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“Here, I brought you some tea,” Solomon handed you a mug. “Did you make any progress while I was gone?”
“Well, I jot down some ideas for what we could do differently to get the results we want, but I haven’t tried any yet. I thought I’d wait for you to come back,” you took a drink of your tea and then looked around Solomon’s room. “Is there a place I can put down my cup? I don’t want to put it on our work station and risk accidentally drinking some other liquid while I’m not paying attention.”
“No, we wouldn’t want that to happen… again,” He shot you a teasing grin as he moved a side table closer to you.
“Oh, it was one time. Are you ever going to let me live that down?” you say with an exaggerated sigh.
You look at the spread of ingredients and tools on the work table in front of you. There’s a variety of plants, powders, and liquids of various colors and consistencies. The variety of equipment is just as great. Many of the tools were modern, but some things looked like they could be a couple centuries old, if not more. ‘There are some things that just can’t be improved upon,’ Solomon would tell you, looking fondly at the old tools like they were old friends.
“Are you sure there isn’t some other ingredient we should try that would make this work?” you said looking over the spread on the table.
Solomon shook his head, “The potion is made to show the magical aura of the one who drinks it, so it has similar properties to the ‘Lover’s Powder’ that I made to show the red thread of fate. The ingredients here have similar properties, but are more accurate to make a liquid potion instead of a powder. The main difference between the ‘Lover’s Powder’ and this potion should be in the spells, not the specific ingredients. Right now our best bet is trying different measurements and different ways of combining the ingredients to see if it changes the results.”
“Well then, I think we should try a larger amount of violetheart resin,” you said, mixing in the ingredient without taking a pause. “That should help-”
“Wait, what are you doing?” Solomon pulled you out of your chair and further back from your work. “If you add too much violetheart resin to a potion right after mixing in ember essence you’ll cause an exothermic reaction and it’ll boil over.”
You look back at where your potion is to see it bubbling up and boiling over just as Solomon had said. You watch as the hot liquid spills over the edge of the table over where your lap would have been if Solomon hadn’t have pulled you away. You should be feeling grateful to Solomon, but you can’t seem to get past the disappointment of yet another failed attempt at your potion.
“This is hopeless,” you sat on the edge of Solomon’s bed and put your face in your hands. “Maybe we should just give up. It shouldn’t be this hard.”
Solomon sat beside you and put his hand on your shoulder, “Do you really want to give up or are you letting your frustration speak for you? We’ve worked so hard, it would be a shame.”
“No…” you said honestly. “I just- Why is it so difficult? I don’t feel like I’ve ever had so much trouble with a potion before.”
“That’s because you’ve never made a potion from scratch before,” Solomon had a glint in his eye as he started. “You must understand, there is a huge difference between following already clean and laid out instructions and starting from scratch. Right now we are creating an entirely new potion without any instructions to guide us. Trial and error is part of the creation process.”
Solomon looked over at you with passion in his eyes, “You know, it was a human that once said, ‘I have not failed. I just found ten-thousand ways that won't work.’ What we’re meant to take away from that is that rather than see these moments as failures, we must see them as progress.”
“So you're saying, instead of being frustrated or disappointed, we should be proud when we get it wrong?” You look back in the direction of your work space, “even if we nearly scald ourselves in the process?”
“Hey, I didn’t let you burn yourself, right?” Solomon stood up, “But I should clean that up.”
“Wait, I’m the one who made the mess, so I should be the one-”
Solomon cut you off, handing you your cup of tea, “You should take a break. Don’t worry about it, it’ll only take me a moment.”
“Alright,” you said, taking a sip of your tea, but your mind went back to thinking about the potion. “But I really think adding more violetheart resin is the answer… But how?”
“I actually think you’re right, but it’s tricky,” Solomon answered from the other side of the room. “We have to mix in the ember essence and the violetheart resin last since we have to bind them to the enchantments immediately, but if we add more of the resin, well you know…”
“Then…” you trailed off as you thought. “Oh! Could we separate the ingredients into two mixtures, enchant them separately, and then combine them.”
“Ah! That could work,” Solomon nodded, as he tossed aside the rag he’d finished cleaning with. “If we separate the ingredients that need to pair with the ember essence into one mix and the ingredients that need to pair with the violetheart resin into another, then it should be safe to increase the amount of resin we use. I think you’ve got it.”
You wasted no time making your way next to Solomon at the workstation. With new determination you set up the tools and ingredients you needed.
“Why don’t you work on the ember essence mixture and I’ll work on the resin mixture?” you suggested.
“Good idea.”
The two of you went to work discussing and making the small adjustments to your part of the potion until you finished with your respective mixtures.
“That should do it,” Solomon said, watching you add the extra resin. “All that’s left is the last two enchantments.”
“Right, first is the enchantment to heighten the presence of the user's magical aura and the second is the enchantment that will give that aura physical presence as a sort of fog, right?” you asked to make sure you remember the order of the spells correctly.
“That’s right,” Solomon nodded. “Then right after we’ll mix them together.”
