It took two hours for the seven of us to finish cleaning the workroom, and I was relieved when Bron left with his group of helpers. My ears were aching from all the yelling the Orc did, but I had to admit the place looked a hundred times better than before.

A pair of carpenters stood off to the side, talking in low voices as they worked to build a storage room. The workspace had almost no storage areas, and after some discussion with Darius, we’d decided to wall off part of the workspace to create a secure storage room with floor to ceiling shelves.

“I was thinking about hanging drying racks on either side of the furnace,” I said to Narvi, the master carpenter who nodded, looking at the sketch I’d made of a rack that could be raised up over the workspace in order to hang herbs.

“That would work.” The master carpenter told me. “We can also fit a third, smaller one in the storage room for any rarer herbs you’ve got drying. I have some ladders made up that we could modify into what you want. If I can get the fixtures from the smiths we can have your herb racks up tonight.”

I smiled, leading the man over to the workbench that we’d dragged out from where the storage room was being built. I might not be here long, but having a usable Alchemy lab will benefit the guild. I can also use it during visits to spend time with Marcus.

Darius sat cross-legged on the bench, pulling an assortment of random items out of his bag, which he was stacking up in piles beside him.

“Kadia, Narvi, finished with the plans?” Darius asked, looking up from his bag.

“Yes Guild-master, I’ve got a good idea of what needs to be done, and Kadia here has provided drawings of the type of shelving she wants for the storage room and around the workspace. The room will be completed in two days at the earliest. I can only spare these two and an apprentice because of the expansion work for the second forge.”

“Pull the workers from the forge job. This takes priority. It’ll not take long to finish this if you are all working on it. A few extra days won’t hurt the smiths any. If Varg has an issue with it, tell him he is welcome to take it up with me,” Darius said.

“Yes, sir, I will get them now. With everyone working we can be done by noon at the latest,” Narvi said, inclining his head towards Darius before turning to race out of the room.

“You didn’t need to do that, the storage room doesn’t need to be rushed,” I said, picking up a blue marble from the bench and rolling it in between my fingers.

It’s cold, like holding an ice cube, and there is a gas or liquid inside.

“The storage room is more important. You’ve got supplies worth hundreds of gold being delivered in the morning. They need to be stored in a safe location. Which is why Noctus is fetching Tink, our guild's Artificer, who will fit locks onto the storage room and workspace doors.”

“Tink the Artificer, how cliche.”

“Her real name is Talia, but everyone calls her Tink. I think the two of you will get along, she is smart like you, wanted to be an engineer but wasn’t able to afford university or get a scholarship so she decided to digitize to live in the high-tech world of Galxia where she could become a spacecraft engineer. Talia, Dravern and Helvern were in the same ‘crew’ in Galxia, which is that world's version of a guild. They left Galxia for Kaledon when Dravern had a falling out with their former Captain over his treatment of crew members.'' Darius explained, pulling a scraggly looking twig with crumbling leaves from his bag and tossing it onto the bench where he’d piled up dozens of other plants, which all looked just as bad.

“Going from a high-tech world to a fantasy one like Kaledon must have been quite a change for them. You mentioned that Dravern and Helvern are Tengu. What race is Tink?” I asked, still rolling the cold marble around on my palm.

“A half-Gorgon, one of the rarer races, which was derived from Greek mythology. The full-blooded Gorgons are non-attainable as a race, however it is possible to become a half-Gorgon, which is the product of a mating between a human male and Gorgan female. Unlike their full-blooded counterparts, half Gorgon's can’t turn anyone to stone, but they can make you freeze in place. Tink can freeze a person for close to thirty seconds and animals for a little longer. Don’t lick that!”

Stopping with the blue marble mere inches from my nose, I stared at Darius in surprise, as his voice reached an almost ear-splitting pitch.

“I wasn’t licking it,” yet. “I was sniffing it.” I said defensively.

“Fine, that’s fine. Just don’t lick it or swallow it. It’s from an ice wisp, a weak elemental spirit. Markion once licked one as a dare and it fused to his tongue. We had to cut his tongue off and regrow it. If you put it in a bucket of water it will turn icy, leave it for an hour and it will be solid ice. You were talking about needing cold water to condense steam from the retort, so I thought this would help. I’ve got about half a dozen here, as we use them to cool down water for drinking when we travel.”

“How interesting, hmm, does it freeze moving water or just still water? If I had the ice orb suspended in the flow of water, would it be able to keep it at a steady temperature?” I wondered, staring at the marble in fascination.

