The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Reincarnated as a Hydra

There was an nearly electric excitement in the air as Tanisha opened the storage crate containing the items she would need to perform the cold infusion. First, and also the largest tool, was the infusion basin and its stand. The item would have cost her a small fortune as it is usually purchased by alchemy companies not a single traveling alchemist.

Her infusion basin was smaller than an industrial one but was a broad, shallow vessel, roughly three feet in diameter, with sides that gently slope inward to a flat base. It is made of a gleaming silvery metal called vintmoore ice silver which is known for its durability and resistance to both heat and magical energies. The surface of the metal is intricately etched with arcane runes and sigils, each one meticulously inscribed to channel and focus magical energies during the infusion process.

Wow, it is gorgeous. It looks more like it should be in a museum. I thought it would be years before I got something like this. I wonder how much it cost.

The basin had to be mounted on a sturdy but elegantly designed tripod made from the same metal. The design wasn’t merely decorative but also extremely important to the functionality of the item. The intricate nature of the tripod came from the additional runes that covered nearly the entirety of each leg. There was a specific place in the middle of the wagon that it had to be secured to. The end of each leg had a hook designed to securely hold the basin to the ground during some of the most volatile infusion processes. The wagon had a female connector for those hooks so she could do her work safely.

“That looks good,” Tanisha said excitedly as she looked over the instruction manual again. “Halfway there!”

Next she attached delicate ice silver tubes to the drainage channels in the basin. The channels would, of course, direct any excess essence or reactant from the metal being treated. Not only that, but also separate the substances into containers for future use.

Tanisha had to be careful to attach them properly as spillage of reacting essences was not something she wanted dripping anywhere in the wagon or on herself. Once she had doubled and then triple checked the connection she summoned water with her Divination Hydromancy. She filled the basin and watched for any leaks. After a few tests she dismissed the water leaving her basin sparkly clean.

Lastly was the catalyst stones which are highly processed magic crystals that Tanisha could only dream of one day being able to make. They were made by large alchemy companies and were used by most professions that required infusing magic into an inanimate object. They could be substituted with magic crystals, but the end result was always less than using a catalyst stone.

She placed the six egg shaped catalyst stones into holders around the outer edge of the basin. There were small recesses designed to hold them securely. As she inserted them, there was a subtle but noticeable change in the ambient mana. The stones and the entirety of the basin and tripod glowed faintly as mana was drawn in and purified. A shimmer of light appeared over the open top of the basin which had a gentle and almost rhythmic hum. This was a barrier that would prevent the basin from boiling over or dangerous gasses and volatile magic from escaping. Equally as important, it prevented ambient mana from interfering with the reactions inside.

“Some infusions have tolerances so tight that without this barrier just a person being in the same room as it could cause an explosion,” Tanisha said to herself as she talked her way through the process. “The catalyst stones should direct the flow of magical energies into the metal evenly. It is going to be up to me to ensure it stays stable.”

Tanisha activates her Ringularity Sage Core ability which allows her control over mana, maya and aether. She further pushed the ambient mana that wasn’t being used to power the basin out of the wagon, sterilizing the space of any possible interference. As she did, she took out the remaining tools she would need to get started. Luckily with cold infusion the only other things she needed were the vintmoore ice silver tongs and the essences Joel had brought her.

She reached for the bottle of monster blood, then stopped herself and walked over to another storage container and pulled out a mask. It was a smooth metal with an apparatus that supposedly cleaned the air she breathed in. Not entirely sure how it worked, it was secured on her face, better safe than sorry. Now with more confidence handling the container of blood wasn’t an issue.

Tanisha found that talking to herself helped calm her nervousness. “The essence of a thing is kind of like its concept in reality. So, the ingredient is used to imprint what that thing means onto something else.” The dreamweaver blood was poured slowly into the basin. “The basin separates the concept of a thing from the actual item. Then binds that concept to something else.”

Once she emptied the dreamweaver blood into the basin, she picked up the bag full of a powdery substance. She just as meticulously poured the black granules of stariten into the mix. The only feedback was a slight bubbling and the basin glowing slightly brighter. Tanisha had to allow more ambient mana into the wagon to power the reaction.

