Businesslike, Linnea scuttled over to the opposite side of the table, using her height and reach in spider form to reach across as feel his pill furnace from the far side. “Too hot. Lower the heat.”

“Er, how?” Even as he asked, Oz consulted the books in his mind.

Maggie nudged Oz. She pointed at the bottom. “You can take some fuel out, or,” lifting her finger, she pointed at the sides of the pot, “you can also control the heat directly with your qi, by suppressing or flaring the heat of the fuel.”

“How do I do that?” Oz muttered, flipping through the pages. I have all the information, but it takes so long to access it. I need to improve that, somehow.

Maggie looked at him. “You’re the one who’s supposed to be teaching us!”

At last, he reached the page in the Black Cauldron, Yellow Furnace. An image of a furnace with a cloud, cheeks puffed, blowing at the fuel, sat beside simple instructions. Clamp down on the fuel with your qi to cool the furnace. Fan air or add qi into the fuel to heat it.

Huh. That easy? I was overcomplicating it because it’s magic, but at the end of the day, fire has the same principles no matter whether it’s fire or not.

No… not just that. Since the fuel lights with qi, it burns hotter directly with more qi, and as long as I’m actively monitoring it, I can equally choke back by reducing the qi I put into it. Lighting the fuel once and walking away was my mistake.  

Oz lifted his hands to either side of the furnace and sent his qi into the metal pot. Heat slammed into him, burning out of the pot. Mentally, he reached out to the fuel at the bottom and clenched it with his will, pinching the ember almost dead. At the same time, he called out to the qi he’d injected into the fuel and called some of it back. The fuel cooled, and with it, the heat collected in the pot slowly waned.  

Checking the books, he glanced at the herbs, then continued to lower the heat. Quietly, he consulted the books in his mind. The lowest temperature the herbs need is still lower than this pot’s temperature. He lined up the herbs by their required cooking temperatures, then adjusted the red serrated leaf and blue berry to sit next to one another. The berry is best cooked at a high temperature, but that’s to handle it as a toxin. The red leaf, likewise, should be cooked at very low temperatures, but as a toxin. I’ll try cooking them together at medium heat, and see if that triggers the detoxifying effect. Frustratingly, although the book mentions that they can be cooked together to create a detoxicant, it doesn’t mention any details about how to accomplish that.

Classic beginner book, really. “Here’s something you can do once you understand all the basics and can address it at a higher level! But we won’t tell you how!” It’s like mentioning you can use linear algebra to build a house, but not bringing up any of the intermediary steps.

I really, desperately need higher level books.

The pot cooled. Linnea met his eyes.

Oz snatched up the lowest-temperature ingredient, the stick, and threw it into the pot. It tumbled to the bottom. As it fell, Oz suddenly felt it, the sharp sensation against his palms. He lifted his hands, and the stick lifted off the bottom of the pot.

Oh! I can control everything inside the pot with my qi, even the ingredients. It’s not just the fuel I control with qi. That makes a lot of these instructions make more sense. He slowly rotated his left hand, sending the stick into a slow, steady spin. The bark began to crack, lifting off the surface of the wood underneath.

Linnea nodded at the children. “Sometimes, you have to transform a material before you can use its properties properly. Can anyone tell me a ways to transform materials?”

Maggie and Mici jabbed their hands up, then glared at one another.

Smiling, Linnea pointed at Mici.

“Heat it!” Mici said.

“Or cool it,” Maggie added.

Linnea nodded. “Applying temperatures, that’s one way. Anyone else?”

The twins looked at one another and shrugged. Harold looked at the floor and scratched his head.

Riona tossed her head and lifted her hand, equally hesitant as haughty. “Use qi directly, or some other form of energy or type of qi in order to change the material.”

Linnea pointed at Riona. “Correct. Sometimes, you can pre-treat the ingredients. If you don’t pre-treat the ingredients, what do you have to be careful to do?”

Focusing on the pot, Oz watched closely. More and more of the bark popped off the wood, cracking and snapping, the bark turning from tawny to a roasted gold. Underneath, the white flesh of the wood offered a stark counterpoint, resisting the heat completely. He held his breath, eyes locked on the wood. One more second. One more…

CRACK!

The bark leaped off the wood. The wood tumbled down, falling toward the bottom of the pot.

There! Holding his left hand steady, Oz snatched the air with his right. The stick froze, hovering a hair before it struck the bottom of the pot. He drew his hand back, flicking it away from the pot. The stick flew up out of the top of the pot. With a quick snatch, he caught the wood out of the air and set it beside him.

Sine’s eyes widened. She threw her hand up and waved it.

“Yes?” Linnea asked, almost laughing.

“Make sure to eject the part you don’t want! Otherwise, your pill or potion will have impurities!” Sine said.

“Good job.” Linnea grinned and went to pat her head, but seeing her flinch back, she stopped and drew her hand back.

“You saw Oz do that. You didn’t know it!” Sim accused her.

“So what? You’re just jealous you didn’t say it first!” Sine returned.

Oz chuckled. Shaking his head, he focused in on the pot once more. Putting a little more qi into the pot, he turned up the temperature again. A little more… a little more… now!

