I had to request the old lord to play matchmaker.

I needed to meet the court alchemist first and with a miner second. I didn't want to meet the head of the mining ministry but rather someone who went underground and could tell me what there was to be found under there.

I also wanted the old lord to be present, both because I needed his approval for later, because he was also curious about what I was up to, and because it would make it easier to get honest answers from wary adults facing a kid.

It was a warm summer now and the jade garden was in full blooming. Lilacs were pervading the air with a pleasant but heady perfume and the best place to stand was under the shade of the cherry trees or the gazebo near the pond.

One of the strangest things about the magic barrier above the garden was that it stopped birds from the outside from coming in but not insects. There were swarms of butterflies twirling in the garden. I learned that the blue ones were the honey-making ones. They would bring back to their hive nectar and pollen, and would later mix it with whatever ripe fruit they would find to make the honey-jam paste I've eaten before. This was sounding better than the lizard-saliva milk, for a long time I had feared worst origins for our honey but this was almost like bees.

The only animals in the garden were thus those brought inside: some chunky scarabs that were all shells and horns were taking care of the excess insects.

The girls' favourites were furry, fluffy, small hares that were fast as lightning. You could bait them with food but good luck touching or catching one of those speedy cotton balls.

Only three people were able to touch them: the old lord who could imprison them in a cage of solid wind, Shizu who could appear right atop them, and Gel who could tame them. The fluffy balls were approaching her without fear and this was making the princess and Melodi go crazy as they wanted to pet one too. Running after them was their favourite game, they were competing on who would catch the most.

Finally, there were a few selected colourful breeds of birds, chosen for their feathers or singing. They were either flamboyant phoenix-peacock looking or small robin-like with musical tweets.

My favourites were the firetongue of the archipelagos and the silvery tinnitus of our land.

The silvery tinnitus was known as the “late riser”, their singing was reminding of the morning bell's clear chime, and because they would start singing at noon only, long after the last morning bell, they were associated with lazy peoples.

* * * * *

Both of our guests were non-humans.

The chief miner was of course a Trollkin. His kins were the best for the job in a world without drilling machines, crushers, or dynamite.

The court alchemist was another story.

She was an Elve from the southern continent. Not the southern archipelagos but the continent beneath them, where the Typhoon was coming from. Thus she was quite different from the black-skinned Elves I've met so far.

She was pale to the point that her skin looked almost translucent, letting the network of veins under her skin appear like the grid of veins on a leaf. She only shared the white hair of her black-skinned cousins.

I know nothing about Elven physiology, so I can't gauge her age. She looks like a mature woman but could be older than my grandmother for all I know.

She has a strange charm going around her. She can't be called beautiful because her bony joints and angular chin don't fit the standard of beauty of humans. Her jawline looks so sharp that it could cut you if you were to kiss her cheeks.

She's lean but well proportioned and her eyes are mesmerizing: they have a strange yellow complexion like clear amber and no pupils, just a pure yellow iris, like balls of molten gold.

The troll at her side looks even more rough when standing next to such a fragile looking Elve. He is a granite pile of rocks but there are some details showing that he is of higher ranks compared to those I met till now. There are gems embedded here and there, directly in his stony skin and gold nuggets growing on parts of his body. This gold is raw and doesn't shine like purified and smelted gold but still adds a glow of prestige to the rock pile.

The court alchemist introduced herself as Raiya Kakaya. She had her own last name, which means she is a free citizen and from the sound of it she's not from around here, which isn't a surprise.

The troll miner introduced himself in a low grumble as “just Onder”.

The old lord introduced me as his pupil. I'm still guessing what he is supposed to teach me? To become a sommelier?

In the presence of the old lord, I started inquiring with the court alchemist first about what she was able to do.

“Alchemist” might be a wrong translation for the job she is doing.

Alchemists are covering a larger array of activities than I thought. This includes what one would expect of alchemists: working to understand matter, purifying metals, testing their composition, looking for new and better alloys, searching for new materials, making what little glass there is around, and supervising ceramic and porcelain production. For all those activities they were also researching how to use monster remains to enhance the products. Bones, scales, tendons but also the blood of some monsters were helping them make their bronze more durable than it should be. This could partially explain why this world never really transitioned to steel, there was less incentive and they were pushing in another direction.

Apart from this standard alchemy, they were also the ones tasked with pharmacology. Raiya was one of those, she was to make medicinal pills by extracting products from plants, animals, and monsters. She was also a researcher as she was trying to find new recipes and cures by experimenting with the materials she had available. This pharmacology activity also included poisons and cosmetics but also dyes, inks, and other chemicals used in leather tanning or wood treatment.

She earned her title of court alchemist because of her talent for making perfumes. I was sitting too far from her to get a waft of whatever she was wearing but now that I looked more closely at her face I noted that she had a discreet make up: a bit of mascara underlining her eyes, lips redder than they should be with her pale complexion and a rosy tint on her cheeks to make her look healthier. That might be why she looked so charming, strange eyes and just the right touch of make-up to smoothen her non-humans traits.

Finally, one of the most important tasks of alchemists was brewing.

