Maker of Fire

Emily, Building Shrine, Omexkel, , Cold season, 4th rot., later on the 9th day

I am such an idiot. After I told Aylem "not yet" on more fireworks, she and Imstay politely asked how quickly I could make more. I spent the afternoon writing down recipes for fireworks. Huhoti promptly made more empty fireworks casings, which were different from the mortar shells since they didn't require the mercury fulminate fuse that screwed onto the top. Twee happily made up more "rocket candy" propellant and loaded it into the shells.

Aduda's buddies, Masters Boi and Koifu, cheerfully volunteered to mix up my recipes for fireworks and pack the thick paper spheres under the watchful eye of Twee, who was now well-versed on how to be safe in handling explosives. I was amused when he started his safety lecture about how not to make a spark and how to handle toxic chemicals.

For my simple recipes, I didn't need the binder usually added for black powder-based recipes since the sugar was its own binder. What I wanted in the worst way was a chlorine donor to enhance the colors, but that could wait. Huhoti gave me some cuprite to use to make blue. Aylem made me some powdered aluminum for brilliant white. I used calcined gypsum for orange and sodium nitrate for yellow. If I made fireworks in the future, I would need to make thick cardboard shells instead of brass.

The powers that be wanted to discuss the demonstration with the mortar and the trip to Sussbesschem, so Tom and I made the hike from the foundry and research buildings, past the logarithmic spiral of the Shrine building, to the opposite side of the grounds where Raoleer had her residence. Before we reached the meeting room door, I was stopped in the hallway by the behemoth of Irralray.

"Great One, I need to speak with you for a moment," she accosted me. She then raised an eyebrow at Tom, "If you would be so kind, Revered One, I would like a word with the Blessed Emily alone."

Tom bowed with the perfect deference of a revered personage for a high priestess. I was amazed since I had no idea where he picked that up. "Your will, Holy One. I'll be inside, Em." He stepped on the foot latch and vanished inside the meeting room, leaving me with the scary and dour Irralray.

The first thing this high priestess and Princess of the First Degree did was sit on the floor in front of me in her beautiful dark green and red flying clothes. "I have something for you, Great One," she opened her belt pouch and removed a box that was a hand in area and about half a hand high. The opening was covered entirely in sealing wax.

She reacted to the confused face I must have made when she handed it to me, "It's a deadly poison for Coyn and will make most Cosm very ill. I do not know why I received instructions to give this to you. I was told to tell you that the contents of this box will make the color light blue."

"What sort of poison is it, Holy One?" I took the box. "Who told you this?"

This formidable and constantly frowning older lady shocked me by suddenly smiling. "I have you to thank, Great One. My deity, Erhonsay herself, spoke with me in person, not in a dream command. Though I worship and revere Erhonsay, I never expected her to visit me in person. Because of you, I have been blessed to see and hear her. I don't know if I can express how happy this makes me. I feel fulfilled that my god reached out to me."

I watched the door silently crack open, and one of Aylem's eyes peered out. I made no motions to indicate I had noticed her.

Irralray put her praying hands to her forehead and bowed her head to the floor before me, "I thank you, Great One, most sincerely." She sat up, "Erhonsay said the box was the color light blue, but to most people, what's inside is called the orange poison, though the best quality is a soft red crystal found near hot springs."

Her mention of Erhonsay brought to mind what Erhonsay told me in the vision at Truvos before the trial of that dreadful leatherworker woman. I knew what was in the box.

"You use this to kill vermin and undesirable plant growth, yes?" I asked.

"You know the orange poison?" Irralray asked, looking surprised. "We don't let Coyn handle it, ever. I felt strange that Erhonsay asked me to bring you some."

"I know it by the name of realgar, which is the mineral form of a chemical called arsenic sulfide," I shook my head. "When I had my vision of Erhonsay in Truvos, she told me to use this to make light blue fireworks. I guess she really wanted me to make some. The gods always surprise me with what they ask of me."

"That's an interesting face, Great One," Irralray stated, studying me. "What is wrong?"

