Magic without a magic

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel wakes up. This is not where she went to sleep. She has a peek at the stream -

- And lets out a surprised yelp at the nonsensical cacophony.

"What in the blue hells is this place?" No answer is immediately apparent, so she climbs to the top of the ravine, carefully avoiding the various inexplicable things in the area. The snake-goat hybrid was particularly grotesque.

The top of the ravine has a road. She tries to fly, but can't. Again, very strange. This is a pretty nice road, physically, but magically it's completely undeveloped. She walks towards the city, peeking at the stream once in a while only to see fog, and seeking an explanation.

Comments

[namesthesky]

"So it's like cooking?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"A bit. There's some overlap - not that much, but some."

She starts by explaining that the entire world is made up of extremely tiny indivisible particles of stuff, arranged and connected exceedingly complex ways. Sugar, for example, is made pieces of one thing and another and a third all arranged in a ring. Living things are some of the most complicated of all, and they're not fully understood by a long shot.

These explanations could take a while.

[namesthesky]

They certainly could, but Aya (in between selling things to people who come in) is fascinated.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel explains that transmutation has applications in things other than medicine. Building materials are mixed just so, so that they will last as long as possible without rotting like wood or being too heavy and brittle for tall structures like stone, for example.

She readily admits that her memories are not all that clear, that she studied her magic first of all and the physical world second, but her knowledge is enough to be getting on with. Soon, though, it's bedtime.

[namesthesky]

Which is Aya's cue to close up shop and go back to the boarding house.

[sturdycoldsteel]

The next morning, Steel asks Aya, "Where can I buy or catch small animals? I want to test some new medicines. Mice, rats, birds, rabbits. Mice in particular mostly work like humans medically speaking, despite the size difference."

[namesthesky]

"I saw someone selling caged birds - mice and rats I'm not sure where you'd buy them, but they're pests, some will be somewhere eventually and you might be able to trap them if you left out food."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Hm. Birds aren't ideal. Do you think anyone will take me up on it if I go around greengrocers and such saying I'll pay half a seo each for live rats or mice? Or should I just build traps myself?"

[namesthesky]

"I could see grocers switching to live traps for that kind of incentive, easily."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I don't need an infinite amount of them, but a steady stream would be nice. I'll have some chats with a few places later. You did good with the store while I was gone, by the way. And since I don't want to be a bad boss, how are you liking your job lately?"

[namesthesky]

"I like my job very well, more than anything else that could reasonably have happened to me post-market and more relevantly better than what I was doing before that or what I would have done if my owner's death had freed me as she promised."

[sturdycoldsteel]

Nod, nod. "I'll be back this afternoon, if anyone comes in wanting their tattoos blasted."

And she goes upstairs and pays this month's rent on the storefront and goes to four greengrocers and tells them she'll pay for live rodents and (still avoiding that one guy) asks a couple of surgeons if they've heard of aspirin and if so might they like something stronger for their patients?

[alicornucopia]

The grocers, with varying amounts of enthusiasm, all agree to bring her rodents (one wants her to supply a cage for them). There are not that many surgeons, but if she walks long enough and asks directions, she can find a couple, one of whom prefers not to administer anything she doesn't understand but the other of whom detects opportunity and is very keen.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She buys a reel of thick copper wire at a metal wholesaler and telekinetically weaves it to make a few metal rat-cages, complete with door and latch. It takes about an hour.

To the surgeon she says, "The drug is called morphine. It's extremely effective at dulling pain and it brings a sense of euphoria, but it can be addictive and repeated use is hard on the body, so I'm recommending to only administer it for serious surgeries, not for daily pain like aspirin."

"I make it with embroidered memories, just like aspirin and the other medicines I sell, and they all work as expected. But still, I'll give you the first dose for free and compensate the recipient for testing an experimental drug. How often do you do surgeries?"

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, little things like pulling teeth or stitching cuts all the time, but big ones rarer, maybe every two or three weeks."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"If I were back home I'd say a morphine pill is a bit strong for cuts and teeth, but you don't have local anesthetics here. I'll work on those next."

"I have more warnings, though, might as well give you the full list now. It shouldn't be given to anyone who is pregnant because it can hurt the baby, whoever takes morphine should not drink alcohol for at least six hours, and it can cause breathing trouble sometimes so people with weak lungs can't have it."

[alicornucopia]

The surgeon fetches a slate and chalk to note all this down. "Home?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Oh, my embroidery comes with a full twenty-eight years of memories of living on an entirely different world. I have no idea who or what I was before I fell in the magic. It's been pretty useful, though."

[alicornucopia]

"Ah, I see."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I know it makes people nervous. That's why I test new things on myself or animals first, and then pay people to try the first doses of anything new. At any rate, if you don't mind I'll be back in an hour with some morphine and hang around until someone wants their teeth or a cut done. I'd like to observe the effect."

[alicornucopia]

"Sure, as long as you stay well out of the way."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I will." She could probably do it faster, cleaner. But she wants people to actually use morphine.

So she goes to the shop and runs the numbers on the ingredient cost and processing time to decide morphine's price, and then comes back to the surgeon's place with a jar of little dark blue pills and waits for someone to want surgery.

[alicornucopia]

When she gets back the surgeon is already lavaging dirt out of someone's bleeding leg gash. "Oh, there she is. Let's have the stuff, then?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Oh, dear. But I still want his verbal consent." She hurries inside.

She rattles off the risks and cautions to the patient, confirms that he hasn't been drinking or had breathing trouble, and says, "I'd like you to say out loud that you want to take this."

[alicornucopia]

"Give it over already," snaps the patient through gritted teeth while the surgeon preps stitching materials.