Chương 42: Chapter Thirty-Nine

I looked around the classroom, frowning. It had three semi-circular rows, each row climbing higher than the previous, with only a half-dozen seats at each table. Each seat was separated from the next by no less than three feet. At least, that was what it was supposed to have.

"The chairs are gone," I came to a stop, commenting before a student rushed by, pushing me into the room. Stella hadn't stopped and walked over to her spot. Huffing, I joined her at my own seat... station. And ran into problem. I couldn't see over the desk with the cauldron, flasks, ingredient case, and other equipment placed neatly in a pile. I looked around the room, hoping to find something I could use as a stool and spotted the chairs. They had been pushed back into a corner.

"Are you okay, Lyra?" Stella asked as I hurriedly stepped away to get a chair. I grumbled under my breath.

"What was that?" she asked, catching up to me.

"I'm too short! I can't see over the table!" I growled at her, trying to keep my voice soft enough for the people around us not to hear. The giggling coming from one of the students next to me told me I failed. I ignored Stella's giggling. I did not growl at her. Really.

"Let's get you set up," she said, helping me with the chair. She had just made it back to her spot when the professor walked in. Professor Anders was tall and lanky, with leather-like skin and pure white hair that could have been his natural color. His white beard was trimmed short.

"Ms. Toordor. I put the chairs away because it's not safe to sit and brew. We've been over that." I climbed on my chair, and his eyes widened. His jaw stiffened.

"Professor Anders," I stated blandly.

"I'm too short to see over these desks, which are taller than they should be!" I commented as students around me started laughing. I looked around the room, scowling. I hoped their ingredients withered. He eyed me up and down. Standing on the chair, which was more of a stool, I realized the desks still covered all of my legs and waist. I waited like Mom taught me. No fidgeting. Back straight... How long before I didn't have to think about how to stand?

"Fine. But you will write a request for what you need in order to brew safely in this class. This won't happen again," he stated coldly. I cursed. Or tried to. The chair wobbled at the worst time and almost sent me face-first into the potion equipment. I could hear Professor Anders's sigh over Stella's snicker.

"Okay, class. For the past few weeks we have gone over common plants and their properties. Brewing techniques. And safety." He gave me a stink eye. I returned a small wave, smiling brightly. It was totally not my fault they didn't have this room built for normal-sized people.

"And it's not time for you to try brewing your first potion." Excited murmurs went around the room.

"And in the tradition of this Academy, this will not be a simple brew. You will be brewing..." He paused and looked around the room.

"A spark potion." Excited whispers erupted around the room. The professor waited patiently a few moments before quieting the class.

"I know. Exciting. Your first combat spells, for those who qualify, will begin in a few short weeks. Those of you who can brew this potion might just have a leg up in what's coming your way." He winked at the class.

"But don't worry, this is the smallest variant of the potion. It's enough to give you a bit of a zap, but it's hardly the bottles of lightning you'll read about in some of the more interesting legends. And the best part!" His voice rose as he scanned the room again.

"There is virtually no way you can cause an explosion with this brew!" he proclaimed with a hint of a smile on his lips before it disappeared and his gaze sharpened on a boy in the back.

"No, Mr. Ridely. That was not a challenge." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Scott Ridely, a red-headed boy sitting in the corner, looked disappointed.

"The recipe is on page seventy-three! Begin!" he said, clapping his hands, obviously done with his instruction. I supposed that was what the past few weeks were. I pulled a battered old book out of my bag and started flipping pages. Stella looked over and sighed.

"Why are you using that one? You bought a brand new one a few weeks ago," she said, as she pulled out the copy the classroom provided for its students.

"That one isn't as interesting," I stated mildly, as I searched for the brew.

"It's the same book," she argued. I simply hummed at her as I found the page.

"The new one is boring," I said, as I looked at the recipe. Like all the others in the book, Fenly's notes marked up the page, altering, removing, and sometimes adding steps. The professor wasn't joking. This one was complicated. But, Fenly simplified it a bit by scratching out the more complex step and writing "Just add mana to it. The root will dissolve and provide a better catalyst." I smiled.