The two of you finish up the last steps and you hold up the completed potion. The only thing left is to test it. The last step to see if the adjustments you made would result, finally, in success or in yet another failure. The thought frightened you and you quickly thrust the flask towards Solomon.
Solomon took the flask and raised an eyebrow at you, “what’s wrong?”
“You try it first! I’m-” you look down. “I know you just gave that big speech about failure versus progress, but I really want it to succeed. I’m scared that it’ll be another dud that doesn’t do anything.”
“Well I for one would rather it did nothing than it do the wrong thing. Like the time you turned Beel into a cat,” Solomon joked, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s fine, I’ll try it first, but I’ll get you back for this later.”
Before you could even question what he meant by that, Solomon brought the flask to his lips and took a small drink, leaving about two-thirds left in the container. You paused and squeezed your hands together in anticipation. The wait wasn’t long though. You hadn’t realized you were holding your breath until you released it as you saw a fog started to form around Solomon. No sooner had you released that breath did you do another sharp inhale as you gasped.
The white fog you had been expecting to form, wasn’t a plain white fog at all. Vibrant yet calming colors began to gently swirl around Solomon. He lifted his arms to get a better look at his aura, the surprise evident on his face as well. Neither of you had expected any color to come from the results of the potion, so you were both in awe of this beautiful outcome.
Solomon looked up at you, “You know if you keep staring like that-”
“How could I not stare?” you started to circle around Solomon gaping at the wondrous image before you. “It looks like the galaxy is surrounding you. It’s so serene yet I feel like it could pull me in. Do you think this is what magic looks like, or just your magic?”
“There’s one way to find out,” Solomon grinned and held up the potion.
“Right,” you reached for the container in Solomon’s hands, but he quickly moved it back.
“Wait, I just thought of a great punishment for you making me take the potion first,” a mischievous grin spread across Solomon’s face. “Put your hands down, I’ll give you the potion.”
“What? No way!” you shook your head. “That’s way too embarrassing!”
“Of course, that’s what makes it a punishment,” he laughed. “You want to try it don’t you?”
There was no getting out of this one if you wanted to try the potion too. You let your arms drop to your sides in compliance. You normally would have been embarrassed by the situation, As he approached you, but you were too dazzled by the aura emitting around Solomon. You hardly even notice as he brings the flask up to your lips for you to drink. A blush creeps across Solomon’s face as you stare and he realizes his plan backfired.
Solomon takes a step back and composes himself, knowing it’s his turn to watch you. Slowly an aura starts forming around you. You hadn’t expected to be able to feel it, but there was definitely an airy sensation surrounding you. You look up and when your eyes meet with Solomon’s, his expression shifts to concern.
“Is it supposed to look like that?”
“What?” worried, you lifted your arms up in front of you to try to get a better look at yourself.
“Pfft,” You look up to see Solomon covering his mouth trying to hold back laughter.
“That’s not funny!” You shouted though you were chuckling yourself. “You really scared me!”
“It's fine. Your aura is…” he looked over you again as he paused. “It’s beautiful.”
You look down at yourself again taking in the sight. Your aura has different colors and patterns than Solomon’s. You can feel the excitement bubbling up in you as you realize what this means.
“It worked!” you blurted out, looking over at him. “It finally worked.”
Unable to contain your excitement, you throw your arms around Solomon in celebration.
“Whoa, careful or you’ll knock us both over!” he laughed as he grabbed your shoulders to stabilize you both.
You laugh and look up at Solomon, but he’s no longer laughing. He’s staring where his hand met your shoulder quizzically. You look over to where his gaze was fixed and what you saw made you make a surprised look of your own.
“They’re mixing?” you asked in awe.
Slowly your auras danced and swirled into each other. In some places the colors mingled next to each other, separate, but harmonious. In other places your auras blended completely making entirely new colors and patterns. You had already thought your auras were beautiful, but this was a whole new kind of mesmerizing.
“It seems like it’s reacting to our close proximity and to our contact.” Solomon took your hand and held it up between the two of you. “Did you notice? The auras mix more quickly where we touch.”
Before you can say anything Solomon turns you around and pulls you into an embrace. Sure enough your auras’ dance picks up, almost desperately.
“Wow,” dazzled by the sight, you let out a sigh.
“To think, you wanted to give up,” Solomon chuckled lightly. “We would have missed this if we would have stopped.”
“Well I’m grateful you encouraged me to keep going,” you said sincerely. “Next time I’m feeling frustrated, I’ll remember this moment and this feeling. I’ll remember that the outcome is worth the difficulties along the way.”
You start to feel airiness lighten and see the colors around you slowly fading.
“Looks like the potion is wearing off,” Solomon said, loosening his grip from around your waist.
“Wait, can we stay like this?” you asked, putting your hands over his to hold them there and looking over your shoulder at him. “Just until the potion wears all the way off.”
Your request caught him off guard and he averted his eyes as a small flush spread across his cheeks.
“Sure,” he said, still looking away, but tightening his grip back around your waist. “Just until the potion wears all the way off…”