Frost 21st, Year 119, Age of Steel
By the time she was actually finally done with the glyphs on the brand new (crappily made) alchemy pot, she realized that it was probably bordering on midnight given the position of the moon. Wonderful, as though she wasn't going to be tired enough tomorrow. It was going to be rough but worth it. At least she had the afternoon shift and could probably catch up on the sleep she was going to be missing. It was fine though, everything was going to be fine. The next part was the easy part. Maybe. Brewing potions half asleep was usually a bad idea but she'd made this so many times she was pretty confident the most damage she could do would be accidentally burning herself. She'd have to be an idiot to do that though. Right?
She activated the runes and then went over the river, filling up the pot. She was careful to avoid washing away the glyphs she'd been so careful with putting on. She nearly fell into the river just because of how tired she was, but she was more determined than she was sleepy. She managed to find a couple sticks that she could use to rig up a stand for the pot, which she carefully put over the bot in order to boil. She would be using another stick in order to stir the pot since she wasn't able to find a spoon. A stick was just an unrefined wooden spoon though, right? it was just a stick, it would be fine. She'd been careful to grab a pine branch anyway. Pine branches, as well as their sap, didn't have an effect with the potion she was presently brewing. She'd need some kind of base for the branch to actually count as an ingredient, so it was fine to use. She would have preferred a stirring rod with the proper glyphs to keep it from having any kind of reaction, but beggars can't be choosers and she was being careful enough that no one was going to die from her potions.
Though if they died from a libido potion they had the foresight to buy in a back alley that was entirely on them for being an actual idiot.
Now that the water was actually boiling and things were well on their way, she found two large rocks. One that was flat and one that was rounded enough that she could get a good handhold on it. She retrieved her three ingredients from where they sat in the snow in order to keep them fresh. She immediately put the Rabbitwood into the brew. The longer the water had to leech out all of the sap and oils from the bark, the more powerful it would be, so it was better to leave it in there longer to simmer while she worked on the other ingredients. She was lucky that potions like there were so simple. Of course, she'd still need to keep an eye on it. If the bark stayed in there on its own for too long it would start to break down and disintegrate.
A small amount of breakdown was good for the potency of the potion as long as there were enough buddlelumps to balance it out. If the bark broke down completely before the Sugar Grass was added, which was the element that slowed or stopped break down, then it could make the potion toxic enough that the buddlelumps wouldn't be very helpful to anyone, now would they. Well... They might be helpful more of those monsters manage to escape the warrens, but Alyssum wasn't really looking to get herself involved in that. She'd sell poisons or acids to anyone looking if she had them, but she wasn't really interested in getting near another one of those monsters. Unless she was with at least 3 skills warriors. Then maybe. Maybe.
While the Rabbitwood was boiling away she places a couple of pieces of Sugar Grass onto the flat stone. Using the more rounded stone she began to rub small little circles, occasionally smacking it against the bulbs which refused to break immediately. Freshly picked Sugar Grass bulbs were usually liquidy, hence why she couldn't actually make the potion until a couple of days after picking them. Give it a day or two and the liquid slowly will turn into a powder. She was careful not to lose too much of it as she ground the rest of the Sugar Grass plant into a similarly fine powder, turning the entire thing to dust. She didn't stop until she was satisfied with the small grains. Once she was she tipped the entire thing into the pot.
Once she was done she gave the entire thing a quick stir. The bubbling of the liquid started to become less pronounced as it turned a faint shade of green.
She repeated the process about six more times, going through all of the Sugar Grass she'd gathered. Grind, pour, stir. When she was finally finished the bubbling of the water had turned into a very quiet simmer and the Rabbitwood floated peacefully at the top. She nodded contentedly, the color and scent both matching with what she'd come to expect of this potion.
Next was the buddlelumps which needed to be ground up into a past. She found her jar and opened it up, pulling out a handful and putting it onto her grinding rock. The process was a bit slower as the buddlelumps actually squished and she had to be careful not to make some kind of a mess, moving slowly as she ground the rock over the corpses of the bugs in a repetitive motion. The bugs needed to be added all at once so instead of adding the paste to the pot once it was complete she pulled out a couple more handfuls and added them to her rock.
By the time she was actually done with the entire jar, she had to get a separate rock just because she was running out of room. When she was done she carefully slid the entire pasty mound into the pot at one time, being careful not to cause any splashback. The liquid had grown thick in the amount of time it took her to actually grind up the bug, but the moment the bug paste started to disappear into it the liquid became liquid once more and started to bubble violently, just barely staying below the edge of the pot.
She started stirring it and didn't stop. This continued for a couple of minutes until her arm started to ache, but she just switched arms. The pot needed to be thoroughly mixed constantly in order for the results to come out correctly.
She didn't actually stop until the concoction had turned a fiery crimson red, her arms sore from the amount of expended effort. She sighed heavily as she finally let them drop to her sides, the liquid just bubbling contentedly. As her hands drop, her left hand managed to graze the pot. She threw herself away with a yelp, defensively raising her hand up to her mouth. Did... did she really just burn herself. The internal question wasn't actually phrased as a question. She already knew the answer, she was just in disbelief.
Whatever, it didn't matter. She grabbed one of the bottles she'd stashed away and carefully placed the funnel into its neck. She then placed the strainer inside of the funnel. She used a trio of rocks to stabilize the bottle, setting it down next to the pot. She glanced around for a moment before finding a tin cup sat not too far away, one of the things she hadn't actually scavenged or stolen tonight, the cup was hers.
She dipped the cup into the liquid in the pot and very carefully poured it into the funnel, letting the strainer do its work as the funnel helped the liquid make its way into the neck of the bottle. Hesitantly, she gave the cup a small lick just to double-check the potion was right.
It was definitely right, she could recognize the awful taste, but she recoiled with a yelp as she managed to burn her tongue on the still hot tin cup. Two. Make that two burns for the night. She was tired, she just wanted this to be done and over so she could go to bed and worry about selling them another time.
She continued this process until the bottle itself was full, corking it off and placing it back into its pallet. She then moved onto the next bottle and did the same until she filled as many of the bottles in the pallet as she actually could. All in all, she'd managed to nab some relatively smaller bottles so she was looking at 10 or so finished potions. The bottles themselves were pretty tiny, almost as though they'd been intended for vodka shots or something of the lik- oh... Oh, they were left outside because they were a mix-up. These weren't what was supposed to be ordered. There'd been some kind of mistake and the brewery was trying to get rid of these. She felt kind of stupid now... After she'd been so careful 'stealing' them too. In the end, she was just getting rid of someone else's trash. Such was the life of Alyssum Crow.
Either way, tiny or not, that was 10 bottles she could sell as though they were full-sized as long as she was smart with how she went about it.
After everything was said and done she put all the bottles back into the pallet and washed off her cup. She still kind of needed it for her own meals. The potion wasn't likely to do any harm to it, so she'd be fine to keep using it. The potions themselves she took the time to bury under the snow.
Potions like these needed to age and chill in a cold, dark place. Didn't matter if it was wet or dry as long as it was cold and dark. Just leaving them buried out in the snow would really be her best choice when it came to making sure these potions were as powerful as they could actually be.
She did her best to make it look natural before rinsing out her pot, using it to put out the fire, and then gathering up the rest of her materials. She was tired, she wanted this to be done. She was going home and she was going to sleep.
