The Asshai's Bloodmage

This time my father is finally home, but since it's past 9:00 pm he's already gone to bed. I see the two washed lunch boxes on the table, yesterday's and today's that Ted brought. I put them away in my space since it costs money to buy these boxes of food and I'll still be using them again in the next few days. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep too. In the morning I'm woken up at 6:00 am again by Ted. I have breakfast, a quick shower and this time I wear my regular linen clothes with my red cloak. I look at myself in the mirror and I look like a real wizard now. I quickly leave, I have a lot of things to do today. I tell Ted that when he goes to the port he should tell his brother that there's a vacancy on the ship. Yesterday he already heard Omar's conversation with my father and Fat Zhang, so he nods his head to convince his brother to join the crew, since maybe that's the only way he can go on this trip since he's still very young. At 7:00 the coachman arrives and takes me to the inn first, where I find all of our former slaves still present, I'm glad they didn't run away, it would be too much trouble. After picking them all up and settling the price of the rooms and meals at the inn, we head to Omar's house, who is still asleep. We wait for him to finish getting ready, then I ask him what I was thinking yesterday... About getting permission for the Lords' private library through his father.

"I'll send one of Sir Arthur's men to ask Tom, but I can't guarantee that permission can be granted even for me."

"Just asking is enough! I'll leave our 4 new employees with you today, remember to accommodate them on the ship. Aisha can stay in my cabin, there's enough space there. Make a small room using wooden partitions so she can be comfortable and have privacy. The others can stay in the crew area. As for Sir Arthur, it's up to you whether you'll give him and his men an entire cabin. But we can't give him the last two VIP cabins unless you pay. One last reminder, I'm going to send forging equipment to our blacksmith, nothing too big, check the weight and where it can be stored without affecting the ship's operations and cargo. I take some papers out of my "bag" and give the blacksmith some instructions on how to create a primitive flintlock pistol that pirates normally used. Even if he understands all the methods and can leak the secret, the main secret, which is gunpowder, is still only inside my head.

Then, after leaving everyone on the ship, I leave with only Ted and my coachman, we head towards the elegant clothing store I went to on the first day.

—Ted, now that I remember, was my armor delivered yesterday? I didn't remember to check my own cabin when I arrived earlier today.

"Yes, boss, I checked it myself, nothing is missing, you just need to take a look and see if it needs any adjustments. Speaking of which, boss, I'm glad you mentioned it, yesterday some strange items arrived from an alchemist, I checked the list but I don't know if everything was there."

—Okay, after we go to the clothing store and buy a few more things, I'll go to the ship to confirm.

When I get to the store, I don't see the clerk from the other day, but I quickly finish all my shopping, buying another 7 sets of fancy clothes made of quality silk and leather that cost me 7 gold coins. Then I buy things like hats, gloves, belts, some comfortable shoes, towels, socks, underwear and more comfortable clothes to stay at home. I also don't forget to buy 2 sets of clothes for the cold. My coins almost drop below 300, but this is a personal expense and I can't share the expenses with Omar tsk.

When I'm about to finish, I look at the skinny young man next to me wearing rags of linen and I feel bad for how poorly dressed the boy is. So I spend another two gold coins buying a set of elegant clothes for him and several others that are not so elegant, but better than the linen he wears. The boy is in tears as I go around picking out several clothes that are a little bigger than him. I ask them to adjust them, since the skinny boy is still growing. At the end I add a nice cold weather outfit that isn't pretty, but does the job of keeping him warm.

When I finish, I remember that I have to dress my two new employees as well. I leave 4 gold coins with Ted and ask him to come back here later with the blacksmith and Aisha. Making sure that they both have suitable clothing for the trip. Finished here with the clothing, I head to the nearest blacksmith and buy everything a small smithy might need, including materials such as ingots and other materials. I may have to abandon some of these forging items due to their weight, but for now, they stay on the ship as I can't risk leaking the secret of the hot weapons. The purchases at the blacksmith are quickly completed and some apprentices leave immediately to deliver the items to the ship, our last stop is again at an alchemist. I buy a large stock of alchemical items that this time will be used by me, including the necessary to set up a small laboratory in my cabin. Since it will still take a while to be ready, I decide to stay at the shop and use theirs to do some tests. I send Ted with my clothes, the jars, vials and other more delicate tools along with the coachman back to the ship. I remind him to come back and get me as soon as he drops off Ted and the goods. Then I ask the store to have the rest delivered to the ship, before going down to the alchemist's hold where I see a small and rudimentary laboratory. I see a mask similar to the one the doctors used during the plague, I bought 2 of those when I bought the items up there. Then I start making the mixture that only I know in this world.

