A Heat Most Unpleasant [Solo]
Posted: Thu Feb 29, 2024 9:57 pm
58 Ash, Year 123
[Closed - Solo]
They were headed back down to the Umbrium the next day, and Lia was glad to be in the relatively cooler depths with her. There was a great deal to do with yesterday's harvest, and Hilana was taking the waxed baskets and bags down to her second job. She supposed she could have taken them to Domina Clelia's alchemy laboratory, but Zosar's poison shop, Harataecia's Blood, was where she wanted to take the bulk of her bounty from yesterday's harvesting of the Hedera Ardenta down there and she would process the sap and spines - the oil and resins could be used separately. The Ardenta Oil could go topside to Sweet Remedies, and the Atraxian Amber, well... that was primarily going to be what came into play here. There were many substances that could be crafted from it. Not all poison was meant to kill quickly, after all. Some were all too happy to see someone suffer first. Others might like it for lovers or slaves, but once it left the shop, well, that was none of their concern and none of their business.
"Enjoy the market," Hilana grinned, her big eyes dancing. "Would you see if there are any Summoning books for me?"
"I will. I thought you were thinking about Kinetics next, though," she raised an eyebrow.
"I was, but I think it might be smarter to focus on Summoning," she admitted. If anything, the initiation for Summoning was going to be that much more difficult if she had to guess, but every Rune and every Craft hit differently.
"You're not wrong. But I'll see you back at home," Lia smiled at her. She intended to go and get a few books and visit the Temple of Midnight's Mother. She could pray, commune, and make an offering to Domina Divina.
Hilana knocked on the door before slipping inside, needing to use the wind to pull the door open considering how full her hands were before stepping inside and returning the greeting cheerfully. They'd be getting to work with the frostrylyth shards and Elementalism to freeze the sap and get it off of the spines so that it could separate and get into the products that they needed to work with.
"So you were successful," Zosoar remarked, eying her substantial load of Hedera Ardenta. "Have you broken one of those that before?" he wanted to know, getting well out of the way rather than risk a brush with the spiny cactus. He would at least hold the door to the workroom in the back for her so that she didn't have to juggle it with everything that she was carrying with her.
"I have," Hilana agreed with a nod, setting the baskets and bags down on the large, heavy table. "You did say you had frostrylyth on hand so that we could freeze it up faster?" Otherwise, this work was going to be delayed - attunement to water or air would be required in order to use the para-element of ice and that would certainly take some time. It wasn't impossible, but it would take some time. That would delay the work and getting it done, and the Vastiana was hoping to get through it today. There were other things to work on, but the sooner the process began, the sooner they would have the product for their work.
"I do," he pulled a pouch from a drawer, and set it down on the table. When Hilana opened it, she found two pale aquamarine-coloured stones that looked like frosted glass. When she touched one, she actually felt how cold it was as the freezing moved from her fingers to her palm and upwards.
"Founders, that is potent," she withdrew her hand, shaking it out a bit as the man smirked at her, heading for the door to go back into the shop. He had his own work to do out front, and there was no need for two of them in the back. Hilana was a master botanist, after all - she knew what she was doing. This was not her first rodeo with the Hedera, and she knew she would likely be in here all day sorting down the chunks.
"I'll leave you to it, Hilana. The sap can be separated - the amber is better than the raw stuff. You know where everything is." Zosoar told her as he closed the door behind him. Hilana got herself a number of tools - great metal pans, bowls, knives of different sizes, including one that closely resembled a scalpel. With the lights turned up and sitting on a high stool, she organized everything on the table in front of her and put on the gloves.
Her first step was to take the scalpel and start removing the spines. Those would be useful for other applications - nothing went to waste here; the spines could be used with an adhesive to be worked onto weapons or other implements of harm, because once they got into the skin, they stayed, they irritated, and they infected. They were nasty, and trying to remove them was not a pleasant task. She had had to do it before - she'd had her own brushes with it, but other would-be collectors who hadn't had the experience or had had mishaps with it comprised the bulk of her experience with it. The spines were a nightmare to remove without kinetics... which was just another reason she wouldn't have minded snagging that Rune from someone - Raithen in particular came to mind. It was a steady process and not particularly the fastest, but you couldn't rush the spine removal. The gloves helped protect her hands from getting those little razors in her skin, and considering her hands sometimes went to hell since she had returned home from the strange tower...it was better safe than sorry. There was nothing she could do about it but prepare for the stiffness to come back, and if she fumbled...
Well, it wouldn't be fatal.
As she stripped the spines from each piece of the Hedera, Hilana positioned the pieces of cactus on the trays. Each chunk was impaled upon a tripod, which allowed for multiple chunks to go over each of the trays that were spread out over the table. The skin had largely been left intact, which was good - now she could make the incisions that would allow the sap to flow down onto the trays. She could already see it beading and bubbling from where she had stripped the spines, the yellow sap weeping from the skin of the plant. A different knife was used to make vertical slices in the flesh, scoring it to encourage more sap production. Beads of sap would start dropping onto the trays, slow trickles for now, but that was fast enough. She didn't want to start heating everything until she had all of the chunks cleaned off and positioned properly, as heat would only help the sap run.
