Sitting back after observing these stones, I felt a deep sense of awe come over me.
Gertrude swiftly closed the lid again seeing that I had finished my observations. She remained tactfully quiet as I considered the next step.
‘I was supposed to assimilate these things?’ The thought ran off, screaming quietly into the recesses of my mind. I mean, I was thrilled at the idea of additionally power-ups. However, the form they took was daunting to say the least. I had to remind myself that this was not reality, and that nothing should transfer over to reality.
Looking up at the wizened tortoise lady, I quirked an eyebrow at her and asked. “First, what are these stones, and second, what sort of effects should I expect from assimilating them?”
*Haha!* She let out a light chuckle before answering. “They are quite a lot to take in are they not?” Not even waiting for me to give an agreeing nod, she continued. “These are the esoteric elements of Life, Death, Time, and Space.”
My eyes widened at this revelation. . . Yet it made an odd kind of sense. Something as undefinable as those laws or elements, should be equally difficult to quantify in the simple form of a stone. On an instinctual level, I knew each of those stones to be far more than that which they visibly appeared or physically felt to be. They gave off an ethereal manifestation of something more, something integral to the very fabric of existence or lack thereof.
Continuing on as if I wasn’t lost trying to conceive the inconceivable, Gertrude spoke. “There are rare powerful families who specialize in wielding abilities tied to these elements.” Looking down at the closed box she expounded. “When an individual shows great compatibility or promise in wielding one or more of these elements, they are frequently either adopted into these powerful families, or killed shortly thereafter, too often in a seemingly freak accident.”
I know I should feel shocked at such a thought, but instead, I felt a kind of disgusted understanding. Something as rare as wielders or unaffiliated practitioners of those elements would likely be seen as either a great boon to widen or correct the gene pool suffering from inbreeding, or a great threat in which to eradicate if unable to be controlled.
Throughout history, great wars were waged, and terrible atrocities were committed frequently in an attempt to either retain power, or gain it.
Hitler and his Nazi regime was a great example of such. He, like many other dictators sought the end game of world domination. Each dictator had their own unique flavor of what constituted an optimal path. His was a path of promoting a super human race at the terrible cost of genocide or enslavement to all those who didn’t fit his ideal. Many followed after him as faithful constituents and so much horror and degradation in the form of war crimes were committed in their wake. All of this was done with pride, in the name of cohesiveness and nationality.
My lips curled in heavy disdain at this thought. If I proved compatible to those elements, I did not seek to be part of any inter or multi-family struggles as well as governments seeking to use me to their advantage. I also did not seek to be at anyone’s mercy who felt they knew better than me. For that, I needed power which came with risk.
It is sad that it appeared the treatment for my endangered existence was becoming even more valuable to the powers that be. However, I decided to trust this wizened old turtle because she had been with me nearly every step of the way. Along with my master, she watched on as I suffered and underwent the various elemental trials. Had she sought to enslave me to her will, it likely would not have been difficult.
Instead, both she and Victoria had made great efforts to instill caution within me, and even now she was aiding me in finding a solution to this problem. My greatest concern was regarding my capability to take on these stones in their assimilation. A part of me wanted to dive right in while another wanted to proceed with caution. I no longer wanted to endanger my future here by burning out potential pathways to power. Obviously, doing such would offer a solution to power hungry families as I would no longer be worth their time, but after tasting the power and abilities I had attained. . . My eyes hardened at this thought. ‘I refuse to hobble my own future just because it might be too dangerous to shine!’
As such, I wondered if there was a midway or preparatory option. I had to ask. “Are there any more elemental stones that I could assimilate that might be able to test my limits further before I jump to attempting these?”
Gertrude’s eyes narrowed in thought as she considered my request. With a clawed finger tapping her chin she appeared to be running several possibilities through her mind. Sometimes her eyes would light up, and other times, they would cast downward. Finally with a sigh, she spoke up. “Your request, although wise and desirable to fulfill, is a bit difficult to accommodate. These esoteric elements are already considered a half step into the next realm or tier as it is. Save for the shadow stones you assimilated, there is no real comparison to these. Any other elemental stone that we could consider would be an offshoot of what you already assimilated.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She quieted for a moment as if reconsidering her options. I then heard her muttering under her breath. “We are building your foundation. And so, shouldn’t we consider that which might strengthen it further before seeking to stress it? . . . Yes!” Her nails clicked as if attempting a finger snap. “That should work!”
Turning her attention more fully back to me she spoke. “Metal! We shall give you a myriad of metal elemental stones.”
My right eyebrow quirked up at this declaration. “What does this entail?” I asked.
She didn’t respond as her eyes were alight with thoughts. Picking up the wand she used at the beginning to secure our privacy, she again wielded and waved it about in various patterns. Shelves began sliding and rearranging themselves to the sides of the shop, opening up a wide space free of clutter in the middle. Then bending down, Gertrude touched the wand to the floor.
