"...phoenixes. The undead, although I wouldn't wanna go too near that one, same with unicorn blood. Change, or maybe learning, if you don't want to just be like a portrait or a ghost... memory... accumulation..."

"Phoenixes, good one. Any other particularly long-lived species? There are non-magical immortal species like some jellyfish too. Do dragons die of old age?"

"It takes them a long time, but yeah, eventually, dragons die of old age. Unicorns do a different sort of thing that isn't exactly dying but I wouldn't want to build it in, they fade away. Phoenixes are the most robustly immortal; they can't even be killed."

"Yeah, true. Actually that makes it really obvious as a metaphor and ingredient source. We should secure a way to get lots of phoenix feathers. Is there any particular reason for our Stone to produce gold?"

"Seems unnecessary. We can always just sell Elixir if we need cash. But maybe that's just how it turns out. Gold itself might be a metaphor for incorruptibility?"

"Hmm yeah, there's stuff about how turning base metals to gold is also a metaphor for making things perfect. Perfection, that's a related concept. Diamonds? Silver?"

"Silver tarnishes. Diamonds might be good because they happen from a common element and they're just arranged in a really useful way..."

"Yeah. Any other animals or plants related to immortality? Symbols, symbols are good, too. Isn't the Egyptian Ankh related to that?"

"Maybe? I don't know. We could ask the Runes professor and Sprout."

"Yes, good ideas. Okay, next up, disease. Penicillin, water, bacteria, viruses, cold? Because people get sick a lot in winter?"

"Maybe we could sift the white blood cells out of some blood. Rubbing alcohol or peroxide? Vitamins?"

"All good. That mask thing people sometimes wear. Er... what else?"

"The masks prevent transmission, they're not about cure or even prevention for the person wearing them... if we go that way soap, I guess, something to represent quarantine? Ingredients for medicinal potions..."

"The potions themselves, too. Things relating to curing? Change as well, renovation, a lot of the things related to death... We don't have much information on the general structure of alchemical products and metaphors and stuff."

"Yeah, we might have to wait until we've had more than one alchemy lesson before we go make long-lost alchemical things."

"Probably," he concedes. "But having lots of general ideas can help while we learn technique. Anything related to elixirs? Production of stuff?"

"...Production of stuff?"

"Well, the Stone technically produces the Elixir of Life, so I think there could be a part of the metaphor dedicated to the process."

"Okay... I can't think of anything that makes stuff from scratch, though. How does the Stone produce Elixir, does it... exude it, or turn something into it?"

"I... have no idea. Supposedly it only transmutes other metals to gold, but I don't think the books ever said where the Elixir actually came from. Not the ones I read anyway."

"I mean, it might be considered not to bear mentioning if you just drop it in a bucket of water and have a bucket of Elixir?"

"I dunno though, it sounds weird that they'd mention turning base metals to gold but not water to Elixir. Maybe it can transform any liquid?"

"That would be interesting... The Stone was supposedly destroyed eventually, I wonder how that was done."

"Well, was it ever said to be indestructible? Maybe someone stomped on it really hard."