Day 35, June 9th, 2019

Good evening readers, I have an idea. It's not in service of some grand revelation, rather, it is just something to do. Remember those pink crystals I found? Well, considering I haven't heard anything from the people who are supposed to do this, I want to screw around with them, run them through some tests. I'm going to try everything I can think of on it: hitting it, heating it, and the like. I won't be able to get any quantifiable data without the proper equipment, so qualitative will have to do. If nothing else, I can at least say I've done something. If something else, these rocks might prove to be useful. I'm thinking it's going to be a 'nothing else' situation though.

I should mention that I plan to test conductivity (even if it is a rock), largely because I have the ability to do so. When me and Celsia went to visit Andre again, I made an effort to get a hold of some wire. It's gauge is a bit large, but what are you gonna do? Thin wire isn't very useful for making chain mail. In addition to the wire, Andre also made a dozen proper bolts for my crossbow: short and heavy duty. Apparently, he had gone and made his own crossbow since I last visited. His brief experimentation found longer bolts to be less than satisfactory, so he asked me about it, and we made some proper bolts. We spent the remainder of the afternoon shooting targets. I haven't actually had a chance to shoot since I last visited, so this was welcome practice. As it turns out, I'm not a terrible shot, much to my surprise. Never shot a crossbow bedore.

Anyway, I need to find Instructor Sarno next weekend to get access to some basic lab equipment. They seem to have quite a bit laying around somewhere and she probably knows where, because I don't. I've been meaning to talk to her at length anyway, I'd like to get a better idea of where this world stands from a chemistry standpoint. I've seen what they do in class, but I'd like to hear what's at the forefront for them.

It seemed like a class was in progress where he was told to look. The door had no window, but was by no means soundproof. Jack dropped his bag beside him, leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down until his butt hit the floor. There, he waited, fumbling with whatever he could get his hands on. He figured it was only a matter of time, and fumbling, before the class ended. Their resident oddity garnered the exiting students’ glances, and among them, some stares. The glances soon stopped, however, as the class emptied out. Jack hoisted himself to his feet and dragged his bag into the classroom.

“Instructor Sarno? I sure hope you didn’t have any plans for this evening because that’d mean I’d have to come back later.”

She stepped out from the doorway to another room, and with no soon-to-be bruises to boot.

“Wha— Oh, hello Jack. Did you need something?”

“Sure do. I need your assistance.”

“Oh?”

Jack reached into his bag and placed some of the pertinent content on her desk: A few pink crystals. Instructor finally left her position in the doorframe and walked to her desk.

“This…” she looked between him and the crystals. “Where did you get these?”

“I figured you’d know. Same place and time I got the ones I gave to Instructor Helfo.”

"You kept some?"

“Of course I did, why wouldn’t I?”

“I hope that was a good choice…”

“I’m sure it was. I’ve been sleeping next to these things for weeks and I haven’t died, neither has Celsia for that matter. Or you, or Instructor Helfo…”

“Is that the standard you set?”

“Mhmm. Anyway, I figured you’d want to lend a hand.”

Instructor Sarno tapped her fingers on the desk.

“It would be a lie if I said I would not.”

“It sounds like you’ve been wanting to?”

“Well, yes. I have been practically itching to get my hands on them for some time now.”

“Chemistry is second only to physics in understanding something new. You mean to tell me they haven’t let you look at it yet?

“Yes.”

“The ones I gave to Instructor Helfo, what happened to ‘em?”

“After thoroughly comparing them to anything he had in his collection, he had them sent to the Capitol. Presumably for comparison as well. They have a bigger collection there, no doubt.”

“Outsourcing inquiry, huh? What is this, the current year?”

“P-Pardon?”

“Nothing, nothing. Anywho, consider this opportunity as a gift. From one alchemist, to another. All I ask in return is some equipment.”

“What did you need exactly…?”

“Well, I’ve been suicidally bored lately, so I decided I’ll try to experiment a little with these pink rocks.”

“I see. Did you have anything in mind?”

“Kinda not really. For what it's worth, I did make a list…”

For the next while, Jack and Instructor Sarno gathered equipment from the back room. He had seen most of it used at one point or another—that’s how he knew it existed. In the end, they managed to cover an entire desk with items of glass and metal.

Something he hadn’t considered before was just how much of it was glass. Glass is one of those things that doesn’t like heat, or more precisely, changes thanks to it. Maybe someone managed to make some pyrex imitation.

And maybe that someone is in the Craftsman’s Union, he though.

