After getting the locks for the lab and some more enchanting supplies, the three of us head back to the farm. Apricot pestering me to make records of everything right away.

"I can only do one song at a time, Sweetie." I plead. "And, these will only hold a bit over twenty minutes per side. So, you're going to have to narrow it down a little from 'everything.'"

"Mhm. Start with the Beatles again then." She grumbles. "Amelia likes them and they're probably a good starting point for Lori and Ro. But, then I want some dance music." she demands.

"Yes, Ma'am." I laugh and start making a stack of records from modified wood, it's no vinyl, but it works surprisingly well.

"I'm guessing that this isn't how your people made these record things." Lori ventures.

"The actual mastering process, as it's called, is not that far off." I explain. "They cut the grooves into a soft material like wax, and then use that to make a harder steel stamp to press out as many copies as needed."

"Were they made from wood too?" She runs her fingers over the blank I handed her.

"No, it was an alchemical substance somewhat similar to, but much stiffer than the rubber I'm making. Unfortunately, it's not plant-based, so I don't know how to make it." I could probably manage some bioplastics, but my modified wood is more than good enough for my current needs.

"You really are a Plantkin, aren't you?" Apricot laughs.

"There's nothing wrong with specializing." I say with a laugh of my own. "Even if my specialization is rather broad."

"I'm not sure that 'anything made from plants' really counts as a specialization." She counters.

"Well, I could always forget how to make chocolate if that would make you happy." I tease.

"Heheh." Lori giggles at the look Apricot shoot me. "You two are cute together."

"Oh, that's all her." I say with a smile as we pull up at the farm. "I'm just reflecting her leftover charisma."

"That sounds about right." Apricot sticks her tongue out at me. "Now get working on the music."

"Can I check to see how Melanie is doing first?" I ask while unhitching Flicker.

"No. Music now." She commands.

"Uh-huh." I roll my eyes and set the horse loose in her pen. The animal taken care of, I place a blank record on the new player and use my modified ventriloquism spell to vibrate the needle directly. Using it to carve out the songs of 'Please Please Me' into the wood. "At least I don't have to focus on spinning it this time."

"If someone played some music for you, could you record it too?" Lori asks.

"Yeah." I nod. "And, it should be easy enough to invert the enchantment on the needle. So, you wouldn't even need me there, just use a wax blank and figure out some way to transfer it into a more durable medium."

"That..." She stops in her tracks. "Wow, you just told me that was how your people did it, but I didn't even think I could do it myself. I understand that you're busy, but..."

"I'll try to work it in." I offer. "I need to work on my enchanting anyways, but I promised Rozelle and Melanie that I'd write out what I know about maths and chemistry. I'm hoping to get a good start on that tomorrow while growing what I need."

"Thank you for that." The alchemist says as we enter the lab. "Things are going well here, but the way. That idea you had for hanging weights from thin strips of rubber is working out great."

"That's good to hear." I send her a smile. "I try to keep my promises... speaking of which, I still owe Amelia a dress. I can't go making Lori and Catrina a bunch of clothes if I haven't even done that first."

"I've got a good handle on the testing." Melanie states. "The lab has everything needed to test heat and cold, so you go make your girl her dress."

"Thank you." My smile grows even wider. "I owe you one, so if you want some nice clothing too, just ask."

"I might just take you up on that." She returns my smile.

We head back outside, since the lab is a bit crowded with all four of us, and the first thing I do is start growing some woad. I haven't found any true indigo yet, but this should be more than good enough. Especially if I use my new spell to extract the indigo directly from it.

"I don't think I will ever get tired of watching you do magic." Apricot purrs a moment later when I start extracting pure indigo from boiling woad soup.

"I'm not a dyer." Lori says with a nervous laugh. "But, I'm pretty sure you're skipping a few steps there."