She didn't notice the time passing as she worked, thoroughly engrossed in the process. There was a rhythm to it, as she had been taught by her elders, and once you got into the rhythm, it was very easy to forget the world outside of the workroom, and she barely acknowledged Zosoar if he popped in and out to grab something. To be fair, he wasn't interested in conversation, he knew her well enough that she didn't need to be micromanaged or stood over. Hilana started work and stayed with it until it was done. She was stubborn that way. But after a few hours, each of the cactus chunks was impaled on the tripod, the skins scored, and the jars with the spines were set up out of the way.
She stopped, flexed and stretched her hands, and got off of the stool where she had been sitting and walked around the room. She had a drink of water, and returned to the table. Heat, then cold. This would have been overkill for magmatyte and pyrolyth, so normal Elementalism would have to do. She didn't want to burn them, as that would impact the quality of the sap - ash would be a nightmare to try to have to remove for purification purposes without alchemy, and that was many extra steps that was not needed. Instead, Hilana got herself comfortable and sat down once more, spreading her hands out over the table, and calling upon her Elementalism. If they were up in the sun, she could have let the heat do it, but they were down below, and this was going to have to do instead. Steady channeling of her aether was a good test of control, so Sentinel Ævril would be satisfied by this sort of practice. It wasn't straight fire, either, nor was it straight air, but heating the air in a strictly defined space over the table to help encourage the sap and get it flowing.
There would be another part to this step, after the cactus chunks had been heated for a while, and that was to use the air to add pressure in order to help squeeze out more sap. It was the same basic principle as squeezing and rolling a lemon on a hard surface; it helped release the juices more effectively. She couldn't roll the sticky, burning cactus chunks, but she could use the air to provide systematic pressure on them to help coax the sap to flow. Kinetics would have been helpful here, if only to help press the pieces, but that she did not have, and Hilana wasn't about to worry about it. One made due with what they could work with, not what they couldn't. Maybe she'd see if Raithen was around, and he could do the pressing. She'd definitely reward him for it...
Zosoar came back in when Hilana was lowering her hands, and checked over her progress. "Let's let this sit for the night. We'll use the frostrylyth tomorrow and that gives it time for the last of it to drip out. Then I'll reach out to Marek."
"Sounds like a plan to me," she nodded. "I'll see if one of my kinetician friends is around. He could also give me a hand with that." The man nodded, and watched as she scooped up her bag. He put the frostrylyths away for now, and saw her out. A drink or two, plenty of snacks, and she would be ready. Just had to look for her Lux.
[Closed - Solo]
They were headed back down to the Umbrium the next day, and Lia was glad to be in the relatively cooler depths with her. There was a great deal to do with yesterday's harvest, and Hilana was taking the waxed baskets and bags down to her second job. She supposed she could have taken them to Domina Clelia's alchemy laboratory, but Zosar's poison shop, Harataecia's Blood, was where she wanted to take the bulk of her bounty from yesterday's harvesting of the Hedera Ardenta down there and she would process the sap and spines - the oil and resins could be used separately. The Ardenta Oil could go topside to Sweet Remedies, and the Atraxian Amber, well... that was primarily going to be what came into play here. There were many substances that could be crafted from it. Not all poison was meant to kill quickly, after all. Some were all too happy to see someone suffer first. Others might like it for lovers or slaves, but once it left the shop, well, that was none of their concern and none of their business.
"Enjoy the market," Hilana grinned, her big eyes dancing. "Would you see if there are any Summoning books for me?"
"I will. I thought you were thinking about Kinetics next, though," she raised an eyebrow.
"I was, but I think it might be smarter to focus on Summoning," she admitted. If anything, the initiation for Summoning was going to be that much more difficult if she had to guess, but every Rune and every Craft hit differently.
"You're not wrong. But I'll see you back at home," Lia smiled at her. She intended to go and get a few books and visit the Temple of Midnight's Mother. She could pray, commune, and make an offering to Domina Divina.
Hilana knocked on the door before slipping inside, needing to use the wind to pull the door open considering how full her hands were before stepping inside and returning the greeting cheerfully. They'd be getting to work with the frostrylyth shards and Elementalism to freeze the sap and get it off of the spines so that it could separate and get into the products that they needed to work with.
"So you were successful," Zosoar remarked, eying her substantial load of Hedera Ardenta. "Have you broken one of those that before?" he wanted to know, getting well out of the way rather than risk a brush with the spiny cactus. He would at least hold the door to the workroom in the back for her so that she didn't have to juggle it with everything that she was carrying with her.
"I have," Hilana agreed with a nod, setting the baskets and bags down on the large, heavy table. "You did say you had frostrylyth on hand so that we could freeze it up faster?" Otherwise, this work was going to be delayed - attunement to water or air would be required in order to use the para-element of ice and that would certainly take some time. It wasn't impossible, but it would take some time. That would delay the work and getting it done, and the Vastiana was hoping to get through it today. There were other things to work on, but the sooner the process began, the sooner they would have the product for their work.