Instantly, a white spell circle measuring a few meters across lit up with gold amber runes which were spread heavily among its many parts.
Taking a moment to gaze deeply at the circle, she began waving and pointing the wand at various points on it. This caused the runes she pointed at to lift up and fly towards her. Starting off as something that looked akin to glowing paint on the ground, they resolved to incorporeal glowing symbols which rushed to her hands before coalescing into miniaturized, and almost metallic gold figures which disappeared into her scales and shell.
Then, after a large portion of the runes were missing from the magic circle, she began casting out a new set of runes, glancing at me on occasion as if to better evaluate me. Finally, she appeared to have achieved her goal as this new circle shone with a feeling of completeness.
A satisfied open mouth smile etched out from her beak. “There!” She exclaimed. “That should do it!”
Finally turning back to me, she addressed my question. “Metal assimilation is a . . . messy business.” Again, giving me a once over look she continued. “It involves external affinity enhancement like fire, water, air, and earth. However, it also affects biological functions too. As such, the body goes through a kind of hyper exposure to it on a dosing level.”
Pausing to take a breath she continued. “As an apothecary, if you add too much of one ingredient, such action may result in overdosing your patient, which may result in not bringing out about desired effect, or possibly even creating worse symptoms. In small enough doses, certain metals can aid in curing or treating many ailments, as well as rebalancing missing and shorted nutrients that your body needs and craves. In larger doses, your body will go into various forms of rejection or shock, and subsequently seek to purge or shut down in reaction. With a high enough dose, it can easily kill you.”
I already knew such things in my school and at home studies of pharmaceutical botany. However, it was a bit different when I knew I was going to be intentionally and effectively overdosing myself with metal in order to assimilate the various elements. “Wait.” I called out. “I’m not going to be taking in metals that are purposely harmful to the body like mercury and arsenic, am I?”
“No.” She comforted me. “Only certain earth and metal elementals, as well as other odd creatures can safely utilize metals such as those. We will only be using metals that have a positive use within the body when at trace levels.”
Pulling out another box from who knows where, she opened it to show a variety of metallic looking or powder white stones grouped in separate smaller sections, much like the esoteric stones. Pausing for a moment, her long turtle neck stretched as she peered down with her beady eyes at the collection of various stones with a distant gaze on her face. Her eyes went glassy as if lost within memories I did not share. . .
Shaking her head, she returned to the present. “These are little keep sakes that I hold onto as a collector of sorts. Who knew that today, I’d actually be using them.” A hint of nostalgia entered her words as if giving a last goodbye to a cherished memory.
Opening it more fully for me to see, she continued in a more professional tone. “Among these which I have, I’d suggest that you consider consuming Iron, Zinc, Copper, Aluminum, Magnesium, Cobalt, Nickel, and Chromium. It is unfortunate as there have been no basic tier mage stone discoveries for formations of gold, silver, and a few other natural metals found in trace amounts within the body.”
My eyes widened at the diversity she already had in front of me. What truly blew my mind, however, was that I had no idea how such deep medical knowledge in the form of understanding trace metals could appear in this world of fantasy. How could they evaluate what trace metals were in the body incidentally and which had a positive rather than negative effect in its function. I had to re-evaluate some of my blind biases of magic being inferior in certain ways, as opposed to technology. I felt like the board had been flipped on me, where instead of advanced technologically being the reliable go to, we, with the many advances of Millennial Enterprises were still the ones with too many shortcomings.
“How do you suggest we go about doing this?” I finally asked.
Peering at me with a thoughtful expression she answered. “Considering your past successes, I believe we can push your boundaries by taking 4 at a time. Since they are in the same class and a hybrid of the earth element, I assume that you shouldn’t be overwhelmed. Still, I would advise taking Iron, Zinc, Copper, and Aluminum first as an appetizer and to better determine your tolerance level.”
“Okay.” I replied. “Should we take these back to the apothecary shop to get them processed?”
*Snort* Gertrude quietly answered my inquiry by pulling out her own version of a processing lab. Although far smaller than Victoria’s setup at the front of the shop, it was closer to mine in compactness. That is where the relatable similarities ended. If you were to compare mine to being a disposable one for a novice, hers was that of a master. Glowing runes were embedded into various points and even her mortar and pestle despite their simplistic function, had the appearance of being delicate, yet unbreakable.
Soon enough, she had a cooling metallic white concoction, waiting to return to a safe temperature to drink. Once it was ready, she had me sit in the middle of the magic circle to drink it.
Going down, it tasted just as I expected. A tingly metallic and lightly grainy texture swished around in my mouth triggering a slight stinging against my gums, much like touching a 9-volt battery to my tongue. Closing my eyes in focus, I waited for whatever the trial may be.
The solution hit my stomach with a vengeance, as it exploded into agonal cramps! Right up on its heels was an intense sensation of nausea. Following that, I found out one of the functions of Gertrude’s adjusted magic circle.