• Memory • Pulvis pyrius

[Doran]

“We need exactly 750 grams”, the Mortalborn replied. Had he not explained to Sintih how important the correct percentages were just a moment before? At least he had decided to ask him rather than simply adding less saltpeter than was necessary, he thought and continued to watch. Once Sintih had finished grinding the saltpeter, he put the rest of the ingredients away as they wouldn’t be needed anymore and gave the boy a sign that he could start mixing the powders he had created now while he continued with his explanations.

“I mentioned fire arrows before – or explosive arrows, as I call them”, he began. He half expected Sintih to tell him that fire arrows were boring and, that they had already been existing for a long time and looked at him coolly for a moment, almost as if he were challenging him, before he continued, “I started by attaching a small tube filled with gunpowder to an arrow.” He took one of the arrows from the table and demonstrated how it was done. It was a simple enough procedure, although he refrained from shooting one of the arrows himself as he was a swordsman and not an archer and had his doubts that the arrow would find its intended target.

“But I soon realized that the gunpowder tubes could launch themselves without the aid of an arrow”, he continued and put the finished fire arrow down again before he gestured for Sintih to come closer and try his hand at making a fire arrow himself while he continued to speak. “To be an effective weapon I needed to devise a way for them to move in the desired direction though. After consulting one of my colleagues, a physicist, I decided to attach a stick to the tube that would act as a simple guidance system.”

“I assume that you realize of the potential of an explosive that can be launched a safe distance away from the enemy?” he asked and raised an eyebrow. “Eventually I decided to add a fourth component to the tube that will be activated once the flame has reached the end of the fuse and once the tube is already in the air to create something new.”

“There are chemicals that burn a certain color when ignited. For a red glow I decided on a mixture of potassium chlorate, strontium nitrate and shellac. That is of course not the only mixture which you can achieve a red color with. There are countless possible mixtures, some of which are harder to create than others.”

He paused here and opened another, smaller box. Sintih could see that it was filled with what looked like small pellets. “This is what the fourth component looks like in its finished form”, he explained, closed the box and put it away again. “These tubes could be used by allies to send signals to each other during a battle as the light can already be seen from further away. They could be an alternative to signal horns or whatever else armies are currently using.”

“Of course”, he admitted. “They are most effective when it’s dark, although the glow can also be seen during the trial. I will give you another demonstration in a bit if you are interested. For now though, can you think of any other uses for the kind of explosives I’ve mentioned? You’ve shown yourself to be quite creative before”, he spoke, again referring to Sintih’s idea regarding the use of phosphorescence.

[Sintih]

It seemed that his instinct to prepare the next piece of saltpeter had been right. Doran didn't do anything half-assed, including making his voice sound like he was teaching some five arc old child. While the scholar hadn't said much, Sin thought he knew him enough to know exactly how much more the man had left unsaid. His cheeks flushed a darker blue-purple as the illusion followed the increased amounts of light going to his crystal face. He was well aware of Doran's eyes on his work while he finished up the last piece and added the wet ground down yellow rock to the scales until it stopped exactly in the middle. It wouldn't get closer to 750 than this.

He turned to Doran when he brought them back to the subject of fire arrows. Sin wasn't too impressed by them, considering they had been in existence for several hundred arcs or something. It was most likely one of the first advancements in warfare any race had ever invented. He decided to tell Doran that and opened his mouth, looking up at the man and into his cool, daring eyes. For a trill or three, Sin stared at Doran with his mouth half open trying to decide whether the man was waiting for him to say it or challenging him to dare say it. In the end he closed his mouth and just listened.

The way to make a gunpowder fire arrow was simple enough, just attaching a little cylinder of it to the arrow itself. Sin watched as Doran demonstrated how to connect the two and prevent the tube from getting loose in mid flight. When Doran spoke about tubes launching themselves, Sin looked up with a surprised look. Had he just heard that correctly? Doran motioned for him to come over and Sin walked up to the table, picking up the arrow and a tube and attaching the two together. As he was working, Doran explained how he'd come about finding a way to launch the tubes separately from the arrows like... like flying explosions. When he finished up the arrow and the tube, Sin felt the arrow slip from his hand, the balance of weight completely different from before now that the tube was attached. It almost slipped from his hand but he managed to catch it before it did. He placed it back on the table slowly, making a mental note to mention it later.

