Never Look A Gift Horse in the Mouth
1932 Words
Ebony stood stock still, shocked beyond measure.
Coronavirus.
A disease, virus that had rocked her world was now spreading in another one.
No, she shook her head. She had to confirm it first.
She turned to Varick. “Mr. Lutz, I’m sorry, I have to go. Thank you so much. You and the other construction magickers have done a great job here. Thank you so much.”
With that, she ran out of the isolation centre, unto the gardens and into the apothecary. Her destination, the records room.
Ebony needed to confirm that this disease was the coronavirus.
As she ran, she cast her mind back to the textbook she wrote for the medical personnel. In it, she had described the plague as a typical viral disease because that was what she thought it was.
The symptoms, the way the virus spread, the progression of the disease. All of it pointed to a viral disease. But coronavirus…
The possibility had never crossed her mind.
Even as she outlined the schematics for the isolation centre to Mr. Lutz, as she described the function, structure of PPE and facemasks to the textile magickers or now that she prepared to synthesize hand sanitizers and other medication to deal with the plague; the thought never crossed her mind.
It was not because of anything complex.
It was simply because coronavirus was a thing of the past.
In her world, the coronavirus had been completely eradicated three years ago. Gone.
It was only spoken off in the past tense. There were no active cases of the disease. The world had moved on, had recovered almost completely from its effects.
So how? How was it that in a completely different world, the disease, or at least something similar to it, was wreaking havoc?
Ebony stopped in front of the records room and threw the door open. She rushed, panting, to the long table.
On it, were the records she had requested from other apothecaries in the kingdom and the ones Ulrich had sorted out for her.
She had set Ulrich to the work of separating the virus-like cases from the normal ones so that they could track down the initial phase of virus and how many people had it.
He had not worked on it long. After all, the records came little over a day ago but it was enough.
She rifled through the patient records he had set apart for her, almost ripping the sheets in her haste. She examined the records carefully, taking note of things she ignored previously. Especially the subsequent complaints of the people who had successfully survived the disease.
Loss of taste and smell. Sudden bouts of coughing weeks after the disease had subsided. Rattling of the chest when a deep breath was drawn.
All respiratory-related issues. All symptoms of those who had survived the coronavirus.
Coronavirus. COVID-19.
The plague of this world was the coronavirus of her world.
But…but…how?
The King Regent, Aische, Ulrich, the Bookkeeper and the medical records all told her the same thing. The disease started in März of the current year.
And she knew that time passed in the same way on earth as it did here. 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 365 days in a year.
So how?
How did a disease from three years ago on earth get transferred to the current year here in the Kingdom of Seelsorger?
“Is there a problem?”
Ebony looked up to Ferdinand standing in the entryway of the records room. His appearance brought her back to reality and injected a healthy dose of wariness into her.
“No, not at all.”
Ferdinand corked a brow. “Then why are you on the floor?”
Ebony looked around her and would you believe it, she was on the floor, with no idea how she got there.
She stood up gingerly and arranged her large gown.
“I was just…feeling a little dizzy.”
Thankfully, Ulrich and Aische appeared behind him, before any other conversation could ensue. After offering a bow and a curtsy, they approached the table and began to report their findings.
Aische had visited the southern region and obtained several aloe plants and essential oils. Ulrich had followed the construction workers back to their guild and had retrieved a Temperature-monitoring rod, a soft wood material that could serve as a cork and a long glass tube with curved ends.
That was good news.
They could start the distilling on a small scale with the instruments.
Ebony put the thought of coronavirus at the back of her mind and rubbed her hands together, eager to begin. “That’s very good news. Let’s head to the lab and try to make a sample of the hand sanitizer.”
“Is it fine if I accompany you?” Ferdinand asked from behind her.
No, it was not fine. She didn’t want him anywhere close by but she couldn’t exactly say no. Especially as Aische and Ulrich were already assuring him that it was an honour for him to accompany them.
“Yes, Your Highness. It is completely fine.”
Ferdinand smiled, a smile that told her that he knew exactly what was going on in her head.
“Lead the way, Ebony.”
The group left the records room and headed to the library that she was now using as a lab. Once there, Ebony could see all the things that Ulrich and Aische had sourced.
Time to get to work.
They gathered around the table, Aische, Ulrich and Ebony on one side and Ferdinand on the other.
“Aische, could you please extract the gel from the aloes? We’ll use it later. Please store it in an airtight container once you are done.”
As Aische left the room to carry out her commands, Ebony turned to Ulrich. “Please I need a jar of vodka. The barrels are outside. I’ll set up the equipment here.”
