There's a little game I like to play whenever I get a commission for an explosive I haven't heard of before. Someone has found yet another formula with which to blow things up, and surely they must have a reason to use it rather than more common options. Explosive Victrite isn't hard to come by. Thermal Fuse is somewhat trickier, but you can find it or spool some yourself. Or simply triplex two fire atoms together, stick a salt on the end so it's stable enough to pour into a phial, and throw that at whatever the problem is. The best alchemists keep it surprisingly simple.

But no, Thermite Tape is more of an "ideal" explosive. A material that is inert. Heat resistant, impact resistant, so friction-insensitive that you could scrub a pot with it, except for *one* specific set of circumstances where it, and everything in the building, will go up in smoke. And it's a fairly obscure condition, for Thermite Tape. The trick is a catalyst.

Now, you won't find this catalyst just laying around. There are a few ways to get it. You could crush the eggshells of a species of bird that nests only on the south side of a few mountains whose names I cannot pronounce. Some lichens create it in order to break down the rock surfaces they affix to. You could try your luck in mystery pallets of old alchemical supplies. But the most practical way to get it is an industrial product that accepts no substitutes in its manufacture.

You see, it's used in the Glyph of Unbonding.

- Alchemist Kazyan