[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

Eren eyed the petite frame of Mistress Llorai for a moment before shaking his head and sidestepping to some of the other items. “What are these?” he asked her, piercing emerald eyes glancing up and meeting hers as one of his fingers tapped along some glass equipment.

“Well now, I’m sure you didn’t think that all you needed to do to produce Calcination reactions was a simple furnace and kiln, did you? Let’s test your knowledge of the world. What happens when you boil fire?” she asked testing him.

It was an easy question for an Elementalist. “It begins to evaporate into steam.”

“Good. Now, water is one of the five elements-”

“There are four.”

“No… there’s five.” she frowned, somewhat alarmed at this rejection.

“I’m sure there is four. Fire, water, earth, and air. Trust me, I’m intimate with all of them,” Eren offered a lighthearted smile, though was perplexed by her reasoning.

“Ah, I see you’re stubborn and naïve,” she spoke, dismissing the matter and shrugging her shoulders – although it felt rather weird having someone younger than him call him such. Weird, and definitely out of place. Just as he was about to protest this backhanded insult she started speaking again, “There are five elements, Heru Mael’tharias. They are fire, water, earth, air, and the element of ether – or spirit. Everything revolves around the various combination you produce with them. But for now, let us say that each element has two qualities. Water is cold and wet, whereas fire is hot and dry. Simple, yes?”

Eren blanched.

“When you combine the two properly you get the para-element of steam, which is hot and wet. So you see, you can take traits of one and combine them with traits of the other to produce something entirely different. Transmutation.”

She smiled winningly before continuing.

“So, in majority, everything connected to the element of water is cold and wet. There is a distinction between fluid water, however, and the element of water. Steam, or the para element of water that is both hot and wet, is a type of gas. Anything that is a fluid and subjected to Calcination will become a gas. Simple enough?” she did not bother waiting for a response, subtly annoyed as she was with his initial rejection. Briefly, she pointed out to a spiral of glass set in a small tub of water. “This makes sure the water in this tub stays cold. It’s called a Condenser. The rubber stoppers on it make it impossible for the gasses to escape through it – but also induce pressure. You can use the rubber stoppers to connect pieces of glass tubing together. They’re very handy. By using a Condenser, you can cool the gas that is within these glass spirals so that it becomes water again… or wet and cold. You can return steam back into its liquid form. They’re interchangeable, see. All done via Calcination.”

She pointed to a ‘T’ shaped glass tube in the water, off to the side of the pump. It had circulation moving through it, obviously in work. “That right there is a water pump, and does exactly what it sounds like. It pumps the water through the two tubes you see there. How do you think it’s doing this?” she asked, encouraging participation.

Eren thought for a moment.

“Umm… well. Pressure? I would think?” he asked, comparing it to how his Masterpiece worked. He used pressure to propel movement… so why should this miniature apparatus be any different?

“Pressure precisely. The pressure pushes the fluid upwards, making it easier to move liquids from one container to another via the tubes. You can build sets of pipes that go upwards and around, like those over there,” she pointed at an empty set of intricate pipes connected to various baubles and flasks that would store liquids or gases at some later time.