The Newt and Demon - Chapter 4.53 - Xotl

Theo listened with waning interest to the conversations floating around his dining room table. His thoughts centered on the concept of his manor. At first he thought it would be a place where he could be alone with his thoughts. That was an impossible thing from the start with the way Broken Tuskers were. As time went on he realized that the purpose of the manor was to bring people together. It was a sanctuary of formless meetings—the governmental nonsense they had to deal with stripped away to reveal a cozy spot to share tea. Folks stopped by when they wanted. They stayed in whatever room was free. Rowan and Sarisa kept it safe and clean.

Wisdom of the Soul messages would pop up as he pondered how things were going. Fenian’s plan became clearer to him by the day. It was always important to consider what the Elf said. To dig through the double-meaning and shrouded words to unearth something close to the truth. Instead of worrying about what that future held, Theo would prepare himself for the inevitable. That meant having talks with both Xol’sa and Zarali.

The extra-planar Elf held more secrets than he knew he had, and through conversation, Theo learned more about his strange people. What little there was to glean, that is. Xol’sa didn’t have memories of his home. After breakfast, Theo brought him aside into one of the many side rooms littering the manor for some tea and scones pilfered from Benton’s hospitality. The alchemist’s administration interface swirled with things marked “TODO”, but they could wait.

“You’re finally pushing yourself. Magically, of course,” Xol’sa said.

This was the cycle of that man’s personality. Swinging from a curt headmaster to a comforting teacher, depending on how hard Theo was trying. A knock came at the door, Sarisa showing herself in.

“Salire is here for you,” she said.

“I’ll meet her at the lab. Thank you.”

Without a word, the Half-Ogre woman ducked out of the room. Theo turned his attention back to Xol’sa and their rolling conversation. “I’ve worked out most of Fenian’s plan. I always thought he was using me to get what he wanted. But I think he wants Tresk.”

“Not to keep her, I hope,” Xol’sa said.

“No, of course not. When I gave you the potion to repair your soul, I realized something. You were given the designation of an ‘extra-planar Elf’ which is interesting. As if being born outside of the mortal plane is a normal thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

Theo couldn’t stop himself. He scoffed, shaking his head in disapproval. The more time he spent in his private realm, the more he understood about the heavens. After taking a few souls into his care, the alchemist understood even more. Souls were a finite resource, generated on the mortal plane, not one of the many godly planes. One didn’t need high attributes to understand where this went.

“You’re from another place entirely. Another layer we’re not aware of. Well, I’m not aware of it.” Theo sipped his tea. He didn’t have the stomach to eat more scones. When he faced a problem with no solution, his stomach twisted into knots.

Xol’sa withdrew a ream of parchment from nowhere and began scribbling things down, humming as he wrote. “Interesting idea. I’d love to argue against the evidence, but… Well, here I am.”

“You’ve never thought of this before?”

“I’ve thought of it many times. Since I arrived on this plane as a child. Since my parents abandoned me—to fend for myself,” Xol’sa let out a frustrated breath. “But I cannot peer behind the curtain. No matter how much I try.”

“Your core,” Theo said, letting his thoughts come together. “It’s unique, as far as I can tell. Distill your abilities down for me, please.”

“An alchemy pun? Really?” Xol’sa asked.

He described his abilities and the spells he had learned over the years. It seemed like a standard mage’s core, themed around manipulating the planes locally to get some effect. He could create a pane of extra-planar glass that monsters would fall into. His ability to interface with dungeons was unrivaled. Especially after getting the [Dungeon Engineer’s Core]. But there was a gap in his abilities that seemed rather obvious. It was something both of them had experienced together. When Xol’sa tried to poke his head into a heavenly realm, he was sent reeling.

“Put everything together, and what do you have?” Theo asked. Xol’sa held his theories back, waiting for the alchemist to answer his own question. “We can assume you’re from somewhere other than the heavenly realms. Between them, or somewhere else entirely. Can you make a portal into the void?”

Xol’sa’s eyes darted around the room for a moment, his thoughts gathering. “That’s where I send the monsters.”

A stupid idea entered Theo’s mind, and he entertained it. He wasn’t as skilled as Tresk in manipulating their Tero’gal abilities, but he was certain he could teleport out of the void if he encountered any problems. His Wisdom of the Soul messages agreed. Shadows swirled somewhere nearby and the alchemist groaned. He turned, glaring into a dark corner of the room.

“I was gonna tell you.”

“No, you weren’t!” the shadows objected. “You were going to jump into the void without me. How is that fair?”

“Well, I need an anchor so I can get back. So you can’t come.”

“We both know Alex is the perfect anchor.”

“Compromise. I’ll just stick my head in the void, then come right back out.”

Tresk emerged from the shadows, her arms folded. Theo could feel what she was thinking. She wanted to find the link between Xol’sa and the void as much as him, but held more caution in her heart than him.

“Do I have a say in this?” Xol’sa asked.

“Maybe. Depends on what you have to say,” Tresk grumbled.

