Queen's Pawn Game (Research DTA)

He thought he must be going insane.

Why else was he there, back in the Academy’s archives again, poring through crumbling manuscripts and mildew-infested books for references to the metallic “sands” when it worked so well for him last time?

Because I’m out of ideas and desperate, he thought. Attempting to discern the arcane properties of the sand just left him flummoxed and, after asking around without revealing too many details, the resident bookworms have no help to offer.

Jaezred had been working almost non-stop for two weeks now. The only real break he took was when he paid the Pierre-Vielle sisters — razor-sharp Amélie and genius Genine — a visit in their manor over the weekend, listening to their story about a sordid affair involving Luskani curtains and a little box of pit fiends over tea. He later picked their brains for any ideas on how to overcome this problem of his, but alas, nothing fruitful came out of that, save that Amélie knew someone at the Academy who could discreetly let him back into the archives for a hefty fee.

And thus, he hit the books again, toiling away alone in that dusty room day and night. However, working without reward has a way of compounding exhaustion on oneself. It became increasingly difficult to maintain concentration on detect magic. More than once, he found himself slipping into trance in the middle of reading without realising it. His bones ached from sitting in the same position for too long, his eyes were sore from countless hours of reading, and he yearned badly for Imryll’s touch.

Another long night with nothing to show for went by, and the first rays of the damned sun were coming through the windows. Jaezred hissed out a curse in frustration. Now his eyes were properly hurting. He glanced down at the pages of notes he’d scribbled and scratched. Useless. He sighed as he reached into a wooden pot to grab a fistful of pounce and tossed it over the parchment to dry the ink…

…Realising too late that he’d taken too much pounce and some of it had spilled onto the sand sample. He stood up in a panic, rummaging through the stationeries on the desk for a brush, something, anything to help him decontaminate the sample—

That was when the detect magic spell picked up a small burst of transmutation magic coming from the desk he was currently standing over. Were it not for that, he might have failed to notice the off-white pounce powder slowly morph into a darker colour — to be the same as the sands.

He dropped the brush and grabbed a magnifying glass instead, and held it over the contaminated sample.

It was unmistakable. The powder was turning into grains of metal.

Stranger and stranger yet.

Jaezred stopped and watched the transformation. He even sprinkled more pounce over the sands to see if it happened again. It was a gradual process, but still quicker than your conventional alchemy. And as far as he could see, it created perfectly identical grains. It was replicating itself.

Farstep and Jack took an entire chest of this. Which meant they either needed it for something soon, or something big. Or both.

When the sun was higher in the sky and research assistants started shuffling sleepily into the archives room, Jaezred quickly brushed the sands — now possessing more of it than when he started — into a pouch, grabbed his notes, and made a swift exit from the Academy building.

They were running out of time.