A figure sat at a desk surrounded by piles of books and empty instant ramen bowels. Quickly flipping through pages of a thick tome, they thumbed to a specific paragraph of a page before dropping the book and picking up another. This figure was none other than William.
William hadn’t left the house since the discovery of his grandfather’s secret. He’d spent the majority of his time in this very room trying to grasp the fundamentals of alchemy. Days had passes since he’d cracked the first book in the growing piles around him. He’d somewhat grasped a general idea of alchemy.
Sitting back in the office chair, William took a deep breath and sighed. It seemed he was out of his depth. Alchemy was a wide concept that branched into more and more obtuse concepts like pill making and even alchemical weapon forging.
Closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose, he got up from the chair with a groan. He felt disgusting. He’d been so consumed with reading that he’d forgotten to shower for a handful of days.
William checked the time on his phone and noticed it was already 5 pm. “I need a break…” he sighed to the empty room. A shower and some real food would do him some good he decided.
*****
In a fancy café in an unknown place, a young woman and older man sat, respective drinks in hand. They struck a startling image and not because of any normal traits. The woman had bright green eyes that seemed to glow. She was beautiful in a conventional sense, but her otherworldly features are what drew the eye. With sharpened, elongated ears and blonde hair, she was the perfect picture of an elf from fantastical stories and games. The older man was bald with vibrant amber eyes and dark textured skin. It was almost reptilian in nature. He wore a stern expression as he spoke in a measured tone. “The alchemist has passed.” A silence followed as the woman waited for an explanation.
She looked at him without an ounce of concern. “There’s many alchemists dear, if I had to meet with a servant to discuss every time one died I’d never leave.” She replied with exasperation.
“That may normally be the case, but this time it’s different. THE alchemist died.”
Rolling her eyes and tired of the charades, the woman adamantly struck at the heart of the conversation. “Get to the point Gerard! I haven’t got all da- “. A shiver of anticipation ran down her back. “Th- THE alchemist?! Wasn’t he supposed to be immortal?!” The woman nearly shouted at the man.
Closing his eyes, Gerard calmed himself. His kind didn’t react well to emotional outbursts. “Yes. Him… He certainly did create a method of immortality.” Pausing he corrected himself. “Multiple methods of immortality”.
Leaning forward as she began to get absorbed in the revelation, her curiosity and anticipation brought by this news could barely be contained. Eyes shining, she continued her inquiry. “How did he die… Wait, no, I don’t care… Are you completely certain that he’s dead?”
Gerard nodded his confirmation. “Yes. We have a body.”
Before the man could say any more, the woman interrupted.
“Where is it? Do you know how valuable this could be? If we could get our hands on the alchemist’s legacy we could gain enough standing to subsume the smaller factions! This has the potential to change the world!” The woman rambled in barely contained excitement.
Holding up his hand to stop any future outbursts Gerard answered.
“The body is already being studied. The reliability of any tests we may do could be skewed by the humans’ burial practices. We need to take this slow.” After a pause he continued. “Leanne… There’s something else…”
A heavy feeling full of anticipation hung in the air. Gerard very rarely addressed his lady by name. “We have word of where the alchemist lived. It’s a dead world called Earth. The magic levels are practically nonexistent.”
Leanne’s eyes widened. “Are you saying we may have a chance to claim a royal class alchemists lab?”
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Gerard let a small smile touch his lips and he nodded. “We’ll need to prepare my lady, a world with no magic is dangerous in ways you could never imagine.”
*****
William tugged on his boots, feeling considerably better after a shower. He’d decided he’d start his first alchemical experiment after eating some real food. That night was the last night he’d spend as a normal human.
William returned home with a full stomach and felt more alive than ever. He had a giddiness he couldn’t get rid of. He was about to make real life potions!
Entering the study, he walked over to the panel on the wall. From his grandfather’s journals it appeared he had some sort of automated retrieval system for alchemical ingredients. It was clear by the extra doors in the study that he hadn’t seen everything, but William decided it might be best to wait a while before snooping around things that could get him in trouble.
