Before moving on, I finish giving Alto a comprehensive tour of the lab, a safety lecture, advice on how to keep a good lab notebook, and instructions on how the fridges, freezers, incubators, and clock need to be topped off with magic every three days.
As a side note, I've come to realize that when I make fixed-property enchantments where surplus magic investment keeps the spell active for a time after activation – as opposed to increasing the intensity or scale of the spell and being active use only – the max amount of 'storage' or spell persistence time is proportional to the mass of copper I used to house the enchantment.
Unfortunately, the enchanted copper's magic storage properties are hardly efficient enough to make it a viable battery. The entire back surfaces of the items referenced are already covered in inch-thick copper just to keep their 'charge' time at half a week.
Anyway, after I finish 'training' Alto, I collect some flasks, apothecary bottles, and pure water, and we make our way to the central workstation.
Alto glares at me, a pouty expression on her doll-like face.
"I can't believe you're wasting our new lab just to cook something." (Alto)
I give her a disdainful look.
"Cooking is science, too, you know...when you're doing it right, at least." (Mizuki)
But yes, it could be argued that what I'm doing qualifies as cooking. I think it's a stupid argument, but there's no doubt that the argument exists. As for what my special project I've mentioned is, and what I'm 'cooking'...that would be caramel apples!
Or rather, I'm going to make sucrose in the lab, then take it downstairs to the kitchen and make the actual chewy caramel there, using the diary products I purchased at the market today. Unfortunately, this is the only way I can get sucrose right now, because I learned that it is a rare, little known spice on Azura. I'm not even sure there are sufficient production and distribution channels for commercialization yet, but nevertheless, I desperately want them to be sold in Eden...for my own sake, of course.
So, before I go asking Alara to arrange unprecedented, Eden-central agricultural and processing pipelines for an unknown plant, I figured I'd show her concrete evidence of what kind of delicacies it can create. Hence, the sweet, sweet chemistry on my agenda today...I have a meeting with her this afternoon to unveil the results. Ilina, her family, and a few other key staff will also be present, since these are currently slated as Ilina's dessert Selection for our wedding.
As for why sucrose production requires this lab, that's because, despite how easy I make it look, alchemy is still a very magic and visualization-intensive spell, and even I have limits on the latter. When I perform an alchemy spell, I need a clear, detailed mental image of the full chemical structure. Not merely its 2D skeleton representation, but a 3D, atomic-resolution visualization of how all the composing elements are arranged and bonded in the molecule. Naturally, that's pretty hard to do even with small molecules, which is why any molecules over 300 Daltons are outside my reach.
Sucrose, which is one hexameric and one pentameric ring connected via ether bond, is obviously too complex for me to synthesize directly.
Fortunately, I've found a workaround for that. I simply divide the chemical up into smaller, semi-stable structures, alchemize those directly into powder form, mix the reactants in an equimolar solution, then use magic to artificially catalyze the appropriate bond formation. I used exactly this process to create the dNTPs already stored in our chemical shelf.
For sucrose, I start by separately alchemizing water into glucose and fructose, placing each powdered product into apothecary bottles.
I hand both to Alto, along with an empty beaker, instructing her to use the periodic table, their chemical structures that I drew for her, and the weight scales to measure 100 grams of glucose and an equimolar amount of fructose into the beaker.
I could do so myself, of course, but I can tell that she's practically dying to use the lab for something. Plus, that deceptively simple task requires her to accurately perform many calculations and measurements in sequence, unless she figures out the shortcut. Either way, I'm curious to see how well she manages the unfamiliar workflow.
Just a few minutes later, she returns to me with a flask full of powder, a notebook christened with barely legible scribbles, and a smug expression. I raise my eyebrows at her.
"You look awfully confident for someone who just did tedious chemical calculations for the first time in less than a minute." (Mizuki)
Unfazed, she extends her notebook towards me.
"I am confident because I realized you tried to trick me...I didn't need to check the periodic table or do any calculations. Even though the two sugars have deceptively dissimilar structures, they have the same numbers of the same atoms, and therefore the same molecular weights. So, 100 grams of glucose means 100 grams of fructose to match." (Alto)
My eyes widen slightly, something that I feel might be similar to parental pride welling in my chest. I smile at her affectionately, nodding, and take the beaker from her.
"You know, I always new you'd be great at this...nice job, Alto." (Mizuki)
She nods, not responding to my praise, but I notice the corners of her mouth turning upward as she glances away from me.
I bring the powder-filled beaker back to the central workstation and fill it with water, swirling to mix the contents. Then, I flood the beaker's contents with my magic, visualizing the condensation reaction required to bond the two sugars, focusing on the specific subset of functional groups involved. I will the reaction to be facilitated, much as I will subatomic particles to rearrange during alchemy, using my magic as a substitute for the enzyme that would normally catalyze this reaction. I feel an initial burst in magic consumption followed by a slow decline to near-zero over several minutes, letting me know that I've successfully catalyzed the reaction to completion.
I walk to a specific engraving set on the workstation and activate one of its enchantments, causes a translucent, blue funnel to materialize in midair above the engravings. I take an empty beaker and place it under the funnel, then begin pouring the sucrose solution into the funnel's top. Alto leans in closer, her voice laced with curiosity.
"What does this enchantment do?" (Alto)
"This one has a general forcefield to funnel solutions towards a specialized forcefield that's only permeable to water molecules. It's perfect for isolating reaction products, especially into a more stable powder form for storage. It also has a secondary enchantment that applies a downward force to water molecules within the funnel to force out any residual moisture." (Mizuki)
As if in demonstration, as the flow of water through the funnel slows to a crawl, I activate another enchantment on the table, causing a secondary, smaller burst of water to drain out. When water no longer pours out, a mound of clear-white crystalline particles remains in the mouth of the funnel. I quickly exchange the water-filled beaker for an empty jar from the kitchen, placing it directly under the funnel before I terminate the enchantments, causing the sucrose to fall inside.
Prize in hand, I turn towards Alto with a teasing grin.
"Alright, I think we've earned ourselves a treat, wouldn't you say?" (Mizuki)