"I better ask the Revered Huhoti to do the mixing on this stuff," I frowned in thought. "Arsenic is deadly for aquatic animals, like the Chem. We need to keep this away from Twee."

Aylem opened the door all the way, "Sorry for eavesdropping. I just asked Huhoti to come and take the box of arsenic back to the compounding room."

Irralray and I both looked up at Aylem in the doorway.

"Huh. That saves me from asking someone to take this over to her," I conceded.

Aylem leaned on the door jamb, "I've never figured out why arsenic here is orange or red, but on Earth, it was white."

"That's an easy one, Aylem," I responded, falling into teaching mode. "This is realgar, arsenic sulfide. It's one of the main ores of arsenic. The white stuff used as rat poison on Earth was arsenic trioxide. You can make it from the arsenic minerals of realgar and orpiment by roasting them in air. The sulfur is driven off and replaced by oxygen. Arsenic trioxide is a nastier poison because it's more water-soluble."

"Should I be scared that I actually understood you for once?" Aylem raised an eyebrow at me.

"Probably," I grinned at her, then turned back to Irralray. "Holy One, why don't you get off this inhospitable floor and come inside with me?"

Raoleer used her meeting room that was set up for both Cosm and Coyn. Cosm sat on overstuffed cushions on the carpeted floor, and Coyn sat on appropriately-scaled chairs. Roaleer had a sideboard set up with the usual offerings of tea and beer. As I sat down, she placed a hot beaker of tea next to me on the low table next to my chair. Tom already had a beaker of what looked like beer. Five Cosm were on the cushions: Aylem, Imstay, Irralray, Usruldes, and Raoleer.

Before anything else happened, I heard Huhoti's knock pattern on the door.

"Come," Raoleer said.

Huhoti bowed a partial obeisance, "Blessings on you all. I hear there is another firework ingredient."

"Here," I held the box up. "It's the orange poison, so don't let the boys or Twee handle it. You want to mix it yourself. Let me see." I started adding numbers, "Arsenic is seventy-five, sulfur is thirty-two, so the molecular weight is around a hundred-seven. Saltpeter is a hundred-one. Alright, this is easy. Huhoti, try using six parts by weight saltpeter, four parts sugar, and one part orange poison. Use three fuses. We want to make sure the mix explodes. And test it, please. The color is supposed to be light blue."

"Egghead," Tom accused me, using the English word. Aylem snickered.

"Thank you, dear," I said smugly.

"Anytime, love," he responded, right off our old script.

"What is saltpeter?" Irralray asked.

"It's Emily's word for niter," Aylem explained.

"Why are we using a poison?" Huhoti asked me, looking dubious.

"Erhonsay requested it and sent this box with the Holy Irralray to ensure it happened sooner than later."

"Seriously?" Tom asked me, a bit wide-eyed. "A god asked you to make light blue fireworks?"

"More than one, actually," I replied without thinking. That was a mistake.

"Wait," Aylem held up a hand, "more than one god has asked you to make fireworks?"

I realized that what I took as an annoyance by the gods would be considered divine commands by the Convocation. The bottom fell out of my stomach. "Yes, a few of them hinted that I could make fireworks as an alternative non-deadly use for the mortar."

"Emily, when did this happen?" Aylem bore down on me, not letting me wiggle out of this.

"They were just suggestions," I tried not to sound defensive. I didn't succeed.

"When and which gods, Emily?" Aylem was not going to let up.

"The first was Vassu, who said I would be making fireworks. That was when the gods kidnapped me after I fell off the bluff into the river when Arma and Twee, and I escaped from the Impotu fort. Vassu said she looked forward to my making fireworks and suggested selenium, which burns with a blue color, but it's not easy to find and refine."

"That was almost a half year ago, Emily," Aylem gave me a rather parental look. "You didn't mention fireworks when you recounted your time with the gods."

"It was just a passing mention by Vassu. It wasn't like any of the important stuff, like extending the uncertainty principle to orthogonal time," I protested.

