trouble and toil

Aliana was actually having quite a lot of fun learning from and working alongside Siren. She'd never done any of her alchemical work with a partner before—not when she was learning as a slave and not now that she was a freed queen. Having someone beside you who also shared your same interests and passions... it was nice. It was more than nice; it was lovely! Siren was a patient and cheery mentor, a far cry from the harsher elderly crones she'd learned her practice and studies from back in the slavers' camp. She made the alchemical work fun. Ali watched while Siren concluded preparing her extract, then her expression lit up when the gold and ivory queen asked her to help make some extracts of her own, even providing her the materials to create her own perfume.

"Oh, that sounds lovely!" Ali cheerfully exclaimed. She was quick to follow Siren's example, lifting each of the ingredients her tutor had laid out for her to use and sampling the scents of each to gauge their freshness and notes much like a perfumer would. In the end, Aliana selected the ginger and mint, but pondered for a moment as she considered the smells. They were both very sharp scents... she would need something softer to round them out. Aliana pondered for a brief moment, then perked up when an idea struck her. "Oh! I have an idea! I'll be right back." Ali trotted briskly out into the gardens, following her nose until she found her vines of jasmine and carefully extracted a few of the powdery-smelling flowers. She swung around to a eucalyptus bush and took a few of the long green leaves before returning to the workshop.

Aliana laid out the flowers and leaves beside the ginger and mint, briefly sniffing over the collective bunch to sample the scents combined into one fragrance. "What do you think of this combination?" she asked her lab partner, valuing her input as much as she did her own ingenuity. "Do you think it'll balance out once I get it in the water?"

"Aliana"