She waited for an hour constantly adjusting the ambient mana she allowed into the basin. This went on as she wrote in her note book different small reactions she noticed. Then she saw something, almost like a trick of the eye. The bubbling brew appeared like it was both boiling and completely calm at the same time. Like two instances of the same event were layered on top of eachother.

“That’s it!” Tanisha said excitedly. “The essence and the physical substance have separated!”

Tanisha practically ran over to the ingots and used her tongs to lift the first one. She carefully lowered the blue steel into the basin. There was a slight resistance as the metal pressed into the barrier, but it slid through easily enough. She placed the ingot into the boiling and calm brew. The reaction was immediate and violent as the blue steel shot out of the basin nearly hitting Tanisha in the face.

“Whoa! What the—!” Tanisha exclaimed.

The metal hit the floor with a thunk, and the curious girl quickly went to observe the changes. She prodded the metal with her magical senses first. The blue steel was radiating magic, but not the magic of the essence. It was the residual magic that made up the barrier around the opening.

“Blue steel is highly magically conductive, I know that.” Tanisha face palmed. “It pulled in a small amount of the magic from the barrier. I need to deactivate that before putting things inside.”

The ingot was too magically charged to be useful so she moved it to the failure stack which she hoped would stay one. She moved to a new ingot and this time opened the barrier for a second instead of pushing the ingot through it. She quickly, but with control, submerged the ingot. There was an increased draw of mana that Tanisha had to stabilize with her skill. It felt like wrangling the wind and soon the brew was inundated with too much and started to boil over. Thankfully the drainage channels worked as intended, but the blue steel was ruined once she pulled it out.

“Ugh, this is going to be harder than I thought,” Tanisha said as she placed the second failure next to the first.

***

“Is she still in there?” Falko asked.

“Yeah, she has been doing some weird magic mumbo jumbo for the past six hours.” Adelheid yawned.

The two werewolves lazed on the branches of a tree just outside of the camp. They were perfectly hidden from their target although they weren’t so cocky as to believe that the camp full of expertly trained monster hunters weren’t aware of their presence. Most didn’t care, they weren’t doing anything wrong, but they did get a few glances every now and then from some of the more eagle eyed hunters.

“Are we sure that’s even her?” Falko asked. “I thought Sabec said she was a wendigo.”

“I don’t know, but everyone said she is the one with a three headed familiar. She is an alchemist and her name is Tanisha and you saw her with the tiger demon, yeah?”

“Of course, he is kind of hard to miss,” Falko said.

“So, we will see what she does. Maybe Sabec was wrong about her race since she looks a lot like the wendigo. Her core is all over the place. I don't think she is a demoness either like everyone else seems to think. Regardless she killed an entire gnoll pack. Including the pups, you saw the bodies, that is unforgivable to be so heartless.”

“But you said he was lying about a lot of it.”

“He was lying a lot, yeah, but he didn’t lie about the fact that her familiar killed all of them. We aren’t doing this for that lying gnoll, but because Hydra are poison. They infect the land, sky, water and the mind. Having one bonded to a person may turn it into a false-hydra and trust me you don’t want to be around one of those.”

“Do you even know what a false-hydra is?” Falko asked. “You probably just made it up on the spot.

Adelheid was flustered by the question. “Alaric said it is bad so while I haven’t seen one before doesn’t mean anything. We are going to see if she does anything suspicious while Alaric and the rest take care of the little hydra pup. If she is corrupted we kill her and the world is all the better for it. We have to make sure it is away from the tiger demon, he gives me bad vibes.”

“I still don’t know if you are lying about the false-hydra. For someone who can tell if someone lies you really suck at tellin’ the truth.”

She sat up on her branch. “Don’t make me come over there! I am not lying.”

“Sure, you aren’t. Yeah.”

“Why are you so annoying? Ugh, just wait until this hunt is over!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Falco waved off the threat. “You always result to violence when you’ve been caught.”