That, or they put up with its tendency to spontaneously shatter when heated. A stupid thing to put up with, all things considered, but it’s not as if miners never had to handle nitroglycerin.

“That might be feasible…” muttered Jack.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

Instructor Sarno was barely paying any attention while setting up some of the equipment.

“You know,” she began, “I was wondering when you might ask something of me.”

“Oh yeah? What made you wonder?”

“Well, besides your visits to other instructors, you seemed like the type. To like imbuement, that is.”

“It ain’t too far off from what I studied in and out of school.”

“I wish my students had even half your enthusiasm. You take notes without even being a student.

Jack laughed.

“Tell that to my former superiors. Anyway, this ain’t enthusiasm, it's something to do. I have practically nothing to do on a depressingly regular basis.”

“Well, either way, it is nice having some more enthusiasm than usual. Everything seems to be stagnating these days.”

“Everything, huh?”

“It certainly feels like it...”

“What exactly?” He leaned forward, against the table. “Enlighten me.”

“...Discovery I suppose? It feels like nothing meaningful has happened in ages, as if the greatest minds of today have collectively done nothing.”

“Do you consider yourself among that group?”

“No, but I consider myself among the discovery-less…” she sighed.

“Well, you’re in good company with me and everyone else.”

“Do you feel the same?”

“Of course.That feeling is not unique to any one person or any one time. Some things never change it seems.”

“How… Depressing.”

He straightened out his back and slapped the table.

“As they say: the best way to be not depressed is to pretend like you ain’t.”

“W-What?”

“Let’s pretend we know a thing or two and have a conversation about it.”

“About anything?”

“Well, sure, but I was thinking within the realms of this sort of thing,” he gestured to the table of glassware. “At least we know a thing or two to begin with.”

“So are we not pretending?”

“It’s more like pretending there isn’t a problem.

“I see…”

Instructor Sarno scratched her head.

"Where should we start…?"

"I got one. What's… your favorite alchemical thing you've made, seen, or found?"

"My favorite reactant?"

"Sure."

"Hmm…" she paused for a moment. "There is this one…"

For the first time in over a month, Jack had a truly empirical discussion. It was a welcome change of pace to give answers for once. At one point, Instructor Sarno had to stop what she was doing to fully immerse herself in the discussion.

"So you mean to tell me that a metal can not only be liquid at air temperature, but can also explode?"

"There's a reason you never find those out in nature."

"Because they explode!?" exclaimed the instructor.

"Well, they don't like to exist in their pure form. They like to… 'mix' with other things. Exploding is just what happens when too much mixing happens at once."

"So you have to go out of your way to make it explode?"

"Ye-- Wait. D-Did you think you'd be working one day and just blow up?"

"You had me worried…"

Jack snorted.

"No laughing," she pouted. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Your legitimate concern makes it even funnier from where I stand, knowing what I know. The best jokes are the ones you're in on."

Instructor Sarno sighed.

"It seems you know quite a lot. Assuming you are to be believed."

"Assuming those suggesting I'm insane are not to be believed?"

"Naturally."

"Do… Do you believe those suggestions?"

"You seem sane enough, I think."

"I'd like to consider myself somewhat sane... You know, I've had this same conversation, like, six times now, and I'm still not quite sure how to respond."

"What do you mean?"

While shifting in his seat, Jack bumped the table and rattled the glassware.

"I mean, how do I prove I'm not insane? I can talk about as much wild shit as I want, but I'm not naive enough to think it means anything to you. Why believe me?"

"These days, I think we are all a little desperate to make that big discovery. Desperate enough to throw skepticism to the wind."

"Well, that certainly makes sense…"

"That, and Celsia dragged you, a person, out of the Colored Wood. And let us not forget about where you got these crystals from."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's probably it. Either way, I still consider myself lucky that I haven’t been totally cast aside.”

Jack rubbed his arm.

“Anyway,” continued the instructor, “I wanted to ask if you have managed to distinguish yourself in your time.”

“Wha— You mean discover something?”

“Yes.”

He processed the question for a moment.

“I’m half your age, Instructor. No, I haven’t.”

“...How old do you think I am?” she mumbled.

“Oh please, you know what I mean. I haven't been around long enough to have accomplished much. I was born, didn't kill my mother in the process, and haven't died yet. Those are my achievements."

“Do you hope to?”

"Kill someone through childbirth? No. Discover something? Of course. I wouldn't be human if I didn't at least want to try, but to try means I need to start, and I can’t start if I haven’t gotten to the line yet. People expected me to be at the line a long time ago."

“If it might make you feel better, I think everyone deals with missing expectations.”

