The Alchemist Guild was the most impressive of the guilds, at least judging by those Unchosen had seen already. The interior was entirely made from obsidian and occasional diamond-glass elements. The obsidian was different from what he had seen in Fire's laboratory though, there the entire room had been a completely seamless surface since it most likely had been molded magically. The obsidian in the guild came in slabs that were paved onto an unknown structural material below, which he suspected might be firesteel simply because of its favorable properties.

After walking in through the gate the first thing he saw was a relatively narrow corridor that reached up all the way to the ceiling of the building and got progressively wider upwards as tiers of laboratories and storage rooms were stacked on top of each other like a giant staircase. Occasionally bridges spanned across from left to right. This guild was also unique in the fact that its roof wasn't entirely solid, it had openings in regular intervals that were covered by what looked to be redstone-powered fans.

Unchosen was greeted by a man sitting behind an obsidian desk to the right of the gate. "Greetings, haven't seen you here before. Are you an apprentice? I may need to talk to your master about getting you keys to the storage rooms, formalities and all that."

Unchosen walked a few steps towards the desk and replied: "That might be a little difficult. I am an apprentice of Fire and as you might know…"

"Ah, I see. That might complicate things. Unless…"

The man beckoned Unchosen to come a bit closer, then extended his hand. Unchosen got the hint and shook it. Almost immediately the familiar feeling on the back of his hand set in. The man nodded, then opened a drawer under the desk, took out several keys and attached them to a keychain. Each of the keys had a small gem attached to its back.

He said: "Here's your keys. Ruby one's for ingredient storage, sapphire's for potion storage, emerald's for labs, diamond's for anything else that's locked."

"Thanks." Unchosen put the keychain into a pocket of his coat, then found out that there was already a hook for such a keychain in that pocket.

One third down the corridor were stairs going up to either side. Following a sign next to them Unchosen went up the left flight. His first goal was to find someone who might help him reconstruct the potion recipe. He knew the ingredients for the base potion and a few additional ones, he also suspected that this version of the demon tongue potion didn't lock you out of speaking and understanding normal speech, otherwise Undira would have asked her alchemist more questions. It was always those small details that eluded one alchemist for years but another discovered by accident.

Further following signs Unchosen made his way to the common room. The common room had one large diamond-glass panel out towards the central corridor, next to the glass was a door on each side. The inside of the room was a little less plastered with obsidian than the rest of the building. Metal desks and cushioned metal benches and chairs dominated a large part of the room. At the back was something resembling a bar. Unchosen shrugged, he might as well ask the bartender directly.

The bartender greeted him: "What can I get you?"

Unchosen quickly glanced at a panel with drinks and prices at the back of the bar. "Drandinian Whitebrew, still got work to do."

The bartender poured Unchosen his drink. Whitebrew was something Andras had shown him and Ambigious when they had visited him. It was what you got when you poured Heavybrew into milk. The reaction was different to that with water, instead of creating alcohol it created a drink that was perpetually at an icy cold temperature and tasted quite sweet.

After a few sips Unchosen looked at the bartender. "Young alchemist named Erin, I've been told she works here. I found an incomplete recipe of hers and would like to complete it."

The bartender replied: "You are a few months late my friend. She left for Redwater."

Unchosen feigned frustration. "Damn. Anyone else I can talk to? Any groups she was in?"

The bartender stroked his chin. "Yeah… there were people. Names wouldn't help you much but she usually worked in a lab on the third tier, fourth door to the right after the first staircase."

Unchosen took another sip and said: "Thanks."

He tried not to take his time with his drink but on the other hand he didn't want to be suspicious, even though the Eye-and-Claws presence seemed to be quite high in the Alchemist Guild, at least judging by the fact that he immediately gained universal access just through his mark. A few minutes later he had emptied his drink, a pleasant chill now in his stomach.

He soon after arrived at the lab, inside was a lone alchemist currently cleaning some alembics. Judging by his looks he was quite seasoned in the trade, his body was completely devoid of hair and even though they were dangerously spindly, his limbs seemed to hold more strength than you would think. This was a body thoroughly changed by enhancing concoctions and self-experimentation.

The alchemist looked over to Unchosen with his neon green eyes and said: "Wasn't expecting any company."

Unchosen decided cut to the chase. "Erin used to work here, did you know her?" After a short pause he extended his hand and said: "I'm Unchosen by the way."

The alchemist shook his hand with a strong grip, again triggering the familiar feeling. "Egis Degons is the name, Great Alchemist of Treetop if you value titles. Yes, Erin used to work here, usually assisted me in my experiments and conducted research of her own. While not official I have always considered her my apprentice."

Egis went back to cleaning his alembics and asked: "Why do you ask?"

Unchosen again explained his reasons for searching out someone who knew Erin.

Egis nodded. "She did occasionally talk about the interesting metabolic remnants in enderman liver and possible applications but never did she mention demon tongue potion. So, that list of ingredients, let me see it."

They both went over to the obsidian table in the middle of the room, Unchosen took both the recipe and the shopping list out of his pockets and unfolded them onto the table.