This flying explosive thing Doran was talking about was a major weapon, if it worked like Sintih's imagination told him it did. The words slipped out before he really thought about them. "Screw knights. With one of those any farmer could protect his home." Sin pointed from the fire arrow tubes on the table to the hole in the ground the two kegs of blackpowder had made before. He then realized his words and quickly looked behind him as if knights would have suddenly popped up at his words. Luckily, there weren't any. "I mean, this would be a major change in war, if people just had to point, light a fuse and boom, gone is the enemy. Anyone could wield a power as strong as some domain magics." It was an exciting and horrifying thought at the same time and it showed on his face as he thought about a line of farmers launching explosives at a bunch of trained knights.

Sin pulled himself from the rapidly growing amount of explosives farmers were wielding with deadly aim as Doran continued to talk, adding yet another invention in the mix. Not only could he explode things far in front of him, he could do it in a variety of different colors. While the names of the things that made the colors went in one ear and out the other, Sin's attention was drawn by the color pellets that Doran showed him. Sintih wondered how those worked. He had only just learned about explosions in general and now Doran was telling him he could basically paint the sky in different colored explosions if he so desired.

At first, Sintih wasn't quite sure he had heard Doran properly. Had he really just complimented Sin on something he had done? His answer took a moment longer as he got over the initial surprise. "I would love a demonstration of your flying explosions. Do you have them in different colors as well?" After he spoke, Sin stepped back from Doran's lesson for a moment, giving himself some space to think and Doran some space to prepare colored, flying explosions in. Concentration set in on his face as the outside world faded out to the bear essentials.

Of course, the first thing that came to mind was the unbalanced arrow he'd made before. How could he fix the balance on those? The arrow worked by lighting the fuse and firing it and hoping the arrow ended up where it had to be before the fuse was up so that it exploded there. Sin walked around the table and picked up another arrow and tube, staring at both things in his hand as he stepped back from the table a bit. He held the tube against the arrow and tried to imagine how it would affect the balance. He put both items in one hand as he ran his yellow colored fingers over the illusion of his chin and up over his cheek. As his fingers touched the illusionary cut on his cheek, Sin felt a light sting and he pulled his hand away. The piece hadn't cut deep to do any real damage but cuts hurt none the less.

Sin's head turned towards the area that had been behind him when he had been hit. Something there had been thrown towards him by the explosion, strong enough to cut the crystals on his face enough to make him bleed illusion blood. He put the arrow and the tube down on the table and walked over to the small crater the double explosion had created. In the back of his mind, he was aware Doran was present and might be looking at him like he had gone crazy or something but Sintih was invested now. He knelt down in the singed grass around the explosion and pushed some of it aside with his hands. He slowly made his way away from the explosion and in the direction of where he had been standing before. He found his answer with his knee before he saw it with his eyes. The piece of wood had embedded itself deep into the ground but a piece was still sticking out on which Sintih rested his knee. He quickly dug the piece out of the ground, roughly the size of half his hand. It was definitely from the keg that had the powder in it before the explosion.

His mind was going over several possibilities, most more exotic and imaginary than the others but a few of them stood out. He stood back up and walked towards the table, looking up at Doran once he got there. "I don't think... Euhm... I mean, the arrows..." There were so many thoughts Sin didn't really know where to start. "The arrow is unbalanced." Sin quickly grabbed a normal arrow and the one with the tube that he made before. Showing was always easier. He placed both arrows in the palm of his left hand, holding his thumb over them so they wouldn't move and then moved his thumb upwards. The normal arrow remained in his hand, balanced, while the exploding one started leaning forward towards the extra weight of the tube. "I don't know much about arrows but balance is important. I don't know how it affects aiming and distance and such but it's not good. Maybe..." Sin put the explosive arrow down and picked up another tube, holding it near the end of the normal arrow he was still holding. "... like this?" He tried to mimicked the arrow hitting something. "This would stick the explosion too far away from the target." He turned the arrow around, the pointy end against the tube. "Like this. Although you don't have anything to stick into targets now..."

Sin put the arrow down, holding the tube in his hand. "How does the explosion work, exactly? Is it because these three powders are mixed together that makes some specific combination and fire comes in contact with that?" He put the tube aside and picked up one chunk of each of the three ingredients, placing them close together so that they had each one point almost touching each other. To be sure, Sin poured a small bowl of water over all three of them. "Or is it simply this point here that is needed with the fire?" Sin pointed down onto the one point where the three ingredients were almost touching together. "Would that be enough to start the explosion and then..." He held his fingers together above the one point and then spread them out over all three of the ingredients, emulating the explosion as it started from the middle point where all three ingredients were present and then enveloping all of them separately.