“Yeah, I know. I live with Celsia, I see it everywhere and all the time. It’s fuckin’ deperessing.”

“That girl is a special case… Not easy at all.“

“I mean, fuck. Here I am, wherever the fuck I am, vicariously reliving the past through some obtuse bitch. What the hell happened, what am I doing…?”

Jack started through the nearby beaker of bubbling water.

“Speaking of,” asked Instructor Sarno, reaching to change the subject. “What are you doing?

“Right now? Boiling rocks.”

“D-Do you know something I do not?”

“Y— No. Just wanted to see if anything would happen. Which nothing is.”

“I see…”

* * *

Like any renaissance scientist worth their weight in bronze, Jack went down checking things off his list of ways to abuse the little pink rocks. The only real development was that he managed to smash his thumb with a mallet. Unlike his thumb, the crystals were not so easily smashed. In fact, they weren’t smashed at all. To be fair, it was a wooden mallet, not that his thumb cared. Jack disappointedly made note of the development.

“Will you be alright?” asked Instructor Sarno.

“I’ve done worse and lived. What’s not alright is just how bland these rocks are. Considering their origins, I’d expect something funny about 'em’. But no.”

“Surely there is something. Perhaps today is not the day to find out?”

“Perhaps…”

Jack reached over and grabbed his backpack.

“I do have one more thing to try. Don’t have high expectations though.”

“What might that be?”

“A conductivity test.”

He piled a few more things on the table: his ad hoc timepiece and some wire.

“A what?”

“You’ll see.”

While stiff, the wire was flexible enough to be bent and, with a battery taken from the solar clock, he had the things to make a simple circuit.

“Well shit…” he mumbled. “I need a way to test voltage.”

He scratched his head.

“Oh right.”

Reaching into his bag once more, he pulled out a flashlight.

“W-What sort of lab equipment is this?”

“This ain’t lab equipment.”

Jack flicked it on and waved its beam around the room.

“Just a light source.”

“I was under the impression you were not arcanically inclined?”

“I’m not.” he said, beginning to take the flashlight apart. “You ever seen lightning; those arcs of light during a bad rainstorm?”

“Well of course...”

“That’s electricity. You can store electricity—or the potential for, rather—in those,” he gestured to a battery, “And those can power this.”

He waved the housing of the flashlight.

“Anything that can transfer that power from one place to another is conductive. I want to see if these pink guys can conduct electricity.”

As a test, Jack wired up the light strip removed from his flashlight into a circuit by itself.

“Don’t fry it,” he grumbled.”

He touched the wire to the contact on the strip and it lit up.

“See?” He turned to Instructor Sarno. “Electricity.”

“Were you just not telling me you have no way to prove your insane ramblings?”

“Celsia just brushed this off as arcane, so no. I don’t.”

“I know arcane when I see it…”

“But you can’t see electricity. Unless I had a cathode ray tube of course.”

“I know what before and after looks like. That is not anything I have seen. Before or after.”

“Well that’s encouraging...”

Jack snipped his wire into a few segments and set them on the table.

“Instructor, do you have any clamps or the like? I’d make setting this up a hell of a lot easier.”

“I believe so,” she scratched her head. “They are in another room. Excuse me for a moment.”

Instructor Sarno stepped out into the hallway leaving Jack alone. In the meantime, he managed to shape the wires in such a way to connect all the pieces: A wire touched one terminal of the battery and wrapped around one lead of the light strip. Similarly, a wire ran from the strip and touched a crystal.

“Maybe I won’t need a clamp,” he mumbled.

The last wire he placed on the table, and gently slid forward until it touched the battery and crystal. In the first moment, nothing happened. Jack, however, did not have enough time to even process his disappointment before the second moment began. With a sound no louder than a snap of the fingers, the crystal erupted in a brilliant flash of light. Startled, he screeched like a banshee and fell out of his chair. In the fourth or fifth moment, Instructor Sarno burst into the room:

“Jack! What was that!?”

A hand reached up from behind the table, and Jack dragged himself upright.

“Fuck me sideways…”

“Jack?”

“I… I think I may have an idea.”

“What?”

“Come here for a sec,” he gestured.

Seeing the crystal was gone, he placed another in the circuit, thinking nothing of it.

“Would you care to explain that noise you made?”

“I will in a second, check this shit out first.”

Closing his eyes, Jack once again pushed the wire in place. Just like the first time, the crystal went up in an equally bright flash of light. Instructor Sarno screamed, but not as loud as Jack. Fortunately, unlike him, she didn’t fall over.

“What did you do!?”