"So when did Erhonsay mention fireworks?" Aylem persisted.

"In Truvos, when she appeared before Kayseo and me," I sighed.

"You left that out of the account you gave Kamagishi," Aylem accused.

"It was just stupid fireworks, Aylem, dumb old useless fireworks. It's not like they're important, and they had nothing to do with the trial," I snapped. This was going nowhere fast. "Aren't we supposed to be talking about my taking Twee to Sussbesschem and hiring some ships in Inkalem?"

Tom slid his chair next to mine and put his arm around me. "Jane Paxton," he switched to English, "would you please stop intimidating my girl?"

Aylem clenched her fists and began to turn red. She dropped her head and closed her eyes. I could tell she was counting to ten. The room became still. I was scared. It was evident from his confused expression that Tom had no idea what Aylem could do. The silence continued for a while as Aylem fought her temper for control.

Aylem finally exhaled and looked at me with a deep frown creasing a valley between her eyebrows. When she started speaking again, it was in a calm and gentle voice. "Emily, dear heart, you might not think so, but this is important. Every communication between you and the gods is important, even the parts you think are trivial. The way you think is different from everyone else, so you may not be the best judge of what the gods tell you."

I took in a shuddering breath, having lost my own composure. I tried to answer but couldn't get any words out.

My rescue came from an unexpected source.

"I believe we should take a short break," suggested Irralray.

"That sounds like an excellent suggestion," Imstay jumped in.

Huhoti leaned down and put her hand on my knees, "Are you alright? You don't look alright."

"I'll be fine in a moment," I smiled. It was likely a feeble smile.

"I'll head back then," Hutoti looked unconvinced. "I'll check up on you later."

I nodded at her, then she was gone.

"Well, will you be alright, love?" Tom pulled me into leaning on him. I think I was falling in love all over again. The nicest guy in the whole world hadn't changed one bit.

"I don't deserve you," I mumbled as I leaned against his shoulder.

"Silly mouse," he stroked my hair. "So, what did Erhonsay say to you in Truvos? What was it like, talking with a god?"

"It's complicated," I sighed and closed my eyes, thinking back seven rotations. "The gods appear in different aspects and scales, depending on the occasion. In Truvos, Kayseo had told me that I should be more assertive, that being an acknowledged prophet meant that I could even order Imstay to take the Foskan army to exterminate everyone in Impotu."

"Really?"

"Really. It's scary stuff. So that got me thinking I would never do anything like that. It's the whole assertion that power corrupts. I mulled it over and wondered if that old cliche was true or if some people in power had bad morals or insufficient integrity. Regardless, I resolved never to go down that path, unlike all those Nazis who killed off six million Jews just because they were Jews."

"But the gods gave you real power, Em. Just think of what you could do if you used it."

"Think of what I could do, Tom, if I abused it. I hoped that if I ever turned into a monster like the Nazis, someone would do me the favor of bumping me off. I resolved that I would always value life. It was then that Erhonsay showed up, in her aspect as Wisdom, white chiton, curly black hair, long Greek nose, like Pallas Athena but without the armor. She said the way I valued life had sealed me into the role of prophet. I guess they liked that about me. I left that part out when I wrote about the vision. I didn't want to brag about myself, and I didn't want to explain about the Nazis and the genocide of the Jews. Everything I've read about the history of Erdos suggests that the Cosm do not engage in genocide, unlike the humans of Earth.

"Erhonsay gave me a pep talk that I should use the trial to educate people about the value of life. Then she segued to fireworks, saying she was looking forward to the ones I would make. She suggested arsenic for light blue fireworks and encouraged me to invent the mortar. She said that nothing was intrinsically good or evil, even the mortar, noting it brought despair as a weapon but joy as the delivery system for fireworks.

"I kept the digression about good and evil but didn't mention fireworks in my account of the vision. I was too wrapped up with how badly Foskan law treated the other five races. Fireworks were out of context and beyond my stamina at the time to explain. It would be like writing a treatise on artillery. Can you imagine?"