“I’ve poked my head in there before. There isn’t much to see. A literal void.”

Tresk let out a low growl-like sound, then a frustrated sigh. “Fine. Open the portal to hell. What could go wrong?”

With a few gestures and words, Xol’sa opened a shimmering rectangle into the void. It hovered in the room’s center, seeming to absorb the surrounding light. Theo rose, approaching the portal for inspection. Tresk approached it from the other side, grunting and humming as though she understood what was going on. The alchemist poked his head inside.

True to Xol’sa’s word, it was an endless void. Darkness that stretched in every direction. Tresk did the same on the other side. While they couldn’t see each other in the infinite darkness, they could feel each other. Two beacons ringing out among the inky blackness like lighthouses on the shore of some turgid sea. They withdrew themselves from the portal at the same time.

“Did you feel that, Theo?” Tresk asked.

“Not sure. Smelled like burnt toast.”

“Maybe your brain was just frying.” Tresk nodded at Xol’sa, who closed the portal. “I felt another will in there. Like someone pushing back against me.”

That was interesting enough on its own. Theo had thought of the void as an empty place. A place where lost souls went when they were trying to get to their realms. The people of this world referred to multiple versions of hell, instead of the singular like on earth. While it might have been an experiential thing the dead went through, he couldn’t shake the feeling of connection. Wisdom of the Soul offered boxes of information he already knew. It couldn’t make the connection yet.

Tresk, Theo, and Xol’sa sat down to share their thoughts on the matter. No one could reach a conclusion that made sense, though. The best they could do was to establish assumptions based on the existence of a willpower present in the void. Who or what it was settled in on the edges of their knowledge. They had just enough information to make the mystery interesting, but not enough to solve it.

But the entire exercise helped Theo understand Fenian’s plans better. Even if he didn’t dive into the void. It helped him understand why he had been set up in this swamp town. He understood why he and Tresk were brought together. The morning was dragging on. If the alchemist didn’t get moving, Salire would find her way to the manor. It was time to get to work.

Theo excused himself from the parlor, leaving behind more questions than answers. Even worse, he had stirred up Xol’sa’s imagination. It was always a bad idea to get a wizard fired up about something. Seeing people out on the street, unbothered by this new mystery, was refreshing. He greeted citizens that passed by. He even spotted Perg for the first time in a while, lurking near her tannery. That woman was up to something, but it would have to wait.

Salire was waiting outside of the Newt and Demon. She was dancing on the spot as he approached, twirling the hem of her newest dress. Dancing wasn’t really something Broken Tuskers did. When they did, it was bad. The Half-Ogre woman was quite good at it, though. Unbidden, a smile spread across the alchemist’s face as he approached. “Why are we so excited today?”

“Read your memos!” Salire said, still dancing. “Why do I give the administration goons reports if you don’t read them?”

Theo cleared his throat awkwardly.

“The new stills are here!”

That was all the reason Theo needed to rush up to the third floor of the building. Salire was close on his heels as they arrived, spotting the rows of new distillation equipment. Even at a distance, he could tell they were different than the last model. There was a blocky flair in their construction that was clearly Dwarven. Thim had a hand in this. There was no doubt.

“Ten stills,” Theo said, walking the rows. “That’s a lot of equipment. And… one of them is already running.”

“Sorry. I mean. I’m not sorry,” Salire giggled. “I finally woke up in the middle of the night. Been working on first tier potions ever since.”

Theo didn’t know how long he expected her recovery to be. But she was in perfect health, now. It reminded him of the time he watched Azrug recover from getting his first cores. That thought sent a pang of guilt running through his chest. The boy had been so busy as a Lord Merchant, he didn’t have time to socialize. The alchemist read his reports in the administration interface. He had even gone over to the new shop to check it out. But they didn’t have the time to sit and talk. It was a shame.

“So, Thim and Throk made some modifications to the design of the stills,” Salire said, standing near the foremost still. She held her hands out as though she were a saleswoman pitching him something fancy to buy. “Improved heating elements. Streamlined capacities. Basic programmable run cycles. And some adapters so we can hook this up directly to the new pipe system. What do you think?”

Theo pressed his hand against one of the inactive stills, inspecting the item.

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Artifice Still]

[Alchemy Equipment]

Epic

Created By: Thimamuri and Throk

A 600 unit capacity Drogramathi Iron still with attached advanced condenser and internal heating element. The advanced condenser allows for a more efficient cooling of essences, decreasing the time needed to distill.The internal heating element provides an even heating of the still, preventing burning.

Effects:

Distillation time reduced.

Occasionally produces more essence.

Reduces the chance of producing low quality essence.

Attachments:

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Bubble Plate]

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Vapor Pressurizer]

[Custom Artifice Timer]

The big changes here were the capacity and the [Custom Artifice Timer]. All the other features were things that Theo had seen in the past. As he inspected the artifice, he saw the changes they had made to the heating element. Throk and Thim’s first attempt at creating an embedded heating element was good, but it had flaws. The key difference was in the controller. It could now heat zones within the still, starting at the bottom and working its way up depending on which zone he selected. That would be useful. Alchemical mashes burned on the bottom. Rarely did the sides burn.

