Reaction

July 22nd, 991 SE – Siklantel, Halinen Confederacy

Weiss found it shocking how quickly humans adapted to new situations, even absurd ones. Accepting reality and understanding it were two separate tasks it seemed. Certain large scale structures of this new Earth and his original aligned, such as languages, cultures, environment, and physical laws. On the other hand, the existence of another race of humans and the mystical power of aermit were no doubt ‘large scale’, yet they differed from his original world considerably.

Weiss wanted to explore the city of Siklantel to further compare these large scale structures and, if he was lucky, find clues about Kurosaki’s existence and whereabouts. However, his attempts to leave Utaliha had all been denied due to his outstanding debt to the eimeltet.

Instead, he settled into a routine teaching modern chemistry concepts to Hilda while working on their now joint project on lye. It was natural an experienced chemist like her needed sufficient proof that Weiss’s proposed process worked as intended, and without the materials needed for a proper experiment he decided to simply start from theory. She picked up the concepts with ease though with a slight skepticism. Thankfully, the state-of-the-art in this world included important ideas such as atomic theory, so much of the lecture was spent teaching her new nomenclature.

“Finally, the ammonia can be reclaimed from the ammonium chloride solution using the calcium oxide obtained earlier the process.” Weiss drew a final arrow to complete a diagram of the Solvay process for soda ash that now filled two entire chalk boards in Hilda’s lab. The evening sunlight scattered off of the chalk dust to create an orange veil between the two.

“We will need to use traditional terminology in the proposal, however these chemical formulae and equations are quite useful and can be included.” Hilda nodded pensively as she finished writing her notes. “In fact, this new system may be the more revolutionary than the chemical process itself.”

Weiss dragged a chair over to her, its wooden legs rattling against the floor, and collapsed into it. “So, what else is there a bounty for?”

Hilda leaned over to a pile of papers and pulled out a pamphlet. It was written in iltsuen, a winding, cursive script that ran right-to-left. With only a few days of practice, he needed some help from Hilda to decode the writing.

“A sewing machine adapted for soft cloths, a process to create lye without wood ash, a process for the large-scale production of ragless pulp paper, a general method for refining sugar similar to the Virdian style. To the first Utaliha group to present a viable solution, a sum of two-thousand silver dollars along with exclusive and patented commercial rights shall be granted.”

Weiss’s eyes lingered on the bounty amount as he handed the pamphlet back to Hilda. If he split the money with her, he would still need to work off one-thousand silver dollars worth of debt, which when combined with his living fees would mean he was going to be here for at least a few years. “You aren’t going for any of these other ones?”

“I will be happy enough to receive my one-thousand silver dollars and the continued good graces of the eimeltet,” Hilda shrugged. “The other bounties are not in my field of expertise.”

Weiss sighed. “What is Siklantel even going to use the lye for?”

“Soap,” she answered matter-of-factly.

“Soap?”

“Siklantel takes cleanliness very seriously. Soap rations have been a part of life here ever since a wave of smallpox swept the continent many decades ago. The wood to make potash for the soap has grown scarce and there has been a crackdown on illegal logging. I wager that is why your punishment for trespassing on the eimeltet’s forest was so severe as to include the possibility of execution.”

“I see, so they want to use caustic lye to make soap rather than burn more precious wood. And I guess the wood is going to make paper?” Weiss sunk deep into thought. “But why then is there a wood shortage now when they do not have a large-scale paper making process yet?” A distant memory from his college years suddenly surfaced and Weiss began to erase the board while murmuring to himself.

Weiss took a step back from the board which had once again been filled to the brim with chalk.

“We aren’t going to use the sodium sulfide to produce soda ash. We can combine it with caustic lye to create a white liquor used to pulp wood. The process also gives us chlorine to bleach the pulp with. Furthermore, this new process can be easily converted into producing soda ash if needed while we can use the previous process as the main base of soda ash production.”

Hilda had not said a single word in an hour, but her pen furiously scratching on the paper had not stopped. When Weiss finally finished his out-pour, the sun had set and the last remnants of dusk cast long, red shadows into the office. Seeing that Hilda had not yet finished writing her notes, he grabbed a candle. He stared at the wick intently, imagining it bursting into flame, before snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened. Hilda briefly glanced up from her pages and snapped her fingers; the candle bloomed to life. Weiss sighed and set it the light in front of her. Under its dim flame, he thought he saw a smile flicker over Hilda’s lips. When she was done, the chemist frowned at her notes.

“Did I make a mistake?”

“No, but sulfur was recently declared a strategic resource, so there has also been a sulfuric acid shortage.” She shrugged. “However, given they did not list it as a restriction, I doubt they will reject your idea on those grounds.”

Weiss thought back to the bounties. “Sulfur, wood, soap, cloth, sugar, paper…” he murmured.

Hilda waved a hand in front of his face to bring him to attention. “We will miss out on the bounty if you think too much about such things. Come, we have a proposal to write.”

By the next morning, Weiss’s fingertips had gone a pale pink from the constant rubbing of chalk and pools of candle wax had infected the floorboards like mold. As dawn graced the horizon, a neat bundle of papers titled “A Process for Soda Ash with Applications in Caustic Lye and Paper Production” sat on the desk. Hilda had told Weiss to submit the proposal to Utaliha’s director before her tired eyes drifted shut. The 21st century man, used to staying up well past natural lights should allow, was still clearheaded.

