And then, at the very moment that Charles had thought he’d cracked it, the crockpot began to smoke quite disconcertingly.

Who would have thought alchemic enlightenment could be so evasive?

For poor Charles, the process was yet a veritable maze of dead ends, trapdoors and coal cellars.

To think that he’d held the secret in his own hands not 10 years ago.

The mysterious fakir’s laboratory, fires flickering from scattered experiments.

He’d come so close that time; now, as he stared into the crockpot’s twisted depths, he felt something akin to hopelessness.

LOVING the new-improved tool so much.

1. Must start with a connective
2. Must include a rhetorical question
3. Must include a metaphor
4. Must be 15 words long
5. Must include alliteration
6. Must contain emotive language