"Knowing your love of detail, including unnecessary detail, trivial detail, and details that distract and derail you from what you should be doing instead, yes, I can imagine you writing a textbook on making fireworks," Tom said ever so reasonably as if I did things like that every day.

I elbowed him in annoyance, "Beast."

"But you would," he pointed out calmly and with just a touch of defensiveness. "With you, the devil landed a great catch since, after all, the devil is in the details," Tom added in English because equivalent words and concepts didn't exist in the Fosk language. "And you are a sucker for details."

I elbowed him again, "Beast."

"You said that already," Tom grinned at me. "What other gods mentioned fireworks?"

"Just Surd," I sighed. "She mentioned strontium for reds."

"When was that? The gods sure talk to you a lot," Tom looked a little disturbed.

"The gods are strange. I already told you about all the excursions they've taken me on and their little bribes to entertain or reward me. Let's take Surd as an example. She and Mueb wanted to teach me about the different fatty acids on Erdos that could be used to make traditional soaps, so Surd took me out for schnitzel, Sacher torte, and Strauss at the Volksoper as an incentive."

"That wasn't in any of the accounts you've written or dictated, Great One," Usruldes said from behind us.

"Are you eavesdropping?" I accused.

"Maybe a little," he sounded amused. Then Usruldes walked in front of us, pulled up a cushion, and sat.

I looked around the room and noticed that the other four Cosm were listening with interest, especially Aylem.

"When did you talk to Surd?" Usruldes asked lightly. "What are fatty acids?"

"Surd visited my dreams in Weirdos just after Twee's revelation. Fatty acids make up things like olive oil and pine nut oil. They are the other essential ingredient besides lye for making decent soap, which Erdos lacks. Soapwort and ash water just can't compare. I want soap that can clean well without taking the skin off my hands."

"Is that why you asked my sister to make pine nut oil?" Usruldes was surprised.

"Yeah, Surd and Mueb conveyed it would make a good soap oil, especially since there isn't enough olive oil to supply both Foskan cooking needs and the soap industry."

"So, Surd and Mueb implied that there could be a nascent soap industry based on this knowledge?" Usruldes was giving me one of his looks of quiet patience.

"Neither Aylem nor myself have been secretive that we want better soap," I snipped.

"Well, that is true," Usruldes shrugged, "but you didn't tell anyone about the knowledge from Surd and Mueb about these fatty acid things."

"I've been writing it all down when I have the time and giving it to Huhoti, who is in charge of the soap project." I was feeling annoyed. It wasn't as if I was hiding the knowledge.

Usruldes shook his head, and Raoleer chuckled.

"This is what I was talking about, Tom," Usruldes said, looking at Tom with a long-suffering expression.

"Yeah, I understand the problem," Tom sounded so very reasonable as he nodded. "Em has always been like this. She's easily distracted by things that interest her, and she's bad about remembering to share stuff, like her schedule, or things she needs, like stockings that need to be mended or replaced." Tom leaned forward and pulled off my left ankle boot, exposing the hole in the bottom of my stocking. "I used to quiz her over the morning meal about her plans every day, just to keep the surprises to a minimum."

"Ah," the look of calculation in Usruldes' eyes was disturbing. "That's a good idea. Can we hire you?"

Tom laughed and mussed the hair on the top of my head, "I think Galt already did."

"Can we please get back to the topic of taking Twee to Susbesschem?" I asked, quite annoyed at this point. I swear I heard Galt laughing in the back of my mind.

"Promise to write down what the gods said about fireworks, Oh Maker of Fire?" Usruldes cajoled.

"Fine! Yes! Whatever!" I realized I had just been manipulated by my keepers again and that they had already co-opted Tom. I wondered how hard it would be to make butyric acid from butter. It was such sweet revenge back in New York when I soaked one of Tom's socks in butyric acid and put it in his clothes dresser. He had to wash all his clothes to get the smell out.