He let Doran explain first before he continued on with the second idea he had. "What if..." While he had been talking before, his voice had picked up in speed and now the excitement was gleaming out through his words and expression. "...we take a bunch of small, sharp objects, like rocks or arrowheads or something..." Sin balled one hand into a fist and held it up in front of him. "... and you put the explosion next to it. And then boom!" Sin held up the tube next to his fist, on the opposite side of his face. When he said boom, his fist opened up as the explosion pushed it away. He made a show of pushing his thumb past his own face, just under the cut he had received there, while the rest of his fingers pressed against his face. The illusion had long stopped bleeding but the black and yellow lines and finger prints of powder were clearly visible all over his pale blue skin. "I'll show you. Can I explode one of these?" Sin held the tube up to Doran.

[Doran]

“Watch your language”, the Mortalborn warned Sintih. The boy, he observed, seemed to have a problem with the knights which surprised him. He had always thought that Beira’s son would suffer from an acute case of hero worship and wanted nothing more than to join the Iron Hand and become yet another sacrificial lamb for the king and the Immortals, just like countless fools before him who believed that there was something glamorous about bleeding to death on a battlefield and being in an excruciating amount of pain. Maybe, he thought, there was still hope for him, despite his unacceptable choice of words.

“You are right”, he continued. His voice softened somewhat – but only momentarily. “These things would make it very easy for you to defend your home – if you know how to handle them. Explosives should never be given to just anybody, but only to experts. I’ve seen people lose fingers or an entire hand and part of their face because they stepped away from the fuse a moment to late or assembled the explosive incorrectly. That farmer you mentioned might blow himself and his house up in addition to those that he wanted to defend himself against.”

He didn’t need to be a mind-reader to know Sintih’s thoughts. They were plainly visible on his face. The boy was likely currently picturing a group of farmers hurling tubes filled with gunpowder at the knights in heavy armor racing towards them who were ripped apart by the ensuing explosion in a most spectacular manner. He suppressed a sneer as he wondered if he had ever been that fascinated by violence and largely unrealistic scenarios.

There had been a time when he had been a solider, serving Duke Endor, he remembered, but that had been centuries before, and even then he had not been as naive and innocent. For some reason that thought made him strangely melancholic for a moment.

“I can make them blue, yellow, green, purple and even silver. It all depends on which chemicals are being used, as I told you”, he answered as Sintih inquired further about what he called flying explosions. Having said that, he assembled the necessary components before he turned back to Sintih, furrowing his brow slightly as he did so.

Only a little while ago he would have snatched the arrow from the boy’s hands and insisted that he had no idea what he was doing, but he suppressed that urge now and decided to merely watch him closely so that he could intervene if something went wrong.

As Sintih walked over to the small crater that had been created by the previous explosion, the Mortalborn‘s confusion deepened, but he held back again. There was something familiar about the way that the Yludih knelt down and inspected the burnt grass. He reminded him of himself when he had been trying to solve a riddle and find the final piece of the puzzle – or of the son that he had never had and would likely never have.

“I’m not an archer”, he admitted as Sintih spoke about the arrows being unbalanced and stepped next to him so that he could see what he was doing better. “Maybe something like this would work”, he agreed as he heard the boy’s suggestion. “I’ve also considered launching the fire arrows from a special device, a stand of sorts rather than using a bow though. That might increase stability as well as accuracy.”

“As for how an explosion works”, he continued. He had to admit that it was a good question, although he had some trouble wording his explanation in a way that somebody without a proper background in chemistry would understand it. “It is in essence the combination of the three substances that causes the explosion. As I’ve told you before, potassium nitrate provides oxygen which leads to an accelerated burn rate and a lot of heat being released at once. All of this forces the gunpowder outwards, igniting more and more of it in the process. Does that answer your question?”

He gave Sintih a few moments to think about what he had said before he turned to answer his next question. The boy seemed to be almost overly excited. Apparently his appetite for explosions had not been satisfied yet. Was he not aware of how dangerous it was? He did not approve of Sintih’s attitude at all, but at the same time he had to admit that his idea was interesting, despite the way it had been worded and would probably even work.