“I have no idea!” he exclaimed gleefully.

“Jack!”

“Relax, but it only lasted, like, fifteen seconds. Yes, I counted.

Instructure Sarno rubbed her eyes.

“Do not ever do that again. That felt terrible.”

“Science is about repeatability, I needed to test it on—”

“You could have warned me then!”

“Remember what I said about what makes for the best jokes?”

She let out an exasperated sigh.

“If I knew better, I would have the Headmaster slap you…”

“Instructor,” he said, ignoring her threat, “It just hit me.”

“It did?”

“We just discovered something! Something new, something novel, something… unknown? And after all that talk about never finding anything too.”

It took a moment for it to click for her, but you could practically hear it.

“I suppose so,” she smiled. “I cannot say I have seen rocks—pink or otherwise—that disappear in a flash of light.”

Jack bent over, looking under the table.

“They did, didn’t they? Huh…”

“I should thank you, Jack.”

“For what?” he stood back up, “blinding you?”

“No, today’s talk was… cathartic.”

“It always helps to talk, we’re social creatures after all. You can thank that fact.”

“I think I will thank you instead.”

“Well, uhh… You're welcome, I guess.”

The two chatted briefly before it became apparent that the sun was setting. Jack, after thanking the Instructor for her help, took his leave.

* * *

The door to the kitchen swung open.

“Ack!”

“Did I scare you again?” asked Jack

“Mhmm. You know, there is a front door,” Merek sighed. “That would not scare me as much.”

“Everyone gets weirded out when I walk in the front—too much attention, so I come through here. I’ll try and work on a less startling entrance, not that I really know how...”

Merek grumbled something to himself and dropped the lid back on whatever box he had been looking through.

“Let the boy come through the back, Merek,” Hahnt stepped into the room. “He deserves that much.”

You couldn’t see his face, but Merek clearly rolled his eyes.

“Pay him no mind, he dropped a box on his foot earlier.”

“It hurt!”

“I know Merek, you are the only man I know who can eloquently string together so many words to bring your frustrations to dialogue.”

“Perhaps I was a poet in another life?”

“You did strike me as the poet type,” added Jack.

Haunt laughed, as he often did.

“Regardless, I was beginning to worry at your absence, Jack.”

“Had some stuff I had to attend to.”

“Speaking of, I have one of those ‘sandwiches’ for your stomach to attend to. I was beginning to think I would have to attend to it myself.”

“Meat and cheese.”

“Of course.”

He took a step back and gestured to the counter.

“All yours.”

“Awesome, thanks Hahnt.

“Don’t thank me, Merek made it.”

“Really?”

“Hant was busy,” Merek chimed in, “So I figured I should have a go at it.”

Jack grabbed the plate.

“Then thank you, Merek.”

With a grunt and a dismissive wave, he went back to whatever it was that he had been doing.

In their usual spot tucked away in the corner, Celsia and Otono were finishing up their dinner.

“Good evening, Jack,” Otono looked up from his drink.

“Evenin’”

“Where have you been?”

“Busy. I’ve devised a method to go instantly blind.”

Celsia blinked.

“Wha—”

“Ooh!”

Jack pointed to his sandwich after taking a bite.

“Fish!”

“Wonderful,” said Otono. “Now what was that about going blind?”

“Right, remember those pink rocks?”

“Of course.”

“Well, it turns out that you can get them to release a lot of light at once, enough to blind yourself temporarily blind.”

“And how did you find that out?” asked Celsia.

“How do you think? By blinding myself and Instructor Sarno.”

Standing up, Celsia leaned over the table.

“She better be alright.”

“Christ Celsia, she’s fine. And so am I, in case you were wondering.”

“I would prefer that you not go around injuring the Instructors.”

Otono cleared his throat.

“You should tell him, Celsia.”

“Right,” she sighed. “Ada approached me today.”

“Oh yeah?”

“She wants a duel.”

“T’fuck she go to you first?”

She shrugged.

“She found me first?”

Jack pursed his lips.

“You know, I saw this coming. I don't know why I’m surprised.”

“What will you do?” Otono questioned.

“Accept it, of course.”

“Are you insane?” Celsia raised her voice. “Because that is suicide.”

“Since when did you care?”

Celsia blew air out her nose.

“Anyway,” Jack continued, “I don’t plan to fight. I yield as soon as it starts, Ada wins, is satisfied and this episode ends.”

Jack paused.

“But, if things go wrong—if she doesn’t give me any time to speak, for instance—I think I have a plan.”

“What might it be?”

“Well, I’ll need help from both of you, so it goes a little something like this…”