Mardel City
"Your majesty, he isn't willing to listen. Saying, he will announce the support for the Marques Laris, tomorrow," said the old man in his sixties.
In front of him is a woman in her early forties. Looking at the mess of papers in front of her.
"Mother, I think we should let him support Laris. If he conquers Ertburn, we will gain one of the prosperous cities in the empire," said the man, in his early twenties, excitedly.
The woman stopped as she heard that and turned to the young man.
"And what about Silver?" she asked gently.
"What about him? Isn't he the one harping about supporting the Marquess Laris? We are just letting him do what he wants to do," replied the young man.
The woman didn't say anything and simply kept looking at her son.
Seconds passed, and confidence from his face began to slip away, till the uncertainty appeared on his face.
"Is it not wise, mother?" he asked. To that, she didn't say anything, just kept looking at him.
"Brother dearest, we need Silver. We need him more than we need, Marquess Laris right now,"
"The emotions essence, he had planned to supply us before it was suspended, would have been 60% of our emotion essence supply,"
"It is more than all the legacies in our control give us. Our powerhouses are dependent on the potions made from them,"
"If the supply is suspended, even for a month. It will affect us deeply," replied the young girl of twelve-thirteen.
"He won't dare to do that. He knows the consequences of that," said the young man angrily, but the teen girl only smiled and looked at her mother.
"Call, Count Raul, and tell him to release Silver's mistress," said the woman, before turning back to the papers in front of her.
…
Warsteel
"That little bastard, I will kill him!" cursed a man in his mid-fifties, while his advisers watched silently.
Keeping control of his emotions wasn't the strong suit of the crown prince.
"Haas, tell the bastard. If he didn't give us emotion essence on time. We will declare him the enemy of the empire," ordered the crown prince.
The advisers looked at each other in disagreement but stayed silent and turned to the man in his mid-fifties.
"That would not be wise, Your Majesty," said the man, and the anger in the crown prince's eyes intensified.
"Why? He dared to threaten the supply of emotion essence. He had already committed a grave crime by giving that traitorous bitch the essences," said the Crown Prince.
"It is all true, Your Majesty, but we can't do that. We are facing the enemies from all sides and forces are stretched."
"We need to swallow our anger and call the traitor our brother. Once we have the empire in our control. We will deal with every one of them as they deserve," replied the prime minister.
It had lessened the anger but didn't make it disappear.
"I propose we tell Raul to release his whore. It wouldn't be wise to delay it. Silver might make a deal with Laris and that wouldn't be good for us," advised the Prime Minister.
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"Traitors. All of them are traitors," cursed the crown prince, but didn't object to it.
He might be angry and not like it, but he understood the need for it. If he wasn't that smart, he wouldn't have been in this position.
…
Sansa Banes
I watched as people carefully picked up the instruments and packed them in boxes.
I felt tears coming to my eyes again, but I controlled them.
The bank acted fast. Two hours after the sealing of the workshop and suspension, they appeared and began to remove the stuff and seal it.
We had over eight months to pay for the dues, but they had invoked a ninth clause.
Which relates to suspension of the license for six months or more.
If that happened, they have the right to demand the full payment of the loan and if one can't, then they can make recovery through seizing assets.
Leo had gone to the few people we knew to ask them for help. I hope he succeeds, and someone helps us; I really don't want to lose the workshop.
We are planning to appeal the suspension tomorrow. We might get some relief.
I was thinking about that when I heard the steps. I looked back and saw Leo. For a moment, hope appeared in my heart, but it was dashed as I saw his expression.
"Nobody agreed," he said, defeatedly.
Tears streamed down my hearing that as the last hope, I had been crushed as well.
He simply placed his hands on my shoulder and watched with me as they took out everything we had built here.
It took them a while, but they had packed everything. They didn't even leave the mats on the floor and would have taken out bricks from the building if it wasn't rented.
"Please, sign here," said the teller.
I looked at the document in front of me, before signing it with a shaking hand. Leo did the same, after me.
As we did, they put the stuff into the carriage and left, leaving us in an empty workshop.
"This is the end," I said and sat on the floor with tears streaming down from my face.
We had a dream when we started about two years ago. We wanted to research beauty products and sell their formulas to other alchemists to mass produce.
It turned out to be a much harder job than we had thought.
The sheer number of resources that are required for such research broke us. That we had to take the loan and take private order to sustain us.
Now, nobody would give us a loan to start over.
They wouldn't even hire us. Alchemists, like us, are the risk. Things are sensitive and a wrong move and we explode the whole workshop.
No alchemist would take a risk with us.
"There might be a way," said Leo after a minute of silence, and I turned to him.
Only to see him, take out the familiar scroll from the bag.
"Did you recognize the woman that gave us the scroll?" he asked, and I shook my head. The only thing I remember is her being beautiful.
Earlier, I was so overwhelmed with everything, I took the scroll and gave it to him without even opening it.
"It was Carla Salt," he answered. I shook my head. I don't think I heard the name.
"She is the mistress of Remus Silver. The lord of Greltheaven," he replied, and a surprise couldn't help but appear in my eyes.
I heard that name; a little too much in the past few months. A master of legacy, which he was able to take to the Grade III in less than a year.
It is said that the velvet garden had become the biggest legacy, on a continent in Grade III and below.
"What did she want?" I asked, looking at the scroll.
She said, 'Think about it,' but I didn't know the context of things to think about.
He handed me a scroll, and I opened it. Within seconds, a surprise appeared on my face.
"Is this for real?" I asked as I finished reading.
"It is, and while it is for the Grade IV alchemists. They were willing to give us a chance when I described the woman who gave us the scroll," he replied.
I looked at him, before turning back to the scroll. Reading it again.
The scroll had information about their offer, which is quite generous and also strict.
They are providing the workshop with all the equipment and even the resources.
There is even a line mentioning that they will give us an opportunity to work with emotion essence and resources grown in essence if we are good enough.
In exchange, we will sign a strict contract with them.
What made it interesting is that there is a special mention of the beauty alchemists.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Greltheaven is far and dangerous. It had been attacked several times by the undead," I replied, to that he smiled.
"We will not die. They do not kill alchemists," he replied.
Not the undead or anyone would kill alchemists. We are strategic resources, everybody needs us. We might not seem like it, but both of us are Grade III alchemists.
Making us more valuable than most other alchemists.
That doesn't mean we will be free. We will be captive, crafting whatever they desire.
"We will need to decide quickly; there is only one position for us," he informed me, and I sighed, before shaking my head.
"It's not like we have any other choice," I replied. He smiled before his expressions turned serious.
"Something related to that woman happened in the city. I heard a large number of guards have escorted her earlier out of the city hall," he informed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"No idea, but the city is aggressively suppressing the news about it," he replied. Hearing that, a few thoughts rose in my heart, but I crushed them.
As I had said, we do not have any choice.
"Then we should get out of the city as soon as possible, while the suspension is still fresh," I said, and he nodded before getting up.
If we want to leave. We have to leave as quickly as possible before they find a use for us.
There is always a use for us.