The Fearless War

Secrets Of Alchemy

It didn't take us long to get to the front of the shop, Uncle Miles had already started to get ready to go inside, but his face showed some uncertainty when he saw the door to the shop. I held my backpack and covered the sword I was carrying so as not to generate distress by carrying an uncovered sword. The door to the workshop looked no different from the external appearance of the building, but you could tell that at least there was constant traffic through it, as the handle was clean in comparison to the other metal. Uncle Miles was the first through the door and inside we encountered a scene I hadn't seen since I left home.

"Don't say anything Oz, it's a mess, isn't it?"

I couldn't tell if he really considered something that was the spitting image of his own workshop a disaster, but the word was an understatement. There were several tables filled with glass and metal containers that seemed to hold anything from various liquids to stones to tools that emitted a certain amount of mana. I followed Uncle Miles through the workshop, and he navigated without a problem between the tables, we reached the back and behind a bookcase full of scrolls were stairs that led to a more brightly lit area.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone Uncle Miles..."

"Nonsense, she must be around here .... aha!"

"Uncle Wait!"

Without a second thought Uncle Miles had grabbed a bottle off a shelf and tossed it into a corner on the second floor. The bottle landed on a pile of clothes soaked in the same kind of liquid that was on some bottles at the first floor and generated a thud as it hit the pile. It seemed that not only was the place a mirror of how uncle miles had his workshop, but it also belonged to someone with the same behaviors as him, such as sleeping or else giving up when his body couldn't take any more work. From under the pile of clothes emerged a woman no older than her thirties with purple, unkempt hair and eyes marked by fatigue. Her hands were covered by leather gloves so thin that she seemed to be wearing a second skin.

"Oz, meet Melinda Alke better known around these parts as the mad alchemist."

"Miles Wolfric, the last man I thought I'd see until the day I die. What can I do for you? I'm out of damascus stabilizer if that's what you're looking for."

"I can guess why, but that's not the reason Mell, so, why don't you try to see my nephew with your glasses? Don't worry, I'll wait."

From her hair the woman my uncle introduced as the mad alchemist pulled out circular glasses that when she put them on turned totally white just like Uncle Miles' eye. The moment she focused her gaze on me she stumbled out of the pile up clothes and grabbed me by my shoulders and zoomed her gaze in and out as she moved my arms and posture.

"Uncle Miles, is this like a custom among those who can see spiritual veins?"

"Nothing like that, it's just how we satiate curiosity. So, Mell, what do you think?"

When uncle called out to her, Melinda turned off the glasses and her face stopped puckering, the glasses cleared, and she began to explain.

"You're Oz, ain't you? What kind of blood or mana stones did you consume? To have your veins so shiny and open at your age, it's like you've been exploded from the inside."

"Mell, don't think everyone is crazy enough to try to drink monster blood..."

"That was just once, jeez! You try to prove a theory and then everyone calls you crazy."

Although I was curious and anxious about the story behind that exchange, knowing that someone had consumed such a thing willingly was something no one else would think of.

"The truth is I didn't consume anything on my own, less than a month ago I fought a mutant blood bear and one of its deformed fangs filled with blood from other bears pierced my shoulder."

"Just from a blood bear? They shouldn't be fit for anything but fire. That doesn't explain your perfect division of elements."

It was also something I was at a loss to explain, since my changes had begun before I fought the mutant, but I hadn't told Uncle Miles about it, rather, I didn't plan to, until I could get more knowledge of what I had as well as the fang that was buried in my palm. Something that for some reason was not attached spiritually or by mana.

"I think this may explain that part Mell."

From a pocket of his coat, uncle Miles pulled out a crooked fang that I recognized belonged to the mutant, its white color remained even though it was once stained red. Upon receiving the tusk Melinda proceeded to place it on a desk that seemed to serve as a place to receive clients and pierced it with a metal tube with a gem inscribed on the opposite end.

"Oh, did you upgrade your detector?"

"Just a little ... This is not bone! It's made of pure stone, but compressed to a very impossible level."

"The other tusks and fangs of the mutant were normal; this is the only abnormal one."

When he mentioned that, my eyes couldn't look away from the tusk, that tusk lying on the desk was the same one that had pierced me in the woods. To calm my doubts, I strengthened my sight and inside the bear's tusk there was a spiritual vein still alive, its color was the same as the one I had on my left side, but the other tusks I had seen on the trip did not have any spiritual vein.

"So not only did you absorb the blood but also bone dust or whatever this thing itself is."

"I also experienced what my uncle described as the spirit body training me, the last time I slept five days before we got here."

