Solo Business as Usual.

[Loken]

Spring 70th, 516 A.V.

Loken's glove covered hands stretched slightly above his head as he stood in front of the philtering station his employer had allowed him to use for his craft, surveying the oddly-shaped glassware spread out on the table within the back room of the Cave of Wonders. He was in the process of taking inventory of supplies listed on several parchments in his hand, setting a quill to ink; crossing each off as he verified and stored every item away.

At his heels, Loken's Tiger hook sword remained on the ground should he need it, and actively working within a drug den made it prudent for him to keep around. It was also why many people believe Loken to be Azim's bouncer. It suited him for people to believe that, so he never corrected them. In reality, his job was a simple one based on supply and demand: keep the stocked with poisons. And considering Loken only knew a select few poisons, it was a business arrangement that allowed him on-the-job training.

The inventory manifest from the latest caravan consisted of five pages, and all those supplies were stacked in the middle of the room. Loken spent several chimes painstakingly sorting plant matter in one storage dresser, and organic animal ingredients to another area in the room, then put sorted everything in between into baskets that he took to a different storage closet area. By the time he'd finished, the philtering lab looked in far better condition.

The only thing that he did not store away were two baskets that he'd stacked on the workstation table. As he walked over to the table, Azim entered the room with a hardy laugh bellowing deeply from the mans belly. "Ah, Smooth. Clean! Like bottom of baby. Wonderful." The branshiran walked over to give Loken a solid pat on the back. "I prefer to work in a clean environment. No praise is required or necessary... You will find that all of your ingredients are separated by general type from largest to small, sorted into different areas. Animal to your left, plant the right, and miscellaneous along with various earths in the storage room." He informed his employer.

He gave Azim a smile then looked down at the table, sliding one index finger along a page of his journal that laid splayed open on the desk, reading to himself. "Bloodroot. Scarlet, honey textured, odorless liquid extracted from various forest roots." He had already memorized the notes he had taken long ago after endless nights of repeated reading. He did not need to read them, but found comfort in the act of fact checking his every step during the creation process.

Azim smiled with a wide grin. "You, my serious friend. Are always of the focus. Hehe, is good for business."

[Loken]

Distill

Loken looked about at the timber walls, the heavily weather worn ceiling, and shook his head. “So long as business is good, may I ask for you to supervise my philtering? I would highly enjoy listening to any insights you may have to better my own craft."

Azim's expression turned from joyous to gleefully serious at Loken's request. "Of course! Time for a lesson, yes?" The Benshira said while pulling folding the sleeves of his robes up to above his wrists. "Where to begin?" Loken flipped his journal to a blank page once he heard the question. "The beginning. I am woefully uninitiated in the practical use of the equipment. However, I do know the names and what they are used for and can fumble my way through making a simple poison. "

Azim studied the man for a moment, assessing him quickly. "To make hard root a liquid, we must distill." Loken lifted up his quill, setting it to ink once more as he stood aside. "Can you explain the Distillation process for me?" Preparing to take a note while Azim took center stage at the workstation. The Benshira lifted a hand to touch several pieces of glassware. The alembic, distilling coil, and a vial. "Burn in alembic, gas lifts, forms into morning dew within coil, and rains into vial. Simple process. Can produce a purer liquid or thing much stranger. End matters on ingredients."

Loken set the tip of the quill to a blank page on his notebook, writing out what he was being told:

Distillation -
Through process of evaporation, a heated ingredient within an alembic changes into gas within a coil, and reform into a liquid in a separate holding container.

Loken set his quill down now that he felt comfortable in starting his job for the day. With gloved hands, he opened one of the baskets on reveal that it was full of plant roots of various toxicity. He picked one up, holding it away from his face, as he looked at it. "This is listed in the inventory as Moon Flower root." Azim nodded his head. "It has two names one Moon flower, the other thorn apple. I ordered theses different supply of bad things for you. I was told it can cause delirium and weakness."

He placed the root back into the basket once he turned his attention to the alembic. "That matches the effect of mild confusion and physical weakness. So the root will suffice." The alembic consisted of a pear shaped piece of glassware with one long diagonally protruding neck.

It took him a short moment to remove the neck from the copper coil, but managed to remove it, then dropped two moon flower roots into the glass. The alembic was quickly returned to its raised stand above a small unlit brazier with the neck reinserted into the coil.

Loken found the process of connecting each piece of equipment to be a relaxing puzzle. Taking chimes to line everything up properly. Azim could only shake his head at the Ano Cultists perfectionism. "Extreme caution, tiss good thing to have in this profession." Loken then placed a vial right below the opposite end of the coil to gather the final liquid.

[Loken]

Learning

Loken picked up the flint and steel that laid next to the small brazier, clashing the two together to shower the coals within in embers. It took him two tries before it caught flame. "Almost there. One must now keep attention on flame." Azim said with a stern tone. "Takes high heat to distill solid. One must take care not to let heat break flask." The Cultist took a seat on the stool in front of the workstation, content to remain there keeping his focused attention on it. His hand reached to pick up the quill and write down the warning Azim just told him.

