the case of the latter, it was a good place to start. He'd peddled the stuff often enough while working in the apothecary, to know what effects it would have, no matter how it was processed. "Lavender doesn't just work when it's applied topically," he said. In fact it behaved much like peppermint in his experience.

"You could add it to tea," Padraig added while setting up his equipment in the room he used as a lab. "But the taste leaves something to be desired." At any rate, at the apothecary it was suggested to aid in relaxation, soothe a headache, reduce anxiety. But on the skin, or breathed in by either adding a few drops to a kerchief or pillow, or breathed in by putting a few drops into a pot of simmering water, any or all of those would work.

"What I meant by losing potency, for the most part, is that if you put something concentrated on the skin, or you take it orally, it's going to be more concentrated than if you inhale it."

Unless, he added, you were to either add more, much more of the active ingredient since oils were already a reduction to an extent, or you were to ensure that the useful effects didn't just drift into the air and dissipate. To ensure the patient received all of the benefits, he reasoned, you'd need to put a sort of mask over their face, and a tube through it in order to deliver the vapors directly.

"But those sorts of things are different than curing a fever, or an infection on a cut, aren't they?" he asked. He didn't know enough about medicine to know for sure, but he wondered if things to treat those particular issues might need to be applied directly at the source, or given orally. But she would know better, he decided, then turned to her analogy regarding reduction.

"It's true that reduction works as a concentrate of sorts," he agreed after he'd lit a burner and begun the process of turning peppermint leaf to peppermint oil. "But the analogy of the wine goes back to the prospect that some processes, heating or otherwise, may actually lessen the desired effect of the ingredient. With wine, you retain the flavor, but you lose the alcohol content. If it had been the alcohol effects you'd wanted to keep, then reduction isn't the answer."

But if vapor worked, in the case of any of the treatments she wanted to try, then his advice would be to also devise a way to deliver it to the patient in a concentrated way. Such as a mask or something like it. In the meantime, he'd turned to the dragon leaf, and extracted the oils there too. Afterwards, he placed a dozen drops or so of each into it's own vial, added a little almond oil to stabilize them.

"So if we were to place the drops into a pan of simmering water, it would be diluted. More drops and the effects might be stronger, but you'd still lose something when the steam rises into the air. But if you were to consider each vial to be a single dose, and heated it, like so," he said, putting on gloves and placing the vials near enough the flame to heat them up, "Then you might draw the cork and release the vapors directly to the patient."

"Would that work for you?" he asked. Still, a little alchemy in the mix might enable the thing to heat up on its own as soon as the cork was pulled, without a flame so that it could be used anywhere, including in the field. It was something to consider, though he'd have to identify the reagent that could do it, and make sure that it didn't interfere with the results she was after.

[Faith Augustin]

"Or store it in something that you can shove up their nose and then push it up into their respiratory tract. I like that idea better because then I can determine exactly how much I've given them and it would be easier to administer in terms of time and also doesn't require them to be uninjured in the face." Her eyes showed her amusement as she said that. "I know I'm being demanding. I can't quite bring myself to stop." There was an undoubted truth there, but she appreciated him putting up with her, no doubt. "The more pipes and tubes, things like that which we have, the more it gets in the way, the less likely it is to be usable in the field and to more tricky it is to keep in place."

As for the differences, she nodded. "Yes, this wouldn't be appropriate for everything, but also it isn't the end of the conversation. I'm just starting you off slowly." With a smile she realised that it was undoubtedly true. "Because once we know that it might be a viable means of delivering medicines, then I look at the variety of uses. Thus far, we assume certain things, but that doesn't mean that others can't be true. What if something which we've always believed has to be delivered via injection works just as well this way? I don't want to rule anything out." She smiled at him as she said that, he knew what she was like. There would be testing, retesting and then, more testing.

"You're right," about the wine and reduction, she meant, "But if I wanted more alcohol, or to concentrate that, I'd freeze it. The water and other liquids in there have a much higher freezing point, so if you freeze a bottle of vodka, for example, what you are left with is a much higher alcohol content." She smiled and shrugged. "It's just about knowing which process brings out the desired effect, I suppose." Which might also open up other things, she thought. Maybe there was healing in things which had previously been considered entirely poisonous or of no use. Faith loved this as an idea, but she put it to one side for the moment. She smiled up at him, though, as he had undoubtedly seen her start to veer off into quite other avenues. "Thoughts for another trial. Ignore me."

His idea with the vial, though, that worked and Faith nodded. "Yes, I like that. It can be stored, there's less wastage and it's neat. I can label it and date it and..." Realising what she was doing, Faith gave a grin. "That would be excellent, thank you." She frowned, though looking at it. There were issues, she had no doubt, but what he was suggesting was very useful. "Is there a limit to how much liquid to put in there, and what would the proportion of oil to base oil have to be?"

Then, it was on to the testing of it, which she would have to do she knew. "I think, if nothing else, this should be able to at least alleviate people who have facial burns, but I hope it does a lot more, Padraig." That, of course,
was the dragon leaf she was talking about. However, she made notes on what he'd done and asked what the options were for a stopper which heated the contents. "It wouldn't be necessary in most situations, but it would be useful in some, so I just want to think about how viable it is, not do it yet." After all, she considered aloud, there was no point to doing so unless they knew it worked.

[Padraig]

"You're very demanding, yes," Padraig agreed bluntly, though Faith knew him well enough to know he was teasing her, and didn't mind at all. But the less tubes the better, but on the other hand to put something up the nose? He wasn't sure he understood what she was asking. "Easier on the medic, yes. I'm not so sure about the patient however."

In terms of having whatever it was pushed into the nose and farther, he meant. He could only guess he wouldn't care for it much himself. "So if you're wanting fewer tubes or none, then I assume you don't want a tube you can thread in through the nose?" The option remaining, he guessed, would be a suppository, which would be extremely uncomfortable he imagined, was it necessary to fish the thing out again once it had served its purpose. That meant something that would dissolve, surely?

She'd need to clarify then. If up through the nose, a tube fed directly from the vial holding the treatment, or a suppository containing that dose? But no, they didn't want to rule anything out. "To freeze something like vodka, you need a temperature well below zero," he remarked, as an aside while they worked.

As for amounts and ratios, he pondered one of the vials they'd already filled. "Depends on what you're using it for I think. You could inhale the oils without adding the neutral oils to the mix. But if you were to put it on the skin, to avoid a unwanted reaction...like a rash, the ratio would be better, two parts neutral oil, one part active one."

She might use undiluted oils, but there was a risk of side effects he'd think. For instance, too much concentrated lavender on a kerchief and breathed in, might do more than relax and calm a patient. Instead it might knock them out completely. Still, with the vials they'd filled with peppermint and dragon leaf oil, she had something to begin testing with. So all in all, a productive evening.

► Show Spoiler

In the morning once the sun is up, Padraig will show Faith what he's made for her. In the garden, in a sunny spot, will be a waist high windmill made out of glass and wrought iron, with a flower shaped top that turns in the breeze. The petals when they rotate will cast a shower of color all over the garden. Prism style.