Chương 70: 5 – Beachside Lab

I avoided Mom the next day. She thought I was crazy. She had to. I was sure. Maybe I was. April had been real. The skills on my status screen, the effectiveness of pepper paste, my spinning wheel pedal, and my abundance of stories that were so different from anything else in Tacuria, all lent credence to the fact. With time to reflect, though, I'd essentially told my Mom that my imaginary friend died and I was traumatized by it. Embarrassing. Humiliating, even. I'd felt so relieved to finally talk about it.

I'd never had anyone to tell. It wasn't as if I'd felt myself being choked to death. I'd always just… hovered beside her. Watching like a little shoulder angel. Then, one day, I'd watched her die. I'd never interacted with her. When I was dreaming it never even occurred to me to try. I was just there. The silent observer to her life. That hadn't been different when she died. I was horrified. I was devastated, but when I woke up, nothing had changed except the next night I didn't dream.

For the first time ever, I didn't dream. The movie had ended, leaving me with normal sleep. Normal life. A somewhat irrational fear of hands near my neck, and no clue as to why I'd been given this glimpse of another world, or why it had been so suddenly stripped away. In the morning, with the clarity of hindsight, I felt like a moron. I burned red at the thought. I dashed out of the house before Mom could wake up. I didn't think I could face the thinly veiled worry that her daughter was insane.

The first and most obvious place I would ever go was the bar, so for once I decided not to go near it. A thin coat of frost covered the town and I bundled up in a warm sweater and pants. Hadra had sewn me a pair of fluffy mittens two years ago but they were getting a bit worn. I'd have to ask he–! I frowned as the thought penetrated, and my mood sunk a little further. Hadra was gone. … Perhaps her mother would be willing to repair them.

Pemolar's Hill had changed since the attack and the army's arrival, but it wasn't obvious. Greetings were still friendly, and people still traveled to the bar every day. Neighbors still waved when I passed, and smiles were frequent. They were also forced. Every grin hid worry as each person watched their dwindling food supplies and tightened their belts in preparation. Friendships were weighed against the cost of upcoming hardship. Would this person help me if I run out of food?

Would this person run out themselves and come to me, begging? For the most part, everything was the same. It was a small town. Everyone knew everyone. But if Edra threw Burnom out of the bar a bit earlier than usual, well, that was just a sign of the times. If the price of grain went up, that was just insurance. Everything was just that little bit worse. Hadra was gone. Reid was gone. Akkiwa had returned to her ranch, but had promised to visit. I still didn't know how I felt about her little revelation.

Refuge in audacity. The second place I'd be likely to go was my lab, but Mom would find me in a heartbeat. I didn't want to go there. Instead, I went to the beach. I could get lost in the rocky crevices and tall stones for days, and never be found. I wouldn't of course, but for the moment, I just wanted to be alone. I was angry about what the army had done, and terrified of Eschal tearing through that army to get to us.

The fact that we hadn't seen any evidence of an attack, after I'd witnessed one woman bring a horde down on Maulander, made Neogon seem like a paragon of the battlefield in comparison, but I had no idea what Neogon had faced. I knew what he would face, and I knew the attitude of the soldiers in Maulander's army. They were enraged. They'd lost friends to Eschal. Maybe not directly, but transfers between the army camps were quite common.

News from Neogon was sparse, but he was holding the Eastern front and had actually drawn the army even further north along the border than Pemolar's Hill. I couldn't do much about that. I'd already made my pepper paste and it seemed it would be too late to be effective on either front. I'd made many of the needs here in town already.

I'd made some headway in befriending the disabled residents of Mitoras who hadn't been able to follow the army back to their home, but actually forming a bond with someone required more than just telling stories. I had to get to know them. That was a problem, because right now all I wanted to do was steal a horse and ride back to the front line and make sure Reid was safe. That brought me here. Back to where I'd first started. I was a fire mage now.

