> “And never would. For soon after, he dropped dead of a mysterious malady. And that is how the newly christened Lady Melanie Fitzjames became a duchess.”
An uncanny hush fell over the room as I sat in my Seat next to Lucca and a lanky guy in his mid-twenties who must have been our First Seat. Every other Seat was filled, save for Gilbert’s at the opposite end, which he quickly took, and I tried to glance at all the other Guild members, but my focus went immediately back to Emma.
She was alive! I wanted to run to her, to tell her I was sorry, to explain what had happened, but her eyes were fixed on the windows behind the Orange Table, where J.P. was seated.
And before I could even try to walk over to see her, Gilbert banged the gavel against the New Amsterdam Table and the meeting began.
“Roll call,” said Gilbert and he went around the Tables, with each member acknowledging that they were indeed present. I tried to keep track of the names as best I could, but before I knew it, it was Lucca’s turn and then mine. Emma responded shortly thereafter with a quiet “present,” before the New Amsterdam Table finished the roll.
“This 433rd meeting of the Worshipful Company of Alchemists shall come to order. As this is the first time we have had a full session in three … hundred years, Dalia wanted to say a few words before we began with the reading of the minutes from the last meeting.”
Dalia, clad in the same black dress from a month ago, stood slowly and addressed the room.
“As Gilbert said, there haven’t been 12 members around our collective Tables since before the Schism. So I’d like to pause so that we can all reflect on this historic moment we are bearing witness to.”
She turned her head to look at each Guild member and when she came to me, I felt my control slip just a little, before she moved on to the other half of the Guild, before finally taking her seat.
“Thank you Dalia,” said Gilbert. “Several items of business from last meeting are directly relevant to tonight’s meeting, so as Guild secretary, I am overruling any motion to waive the reading of the minutes.”
Satisfied that no one was going to protest his procedural maneuvering, Gilbert pulled out a long piece of parchment from his inner suit jacket pocket and placed it on the table.
“Item one: the status of the membership application of Jade Peters, holder of the Breuckelen Table Third Seat token. The Membership Committee reported on Ms. Peters’s successful completion of the Initiation and made its recommendation that Ms. Peters be elevated to full Guild member.”
I looked quickly at J.P., Lucca, and Emma, the first two of whom had slight scowls on her their faces, while Emma’s remained a blank canvas.
“Chairman de Wyck then rejected the Committee’s recommendation pending one final task, which brings us to item two: the retrieval of the vial of Dragon’s blood by Second Seat Patel and Ms. Peters. Ms. Patel, I understand the mission was a success.”
I nearly did a spit take as Emma slowly nodded her head and then drew out a vial from the sleeve of her blouse containing a shimmering red liquid and held it up for us all to see. I stared at it for a few seconds before my gaze was drawn down to Emma’s right hand. Which was charred completely black.
“What … what happened to your hand?” I blurted out, and everyone’s eyes were suddenly fixed on me again.
“You happened,” said Emma coldly. “Why don’t you explain to everyone how you threw the alkahest into the raging varutium instead of freeing me, and then I will complete the tale on how I heroically salvaged the mission after you abandoned me?”
“Abandoned you? I didn’t … everything burned, you were gone … and I thought you were…”
“Dead? Clearly I’m not. But as I said, I’ll get to that. You first though.”
With her other hand, she beckoned me to start, and I looked at Gilbert for some sort of direction, but he just shrugged his shoulders. And so I recounted everything that had happened from the last meeting. Of course I left out the part about the glamour’s imprisoning of me, but I made sure to relay in exquisite detail J.P.’s offer and Emma’s uneasiness in accepting it. Finally, I reached those fateful moments in the lab and how the vial of alkahest “slipped” out of my hand and into the blaze.
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“The explosion knocked me out for a time,” I concluded. “And when I came to, the only thing left of Emma, or so I had thought, was the charred remains of her disguise.”
I let out a long deep breath and tried to ignore the reservoirs of sweat that had pooled under my arms. The room remained silent for about a minute, the Guild members nervously trying to gauge each other’s reactions, before Gilbert finally broke the impasse.
“Emma, Ms. Peters has recounted what transpired up until she thought you perished. Now please enlighten us how you escaped, and with the Dragon’s blood to boot?”
“With pleasure, Gilbert. So, when the alkahest hit the varutium, the entire room erupted into an inferno. That much is true. Including every part of the stupid outfit she made me wear.”
I wanted to interject that the crazy getup had been Emma’s idea, not mine, but kept my mouth shut.