"And that's when your veins normalized and stopped being vestiges of a mana explosion. Am I wrong Miles?"

"No, just as you say Mell. He looked like a mana flare on the road."

Without following the conversation Melinda went into a room and after noises of things falling and then came out with several old looking books with stains and torn covers. She began to leaf through them at the same time she was writing down something on a loose paper, after a while she had several pages full of writing which she organized and put in our hands.

"If you came here, I can only understand that you need a refined mana stone to only handle wild mana and a stabilizer for that sword you carry."

"As always you understand with so little Mell, thank you. And before you say it; here are the stones I was able to get from the mutant."

"So many?!!! but how big was that thing?"

"Mell, remember that size doesn't m … Agh! ..."

Before he could finish his sentence, I pulled out my sword and with a bit of speed slammed the pommel into the back of uncle Miles' head. To my surprise, this time I was able to hit him cleanly but only succeeded in making his posture falter.

"From what I see your attitude runs in the family, Miles."

"Don't encourage him Mell."

"Well Oz, if all goes well, I'll have about two stones processed and refined in a week or two. Do you already have a place to stay?"

"No, when we arrived, we came straight here."

"In that case stay in the back, in the yard there is a small hut, it's not much but I'd prefer you to be close by so you can help me refine the stone. Read the papers I gave you, there will be one thing or another you can glean from them."

"Thank you, sure it's no bother?"

"It will be a burden to have your uncle so close but what's better than having a debt on him?"

"I'm still here, eh?"

We started down the stairs so we could move the carriage to the back of the building and untie the vocats. The lower part of the workshop served as a*****e without attendants, since according to Melinda it had a magic inscribed that prevented theft and only let people leave with something in hand if they paid for it. In my mana vision I could see several alchemy traces with magic connecting the tables to the front door and a box next to it, similar to the lamps on the road, the traces seemed to absorb mana from the environment so they could function without interruption.

"Ah, before I forget, the hut may be a little crowded with golems parts, I'd need them to be put on the third floor for the meantime."

"Since when does the crazy alchemist work with golems?"

"They're not mine, they're my niece's."

Uncle Miles stopped abruptly at that word and his eye denoted anger even though his face remained the same. I backed up a little towards the door while keeping a reinforcement on my ear. 

"What the f**k did you just say?!"

"Miles, you don't want to bully me in my house, and I see you still interrupt when people talk."

"Melinda, this is no time for jokes!"

"She's not Rue's daughter, she's the daughter of a maid who got kicked out. I can assume you know from where and why all by yourself."

"Aaah..."

"Calmer already? Your nephew doesn't know yet, does he? Oz, a word of advice young man, if you want to eavesdrop don't soak up so much mana."

"I'll tell him later... I shouldn't be so quick to expose him to that, but the longer I wait..."

"Well, I'll leave you to figure it out, my niece should be here before dark, she spends almost all her time in a bookstore every day."

Uncle Miles left before I did, and I said goodbye for the moment to Melinda before going to get the necessary things settled. All the time I helped move the carriage to the back, my uncle's mood was changing like rain until it returned to one similar to how it always was. The vocats settled in nicely next to a lone pine tree at the back of the workshop, and next to the hut Melinda had mentioned. As they entered the door put up resistance only to fall under the weight of several things.

"And I thought I had a mess eh Oz?"

"You still do uncle. We split the work?"

"It'll be the easiest thing before you to start reading those sheets, from what I could skim, the only thing you could apply is how to expel mana. We don't want you to burn anything else."

We began to remove several boxes from the hut which had been blocking the door and window. The weight did not seem to correspond to the size of the boxes and upon seeing one that was open, it was filled with various body parts from human to animal carved from what appeared to be silver or black iron. The beginnings of the carvings highlighted markings like those found inside the workshop. After finishing moving all the boxes to a room on the third floor.

The only thing that remained to be emptied was what I assumed were nothing more than the bodies of unfinished golems, there were human-like torsos to structures that seemed to represent the bodies of beasts or monsters. To move them I had to strengthen my body to speed up the process. In the end the hut was large enough for two people to inhabit. From the carriage we moved the seats to serve as temporary beds; it was already dusk when we had finished everything. We went back into the workshop and Uncle Miles helped prepare supper.

Just as the moon began to shine the door of the workshop opened as if whoever had entered did not want to be heard. By that action I instinctively strengthened my eyesight and checked for danger. What I found was a person walking up the workshop, the strange thing was not her appearance or who she was, but rather the fact that I could not see anything, her spiritual veins were colorless and almost non-existent.

"Grandma Mel, I'm home! The librarian told me you have books due back!"