Prologue
The man stuck the cork through the opening in the bottle and tied it with a string. The last vial was sealed. He carefully placed each one in the wooden crate. The glass clanked together and made an unpleasant, echoing sound. He picked up the crate and brought it outside the small cottage. The light bounced around, leading him in an unknown direction. He followed as always. It led him to a strange clearing. The glowing ball, as radiant and bright as the sun, levitated up into the blue, open sky and faded away. That was the signal that he was in the right place.
He set the crate down in the middle of the small patch, surrounded by trees. Blades of grass swayed gently in the light breeze. A mountain stood tall in the distance, the gray stone muted by shades of blue. It was a beautiful sight.
The man began to return home, expecting the light to appear soon after. He sat down at his dusty, wooden desk and began studying and analyzing a few of the books that normally sat on the bookshelf, neglected and unread. He needed something to do after finishing his big project. He had been working on perfecting the contents of the vials for years.
He got up and went over to the velvet chair next to the side table with an oil lamp sitting on it. He smiled and went out to his garden to gather some herbs. He carefully gripped each plant and slowly pulled it up, collecting them in a small weaved basket. He went inside and washed them in the sink surrounded by granite counters. He also began simultaneously boiling some water in a kettle. He mashed up the herbs and put them in a teabag he got from the drawer below. He put it in the water and went back over to sit down in the chair.
This was how he always used to read. In his velvet chair, with a fresh cup of tea, in the light of the oil lamp, he felt relaxed and at peace. He loved just flipping through the pages and absorbing the words. He could enjoy any type of book. He just sat, read, and fell deeper and deeper into the story.
After a few minutes of this, he remembered something. He always wrote every experiment he did in his journal when he had finished it. After not completing anything for so long, he had forgotten that. He stood up and flipped through an old book on his desk. The pages were curled and ripped and it was covered in dust. He took out a pen and began scribbling on the tattered paper.
A substance with the ability to refuse and alter the molecular composition of particular forms of matter. Uses may vary. Abilities gained through consumption.
He didn’t feel like writing much else and decided to finish it later. It was at that moment when he realized the light wasn’t there yet. It was in fact nowhere to be found. He walked around the house, going from his office, to the kitchen, to the bedroom, but there was nothing.
He found that quite odd. The light was pretty much always there. He just assumed that it would appear eventually. He could remember a few times when the light was gone for a few days, but came back soon after. It alway had somewhere else to lead him.
The man thought of when he first discovered the light. He was young, about seven years old. He was outside, helping his mother water the plants. Suddenly, he saw it. The gleaming, glorious, tiny light was hidden in the shadows underneath a fence post. There was a small hole that it seemed to be stuck in.
He thought it was just a reflection of the sun or another very bright object, but upon closer inspection, he saw that it was an actual ball made up of light. He scooped it up in his hands and placed it on the soft, lush, grass. It began floating around and he, being a curious child, followed it. It brought him all around the yard and into a strange grove. It had some standard-looking flowers in it that the child had never seen before. He picked one up and put it in his pocket. Little did he know, that would be one of the ingredients needed to create the special substance that he had just finished.
The man thought fondly of that memory and continued waiting around for the light, but to his dismay, he never saw it again.

<[My brain] contains [knowledge] ?>

<not <sure about that>>