[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“Moving along…” she spoke, selecting a smaller flask, a vial really, and holding it up for him to see.

Erenthril took it gingerly in his hands and studied the label.

“Now, it’s possibly to derive several various substances from the same initial component. It’s… like saying you can travel from point A to point B, C, and D. It’s just a matter of which route you take,” she nodded her head candidly, “You’ll see there Ammonia. Go ahead and unscrew the lid. This here is Sal Ammoniac, and the flask in front of me contains White Phosphorous.”

Eren hardly heard her last statement, because as soon as he unscrewed the lid and the pungent odor wafted to his nose, he nearly dropped the flask he was holding. He startled Mistress Llorai so much that she snatched it out of his hand before he even had the opportunity to do so, wrinkling her nose at the same time. “Ammonia, smells. You can get it from tobacco by leaving it out to dry, or through the more conventional means,” she bottled it back up and took a deep breath of fresher air. “Boiling urine with acid. You’ll end up with this liquid here, and it’s fairly simple and easy to do. I once had a lab teacher make me boil so much urine the entire laboratory stunk for cycles on end. It was terrible,” the look in her eyes didn’t make him doubt her for a second.

“Sal Ammoniac,” she began after gathering herself for a bit, reaching for it and holding it up for Erenthril to examine, “is different than the rest. Can you tell me why?”

“There’s…white…stuff in it. Are those crystals?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly after leaning forward for a better look.

“Indeed they are. Sal Ammoniac is another play off its name – you create it via urine which is rich in ammonia and salt, of all things. But it’s even more unusual than that. When you heat these crystals in a flask, they go directly to a gaseous state. And when it cools, it comes back to this crystallization. It skips the liquid transmutation all together. Rather interesting, don’t you think?” she spoke, staring at it in fascination for a second or two before turning and adding this, also, back to the collection on the shelf.

Erenthril picked up the next one and held it up. “So this is white phosphorous huh?” he asked, examining the whitish clear substance that was quickly followed by a layer of clear fluid atop of it. He wanted to say it was ethanol, but had a feeling that would be wrong.

“Yes, that’s white phosphorous. There are two types: red and white. It’s one of the more dangerous chemicals you’ll be working with, Erenthril. It combusts with air. Instant explosions, and they’re not pretty. You’ll note the tubing at the top,” she gestured, pointing it out with her forefinger. Eren’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ of surprise.

“Yes, better to not fool around with that one. It’s pretty hard to procure, also. And guess what? It’s made of urine too. You have to let it settle and sit for several cycles, until it… well, ferments almost into something gooey like honey. Pretty nasty, personally, but you mix that with charcoal and Calcination via a retort. After that, it’s just a matter of finding the solid white phosphorous in the red phosphorous. The difference between the two is the consistency, really. White phosphorous exhibits a solid-like consistency, whereas the red variation is most definitely a liquid. Albeit a thick one…” she nodded her head, tilting her chin and pausing to let Erenthril absorb all of this. It was a lot of information to be given at one time.

“You can use both though. White phosphorous ignites in the air, whereas red phosphorous is useful for other methods. For painting, and this is just an example, but if you paint with it it’ll actually glow in the dark. It’ll look like something’s burning, but yes… most definitely a glow. Also, if you combine it with Ethanol and let it steep for a day, then pour the pair into some water, you’ll see crackles of lightning and small sparks..” she shrugged again before adding it, also, to the collection on the shelf.

Erenthril was just praying there wouldn’t be a trivia quiz on all the various components he was learning about; he had a feeling someone could very well write a book on them!