I had made thaumium many a time before. It was always the same. I got the crucible filled with water, heated it up and then dumped the ingredients. A bunch of dirt and something with praecantatio essence. It usually ended up being vis crystals. This time, I had to make the crucible first but that was no trouble either. I always had some salis mundus on me which I simply dumped onto the cauldron Smia had made.

That was where things changed. Because I was able to see things I had not noticed before. Salis mundus was made from balanced shards by heating and grinding them. That source now made much more sense. When the white dust with rainbow sparkles covered the iron, it did so in more than the real way. I ‘saw’ how the magic pulled on the six base aspects to create a prismatic field all around the metal. Then, crystal essence ran through it and broke the swirling rays into a clean pattern. The magic looked exactly like what I remembered from my own crucible. I knew they would be visible in the material after the process was done. For the final step, magic itself burned through the patterns. I clearly saw the hole in reality and even felt it directly on my soul. The familiar weave of the mind spiders peeked from beyond and gave the process a glittery purple effect. I knew they were mine and pulled on the truth I understood from all the research I had done.

When everything was over, my talons twitched. I really wanted to read the Thaumonomicon right now. I felt I had had an epiphany and could understand much more than before. But that was not why I was here. Research could wait. Right now, I wanted to make sure my friend was no longer starving.

Speaking of, Alex had stepped up to the little workplace I had set up at the edge of the village. She looked like a giant between the goblins and dwarves. Even the huts were barely taller than the living fortress.

She still connected to my mind with [Telepathy] rather than speaking.

“Do you have everything?”, she asked.

I indicated the piles of iron and dirt sitting next to me. The volume of the metal was a little less than a human but it should at least alleviate most of her needs. There were also two vis crystals. They were from the cave we had opened up below. The amount of essence and vis stored in them would nearly fill the crucible’s capacity so I had to work quickly to prevent it from dissipating into flux. For now, I was calling the superior vis crystals. There were likely several different sizes of nodes and densities of crystals but with their rarity, one designation to catch them all should be fine.

“Smia said this is all the iron they have ready. Most of what they mined is being turned into steel. If it’s not enough, they’ll get us some more.”

My friend nodded.

“Sounds good. Let’s get started, then!”

Alex clapped her hands to a clanging sound as if two high-pitched bells had been smashed together. I flinched at the noise.

“Careful with that. You’re loud.”

“Right. Sorry. I think it’ll be better once I’m full. Right now, my hull has a lot of space to resonate with.”

I nodded and got to work without further ado. Alex carried the crucible to the river and simply dunked it in until it was full. I had set up close to the access point and planned to use my shadows or storage to move the water but this made it much easier. She seemed very strong.

After the liquid was boiling on top of a fireplace made with ignis crystals, I closely observed the magical activity. The patterns were actively reaching into the water but only conceptually. There was so much going on that my simple mind could have never understood before my recent experience, I was extremely intrigued to learn about the mechanics of the crucible. Well, it was not standard physics. Maybe I needed a different term for this? Thaumaturgics? Thaumic mechanics? Oh! Thaumonomics! Yes, that was it! The properties of movement regarding anything magical. Almost anything. Essence without any other magic was just normal physical objects so normal mechanics would easily apply. This was like my very own quantum mechanics. Only, I did not have to do mathematics to understand it. I could just rely on my [Imaginatics] and everything would fall into place!

With the web of… aura? Yes, this was a shift in aura. With it being firmly in place, I decided to drop just enough dirt into the crucible to make one ingot of thaumium. It was fascinating to observe the material being moved into the web by the boiling water and shifting into pure vis. No, this was not pure vis. It was almost an in-between state of vis and essence. There might even be a way to retrieve the essence without letting it evaporate. That would also double down as protection from flux. If it could not dissipate, there would be no pollution.

Later. I had to make thaumium.

The first superior vis crystal was dropped into the crucible and magic exploded in my senses. The crucible was filled near-instantly and almost all the way through. It was not like there was a little bit of space on the top like a full glass of water but instead, there was a number of spots all the way throughout the magic. The darkness vis was somewhat overwhelming since I was so attuned to it but I could easily make out magic as well. Alex dropped in the first iron ingot before I could fully observe everything. Maybe I should have been sharing my senses with her? I was sure she would be interested in my observations. Yet, maybe her starving Status was distracting. I was unsure of the effects it had on her.

