--- Kat ---

Kat was staring down at the cauldron, and Lily was looking through her eyes. Both were thoroughly confused. The potion was snowing. Somehow. Instead of freezing over it was bubbling, except those bubbles were somehow snow and it didn’t seem to be reducing the amount of liquid in the cauldron. It was really weird to watch and the snowflakes disappeared into nothing soon after touching the ground... but it was hard to be sure that was a magical effect or if they were just melting. It isn’t like it was particularly cold, or that there was enough snow to properly pile up.

"So... is this a good thing?" asked Kat.

Appoline nodded. "Yes, quite good actually. It’s a rather tame effect and the ingredients seem to be synergising well. I think it’s going to be frostbite healing potion, which are quite valuable,"

"It is? Do normal potions not heal frostbite?" asked Kat.

"No sadly they don’t... or I suppose it would be more accurate to say that they will work if the limb is somewhat salvageable but after a certain threshold, usually when the limb stops being ’alive’, then you need something stronger. Normally. This potion feels like it would work even on a completely frozen limb. Which I suppose makes sense considering the ingredients used here," explained Appoline.

"So... it’s good?" offered Kat.

"Eh... it’s neat certainly. Despite being in such a cold environment technically, nobody is ever to go outside so it’s not like we need it often. Usually it would be more expensive to make so having some in storage will be nice. If you don’t mind, I’ll probably make one or two additional batches for storage... but yeah they won’t get used up terribly fast unless we have a whole team getting caught outside all at once," explained Appoline.

"That’s fine. Honestly, keeping my flames running for so long is a nice bit of mental exercise. Especially because I need to keep watch on it to make sure it doesn’t either ramp up or extinguish itself," sighed Kat.

"Oh? Is it not something you can simply hold?" asked Appoline.

"I mean... it’s not exactly hard to keep an eye on it but I’m not sure I could be doing something that took up too much effort on the side. For the moment the brew is interesting enough that I can just watch it and keep an eye on the flames but if I was... say... reading a book I might mess up occasionally," explained Kat. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Appoline nodded and continued on the potion. It didn’t take too long to wrap it up. The cauldron continued to spew out snowflakes, though some ingredients would cause the snow to change colour for a bit, it always seemed to drift back to normal while Appoline mixed the ingredients. When it finished, the whole potion pulsed once and then looked like it froze over.

Kat was about to apologise, thinking she’d messed up on the amount of demonic energy... except Appoline looked quite pleased and when she scooped the ’solid’ into potion bottles it acted as you’d expect it to, assuming it was still a liquid. Because apparently it still was. Kat glared at the odd frozen solid looking liquid. "Why does it look like that?" asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "I feel like I’ve mentioned this before but nobody really knows why completed potions take on exotic, and usually slightly relevant effects. Especially when they tend to be the same even with different ingredients. In this case, because it’s frostbite potion I suppose it looks like ice. Though I would’ve expected a red tinge... unless this potion actually induces frostbite instead of curing it... hmm..."

"Wait that’s possible?" asked Kat, now far more worried about the bottles of ’ice’ on the table.

"It’s certainly not impossible. The difference between poison and medicine is the dosage after all and the same can be true when crafting potions. Plenty of ones meant to heal have poisons or destructive elements in them. The stuff I have for mine and Furen’s necks just being a great example has that balance if you still remember. Here though... it doesn’t really feel like it would cause frostbite... except maybe if you’re healthy? Hmmm..." mumbled Appoline.

"Wait... so that sounds like it DOES cause frostbite..." countered Kat.

"Well... it seems like it will remove it if you have it... and maybe cause it if you don’t. Not sure on that second part, it’d need to be tested... I wonder if animal testing is viable for this one?" mumbled Appoline. "Regardless, let’s get started on something else. I’ve got more tests to run,"

"Perhaps breakfast first?" offered Kat.

"Ah, yes, that’s an idea..." mumbled Appoline. With that decided the pair headed back inside and found that the other three people in the house were playing cards in the living room with a bunch of snacks. Kat supposed they’d already eaten their fill, or at least were on their way to it. Appoline, upon seeing this had her eyes light up.

A quick glance at Kat got a shrug in return, resulting in Appoline grabbing one of the pre-prepared meals and heading back outside ready to begin her work again. Kat had snacked plenty while making said snacks last night and didn’t feel the need to eat breakfast, so this was fine with her. It wasn’t like her demonic energy reserves had actually gone down during these experiments, even if there was... a bit of something from using them so long. Kat wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad feeling yet, but it was something.

"What’s your next plan?" asked Kat.

"Well, potions made with your demonic fire seem quite interested in freezing so my next attempt is going to be a ’blizzard in a bottle’ essentially. A potion that you break on the ground and cause a small ice storm. Well I don’t actually know what size it will be when I stabilise it, but I’m not aiming for it to be too large... wouldn’t want to use it against an annoying group and level the building..." admitted Appoline.

"That’s possible?" asked Kat looking at the empty cauldron warily.

"I should be able to feel the difference," asserted Appoline.

*On the one hand, that’s not as reassuring as I think she wanted it to be. On the other hand, I’m kind of curious to see how it turns out.* "I guess it’ll be something new then," agreed Kat with a shrug.

Except... "Oh, no I’ve made something like this before but your flames are arguably a good deal more powerful an ingredient. I’m currently trying to work out which ingredients are strictly necessary and which I can cut back on because if I added everything you would usually need I’m quite sure it would level a street," explained Appoline.

[Ha, makes me wonder if her ancestors are the reason why this place has such messed up seasons.]

*You joke but it’s possible. Probably not with alchemy, but maybe an enchantment of some kind? Though I’d expect Weaver to know if something like that was still active...*

[Hmmm... yeah that does make sense. Surely if they were active they’d be something she’d need to work around... or would they just be ’part of the environment’ if they’re older than Weaver is?]

Hmmm... you’d know more about space manipulation then me. What do you think?

[I think I have no idea how Weaver does it, especially when she’s technically Thyme. I think... that it would be detectable but I’m not sure how obviously.]

While Kat and Lily debated the likelihood for Weaver to know of some grand enchantment around the island, Appoline was working on the next potion. This one, despite aiming for more snow, was arguably calmer. The snow seemed confined to the cauldron and never left it. At least at the beginning.

"Cut the flames," shouted Appoline. Kat did as asked immediately and Appoline reached down to the cauldron and hurled it away from the rest of the ingredients. It was a good thing she did because as it hit the ground the insides exploded outwards in a thick goopy mist that settled on the grass. Where it landed it started to freeze the ground nearby as well.

"What went wrong?" asked Kat.

"Hmmm... I think the ’shape’ of the potion was wrong. The air aligned ingredients didn’t have enough of a chance to breathe and the more water and ice aligned things I added in to true and ensure that it wasn’t all wind seem to have taken over the potion. If I hadn’t thrown it away when I did the entire thing likely would’ve exploded into an ice storm before we finished and that would’ve ruined the rest of my ingredients," grumbled Appoline.

"I can see why that would be annoying... do you plan to keep going with that potion?" asked Kat.

"I might as well," confirmed Appoline. "It still seems useful and this is an easily fixed mistake. Do let me know if you’re getting bored or tired though, for I likely will not."