“One could possibly also use nails rather than arrows and rocks”, he pointed out. “In the right hands and with the right components this could be a powerful weapon.” He stopped here for a moment because he was not entirely sure how to proceeded. Would he not be contradicting himself if he allowed Sintih to give him a demonstration now after telling him that explosive should only be handled by experts?

But he was an expert, and if he helped Sintih and watched him he would likely be able to keep him from accidentally committing suicide by experimenting with explosives and sharp objects which was better than the alternative. “You may give me a brief demonstration”, he thus said, somewhat reluctantly and stepped further away from where he thought Sintih would conduct his demonstration, just in case.

“But I want you to keep my warnings in mind. Be careful, try to curb your enthusiasm and stay focused. I don’t want to spend the rest of the trial here, cleaning, because you managed to blow yourself into pieces and spill your blood everywhere.”

[Sintih]

There was a big grin on his face, for just a moment, when Doran said he was right. It didn't happen often, or rather never, so it felt like a big reward to the curious Yludih. The grin vanished together with the imaginary farm the farmer was protecting as Doran explained how using it wrongly might explode the entire place together with the knights. As usual, Doran's boring but somehow much more experienced mind had it all figured out as he gave Sintih a clear vision of what would really go down. But even with the scholar's words, Sintih's face kept it's excited look on it.

When Doran told him he could make colored explosions in basically all varieties of color, Sin wondered for a moment before just asking the man. "Is it so simple to change the colors of the explosions?" Sin had figured it took a whole involved process to turn an explosion from one color into another but the way Doran said made Sin think it was nothing more than putting some of those pellets into the explosion, barely more difficult than loading a crossbow. Well, for normal, healthy people of course. Sin set himself to work after Doran had explained and worked his way through his own ideas before presenting them to Doran. Despite him saying that he was no archer, Doran already had something in mind for firing the explosive arrows in a better way. Sin wasn't sure how he felt about someone saying they didn't know about something and then went on to say they were improving the exact something they didn't know anything about. But he kept it to himself for a moment as Doran explained his second question.

While he didn't really understand the details of what Doran was saying, his last words helped him understand the general idea behind it. So it was the mix of all of it together that made the blackpowder explode. Sin wasn't quite sure why he had asked in the first place but it didn't matter anymore. Whatever he had thought up earlier had gone and it wouldn't have worked either way. When Doran took a moment between answering the questions, Sin brought up his own thoughts, giving Doran something else to work with. "I don't think making a new machine to shoot the explosive arrows with it is a good idea. You should focus and make it usable with what is common now. The bow and arrow works so the bow and explosive arrow should work as well. It's just a matter of re-balancing them." It felt good to put Doran in his place for once.

Holding the little cylinder of explosive force, Sin was glad to hear Doran would let him demonstrate. Somehow, he always felt it was easier to learn or understand something if you saw it. The only thing it didn't work with was magic, but that was something different all together. When Doran finished his warning, Sin gave a grin. He wasn't quite sure if Doran had been serious or joking about cleaning up his remains or not but Sin figured that it was whatever he made from it. "I can assure you that you'll never have to clean my blood off of anything." He wasn't sure why he had worded it like that but Sin felt like Doran wouldn't be able to take anything important away from that, except maybe that Sin was a little overconfident for someone about to blow up his second explosive ever.

With the tube in hand, Sin walked over to the corner formed by the walls, just behind the crater. His test wouldn't work in the hole blown in the ground. As he walked he looked around and picked up as many bits and pieces of blown up keg wood and bent iron he could find. It was obvious that the force of the explosion was more than strong enough to completely tear and bend the iron at will. He planted the explosive tube on the ground, with the fuse upwards and piled up all the pieces he had found in front of it. He held his hand over the explosive near his feet and opened his fingers trying to imagine how it would push the scrap outward. He kept one longer piece of metal in his hand which he used to make a line from the edge of the cylinder to the side of the pile of scrap. He pulled a line in the extension of the two points all the way to one of the wall forming the corner and the the same in the other direction. The scrap was placed so that it would be flung towards the stone corner and not in their direction, hopefully.