When the iron dropped in, the web of patterns shifted and a wave of purple sparkles signified yet more involvement of mind spiders. They pulled the recipe from my soul, the way thaumium should be made. It was correct and it worked. Both magic and earth essence settled in the metal making it durable and a capable magical conductor. The sudden disappearance of essence pulled along a bunch of water into the empty and the newly created vacuum pulled in more liquid, propelling the ingot out and upwards. Alex nearly caught it but just barely held back. The thaumium clanged on the stone ground and woke me up from my considerations. Alex had already shovelled another pile of dirt into the crucible and was just about to drop the next ingot.

I decided to let her work for the next four or five while focusing on observation. There was little new I spotted but it felt like the mind spiders were now from Alex. Once I joined in on the efforts, they were from both of us, depending on whoever did the last step. At one point, I thought one of them waved to me. Yet, they were not real so how could that have happened.

We were done with the first half about an hour in and had to clean out the darkness essence from the crucible. There was very little water left inside so I decided to try something. I created a tendril of darkness which was much thicker than I remembered. It truly looked like a physical object by now. Alex tried touching it and could not get into the black substance unless I willed her to. Or she used force. It was enough for me to press towards her finger. Maybe one day these would be actual limbs and not flimsy spooks. I could use much more force than before with them so I was not surprised I was able to break their surface.

Done with that experiment, I dumped the tendril into the boiling water. I felt the remainders of the pattern try to dissolve the new essence. Before that could happen, I pulled on the energy. The leftover essence shot into my body making me twitch and the water evaporated into a steam explosion. I shook my head and wings.

“Well, it worked?”, I said.

Alex looked over at the village where everyone had stopped what they were doing and tried to see what happened.

“We’re fine!”, she called, “Just keep going.”

Her bell voice easily reached the whole cave in the silence after the explosion and I could make out some shuffling feet and clothes here and there. Only once I hooted loudly did everyone resume their activities. I heard voices saying things like: “That scared me!” and “They’re crazy!”

Shrugging, Alex refilled the crucible and we did the second batch with increasing routine. I noticed my friend starting to snack on the purple metal near the end. She just bit into an ingot and swallowed without chewing. Three bites and it was gone. Had she been flesh and blood, I would have wondered how her jaw could open that wide. What surprised me more was that behind it, she truly was an empty husk. Her skin was less than a centimetre thick and the rest of her body was just air. It was a little creepy but we were trying to fill her up so I stopped thinking about it.

“Thaumium really is the best! I tried filling my body with brass and even gold but I could not stand more than a little.”

“Maybe try using that for sensory stuff or decoration”, I suggested.

“That’s what I did”, she said pointing at her golden iris and brass teeth, “I’m gonna go with steel teeth, probably. Once the first batch is ready.”

“It’s really fun to change things around. I can recommend trying a less conductive outer layer like iron for example. That should make you less receptive to outside magic and increase your defences.”

She blinked.

“I didn’t even think about that. Wait! You have a form just like my body, right?”

“Close. I can’t eat with it unless to change material. And I absorb basically every metal I touch that’s superior to what I’m made of.”

“I see. Well, thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”

The golden shine of her teeth reflected in her smile.

“Ohh! I have an idea!”

With that, Alex closed her eyes for a minute. I tried to see what she was doing but it took a moment to become visible. She was adjusting her hair. The thin black strands were being pulled to the back of her head by a golden thread coming out from the top of her neck. A few moments later she had pulled it into a ponytail held together by a gold tie. Not golden. Literal gold. She spent another few minutes of concentration putting golden strands into the black. One of the hairs even had a spiralling pattern of the two colours.

Eventually, the living fortress opened her eyes again.

“This is so fun! How do I look?”

I used [Telepathy] to send her a picture of my vision.

“Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! What about…”

“Later”, I interrupted her, “Roguk is coming over. I think the preparations are done.”

She turned around and smiled at the goblin.

“Everything ready?”, she asked.

“Yes. We can start any time. How about you?”

“We’re good”, I said as I swallowed the pile of thaumium into my storage.

“Ey!”, Alex called out.

“I’ll drop it close to where we sit.”

“Thanks!”, she smiled.

Her happiness was infectious. She later told me my return to the living was the biggest part of that but having a normal body with normal senses like sight and hearing played a big part as well. She could still use her [Essence Sense] but it was no longer her only option.

We settled down in the packed village square. It was time to celebrate!