I mix the measures of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur and soon I obtain the familiar powder of my world. The only difficulty was finding out if they already existed in this world and what their names were in High Valyrian. But I had already discovered that in some books I stored. I made a few kilos of the mixture and stored it in leather bags inside the system space. I look at the time and decide to stop by the ship before going back to the Sleeping Dragon.

Upon arriving at the ship, I see the familiar lively atmosphere again, but now it is even bigger. There are several loads on the deck and several men working, all 26 crew members I believe. I quickly greet those who are on my way to my cabin. I see that 1/4 of it has already been separated by a thin piece of wood, creating a tiny room. I don't see a door, so I imagine they made one to the outside to also maintain my own privacy while living with Aisha.

I see the many items on the floor that recently arrived from the alchemist. As for my armor, they were placed on mannequins and are near my wardrobe. Upon opening it, I see everything I bought earlier today, except for one set that I kept in my own space in the system. I am pleased with Ted's effort. I am sure he was the one who took care of this. But I was wrong. When Ted arrives, he says that Aisha was the one who organized my clothes in the wardrobe. He says he only took care of the armor.

"What a hard-working girl... Where are she and the blacksmith now?" I ask.

"They went to buy clothes, boss, I said I would go with them, but Lord Omar said there was no need, he also sent his two new slaves, I mean, his two new ex-slaves to buy clothes too. One of Sir Arthur's men took the money and went along to accompany them."

I nod, leaving them without money alone is one thing, leaving them with so many gold coins is asking them to risk everything and not fulfill their debts.

"Boss, that metal structure you ordered from the blacksmith yesterday has arrived."

—Take me to it!

Ted takes me to the tail of the sailboat where the 3x3 meter structure made of metal and wood is. I tell him to call Omar and some of the crew while I do some checks to see if everything went well. Soon everyone arrives and I see a curious look on their faces. Sir Arthur is also there accompanied by 3 men who I suspect are his men, 1 has a bow on his back, the other a crossbow and the last a pair of daggers. It is easy to recognize Sir Arthur because his green armor shining with the Velaryon symbol is not something anyone can use without proper permission. On his back is a cape with a symbol of Valyrian nobility. In addition to them, Captain Henry accompanied by 3 of his men also came to look out of curiosity.

I greet the knight and his men while introducing myself since it is the first time I see them, I also say good morning to our captain. So I start to say that this structure is capable of removing salt from water. I ask the 3 men to take 10 liters of seawater while I take out 1 kilo of coal that I had already separated and weighed while I was in the laboratory. I open the lid of the structure made of black metal that is already hot after being in the sun for a while at the tail of the ship, and the men pour the seawater inside. After closing it quickly, I make sure to seal it. So that there is not too much loss of steam, I then open the lower furnace and put the coal in.

In the meantime, I ask them to bring a small barrel and some glasses. I place the barrel under a white wooden structure where the water that will be evaporated is located and I wait. Less than 20 minutes later, water starts to come out of the structure. At first it is just a few drops, but soon it increases to a small fountain. I take one of the wooden mugs they brought and collect half a glass of water. I drink a little, and although it is still hot, the water is sweet. I smile and offer it to Omar. He drinks it before offering it to everyone to come closer and drink some.

The Captain is surprised and Sir Arthur says he had heard of something like this before, but they said it wasn't efficient in terms of cost. So I start to explain: Let's get to the important point here, this structure was made to process about 80 liters of water each time, and it will use about 8 kilos of coal and it will take 9-10 hours to separate the salt. Of course, it may cost more or less coal, it all depends on the weather, the initial temperature of the water, the time the structure stays heated. But it shouldn't take more than 15 kilos of coal to do this. The most important thing is not to use it at sea, but to take it to Asshai and create more of these. Tomorrow I will show you the other model that doesn't need coal, it uses sunlight to heat the water. We will use these two during our trip and this one will be kept only for emergencies or when we find a lot of wood to burn, since finding fuel means finding water from now on.

Furthermore, we can do a test on this trip by reducing the water load we would carry by 10% and replacing the weight with coal. This will ensure that we have enough to cover the water we won't have and we will also guarantee an excess for when we arrive in Asshai. After I finish, Captain Henry asks:

"How many liters of water can the version that doesn't use coal get per day?"

—It depends Captain, we can't guarantee sun all day and our 4 sails will guarantee that. Normally the size of the solar greenhouse system I ordered could guarantee around 15 to 25 liters on a good day with sun all day. But on the ship maybe only half that. These are just prototypes, I prioritized their size to be small because we don't have that much space on deck. We can compensate for this loss with some mirrors in strategic locations, so we will do some tests over the next two days.

After the tests, I say goodbye to everyone and finally head to the Sleeping Dragon to continue my business for the day.