The forest was alive with activity in this dark and dreary night. Dizzying arrays of insects scurried across the forest floor while a maze of tree branches interwove and shook. This forest was unkind to strange visitors, especially those who were making such noise. “Shh!”, the forest requested, “you are too loud, you are rudely disturbing my inhabitants!”

The dark elven intruder issued an explanation, “I was abandoned. By my first family, and now by my second.”

“That is not of my concern,” said the forest. “Pull yourself together and be silent!” The forest had no appreciation for the girl’s pain.

Lilly spoke through her sobbing, “I am ok.” She was about as ok as a dying lark. An extinguishing flame.

Sadism would win out. Lilly drew her dagger and cut into the bark of one of the forest’s many fingers. Maybe inflicting harm upon the forest would help ease her own suffering.

Lilthis ripped the necklace from her neck. It’s string dancing out of her fingertips.



Metallic iron was a cheap enough resource. Abundant, sturdy, and useful. She acquired a fairly large block of it and asked the newest mage to come assist her. The mage brought his steel vat and was annoyed that the pretty young dark elf wasn’t telling him what they were up to. When Lilthis first approached him and offered a hot show he had assumed it would involve-

“And you filled the vat with the acid I requested, yes?” Lilly interrupted the mage’s daydream.

“Yes, it’s in there. Mind telling me what we’re doing out here now?” Gary was feeling a bit impatient at this point. His silk robes were getting dirty and he doubted all the effort was going to pay off. The elf he was accompanying seemed less and less likely to be willing to put out. He was told so by a high elf when he joined the caravan. She was certainly the prettiest dark elf he had ever seen but this was getting unreasonable.

Lilthis on the other hand was in a fairly good mood. She didn’t expect that the first mage she bumped into would be so eager to assist her! He didn’t even ask to be compensated for his services. Lilly whipped around quickly, flinging her long white hair into a flurry, and demanded, “ok Larry can you place the vat by that pile of rocks? Where I have that hole dug?”

“It’s Gary.” Now the mage was almost fed up. This was turning out to be a completely wasted day.

“Right, once the vat is in place I need you to melt the rocks to form a lava. But please make sure not to overheat the rocks! As soon as the lava is formed cease your spell,” Lilthis needed Jerry to be precise. She had acquired rhyolite rocks because they formed a much cooler lava than most other kinds of minerals. As the mage channeled his spell excitement soared in Lilly. It had been ages since she had the Aleran resources to conduct a project of this scale. Thanks to Kerry here she could proceed without the advanced technology of her home.

The rocks burned and started to turn a dark red similar in color to Lilly’s chest piece. Then the stones grew brighter until they formed into an orange-red glob. The viscous substance slowly wormed its way down the trench Lilly had dug, scorching the ground as it proceeded. The hole wasn’t very deep but the lava was substantive enough to settle and form a fat bubbling shape under the steel vat. Rhyolite lava only burned a bit hotter than 700 degrees Celsius but you could hear the acid begin to react to the rapid temperature shift.

Lilly placed the iron into the steel vat after waiting long enough for it to warm up. She then dumped a pot of water into the vat and partially covered the vat with a sheet of steel provided by her new friend. The acid acted as a catalytic accelerator on the iron and caused it to begin to oxidize. The melting point of iron was closer to around 1500 degrees but iron would begin the oxidation process at temperatures as cool as 700 degrees if you introduced an acidic accelerator.

The Aleran maiden was beaming. Smiling and overjoyed she asked the mage if he could go ahead and enchant the steel to be heat resistant.

“Uhh, I don’t know any enchantments.”

Her heart sank into her chest. “You said you were a mage! Why can’t you enchant it!?” Lilly snapped back. Larry was annoyed. She could tell because his forehead furrowed up and his cheeks turned rosey. It was really easy to read human emotions.

The young mage barked, “that’s not how magic works. I can’t just will something to happen.”

“Can you cool the lava down at all?” Every possibility was racing through her mind. She had to hope that this useless mongrel could do something to salvage her experiment. Cooling the lava so suddenly would produce an inferior product but it was a lot better than having the bottom of the vat fall out and be consumed in thick lava.

To her relief the mage focused his attention on the lava and after a few seconds could cool it enough to harden. With a bit more prodding he even helped her retrieve the contents out of the acidic mixture. They had succeeded in creating iron oxidized pigment.

Lilthis mixed the pigments with wax in a water bucket. The wax added a bit of brilliance and illuminated the color of the yellowish pigment. Lilly had made some modifications to her gauntlet and ended up taking a lot of the rusted gears off the glove. She decided she could tie the gears to strings, dye them with the pigmentation mixture, and give them to the other wizards and mages in their caravan. It had been two entire years since she joined and the innovative Aleran decided the gifts would be the perfect way to celebrate her anniversary.

Since leaving the estate this was the first time she felt like she had a family again.

She felt no pain that day. Only joy.