Sophia heard a soft phoumf, sort of like distant fireworks. The noise was clearly an explosion muffled by the door, which meant Alley Sweetfire was right; the Happy Fun Balls were back at their task of killing Hidden Bush Biters. It was good to know that they weren't killing themselves when they did so, too. That was probably because the smart core was too hard to replace or something, but Sophia liked to think it was because Alley Sweetfire didn't want to destroy what he'd created. "Do you have enough of them?"

"Plenty," Sweetfire said with a grin. "I only have about thirty out at a time right now, so that they don't all explode the same things, but as the spent ones return, others will leave. They're supposed to be baiting the bushes into a firepit, anyway; they're only supposed to explode when they can kill at least four bushes at once. I wasn't expecting this many bushes."

He stuck his tongue out in an obvious grimace. "I'm not looking forward to the next couple of weeks; I'm going to have to rebuild my exploders. Er, Happy Fun Balls. Anyway, Rinata sent you? She should have known better; she knows it's Cleanout Day." The craftsman huffed with obvious irritation. "Why did she send you to me?"

Sophia glanced at Dav, then Jax, to see if either of them would step forward. Neither of them did, and she was pretty sure she saw Ci'an actually step back. Well, maybe Xin'kri would help if she messed it up. She was definitely going to need help when it came time to negotiate a price. "We had some stuff she couldn't buy. Some fireflower flowers and fire from a Fire Mana Fissure. Oh, and some fire sprites. They're all captured in a Firewater Plume, ah, a feather made from water that can capture fire. It's an Ability of mine; I can release the contents whenever I want or it will slowly dissipate with time."

Alley Sweetfire leaned forward. "Let's start with the Fire Mana Fissure. You captured fire mana? That's … you know, I can think of so many uses for that. I wouldn't even have to purify it. Unless the Ability distorts it … can you do this again? To other fire, so that I can test the feathers?"

"Sure?" Sophia didn't see any reason why she couldn't. It might give her some more ideas about how to use the Ability in a fight, too, which was all goodness.

Three hours later, Sophia regretted her initial enthusiasm. She'd run herself dry on mana twice creating Firewater Plumes for Sweetfire to test. She did know a lot more about the failure modes of the plumes and what they meant for Sweetfire's work.

She also knew that if she captured normal fire with a Firewater Plume, she could sell it as an easy firestarter. All you had to do was break the main quill, then set the Plume where you wanted the fire. The remainder of the water would evaporate over the next minute, then the fire would burst out of its confines, consuming the feather itself and lighting anything else that was easy to burn on fire. It didn't even really need kindling, as long as she captured a fire that was burning well. From what Sweetfire said, they would sell well, but he wasn't interested in them.

Well, not very interested. He was completely willing to buy a dozen of them to see how well they'd sell; after all, he could be wrong and he did have a reputation for all sorts of innovative fire-based products. One more wouldn't surprise anyone.

What did interest him was that she could capture almost anything in her Firewater Plume as long as it had enough Fire, and physical damage was all it took to open it up again. The more unstable whatever she captured was, the faster it opened. When he had her capture a literal flaming explosion, then cracked the feather for it to explode immediately in his face, Sophia was glad she wasn't the one doing the opening. Sweetfire was amused; he seemed to be immune to the flames and force of the explosion.

A couple of hours after they started talking, Sweetfire seemed to remember that food was important and wandered over to the kitchen area while he told Sophia what the next thing he wanted her to try was. He spent the next hour cooking lunch while Sophia ran his experiments, often with the help of others, especially Xin'ri and Jax.

The stove was designed and built by Sweetfire to use his fire magic; it fascinated Xin'ri enough that Sophia actually got a break from experiments while Xin'ri questioned their host. When the meal was ready, they all discovered that Sweetfire was a fairly good cook. The meal had a faintly sweet and spicy taste, almost like honey and red pepper. It was delicious and even synergized well with the mana that filled the food. That was something Sophia had only gotten from people who specialized in cooking with magical food before, so it was a very pleasant surprise.

Dav was the first to finish his portion. He set his cutlery down and tilted his head to the side. "Can I get the recipe for this?"

Alley Sweetfire shook his head. "It won't be the same. I don't mean that to be proud, I mean it literally won't be the same. My magic … well, my Signature is Sweetfire, you know that, right?"

Jax, Xin'ri, and Ci'an nodded. Dav shook his head. Taika simply kept eating, while Sophia looked up from her meal to frown at their host. Was that why the mana all worked together? Was the flavor really from the mana, or was it just that Alley Sweetfire was so used to it that he planned everything around it?

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"Well, it is. For taste, that means sweetness and heat. Everything I cook comes out like that; it's stronger if I use my mana, but it's there even when all I do is open up something that's preprepared to hand to someone else. I'm used to it and barely notice, but not everyone is used to it." Sweetfire paused with an expressive shrug that said "what can you do?" more effectively than the words alone.

