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53 Searing 121
Jacun's Alchemical Goods
Jacun's Alchemical Goods
"Well, do you prefer gold or silver as an agonist?" Sivan asked in Mythrasi. He nodded in response to Jacun's answer, though his master replied in Common, wanting his apprentice to keep practicing the language of the city in order to better communicate with customers at the very least. The alchemical question answered, Sivan returned to the front of the store so Jacun could work. It remained quiet and so he made a pot of tea and took it to the desk where he worked on things while manning the storefront. While Jacun had known his previous master, Sivan sometimes wondered if he hadn't taken Sivan on more to relieve him from sitting up front all the time.
The tea had alchemically enhanced extracts in it: ginseng, guarana, sage. Sivan hadn't expected to learn about herbalism while learning about alchemy, but it was often a more elegant alchemical solution to enhance something naturally occurring than to try to create it out of nothing but magical energy. It was one thing to learn how to do a thing; it was quite another thing to learn how to do a thing well, being economical about the power in to produce the power out.
He felt his senses sharpen, his mind grow more alert, and his mood settle as the first tiny sip of tea hit his stomach, and then settled into the task at hand: scratching out his notes for the project he was working on—a magic mirror. Torin had mentioned something about runeforging a set of pendants through which two people could speak over a great distance. Sivan wondered if there was an alchemical solution to the communication problem and Jacun had given him permission to try to work out the problem. If it looked workable, he might even let Sivan attempt it, though it would have a much higher chance of success if Jacun assisted him. Perhaps it would be beyond his ability to execute, though, and it would remain a thought experiment until Jacun deemed him skilled enough to make it work.
If Jacun would teach him how to transmute lead into gold, the supply of gold wouldn't be such a problem if he decided it would make the best agonist. Sivan still suspected the whole transmutation thing was a standing joke and that Jacun was laughing at him about it, but that remained to be seen. There was quite a bit about alchemy that was nothing like what Sivan had imagined at first, and other bits of folk wisdom that were actually true. The world was strange like that.
He looked up from the desk when he heard the door start to open. It never failed but he got on a roll with a project and a customer showed up. The job would have been much better without customers at all, but this was part of his apprenticeship. At least the tea was improving his mood.