Her office was on the far end of campus near Lake Gita’ange, which emitted a pleasantly chilly breeze in the mornings. The head office was next to Liatepmez, whose swooping white wings and spire were the first to taste the warmth of the dawn. As Weiss walked down the hill, the light swept across the rest of the city illuminating swathes of brown houses made of clay and wood. By the time Weiss made it down to the office, the light’s advance was arrested by the gray walls that surrounded the city.

A sleeping guard sat slumped at the entrance. Weiss softened his footsteps and pulled on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Sheepishly, he tapped the guard awake. The man’s long ears flickered to life before his eyes did. He glanced Weiss up and down, pausing for a moment on the stack of papers he clutched. The man grunted in annoyance and unlocked the door. He muttered something in iltsuen before going back to sleep. Weiss understood the word for “three”.

There was only one room on the third floor and its door was already open. Weiss took a cautious step in and scanned the room. Two large windows were situated on either side of the room; one overlooked Utaliha’s central plaza with the clock tower, and the other displayed the quaint palace garden and Liatepmez’s smooth, pale walls. A desk was placed in the center of the room, surrounded by shelves of books, papers, and pens.

A dull, familiar scent drew him towards the desk where he found a mug of cold coffee. It was the first time he had encountered any in Siklantel, and a certain mischievous desire almost overtook him. But his attention was diverted to a piece of paper on the desk, import manifests for a place called the Royal Virdian Colony of New Avalon. A few words caught his eye: paper, refined cotton cloth, processed cane sugar, gunpowder.

He walked around the desk to get a better look, and his foot hit something soft. There was a sleeping iltsuen man on the floor. Deep bags under his eyes melded the with red makeup on his cheeks to create a bruise-purple color that matched the wine in the bottle in his hand. A cluster of empty bottles were piled under the desk, hidden from any prying eyes.

“Gah!” Weiss jumped back as the man stirred, groaning as he pushed himself up using the desk. His hand slipped and spilled the mug of coffee. Weiss winced as the precious liquid soaked into the import manifests, climbing over each line of the table in a bitter, roasty tide.

“Are you, do you want to-” The man stifled a burp and pointed to the papers in Weiss’s hand.

Weiss nodded. He made a gesturing motion and Weiss handed him the papers.

“Let’s see… lye and paper, lye and paper…” Slumping back to the floor he began to leaf through the pages. With every soft brushing of paper against paper, his eyes became more clear and he sat up straighter. When he finished, he looked up at Weiss. “You are Sir Faber I presume?”

“That’s right,” Weiss extended a hand.

The man returned a wide smile filled with stained teeth. “Well met!” The man took Weiss’s hand and used it to pull him to his feet. “What brilliance! Perhaps we shall call this the Faber Process if it works.”

“Just call it the Alba Process if it comes to it.” Weiss would feel guilty claiming Solvay’s work for himself. “She will be the one actually performing the experiments once the proposal is approved.”

“As I thought, the ideas are yours, not hers. She is clever, but not ambitious enough to take such a risk on her own. I thought she was going to spend the rest of her life as the eimeltet’s pet.”

“Are you sure you know her?” Weiss eyed the coffee-soaked documents on the desk.

“Certainly better than you. You’re new to Utaliha, aren’t you?” The man grabbed the soaked papers and tossed them in a trash bin. His movements were still drunken, yet his eyes and voice were crystal clear. His smile had disappeared. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Telenu Siklan, eimerteti of Siklantel, Director and Founder of Utaliha.”

“Are you the one who sets up the bounties then?” Hilda’s warning flashed through Weiss’s mind.

“Yes, one of my many jobs is to promote research in the areas vital to Siklantel’s interests.”

“Is a large amount of gunpowder an area vital to your interests?”

The eimerteti’s eyes snapped to Weiss’s face, but he did not respond. The previous mischievous mood suddenly returned to Weiss in force. He could feel his spine tingling as his mind concocted dangerous sentences.

“Your supply of wood and sulfur cannot keep up with your needs, so you are trying to find scientific solutions to the shortage.” Weiss felt a smile crawling onto his lips. “Does New Avalon have something to do with you sudden increase in demand?”

Telenu leaned in. A hot gust wrapped Weiss’s ear and an acidic stench crept into his nose. “Then let me tell you something, child. Don’t be too clever, don’t desire too much. Otherwise, you’ll end up like me.”

“I’ll end up as the eimeltet’s pet?” It was a wild guess of a taunt, but it seemed to hit a nerve. Telenu’s expression twisted into something between disdain and rage.

“Thank you for submitting your proposal,” he said curtly while pulling away. “Now leave.”

The moment Weiss stepped out of the office the door was slammed in his face. His ear still prickled with coolness from the moisture, but his grin also remained. The large scale structures of this world were similar to his own, but that didn’t mean they had to follow the same, tragic history. A week after his death, a path towards world peace had begun to open up before him. In this new, unfamiliar word, such a path was still fragmented and unpredictable, yet Weiss could feel it growing tangible.