"I do," he pulled a pouch from a drawer, and set it down on the table. When Hilana opened it, she found two pale aquamarine-coloured stones that looked like frosted glass. When she touched one, she actually felt how cold it was as the freezing moved from her fingers to her palm and upwards.
"Founders, that is potent," she withdrew her hand, shaking it out a bit as the man smirked at her, heading for the door to go back into the shop. He had his own work to do out front, and there was no need for two of them in the back. Hilana was a master botanist, after all - she knew what she was doing. This was not her first rodeo with the Hedera, and she knew she would likely be in here all day sorting down the chunks.
"I'll leave you to it, Hilana. The sap can be separated - the amber is better than the raw stuff. You know where everything is." Zosoar told her as he closed the door behind him. Hilana got herself a number of tools - great metal pans, bowls, knives of different sizes, including one that closely resembled a scalpel. With the lights turned up and sitting on a high stool, she organized everything on the table in front of her and put on the gloves.
Her first step was to take the scalpel and start removing the spines. Those would be useful for other applications - nothing went to waste here; the spines could be used with an adhesive to be worked onto weapons or other implements of harm, because once they got into the skin, they stayed, they irritated, and they infected. They were nasty, and trying to remove them was not a pleasant task. She had had to do it before - she'd had her own brushes with it, but other would-be collectors who hadn't had the experience or had had mishaps with it comprised the bulk of her experience with it. The spines were a nightmare to remove without kinetics... which was just another reason she wouldn't have minded snagging that Rune from someone - Raithen in particular came to mind. It was a steady process and not particularly the fastest, but you couldn't rush the spine removal. The gloves helped protect her hands from getting those little razors in her skin, and considering her hands sometimes went to hell since she had returned home from the strange tower...it was better safe than sorry. There was nothing she could do about it but prepare for the stiffness to come back, and if she fumbled...
Well, it wouldn't be fatal.
As she stripped the spines from each piece of the Hedera, Hilana positioned the pieces of cactus on the trays. Each chunk was impaled upon a tripod, which allowed for multiple chunks to go over each of the trays that were spread out over the table. The skin had largely been left intact, which was good - now she could make the incisions that would allow the sap to flow down onto the trays. She could already see it beading and bubbling from where she had stripped the spines, the yellow sap weeping from the skin of the plant. A different knife was used to make vertical slices in the flesh, scoring it to encourage more sap production. Beads of sap would start dropping onto the trays, slow trickles for now, but that was fast enough. She didn't want to start heating everything until she had all of the chunks cleaned off and positioned properly, as heat would only help the sap run.
She didn't notice the time passing as she worked, thoroughly engrossed in the process. There was a rhythm to it, as she had been taught by her elders, and once you got into the rhythm, it was very easy to forget the world outside of the workroom, and she barely acknowledged Zosoar if he popped in and out to grab something. To be fair, he wasn't interested in conversation, he knew her well enough that she didn't need to be micromanaged or stood over. Hilana started work and stayed with it until it was done. She was stubborn that way. But after a few hours, each of the cactus chunks was impaled on the tripod, the skins scored, and the jars with the spines were set up out of the way.
She stopped, flexed and stretched her hands, and got off of the stool where she had been sitting and walked around the room. She had a drink of water, and returned to the table. Heat, then cold. This would have been overkill for magmatyte and pyrolyth, so normal Elementalism would have to do. She didn't want to burn them, as that would impact the quality of the sap - ash would be a nightmare to try to have to remove for purification purposes without alchemy, and that was many extra steps that was not needed. Instead, Hilana got herself comfortable and sat down once more, spreading her hands out over the table, and calling upon her Elementalism. If they were up in the sun, she could have let the heat do it, but they were down below, and this was going to have to do instead. Steady channeling of her aether was a good test of control, so Sentinel Ævril would be satisfied by this sort of practice. It wasn't straight fire, either, nor was it straight air, but heating the air in a strictly defined space over the table to help encourage the sap and get it flowing.
There would be another part to this step, after the cactus chunks had been heated for a while, and that was to use the air to add pressure in order to help squeeze out more sap. It was the same basic principle as squeezing and rolling a lemon on a hard surface; it helped release the juices more effectively. She couldn't roll the sticky, burning cactus chunks, but she could use the air to provide systematic pressure on them to help coax the sap to flow. Kinetics would have been helpful here, if only to help press the pieces, but that she did not have, and Hilana wasn't about to worry about it. One made due with what they could work with, not what they couldn't. Maybe she'd see if Raithen was around, and he could do the pressing. She'd definitely reward him for it...
Zosoar came back in when Hilana was lowering her hands, and checked over her progress. "Let's let this sit for the night. We'll use the frostrylyth tomorrow and that gives it time for the last of it to drip out. Then I'll reach out to Marek."
"Sounds like a plan to me," she nodded. "I'll see if one of my kinetician friends is around. He could also give me a hand with that." The man nodded, and watched as she scooped up her bag. He put the frostrylyths away for now, and saw her out. A drink or two, plenty of snacks, and she would be ready. Just had to look for her Lux.
