Two ingredients left. Mo stared at the turmeric rhizome with a certain amount of disdain. WHY had he thought this was a good idea? It was totally different than dealing with leaves and things, and no one else seemed to be staring at a hunk of root. So maybe people put turmeric in tea and drinks all the time? That didn't mean Mo had to...

Except it was the pretty part of his ode tea to Professor Pretty, and therefore essential. Mo carefully wiped away all the dirt with the heavily burdened sighs of a genius at work. SIGH. "Diffindo Diffindo Diffindo." Mo diced the root into small pieces, just about the same size as his petals and leaves and things. It should all look pretty uniform in size, if different in shape, color, and texture.

Mo spread the pieces of turmeric and the hawthorn berries across his work station and ran a preliminary blast of hot air across all of them in wide circles. "Siccus Aerous. Siccus Aerous." It didn't take more than a cursory glance to know that hadn't done a bit of good, and Mo had to run more than a few more rounds of hot air across the batch to dry out the dense rhizome and rock-hard berries. "Siccus Aerous."

He was fairly certain all his materials were well dried now (finally), and Mo carefully gathered everything back together into a tidy pile of ingredients. He washed down his workstation and packed his text before turning to the professor. "Thanks for the lesson, Professor."