A woman with gray hair tied in a tight bun, glaring gray eyes and a stern face that somehow looked familiar appeared over top of the projection, looking down. To Rory she looked like a badass in charge.

Everyone in the science room stood and called out to her. Some said, “Madam Encart!” and others, “Duchess,” or “Duchess Encart.”

Encart... Encart... Why is that—

Steph? Stephanie Encart? Rory whipped my head to Forsythe but the man wouldn’t look at him.

“I have been listening to this embarrassing display,” the woman said firmly. “You supposed experts, who I am clearly overpaying, have achieved absolutely nothing in regards to identifying the source, creature, or element of that skin. It was provided by this young man more than a month ago and he offered us very generous terms. An eighteen-year-old young man who has also provided as much individually valuable material below level 25 in weeks than we, with all of our hunting teams and supposed experts, have been able to find in more than six Earth months. Moreover, he has repeatedly proven his value and ingenuity, not to mention his commitment to having an effective relationship with Cosmica Engineering. And what do I hear on this call? Unearned arrogance, petty jealousy, and blatant stupidity. Doctor Preston, let me make this as clear and as simple as I can: this endeavor is potentially far more valuable to the corporation than you are.”

The man was getting stiffer and stiffer the more she spoke, until that last sentence made his jaw drop. “B-But I’ve been here for three decades and provided—” he stuttered.

“And yet,” she interrupted, “my last statement stands true.” She coughed lightly and continued, “Young man. Please accept my apologies on behalf of Cosmica Engineering. You deserved better.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Errr, dutchess. Ummm. Sorry, I don’t really know how to… uhhh… what to call you?” he finished lamely.

He laughed lightly. “Technically, ‘your grace’ is the proper term, but when I am involved in Cosmica business and not imperial business, ma’am or madam is just fine.”

“Umm. Okay… ma’am. But the skepticism really fine. I’m only eighteen after all. I understand a level of disbelief. I only ask for a little patience and cordiality. Honestly, I would have been shocked if I didn’t see doubt. And probably disappointed too.”

She sighed then. “Do you see that, ladies and gentlemen? Now I am even more ashamed. Young man, the floor is yours. I will stay on the comm both because I am deeply fascinated, and because I wish to make sure you are given the respect you are due.”

“Thank you, ma’am. And thank you and Mr. Forsythe for allowing me the opportunity to share with your team.” She nodded curtly and faded out.

Like a badass.

Damn. I wish I could be that awesome. He mentally sighed then. I need to talk to Steph. Why didn’t… Rory shook his head free of the thoughts. Now isn’t the time. Later…

He took a breath and focused back on the group projected in front of him. “Okay... Right... So, basilisks. Despite everything, it’s entirely fair to wonder why I asked the question about how they get their element. The reason it matters is because basilisks can be born of any element.”

Another doctor with an awesome afro and an unfamiliar accent spoke up then. “Did you say any? Advanced too?” his tone was clearly shocked and disbelieving.

Rory nodded. “Any. Element. At all,” he said slowly.

The doctors were looking at each other, clearly surprised, skeptical, and interested all at the same time. Rory thought that that was fair. He continued, “Basilisks are born alive but in hibernation in their eggs and are element-neutral. They hatch only when they have received sufficient Soul Energy, which is a lot by the way. As most nests are underground, Terra is the most common. However, any element a basilisk egg absorbs in sufficient amounts will turn it into that kind of elemental creature. That’s true of every element except one, which I’ll talk about shortly. So, think about that. If an egg is sent the energy of fire, a fire basilisk hatches,” Rory put a bit of snark in his words when he said, “no matter what its parents were.”

He continued then in his normal speech. “The energy transfer can be passive or active as I understand it, although I’m not entirely positive on the process. What I do know is that an egg can actively be sent energy, which is much faster than the alternative and will speed up hatching. Passively means it’s absorbed by the environment and is quite slow. Here’s the key though. The amount of energy is staggering. Keep that in mind. I believe that – and the overall rarity of the eggs – are the two primary reasons the species is so scarce. They are incredibly powerful when adults after all. But it takes a long time and a lot of energy for them to hatch.” Then he cleared his throat. “Umm. Let me stop there for questions before I explain why I bring it up.”

