Elias' eyes squinted as the bright rays of the rising sun slipped over the corner of the window, catching the doctor by surprise. The man took a step back, his attention drawn to the dirty window; was it morning already?
The tonic the man had made for himself appeared to have worked better than expected. The first trial had been a success, even if the doctor had lost sleep from it. Although the man hadn't slept, he'd managed to get much work done.
The doctor's green eyes raced back to the vial in his hand, studying the fruit of his labours with a sharp gaze. Elias stepped over to the other table, reaching for the sulfuric match and igniting it from the candle.
The man studied the brilliant flame for the moment, holding it away from his face, before tilting the vial slightly. The hungry flame snaked closer to the vial's neck, intently observed by the doctor, as some invisible force stoked the flame once it was within reach, pulling it into the glass structure and violently lighting up the inside of the vial, hot fumes bust out through the narrow opening, with the fire in tow; all within a few heartbeats.
"Fascinating." The doctor murmured to himself, setting the match aside while studying the remnants of the smoke. He was uncertain what just happened, but he knew it had potential. It was hard to replicate an error, but he'd finally managed and produced the same bright light and sudden combustion that had the man jump out of his skin last time.
There was a spark of excitement within the man's chest as he hurried around the corner of the small lab, stepping into the main room and looking around. The smile, rare sight on him nowadays, dropped upon realizing there was no one there to share these findings with. He turned to look at the door to the kitchen, figuring that the Ranger might be inside relaxing with a drink in hand. Elias thought about stepping closer to see if his thoughts were correct, but hesitated as he wondered if the man would even want to listen to the ramblings of an alchemist, if he'd even understand the significance of what the doctor had discovered or if he'd even care about the amount of work Elias had put into it.
A few of the Ranger's words from the past resurfaced in his mind, whispering poison into the man's ear and shattering his excitement further. Why would he want to listen to the disgusting process of making the fine, red powder? The lab still stank of the urine that the doctor had been using.
Elias stepped back and returned to his alchemy lab before he'd be noticed out in the room, the vial returned to the rack and the man pulling out a small wooden stool he had under the table to rest on when needed.
For a long time he sat at the table, stuck with his own thoughts as he studied the powder he had created with his experiment. There was something unique and mysterious about it, he wasn't even certain if there was a name for it yet.
Elias looked up, flinching as the light struck him as before, the man pushing himself away from it - almost falling off the stool in the process. With a low grumble, the man stood up from his seat to escape the light proper and instead, striding over to his bookshelf, browsing through the large selection of tomes. Subconsciously, he realized that he'd have to look up some of his grandfather's old work, to see if there was any reference that he might have overlooked or forgotten that would describe this compound. It was the only thing he could do for now, for as much as he wanted to document what he had found and the way he'd gotten to the odd combustion, his letters still didn't want to appear on the paper as they did within his mind. If this problem persisted then Elias would only have two options; either to ask someone to teach him the letters once more or find symbols to translate his thoughts onto parchment. For now, he had more pressing matters to focus on.
