“I understood that last part. I hope you’re speaking about yourself, since I’m not the one who’s standing in a pool of cold water.” By Azura, would he ever shut up? She was finally starting to figure it out… she turned around to touch the water that now flowed from the pipes, and immediately retracted her hands, allowing herself to stop restraining her reactions for a single, excited ‘hah!’.
“Not cold. Hot. Come see this.” Falanu grinned up at him, pushing her scarlet braids behind her shoulders with brisk excitement. “Read about the dwemer had hot water in pipes. Never seen one. Now I understand! A hot pool”, she placed her hands on the walls, and realized they didn’t just look different; there was definitely a coating of some kind that prevented them from becoming oxidated like some of the pipes in other rooms had. Her speech turned to a quick flood of mispronounced words. “Alchemical components on the walls to keep the material from turning bad. Have to take samples, analyze. Will need to make mappings for the complete device too! Aaah-ma-zing”, she trailed off and slipped into her native language, walking around the pool, uncaring about the water that was starting to slowly slip inside her boots.
Marcurio, meanwhile, had curiously started touching the water, still refusing to enter, and looked even more unconvinced. “Odd, this is the first time I find something like this. Wait, I think it’s getting hotter. There’s steam coming out…” For once, he was too busy wondering at the unusual discovery to be sarcastic, something which, while she appreciated it, made the Dunmer a little disappointed. She was starting to enjoy their verbal sparring. “Hm, I’d get out of there if I were you…”
“Steam?” Too late. The shriek Falanu let out resounded in the room, a metallic rasp following its echoes, and she jumped away from the pipe. She stared at her own hand, where the bright purple welt left by the scalding water turned almost red, and immediately recomposed herself, shrugging with indifference. “No touching water when steam also comes out. Lesson learned.” The way the Imperial rolled his eyes, as he reluctantly imposed his hand upon her own and casted a weak healing spell, was priceless.
---
About ten minutes later, after figuring out that there were intermediate temperatures between freezing and scorching and that there were hidden levers to make the water flow out from the bottom, the pool was completely filled with warm water, and Falanu was scurrying around in childish excitement as she took notes with her suppositions about how the mechanism worked. There were heating devices around the walls of the pool, she had concluded, that kept the water hot even when it was left there for hours; something else she couldn’t see heated or cooled the water before it was released, but she could hear the faint sound of fire somewhere above her. Last but not least, she had found somewhere a little button that, when pushed, released something in the water that made golden foam start floating over it. After tasting it (much to her companion’s horror) and seeing how it reacted to other components she carried, she decided that it wasn’t harmful.
Marcurio was walking around, still looking his stiff, sarcastic self as he now and then commented on whatever she was doing. It appeared that nothing she could do would ever please him; not that she cared much, since she was actually starting to appreciate the company of a man who would dare to question her and make her elaborate on the thoughts she only vaguely hinted at… not to mention it was great conversation practice.
Never a moment's rest [part 2]
“Not cold. Hot. Come see this.” Falanu grinned up at him, pushing her scarlet braids behind her shoulders with brisk excitement. “Read about the dwemer had hot water in pipes. Never seen one. Now I understand! A hot pool”, she placed her hands on the walls, and realized they didn’t just look different; there was definitely a coating of some kind that prevented them from becoming oxidated like some of the pipes in other rooms had. Her speech turned to a quick flood of mispronounced words. “Alchemical components on the walls to keep the material from turning bad. Have to take samples, analyze. Will need to make mappings for the complete device too! Aaah-ma-zing”, she trailed off and slipped into her native language, walking around the pool, uncaring about the water that was starting to slowly slip inside her boots.
Marcurio, meanwhile, had curiously started touching the water, still refusing to enter, and looked even more unconvinced. “Odd, this is the first time I find something like this. Wait, I think it’s getting hotter. There’s steam coming out…” For once, he was too busy wondering at the unusual discovery to be sarcastic, something which, while she appreciated it, made the Dunmer a little disappointed. She was starting to enjoy their verbal sparring. “Hm, I’d get out of there if I were you…”
“Steam?” Too late. The shriek Falanu let out resounded in the room, a metallic rasp following its echoes, and she jumped away from the pipe. She stared at her own hand, where the bright purple welt left by the scalding water turned almost red, and immediately recomposed herself, shrugging with indifference. “No touching water when steam also comes out. Lesson learned.” The way the Imperial rolled his eyes, as he reluctantly imposed his hand upon her own and casted a weak healing spell, was priceless.
About ten minutes later, after figuring out that there were intermediate temperatures between freezing and scorching and that there were hidden levers to make the water flow out from the bottom, the pool was completely filled with warm water, and Falanu was scurrying around in childish excitement as she took notes with her suppositions about how the mechanism worked. There were heating devices around the walls of the pool, she had concluded, that kept the water hot even when it was left there for hours; something else she couldn’t see heated or cooled the water before it was released, but she could hear the faint sound of fire somewhere above her. Last but not least, she had found somewhere a little button that, when pushed, released something in the water that made golden foam start floating over it. After tasting it (much to her companion’s horror) and seeing how it reacted to other components she carried, she decided that it wasn’t harmful.
Marcurio was walking around, still looking his stiff, sarcastic self as he now and then commented on whatever she was doing. It appeared that nothing she could do would ever please him; not that she cared much, since she was actually starting to appreciate the company of a man who would dare to question her and make her elaborate on the thoughts she only vaguely hinted at… not to mention it was great conversation practice.