Chapter 31: Twenty nine

Arriving back at the guild hall, I immediately set to work copying out the recipes which our guild had agreed to supply to the Whispers guild for distribution. The Dreadmere guild had three potions and one salve they sold, which they claim were new creations of Ge Hong. The light foot potion, a wound healing potion, a Paralysis poison and the daylight salve for vampires. Taking in consideration all the recipes were creations of Egenor Barothlas of Calisium, I guessed Ge Hong must have a book or grimoire written by the historical alchemist. I’d been disappointed that I couldn’t buy any alchemy grimoires from the big book of Gaia’s a bitch, but Darius concluded it was because grimoires were unique items and if one was already owned, it was bound. 

“That’s the last one,” I said with a sigh, dropping my pen and massaging my cramping hand. 

“I didn’t expect the recipes to be so long. They’re practically a book in themselves.” Noctus commented, picking up the vellum journal I’d just finished copying the recipes into.

“It isn’t just the recipe, but the information on each component used and Egenor Barothlas’s notes regarding the potion. Each recipe is at least twenty pages long, it’s the same for every recipe I purchased from the items book. Speaking of which, I’ve added a fourth potion which I think looking at these in order of difficulty might be the next one Ge Hong claims and sells. It is called the far sight potion, and according to Egenor Barothlas’s notes it will allow the drinker to see objects up to five hundred meters away clearly for up to ten minutes, dependent on mental fortitude. If you lack the ability to focus, it will wear off sooner.” I informed the vampire and guild leader who were gathered in my lab.

“That’ll certainly stir them up. There have been rumors Dreadmere’s ranged fighters are the most skilled at long distance. Which could be through use of this potion, if a potion they haven’t released yet is put into circulation it may lead to Dreadmere turning their eyes inward.” Darius mused, rubbing a hand over his chin. 

“Noctus, go deliver this to Van. We’ve upheld our part of the agreement, and even gone beyond it.” The guild leader instructed the cloaked vampire who nodded and disappeared.

“One of these days, I’m going to invent an anti vampire potion or something to stop him doing that in my lab.” I muttered, scowling at the floor where the vampire had been. 

“It isn’t hard, just light the room to the point there are no shadows large enough for him to travel through.” Darius advised with a chuckle as he moved to inspect the tank holding my two scorchers. 

The tank now contained a layer of sand over the bottom, and two hiding caves I’d asked a novice stone mason to carve. Both of my scorchers Stinger and Spitter were clinging to the walls of one of the caves, their bioluminescent tails creating a soft orange glow in the cave. 

“What happen to the rest of them?” 

“I dissected them,” I told him, grabbing the journal I kept near the tank and flipping it open to show him the diagrams of the scorcher anatomy I’d drawn and telling him what I’d learnt about the creatures. 

“Have you made any progress on a cure?” He asked, flipping through the journal and stopping at my notes about the venom.

“Not a cure, but I did discover something interesting and I think I may be close. Wait over here.” I called out, directing the guild leader to a nearby bench. 

Moving to the ice box, I pulled two vials of blood from to makeshift fridge compartment and carried it back over to the bench. Setting two test tubes in the wooden holder, I added a small amount of blood from each vial into a test tube, then pulled out my vial of scorcher venom.

“This test tube contains blood from a scorcher, and this tube contains my blood. Now watch the reaction when I add the venom to my blood,” I instructed as I dipped a slender glass rod with a very small lip at the bottom into the vial of venom. 

I wish pipettes were already a thing here, it would make this so much easier. I need to find a plant to create rubber from, or perhaps investigate making pipettes with animal skin. I thought to myself as I scooped up a small amount of the thick venom and dropped it into the test tube containing my blood. 

The blood in the test tube began to bubble and boil the moment it came into contact with the venom. After several seconds, what was once red blood, was now a thickened black mass that filled the jar with tiny plumes of smoke. 

“Now I will add the venom to the scorcher blood.” 

 This time there was no reaction from the blood, and even adding a second drop of the venom left it completely unresponsive. 

“So the scorchers are unaffected by their own venom?” Darius asked, glancing at the two test tubes. 

“Yes, and I think this is the key to finding the anti venom. If I had a centrifuge, I could separate the blood cells, platelets and plasma. Normally, anti venom is created by injecting low doses of venom into a donor animal whose body will begin to create anti bodies to fight the venom. Those antibodies are then extracted from the plasma, and used to create anti venom.” I explained, looking down at the blood with a sigh. 

“Tink is mulling over some ideas for a centrifuge using enchantments to spin it, but I don’t think it will be something we can manage anytime soon.” 

“Is there another way to make it?” 

“No, the only other thing I can do is create something to treat the symptoms of the venom. This is a fantasy world, so maybe there is a potion that can act as an anti venom.” I told him as I poured the blood into my disposal barrel and cleaned out the test tubes. 

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“I’ll leave it with you then,” Darius said, glancing around the lab. “Have you packed up everything you intend to bring?” 

“Yes, I’ve sorted out portions of everything here into jars to bring with me. What I’m leaving behind is only the stuff Taurie needs and what arrives while we are away. Taurie will be sorting and storing it all for me. I’ll also be bringing my scorchers as Taurie didn’t feel comfortable looking after them.” 

“We’ll be leaving at four in the morning to line up for the portal.” The guild leader reminded me. 

