Path of Dragons-Chapter 17Book 8: : Preparations

“That is so disgusting,” Sadie grunted as she performed her sword forms. Each one was exact and sudden, cutting through the air with practiced precision. She executed an abbreviated uppercut that flowed into a downward slash, ending in a sweeping strike that would have cut most enemies in half. Only then did her shoulders droop in relaxation, and she let out a breath. “You heard me, right?”

“Kind of working here,” Elijah said, pushing Soul of the Wild and Nature’s Design to their peak. Partially, that was so that Sadie could take advantage of the healing rain that came with the latter spell, but it was also useful in infusing the rendering fat with the essence of his ethera.

“Working? You’re casting a few spells,” grumbled an extremely wet Biggle. “I’m doing all of the real work.”

That wasn’t entirely false. Without the Alchemist, Elijah’s efforts at rendering the fat would have been far less effective. Sure, the soap he planned to make would probably be fine – the ambient ethera on the island took care of that – but he wanted more than just fine. He wanted to push the limits of what soap could be. And to that end, he’d sought Biggle’s help.

After all, soap wasn’t so different from the Alchemist’s normal concoctions, was it? Certainly, his abilities still applied, which was all Elijah really cared about – because as he’d established every time he’d tried to cook his own meals, classes mattered when it came to that sort of thing. With his previous batches of soap, he’d gotten by via the sheer power of his ingredients, but if he wanted to take the next step, he needed professional help.

Which was where Biggle came in.

It hadn’t been an easy negotiation, either, but they’d managed to come to an agreement that combined their previous deals concerning soap into a real partnership. It favored Elijah, but Biggle’s work would gain him a thirty percent share of any soap-related profits. And Elijah wanted to get his money’s worth out of the gnome.

“I was wondering – do you have cooking skills, too?” Elijah asked, using an entire facet of his mind to shove as much ethera into his ongoing spells. His method of infusing his products with ethera was a bit of a cheat, and an inefficient one at that. However, the combination of the incredible ethera density on the island and his powerful spells did the job.

“Only potions and their ingredients,” Biggle answered, tending to the rendering fat.

“But what counts as a potion? Isn’t a stew just a potion? And how is soap considered –”

“I don’t make the rules,” Biggle interrupted, pushing wet hair out of his eyes. “I just know what works and what doesn’t. This works. Potions work. Powders, too. Even pills. But soup? I get nothing. If I didn’t consider this fat a part of an alchemical product, then it probably wouldn’t work either.”

“So, it’s based on perception?” Elijah asked.

“To a point,” Biggle answered. “No amount of belief will make a chair into a potion, though. It’s complicated. Now let me focus. I’m running low on ethera, and I want to make certain that this batch isn’t ruined due to inattention.”

Elijah went silent for a moment, then turned his attention to Sadie. She sat on a nearby log, her eyes closed as she clearly attempted to meditate. However, her efforts had been undermined by the smell of cooking fat. Her nose crinkled in disgust, but she remained in place.

“You know you don’t have to stick around,” he said, sitting beside her. With one facet dedicated to the task, he didn’t need to monitor his spells’ usage. “Not that I don’t appreciate your presence. Obviously. Every moment I spend with you is like a –”

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She giggled. “You really don’t need to finish that sentence.”

“What? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

“No.”

“You want another?” he asked. “Okay. The earth is like a child that knows no more heaven that it may hold. I have a heart for love to fill – and I shall go to it, and will.”

“Please stop quoting poetry,” she said with an exaggerated sigh, though it was accompanied by a tight smile. “And did you just say you love me?”

“Uh…it’s just a poem?”

“No – I heard it. You’re –”

“By all the gods, can you two just be silent? No amount of ethereum is worth this,” Biggle grumbled. “Love this and love that. Nonsense! You know what love is? I have a potion that’ll show you exactly what it is. You two’ll be fawning all over one another in a matter of seconds!”

“We kind of already are,” Elijah pointed out. Sadie hit him in the arm. “Ow.”

Biggle looked at the sky and begged, “Please, may the Tinkerer save me from love-struck youth. I will give anything.”

“Do you think he’d be upset if we just started making out?” Elijah asked. “I’m game if you are.”

Sadie shook her head, then smiled as she said, “No. Best not push it too far with the old curmudgeon. Besides, I have some things I need to do in town. How long are you going to be working on this?”

“Most of the next couple of days, with a little cultivation work thrown in,” Elijah answered. “I have a couple of other projects I want to finish before we have to leave, too. So, there’s no real time to waste.”

“So, you’re really going?” she asked. He’d made no secret that he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the prospect, but now that he’d decided, he was going to throw his whole effort into it.

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Elijah answered, “I don’t see that we have much of a choice. Plus, the auction sounds interesting. And I kind of want to find out if any of my old friends survived.”

Indeed, he hadn’t thought about her for a while, but his ex-girlfriend Nina back in Hawaii had once held a very prominent place in his life. It wasn’t love – he knew that now – but at the time, it had felt like it. He still cared about her and wanted to know that she was safe. His other friends were less important to him, though he was at least curious as to their fates. And he would help them if they needed it.

“It’s going to be dangerous,” she said. “Everyone’s going to be there.”

“Good guys and bad guys alike,” he agreed.

“And you’re going to have a target on your back,” she warned. “People haven’t forgotten your name, and I’m sure that word of what happened in the Trial of Primacy has spread. Some will try to manipulate you. Others might try to get rid of you. You need to take this seriously.”

“That’s why I’m bringing you along. You’re the best bodyguard I could find.”

“I said to take it seriously.”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I am. Believe me,” he allowed. But in the back of his mind, he didn’t think it would be much different than anywhere else he’d been. Besides, he was always aware, even if he didn’t seem like it.