"Mhm." I shrug. "I'm beginning to see why Melanie was so excited about this spell, it really is a time saver." Fortunately, indigo has a pretty distinctive molecule. But, I may have to find a work-around to my visualization problem if I want to use it on stuff I don't know the chemical structure of.

"Can anyone use that spell?" The baron's daughter asks while watching the pile of pure indigo grow larger.

"Delainey and old Lemmy picked it up right away, but the others at the guild needed Apricot's help." I reply. "It's all about how well you can visualize the substance you're trying to extract. So, a dyer that has spent their life working with indigo has a better chance at making it work than some layperson that just knows that it's blue. But most people could probably extract vinegar or alcohol."

Once it looks like I have enough pigment; I bring out the cotton and start spinning it into fine fibers that then get dyed a brilliant blue. These threads fly through the air and form themselves into a tight starweave velvet.

"Wow..." Lori breathes out as the fabric grows itself from a tiny swatch into several square meters of smooth cloth.

"Mhm, it's alright." I tilt my head to one side while examining the cloth. "I wish I had some silk, but even if I did I wouldn't be able to control it as well as I can the cotton. I might just have to step up the production of rayon. It's close enough to silk and I shouldn't have any problems weaving it."

"You know how to make something like silk?" Her eyes practically drill into me.

"Mm-hmm." I nod distractedly while shaping the velvet around an Amelia shaped dress form. "It's not that hard to make, I just have to find the time to make the reagent. Now, what am I going to do for the beads on the lace section? Polished wood doesn't shine enough, maybe if I compress a bowstring into a solid chunk."

I take a break between songs to focus on doing just that. The final result is not quite as shiny as I would like, but it looks alright. Especially since I plan to remake the dress in rayon.

"Sorrel, you did it again." Apricot titters.

"Hmm?" I look up from the test bead. "Oh, the silk thing? Yeah, it can be made from cotton, or even lumber if you want to go through a bit of extra work. It might work well for the beads actually, it doesn't have to be turned into a thread. It can also make a shiny clear sheet. If I can coat that on the beads, or maybe press it into a bead shape..."

"Sorry, Lori." Apricot pats the woman on the arm. "You'll get used to it once you spend enough time around him."

"What do you need to make it?" Lori asks with a bit more intensity than I'm comfortable with.

"Oh, just a copper compound, ammonia, and lye. It's pretty basic." I start to grin at my joke until I hear Temmie groan. "Hey, you're the goddess of bawdy jokes, not chemistry puns."

"You have the ear of the goddess Temmie?" Lori's eyes go wide.

"Like I said." Apricot commiserates with the poor noble. "It may take a while to get used to him."

"Would you quit picking on me." I huff and start up the music again while making some black thread for the lace and satin gloves. "I still owe you some pixie sized dresses too, and that stuff would be perfect for it."

She smirks at me but doesn't say anything else, so I get back to work. I wish the coat Julie Christie wore over the dress got more screen time, but it looks to be a simple enough design. I also include a more basic shawl in a similar style in case Amelia doesn't like the high collared overcoat.

"That is beautiful." Lori marvels over the dress once I step back finished. "I can see why Amelia wanted you to make it for her."

"Thank you." I nod, but can't help but look at it with a critical eye.

"It looks great Sorrel." Apricot swats me on the arm. "She's going to love it."

"Yeah, I just wish I had some jet for the beads." I grumble. "These just don't shine enough. I know it's technically made from wood, but I would need a much better grasp of earth, fire, and maybe even time and gravity magics to even hope to recreate it. And, if I'm going through all that effort I might as well just try making black diamonds."

"Hahahah." Lori breaks into nervous laughter. "You make a work of art in minutes and then complain that you can't make precious gems to adorn it. How do you even know how to make them, just what kind of lands do you hail from?"

"Pretty similar to here actually." I say, chagrined. "Larendath, or at least Riverton feels very similar to what my homeland was like less than two hundred years ago. I'd say it's even more advanced in some ways. And, I'm sorry for getting carried away. I just want Apricot and Amelia to have the best."

