Jeb quickly summarized what had happened to him, and Declan’s expression grew firmer and darker.
“Jeb, do you know what could have happened?” he asked, tone somewhat disbelieving. Seeing Jeb shake his head, he continued, “go to the Library and read up on Alchemical Storms. I understand now why the Professors were so nervous when they came in.”
Trusting his friend, Jeb left the Emporium and set off for the Stacks. Once there, he asked Margaret for some recommendations on books about Alchemical Storms. She gave him a long look before slowly nodding. A few minutes later she came out with a well worn tome.
It was small, hardly larger than Jeb’s hand, and it bore the traces of many other hands having held it. The book opened smoothly, and the first page held the title “Alchemical Storms and Their Aftereffects.”
Seeing that Jeb had started reading, Margaret left him and returned to the Stacks. The opening pages described the conditions which could lead to an Alchemical Storm. Jeb noted that farming was nowhere on the list, and Enchantments were only mentioned in passing. Apparently “dedicated Enchanters have been able to effect Alchemical Storms in the past, but no Enchanter has been recorded as causing one in living memory.” Most of the root causes of Alchemcial Storms seemed to be conflicts of some sort or another. There were a number of named individuals, though the book did not give any other explanation of why they were named.
The second section of the book was far more interesting. It opened with “the effects of Alchemical Storms have been grouped in any number of ways. In this work, the authors will group them into the short term and the long term. This section will concern itself strictly with the consequences those exposed to a Storm will experience within the first twenty four hours after exposure.”
The list of side effects was as chilling as it was comprehensive. Jeb learned why Professor Quicksilver had been nervous about his initial exposure to the Essence Meter. Essence Stones were formed when the Essence within an Alchemical Storm crystallized. As a result, they caused many of the same side effects, at least in the short term. Chief among them was that small Essence Stones could crystallize within the souls of Low Tier Classholders. It was far less of a concern when exposed to Essence Stones, though the book still advised against letting anyone below Sixth Tier see an uncovered Essence Stone.
Crystallized souls were just the starting point of the many ways that an Alchemical Storm could permanently and immediately injure someone. Jeb had never considered the fact that he had a unique Essence signature which represented who he was. The book was somewhat vague on what, exactly, the effects of having someone’s Essence signature were, though the few oblique mentions did not seem like anything healthy.
The other side effects only became more gruesome from there. Jeb was honestly shocked at the sheer breadth of ways that exposure to uncontrolled Essences could harm someone. He began to understand why the Professors had been so unwilling to continue his independent study.
When he finished the section, Jeb began to panic, wondering if there were now small Essence Stones within him. Even though the book assured him that every effect listed would be easily detected, especially by a High Tier Medic, Jeb remained worried. After a few minutes of forcibly reminding himself that each of the effects also had a cure, and that the Professors would have absolutely made sure that Jeb had received the treatment, he managed to calm himself down. Breathing slightly more under control, he turned the page to the next section: “Chronic Effects of Alchemical Storms.”
Jeb set the book down immediately, not wanting to face whatever it would tell him. He stood and started wandering through the Stacks, trying to find something in them to distract himself. The Stacks obliged, giving tantalizing peeks at covers for all sorts of knowledge that Jeb had not realized he deeply wanted. He nearly collided with Philip, who looked at the shelves around them.
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“Jeb,” Philip asked slowly, “is there a reason that you are in the section of the Library concerned with committing crimes against humanity?”
“No?” Jeb replied hesitantly, “I was just wandering.” After a moment, he added, “is there a reason that you are here, though?”
“Yes,” Philip replied, nodding. Jeb waited for any more details, but Philip just walked away. taking the hint, Jeb tried to find his way back to his desk in the Stacks.
Once there, he forced himself to start reading the long term ways that an Alchemical Storm could cause harm. Thankfully, the book focused on the effects that land under an Alchemical Storm suffered. Whether that was because there were more data about that, or whether it was because the authors did not want to traumatize their readers, Jeb was not entirely sure. Given the way that it described the absolute horror of trying to grow plants in land where an Alchemical Storm had passed, Jeb assumed it was the former.
Suddenly worried for his own plot of land, Jeb left the Stacks to go to his field. He found his way into the hallways with no issue, but they seemed to twist around the field and shed, refusing to let Jeb enter. After a few minutes of walking in what felt like circles, Jeb pushed into the wall of the hallway, trying to force his way into his own space.
The halls, which had felt yielding before, suddenly firmed. It was as though they were reinforced with the bones of the earth itself. Jeb searched for any cracks in the material, but it was as firm and unyielding as anything else he had encountered.
Headmistress Petra joined Jeb in the hallway a few moments later.
“Jeb, is there a reason that you are attempting to circumvent the safety restrictions that I have placed around the site of an Alchemical Storm?”
“I wanted to see what had happened to my field,” Jeb replied.
She stared at him.
Jeb flushed slightly under the scrutiny. “Is it not safe for me to look at the field?”
She continued staring, as unbending as the walls around them. After a few moments, she stepped through the hallway and disappeared from sight. Jeb strongly considered taking the Headmistress’s advice. Realizing that his Brewery was in the same area, however, Jeb reaffirmed his desire to find out what had happened.
Whatever protections the Headmistress had placed on going to his field did not extend to his Brewery, thankfully, and Jeb quickly found himself in the comforting walls of his workshop. The windows no longer stared out to the field. Or, at least, Jeb hoped that his windows no longer stared out to his field. All that he could see outside of the small building was a sense of endless darkness. There was no sun. There were no stars. It was simply emptiness made manifest.
Shuddering, Jeb opened the door, finding his way back to the hallways. He rushed to the Emporium and saw Declan and Catherine sitting at the bar, chatting casually. They looked up at his hurried entrance, and Declan nodded somberly.
“Did you read up on Alchemical Storms?” he asked.
“More than that,” Jeb replied, fighting back tears, “Headmistress Petra set up barricades to prevent me from going to or even seeing my fields.” He fell silent, words refusing to form. Declan and Catherine offered words of comfort, but they slid off of him. For once, Jeb was aware that the danger he had found himself in was not only entirely his fault, but actually was disastrous. The idea that his actions had consequences had slowly begun to form in his mind during his time at the Academy, but this crystallized it in a very real way. The field that the Academy had given him was ruined, potentially forever. Only a stroke of luck and the fact that he had tested his field near his Professors had kept Jeb from suffering the same fate. Suddenly Professor Bearson’s surprise that Jeb still wanted to learn a new form of Magic made sense.
Jeb wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the rest of the break. The idea of Brewing anything, even something strictly mundane, reminded him too much of the fact that his Brewery no longer overlooked a pleasant pastoral scene. Weaving was likewise tainted by the knowledge that he could have been Weaving fire. As he thought about it, every Skill or hobby that he had related to Magic in some way or another. There was no escape that he could find.
Declan gripped his shoulder. “Jeb, are you still here?”
Jeb shook himself back into his surroundings. “I am now,” he replied, “sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
Declan and Catherine just stared at him. Finally, tears began to fall.