Smoke curled from the bottom of the bowl to the top of the roof and slipped out of the small gaps in the rafters. Droplets of water slowly settled in the smaller flask.
"So you're from Deredin, right? You and Leith?"
"I am. Why do you ask?"
"There was a beastkin —"
"Ah, that black cat you were talking to?"
Jein's cheeks flushed.
"Y-yeah. She was doing a quest out there, and was wondering what it was like."
"It's good enough," Gillium said. "It's a lumber town. Sits in the middle of a conflux of the West and East arms of the Camarrin River on an island. The waters rush so fast around it that no matter where you are in town, you can hear them."
"What do you mean by a conflux?"
"Ah."
Gillium stood up from where he had been seated on the edge of Jein's bed and moved to the table. He glanced around, then grabbed Jein's cup and set it upside down on the table across from the slowly bubbling alembic. Gillium then took two Little Kings from the bundle they had been left, bending both until they surrounded the cup as if it were a little island in the middle of a split river.
"This," He pointed to the cup, "is how Deredin is set up. The Little Kings are the two arms of the Camarrin; they wrap around the town like a pair of arms, as my dad says, until they join together and flow down into the broader Avalon Valley. It's a natural moat against the monsters and the beasts of the forest. But as another added layer, we have a wooden wall at the very edge of the town right against the rivers."
"Why?"
"I heard from my dad that before the walls went up, Meadow Skippers would often hop over the bends of the river and grab pets and animals from the town."
"Meadow Skippers?"
"Think of them as a mix between a deer and a cricket," Gillium said with a shudder. 'They don't often wander into the woods, but when they do, it's in search of food. Cats, dogs, chickens...all are tantalizing prey, I suppose."
"How do people get in and out of the town?"
"There's a bridge that spans the Camarrin here," he said, pointing midway up the stem of the Little King, "which allows traffic around Deredin. Another here," he pointed nearer the cup, "allows entry into Deredin. The path travels around the city," his finger traced the river's outline, following the west bend until he stopped, "and then forks here. One path goes to Astaire," he continued, trailing his finger along the west river before stopping, "and another to Camareth's Southern Frontier." He traced over both arms of the Camarrin.
"What's in the frontier?"
"There are a few settlements, but it's mostly demons and," Gillium shook his head, and trailed off for a moment before he began to speak again "...you said that the cat-kin had a quest out by Deredin? What was the quest?"
"To slay some goblins in the area," Jein answered.
"Goblins, huh?"
Gillium glanced at the window. Midday was slowly settling into evening.
"She said that they're runaways from the Demon Kings armies."
"It's possible…I hope Mom and Aury are okay." Gillium said.
"Aury's your sister, right?"
"Yeah, she's 5 years younger than Leith and I," Gillium nodded as he spoke. He stood up from the table and sat back down on the edge of Jein's bed. Jein, meanwhile, stretched out his legs until his feet were beneath the low seated table, and his back firmly against the wall. "She'll be turning 13 in a few months and will be coming to Astaire for her Ceremony then."
"What's beyond the forest?" Jein asked.
"The Avalon Valley," Said. "And beyond that, the Saint Nelo's Mountain Range: named after the first person to walk across it — a beast man cleric of The Trickster who had said that he felt compelled by his god to travel westward as far as he could go."
"Are my brother and sister going to be going over those?"
"They are. Have you ever seen a map of the world?"
Jein shook his head.
"The next time I'm out on the town, I'll grab you one. Anyways, they're on their way to the capital, which, if we were going on foot, would take us…I don't know, a year and a few months?"
"How long will they be on the airship?"
"They'll make stops all over the Avalon Valley, and then, probably in the Dwarven City of Gorrlin that sits in the middle of the mountain with the tallest peak of the St. Nelo's Range; The Bastard's Spear."
"That's a funny name.
"It is, isn't it? After that, they will travel through the Emerald Vale, where the Elves and the Beastkin cities are, and then beyond that to the King's Seat: a vast Tundra that houses Karakan, the city dedicated to the Tide God which sits a hundred miles or so from the edge of our kingdom."
"All of that is Camareth? Is there a bigger country?"
"Indeed, there are; the Bironic Empire is vast. The Mirrion Khanate could contain both the Bironic Empire and us."
"There are only Seven Kingdoms, right?"
"There are hundreds of kingdoms, but only 7 Great Powers in the world. Camareth is among them. We call them the 7 Kingdoms because that's the name of the pact we all signed to focus on the Demon King instead of petty political squabbles." Gillium said with a yawn.
The volume of the large glass bowl was a quarter of what it had been when the two of them began talking.