“Very impressive. More impressive that they built ten. Did Throk take a break, or something?” Theo asked.

“He finished a different project. Had some time.”

“What project would that be? Was he helping with the underwater tower?”

“No, I saw him running some pipes outside the walls. He had Sledge help him with getting them under the wall. Something about pumping seawater into town.”

“What the hell does he need seawater for?”

Salire didn’t know. But it only took a few minutes of digging through the endless progress reports of the administrative screen to figure it out. Theo cursed under his breath. Things had gotten so busy that he pushed projects aside to make room for others. When he first saw the [Reagent Deconstruction] ability, the only thing he could think of was breaking things down to their elemental parts. That wasn’t exactly the way the ability worked, but if he tried real hard it just might.

To see Throk swooping in, stealing away the production of salt, hit him hard at first. A momentary flash of anger that gave way to a reasonable mind. Theo should have ordered pumps, boilers, and tubes to process seawater into salt to begin with. The fault rested solely with him, not the enterprising Marshling. This was a direction the alchemist had hoped people would move in. Industries they established on their own would create a flourishing economy. The anger faded as quickly as it came, replaced with a sense of pride.

Salire couldn’t stop talking about alchemical processes. Her new cores opened a world of possibility for her. And she had the best equipment owned by any Drogramath Dronon so far as Theo was aware. He peeled the rind from a [Xotl Orange], setting them on one of the many tables in the room. The scent of the fruit was like the imitation orange drink the alchemist had back on Earth. As his assistant went on, he considered what exactly a Xotl was, and why it would have an orange named after it. He shrugged, popping a slice out of the fist-sized fruit, then into his mouth.

A message popped up.

[Property Discovered]!

Eating the [Xotl Orange] has revealed the property: [Xotl’s Undercurrent]

[Spirit Fruit Consumed]!

You have eaten a portion of a spirit fruit. Your natural dexterity has increased slightly. You may only eat one whole spirit fruit per day.

“Hey!” Salire shouted, falling out of her trance-like state. “Did you eat another spirit fruit? It smells like spirit fruit in here—you should have told me.”

“Want a slice?” Theo asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

That smoothed things over quickly. She took a slice of the orange and took a tentative bite. Her eyes closed as she let out a contented sigh. “Yeah. That’s good. Huh. It says I can’t learn the property.”

“Really? Does the system say anything else?”

“I’m too low.”

“Sad times. Let’s brew a potion. Figure out what this undercurrent property is about.”

There were other things to do within the lab. Salire was desperately trying to create some potions to fill orders, but her skills weren’t there yet. Confined to the lowest tier of alchemy, she had created some interestingly poor quality potions. He never expected to see such horrible potions come out of his lab, but that was to be expected. Only a person with blinders on could look at his past and think those first potions were good. They weren’t good. They were horrible.

The difference between applied alchemy and theoretical alchemy came down to intuition. As expected, with Wisdom being the most important attribute, creating potions was more art than science. Even if they were using exact numbers to bind things together, there was finesse involved. The new stills proved themselves in brewing the spirit fruit’s essence. With isolated heating zones, Theo dialed it in to only heat the bottom layer of the still. The result was an even, low heat that drew out the best parts of the [Xotl Orange].

With so little of the essence available, it wasn’t worth creating a dilution and running the potion again for the next tier. Theo did what he did with his last fruit, settling for a second tier potion. Salire aided him, but only in a support capacity. She grabbed things when he needed them, and took notes on the process. While this process was already well documented, it didn’t hurt for her to get a refresher.

The reaction was immediate and violent. The air extraction system whirred above them as the potion put off a cloud of green smoke that smelled like the sea. Inside the ornate vial was a potion that swirled with a mixture of blues and greens, flecks of silver running through it like ore through stone.

[Xotl’s Undercurrent Potion]

[Potion]

Mythic

Created by: Theo Spencer

Alignment:

Drogramath (Middling Bond)

Grade: Excellent Quality

Drink to create a Xotl’s Undercurrent.

Effect:

The imbiber must be underwater to consume this potion.

For five seconds after consuming this potion, the water directly beneath them will become a vortex that sucks in all surrounding water. Like the mighty deep sea Xotl, everything within range will be pulled within the churn of water.

“This potion kills you,” Salire said, her tone mocking.

She was right, though. Theo stowed the potion in his inventory, intent on destroying it when he had the chance. He created potions like this on occasion. It wasn’t something that would kill mass numbers of people, or spread harm throughout the world. But he couldn’t see someone using this potion while underwater and not killing themselves. That put it in a special category of potions that he would never brew on purpose.

“Excellent. There’s bound to be a few duds until I explore the other properties on the orange. But now, let’s check out the rind.”

Salire rubbed her hands together. “I got a good feeling about this one.”