Egis spent a few minutes looking at the pieces of paper, occasionally muttering to himself, then said: "Ingredients seem easy enough, apart from the liver the only additions should be things that integrate the remnants into the potion. Endermen are largely immune to most substances so only a few ingredients remain."

Unchosen nodded. "Yeah… prismarine dust would help, powerful toxin if ground finely enough, quite literally turns cells inside out."

"You seem to know your toxins." Egis said. "While I specialize in altering potions, the study of toxins and reversing their effects is integral to my field still."

Unchosen continued speculating: "So, prismarine dust to isolate whatever it is we want from the liver, then use that in the potion. Then we would need something to neutralize the prismarine."

Egis said: "A handful of soul sand should do. Very strong binding properties."

Unchosen said: "Tell you what. I'll go find the ingredients, in the meantime you could set up what we need to brew, this being your equipment and all."

Egis simply nodded. Unchosen quickly left the lab in search of suitable storage rooms. Within half an hour he had everything he needed, thanks to the guild's well organized and well stocked stores. He did feel a bit bad about taking one of the two last enderman livers though, he knew how hard those were to come by, especially since the End was still guarded by the dragon.

When he arrived back at the lab Egis had already prepared a diamond-glass cauldron over a blaze powder heater, beside it sat a small bowl that Unchosen assumed they would use to extract from the liver.

After he put down the bag of ingredients Egis handed him a mask and a pair of gloves, he himself only seemed to need gloves.

Egis explained: "The procedure should be like brewing regular demon tongue potion, just that at some point we add the metabolic remnants. Sadly we don't know when and how much. I suggest we experiment with small batches and once we know we make a bigger one."

"Agreed." Unchosen said.

Extracting the remnants from the liver proved more difficult than they had thought, their first attempt unceremoniously vaporized after the purification step, on their next one they had too low temperature and the soul sand only partially bound the prismarine. On the third try they wound up with a teal liquid, which seemed to be what they wanted.

They then proceeded to test when the optimal timing for adding the liquid would be, fortunately due to the fact that the first part of the recipe was uninterrupted they figured it out quite quickly. The dosage turned out to be the hardest part, too much and the remnants would form flakes in the potion, too little and the entire mixture would destabilize and vaporize at room temperature, the margin between the two was very narrow, finding the correct ratio took them hours.

Finally they held a flask of what they thought to be their final product, a red tinted potion that wasn't otherwise visually interesting. Now they only needed to test it.

"This is safe to drink, right?" Unchosen asked.

Egis replied: "Yes, even if that wasn't the right dosage. At worst we'll be stuck talking demon for a few hours. A small glass should suffice."

He then proceeded to pour each of them a shot glass of the potion, as they raised them Unchosen said: "To successful research."

Drinking the potion felt surprisingly normal, just like drinking lukewarm water with a slight aftertaste. It also didn't have any detectable effects like the Fire Resistance potion Fire had given them during their escape. The only thing that changed was that his thoughts felt somehow… clearer and more focused.

When he wanted to ask Egis if he felt anything he flinched at the sound of his voice, it wasn't unpleasant, just something he wasn't used to. He didn't speak in words, he spoke in concepts, in clear and unambiguous concepts. That was also how Egis answered him, telling him that they had indeed been successful.

Unchosen concentrated a bit, then said in his normal voice: "I guess this really works."

Egis replied: "Good work, let's make the rest and bottle it."

They spent another hour brewing and bottling as much of the potion as the remnants would allow, in total they ended up with eight quarter-liter flasks, which Egis packed into a padded crate so that Unchosen could carry them better. It was their unspoken deal that Unchosen kept the potion while Egis was able to add another recipe to his journal.

As Unchosen left, Egis said: "It was a pleasure brewing with you Unchosen, you're always welcome in my lab."

Unchosen stepped out onto the central plaza again, it had gotten quite dark, time did indeed fly when you concentrated on something. As he walked by the central tower he was reminded of something, didn't freeZe say that the eye whispered? Maybe this potion would allow him to hear those whispers. He got closer to the tower and listened.

He did indeed hear something but it wasn't whispers, it was a request he heard, asking specifically for three tons of glowstone dust. Was it really this easy to listen in on the Mencur-Besh network? No, it had to be specific to this eye. He kept listening for one last concept before he wanted to move on, standing still next to the tower did look a bit suspicious after all.

This time he heard a location, quite close actually, maybe even within the walls of Rockhaven, sadly its purpose was drowned out by a sudden spike of static. He made a mental note to visit this location when he had time.

He arrived at Shadow's house and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds Ambigious opened the door.

He said: "Welcome back, the others still seem to be out. Still no sign of Shadow."

Unchosen was a bit tempted to spook Ambigious with his demon voice but decided against it. "Got a lot done today, Undira is in on our cause. I'll tell you more in a moment."

While Unchosen was walking through the door, Ambigious gave him a key. "Wasn't easy to replicate, fortunately got an Eye-and-Claws blacksmith to help me."

Unchosen attached the key to his keychain, then went in the kitchen to drink some water. When he came back Ambigious wasn't there anymore, though Unchosen saw that the door to the war room was open, which seemed to be where his friend had gone. He followed Ambigious, even if the others weren't there they could still think about their next steps.