Putting his little metal stick on the pile as well, Sin walked back to the crate of stuff Doran had brought in and started rummaging through it. He found a lantern with a broken glass cover on one side and a clay cup. He also fished out some other things, most of which would shatter from an explosion. "Is there another bunn-.. Ah!" Sin pulled out another stuffed, but much older, toy. It was missing an eye and was losing its filling through the tear under its arm. Why did university students leave so many toys behind? With his loot in hand, Sin walked back to the construction he was making. He placed the broken lantern on one side, just outside the line and the cup on the other. The other things were placed along the walls towards the corner with the stuffed animal in the middle, right in the corner.

Sin gave another look over his setup, trying to visualize an explosion that he didn't truly understand, apart from the fact that it had almost killed from further away than the explosion could reach, much like magic. He turned to his little explosion and saw the fuse sticking out of it. Suddenly, there was hesitation in his person. He pulled his teeth over his bottom lip as he looked down at it. "Would it be possible to make the..." Sin pointed down at the explosive cylinder. "...thing longer? What was it called? Fhoos or something?" Sin waited for Doran's answer, hoping that he could. He wasn't too keen on lighting this and then running away for his life, literally. The stack of loose scrap lay in front of it, mocking the cut on his cheek.

Once Doran was done and safely back where he was before, Sin lit the, now longer, fuse on the small explosive and ran across the crater towards the safe space from where they had watched the other, bigger explosions. Before he even got there, there was a loud sound behind him, less loud than before but much more frightening for the running Yludih. Sin came to a sliding halt on the grass and turned around, patting himself down in the process to check for any pieces of metal sticking out of him. He waited for a moment to let the smoke clear before he moved in to check on his first, real, experiment. He was curious to see the results but not curious enough that he didn't move carefully.

When he arrived at the scene, there was a much smaller singed area in the grass and barely more than a dent in the ground. The pile of scrap had been moved, with various pieces stuck in the ground between the explosion and the wall. As Sintih had thought, none of the pieces had been pulled in their direction through the explosion but instead everything had been pushed away from it. His lines, however, were completely wrong. Both the cup and the lantern were shattered and the wall had various pieces of metal sticking out of it now. His previous ruler had been flung outwards and had lodged itself in between two bricks, still smoking from the explosion.

Some of the items had been cut or broken by the flying scrap but there were some that had taken no visible damage. The stuffed animal he had put exactly in the corner had somehow survived the explosion. Most likely, the pile of scrap had been too heavy for the explosion to move with ease. "Interesting." Sin muttered to himself. He was looking at the line he had drawn in the ground which should have been the widest edge of the explosion or the range of the flying scrap. The broken cup and lantern told him otherwise. He lingered for only a moment to pick up the largest piece of the cup before returning to Doran. "If we could use the explosions with nails or scrap metal like here we could make a single arrow or cylinder much more powerful. Instead of just the single boom and smoke and noise, you'd have panic everywhere due to the range of the flying scrap. One arrow could take out multiple enemies this way." He started off talking with the same excitement from before but as he explained it, his own realization brought forth images of death and destruction and his voice slowed as his eyes widened in shock. "Maybe... maybe this isn't such a good idea..."

[Doran]

“It is simple if you have a proper background in chemistry“, Doran informed Sintih and met his gaze. A proper background in chemistry was of course something that the Yludih didn’t have, at least not yet. Perhaps, the Mortalborn thought with somewhat uncharacteristic, but not entirely unwarranted optimism – some of the boy’s ideas, poorly worded as they had been, clearly had potential - he would eventually get there though – if he applied himself.

“The components need to be prepared and mixed a certain way and in a certain order. Besides, what I told you about the correct percentages when we made gunpowder applies here as well. For the red glow that I previously mentioned that would 65% potassium chlorate, 15% strontium nitrate and 20% shellac for example.”

Having said that, he fell silent again and listened to Sintih’s thoughts on fire arrows. His own statements regarding that matter had of course not only been born of arrogance, although a part of him thought himself above mere mortals. There was more to such matters than knowing how to handle a weapon. A functioning mind and a background in the sciences could often get you a long way, and before you could implement something in practice, you needed to work out the theory, at least as far as he was concerned.

“Perhaps”, he remarked. He was not entirely above admitting that he might have been slightly wrong. “Perhaps it is simply a matter of rebalancing things, but with a new machine such as the one that I have in mind you could potentially launch more than one arrow at the same time, use greater amounts of gunpowder - and use the soldiers that would normally be shooting at the enemy for something else.”