“I’ll be at the main doors at a quarter to four.” I promised, getting a nod in response from the guild leader who left the lab to go finish his own preparations for the trip.

Finally alone, I moved to the bench near the door where a leather pouch lay with a scrap of paper. 

Kadia, 

These are the darts I have finished working on, there are a hundred standard darts and twenty five injectable darts. This pouch will recall all darts within a fifty meter radius once activated, and has been made to fit your belt. The outside of the pouch has six slots that can hold darts for easier access, I have also placed a bracer inside the pouch which can hold another six darts. As we discussed, the fletcher’s have used white feathers with no dye and have supplied dyes separately so you can dye the feathers to match what you use the dart for. 

I have yet to put together a working prototype for a dart gun, but I feel the idea I have is workable. 

Good luck in Valonia. 

Tink 

Setting the letter aside, I opened the small square pouch and tipped the darts into four separate baskets. The injectable darts I left in the pouch, as I wasn’t yet sure what I wanted to use in them. The dyes supplied by the fletchers were in powder form and only contained the three primary colors. After mixing the yellow and red dye in water to make a shade of orange, I dipped the feathers of the first batch of darts into the dye. Those would be the darts I coated in the diluted scorcher venom, with the second basket of darts also getting the orange dye, but with the ends of the feathers dipped in black ink to mark them as having undiluted scorcher venom. 

The next twenty five darts were dyed a color I decided to call bile yellow, and were dipped in a concentrated version of the Paralysis poison which was one of the ‘creations’ Ge Hong claimed as his own, and was made using Viper vines. 

When I first read the description of the Viper vine, it said the vines attacked with a corrosive poison, which, as I’d learnt from observing the live vines brought back by the brothers, was not true at all. The vines would attack with a pair of sharp thorns that resembled fangs, and those fangs secreted a substance that affected the bodies nervous system, leaving the prey paralyzed, the Viper vine would then strangle the prey. Once the prey animal was dead, the Viper vine’s roots would grow rapidly upwards through the earth where they pierced the prey and drained it of nutrients. This left the prey animal appearing like it had been eaten away, which it had been, just not by poison as the book had claimed. That meant I couldn’t trust the information I found in the books I’d acquired, as it was clear whomever wrote the plants and fungi book did not spend the appropriate amount of time observing the Viper vines. 

Mary, the wife of David the potter, was now caring for the Viper vines and the Larnurma bush brought back by the two Tengu, Dravern and Helvern. Mary had previously owned her own nursery, and seemed to be rather adapt when it came to growing plants, even those of a more fantastical nature. 

The last twenty five darts were dyed a pale blue, and were for the poison I’d found in an attempt to create a curative for scorcher venom. When Yuki returned from her trip with twenty ice wisp cores, and a pouch full of exotic plants found on the mountains, I’d been ecstatic until they all wilted away to basically nothing. Only the snow flower seeds remained in the mush that had once been a bright blue and white version of a sun flower.   

I wasn’t entirely sure why I thought grinding ice wisp cores into powder and mixing it with oil extracted from snow flower seeds would cure scorcher venom, perhaps it was the crow hovering over my shoulder directing me to create the icy poison. The result had been a poison that would flash freeze a person or creatures blood and internal organs, killing them within minutes. However, the small amount coating the darts would only cause a painful chilling feeling to spread through the body which would last five minutes, before their bodies natural warmth dispelled it. 

Sadly, freezing ice wisps into poison had been a failed endeavor, with Yuki boosting the ice wisps regeneration with her mana we only manage to create normal ice wisps. Even placing the wisp cores in the poison made with the snow flower seeds didn’t work. Hopefully when Lena the Kitsune who’d created the poison wisps originally showed up, she would be able to provide some insight into how the poison wisps were formed. 

Once the last of the darts were finished, I attached two of each dart to the pouch and six of the orange tipped darts to the bracer I now wore around my wrist. Each dart was held snugly in place with a loop, and I was protected from the tip, which was tucked beneath a flap of leather that ran around the bottom of the bracer. 

After removing my dye stained leather gloves, I tossed them into the bag attached to my thigh and pulled out my timepiece. 

It’s just past midnight. Preparing all those darts took longer than I thought it would. I mused as I put the timepiece away and moved over to the tank holding my scorchers. Removing the tanks lid, I reached inside and gently removed both juvenile scorchers, placing them on the bench where they sat motionless while I poured some of the sand from the tank into a glass jar. 

After transferring the sand, I placed both of the scorchers who were just under an inch long, into the jar and covered the top with a piece of leather with air holes punched into it. The leather wouldn’t stop the scorchers burning their way out of the jar if they wanted out, but with the bond I was able to ensure neither scorcher would escape the jar, which would be their temporary home. I couldn’t place the scorchers into a bag of holding, as the bags weren’t able to hold live beings and even attempting to put a live creature in wasn’t possible. I’d attempted to place a mouse Zosimos caught into one of my bags, and it was as though an invisible barrier was preventing me from putting the creature inside. This barrier only disappeared once the mouse was dead, so keeping the scorchers in my bag was not an option. The tank would stay behind at the lab, while the scorchers would ride in their jar which I planned to strap to my belt. 

Securing the lab, I made my way through the empty forge and into the guild hall, which only had a handful of occupants sitting at the various tables. Finding myself a seat, I pulled out one of the books I was translating for Noctus and flipped it open, intending to pass the remaining time until our departure by working on the vampires books. 

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