“But what Jade conveniently omitted,” Emma continued, “was that I am nothing if not resourceful. So with my left hand, I ripped off the burning garments, wig, and shoes, and then pulled the painting free from the easel with my right hand still stuck to it.”
Emma twirled the vial in her hands as a dramatic pause, and I quickly surveyed the room to see how her tale was being received. J.P. was fiercely enraptured, his body leaning forward, eager to hear her next words, and his right hand gently tapping his jeweled cane against the edge of the table. The rest of the assembled Guild, including Dalia, didn’t seem as enamored, save for a few people whose names I’d already forgotten.
“But by then, the fire had trapped me within a small radius, with no way out of the lab that wouldn’t involve horrible disfigurement.”
“Your hand though,” said my First Seat.
“I’m getting to that, D.C. May I finish?”
The guy called D.C. nodded.
“There was one way out, but it is, for lack of a better word, frowned upon by my family.”
“Your bag,” I whispered, and Emma turned slowly to meet my gaze.
“Yes, Jade, that is correct. I forced myself through the bottom, painting in tow, and fell through the vervorium portal for what seemed like an eternity, before finally landing in the Mondal cache.”
“Clever,” said Gilbert. “And then you waited until the fire was put out before going back through?”
“No, of course not,” said Emma. “I presumed, correctly, that my bag was destroyed. And therefore, returning the way I came would have trapped me in the void, which would have been a particularly unpleasant fate. But that left me stranded inside the cache, the painting still attached to my hand. Fortunately, my family has always taken a particular interest in linking and de-linking compounds. So it was only a matter of days before I had worked out the means of extracting both my hand from the painting and the Dragon’s blood from the paint.”
“Ah,” said D.C. “That’s what happened to your hand.”
“Yes, an unfortunate but necessary consequence of the paracelsus procedure. I’ll be needing to examine the Guild’s libraries on healing salves soon to see if there is a way to reverse this, but after the initial 12 hours of excruciating pain, it’s mostly just a cosmetic injury.”
“And then what, you waltzed out of the cache, hopped a flight from wherever, and returned just in time for our meeting?” asked Lucca.
“Exactly.”
“Well done, Ms. Patel, well done,” said J.P. “You are a testament to the Guild’s ingenuity and resourcefulness.”
“Thank you, Mr. Laurel. I agree,” said Emma with a smile.
“If you’re quite finished, then there is the matter of your reward,” said Gilbert. “Second Seat Patel, for your bravery in the face of almost certain death, we will recommend to the Compensation Committee that you be awarded 500 silver tokens, a generous supply of three prima materia of your choice from the Guild’s stores, and priority selection for your next Guild assignment.”
“I don’t think so,” said Emma.
“What?” said Gilbert.
“You think I’m an idiot? You think I don’t know how much this vial is really worth?”
“Ms. Patel,” said Dalia quietly. “You obtained that vial in the service of the Guild. By right and by law, it is the Guild’s property.”
J.P. suddenly stood up from his chair.
“It’s awful funny hearing you talk about ‘law’ like it’s something that applies to you,” he said, his voice trembling with anger.
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Dalia.
J.P. ignored her and turned to face the rest of the Guild.
“There is someone here who is not who they say they are.”
I felt my teeth bite down on my bottom lip and tried to wipe the blood from my mouth without anyone noticing. He had to be talking about me, right? Emma knew I had the glamour and she must not have believed my story about it not working.
“And that has cost us immeasurable damage,” J.P. continued. “But it ends tonight. It ends now.”
Gilbert banged the gavel down on the table three times before Dalia waved him off.
“J.P., you’re out of order. If you have a grievance, take it up with the Grievance Committee at the appropriate time.”
“What good will that do?” he replied. “Seeing as how the grievance I have is integral to the Grievance Committee and this whole damned organization.”
Dalia stood up abruptly and somehow I felt the force of … her. Her anger cascaded around the table, ricocheting from member to member, but when it reached J.P., he batted it aside with his cane.
“The only one who is out of order, I’m afraid, is you,” he said, and slammed the heel of his cane down onto the floor.
The room exploded with a flash of light, and I closed my eyes instinctively, only to feel a different force than the one Dalia had just thrown at us. It enveloped my whole body, and I felt Jade’s shell around me begin to crack, her voice crying out in terror before being suddenly silenced. When I finally opened my eyes again, half of the Guild was staring at me, and the other half was staring at an unconscious teenage girl who was sitting in the Seat where Gilbert had just been.
It was Ty.