Danger Beads.

Waking up early the next day, I went to the furnace to collect the sealed jar. Without noticing, Isabel flew behind me, lazily bobbing up and down as she flew, and she asked groggily, "What are you doing with that pee jar?"

"It is one of the more readily available sources of phosphorus, but it is in a very dangerous form that burns when exposed to air and is nearly impossible to put out. However, I think that I can convert it into red phosphorus, which is a little safer to handle," I replied as I gingerly set down the sealed pot before using an ice spell to cool it down until it started to frost, and then stepped back. Swinging my arm, I released an almost invisible blade of air that cleanly sliced off the top of the pot.

After waiting for a few moments to make sure that the contents wouldn't spontaneously combust, both Isabel and I peeked over the edge of the pot, noticing the slightly glowing white wax accumulated along the walls. Carefully, I formed several small beads of white phosphorus.

Imagining on the UV light from the sun, I cast a light spell above the beads. The concentrated UV burst quickly changed the beads from white to an orangish amber color. Having successfully converted the outer layer of white phosphorus to red, I breathed out a sigh of relief. Before yelling, "Don't touch that," as I turned to see Isabel hanging over the sliced edge of the pot, reaching for the danger beads.

Yanking her away by the foot, I angrily said, "What do you think you are doing? Didn't I just say this is dangerous?"

Stammering slightly, having never been spoken to like that, Isabel indignantly said, "But you said that it was safe if it was red."

"Safe-ER, I said safer, not safe," I said somewhat exasperated before setting Isabel down and grabbing the jar. Using a spell, I took one of the irregular beads and dropped it against the ground not far from us; it immediately burst into flame as the outer layer cracked and started popping, scattering some of the phosphorous that also started to burn, acrid smoke billowing around us. The small drops started to burn into the charred ground as I said, "See, it will literally explode, and it is nearly impossible to put out once it starts," as I cast a water spell to douse the flames, which almost immediately reignited. "If this gets on someone, the only way to help them is to cut out the phosphorus and surrounding meat to make sure it won't reignite."

At this, Isabel trembled slightly, and feeling bad, I said, "Look, I didn't mean to yell, but it was dangerous. Considering your size, I doubt there would be much left..." I trailed off, realizing I probably wasn't making things better. I scratched the back of my head, and said, "Normally messing around is fine, but it the guy willing to walk off a cliff says something is dangerous, then it probably is," before turning to get to work.

Drawing out an intricate series of alchemical glyphs and symbols, I took one of the copper bars and scooped out some of the phosphorus. I felt my mana draining away as I focused on thoroughly mixing the two materials. The waxy phosphorus readily accepted mana and moved but drops of sweat started to form on my brow as I had to channel more mana into the metal, its nature and form resisting my magical interference.

Eventually, I managed to create a homogeneous mix of phosphorus and copper. Sitting back and breathing heavily from wrestling with the copper, I couldn't help but contemplate the difference between the mana required to separate the copper from malachite, and then shape it into bars, versus the struggle that mixing it with something else took. The only thing that came to mind was that a chemical change took place when mixing, while when I first refined it, it was only a change in form.

Having caught my breath, I collected the rest of the phosphorus in a small pot and filled it with water before putting on a lid and sealing it with alchemy. Next, I grabbed a reasonably sized clay pot to use as a crucible and, having set it in the furnace, I started a fire. Giving it a few minutes to heat up, I organized the tin and unadulterated copper, with roughly 9 parts copper to 1 part tin. Once the furnace had heated up, I added the metals and closed the furnace.

As I spent the next couple of hours stoking the fire with charcoal, I also worked on whittling a branch. After stripping the bark, I started carving a general arm and hand shape. Pausing to shift the coals and stirring the molten tin and slowly alloying copper, I then started refining the details, separating the finger digits, and carefully shaping balls for joints. I was left with a collection of loose wooden parts that would snugly fit together to form a roughly child-sized arm.

Around this time, when I had gone to mix the metal, it was fully molten, and using the nifty invisible hand spell I learned from Agnes, and had used earlier when handling the phosphorus, I grabbed the crucible. After flinging out the slag, carefully I poured it into the simple knife mold I had made yesterday.

With the mold going to take a while to cool until it was safe to handle, I walked over to the cave to check in and hopefully find our armless resident. Some skewers with large chunks of lightly charred, salted meat and roasted wild greens were excitedly thrust into my hands by Zarra. Surprised, I looked over to see Mackinzie and Ies working near the cooking area.

Catching her attention I smiled and waved, I continued looking around for the one-armed goblin, eventually finding her sitting near Nassa. Walking up, I greeted Nassa with a simple, "Hello," and a wave before turning to the other goblin that was intently ripping the meat from the skewers with her pointed teeth. I said, "Hey, I was wondering if you could come with me for a little bit."

"What do you want with Stessa? She doesn't know Common very well," Nassa said, her sharp eyes staring at me with slight worry, remembering what happened last time I examined her.

"I am working on a project that could help her, but I need her for adjustments," I replied.

Nassa's expression shifted to one of curiosity as she slowly stood, her aged bones creaking with the effort, before motioning for Stessa to follow. Walking out of the cave I led them over to the furnace area that had quickly become my workspace.

Pulling out the work-in-progress arm, I moved toward the two goblins and smiled a bit at their stupefied faces. Miming holding out my arm to Stessa, she eventually caught on and complied by holding out her stump. Roughing out a few adjustments using a piece of charcoal, I set down the arm, before turning to the pair, and said, "I learned a bit about magic formations and magic items when I was gone. I am still definitely a novice, so don't get your hopes up, but I think I should be able to make a basic prosthetic, um... fake arm... with some movement."

Nassa took a few moments to process what I said before suddenly exclaiming, "Wait, you can make an arm? And it will MOVE?" Holding up my hands, I repeated that I was only a novice and not to get your hopes too high. Eventually she calmed down and relayed what I told her to Stessa, who looked between me and Nassa a few times with hopeful eyes before both of them left me to work.