Snatching up the green stalk, he crushed it between his fingers and dropped the dust into the furnace. It swirled around the stick, clinging to the bare wood. Turning up the temperature a little more, he picked up the berry and the leaf. He held them loosely in his palm and injected his qi, inspecting them. His qi ached instantly upon injection, like prodding an old wound. He flinched back. Both pretty toxic. Do I need to provide heat? But I don’t want to put them in the furnace before I detoxify them…

He closed his hand around them, forcing them closer together. The serrated edge of the leaf pricked the berry’s skin, and a drop of juice leaked out. Where the juice touched the leaf, the poison left both herbs.

Oz’s eyes widened. He clenched his hand shut. The juice coated the leaf, and the two poisons nullified. Dropping the two into the pot, he circulated the stick-and-stalk combination with the leaf-and-juice combination. The two liquefied, combining into a greenish-blue liquid. The liquid heated to boiling. He quickly added the pink grass blade and the white seed. They swirled in the boiling liquid, slowly dissolving away. As they dissolved, the boil faded. Instantly, the individual ingredients began to separate.

Hold on… shit, come on! Oz quickly pushed his qi into the fuel. Flames surged, and the pot glowed red. The liquid returned to a boil, and the ingredients melded again.

Phew. Pills aren’t easy, huh? Even a momentary drop in temperature can mean pill failure. How volatile!

As he focused on the pill, Linnea narrated his actions to the kids. Slowly, the children’s eyes turned from scared to sparkling. Mici and Maggie leaned in, excited, and the twins crowded close to Oz, peering at the furnace in his hands. Riona hung behind the twins, her arms crossed and body turned away, but kept stealing glances at Oz. Only Harold stuck in the back, unwilling to grow any closer.

Oz rotated his palms, gently spinning the pill into an orb. It cooked and dried, condensing ever so slowly from a liquid into a solid. In his mind’s eye, Oz could see the pill, as though he could see it through the wall of the pot. The longer he cooked it, the clearer the image became.

How strange. Is this my brain comprehending the data my qi is reflecting back to me as an image? I’ll ask Linnea about it afterward. Probably best not to admit I don’t know about that in front of the kids.

The pill took shape. An hour passed, then another, while the pill coalesced. As it spun, the pill took on a reflective shine. Oz waited, watching closely. We’re almost there. It’s almost done! Just a little more…

Light passed over the surface of the pill. It shone once, taking on a mirror sheen. Oz jolted. He lifted his right hand and pulled, calling the pill out of the pot and into his hand.

“Ow! Hot, hot…” He tossed the pill from hand to hand, blowing air over it. The pill cooled quickly, and he rolled it around in his left hand. Lifting his head, he grinned at Linnea. “How about that?”

Linnea scuttled over beside him. All the kids retreated from her, jumping out of the route of her bulbous rear end. Maggie’s eyes got big as she passed. She reached out.

Oz jerked. “Maggie—”

Maggie touched Linnea’s shiny spider rear.

Oh shit. Holy shit. What if she attacks? “Linnea!”

Linnea turned. She narrowed her eyes. “Would you touch a lady’s rear in the street?”

“Huh? No,” Maggie said.

“Then why did you touch mine?”

Maggie put her hand behind her back. She stumbled back, giving Linnea big, innocent eyes. “I… It didn’t look like a butt.”

“That’s nice. It is my butt. Stand in the corner for ten minutes and reflect upon your poor decisions.”

Maggie’s eyes welled up with tears, but Linnea had already turned away. Seeing she would receive no sympathy, Maggie stuck her tongue out at Linnea’s back and stomped into the corner.

Linnea came up beside Oz. Oz glanced up at her, a little taken aback by her extra height. I already noticed, but damn. She’s tall. She’s really tall.

She bent down, peering at the pill. Her shirt gaped a little as she leaned down, and Oz quickly looked away. She’s not used to being this tall. I can’t take advantage of her like this.

Linnea cut her eyes at him. “Did you see?”

“I saw nothing,” Oz said firmly, still looking away.

She snorted. “I meant the pill. The mirror coat. It’s a good sign. The pill doesn’t have many impurities.”

“Then?” Oz asked, hopeful. He looked over at her, only to quickly look away again when he found her still bent over. Linnea, dammit. You’re doing it intentionally by now.

“Then? What do you want? I’m not a pill master. I’ve never seen a pill like this before. Low-realm pill masters rarely try complex pills, since it adds layers of complexity to the pill-making process for no added benefit, in nine out of ten cases. By the time someone is making six, seven-ingredient pills, they’re usually at least third or fourth realm, not barely first. I wouldn’t be surprised if this pill was never made before in the history of pill making.”

“Oh,” Oz said. That… fair enough.

He looked at the pill, resisting the urge to look over at Linnea. “Over-under on this. What’s the worst and best thing that can happen?”

“Best? You’ve somehow blindly concocted a never-before-seen cure to Creeping Darkness. Worst? You’ve made a deadly poison, and you’re about to die.” Linnea shrugged. “Less likelihood of that, given the mirror sheen and the perfect shape of the pill, but we can’t know for sure.”

Oz took a deep breath. He looked at the pill, then lifted it to his mouth. Here goes.