“How do you know any of this?” an unknown voice asked.

Rory nodded. “Fair question. It technically falls under the privacy part of our agreement, so I’ll stay mum for now. But I will tell you with complete and absolute certainty that it is one hundred percent true. Feel free to doubt, but I’m not wrong.”

“Are you saying,” Dr. Graves asked slowly, “that if we found a basilisk egg, we could hatch a basilisk of whatever element we wanted?”

Rory smiled. “I was wondering if anyone would catch that. Dr. Graves, right now I feel like you might be the smartest person in the room.” A few people coughed and she looked down. “By the way,” Rory added, “that’s why what… umm… Madam Encart said is true. Imagine if you could breed basilisks and produce whatever elements you wanted. You could create, I don’t know, a Basilisk Line or something, for techarmors and enhancements that would match any Soul Wielder’s element no matter what it was. I would think that would be worth a hell of a lot more than some loudmouth know-it-all. But I’m not an expert or anything. Were there other questions?”

There weren’t any, even from said know-it-all, who was fuming, so Rory proceeded.

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“Right. Now this next part is going to push against the boundaries of conventional thinking. Please be patient though. Okay. Let me throw a theory out there. Everyone has heard the stories of elements outside of the eight, right? I read a few in preparation for this comm. I understand there have been claims of elements that are more sort of out there. One article I read called them ‘Esoteric.’ Whatever you might call them, most people believe those stories are total rubbish. But what if I told you that some of those stories are true? What if I told you that I knew as an absolute fact that there was an element outside of the eight. For just a minute, let your mind think about that. If there was an element of say, light or darkness, sound or gravity, as the stories claim. If we can just for a moment believe that one such element exists, what do you think would happen to a basilisk egg that was exposed to that element?”

Rory heard a few gasps in the room, even a swear or two. “Now, presume for a minute that this element was in sufficient quantity to hatch an egg and that strange elemental basilisk was to molt. Would any of your equipment be able to tell what the skin was from?”

Nearly all the faces of the room fell to the piece of skin on the table in front of them.

“Yes,” Rory told them. “That skin is from a basilisk of an element not of the eight. In fact, it is from a basilisk so rare there may have only been a handful in all of the galaxy’s history.”

Dr. Moustache spoke up again then. “Even if that were true, why would it be so rare? In tens or hundreds of billions of years, only a handful? How is that possible?”

“Because of its element,” Rory said.

“What element could possibly be that rare?” he asked.

“Who said it’s rarity is the reason? In fact, it’s probably one of the most common things in all of the galaxy.”

“Then why so few basilisks? You are contradicting yourself.”

“You’d think so,” Rory said with a smile. “But I’m not…. because death cannot create life.”

The room was silent. Rory let it sit for a bit until he said, “What you are looking at is the skin of one of the rarest creatures in all the history of the galaxy, a death basilisk.”

“Are you seriously asking us to believe that?” asked the moving facial hair.

“I really don’t care what you believe, Dr. Moustache. So, remember when I emphasized the amount of energy needed to birth a basilisk? I can’t really tell you exactly, but it's mind-blowing. I expect probably two to three hundred levels worth at least, but I admit that’s a guess. It’s probably more. But for now, if you can get your mind around and believe a previously unproven element is possible, can you accept that a creature can be use that element? If you can, then can you also accept the fact that death cannot create life? What I mean by that is that no matter how much death energy is forcefully entered into an egg, a death basilisk won’t hatch. So if we think about it, that leaves the other option. The egg has to gather death energy passively from the environment. Can you possibly imagine the amount of death that had to happen in a single place to fill at least two to three hundred levels worth of energy into an egg?” Silence followed. Rory concluded with, “And that Dr. Moustache, is why they’re so rare. What you have before you is the molted skin of a death basilisk of at last level three hundred, possibly much, much higher. Maybe higher than anything we’ve ever recorded.”

Once again, the comm went silent. At least until that damn guy just couldn’t let it go. “How do you know any of this? Someone would know before you, just some kid. You probably got lucky and came upon it and are trying to make yourself rich.”

