"I want to watch and learn, but I can be flexible. Fetching stuff works."

He rattles off a list of herbs and assorted minerals that aren't within arm's reach.

"Everything should be in the supply closet or the back."

"I'll fetch but probably shouldn't be learning a whole new magic system from scratch, I'll go over notes on old copies to make sure I keep as much spell variety as I can."

"Probably wise."

Fetching it is!

Unless Gren has other questions, they can pass the time preparing the ritual.

Lydia seems quite fascinated by magic, and watches the ritual as it takes shape.

Gren watches too, but more out of curiosity than study. She has magic already.

Most of the work is combining various powders, herbal and mineral in origin, and arranging them in a certain way. Fairly boring, really, but after twenty minutes, a ritual to neutralize the weapons is ready. 

"If you could place them carefully within or above this circle- just holding them above the circle should be enough if they're very sensitive." 

She carefully produces eight long glass tunes with two different liquids and some kind of release lever that will mix them. They go over the circle. "Fuses first, they're the sensitive parts."

Fuses first.

There's no visible effect. 

"They should be safe now," he says after a minute. 

All the same, she puts them back in their padded box gently.

"Couldn't feel that magic. So now I can set them off somewhere and they won't poison anything? Or they just won't go off? If you changed what's inside it might not."

She starts unpacking the main bodies of the bombs, and a big bag of black powder.

"They should go off without harming anything. I still recommend doing this away from humans; it's never been tested on anything more complicated than dieseases and purely herbal poisons." 

"Aye aye. Big explosion in a hole in the middle of nowhere it is."

"Can you go over those steps again?" 

"I wouldn't want to bore our visitor."

"I can pass it off as learning to recognize when something fishy might be happening. I'll need that if I'm going to be your peacekeeper, Dr. Deaton."

So he reviews the ritual.

The way these herbs combine- for restraint, for health, and for peace- is fairly simple; the complicated part if this ritual is the the mixing. Some plants are useful without preparation. For this, he has to grind the leaves into a poultice, which takes up the majority of their time. 

It needs to be fresh, of course, and the resulting mixture is used to create the circle.

She extends her magic-sense to see if there's anything detectable about this process to her.

Nope.

"I'd better go dig a hole to explode these. Dr. Deaton, I'll be back later."

Lydia will continue to learn magic! 

And here are the woods.

Disposal of dangerous weapons? Sure.

Scouting to make sure this general area is nice and empty. Earthmoving. Piling everything into the big hole (carefully). Shouting extremely loudly just in case her life-sense somehow missed someone, "THERE WILL BE A LARGE EXPLOSION HERE! BOMB DISPOSAL! STAY CLEAR OF THE AREA!"

Setting a slow burn fuse, lighting it, and flying the hell away.

She waits two minutes after she hears the KA-THOOOOM to go back and finds a few destroyed plants and lots of dirt scattered everywhere, dust still settling.

She double checks: Every single bomb, fuse, and powder charge went up in that blast. That was kinda fun!

Back to Dr. Deaton, she supposes. If he's still there. It's time to talk more about specific duties and pay and more permanent living arrangements than 'Lydia's spare room'.

He is still there.

"How did it go? Any problems?"

"No problems. There's a hole somewhere in the hills now though - about fifty five miles out bearing 35 or 36 - not near any running water or high ground. Are you particularly busy at the moment?"

"Not very. Come on in." 

"Thank you."

"We made an agreement yesterday along the lines of arranging a small to moderate salary for me as your assistant when realistically a lot of the assistance will be defusing or mediating disputes between magical interests. I prefer to have paperwork rather than just words - if not an officially filed contract, at least written agreements that spell out the details. Hours, pay, professional expectations. And there's also the matter of getting somewhere else to live than Lydia's guest room - I'm hoping you have ideas on that front too."

"Do you mind staying in a hotel? I can cover the fees if you'll handle living expenses from your own pocket. Hours are mostly dependant on the hours here," which he names, and points out where they are on the door. 

"I can have an official contract drawn up, and you can sign it. Your actual options for legal recourse will be limited until there's some formal recognition of your world, though. You can have a lawyer look over it if you'd like to be sure; it won't be suspiciously magical."