- - -

Aylem, Building Shrine, Omexkel, , Cold season, 4th rot., 10th day

In the end, we decided that Usruldes and I would fly our four travelers to Gangkego in Inkalem. Arrangements to get to Inkalem would take about a rotation. Emily would work on her electrolysis for a few more days before returning to Aybhas. Tom would commute to the Villa with Asgotl to help with the shipping for the Villa's brewery. Those of us traveling would meet in Aybhas in five days. This would be my second trip without Lyappis tagging along to keep tabs on me. As soon as I could train a replacement for Wolkayrs, I would be moving back into my quarters at the palace.

Raoleer made Emily a strange piece of glassware. The article was a U-shape, open at the ends. In addition to the openings facing upward, there was a horizontal extension on each side, providing an additional opening near the top of the U.

The U-shaped tube was the heart of the electrolysis cell. The two horizontal ends were mated with two stone tanks, one on each side of the U. The horizontal ends were sealed with rubber coated with pitch. Emily had filled the bottom of the U with gelatin. She called it a semi-permeable membrane. Its job was to allow the sodium cations to migrate from the saltwater tank to the freshwater tank.

One of the two tanks was filled with salt water. In the U-arm next to the saltwater tank, Emily placed a graphite rod attached to one of the cables going to the generator, also known as the Gramme Machine. In the U-arm next to the freshwater tank, Emily attached a copper rod to the other Gram Machine cable.

The tanks and the U-shaped glass tube were on a table using the Building Shrine's working set-up of a lowered floor on the Cosm side and a platform on the Coyn side. Standing on a step someone thoughtfully provided, Emily could see the electrodes inside the glass tube.

The usual small crowd of observing artificers, master artificers, mage artificers, student artificers, and artificer trainees quietly gathered behind Emily and Huhoti.

Emily was unmovable about safety precautions. She insisted that Huhoti cast a barrier to prevent anyone from being splashed by the contents of the freshwater tank, pointing out that it would become a solution of sodium hydroxide once the current started flowing. She even had a tank of water placed near the working table on a frame so that the water would flow by gravity. She had the staff connect it to two shower heads and one hose.

I had to ask her why.

"First aid for skin and eye contact with caustic solutions is rinsing immediately with lots of water," Emily stated. I refrained from pointing out that healing magic made such measures unnecessary. I suspected she would disagree. Emily, in stubborn mode, was a force of nature.

I wore a hooded mantle with the hood up, allowing the rest of the observers to ignore me. The trainee I stood beside had to work hard not to twitch when she realized who I was. I caught her eye, smiled, and winked. I doubted the gesture would do much, but it might help her feel less nervous.

Twee spotted me, vanished as he slipped across the floor on all fours, and reappeared next to me. He climbed up my back and draped his head over my shoulder. I had invited him to do so whenever he needed a better view since he was only twelve hands long.

"Are you warm enough, Twee? Do you need any water?" I asked.

"Ssssssssssssssssss," he inflated the air bladder. "Sssss am fine, thank you. I told Emily we didn't need to do all this extra work, but she was stubborn. Huhoti can pull out the bad gas and ssseparate the not-gas from the sssalt without a membrane, but Emily insisted on doing it thisss way."

"I know, Twee," I shook my head, "she doesn't want to rely on magic. She wants anyone to be able to do this. I'm not sure why she insisted that I come. She said there was a surprise waiting for me."

"SsssssssI know," Twee turned to look at Huhoti adding salt to one side of the tank. "She sssays you also want to know what happensss if the membrane is absent. Don't tell her I told you that. She wanted to sssurprise you."

We watched as Huhoti lowered an exhaust hood over the U-shaped glass tube. The hood was connected to a thick leather-and-hoop hose suspended from the ceiling. The hose ran to a water-powered fan bolted to the floor. The fan sucked the air from the hood and blasted it outside. Huhoti pulled a lever on the floor by the fan to start the exhaust.

"I am ready, Em," Huhoti told Emily, walking over to the levers controlling the Gram Machine gearbox. "May I start?"

"Yes," Emily replied. "Let's try the lowest speed and see if we get gas on the electrodes."

