--- Lily ---
Appoline got to work cleaning up. She was able to dismiss the still ongoing effects without too much trouble and Kat decided to help with the ones that had already stopped but left so sort of problem, like the destroyed pathway sections or the ash from the fire. Lily got to work helping after Kat started, but it was more because she wanted to work with Kat then that she felt obligated to help.
As things were being cleaned up, Tweedle asked. "Um... err... would it be possible for Lily to make her attempt next? My mana isn’t full and I think I’d like the break between attempts..."
"Really?" asked Appoline. "I tend to find that imdiately after failing to brew a potion I can perform much better the second ti. I have a better idea of what’s necessary for it and I already know what my mana needs to look like. Having it so recent in my mind is a boon. Though if you are worried that’s fine, I don’t really care for the order between you two."
"Yes I’m sure," confird Tweedle. "Even if my mana is high enough to finish the potion I feel so nervous. I’m sure I’d just ss it up again, perhaps even faster then last ti..."
Appoline shrugged and glanced at Lily who shot her a shadowy thumbs up from her back. Between the three of them, soon four when Tweedle also joined in the cleanup, the backyard recovered. Lily was sort of surprised at how well the cauldron managed to deal with the damage. That is, it seed to take none. She thought that at least so marring of the tal would be present but apparently not.
Appoline looked the ingredients over on the table carefully before separating them into piles. It was mostly ’ones in so sort of container’ and ’everything else’ but a few outliers managed to make it, mostly out of the ’everything else’ pile. The smaller ingredients and one of the large ones managed to make it through the explosion without taking any damage.
Appoline swapped out the faulty ones for new stuff and comnted, "So of those might, possibly, be still useable but I can wait until later to check them over more carefully. Everything on the table I KNOW is safe to use in this potion and shouldn’t add to the difficulty. There’s always the possibility there’s so hidden flaw inside them, but at the very least the issue won’t be from the potion failure we just had."
Lily nodded slowly and approached the cauldron. She really didn’t have the sort of practice necessary for this... but her mana control was decent and she was Rank 3 so hopefully that was enough. Appoline was ready with both of the initial ingredients and Lily gave her the signal. For Lily, she added a small amount of the cauldron. For the potion? It was a huge concentration.
Appoline imdiately called it out. "No more mana, that’s enough."
"What?" hissed Lily as she tried to convert the ingredients into essence. She... honestly had no idea what she was doing but that was fine for the mont she had ti. "This is... this isn’t even five percent of my mana, in fact it might only be like, one? I’ll have regenerated it all soon."
Appoline shrugged, "You’re Rank 3 so that’s just how it is. Perhaps your mana is more concentrated and potent from that? I can’t really say. I can only tell that you shouldn’t add more."
Lily frowned but nodded and got back to focusing on the ingredients. She was trying to weaver her mana into their structure and then pull it apart, that seed correct... but it was difficult. It was like trying to sneak your hand through a block of cheese. Even if there was so holes that wasn’t really what you were going for, and just smashing the cheese into mush wasn’t the play here.
Five minutes of nothing and Appoline made her comnt. "You’re still trying to be too aggressive with it. You’re not trying to hamr the ingredients into shape. You aren’t trying to be a blacksmith here, but an alchemist. I know simply vibrating the mana isn’t quite correct but it’s the closest comparison I have. Coat the ingredients and simply try to resonate with them."
Lily simply nodded and tried to follow the advice as best she could. Concentrating the mana around the two ingredients wasn’t hard, she was already most of the way there. Once in that position Lily tried to vibrate the mana... but Appoline gave her a light bonk on the head. *Ok that’s still wrong then.* Lily chewed on her lip a bit as she tried to figure out what exactly she was ant to do here.
*Why the heck am I starting on this and not a healing potion or sothing easier? I know I watched her make a bunch but it’s really not the sa.*
[That’s... actually a good question? Maybe that was the original plan before Tweedle got you to jump the line?]
*I suppose. It’s pretty late though, I don’t see us finishing before midnight so I’m not sure we’d have had the ti. Regardless... I’m just not sure what I’m ant to do here. Perhaps I have no talent for it? Clearly ’vibrating’ was wrong but like, I knew that already.*
[Hmmm... well what about this. What’s the difference between your mana, mana, and your shadow mana? Can you like... do sothing similar with the ingredients maybe?]
*Hmmm... I can try. I do know what that feels like... but it just converts automatically. Like, I just push it into my shadow and it happens. I don’t really control the conversion.*
[So? That’s an affinity thing. This is ant to work even if you don’t have one.]
*Alright...* So, she listened to Kat. She tried to feel the ingredients not with her eyes or with her mana sense, but with the mana itself. Then she tried to attune it as requested... which was a lot harder then it seed. You couldn’t just twist a ntal nob and already be done. It wasn’t that easy. Nor could you simply copy it straight over from what was already there.
Instead, it was almost like she had to reach into the mana and invert it? If done while in contact with the ingredient it reacted, slightly, and started breaking down. That, Lily found was the trick. You had to alternate between ’mana’ and ’inverted mana’ which was really still mana at the end of the day. It also sounded a lot simpler then it was in truth. The ntal gymnastics required was a pain, and even thinking about moving your mana into a dinsion that didn’t really seem to exist was hard, let alone doing it.
Lily credited the fact that she space affinity to the fact she picked up the technique so early. It wasn’t REALLY space manipulation and the odd not-angle that she was pushing the mana didn’t seem to be a different part of space, but it ant her mind was already open to the possibility and she could properly fra it in her mind. The real issue was that it was exhausting.
Perhaps Appoline could do all of this automatically, simply set her mind to it and rapidly flip back and forth. That was probably why she considered it ’vibrating’ instead of ’inversion’ even if neither were correct, Lily felt the latter was closer. Especially when she had to do it all manually. It was flexing a ntal muscle that was severely underdeveloped. It felt a bit like a tension headache was brewing but it didn’t seem to be increasing in pressure. It was just awkward and a bit distracting.
When she FINALLY finished with the first ingredient, she was sweating heavily like she’d just run a marathon, well back when she was human. Running a marathon now would probably be less exhausting. "How is that?" asked Lily through her panting.
"Hmmm... acceptable. Your technique is VERY slow but I think you might be doing sothing slightly different to the way I manage it. Room for exploration perhaps? Certainly there was more INTENTION then what I normally possess when it cos to those steps. Another avenue of exploration perhaps. Very slow though... hmmm... I think you’ll be fine because you have so much mana, comparatively, so the draw won’t be an issue but I can’t say it’s optimal.
"You did also miss a few bits and pieces but that’s fine. You managed to keep the ingredients together quite well with your thod and it was only fine particles that escaped your grasp. You can either try to gather them up, or simply move on to the next step. The remnants are insufficient to make the potion impossible, but depending on how well you do with the rest of the ingredients it might beco a problem later on,"
"Hmm... what do you recomnd?" asked Lily.
Appoline glanced at the sky. "Well... we don’t have forever but you DO have the mana for it. I’d recomnd looking for the small bits and pieces. What you need to do is..."
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