His father, he thought with some contempt, would likely disapprove if he could hear him now. No, he amended, Ziell would be horrified if he knew that his son was discussing warfare and theorizing about the use of explosives in a battle. The so called Immortal of Peace had always been something of an idealist and a coward who didn’t realize that violence was an inherent part of mortalkind and that world peace just wasn’t possible. All you could do was try and be stronger and better than the rest of them.

“I sincerely hope so”, he remarked as Sintih assured him that he would never have to clean his blood off anything. As he said that, he wondered if Yludih even bled or if they just emitted light when wounded. It was something that he would have to research later on, he decided. If he continued to work with Sintih he needed to know what his strengths and weaknesses were and if he had any special abilities. Perhaps he wasn’t quite as vulnerable as a normal Eidisi.

As the Yludih began to collected pieces of woods and iron the Mortalborn was ready to reconsider his decision to let him experiment with explosives. But then again, he realized, he had conducted similarly dangerous experiments when he had been younger – and he was still alive. Perhaps, he decided, he needed to have a little faith in the boy. Or perhaps not, he thought as Sintih started talking about something called ‘fhoos’. For a moment the Mortalborn just looked at him incredulously before he asked,

“Did you mean a fuse? If you want to become a scientist, you need to learn the correct terms, Sintih. But to answer your question, yes, it is possible to make a longer fuse. It is quite easy in fact. It is just a matter of using a longer piece of rope.”

As Sintih did just that and then lit the longer fuse the Mortalborn felt the strange and somewhat childish urge to hide somewhere, but he forced himself to remain where he was and watch instead. There was a loud boom, and for a moment the meadow was filled with smoke. As the smoke cleared he realized that Sintih was still standing and seemed to be relatively unharmed. Apparently, he thought with some relief, he wouldn’t have to pick up Yludih pieces that trial although it would have been interesting to find out what Sintih looked like on the inside.

“Interesting, indeed”, he agreed. The explosion hadn’t been perfect, but he could see the potential. “On the contrary”, he continued as he saw the look of shock on the boy’s face. It seemed somewhat uncharacteristic to him. Sintih had been so eager to blow things up before. Was he suddenly having second thoughts? Doran himself had no problem if his inventions were used to kill and cause widespread destruction. The death of others left him largely unaffected.

“It is an excellent idea. A weapon such as this one could revolutionize warfare.”

[Sintih]

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omething told Sin that he might have made a mistake questioning Doran's ability to make differently colored explosions. His answer seemed to be a little cold, colder than usual, as if he felt insulted by Sin's question. The gaze he sent in Sin's direction only made the impression stronger. Just like before, Doran slipped into an explanation about different percentages and using different things to make them, none of which Sin knew. They had all sorts of different and highly scholarly names that most people would never use in their entire existence but Doran kept talking about them. Maybe someday he'd actually write some of this down but for now, Sin was mostly interested in the exploding arrows and the scrap explosion.

His thoughts on Doran's intent on building a new arrow launching machine seemed to be completely set aside the moment he brought them forth. Why was it always so difficult to get along with Doran? He rarely ever seemed to appreciate that Sin was here and yet he kept pushing him further along the path. It was confusing for Sin, not knowing whether he was wanted, even encouraged, to be here or if Doran just let him poke around a little because his mother had somehow arranged for him to be taught by the scholar. Not wanting to upset Doran more than he had already done, Sin kept any further comments on the arrow firing machine subject to himself.

It took him only a bit of time to get back on that taught as Doran looked at him as if he was an idiot after mentioning the fuse thing. Not only was he expected to know a bunch of names for things he'd never even seen before in his life but now the scholar seemed to expect that he knew how to pronounce the things perfectly from the first or second try. After his reprimand, Sin replaced the fuse with blush on his cheeks, brought on by the heat pushed from his asterism to his cheek crystals. Now there was an annoying effect of the illusion. If he could just learn to control them he'd turn that off from the start. No more blushing.

As he flexed his jaw, trying to get rid of the shrill peeping noise in his ears, he looked over the damage done by his explosion. While the first explosion had had a more satisfying visual and audible result, this one seemed to have done much the same damage with only a fraction of the needed gunpowder. The difference between a keg and a little cylinder of the stuff was quite obvious by the burn marks on the grass. He looked from the destruction caused to Doran, who seemed wholly unaffected by the possibilities of such a weapon. Why did it not surprise him that Doran had no regard for other people's lives?