"The other Kingdoms sometimes engage in political squabbles, but that's mostly stopped as well as they began aligning with the Seven Powers, as the Demon King's miasma grows thicker and thicker every year."
"Where is the Demon King?"
"No one knows," Gillium said. "We know he exists somewhere, as his Lords carry out his will and his agents spread His miasma, but we do not know where the Demon King currently is. Some speculate he traveled Westward a long time ago: chasing the Sun in order to consume it, and came to rest elsewhere."
"And the frontiers are where the Demon Lords reside?"
"Some of them. Most of them are secret and infiltrate our lands through subtler means. The Frontiers are just the visible fronts of the war."
"How about Carro?"
"Carro is one of those we aren't aware of his location. Camareth has two Frontiers: one to its south, where we are, and one to its far North, beyond even the Capital. The one that the Bauders Barony faces is Videk the Black. The one to the North is Ymirith, the Cruel."
Gillium yawned again. His eyes fixed on the wall, but his mind seemed to wander elsewhere.
"I should write home…" He suddenly said quietly. "I wonder if the High Priest will allow me leave…"
"I'm sure Aury will be okay."
Gillium chuckled.
"Of course she will…but it's almost time for the Serpent Rains in the Deredin Forests."
"What's that?"
"Every year, at the start of summer, the Cloud-Bearers come to the area above Deredin and mate. During that time, heavy rains pelt the forest, and the rivers nearly flood. The town's men come together to reinforce the levees all along the Camarrin, and the women plant saplings. After the rains, the saplings grow and bear their fruits, and we host a festival. I want to be there in time for that."
"It sounds fun."
"It is…" His voice trailed off, and a bit of pain stuck in his eyes.
The bubbling was ending. The wine had all fled out of the flask, and Gillium stood up and groaned. Among the moments of silence between their conversations, four hours had passed since the time he had put the flask atop the hen's eggs. Gillium walked to stand in front of the alembic, reached down with his hands wrapped around within the layers of his shirt, and grabbed the contact point between the large glass bowl and the copper pipe.
"Move the bowl out of the way." He said, "Use a cloth or something, because it'll be hot."
Jein nodded and grabbed one of his shirts that he had thrown on the ground. Gillium lifted the alembic out of the bowl, and Jein snatched it away. Even through the layers of cloth, he could feel the heat radiating off the stone bowl. He set it a few inches away on the table. Black smoke curled from where it touched, and Gillium set the Alembic down. He then grabbed the stone bowl and lifted it off the table, snatched the shirt out of Jein's hand, and set it down under it, snuffing out the orange embers that were slowly crawling to life within the wood of the table.
"Be careful." He said.
Jein flinched a little when the shirt was yanked from his hand.
"Sorry." He said.
"It's okay…now come here." Gillium waved Jein over.
Jein walked over to the Alembic and peered inside. Sitting at the bottom of the bowl was a black, tarry substance.
"This is what you're looking for." He said. "This is the essence of the Little King's leaves."
"How do you get to it?"
Gillium answered that question by grabbing a long-handled spoon with a tiny head out of the crate, grabbing hold of the opening with his shirt, and twisting it off. He then set the metal cap aside, reached back into the crate, and pulled out a glass vial: about as large as the one that Jein had broken a few evenings back. He scraped the black goo on the side of the vial and forced it in with his finger, wiping the remnants off with his shirt afterwards.
"Now crush the head of a St. Rhoto's Wort with your mortar and pestle."
Jein had tucked that specific instrument beneath his bed. He crawled on his belly and pulled it out. A bit of dust from the copper ore was still stuck to the bottom. With a short puff of air, it scattered, and he put the head of the flower in.
The pestle pounded the flower into a fine paste. Meanwhile, Gillium filled the small vial with water from Jein's pitcher.
"Now add the crushed Rhoto," Gillium said.
Jein scooped it out with his finger and shoved it into the vial: Gillium pushed the greenish paste into the water, corked the glass tube, and shook it vigorously. The two materials mixed within, and the color of the mixture began to take on a more greenish tint, and then a yellow. Once a subtle glow began to emit from the vial, he stopped.
"This is how you know that your mixture was a success," Gillium said. "The glow, that is; so if you're ever experimenting, and you see this glow, you know that something happened. If you don't, then you can toss it out and start again."
"Sounds tedious."
'It really is. But it's fun."
"Is it?"
Jein had a hard time believing it.
"Anyhow, make 10 of these, and I'll say your training is complete!"
"10?" Jein nearly knocked over the alembic in rage.
"Yes, so you better get started."
Jein groaned and slammed his forehead against the stone wall.