Thanks to all readviewers! I'm glad that part resonated with you; it's definitely the bit of the chapter I was most pleased with. No specific canon character for today's short one.
Prompt: Are there any alchemists in Narnia? What would they be trying to create?
The filled clay ball lay in the yard. Crouched behind a sturdy stone wall one bowshot away, the man watched carefully. He wore a full set of chain armor, and only his eyes peeked out from the slit in his helm.
The lit fuse burned its way into the center of the ball...and went out.
The man tore off his helmet and threw it savagely on the ground.
"This makes no sense!" he raged at the placid clay. "You are designed after the semblance of fireworks, only larger, so you ought to go off as fireworks do, only larger! Yet no matter how many times I vary the composition or construction, every time I set you alight, nothing happens! Why—won't—you—work?!"
(Spoiler: it's because Aslan decreed that in this world, boom powder shall not function in weapons, and that is why Narnia has fireworks but never develops cannons or bombs.)