Chapter 261: 261: Alchemy Chores

With Gil having run off and Su wanting to take some time to relax in the dining room Remey and Walker decided they should go see what the old man had gotten in to. Walker had no idea what he could have done with the alchemy lab that they had set up but he had a feeling that it would become more organized and efficient. When making potions there needed to be the right ingredient at their fingertips at the right time. He also knew that there were specific storage methods fir some of the herbs used which would require the know how and skills of an alchemist.

Remey was the first to stop in her tracks, there was a dark black smoke drifting from the smokestack in the roof, one that she recognized. "I think I might need to head over to do a thing quick." She was about to turn heel and go right back inside when a voice stopped her.

"I can hear you! Get in here and explain this to me!" The old man sounded full of anger. 

Remey's face dropped, even though she and the old man would argue a bit she knew he was never truly angry with her unless she did something that could harm the potions. "Hey Remey, what's wrong?" Walker was also worried about the tone the old man had just used, seeing that Remey kept looking at the black smoke coming from the smokestack he knew it must be something with the cauldrons. 

"Did you not hear me!? Get in here, now!" The second yell put Remey back in to motion, she went right to the door and walked in. The plume of black smoke that escaped was enough to nearly put Walker back to bed. The strong burned and bitter smell was potent, his better sense of smell was even more pained by it. 

Remey stood in front of the old man looking at one of the cauldrons that had been left in the alchemy lab from the previous owners of the mansion. "Made some tea did you? Just thought, oh the cauldron will clean itself did you? Then explain to me why I am currently here burning off your cauldron so that it can get rid of the impurities that have settled in from improper care!" He may let Remey call him old mad but that did not mean he had any less respect to alchemy, he was a master alchemist after all. 

Remey had no answers for him, he had said exactly what had happened, and to be fair she had completely forgotten to clean it. She knew these rules and reasons for why a cauldron needed to be cleaned off every time it was used but she was careless since she didn't brew potions with skills. "I  don't have an answer, I forgot...Is it going to be usable?" Her voice was the quietest Walker had ever heard it. The tough and bold Remey was reduced to a quiet child under the anger of the old man.

"Usable? Of course it will be, I'm here! Do you think I would really let something fall to ruin?" The old man crossed his arms inspecting the burning cauldron, he had a small amount of dark liquid that was easily cleaning the sides and bottom. "I found all the cleansing herbs in here and used them, you should have no problem with that since if I did not do this any potions made in here would fail or turn to poisons." 

Walker did not realize that something as simple as poor cleaning could lead to a potion being poisonous. It made sense, this was very similar to how his mother explained that if foods were not treated right they could end up making someone sick. "Did I organize the herbs right that we have?" Remey was a bit afraid herself to ask this but if she didn't then she would keep the old man on the same angry topic all day. It would be better if she could get him to move on. 

"You organized them? Hmmm, the only thing out of place was the spiky grass, it should have been bundled and dried. But that can only be done for medicinal purposes using the instant dry skill so I can excuse that. I finished that up and have it hanging by the window to absorb the sunlight." The old man had bundled and changed a few things on the shelves that Walker and Remey and set up. Some of the leaves were not dried out and in smaller piles where as the others were spread out more. The bundles of spiky grass had faded to a dull green color but now hung from string in front of the window. 

"Why do they need to be in the sunlight of the window?" Walker himself found that he did not have any knowledge of preparing the herbs for potions and this would be a valuable chance to learn some. 

"Has Remey not taught you anything yet? The sun keeps away the mites that would eat them. The heat from the sun also will keep them from absorbing the water in the air. This is all very important to keeping the quality of the herbs before being used. On a misstep and you could throw hundreds of gold in to the trash." The old man was shaking his head the entire time but had a little smirk. He was in fact enjoying the impromptu lesson which reminded him of his younger days asking the same questions. 

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"What about cleaning the cauldrons? They had been here for some years before we moved in so I am sure the other two need to be cleaned as well, How would I do that?" Walker was eyeing the other two cauldrons that had no fire or anything under them. They were pretty much untouched as they had been for some years. 

"Well it's just funny that you say that, they need to be scrubbed and then boiled out with an herb mixture. How about you and Remey get to it and clean them out. Remey knows the herbs to add to the water when you boil it. I will stay here and finish this one." the old man had this goal the entire time., he was going to drop the chores on them as soon as they walked in. Remey was inwardly cursing him knowing that he had used his anger to also get them to clean up for him.

"Come on lets roll them outside first, we can chip away at the burned ash on the bottom and try to scrape away what is left inside." The two each pushed a cauldron on to its side and rolled them as carefully as possible out the door and in to the grass. Remey had grabbed two round metal brushes as she went out. "The goal is basically to get all this stuff off the bottom., "Remey gestured to a bunch of black and grey chips from many fires that had adhered themselves to the bottom of the cauldrons over time. "If they stay there the flames won't heat what is being made inside properly and it could burn over here and be cold over here. Same as your moms oven." 

Walker was pretty used to this since when he was a little younger he was always helping his mother. He had smaller hands at the time and was able to more easily get at some spots in the cold oven to pull out ash or baked flour. His mother had told him the same reasoning for cleaning it once a month. It was a very rare occurrence for a stone oven to be turned off and would take an entire day to cool. 

The two each took their own metal brush and went to work. Remey was well versed in this and was able to make progress much faster than Walker. The chips and ashes came off in a flurry of dust as she scrubbed away. Walker realized that while he was scrubbing there were faint lines in the bottom and sides that had long been filled with black soot. This made him work harder to uncover all these grooves. 

Some time passed as only the sound of scrubbing was heard in this part of the yard, "Hey Remey can you come check mine out? I think I have cleaned up all the grooves on the cauldron." Walker wanted her to check over his work to make sure that he had done his best. He was still in the dark when it came to how well he needed to do for something like this other than to just remove the existing ash.

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