Recipe Twenty-Seven
Year 801, Lichfield
Amy was a bit nervous, she was being asked to demonstrate her latest discovery for the Ashen Empress herself! Selecting 3 fire mages including her husband Sir Edwin Waters, she was presently standing on the weapons test range in Lichfield.
"Amy, I've been told you've made quite the discovery with regards to boosting the power of fire mages." Empress Ashe said from the comfort of her chair. "Give me the rundown."
"Of course, Empress." Amy answered with a slightly shaky bow. "Right now it doesn't have a name beyond 'Recipe Twenty-Seven', but the effects are quite significant. It can turn even the weakest fire mage into a force of nature when applied to their flames. Jason, please demonstrate your flames for the Empress."
Jason nodded, and turned around to face downrange. He gave his best effort at a fireball spell, which was decidedly mediocre. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything special either.
"As you can see, Jason is quite average. Let's give him this powder. Jason, please ignite your hands, then clap them together while holding this bag of power." Amy continued, walking up to and handing Jason the reagent bag, before retreating a safe distance. "Please cast the same spell as before."
Jason looked nervously down at the bag. Amy had assured him it was 'probably' safe, but he didn't like how she said probably. Resigned to his fate, he did as instructed, then cast the same fireball spell, which resulted in a fireball the size of a bear blasting downrange and exploding, resulting in him falling over in shock.
"Amy! Was that supposed to happen?" Jason shouted.
"Yes! Are you alright?"
"I think so."
Empress Rebecca Ashe didn't say anything, but she was already impressed. But why did she bring Edwin here for this demonstration?
The demonstration with the elven fire mage went the same, from an average size fireball to one more than 10x the size. Rebecca was quite curious as to what would happen with the Imperial Pyromancer, Edwin Waters.
"Now, you're probably wondering why Sir Waters is here. I want to show you the absolute limits of fire magic. Empress, are you familiar with the flame torrent spell?" Rebecca nodded, so Amy continued. "We've done testing previously, and Sir Edwin has managed to get a clipper up to 60 knots by casting an empowered flame torrent using recipe twenty-seven."
Rebecca was intrigued now. nearly 3 times the typical maximum speed? This definitely had military applications.
"Edwin, let's do a simple flame strike." Amy suggested to Edwin, who nodded. She tossed him the reagent bag, and while neither Amy or Rebecca could see it, he grinned as he activated the flames and the bag.
"Inferno!" Edwin shouted, and the world exploded.
As Rebecca's vision recovered, she could see most of the testing range was on fire, and a good chunk of the ground was melted into slag. Just what had Amy discovered?
"What's the catch, Amy?" Rebecca asked eventually.
"When we gave it to a Dwarven fire mage, he exploded." Amy admitted, rubbing the back of her head. "The Orc wasn't much better, he melted. Two of my assistants quit after they saw what happened to the tabaxi."
"What happened?"
"His skin completely detached from the rest of his body, and molted. We were able to save his life thanks to timely healing magic intervention, but I doubt he'll ever forget that sensation."
"Amy, I'm classifying this invention as top secret." Rebecca said after a few moments. "It will be distributed to the Military only, with strict instructions on usage. Jason, Elrath, what happened here today was a bomb test, do I make myself clear?"
"Absolute, your majesty." Elrath replied, saluting Rebecca.