“Somehow, I don’t. But like you said, I’ll be there with you to keep you in line. So long as you don’t quote anymore poetry.”

“And here I was with a book of sonnets memorized,” he complained.

She rolled her eyes, then pushed herself to her feet and left. That allowed Elijah to focus even more fully on the task at hand. So, with the rain from Blessing of the Grove bathing the entire area in precipitation, he continued to push the limits of how much ethera he could channel into his abilities. It was only a miniscule increase, but the way he saw things, it was little different from training any other aspect of his abilities. If he wanted to get stronger, he needed to repeatedly lift heavy things. Faster? He needed to run or swim. If he wanted to exercise his reasoning abilities, he needed puzzles and complex problems to solve. So it was with his spells – every little improvement would put him closer to the peak of his potential.

He concentrated on that as Biggle cooked, filling the air with the popping of rendering fat. Because of the power of the original creature, it was absolutely packed with ethera. Not as much as the fat from the boar king, but being rendered by a talented Alchemist kept most of it from dissipating. So, the end result was much more potent.

It did take a lot longer, though.

So, hours passed, and at times, Biggle was forced to take breaks as his pool of ethera refilled. During those moments, Elijah focused on the barrels full of wood ash and water that would eventually become lye.

He’d spent hours scouring the island for the perfect branches and sticks. The process wasn’t dissimilar from how he’d chosen the wood for the Staff of the First Dragon, though he was looking for entirely different characteristics. The search was easier this time as well, owing to the expanded senses granted by Soul of the Wild.

Over time, he gathered hundreds of branches absolutely teeming with ethera. Each one exhibited an affinity for purification – a sense Elijah couldn’t really understand but accepted – which he hoped would translate into much more powerful lye.

Finally, when the wood had been burned to ash and piled into the barrels, Elijah had added water from the artificial hot spring. According to Biggle, it would only improve the resultant lye by a little – indeed, most of the ethera would be lost when it was separated from the ash lotus – but any gain was worthwhile.

The first batch of lye hadn’t been up to Elijah’s standards in terms of potency, so he’d cycled the process three times over the past few days. Now, he was on what he hoped would be the last cycle, and when he finally opened the tap, allowing the concentrated lye to drip into another barrel, it was practically sizzling with ethera.

“I didn’t think your homemade barrels would make much difference,” Biggle admitted when he inspected the liquid. “But I suppose I didn’t account for the accumulated ethera from being on the island for years. Or previous uses. I won’t make that mistake again.”

The barrels in question were the same ones he’d created from hollowed out logs during his first soap-making quest, and he’d found no reason to replace them. Even when Biggle had practically insisted they use proper equipment made by a Cooper in town, Elijah had held firm. So, hearing the Alchemist admit that it was the right decision was more than a little gratifying.

Once the lye was prepared, they spent the next few hours combining it with the rendered fat. For that process, Biggle had brought his cauldron with him. Made from a magical metal that resembled cast iron and passed down through his family, it was both an heirloom and a much more powerful item than any of Ironshore’s Blacksmith’s could create. Even Carmen couldn’t have replicated it – not yet, at least. In addition, as Elijah was beginning to discover, an item’s past mattered. Inanimate objects didn’t have Legacies like sapient creatures, but they could definitely grow more powerful over time. Such was the case with Biggle’s cauldron, which was millennia old and had been used by dozens of his ancestors.

But even such a large cauldron was insufficient to the task at hand, so they ended up having to mix three batches, adding a different scented oil to each iteration before pouring the concoction into wooden molds Elijah had made himself.

All in all, the process took almost four days of constant work, but to Elijah, it seemed worth it. “How many bars do you think this is?” he asked, his hands on his hips as he looked at the curing soap.

“Depends on how big we want to make them,” Biggle answered. “At least two thousand. Probably closer to three. Each one is going to be a treasure, too. This is a fortune, so long as we find people willing to pay what it’s worth.”

“That’s what the auction is for,” Elijah said. Indeed, he’d spent a good portion of his accumulated fortune when he’d used the Branch’s overpriced Teleportation Network to rescue Ron and his daughter and to get to Hong Kong. So, he needed to replenish his stores, so to speak, and the soap represented an opportunity to do just that.

But he intended to keep a good bit of it for himself. He wasn’t sure how much good it did, but Nerthus had told him long ago that it helped with body cultivation. And with what he had read about higher levels of cultivation, he figured he was going to need all the help he could get.

After placing the bulky molds in the grove proper, Elijah escorted Biggle back to his garden. The gnome hadn’t imposed too much of his will on the place, but Elijah could recognize quite a few non-native plants and fungi. He kept it within the boundaries he’d been given, though, so Elijah had no complaints.

But he knew the dangers of letting an Alchemist get too close. They didn’t have the best reputation, often descending into greedy mad scientist tropes. Biggle seemed different, but Elijah intended to keep a close eye on the gnome.

Which left him feeling a little guilty. Biggle might not have graduated to friend status, but he was definitely an acquaintance with whom he was on good terms. Looking at him with any degree of suspicion just felt wrong.

Still, Elijah didn’t extend trust very easily, especially when it came to the grove. One wrong move, and someone could plunder it for its resources. Elijah’s entire purpose was to safeguard that, and he wouldn’t allow himself to fail.

However, once he left Biggle to his own devices, Elijah turned his attention to the next item on his to-do list. He needed to finally test out his new form. He’d shifted into it once before, but he’d barely had time to truly inspect it. In that respect, having Sadie around was a terrible – and wonderful – distraction.

But the time had finally come for him to buckle down and get things done. So, without further ado, he waded into the surf, then cast Shape of the Sea.