Huhoti pulled on a lever to start the rotor spinning. She then looked over at Emily, "What now?"

"Let's give the cations time to migrate," Emily said. "I can see bubbles on the anode already. Come here at look at this."

Huhoti walked next to the tank and then tranced. She stood there for a long moment. "I can sense things moving inside the gelatin, but it's not fast."

"Electrolysis uses a lot of electricity," Emily remarked. "Slow is not surprising. We may need more power if we want to speed things up. We don't really know how much power we're creating without better ways to measure time and electromotive force. Even the heavy compass needle has moved next to the cable, so we know the current is flowing," Emily pointed at four boxes balanced on top of the cable attached to the copper rod. I knew they had compass needles of various sizes floating on oil. All the needles were pointing at right angles to the axis of the cable.

"How long should we let this thing run?" Huhoti asked.

"I haven't a clue how long this will take," Emily grinned at the gas bubbles forming on the electrodes. "I think it will go quickly once we get penetration of the sodium cations through the membrane. I brought a dirty pot from my kitchen with a layer of solidified grease. We will know if we have made a strong lye solution if it will cut the grease in the pan."

"Why use an exhaust hood?" asked one of the priestess artificers.

"Chlorine gas is toxic," Emily said without pause. "If this were set up on a production scale instead of a demonstration scale, the chlorine would be vented away, used to make some other chemicals, or burned to get rid of it. The hydrogen gas would be vented or burned too. The nice thing about hydrogen is that you can burn it to power mechanical devices, similar to using water to turn water wheels. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. For today, we are simply concentrating on making sodium hydroxide."

Emily arranged five glass beakers in front of her. She unstopped a ceramic jug and poured a clear liquid into each. Dipping a small ladle into the fresh water tank, she took some of the water and dribbled it carefully into one of the beakers. Nothing happened.

"How is the penetration of the membrane going?" Emily asked Huhoti.

"There's more moving through," Huhoti said after several breaths.

"We're getting some nice gas production," Emily smiled. "I have a good feeling about how this is going."

"I could speed up the motion of the sodium through the membrane," Huhoti offered, looking hopeful.

Emily gave her a disapproving look, "No."

Huhoti sighed.

Emily grabbed another ladle of water. This time, the drops of water turned pink when they entered the liquid in the beaker. Then they vanished.

"Oh, that's encouraging," Emily grinned.

"What was the pink?" I had to ask.

"Why, dear heart," Emily smiled up at me, "there's phenolphthalein in these beakers. It turns pink if the pH is between 8.5 and 10. Seeing pink is a good sign. It means we now have increasing alkalinity on the cathode side of the electrolysis cell. Can you increase the speed on the Gramme Machine by one gear size, Huhoti?"

"Of course," Huhoti walked out of the depression and over to the gearbox and pulled on another lever.

"Oh!" one of the trainees made a fish face at the sudden increase in bubbles forming on the copper cathode, which up to now had lagged behind the chlorine on the graphite anode.

"What did I miss?" Huhoti rejoined the observers on the Cosm side of the table.

"Gas production on the cathode side jumped, which is good," Emily grinned. "The splash barrier is still working, yes?"

"Hmph!" Huhoti rolled her eyes, "Of course it is. You worry too much."

Emily poured another ladle into a beaker. This time it turned pink and stayed pink.

"I love it when things work," Emily was in mekaner heaven.

Emily let the demonstration run until a ladle out of the water tank no longer turned a beaker pink. "When the pH exceeds 10, the phenolphthalein indicator will return to being clear," Emily explained.

"Excuse me," one Cosm artificer student asked, "what's pH and phenol-whatever-you-call-it?" She was just a little blond-haired girl and hardly taller than Emily.

"Not everyone here is part of the chemistry project," Huhoti told Emily. "Salla needs to master algebra before I'll let her into the class. I let her sneak in to watch today."

"How old are you, Salla?" Emily asked.

"Eleven," the girl replied. "I messed up finding the root of polynomials last time I took the challenge test. I'll flatten it next time. I've been studying every night for the last season."