They weren't directly making wine but they were the ones in charge of cultivating yeast, selecting, nurturing, and keeping track of the best strains for each duty, be it wine-making, alcohol, cheese, or kimchi and lacto-fermented dishes. This was closely supervised by Charavatkeh's priests too and there was both cooperation and competition between them in this field.

I was surprised at how much they understood about microbian life without even the most rudimentary of microscopes. I'll have to check their glass making and see what I can make for them on that note.

My conversation with her lasted for more than a bell ring. I could see the troll was getting annoyed to have to stick around us but Lord Iroto came to the rescue with a nice bottle of cherry-like wine. He was toasting with the troll while I was learning more about alchemy, I just hope Onder will still be able to answer me later on.

Raiya was surprisingly cooperative. I could see in her eyes that she wasn't looking down on me for being a kid. Instead, there was a strange mix of respect, curiosity with a hint of wariness.

I suspect she knew about my blessing or heard about the reading classes and knew better than to treat me like any kid.

She invited me to come to have a look at her laboratory one day and I will gladly oblige. I was curious about what they knew about distillation, extraction, esterification, and the chemical properties of their plants. One day, I'll need them to produce many acids and other chemicals in bulk.

There were also some disappointments: they knew nothing about gunpowder or explosives. Even naphtha or greek fire were beyond them. What use was there to research them when a fire mage could do a better job? The only thing they knew was how to make coloured flames by using different powder, this meant they knew how to refine things like borax or potassium chloride, at least.

* * * * *

Next, I had a talk with the troll. This time I was happy the old lord was near because Onder wasn't as cooperative. He clearly didn't like it that some kid was prying into the mine's activity so much.

“Pebbles should keep gathering dust before aiming to rock around,” he lectured me in a low rumble.

In the end, I learned only little about the mine itself. Just that they had two major problems.

First was the flooding. With the underground river not that far, there were side streams that would often flood a tunnel they were working on. Monsters were the second issue. There were a lot of them in the underground alongside dangerous beasts.

Only now did I learn that there was a full legion of veterans tasked with securing the underground and making sure no monster tide will swarm the city from there. The though was scary and bringing back terrible memories. A wave of monsters popping out of the mine right into the city could be even more nightmarish than the one from the river.

Underground fighting was tougher: bad vision, cramped environment and they couldn't use explosions or too much fire lest they would end up asphyxiated by the smoke or buried under a collapsed tunnel. The Subterranean legion was only comprised of the best fighters and magicians and were highly regarded. The Marshall himself was their leader.

The mine was worth the risk though. Not only were the monsters' remains useful material but there were also moss, fungi, and other strange plants growing in the underworld that were sought after by alchemists.

Most of all, there were rich veins of plenty of ores. Copper, silver, iron, tin, gold, you name it. That and gems were the reason why our city was rich and powerful. The ores were refined and turned into tools and weapons and that was the main source of income of the city. Other traders were flocking here for that bounty. There weren't that many mines since it was a very dangerous business.

He didn't bring ore samples with him so I couldn't get an inventory of what was available. What was clear was that the quantity wasn't much. Trolls were good miners but between the flooding and fights there wasn't much time to “Crush a crust and finger the earth.”. That and carrying the ores back outside was a troublesome matter. They were using lizard pack beasts but it was slow and attracting predators.

I then asked about the materials I was looking for: Sulphur and niter.

“Hmmph Yeah I've seen your yellow stuff,” he grumbled in a milling of rocks, “It grows around the chimneys of the monster god. That's how we call them. Their fumes are toxic and they burn with the heat of Oreo. Monsters love nesting near them.” He shuddered, the pile of rock looked like under a small earthquake, “But some people want it for their stuff..” He was referring to Ms Kakaya right beside us. She just graciously smiled at him which made the Trollkin blush like heating metal. “It is dangerous but we can find some when needed,” he concluded.

Niter was harder to describe. Be it Niter or saltpeter I knew no words to name it in Tanguana. When I described it, I'm not sure if he understood what I was describing. He could tell me they had earth-salt. That was most of the salt used in the city with little sea salt brought by the southern traders but no Niter.

This wasn't that surprising, niter was mostly found in arid environments since it was easily washed away by water. Flooded tunnels weren't a great place to find deposits.

But in the end, there might be some around the fuming chimneys since there was a hotter and dryer air and he had seen some “white brittle shiny rock that wasn't salt.” This could be the deposits I am looking for.

The old lord tasked him with bringing some of it back from their next expedition.

This was both good and bad news. I might put my hands on some niter, enough for my experimentations with black powder, but it would never be enough for mass production. I had to find another way to get some. Maybe I should speak with the merchants' guild or with Typhoon Taonga?

At the end of the day, I was exhausted.

Talking so much and trying to make sense out of so much information was straining my mind. I stayed at the palace for the night instead of going home. I now had my own chamber in the servant's wing of the inner palace. Gelcaria joined me, she was also staying often here and seldom going back to her place.

She was a good listener and I could bounce a lot of my thoughts on her and see what came back.

Most of the time she was just looking at me like a crazy Fortan's blessed one rather than a Shinpilo's blessed one.