"Haha, it will takes some time my friend. In the now, you will take more notes!" Loken glanced from the fire to Azim with a raised brow, still holding the quill as he set the tip to paper. "You have a quarter of my attention. I would give you all of it, but given the current circumstance I think you can understand why."

It took Azim a moment to find his voice. "Ah, right." The man spoke suddenly. " 'Eight methods'. I slap the lowly philtering who does not know them by heart. Distillation is one of them, my friend. Right now, I will tell you of Sublimation, Insuration, and Cupellation."

"Cupellation?" An eyebrow rose in confusion and interest, as it did when he found himself face to face with something new. The word cupellation was not even apart of his current vocabulary, which caused him to sound out the word in his head to properly write it down. Azim began to absently pace around the room, distracting himself by looking over where Loken had stored various ingredients. "Yes, cupellation. You place thing in bowl, burn thing like Ivak making love to Syna on a hot summers day. Eventually the Impurities will evaporate or bleed off leaving only a thing that is absolutely pure. Now, with heat like that. One needs strong bowl."

Azim walked back over to Loken and picked up a bowl off of it. "This is cupel. Well, a small one... use it when need to burn impure petch out of ingredient."Loken wrote down everything Azim said, while obviously turning the exaggerated hyperbole into a more concise definition. The sounds of quill tip on parchment ended when he glanced over what he had written.

Cupellation -
The process of purification through intense heat causing impurities to separate from the source. ~Process requires flame resistant bowl known as a cupel.

When Loken was finished, he turned his attention back to the dry distilling roots. The alembic had started to turn foggy from the evaporated sweat emitting from the root. "Should I lower or increase the heat? "

Azim didn't even need to give the alembic any prolonged look before knowing the answer. "The root is burning. Raise alembic away from flame, stand has height adjustment gears." With a nod, he grabbed the gear on the stand and turned it, it caused the alembic to rise an inch higher from the flame. He then checked to see if the neck had altered the position of the coil; It had moved everything slightly, but nothing had been drastically altered. The vapors within the coil were coalescing into thickened droplets of liquids and landing in the vial at a slowly steady pace.

It did not escape Loken's attention that without Azim's aid that he would have surely burned it. To possibly avoid that mistake in the future, Loken took note of the new height of the glassware and current intensity of the flame.

[Loken]

Drug induced

"All is fixed! Now we talk sublim..."

It surprised both Azim and Loken when the door slammed open. “What the petch?” A man hobbled in groggily, still half-immersed in a sleep like daze. “Zith! Run!” The man screamed. Was it his imagination? The man shook his head to clear it, and heard Zith wings within his mind. Loken locked eyes with Azim in a knowing manner that meant someone needed to be dealt with. He was fully clad in his leather armor as he stood from the stool. Maybe it was the black of his outfit that caused the man to scream right at his face. “Stay away zith!” The man back out into the front room as quickly as he could, nearly knocking down one of Azim's daughters. The owner saw that from the doorway with a malice filled grin. Looking towards Loken. “He bought the Dream Powder. Go make him dream.”

The hallucinating man dived to the floor with a heavy thud. Loken could only assume a 'Zith' dived at him. The only good thing about it was that it meant he did not have to chase the man down. There were tears in the mans eyes as he looked up; he wiped them away with his free hand, trembling in fright while lifting hands to guard his face. “Merciful Gods.” The man whimpered.

“This should return your dreaming mind to truth.” Striking out at the man with an open palm. The ball of his hand struck across the temple of his skull causing bright flashes of lights to blot out the man's vision. The cried out in over exaggerated agony as the 'zith' was rending his flesh. In equal measure with his opposite hand, Loken lashed out with the other palm of his hand. This time hitting the man square in the forehead with a forceful thrust. Bashing him with enough force to send his head back towards the ground.

“And the reality of a dream is that one needs to be asleep.” He reached to one empty lounge bed in the front room and tossed a blanket over the unconscious man.

He walked over to Azim's daughter to make sure she was alright before returning to the door leading to the back room, stopping there. He then turned around to look around at the other patrons conscious enough to understand. "If I need to come back out here, It will be with a sword. This is Azim's home and you will respect it. This is your only warning." Almost as if on cue, there was always one customer who just didn't care while they were totally in bliss. And the days sarcastic customer appeared to be a woman smoking a pipe.

"As you wish," The woman said tersely, ushering Loken on with a childish tone. He glanced over his shoulder. "Please, enjoy your stay." He told he in an absolute monotone of apathy, his eyes fierce and black locking onto the human woman. His deep set gaze lingering on her, waiting for her to say another irksome comment. The women opened her mouth to jest further but shut it again and did what Loken said, knowing that it would not benefit her to continue. He turned on his hills to return to the back room and closed the door behind him.