Reaching the panel, he found a small indent that he could use as a handle to open the cereal box sized door. Opening the door, William looked down a dark narrow tunnel. He couldn’t see the end and had the distinct feeling that even the assistance of a light wouldn’t help.
Awkwardly staring into the abyss William started to doubt if this was the automated system his grandfather had mentioned in his notes. Pulling out his notepad, he looked at the list of ingredients he needed to make the basic (Focus potion). Before he could even blink, a dark green vine shot out and wrapped around the notebook before yanking it into the dark void.
Startled by the sudden movement, William jumped and fell backwards into his growing pile of books. The towers of literature collapsed around him in an avalanche of knowledge.
Scrambling to sit up, William noticed a metal tray sitting in the entry of the dark square hole of the wall. He got to his feet and hesitantly inspected the tray. It was laden with colorful roots, small beakers full of various liquids, some basic alchemy equipment, and a few miscellaneous items he assumed were also ingredients. He relaxed at the apparent lack of danger.
‘Weird…’
William went back and cleared a space on his desk to start the first experiment. Carefully setting the tray on the desk, he flipped through one of the easier to understand alchemy books. He remembered a potion he’d seen that could drastically improve his learning speed, the (Focus potion).
William flipped to the right page and looked through the list of ingredients one more time.
“Stream hawk feather… Check” He lifted a shimmering blue feather from the tray and placed it back.
“Echo tree root… Check?” William stared at the 2 roots on the table and had to consult an alchemical encyclopedia to determine which was which. It appeared to be the one with a slightly green/brown color and a smooth surface.
“Ok… Delma root… Check” Through process of elimination, this had to be the remaining root. It was a yellowed stick with branching forks.
William moved to the next one in the list and had to consult the encyclopedia once again. He had no idea what a “Mana catalyst” looked like.
A moment later he mentally labeled the blue/white liquid in the smaller beaker as “Mana catalyst”. It felt strange to handle something apparently magical in nature.
Soon he had a mental map of what each ingredient was and was ready to move onto the next part.
William started the process. He ground the two roots into a powder and set them aside. Next, he dropped the Stream hawk feather into the mana catalyst. This was supposed to enhance the magical property of the Stream hawk. It had the ability to sharpen its focus to ridiculous levels. It could even fly at full speed in a rainstorm due to its ability to target the thinnest groups of raindrops.
William then added the two ground roots into the other liquid. This was just an alcohol solution used to dissolve and extract the medicinal properties. He let the roots leech into the solution for a few minutes before filtering it. He was left with a light orange solution.
The feather had entirely been dissolved into the mana catalyst. Now he only had two beakers of liquid. Next, he needed to distill the alcohol out of the solution so he would only be left with a water solution containing all the medicinal properties of both roots.
William impatiently waited for the process to finish. When it was done, he slowly added the medicinal mixture into the mana catalyst he’d transferred to a large flask. The blue and orange liquids mixed in a surprising way.
A hissing noise followed grey steam erupted from the flask as he continued adding the solution. It was shifting to a feint blue purple color as he added more. When he’d finished he had a flask containing a clear purple liquid.
“Huh, that was easier than I thought…” William distributed the potion into 6 small vials as per the instructions and let them cool on a metal rack before corking them.
6 small vials of purple liquid sat on the desk. William sat in the study chair staring at his first creation. It was as easy as following a recipe from a cook book. He didn’t understand how alchemy wasn’t common knowledge.
All of these thoughts were just Williams way of distracting himself from the main problem. He had to try one of them. He hesitantly lifted one of the purple vials and uncorked it. Bringing it to his nose, he could smell a strong earthy tone. He brought the liquid to his lips several times in an attempt to bring forth the courage to drink it.
Taking a deep breath, William downed it in a single gulp. It was a bitter and acrid taste. It was as if someone made coffee way too strong and removed all the good parts.
He grimaced and cringed. That was before the world sharpened to absolute clarity.