"Sorrel, that's sweet." Apricot pulls me into a hug before leaning back enough to flick me on the forehead. "But, quit being a dummy. We're both happy to be with you. You don't have to show off by making diamonds, you crazy lunker."

"But what if I want to make diamonds." I say with a fake pout.

"Apricot." Lori turns to the pixie with a serious look on her face. "I think you were wrong about getting used to him."

"Hahahah." I can't help but laugh at the 'whatcha gonna do?' look that Apricot sends her. "Alright dress done." I put it, the shawl, and overcoat into storage and retrieve the pearlash. "Time to work on the grain blight again, I want to get Williams field sprayed."

Decomposing the potassium bicarbonate goes surprisingly well, I only had to heat the water and pearlash to just over boiling while drawing co2 from the air into the solution.

Once I have the baking pearl, I just had to mix it and the horticultural oils into the bacterial soup. I went ahead and made more than enough to treat William's whole field, after the test against some potted wheat was enough to make me chuckle in glee.

"With any luck, that's what all the fields will look like in just a week." The plant still shows signs of the damage done by the blight, but it looks healthy and there is no visible sign of fungus. "I'll probably recommend a second treatment then and maybe again if it rains, but the grain should be good from here on."

"We can't thank you enough." The baron's daughter calls on all of her noble bearing to curtsy deeply to me. "My father wouldn't say anything, but I could tell he was very worried about this. A famine would have been... bad. And, with Riverton being so isolated it's not like we can just ask our neighbors for help."

"Well, I'm your neighbor now, it's the least I can do." I can feel my cheeks flaming with embarrassment. I mainly saw this as an interesting puzzle without truly thinking about how many people it would have affected.

"I can tell you don't like praise." She says with a sly smile. "But, you should probably get used to it."

"Nng." I groan. "Good thing we're planning a trip to the Capital, then."

"Don't think that will help." Lori laughs. "You can be sure that Father will be writing to the Queen about this. But, I'm surprised you're leaving us already."

"It's not permanent." I explain. "Amelia wants to get a proper magical education, so we're going to look for a tutor and some books. I'm hoping it doesn't take very long, but we'll be coming back every few weeks just to keep her mother from worrying too much."

"But, the trip takes... Nope, I'm not going to say anything." She shakes her head. "Clearly you have something in mind to get you there and back in short order. I'll just chalk it up to you being you."

"Now you're starting to get the hang of it." Apricot slaps her on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I let loose an exasperated sigh and start walking over to William's farm.

"Sorrel, you look like you have good news." The man says with a hopeful look on his face.

"That I do." I smile at him. "I was able to find the... well, I'm calling it baking pearl because it's made from pearl ash. And, the treatment is even more effective now. The test I just ran almost completely wiped out the blight. I have enough mixed up to treat your field right now." I plop down one of the sprayers next to him.

"Thank you Sorrel, this is twice now that you've saved my family." He takes my hand and pulls me into a big bear hug.

"What are neighbors for?" I pat him on the back. "Now, let's get this field treated. I need to know how much I'll need to make tomorrow." I step back and ignore the tears he dashes from his eyes.

I'm just showing him how to use the sprayer when his wife and daughters approach. "We want to help too." Willow says and her sister nods enthusiastically, both of them holding up their squirt guns while their mother looks on with an expression of pride.

"Of course you can help." I modify the super soakers to have a spray nozzle and let them go to town. Sophia watches over them and helps to refill and pump up the squirt guns.

"Do you have any extra sprayers?" Lori asks while watching the girls with a smile.

"Uh-huh." I nod and look to my lover. "How about you, Apricot?"

"No need." She levitates a globe of water and starts misting the field two rows at a time.

I follow suit by morphing two sprayers into one after showing Lori and William how best to treat the plants. It only takes about an album and a half to spray the whole field, or just over an hour if you don't measure time in musical lengths.