Ashe was repulsed at the sight of death. But she’s stronger now, much more calm in the face of violence.
Siderius watched as she dragged the body out front and buried it under her empty crop field. Their bodies were much heavier than she could manage. But she pulled through in the end.
Siderius nodded while watching from far away, hiding in the shadow. Ashe was useful, she had connections with the upper hierarchy of this kingdom and even ambition to take revenge on her family.
She was the perfect candidate for Siderius to use. So he did want to make her stronger, even at the cost of her humanity.
He needed a sharp sword. Not a voice of conscience that would bark at him at any given chance.
Siderius found his way back to the Rocky Pit. It was past midnight already and most of the miners had gone to sleep.
This was ideal for Siderius as less people would see him going in. There were two guards sitting on the watch towers behind the gate of the mining camp. These were miners that acted as guards and not the town guards.
Siderius slipped past them easily and went inside.
Nadia was easy to find as she stayed in the largest tent, which was also the only tent that still had illuminated oil lamps.
Siderius pulled his scarf high and made sure his hair and features were covered nicely, leaving only his eyes.
Inside, Nadia was sitting on a crude wooden table, writing something on a piece of paper. Siderius approached her from behind and covered her mouth.
"Don’t shout. It’s me, the healer." He whispered.
Nadia squirmed but quickly calmed down. She nodded in agreement.
Siderius let go of his hands and sat down in front of her.
"You really didn’t need to do that." Nadia said.
"My apologies. I didn’t want to wake anyone else." Siderius said.
"So do you have the cure?"
"Almost. I need your help to find one more ingredient for the cure."
"Hmmm. Alright. Tell me what you need."
"Have you heard of pyrite?"
Nadia’s wide eyes told Siderius her answer. She had never even heard about the name.
"It is a type of golden rock that looks a lot like gold. But it isn’t gold. It’s harder and lighter. If you burned it, it would smell incredibly bad." Siderius explained further.
"Oh! You mean the sparkstone?"
Nadia stood up and went behind the curtains of her tent. When she returned, in her hand was a palm-size stone with a golden hue. At first glance, it looked exactly like gold.
"These stones are everywhere around here. Especially in the Rose Springs near us. We used it as a firestarter mostly in case steel was absent."
Nadia squatted down beside a small fire camp in her tent. She struck the flint on the pyrite and a spark jumped out of the stone. It ignited the woods, bringing warmth to the air.
"Sparkstone, huh? Interesting..."
Pyrite did have a good characteristic to be used as a fire starter. But its actual capabilities were much more than that.
"Very cheap. We usually sell these to wandering merchants for ten bronze pieces each. If it’s a big piece, we can sell it for a few dozen more.
Why do you want this?"
"You can assume that I need it to purify some ingredients."
Nadia whistled. Alex came running in quickly.
"Yes, boss?" The man was surprised when he saw Siderius. There was obvious disdain in his eyes.
"Get me a big pouch of sparkstone."
"On it, boss!" Alex dashed away.
Siderius looked after him and commented. "He seems to be very fond of you."
"Yeah. Alex is reliable. It’s just that he thinks he knows better most of the time. Please disregard his rudeness. He just doesn’t like strangers."
"I won’t. As a word of advice, however, I suggest you keep a close eye on him."
"A loyal dog is good. A loyal dog that thinks he’s smarter than his owner isn’t. He may cause trouble and you will never be able to see it coming."
Siderius’ advice had offended Nadia. She smirked provokingly and crossed her legs.
"Keep your thoughts to yourself, healer. I expect the cure will come quickly. Carsten’s condition has become worse and worse."
Siderius nodded. "With these sparkstones, I will have the cure ready in a few days.
Also remember, keep this a secret. The word of a cure for the Gray Death can be dangerous... For both of us."
Nadia withheld her smugness. Her expression darkened. She didn’t answer but only nodded. She knew what Siderius was hinting at.
After the trade, Siderius and Nadia went over to Carsten to check up on him. Carsten was still as pale as ever and he had fallen into a deep coma.
There were much more dark veins on his body and they became more defined and thick.
Siderius put his ear on Carsten’s chest to examine his heartbeat. Carsten’s heart rate had gone up even more from last time. It’s a miracle that he was still alive.
From the look of it, the man may have one week at best to survive this disease. All his life force had been pulled toward his heart.
"Well?" Nadia nervously said.
"He doesn’t have much time. I will make sure to create the cure as soon as possible." Siderius said.
Siderius left the mining camp.
Pyrite had another name in Siderius’ old world, fool’s gold. It was easily mistaken for gold and some cunning merchant may even try to sell it as gold.
Its true usefulness laid in its components.
Pyrite contained Iron and Sulfur.
Sulfur was the avatar of the soul, combustion and separation. Its presence was crucial for the major of alchemical processes and witch hunter sigils.
With it, Siderius could easily separate elements in the matter, producing the cure needed for Carsten.
However, before separating other elements, Siderius must first figure out how to separate Sulfur itself from the pyrite.
There were many alchemical processes that could do this. With the lack of equipment and a low alchemy rank, the most plausible one for Siderius was thermolysis.
It had a fancy name to it but basically Siderius needed to heat the pyrite to a certain temperature. Then the sulfur would separate itself out of the pyrite.
This task needed to be done in an airless container or vacuum space. Otherwise, instead of acquiring Sulfur, Siderius would get something much more vile, an entirely different material that may come in useful later down the line. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel(ꜰ)ire.net
The first challenge was to construct an airtight container for the pyrite. This was easy to overcome as Siderius already had the needed ingredient, the other prime standing along with Sulfur.
Nadia was very generous and offered him the same price of ten bronze coins similar to the merchants. Siderius couldn’t even believe the price he got.
However, this trade didn’t violate the Rule of Exchange in Siderius’ opinion. Pyrite seemed to be common and they weren’t needed as much.
Siderius wasted his second silver coins to buy ten pieces of palm-sized pyrites. Each weighed around 200 grams.
Sulfur was much more expensive than Salt. Siderius bought Salt for the exact same price.
However each rock salt was around two to three kilograms while a piece of pyrite was merely in hundreds of grams.
Siderius kept being intrigued by this town. Salt was a basic commodity and valuable item in his old world. It was essential for meat preservation. Its value was even pushed further because of alchemy.
But in this meat-lacking town, Salt was simply an inconsequential item. It was even cheaper than a piece of fire starter.
These facts could only help Siderius advance more easily in his path. An exploitation that he would make sure to use well.
Siderius returned to his camp with a pouch full of pyrites.