With this agreement in place I got to work meticulously cleaning and crushing the ingredients one at a time which was the first step in extracting the essence. Once I had all the ingredients turned into either pulpy juice or paste I began the next step of introducing them to the water and boiling the living hell out of them to fully unbind the essence from the physical objects. Once that was done the still boiling hot liquid was then strained with fine mesh cloth to remove the majority of impurities and chunks of solid material. That stuff was then set aside to be turned into fertilizer or disposed off entirely if it was toxic. -
The liquid itself was then carefully heated and purified through a series of glass tools using physics and heat to purify and condense the essence to it's utmost. This essence was then carefully sealed into vials or bottles for later use. If you were making a poison or potion you'd get your solvent or solution ready respectively before carefully measuring and adding the amount of essence the recipe called for. Yes there were ACTUAL measurements needed here rather than the games ridiculous "everything into the pot as is" methodology.-
In this case though I was just getting the essences made for later use so the potion or poison making steps were cut out of the process. Alontar took his portion as pay for the use of his equipment but the rest would stay with me until he got the word from the resistance.
"What will you do in the meanwhile?" he asked once this was done.
"I'll probably spend some time going over everything I received while in the isles. It will take me at least a day or two." I admitted freely.
"Really? Was it such a profitable trip?" he asked a little curiously.
"Extremely so. Almost as much as I'm sure it shaved at decade or two off my lifespan. Not literally but it was a VERY stressful couple of days." I said honestly.
"I'll spare my mind and just leave that alone then and wish you the best of luck." he said calmly.
I left after that and found the small three bedroom inn that the town rarely saw use of but kept open as travelers did occasionally still arrive, like that caravan that led me here.-
The place was a plain as it got as it was a simple place with minimum decoration and the bare minimum furnishings. At least the bed was big enough, barely. When I said I was going to be sorting all of the stuff I got I meant it. I pointedly ignored the majority of the stuff I got from my deal with Mora and focused on the more physical gifts I received. The gold and jewels were separated and sorted into my own person wealth while the weapons were taken out and examined carefully. The majority were fairly standard in nature being everything from steel to something red I couldn't identify.-
The sole exception was the strange crescent shaped blade that Azura had gifted me. Not only was it's general shape VASTLY unorthodox for a weapon but I couldn't actually identify the material. What I did know however was that it was not a mortal material. It didn't hold a single enchantment and still made my skin tingle to be near. That alone told me I wasn't going to be feeding it to my own blade anytime soon. For all I knew that blade could be a daedric artifact of hers that I wasn't aware of and would make things REALLY bad for me if I did devour. -
Thankfully the other weapons were far easier to handle though I did come across one that I absolutely refused to devour due to it's sheer historical value. It was an ancient blade made of a shimmering dark blue-purple metal I couldn't fully verify as voidstone but had a HEAVY inclination towards thinking it as such. How did I know it's value without being able to identify it's material? Because it was literally humming with the echo of someone's she` hai.-
This was the life-blade of a sword singer.
A powerful one too if the echo had lasted this long. Just holding the blade I could feel the resonance of the echo with my own souls she` hai. Like sister spirits greeting each other like old friends despite only meeting for the first time. A sword like this was not a mere tool that I would feel nothing devouring but the remaining remnant of some great warriors very soul lingering in the world. Additionally the blade could be used as a potent bargaining chip in this land as aspiring sword singers here would flock for a mere glance at a blade that may very well hold the key to awakening their own she` hai.-
If I had to bargain with the forebears(the ruling nobles of Hammerfell) this would be a very hefty temptation indeed as merely possessing the blade might give them the chance to get sword singers into their employ. Having awakened the she` hai myself however I knew this was unlikely. The power was practically anathema to the idea of serving anyone else. It's very condition for awakening was an unyielding will after all. I'm not saying that it wasn't possible but the chances of successful awakening in someone who serves another must be terribly low.-
Anyways that blade was also put away effectively permanently. The real gain was the various weapons with not only various materials but also enchantments. Five shields with powerful defensive enchantments, twelve daggers with everything from simple vitality siphoning to complex energy projection enchantments, fifteen enchanted war axes, twelve enchanted swords, seven enchanted Warhammers, six enchanted spears, six enchanted bows(not including Hircine's) and a single enchanted glaive. And that was just the enchanted weapons. the ones without enchantment were far more plentiful.-
I also had well over two dozen pieces of enchanted jewelry, armors and just odd items as well. For example I was gifted a troll skull that was enchanted to tell knock knock jokes. It was equal parts creepy and amusing to be honest. The weirdest but most valuable thing I was given however had to be the book of infinite torn pages. At first glance this appeared to be a simple leather bound book like any other. In truth however it's rather odd enchantment made it so you could tear out a page and then shut the book to cause the page to be regrown, completely blank.-
To put it simply so long as the enchantment was kept energized I effectively had infinite paper. Incredibly valuable to say the least. I only wished the book didn't make me look unhinged by tearing out a page before closing the book and then opening it again to tear out another page. Then again considering it was probably one of Uncle Sheo's people that gifted it to me the madness behind the thing might kinda have been the point.