In order to get a hold of himself, Sin walked back towards the most recent explosion and went to fetch the animal toy that had survived the onslaught of scrap. He dusted it off casually, brushing away dust and dirt from the already dirty stuffed animal. Doran was right. People died in war all the time what did it matter how they died. Cut open or run through with a weapon, left to scream their lungs out until they had bled to death or instant death at the hands of a keg of this blackpowder? There was very little difference in how dead you'd be at the end of it. With the stuffed toy in hand, Sin walked back towards Doran. "You're right. This would change the way we fight, and win, wars. Providing this to Rynmere would give us an advantage for several arcs to come over anyone trying to stand against us. That said, all these loud explosions are starting to give me a headache, I think I'll call it a day after this."

Sin nodded, more to himself than to Doran, before putting the stuffed animal back in the box. "So? Did you want to do a demonstration of your flying explosion? How does it work? Do you just shoot it up and hope it explodes up there?" It seemed that his previous excitement had mostly returned as he waited for Doran to explain how the flying explosions worked. "What color is this one going to be?"

[Doran]

The Mortalborn watched with a hint of amusement as Sintih want to fetch the animal toy. Apparently, he thought, the boy was really going to keep it as a trophy. Or perhaps, he considered, he merely pitied it. “We should think carefully about who we share our work with”, he remarked and pulled his gaze away from the toy as Sintih spoke about providing the explosives to Rynmere. Rynmere was where he had been born and where he lived now, but there were some aspects of the kingdom that he didn’t like, especially the knights and everything they entailed. Besides, there were other cities and other countries that would likely offer a lot more money for such a weapon.

“I agree though. We should call it a day. I can feel the beginnings of a headache myself”, he admitted and resisted the urge to rub his forehead. He could feel a dull, throbbing sensation there, and for a moment, after the latest explosion, there had been a strange ringing in his ears. It would not be a good idea to show too much weakness though, he decided, especially not in front of Beira’s son, and thus he held himself completely straight. “Perhaps we should use something to protect our ears when we experiment with explosives next.” Having said that, he watched as Sin put the stuffed animal into the box. That move surprised him. Apparently, he realized, Sintih wasn’t as immature as he had thought.

The flying explosion. Doran nodded curtly as Sintih asked him about it and went to retrieve the tube that he had prepared. He’d almost forgotten about it over all that talk about inventing new weapons, another sign that it would be better to end their lesson soon. “That’s exactly how it works”, he spoke as Sintih talked about shooting it up and hoping that it exploded. With that he lit the fuse and then quickly moved back to Sintih. A moment later there was a loud sound, and then the tube rose into the air where it exploded in a multitude of crimson sparks. It was of course not as impressive as it would have been at night, but still quite a sight to see.

“The explosion is, as you can see, red”, he remarked and turned back to face Sintih. He hesitated for a moment before he spoke, somewhat reluctantly, but in a noticeably friendlier tone before, “You did well today, Sintih. I would not be averse to another meeting should you be interested. There is much that we could discuss.” With that he began to clean up the chaos they had created, gesturing for Sintih to help him. If the boy thought he could just leave now that he had had his fun and let him do the work, he would be sorely disappointed.

[Niv]

Doran

Knowledge:

Alchemy: gun powder in involves many of the same steps as making phosphorescent powder.
Alchemy: Using phosphorescence on armour.
Chemistry: Gun powder is more stable then the liquid or gaseous type explosives.
Chemistry: Gunpowder is made of charcoal, Sulphur and saltpeter
Chemistry: Saltpeter also known as Potassium Nitrate.
Chemistry: Using the right percentages is essential.
Chemistry: Sulfer and the charcoal as fuels, while the saltpeter provides the oxygen for the reaction.
Chemistry: Sulphur is made of Sulphur, but there are also combined forms such as sulfide and sulfate
Chemistry: oxygen is needed for oxidation reactions, after ignition the reaction produces it’s own oxygen
Chemistry: moisten explosive materials for safety reasons.
Chemistry: Mix 65% potassium chlorate, 15% strontium nitrate and 20% shellac to burn red.
Chemistry: use ear protection when dealing with explosives.
Interrogation: A follower of Ilaren eh?
Linguistics: People have a fondness for abbreviations
Linguistics: Some words are loaned from other languages.
Medicine: Wounds heal better if you don’t touch them.
Mathematics: Percentage Is a number or a ratio expressed as a fraction of one hundred
Mathematics: Percentage is another word for fraction
Teaching: Never let students near explosives until their second arc of studies
Physics: Adding a stick to your flame arrows as a guidance system.
Teaching: Don’t pick favourites.
Teaching: Be tough but fair
Teaching: some people learn better through practical exercises.
Teaching: don’t be serious all the time.
Teaching: There are no dumb questions.
Teaching: Make sure your wording is clear.
Tactics: using phosphorescence to deceive the enemy during a battle and make the army look smaller than it really is.
Tactics: Explosives have their uses in a battle especially in ranged combat.
Tactics: Flame arrows can be substitutes for signal horns or other means of communicating during a battle.
Tactics: Adding nails and such to explosives to take out more enemies
Tactics: Rebalancing things so that more explosive arrows could be shot
Sintih: More like his mother Beira
Sintih: More a mage and a scientist than a warrior
Sintih: suddenly behaving exceptionally well.
Sintih: Flexible with his worship
Sintih: Doesn’t have hero worship, might still be hope for him.
Immortals: Unlikely to draw their attention if you worship to many of them.