I didn't need to figure out how to construct a kiln, or deal with proper airflow of a fire. I didn't need to make bellows. I just needed to pump mana at the project. I sat down on a rock, near a particularly soft clump of sand. The beach was a strange mix of soft sand and tall craggy rocks, which made me think it probably wasn't the best for this experiment. Still, I had no idea what type of sand would be good for it, and hoped that a hot enough flame might be able to make up for imperfections in the ingredients.

As mom had taught me, I channeled my mana into an oily substance that only existed in my mind. Soft heat began to emanate from the flat surface as I pressed it gently into the sand. Mentally, I tried to make it as thin as possible and I found myself imagining using a rolling pin to flatten dough. The mana spread over the surface, a bit further than I'd anticipated, but that was okay. I needed it to be thin and incredibly hot.

Mana had a tendency to form into spheres, and when flattened it looked like an uneven pizza crust. Try as I might, I couldn't even form the edges into a smooth circle let alone a square. That was alright though. I still only had seventeen points in the Fire Magic skill. I suspected precision would come with time. Tentatively at first, then with more vigor, I began to light off the sparks. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I winced and turned my eyes away as molten fiery light burst in front of me. The sound of a roaring flame the size of a bonfire filled my ears. I didn't let up though. I kept feeding it sparks. The oil remained 'in place' but would immediately burn up if I let it, so I had to keep reigniting the flat plane of oil over and over again. Mom's method of fire magic worked by seeding an area with mana but that mana didn't act like fuel. It was more of a target.

A heat map, that actually heated the area where it was place. Then the sparks would create explosions. I just kept adding sparks. Tiny bright localized explosions. The impression it gave felt similar to watching the very bright red underside of a well built fire, and it sounded similar, air crackling as it was burned. My mana depleted rapidly, but I was determined to get as much sustained temperature as I could.

I didn't know exactly how hot my fire magic could get, but I knew it was certainly hotter than any regular fire I'd ever managed. Household magic didn't even come close. Each spark had its own mana cost, and layering the oil was a passive drain on the pool as well. My entire supply of mana depleted in about a minute and a half, but that was actually a pretty long time. The flames ceased and I was left staring. The result… wasn't glass, but it also wasn't nothing.

The sand beneath the square of fire had certainly melted, and it was still molten with red embers burning around the edges. The center was rapidly cooling, but to my surprise, the surface wasn't smooth. Instead, pocks and bubbles were inflating and popping on the molten surface of the pseudo glass. It writhed and churned like a viscous liquid as it rapidly solidified without the intense heat of the fire plate press I'd used. I frowned. This was… ostensibly a success.

I wasn't foolish enough to touch it while the ends were still smoldering so, I stood up and strode down to the water line. I'd returned from the army with military grade boots that I was incredibly thankful for. Gingerly, I walked on my wobbly foot and cupped a bit of water in my hands before slowly returning it to the the experiment, and dropping the water on top. It sizzled like steam on a frying pan, but wasn't nearly enough to cool the entire project.

I wished I had a bucket but sighed before making two or three more trips to the water. The 'glass' cooled into a shiny surface that had the same texture as glass, with none of the useful properties. Tentatively, I poked and lightly touched the surface when I thought it had become cool enough. I waited another five or ten minutes before gently digging my fingers down into the sand and lifting the glass plate. It was bright sandy brown with the slightest flecks of green in it.

I held it up to the sun and found that it was barely transparent. A greenhouse made of this stuff would be closer to a darkroom than a suitable environment for plants. The bubbles had blown up like ugly boils, and I poked and prodded at them until the easiest ones simply broke off. The result was a slightly bowl shaped uneven plate that would likely shatter at the slightest touch. It would be a long way to get from this to sealable jars, windows, or… anything useful, but it was a start at least. That said…

the fire had been incredibly hot, and there might be a war on our doorstep any day. Perhaps I should be worrying less about preserving food, and more about preserving lives. I should take this ability to Sebinet Smith. Making steel might be significantly more useful than any amount of glass at this point, and I suspected iron would melt easily under a blaze like that. There would be six hours before I could experiment like that again. It wasn't a success, but it was progress.