"I can give you the recipe, but you'll have to tweak it yourself. It's one of the two downsides fo my Signature; the other, of course, is my appearance. Which would be fine if people didn't always question me about it." His face scrunched slightly. He shook his head, glanced down at his hand, and chuckled before turning deliberately towards Sophia. "So anyway, have you tried capturing any other forms of fire? We should test how that works; if you can trap my Sweetfire in a Firewater Plume, I can think of all sorts of things I can do with it."

As it turned out, she could … but only if he deliberately held a very small portion of it out and let her. It wasn't what he'd hoped for, but Alley Sweetfire didn't seem discouraged. Instead, he asked her what level her Ability was at. He seemed surprised when he learned it was only level seven; interacting with a Signature using an Ability that was far lower than the level of the Signature was difficult, and his Sweetfire was level fifteen.

It was the first time Sophia had really run into an issue with one of her Abilities not being high enough level. Sure, they all seemed to get a bit more powerful as she pushed Wisps into them, but she didn't usually notice the difference. Apparently doubling the level was enough to make it simply not work at all, at least without Sweetfire's active cooperation.

Sweetfire paid them more than four times what Rinata had before they left. Sophia wasn't certain if that meant that what they sold him was just that much more valuable or if it was because they went directly to the craftsman instead of going through the Registry. Both Jax and Xin'ri seemed pleased, which was enough for Sophia.

Sweetfire's smithy wasn't a good place to get most of the things they needed, but he happily sold them a few of a "scout" variant of his Happy Fun Balls that didn't explode and three different fire-based prototypes. They were all unique, but each one would help mitigate a weakness.

Ci'an bought a quiver that was enchanted with spreading clingfire. It would cling to the head of any arrows she kept in the quiver, then spread to whatever she shot with the arrows. Sweetfire considered it a failure because it could spread along the arrow shaft as well, potentially setting the bow on fire and possibly even the archer.

Ci'an didn't care; he'd managed to get it to spread slowly to anything other than the target, which meant she'd have to deal with it while they fought, but afterwards it was easy enough for Sophia to remove. Xin'ri could also handle it if Sophia couldn't, but Sophia's Firewater Plumes turned out to be perfect for removing clingfire. She might lose the bow, but her current bow was really not good enough anymore anyway. She planned to replace it during their shopping trip, which looked like it would be the following day given how long they spent at Sweetfire's.

Taika liked something Sweetfire called a firehose; Sophia would have called it a flamethrower. Like Ci'an's quiver, it was a failure at what Sweetfire wanted, but it was a distinctly useful one. Sweetfire's goal with the project was to create a fire-projecting device that would throw a concentrated stream of fire a distance to cut through obstacles; he equated it to a "cutting blade of water," which explained the project's name.

It didn't achieve that goal, especially not against the third upgrade materials it was originally designed to cut. It simply couldn't focus the heat well enough; the fire mana that carried the flame outwards spread out and dissipated. It ceased to be able to cut through third upgrade materials about an inch and a half from the tip, but actually using it that close to anything pushed enough heat back towards the user to be a dangerous attack, even at the third upgrade. It was fine for Sweetfire or anyone else with fire protection, but at that point they probably didn't need the flamethrower.

It wasn't supposed to be a weapon at all; it was fairly small, but it had to be mounted on a tripod to keep it from wiggling at a bad time and not cutting through anything at all. Taika still thought he could use it; like the Happy Fun Balls, it could set itself up, while Taika could use his illusions and solid illusory barriers to protect it while it worked. It was no longer dangerous to a second upgrade monster at about twenty-five feet, but that was far enough there was very little danger to Taika from the weapon and it would give him a much better way to kill monsters.

The last thing Sweetfire sold to them went to Dav. It was a contraption that he considered a success in everything except marketability; after all, who needed a device that held a bunch of contained explosions that would send a heavily enchanted infused aurichalc ball at high speed into your opponent?

It wasn't the same as any gun Sophia had ever seen, but there was no doubt that was what it was. Dav recognized it as well and was immediately interested; he wasn't as good with a pistol as he was with his sword, but it would give him more options.

It was remarkably mana-hungry, which eliminated anyone without a high Core, but Dav's was nearly as high as a spellcaster of his upgrade should have; his was fine. That made it almost perfect for him, unlike most people with high Core values, who would have Abilities that leveraged it directly. Even better, Dav found that he could use his Calls on individual bullets. It made the mana cost skyrocket, but it was still a valuable ability.

The three purchases meant that they returned most of their earnings back to Sweetfire immediately, but they were well worth the cost.

By the time they left to make their way back to Arryn's house, it was after dark. Sweetfire offered to let them use the tunnels, but Jax declined. It was apparently a bad habit and he was certain they'd be fine, even if they were only second upgrade.

Luckily, he was right. The only thing they encountered on their way was a pair of half-burnt Hidden Biter Bushes and a Happy Fun Ball that ignored them.

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