It had been well over an hour since Lily and Brucie had built their little bonfire inside the abandoned office. The fire had burned well, spreading light, warmth and - most importantly - dryness to Lily's tails. As nice as they were to have on mere principle, they could often get in the way quite a lot, especially when water was involved. Any person with long hair knew the fundamental truth, of how heavy hair of any kind could be when laden with water. Her nine tails, each as long as she was tall, and extraordinarily voluminous, was no exception. 

It was one reason why she and Tsukiko had an entire closet devoted entirely to towels, and why she always started a fire before taking a bath. Because if she did not, it would take an entire day to get dry. She sighed, running a hand over one of her tails, glad to find that it was dry thanks to the fire. The only problem was that the salt in Brucie's water, had made their fur coarse, and a little stiff. It was unfortunately not something she could do anything about right now, as she had neither brush nor the shampoos and conditioners that she used on a regular basis, to keep them soft and pleasant. 

Speaking of which. Thinking of water and washing, have reminded Lily of something else. She uncurled one of their tails, revealing the yellow, crystalline flask. It had to have a purpose - had to be more than just a simple container. This place; tournament, College, this city. All of it was shrouded in enigmas, with the answer to one question simply leading to more. A place with so much magic, or Magitech, did not give the contestants of its tournament prizes that were just pieces of junk. She reached the flask, holding it up against the light of the fire. 

"What are you?" Lily whispered, tapping the flask with a nail. No reaction. 

"It's a bottle of some kind," Brucie answered, though the deadpan look he received told him all he needed to know, of how welcome his reply was. "What? Just look at it!" 

"I can see that. But I can't figure out what it does. I don't think the rewards we get for winning a fight in the tournament, are just random pieces of junk. It wouldn't make sense, based on what we know about this College. They have the means to travel between Worlds, after all." She set the flask on the ground - it sounded exactly like glass would - and watched the flames reflect off of its surface. "Might as well ask, do you have any ideas?" 

It took Brucie a moment to reply, his body language indicating deep thought: Leaning forward, scratching what amounted to his chin. When he spoke, he spoke slowly and not without uncertainty. "It's a bottle. Maybe try to put some water in it?" He shrugged, righting himself. "My Water cannon is busted, but I think I can probably make some water come out of it, just nothing that could be used as a weapon." 

It was something to consider, Lily decided. The logic was simple, but not wrong. At the end of the day it was a bottle, meant to contain liquids of some kind. The question was whether it's with conjure something, given a passcode, or if it had some other effect. Whatever the case, they might as well start from square one. She handed the flask to Brucie, who took it in his metallic hand and sets it on the ground in front of them. 

He then began fiddling with his right arm, pulling out broken pieces of metal, poking at other places, until he finally looked satisfied several moments later. He held his arm above the flask, what would have been the exit point for his water, directly above. "Here we go," he muttered, flexing the fingers on his right hand which cost the mechanism to trigger. Water drippled from the hole - far from the geyser it happened before - about half of it making it into the bottle proper, and the other half spilling on the ground around them.

Brucie finished filling up the bottle, shut off the dribble of water with a twitch of his fingers, and then they waited.

They had only wait a few seconds before something happened. It was sudden, without fanfare or preamble, I'm from one second to the next it changed from simple, clear water to a golden liquid more at home in the story of alchemist, than in reality. If Brucie was surprised he did not make a show of it. 

Lily, on the other hand, jumped to her feet and picked up the flask within a second of the colour changing. Out of everything she had expected, this was not one of them. At least, not this specific outcome. Of course transmutation would have been one of the possible results. [i]It was either that or Conjuring,[/i] she thought, bring the flask to her nose. It smelled not quite sweet, nor bitter. It was more like the floral scents off some teas, except that one that she could place. "Pleasant scent. That's a good sign," she murmured. "But what does it do?" She didn't start to drink it, having no idea what affects it might cause. She needed something to test it on, but she was hesitant should give it to Brucie. He was sentient like her, after all. A plant, she needed a plant. 

She put the flask down and started looking around in the office, searching for a potted plant, and old flower, or anything in that vein. Unfortunately, they weren't anything is the office itself, but upon opening the window and looking outside, she found flowers growing up the wall. She spared no time in grapping one and pulling it off the stem, taking it inside with her again. She spent a short moment shaking off the rainwater from the flower and her arm. 

"Give me the flask," she said to Brucie, eyes fixated upon the flower, hand extended towards the mechanised shark. The bottled arrived, carried with surprising gentleness and handed to her. Flower was placed on the desk, its light blue petals brights in the fire light. "Here goes nothing," Lily almost whispered and poured a little bit of the golden liquid on the flower. It spread around it in a small pool, acting much like regular water would, except golden, but otherwise doing nothing. Disappointment had just started set in when, on the count of five, the pool seemed to retract, the flower actually absorbing the liquid and reacting in turn. Where Lily had pulled off the flower, broken it off from the rest of its stem, she noticed, with a gasp, that new plant material was appearing, growing at a rate she had only ever seen dryads being capable of. 

"It's healing!" She exclaimed. The flower had even regrown roots. "It's the healing tonic! And it looks like it transmutes water into it, when it is poured into the flask!" Her smile became a grin, and her grin became a laugh. "I didn't think this kind of thing was even possible!"