Yet again, I'd need to table glassmaking. I clinked the oblong plate on a nearby rock.

"Well. That was fun. Remind me not to get on your bad side!"

"Gahh!" I screeched as someone seemed to materialize behind me. I tripped and almost dropped the shimmery green and brown plate. The man snickered as I turned and glared at him.

"Burnom… how long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to see a bit of a light show, and you hobbling down to the water and back," he said.

"Was the funniest shit. You ever heard of bucket?" Not for the first time, I wished Tacuria had an equivalent for the middle finger. The problem with the rocky beach was that anyone else could hide behind the rocks without much difficulty, too.

"And… you felt the need to pop out now, why?" I asked.

"You looked like you could use some company," he said.

"Edra kicked me out early again. No booze for slackers or something. You believe that?"

"Honestly, I'm impressed she let you in in the first place," I said. He laughed.

"Yeah, me too," he replied.

"So. Was the lightshow that 'elite' talent of yours in action?" I shook my head, ignoring the sarcasm in his words.

"Believe it or not that was all training. Well. Mostly. I suppose at this point I'm trusting you with pretty much all my secrets. Don't say anything."

"What's it worth to ya, girlee?" he said.

"You already owe me a beer for saving your ass," I said.

"Call it even." He put his finger to his chin as if in deep thought.

"Kinda feel like I'm getting the better end of the deal for once. What's the catch?"

"Want to help me make this into something that can preserve food over the winter?" I asked.

"Hells n–wait what?" he said, pausing as my words sunk in. I gestured to the plate on the ground.

"Theoretically, if I can make a seal that closes tight enough, I can take meat, vegetables, fruits, you name it, and seal it inside that stuff. When you break it out it's almost like new." Refrigeration would probably be easier than air tight seals but I had to start somewhere. Burnom eyed the ugly, yet shiny attempt at glass skeptically.

"If you say so." I shrugged.

"If we could get this working, and you showed up with a way for Edra to hold soup for days instead of making it fresh every night… gods, I bet she'd never kick you out again, that's for sure." He hesitated.

"What… exactly would you need help with?" he asked, suspiciously. I shrugged.

"I don't know. This should be almost clear, and also pretty sturdy. Instead its brittle and brown. We'll have to experiment with it, but I'm sure I could use some help setting those up."

"I'll think about it," he said. If anything, just having an extra pair of hands would be a lifesaver. Plus, I… didn't really feel safe at the lab alone anymore. I guess I'd been attacked here too, though. He took a few steps off toward his little lair, but he paused on the sand before turning back to me.

"I… you told me I'd need dried apricots. I got some." It was my turn for confusion.

"How?"

"You got your secrets, I got mine," He said. A few weeks ago, I might've whined. Joked with him a little. I didn't feel quite so happy these days. I didn't think I'd be able to fully feel happy again until I found out for sure that my Dad, Reid, Oxana, and everyone else I'd met during my brief stint in the army were all okay.

"Fair enough," I said.

"Offer's open for helping me with this." Burnom grunted as if disappointed, ignoring my words.

"For all that fire, you sure seem to have lost yours, storybitch. Getting wounded mess you up so much, did it?"

"It's… more than that," I said.

"Course it is," he said.

"Big girl problems."

"I hate you." He chuckled.

"It's not like it's much of a secret. I traded for them. A soldier had some. They grow near Rechin, so he probably got them from the Eastern War Camp. They were nice. It's nice to remember, sometimes." He didn't elaborate.

"Anyway, if you want to earn a few more buckets of free points, come with me. I got the stuff you told me I need, and you seem like you could use a distraction." I blinked, but then shrugged, looking down at the failed glass. He wasn't wrong. Burnom's need had been the strangest of them all so far, and I had to admit, I was certainly curious. I followed him back toward his alcove.