--- Kat ---

"Why are you still stirring it?" asked Kat. If what was going on could even be called ’stirring’. The potion was mostly frozen over at this point and while it was slush in some parts, in most it was frozen solid. Appoline was constantly breaking the ice into shards and was trying to stir it into a slush. No new ingredients had been added for around ten minutes either and yet she hadn’t asked Kat to ease up on the demonic fire.

"Because it’s not finished," said Appoline as if that was all there was to say about it.

"That’s... well I guess not because you’re still stirring it but what does that even mean?" asked Kat.

"Ah, I have to concentrate a bit so my answer was insufficient just let me..." Appoline pulled on the stirring rod she was using a few times, cracking more ice before adding a pinch of powder from the table... and just a pinch. Kat hadn’t even thought it was an ingredient, just the leftovers from one of the roots she’d added earlier. "Alright this should be mostly stable for the moment.

"Let me explain. The potion here, simply isn’t finished. It’s partially something I can tell from experience, and partially just a fact. If I was to stop stirring the potion would destabilise, or perhaps just freeze completely and do... nothing really. It’s not a stable effect and I can’t store this as it is now. I’m just... less sure what I can do to fix things..." grumbled Appoline.

"I could stop with my demonic energy?" offered Kat.

Appoline immediately shook her head. "No that’s not going to help here at this point. One of the big rules of alchemy is never to take the potion off the flames once you’ve started. Sure it’s one that you can ignore, and sometimes there aren’t any flames... but for a potion I’ve made specifically to see what your demonic energy will do? Stopping now would just freeze everything into a useless mess."

"Wait... it would freeze if I stopped?" asked Kat.

"Yes," confirmed Appoline.

Kat glanced from Appoline, down to the frozen cauldron, and then further to her demonic fire... her ice aligned demonic fire. "How the heck does THAT work? Isn’t my demonic fire making it colder?"

"Yes but it’s still conceptually fire, considering the fact that it’s... well fire. It means that it has some properties of fire despite being cold, and in this case, the lack of a fire would mean that the potion can freeze completely. I suppose in theory I could swap over to a normal fire but I don’t think that’s powerful enough to offset your demonic flame’s influence, and if it was that sort of defeats experiment here."

"Alright... so how do you finish it then?" asked Kat as she glanced at the cauldron. It really wasn’t getting closer to a liquid. While some of it was become slush, other parts were re-freezing into a solid once again before Appoline would circle back around with the stirring rod. She had to be extra careful with the edges and the centre, as they weren’t always shifted around when she completed a circular pass.

"I’m not quite sure yet. I think it needs one or two more ingredients to stabilise... or I could add a bunch of things to offset the cold somewhat. I don’t want to do the latter... but I don’t know what ingredients I need and I can’t go off to grab them because I need to keep stirring. I think this one is ending in a failure truth be told. I’m just trying to see if I can avoid that, or learn something interesting from the attempt," explained Appoline.

Kat shrugged and continued to supply demonic energy to the fire for a while longer before Appoline eventually sighed and gave her the signal to cut it off. Kat did so, and was surprised to watch as the contents of the cauldron froze immediately and then started to break down. Before long, all that was left was a bit of grey-ish ice on the bottom of the cauldron. "What? where did it all go?"

"The magic in the cauldron dissipated when it froze," explained Appoline. "This meant it just sort of collapsed afterwards and what remains is mostly the impurities."

"Wait but... ok... why didn’t the ice keep it trapped?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged. "I had a feeling it wouldn’t but the specifics as to WHY it didn’t keep things trapped... well I’m not actually sure. My best guess is that it just wasn’t stable enough and the ice literally cracked into pieces so the magic could escape through those cracks. Perhaps if I held it all in place? Hmmm..."

Kat let out a long breath of air as she shook out her hands. She didn’t really need to, her regeneration helped with the stiffness, and she hadn’t needed to keep a hand out towards the flames to keep feeding it demonic energy... but she’d done that anyway. It just felt correct. Kat could also feel Lily waking up once again, so she could join in on the experimentation if she wanted.

Appoline moved away to grab some more ingredients as Kat waited for Lily to wake up. She managed it before Appoline returned. *All clear?*

[All clear. What have you been doing? Creating more culinary abominations?]

*Hey my sculptures didn’t look THAT bad. I think they turned out pretty well considering I didn’t really have much of an idea what I was doing and I got better as I made more things. As for what’s going on? Appoline is currently trying to make potions using my demonic fire.*

[Isn’t that a super bad idea? Why go along with it?]

*Because it turns out it isn’t a bad idea. I guess we were underestimating the amount of demonic energy required to corrupt something... but it seems like helping her brew like this isn’t a problem. D.E.M.O.N.S was actually willing to tell me a decent amount, or at least, assure me that this was safe enough.*

[Huh... I’ll go look at that.]

*Yeah, though before you go, I’m assuming there hasn’t been any signs of people coming through.*

[Nope nothing, and I’ve even left a few bits of paper around to make it harder to sneak in and out without my knowledge. I’ve left a couple of small bits in the corners of the stairs, one near the door, and a bunch in that hole we made, making it sort of seem like I made the pathway with a paper magic drill or something similar.]

*Interesting... it’s a nice plan. I assume you’re doing this so you can see evidence of someone coming through?*

[Pretty much. It’s not like we can hide the fact that we were there. The people who know, know. The specifics however? I’m pretty sure you didn’t even cover those with Steel, so that means it’s just the Furen and us that know, and Furen doesn’t know everything even with that.]

*A good point, a good point indeed.* Kat returned her focus to the present as Appoline came over with two floating boxes of ingredients. She started to spread them out onto the table, only to realise that there wasn’t quite enough room. Kat was about to offer to go grab another one when she just started to shift the boxes around and ensured that things were in reach. "Alright, I’m good to continue. I’m going to try to create a healing potion, or at least, a healing adjacent potion this time and I don’t plan to stop unless it collapses on me," stated Appoline.

"Well, Lily is listening in now. She’s awake and ready for any insight you can give. As for the idea, I’m fine with it. Though... considering it’s a healing potion..." [Kat...] "Would some of my blood help?" offered Kat.

Appoline made a ’so-so’ gesture with her hand. "Maybe. In theory yes, in practice not right now. I’m trying to investigate demonic energy and how it effects my brewing. Your blood is likely a hugely powerful ingredient, especially considering your true power and how strong your regeneration has always been.

"Even if I was more experienced I’m not sure I have any ingredients that can compete with or enhance something like your blood. Think of it like... trying to fill up a shot glass except instead of using a bottle you’re using an entire pool, and if you spill too much of it you’ll have to start over."

"Oh... is it really that big of a deal?" asked Kat.

"Kat, you are a regeneration focused Rank 4 creature. Even a single drop of your blood would have major implications for the potion. While I have talked a lot about alchemy from an essence perspective, potions are at least a little bit conceptual and you are strong. Conceptually speaking, anything you offer me can simply ’win’ against the rest of the ingredients. All I’d have at the end of the brew would likely just be your blood. Perhaps slightly more concentrated, but that’s all. Maybe it would work to replenish your blood if I added some expensive ingredients... but you don’t even need that," grumbled Appoline.

"Alright I get it," said Kat with her hands up.