The Spark Potion imbues the drinker with the ability to discharge a small spark of electricity that will sting and cause a small amount of damage. It might kill insects outright. It has a small chance of stunning a target for a moment. It lasts for two minutes. The sparks are effective within ten feet. This was going to be fun! The first step was heating the carrier to boiling. The carrier, or liquid that holds the potion's magical stuff, was anstium extract.

It was a non-edible fruit that produced a sticky juice that was acidic enough to burn your skin if left alone. And this was where my blood started to differ. On step two! Oh, I couldn't wait! I cut a small piece of the tanari root and put it in the palm of my hand before pouring my mana into it. It didn't take long before it melted into liquid like the instructions said it would. But I frowned at the uneven mana in the liquid.

It didn't take me long to decide that classes were meant for experimentation, and I poured more mana in, guiding it until the drop glowed faintly and everything was even. Nodding to myself, I let the drop slip into my flask, which I had set to heat. When the drop hit, it dispersed slowly, and I picked up the flask and swirled it to stir it in. I thought I could see a tinge of cyan in the otherwise yellow liquid, but pushed it from my mind. It wasn't like I could cause an explosion. The professor said as much.

So, onto the next step, which was disappointingly the same as the original recipe. Apparently, there was no substitute for dicing. The liquid started boiling, and I turned down the heat, carefully scraping my newly diced and cut herbs into the liquid before stirring with a glass rod that was in the stack of equipment. Stir... stir... stir... The yellow color slowly started fading to clear. I glanced over at Stella and saw her at the same step, though her flask was still solidly yellow.

I turned back to my potion and removed it from the heat altogether. The liquid was not completely clear, if slightly cyanish. It was normal to take on the color of a person's mana. My healing potions did it all the time. I turned to my book for the next instructions and lost myself in the work. A half hour passed before I knew it. The professor had been walking around the room for most of it. He rolled his eyes at my potion and walked away without saying a word for some reason.

At other tables, I heard him offering advice or even helping out. I got an eye roll. Did I mess up so badly that he thought it was pointless to try and help? But everything was exactly how the book described it! Well, except for the slight cyan coloring. But that was normal. The last step was adding the catalyst. This time, I put the full root in a glass beaker before starting to pour my mana into it. It quickly succumbed and turned to liquid, which I stirred and continued to pour my mana in until it evened out.

Let's see. Invest your mana in the container so that it can hold the catalyst without loss of potency. Well, that was a little vague. I put in about as much mana as I did with my healing potions before comparing the two containers. That was really unbalanced. Nodding to myself, I put more into the container's liquid until it held a little more than the catalyst. Then I read the last instruction. Pour the catalyst quickly, and bottle it just as fast lest you release the potion.

It needs to sit two days before being safe to consume. I shrugged my shoulders at Fenly's squiggle and got the bottle cap ready with one hand and the catalyst in the other. I started pouring the catalyst. As soon as the mana-infused liquid root hit the liquid in my flask, the entire room lit up as a ball of blue electricity formed in the flask, growing with every drop of the catalyst that landed in it. The ball of electricity moved around erratically, only not moving to escape because of the liquid being poured in.

And then there was no more to add. I moved my hand out of the way as the bright spark noticed a new path for its erratic movements to take and darted out of the flask. I moved as quickly as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. As the cork went into the bottle, a large boom rocked the classroom as a flash blinded me. Or perhaps it was the other way around. I really couldn't tell. Bits of debris rained down on my station. Looking up, I could see a soot-covered crater in the ceiling where the lightning had struck.

I frowned.

"Lyra, what did you do?" Stella gasped, as the professor rushed over.

"Technically, that wasn't an explosion," I said, lifting the bottle up to show off the bright spark that had, with that little bit of release, turned into more of a contained bolt looking for a release. The professor reached me and looked at the potion with wide eyes.

"That is not a Spark Potion," he said, gasping.