Today the weather is even cooler...barely topping 50F. To make matters even more uncomfortable, it rains for most of the day.
You continue on, paralleling the southern side of the range of hills. By evening you are directly south of the second largest and second last of the hills, which McTavish wryly tells you that an old adventuring buddy of his named Bill Bixby called Porky Peak.
The last hill is in clear sight...and atop it you can make out the silhouette of a ruin.
"Su El castle," says McTavish.
Raz is enjoying this peaceful time and is using it to catch up on studies that he had been lagging behind on. You have all noticed a change come over him in the past few weeks. He seems to have aged..he is less given to drinking and gambling and spends most of his time away from others comtemplating the deeper meaning of things.
Tonight you may notice that he has set up a small still of some kind and is perculating liquids of various colors and smells. Your not sure but you think you may even hear him mumble something under his breath from time to time.
"What are you working on Raz?" asks Farad.
Sneaking over to the still Pillar peers at it and says "Hey Raz what is it? And will it explode?"
"It could", says Raz in a whisper, "but I hope not...I'm working on trying to figure out how some things work. Right now I'm trying to determine some of the rarer properties of fire, water, and earth. I have come to the conclusion that water and earth are less potent then fire, for fire is able to turn water into earth! See..look here." Raz obviously excited that someone has taken an interest in his work, holds up and flask with some kind of rusty mineral on the bottom of it...."Recently I took a flask of water from a stream we passed over and boiled it over fire...of course the water came off as steam, but look what was left behind! Some of the water was turned into earth!" Getting really excited now, Raz continues, "Just think of the possiblilites...if I could harness this power to turn water into earth...maybe I could dictate what form of earth to make...stone, iron, etc! I might even be able to do the opposite and turn earth into water!"
Farad looks puzzled. "Could it not be that the water was simply dirty? After all, I can take a spoon of sugar and disolve it into water. It dissappears. But if the bowl is left for a few days the sugar reappears as the water vanishes."
"Of course the question is, how much earth can water hold, and is it possible to get it back in the original form. Now that would be magic, if I could drop my coins into a bowl, stir it and they vanish. Then when I want them back I pour the water out and there they are."
Illyana yawns. "You sound like one of my teachers."
Humphrey caught up in the conversation joins in,
"Raz, I know some gold seekers, who try to find Gold in the water's current and river bed's top soil. Could those be just rocks that the stream was carrying or are they created by the boiling of the water."
Raz shakes his head and says, "I have heard of this...but I have taken percautions to take lose earth that is combined in the water by the water's action out of the water before I boil it." Raz then excitedly moves over and shows Humphery a flask with a cloth of some sort stretched over the top of its opening. "See...this here cloth acts to block all of the earth from entering the flask while still allowing the water to enter." Raz demonstrates, taking water that is slightly dirty and pouring it through the cloth. He repeats this several times and in the end shows you a flash of water at looks to have absolutely no dirt in it. "
"I actually know of some people who pay a lot if there was a way to boil water and not leave behind any scum as they call it. DO you think you could control it so the boiling produces no earth?"
Raz looks very thougthful for a few minutes, and then replies slowly, "I'm not sure...It would be an interesting manipulation of the elements though...I would guess that you would have to somehow surpress the actions of the fire in order to get it to boil water without converting any to earth...hmmm...a very interesting problem..I'll have to design some tests to look into this...Thank you for bringing it to my attention Humphery." Raz is all smiles...happy that people have taken a interest in his new found studies.
"That proves it - my teachers would do the same thing. Why the obession with playing with alchemy anyway?" wonders Illyana.
"Just curious about some things.", replies Raz
" Gee Raz are you cooking Dinner or is that the wine to go with dinner?" Giving a small smile and a giggle. " This has been a very quite journey not that I am minding, It's nice to have a peaceful ride in the woods and a Grand Dutchry
Britan pulls out his sword and begins to sharpen it and oil it, and then he will groom his horse and make sure he has plenty to eat and drink.
Britan says "So Raz what do you think you could turn a rabbit into."
Raz takes Britan's question seriously, "I'm not sure I'm ready to work on living things, but once I learn how the elements effect and transform one another I'm sure I'll be able to manipulate anything."