Loot: 

N/A

Injuries: 

N/A

Fame:

1 General good deed

Magic:

These points can be used for Alchemy

Devotion:

N/A

Story: 

5/5
Good job I like reading about your surly half immortal professor.

Collaboration:

5/5
You played of each other very well

Structure:

5/5
I didn’t notice any grammatical errors.

Sintih

Knowledge:

Acting: Trying to contain your boyish excitement
Acting: Need to learn to turn of the illusion of blush.
Alchemy: gun powder in involves many of the same steps as making phosphorescent powder.
Alchemy: Using phosphorescence on armour.
Appraisal: This arrow is unbalanced
Chemistry: the power of gunpowder
Chemistry: Gun powder is more stable then the liquid or gaseous type explosives.
Chemistry: cover your ears when things explode
Chemistry: Gunpowder is made of charcoal, Sulphur and saltpeter
Chemistry: Saltpeter also known as Potassium Nitrate.
Chemistry: Using the right percentages is essential.
Chemistry: Sulfer and the charcoal as as fuels, while the saltpeter provides the oxygen for the reaction.
Chemistry: Sulphur is made of Sulphur, but there are also combined forms such as sulfide and sulfate
Chemistry: oxygen is needed for oxidation reactions, after ignition the reaction produces it’s own oxygen
Chemistry: moisten explosive materials for safety reasons, but not too much.
Chemistry: Mix 65% potassium chlorate, 15% strontium nitrate and 20% shellac to burn red.
Chemistry: if you want to be a scientist you need to know the terms.
Discipline: always listen to the teachers warnings.
Drawing: Charcoal is easy to use and good for sketching
Endurance: A sliver of debris lodged into the cheek
Interrogation: Whats this rabbit toy all about?
Linguistics: People have a fondness for abbreviations
Linguistics: Some words are loaned from other languages.
Medicine: Wounds heal better if you don’t touch them.
Mathematics: Percentage Is a number or a ratio expressed as a fraction of one hundred
Mathematics: Percentage is another word for fraction
Mathematics: Weighing chemistry ingredients
Mathematics: Calculating percentage ratios of bomb ingredients.
Physiology: No sense in arguing religion because no one is ever wrong.
Tactics: using phosphorescence to deceive the enemy during a battle and make the army look smaller than it really is.
Tactics: Explosives have their uses in a battle especially in ranged combat.
Tactics: Flame arrows can be substitutes for signal horns or other means of communicating during a battle.
Tactics: With flying explosives anyone could wield power as strong as domain magic.
Tactics: Adding nails and such to explosives to take out more enemies
Tactics: Rebalancing things so that more explosive arrows could be shot
What a fuse is.
Doran: he can make jokes sometimes.
Doran: Speaks to you like a child
Doran: no respect for others lives
Immortals: Don’t worship to many of them because it could be dangerous.

Loot: 

N/A

Injuries: 

a small cut on the cheek thats probably healed by now.

Fame:

N/A

Magic:

These points can can be used for Alchemy

Devotion:

N/A

Story: 

5/5
I love the description you put into your ylundih illusion.

Collaboration:

5/5
You played of each other very well

Structure:

5/5
I didn’t notice any grammatical errors.



Art credit to Yoshitaka Amano