“Wake up my Jase, it’s morning,” Lily said shaking my shoulder. I sat up and popped my neck.

“Why did you let me fall asleep on the couch?” I asked rubbing my neck. “It’s comfortable, but bad on the neck.”

Lily frowned at me. “Still in a bad mood, huh?”

I smiled catching the pixie in my hands. I kissed her head. “Good morning my Lily. No, I’m not in a bad mood, just sore.”

“But you’re still feeling depressed.”

That was a statement of fact, not a question. I nodded my head. “A little bit, yeah.”

“I think I have something that will help with that,” Lily said with a mischievous smile on her face.

“Oh really? Got me a surprise?”

“Uh huh,” my familiar replied. Her happy feelings were already putting me in a better mood. Going by how her smile became brighter and happier, she knew it too. “Eat some cereal bars for breakfast and shower before I show you though.”

“Ordering me around?” I playfully asked.

“You bet! In fact, take a shower first. You’re starting to smell!”

“Why you!” I replied holding her in my left hand and doing my best to tickle her with my right index finger.

*

“You’re sure this is safe?” I asked my familiar as my finger hovered over the generator’s power button. The pixies had turned off the power system so the central air system could be added on as well as the network equipment and some lab equipment that Lily had me drag out of the storage device and setup.

“Yeah,” Lily answered. She then muttered, “if we’ve overloaded the system, we won’t live through the explosion and never know.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!”

“If nothing, why are you slowly flying away from me?”

“To make sure I at least have a chance of surviving the explosion if I’m wrong,” Lily innocently answered.

“Lily!”

“I’m teasing! It’ll work,” she replied flying back and landing on my shoulder. She was confident, so I knew she was telling the truth.

“Here goes nothing,” I said pressing the button. The system started normally, and the lights turned back on in the basement. I assumed the ones in the rest of the house had as well.

“See, no explosion,” Lily said flying up to face me. She was wearing a helmet and some sort of padded vest and goggles.

“What are you wearing?” I asked laughing. “Was that supposed to protect you if you were wrong?”

“No. It was supposed to do what it did and make you laugh.”

“Fine. What’s this heavy stuff you had me setup?”

“Chemistry lab equipment. You can use them for your alchemy.”

“Really?” I asked. She nodded. “Ok. That one,” I said pointing to a boxy looking thing, “looks sort of like the oven in the kitchen.”

“That’s a forced air convection oven,” Lily confirmed. She pointed to a second box. “That one is a convection furnace.”

“So, we have replacements for the athanor and cupellation furnace already.”

“Yep. These will work much better if you ever use them.”

“What’s the tall rectangular thing with the tubes in it?”

“That is an automatic distillation unit.”

“It’ll take the place of the alembic?” I asked.

“Yeppers.”

“And this stand thing with the mortar on it?”

“An automatic mortar. No more grinding things for you, unless you want to grind them,” Lily replied happily.

“Does this stuff work?”

“Won’t know until we turn them on.”

“And try them out,” I concluded.

“Yep.”

“Let’s try them out,” I anxiously said.

*

The storage unit also had more than one crucible in it, tongs, multiple flasks, brushes, stands to hold the flasks, a magnetic stirrer that automatically stirred whatever was placed on top of it, burners, hotplates, clamps, thousands of feet of glass and rubber tubing, a glass tube cutter, stoppers for the tubes, and various safety equipment the ancients had used.

“I don’t remember packing this stuff when we looted the lab.”

“You didn’t pack everything. I helped.”

“You gave instructions.”

“And packed away the lab equipment while you were following my instructions,” Lily replied.

“Fair enough,” I said.

“You can make single use tubes out of the tubing with the stoppers and cutter,” Lily informed me as I cleaned up the mess from my testing about midnight.

Testing had turned into using since the caravan would be in the village for a few days. I wanted to sell them some of my wares to buy a few pieces of replacement equipment even if I didn’t intend to use them. It also wouldn’t hurt to have customers outside the village if the villagers decided they liked the other alchemist’s wares better.

She yawned, which made me yawn. “Ready for bed?”

“Yeah,” I answered turning off the distiller unit and heading for the stairs.

“Good. In the morning you’ll have to setup the lab refrigerator and freezer.”

“Going to help?”

“If you need me to.”

“More telekinesis practice?”

“Uh huh.”

“Alright. Let’s go to bed,” I said holding out my hand so she could land on my palm. “I think I still want a regular mortar and pestle though.”

“Good idea,” Lily replied landing on my palm and sitting down. I turned off the basement lights as I stopped at the top of the stairs. “That way you can fool any customers into thinking you were doing everything by hand still.”

“So, this is why you weren’t upset that Ama was taking the equipment.”

“Yes,” Lily answered.

“When were you going to tell me about the ancient equipment?”

“I was going to surprise you for your birthday with it.”

“Ah. I’ll consider this an early present then. Thank you,” I replied as I entered my, well, our bedroom.

“You’re welcome,” Lily said smiling at me before flying into the bathroom and emerging a moment later wearing her pajamas. I stifled a laugh.

“When is your birthday?” I asked walking into the bathroom as Lily landed on the pillow she used as her bed.

“Same day as yours.”

“Really?” I asked. She nodded. “Interesting. Do all familiars share birthdays with their humans?”

“Yes, and I see the curiosity in your expression in addition to feeling it over the bond. I can’t say more.”

“Alright.”