[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

Mistress Llorai offered a small smile to her student before candidly nodding her head and continuing onwards as if nothing had occurred. She was used to teaching older people, and this one, although a little different in terms of attitude and sheer personality (he was rather unelven like, after all) she suspected he’d be no different. Not really, at least.

“Alright then. Now, aside from the logical definition revolving around the transmutation of one substance into another, alchemy is so much more than that. There are several definitions being tossed about enough to make one’s head spin, but we’ll stick to the ones you need to know. Aside from transmutation, alchemy also sports a more technical definition: it’s the study of the transformative processes involved in the perfection, or evolution of matter. You remember what that is, don’tcha?”

Eren coughed briefly and grinned, clearing his throat. “Everything around us?” he took a stab in the dark, the definition a bit fuzzy from his schola days.

“That’s right. Now, more to the point, when you perform alchemy you are speeding up natural processes and resurrecting the spiritual essence that is trapped in matter. That’s the transmutation bit, see. But Alchemy’s a bit more than that. It’s also the transmutation of mind and body… or psychological and physiological changes as well. You don’t need to be concerned about any of that for this class but-”

“It’s one of those things that’s good to know?” he finished off her sentence with a query, charming smile accompanying.

“Exactly,” she nodded again, before gesturing for him to turn around and look at the back wall of the lab. It was filled to the brim with various supplies. Walking over, she opened up all the cupboards and all the cabinets so he could get a full, appreciative view of just what alchemy entailed. Even if he got a good glimpse of her derriere in the process…

“What’s that?” Eren asked, pointing to a small emblem quite literally emblazoned into almost every cupboard, every cabinet, hell, even every flask. It was a small symbol, yet seemed to be the norm on almost every piece of alchemical equipment the university owned. It was the picture of a small snake eating its own tail, in the shape of a figure eight.

“That, Heru Mael’tharias, is the Oroboros… it’s the symbol of the alchemist. The figure eight represents the circle of the universe and life, that all things are continuous… that life is eternal, and when something ends something else begins anew,” she smiled, running a hand through her hair to try and get out of some of the frizz before adjusting her lab coat.

“Now, we have several things to look at Heru Mael’tharias, so roll up those sleeves of yours and give me a hand over here,” she tossed a glance over her shoulder before turning back to the cabinet and picking up a set of scales. Erenthril navigated around the table to come help her out, easily taking the weight off her hands and turning his head, eyebrows raised slightly in inquiry. “Scales?” he asked.

“Ah! You’re smarter than I gave you credit for Heru Mael’tharias!” Mistress Llorai exclaimed with a dramatic eyeroll, gesturing for him to put them down on the center table. He bit his lip and did so. “Those are scales, and these” she reached for a small metal container that jingled inside, “are counterweights. They’re made of lead, and are meant to offshoot the balance of vials and containers you store liquids and the like in. Each has a numeric value attached to them. Now, if you pay attention to the scale,” she put down the box alongside the entity in question and placed a finger on the arrow on the center. “This arrow will stand in the middle mark when the scales are balanced. When the scales are balanced, you have the weight you want. Fairly simple, right? I’m sure they taught you this in collegio,” she flashed him a teasing smile before turning around and collecting some glass flasks and vials.

“Now these Heru Mael’tharis, are flasks which will contain liquids. They are used for two primary purposes: storing and stirring. Fairly easy to remember, no?” a small chuckle, “You see that small metal stick poking out of this one? That’s a stir rod. They come in different materials, glass, wood, etc… but essentially all do the same thing. You can mix and stir the fluids together with them, fairly simple concept.

“Now… you’ll notice the openings in the round ones. Those can be fitted to tubing which in turn lets us mix everything in the flask together without ever touching the fluid. When you’re dealing with corrosive mixtures or acids, for example. When we need to seal a flask to store a substance, we simply apply some grease,” she pointed to a small tin pail that had quite a bit of it stowed away for future use, then shrugged her shoulders.