"I do not actually care about keeping it a secret."

"Oh, so you're just being contrary as an excuse to flirt with me."

"Yep. Can you blame me?"

"I could! But I won't. Since you are being kind enough to go run errands for me and let me take over your compost pile."

"Mutually beneficial agreements are very useful."

"They are!" And then, because he's cute, he gets a kiss.

"But speaking of, I have things to do! I have a house to build and indoor heated plumbing to reinvent."

"And I suppose I have plants to collect."

"Thank you very much, I appreciate you immensely."

"You are rather welcome, my lady."

And off he goes for nearby plants.

It's so convenient, to not have to run all over creation while setting up her starter workshop! She can instead just focus on making the tools that will let her manipulate and purify molten glass. Which will involve some running around, but significantly less so. Especially with how there are people that are already established here. She goes off to find Sendhei to ask him a question.

"Hey, Sendhei, where do you get your clay? I'm going to need some."

"Uh, there's a deposit not too far southeast from here."

"Great! Thanks. And any spare bones I could have?"

"Oh yeah we have some."

He can go fetch.

"Thank you!"

The first time she did this, she didn't have any bones available, and had to go through a whole runaround to make something close enough to serve as a substitute. It's so nice that she doesn't have to do that!

Fetch'd! Here are bones. They are varied but most of these seem to be alligator and deer bones.

Variance is fine! It's all going into a vat in the ground anyway, having a variety to start from just makes her later job easier. Is the marrow intact, or no?

Mostly, not in all of the bones but many.

Good enough for her! She goes out and digs a pit (Sendhei is kind enough to lend her a shovel), reinforces the edges of it, and then grinds up and dumps all of the bones, some compost, some mud, sand, and quite a lot of water into it. Then it's off to find clay! Are there any trees available on her way there?

Several, the river actually has rather many trees along its banks, plus shrubbery, cacti, and grass.

She removes a branch from one and takes it with her. Along with her bow and arrows. She'll use her own energy for converting the branch if she has to, but if something happens to, say, attack her on the way to get clay, well. Waste not, want not, or something. Does anything attack her while she's locating and digging up clay?

Nope! There are deer but they are very nonthreatening and do not want to kill her at all.

Saevetei doesn't want to kill them either! The deer can live. Her own energy (and blood) will be better anyway, just. The very suicidal alligator made an impression, okay. And if she needed to kill to defend herself it'd be worse to just waste it.

Clay gets brought back and dumped into her vat, and then she draws blood and gets to transmuting the branch. This isn't going to be as wasteful as her emergency bow transmutation with the cannibals, since she isn't working something on something under tension, and has time to make everything properly neat, but she's going to need a snack and maybe a nap after this. Still. She has enough in her to transmute this branch into what is essentially a giant red-brown vaguely magic spoon. She has that snack, and gives a little yawn but doesn't actually need a nap, and then she ties up her hair, takes off most of her clothes, slices a small cut on her ankle, and hops into the vat to stir her concoction with her magic spoon.

Behold, onlookers, the grandeur of magic.

The sole onlooker is bemused.

Yeah, that's fair.

There is a method to her madness, though! Really. She's making a living rock-alike mix that can be moved with magic into specific shapes she wants! And then hardened, to make permanent. This first pass will be kind of weak and flimsy in comparison to what she'll be able to get later, and comparatively difficult to move, but the end result will be better at delicate detail work than just shaping clay herself. Not to mention with more variety in texture, which will be very necessary when it comes to sanding down the lens she'll need to make later.

Not that she's going to explain herself yet, though. It's funnier if Sendhei has no idea what she's doing or why she's doing it. She gives a cheerful wave and goes back to mixing and ordering the sludge around with magic! Every now and then she spoons out some sludge that she deems unfit for her slurry.

This is so weird and worrying and weirdly fascinating and mesmerising!