My mission to hunt Silas was officially on hold, derailed by a bored Marquis who had just given me a new, far more amusing side-quest. I turned from the colonnade and made my way to the Alchemy Spire, my internal smirk firmly in place.
'Time to introduce the tornado to the volcano.'
The Alchemy division was, as I'd expected, pure chaos. Unlike the austere silence of the Knight's Hall, the Spire smelled of sulfur, ozone, and something vaguely like burnt sugar.
I found them in the primary synthesis lab.
Thomas was on one side of the room, his face a mask of cold, adult concentration. He was meticulously titrating a dark blue liquid, his entire sterile field cordoned off by a glowing mana-ward. He was ignoring everything.
Rosalie was on the other side, her face smudged with soot, her orange hair frizzled at the ends. She was enthusiastically stirring a cauldron that was bubbling with a thick, bright pink, and deeply unstable-looking substance.