Rory heard a sigh on the comm. But before Madam Encart could speak, Rory responded to the git.

“I agreed to take nothing unless my claim can be proven. How about you Dr. Moustache? From now on, will you agree to take no pay on anything until whatever it is you’re doing is proven out? Would you take kindly to someone saying your ideas are just rubbish and reaching for some cash?”

“I’m a respected scientist with decades of experience. My ideas have some merit in fact. What are you?”

“Me? I’m just someone trying to help. You all came to me. Asked me what the heck that thing on the table is that is confounding your supposed respected scientific genius with decades of experience. I just gave you your answer and potentially much more. What you do with it is up to you. You all can ignore me and keep getting nothing accomplished with your thumb up your ass like Dr. Moustache. Or you can try to prove it out, like any idea. I took a few science classes in high school. Use the scientific method. You have a theory. Do some experiments based on that data. See where it takes you. Either way, I’m done being called names by someone who acts less adult than a teenager. Are there any intelligent questions? And by intelligent, I mean from anyone other than Dr. Moustache?”

The guy sputtered, stood, and stormed out of the room.

“How could we test for an element like death?” asked someone in the room who hadn’t been introduced.

Rory shrugged. “How would I bloody know? I’m not a scientist, I’m a teenager.”

After a few more seconds of silence, afro guy spoke up. “Can we even prove it’s a basilisk with this data?"

“That’s it!” said another excitedly. “We prove its a basilisk molt first. Then extrapolate that to prove out that all basilisks, no matter their element, have certain similarities.”

“Right,” said Dr. Graves. “We could then focus on their molecular differences and break them down. We know we at least have a terra basilisk to conduct comparison tests, even if its young. The more variety the better.”

“We need more samples!” shouted a short bald man.

“Excellent! We could document their cellular structures and find the associated micro and macro-”

Rory tuned them out at that point because they started in on the science jargon. Steph would probably love it in—

Steph… Why didn’t you tell me?

Rory sighed as he passively watched room’s residents become quite busy talking about possibilities. It was the whole purpose of their discussion so Rory was pleased with that outcome at least. He turned to Forsythe who had just muted the room.

“Sorry about losing my temper,” Rory said to him.

Madam Encart’s voice answered instead of Forsythe. “It’s quite alright, young man.” Her projection reappeared and the room went away so it was just her on the comm. “That was far more interesting and insightful than I expected it to be. Your report on basilisks alone is worth our agreement.” Then she said nothing.

“Thank you, ma’am,” was Rory’s only response.

“Forsythe, give us the room please,” she ordered curtly.

Without a word, he got up and walked out of his own office, leaving it to a teenager and his boss.

As soon as the door slid shut, Rory saw something new. She relaxed her posture and smiled. Her whole face changed and she looked a lot more like Steph.

“I’m impressed, Rory. My granddaughter warned that you might surprise me. I doubted her, but she was right.”

Rory shifted in his seat, thinking of her and how badly he wanted to talk about this.

“Don’t worry, she wouldn’t tell me anything private, despite my entreaties. That said, you blatantly ignored my comment in regards to the value of the research. Forsythe seems to think your aversion to selling us the skin is because you don’t need the money, and the prior lack of comment seems to reaffirm that idea. But I’m not so sure. I think something else is going on in that lovely red-haired head of yours.”

She stopped talking but Rory didn’t fill the silence, despite his blush. They just stared at each other. Her smile got even wider. “I see. I’d like to ask you a question, Rory. You are not obligated to answer and I promise on my word of honor that I will not share what you say with anyone without your approval.”

She stopped again and Rory only nodded.

“How do you know about basilisks?”

Rory raised his eyebrows. That wasn’t what he had thought she would ask. It wasn’t even close. He had thought it would be about Steph, or his identity, or money, or any number of personal things. But not that.

He tapped on the table and thought. A few seconds later Rory answered. “The death basilisk who shed it told me.”

Steph’s grandmother absolutely beamed at him. “Thank you for your trust, young man. Have a lovely evening.”