"You're already factoring polynomials?"

"Yes, Great One. I like math," Salla enthused.

"Salla came to us from the Surd Home in Ark'kos," Huhoti explained. "They brought her here after she mastered all the math they teach, including the Queen's numbers, advanced arithmetic, and geometry before she was ten."

"Do you know what elements are?" Emily asked the girl.

"Everything is made out of elements," Salla gushed. "If you take stuff apart until you can't break it down anymore, what you have left are elements."

"Give me an example," Emily requested.

"The rock called pyrite is made of two elements, sulfur, and iron," the girl answered.

"Correct," Emily nodded and looked back at Huhoti. "Looks like the Priestesses of Surd are looking for kids who can profit from advanced studies."

"That's how we get most of our Coyn staff," Huhoti remarked.

"I expect to see you in the Chemistry Project when I return," Emily told Salla.

"You're going away?" the girl looked disappointed,

"I'm taking a trip with my friend Twee," Emily explained, "to take him home to the Land of the Chem. It's a long trip, which will take a while. I should be back in about a year."

"Promise you'll come back, Great One?" Salla pleaded, looking at Emily with eyes full of admiration. Emily was surprised. I don't think she was prepared for idol worship from an eleven-year-old. "You do such wow stuff."

"I see," Emily's eyebrows threatened to disappear into her hairline. "Yes, I'll be back here when I return to Foskos. But before I take any trips, we need to kill the current and evaporate the contents of the water tank to drive off the water and collect the sodium hydroxide solid. Huhoti, can you please idle the Gramme machine while I move the electrodes?"

"Just tell me when you want me to start the current backup," Huhoti walked back to the gearbox.

Emily pulled a large ceramic beaker from under the table and filled it with brine from the saltwater tank. She then pulled the two electrodes from the U-shaped glass tube and placed them on opposite sides of the big beaker. "You can start the current backup, Huhoti," Emily called out. "Can you please cast a charm on this beaker to keep it cool? Then we'll leave it alone to let the current do its thing. Now we must find a heat source to evaporate the sodium hydroxide solution."

"Sweet little Emily," Huhoti had an evil grin as she rejoined everyone around the table.

"I always worry when you say that, "Emily looked at Huhoti with worried speculation. "It usually means that I suggested something that can be done easily with magic."

"I do believe you are correct, little one," Huhoti snapped her fingers, and all the liquid in the water tank disappeared. The bottom of the tank was coated with white crystals.

"Is that lye?" I reached toward the tank to feel the fine white crystals left behind.

Emily tried to reach to stop me, but her arms were too short, "No, don't touch it. You'll get chemical burns. It's a concentrated caustic. You need rubber gloves to handle lye."

"What's lye?" Salla asked.

"It's an old name for sodium hydroxide," I told the little girl as I pulled my hand back. "Yes, you're right, Em. I wasn't thinking. It's been so long since I've seen any lye that I forgot."

"Huhoti, can you place the sodium hydroxide inside one of the glass jars Raoleer made? Then we can start a batch of soap next door," Emily asked. The room next door had another table with the depression-and-platform arrangement.

The table was already set up to make soap when we reassembled next door. A scale was ready for weighing out ingredients. Several glass beakers were waiting. Someone already made a soap mold.

Soap batch number one will be 110 parts olive oil by weight, thirteen parts sodium hydroxide, and twenty-six parts water," Emily began in her professor's voice. "Add the sodium hydroxide to the water. Never add water to the sodium hydroxide." After putting on rubber mittens, she tared the scale with an empty glass beaker and weighed out 13 grains of lye. She weighed the water into another beaker and the oil into a third larger beaker. Then she added the lye to the water while stirring with a glass rod.

"Adding the lye to the water releases a lot of heat. Before adding the lye solution to the oil, you must wait until the beaker is cool enough to touch. Huhoti, you said you could mix the two liquids without stirring?"

"Instantly and perfectly," Huhoti smiled.