“I’ll get to it,” Ulrich said as he exited the room as well.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Ebony looked up at the Second Prince. “I’m currently trying to set up the equipment. I’ll inform you if I need any help.”
The table that separated them was bare except for two beakers, a glass tube and a cork.
Ebony held up the first beaker, which was really a thin glass cup, and twirled it in her hands. In a normal lab, she would be using a Pyrex glass beaker.
Pyrex was a type of glass, borosilicate glass, that had very high heating tolerance. It could be heated for hours upon hours without breaking because it expanded so little.
Normal glass, soda lime glass, the type used to make glass ware, would shatter once exposed to heat for short periods of time.
And that was what she held in her hands. Normal glass.
What to do?
She was certain the glass would shatter once they lit a fire under it.
Go to the northern region and ask the construction magickers if they could make her Pyrex glass? No, they had enough to do with the isolation centres.
Use it anyway and hope it didn’t break? That was just plain stupid.
A click alerted her to Ulrich’s return. He walked to her and placed the jar of vodka on the table beside her.
“The vodka.”
“Thanks,” Ebony mumbled, still preoccupied with the glass problem. “Ulrich, do you know any…uhm…strengthening magic? I’m trying to prevent the glass from shattering when we start heating it.”
Ulrich shook his head. “I’m very sorry but I am only versed in the healing magic.”
Ferdinand took a step towards the table. “I am proficient in construction magic. I think I can help you.”
Construction magic?
What types of magic have you trained in? Construction, agriculture and carpentry.
Maybe it was the same for him.
Ebony pushed the glass towards him. “I am trying to strengthen the glass so it would not shatter when we start heating it. I would appreciate any help.”
Ferdinand walked around the table to stand beside her. He picked up the cup and held it up in the light. He spun the glass around as if he was swishing a liquid around in it.
He continued spinning it for about half a minute, pausing for a few seconds in between to examine the glass.
After a full minute had passed, he examined the glass once more and hummed in satisfaction. He placed it on the table and slid it toward her.
“What do you think?”
Ebony scratched the back of her head. She didn’t know what to think. The glass looked exactly the same.
Well, they’d find out soon enough.
“Thank you. I’ll try it out.”
Ferdinand pointed to the other cup. “You do not need that one strengthened?”
“No. This one is enough. This is the one I’ll be heating.”
Ebony moved quickly and deftly. She picked up the piece of wood and placed it on top of the beaker. The wood was much larger than the beaker’s rim. She would need a knife to carve out the correct size.
As if reading her mind, Ulrich produced one from the pocket of his robe.
“Thanks.” She took the knife and started carving. As she carved, she tried to keep her enthusiasm and the edges of her mouth from curving upwards. This was the first time she would be working in the lab or in any sort of experiment for a while.
In uni, she had finished all the required lab sessions for all her courses in the semester. In fact, she had finished all the required lab sessions for all her courses in her entire program.
As a student, she would never enter the lab again. And that was one depressing thought.
Ebony loved the lab. She loved experimenting and researching. It was the best part of pharmacy, in her opinion.
And out of all her lab sessions, she loved Pharmaceutical chemistry the most. Chemistry was the defining science of Pharmacy, the defining science of life and her best course of all.
She would never had imagined, though, that her next chance to experiment would be in an alternate world.
Well, as they said, never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Ebony brought the knife around full circle and separated the circular piece from the other portion of the wood. That was for the first beaker.
She repeated the process for the second beaker, satisfied with the fit.
The next course of action was to drill two holes through the cork for the first beaker. The holes would be for the Temperature-monitoring rod and the glass tube that would collect the ethanol gas.
The second beaker’s cork would only have one hole for the glass tube.
She used the knife to puncture the holes in the corks while Ulrich and Ferdinand watched silently.
Once she was through, Ebony began to assemble her primitive distillation equipment.
First, the magic-strengthened beaker. She placed the cork in the beaker and fitted the collecting glass tube inside.
Then a problem arose.
The Temperature-monitoring rod.
There were no numbers to indicate the temperature range, just colours. And she had no idea how to interpret them.
The temperature was very important because vodka was composed basically of water and ethanol. The boiling point of ethanol was around 80 degrees Celsius while that of water was 100 degrees Celsius.
The temperature should be kept around 80 degrees Celsius for the ethanol alone to boil out of the vodka and condense in the second beaker.
If the temperature was allowed to rise and reach 100 degrees Celsius, then not only ethanol but steam as well, would fill the collecting tube and the second beaker.
What to do?
Ebony thought for a second. There was no way around it.
She would have to calibrate the thermometer.
- Writer