“One alone won’t freeze moving water.” A soft voice chimed in from behind me. “If you place it in a bucket and agitate the water, it will not freeze. It takes twenty-two ice wisp cores to freeze a bucket of moving water.”

Tink wasn’t how I expected a half Gorgan to look, I was picturing someone like the paintings featuring the most famous Gorgon in Greek mythology. But Medusa, Tink was not.

In fact, if Darius hadn’t told me Tink was a Gorgon, I would have thought she was a human. Tink’s dark purple hair was pulled back from her face and gave the illusion of dreadlocks. If the dreadlocks moved on their own, that is. With a pair of goggles perched on her head, and dressed in a short-sleeved blouse, leather bustier and tight dark pants, Tink looked like she just walked out of a steampunk dress-up party.

“So, you're going to be an alchemist, huh? Let's see if you are any good. Tell me, what are the ingredients required to make black powder?” Tink asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

A test?

“Sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter. However, you can also substitute charcoal for sugar, but charcoal is the better option,” I said with a shrug. It wasn’t anything special.

“Right, and now, tell me, what ratios are needed, how much salt and pepper am I meant to use?” Tink prompted, her expression becoming more open as she moved closer to where I stood.

“Damn it, Tink.” Darius sighed. “I told you, no more black powder experiments. You already blew up your workshop six times with the sugar and sulfur experiments. If you do it again, I won’t be rebuilding it.”

Wait, salt and pepper? Was she using salt and pepper to make black powder? Coughing to conceal my laughter, I shook my head, deciding to answer the girl, despite Darius’s words.

“Who told you it was salt and pepper? It’s Saltpeter, not salt and pepper. The most used ratios are seventy five percent saltpeter, fifteen charcoal, and ten for sulfur. Grind each into powder and mix them together carefully. You can add water to lower the risk of combustion. Once it is mixed wet, push it through a thin wire screen to form pellets and spread them out to dry. Make sure once dry, you store it in an air and watertight container.” I explained, watching in amusement as the girl pulled a small journal from a leather bag strapped to her upper thigh, and began writing in it with frantic intensity.

“Markion said it was salt and pepper. He said he’d made it with his sister, and they used sulfur, charcoal, salt and pepper. What is saltpeter? Is it salt mixed with something?” Tink said, spitting out Markion’s name like a curse.

“Knowing my brother, he probably thought it was salt and pepper. He zones out when I talk about chemistry. Saltpeter is potassium nitrate, a naturally occurring white crystalline powder. It can be found forming in caves with warm, humid environments or can be extracted from animal excrement.” I told the girl whose hand was flying across the page in her journal.

“Fuck,” Darius moaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “Kadia, please don’t give the most destructive person in the guild more ways to destroy things. Tink, if you want to make black powder, then it’s going to be under Kadia’s supervision until you’ve learnt the proper method.”

“Did you say animal excrement? First, you’re talking about boiling urine, and now you want to make black powder from shit.” Noctus commented as he entered the room.

“I can make phosphorus from rock or bones. The issue is that I don’t know if it’s possible to get the rocks or where it will be and, like I said, saltpeter deposits can be found in warm caves. However, with the guild owning a farm bone, manure and urine are the most viable options at this point in time.” I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the vampire.

“You know how to make Phosphorus? Can we make smoke bombs?” Tink interjected, eyes wide.

“Smoke bombs, flares, alchemic fire. There are loads of things we can make. If we can find some phosphorite and apatite rock then it’ll be easy to make all of that. It takes a lot of urine for just a little Phosphorus, the experiment I did with Markion used over ten liters of urine and we only extracted about a gram of Phosphorus. Rendering bones to make calcium Phosphorus is a possibility, but I need to work out a proper solvent to render it in.”

“It sounds like you and Markion did a lot of experiments,” Darius said with interest and I sighed, nodding.

“I thought if I made chemistry a little more fun, he would show more of an interest in pharmacology. I wanted him to take his studies more seriously, to go to university, all that stuff.” I murmured, looking down at the cold blue marble I still held.

“I’m sorry Kadia, I shouldn’t have-.” Darius began, but I cut him off.

“It’s fine, I’d rather not dwell on that stuff right now.”

Moping around wouldn’t do me any good, there was nothing I could do except wait for Marcus to get back.

“Um, I have a question about saltpeter,” Tink said, raising her hand in the air.

“Sure, go ahead.” I told her, glad for the interruption.

“How much poop do I need to scoop?”