"Then just this once, I will ask you to do that for me, please," Emily poured the solution into the oil. "After you mix them, they will thicken, and we will pour the mix into the mold. The mold needs to stay warm overnight. By tomorrow afternoon, we should be able to take the soap out of the mold and cut it into smaller bars."

"Emily, dear heart," I sighed, "that's a rather small mold. I think you were thinking in terms of Coyn proportions, not Cosm ones. Can you cut me a bigger bar to try?"

"You won't be able to use any bars tomorrow," Emily frowned at me as she poured the mix into the mold. "This is cold process soap, so the bars must cure for three to five rotations before they can be used."

"Why? What does curing do?" I asked. I had never made soap, so I didn't know.

"The reaction between the lye and the fatty acids in the oil takes that long to complete. You can make it go much faster if you cook the soap mix. Hot process soap takes less than a day, but the soap comes out lumpy in texture. Big soap makers ground up cooked soap and then compressed it into solid bars using pressure molds. They sold it as milled soap on Earth. Cold process soap takes much longer, but it's a superior product with a smooth uniform texture."

"Three to five rotations?" I asked. Emily nodded.

"The mix needs to stay warm overnight? How warm is warm?" I wanted to know.

"The warmest day you can think of in the middle of Growing Season," Emily answered, giving me a speculative look, wondering why I was asking.

"Ah," I smiled and held my hand over the mold, warping time and temperature to my will. "There, that should keep it warm overnight," I flexed my fingers, "and this should be good for five weeks of curing."

The color of the soap in the mold shifted from very pale green to an off-white. What was in the mold shrunk a tiny bit too.

"You just cured the soap?" Emily made a long-suffering face at me. "Next time, let me take the soap out of the mold first. Leaving it in the mold may get it stuck."

I gestured, and the soap floated out of the mold. I cut it in half. Then I cut the first half in two. I gave one bar to Huhoti and kept one for me. Then I cut the other half into eight bars for Emily.

"How's this work for you?" I tried to look helpful.

Emily just shook her head and pinched her nose. I think she picked that gesture up from Lisaykos. Then she filled up two big beakers with water. She took a bar of soap and plunged it into one beaker, and started to wash her hands.

"Oh," her eyebrows went up. "So nice, look at that lather." Then she smiled that wild happy mekaner smile as she rinsed off her hands in the other beaker. "Life is good."

The assembly broke up as Cosm and Coyn grabbed the soap and headed for the nearest appropriately-sized sink. Huhoti was amazed after washing her hands. She looked up at me, "I just told Raoleer. She'll be here shortly. Now I need to shut off the Gramme Machine. Where's Emily?"

Huhoti went to find Emily, and soon, I heard their voices in the room with the generator. Then I heard Emily calling my name. I walked back in to see Emily smelling the contents of the beaker she put the electrodes into.

"Aylem, you need to come here and smell this," she looked at me and beckoned. "Be careful. Don't breathe this stuff in deeply. Sniff gently, or you'll abuse your nose and throat. It's a strong smell."

Emily was right. It was a strong smell and one full of nostalgia.

"You remembered," I looked at her in wonder. "You remembered!" Without thinking, I reached over the table, picked her up, and hugged her, wrapping her in my arms against my neck and chest. I leaned my head against hers, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wanted bleach in the worst way. I've been lusting after bleach ever since I saw the bleach in your home on the other side of the Great Cracks. Thank you for remembering."

"Aylem, lighten up," Emily gasped, "I can't breathe."

As I put Emily down, Raoleer walked in, drying her hands, "Now I understand why the two of you have been so wild about making this soap stuff. I got my hands dirty on purpose, and look at them! My skin is so clean, it doesn't sting, and it didn't turn red. This soap thing is amazing stuff. So what's in that beaker? Given your reaction, Great One," Raoleer raised an eyebrow at me, "I suspect it might be as good as soap."

"Find me an old white linen kirtle, Holy One," I said, smiling with anticipation, "one that has yellowed with age, and I will show you the wonders of bleach."