Alchemical Magic

Chapter 5-3

After a busy week, I finally called my friend Joe and invited him over to the pub on Friday.

He was waiting for me at the usual place, alone. I got a pitcher of beer and a tankard and sat next to him. This would be a long, serious conversation.

"Hi Dana," he said. He had a tan from the month he spent on the South Coast, in his uncle's villa.

Joe was from a rich family. His family was made of industrialists who owned several factories and invested in new projects.

He'd offered me help in getting a job before, but I refused, not wanting to take the easy way. Well, desperate times.

"Hi, Joe," I said. "How was your vacation? How's your uncle?"

Joe went to his uncle's villa somewhere in the south of Kalmar right after the study year ended and stayed there for three weeks. He didn't even attend Grandpa's party, where I was introduced to society.

"Oh, you know my uncle. It was great. He took us on his yacht, we bathed in the sea… It was nice there. You should have come."

Joe invited me there, but I refused.

"I had that party with Grandpa," I said, "and I started classes in PAAM this week."

I pronounced it 'pam' like it's usually done.

"Ah, yeah," Joe said. "Your new hobby. I read about your Grandpa's party in the news, by the way. Congratulations. You're a rich heiress now."

Joe and I had disagreements about me going through Initiation (he didn't know the full story, of course), over Grandpa, and over Jack. We'd made peace since, but it was a wary peace.

But it's not like I had that many friends.

"You know as well as I do," I said, "that being an heiress to a fortune is not the same as having a fortune. I can't even touch Grandpa's money. And I don't want to beg."

Joe nodded. He also faced issues with money; his father didn't approve of him studying alchemy and cut him off. His uncle was the only one in their family who supported him, promising him a job at one of his companies.

"Yeah," he said. "By the way, how is it working with your Grandpa? Because he is your Master too, right?"

"Yes," I replied. "And he is really insistent on me studying magic. I really didn't know how intense learning magic would be. Or how involved my Masters would be in my personal life. I really thought that magical apprenticeship was but a vestige of the past and most people learn magic at school."

"How is the two Master thing working, by the way?" Joe asked. I once almost collapsed into tears in front of him when I was struggling with becoming a mage.

"They're too chummy," I complained. "They split my free time among them, not leaving me a single free moment for myself."

"So you don't see that boyfriend of yours anymore?" Joe didn't like Jack.

He was the first one to tell me about some things that Jack had been hiding from me, three years ago, and he'd been suspicious of him since we got back together. I was over the fact that Jack had been assigned by his superiors to monitor me, three years ago. I was over that now. And he promise not to do it anymore; I chose to trust him.

"He visits," I said, "but we don't go out anymore."

It seemed like Joe wanted to say something like 'and it would be better if you didn't see him at all', but he didn't. We already had a fight over Jack; it's good that he didn't want to repeat it.

"What are you doing this summer?" Joe asked.

"Well," I said, trying to get to the point I wanted to make. "I'd like to start a new project. Do some research. Maybe join an innovative company."

"And what exactly do you have in mind?" Joe asked, downing his tankard.

I poured him another one, halving the pitcher.

"Nothing," I said. "I've got tons of ideas, but I need more resources to make any of them. Does your uncle have some project he would need a good alchemist for?"

"I'll ask," Joe said. "But will you have time? With all the summer classes, and the training."

"I'll make time. I came into magic to help with the alchemy. I'm not going to let magic destroy my alchemical career," I said, repeating the official version of my Initiation.

"You said you thought the combination of alchemy and magic is a very innovative field," Joe said.

I did say that. And it was a good idea.

"Yes," I said. "Although now that I'm learning magic, I see it's more complex than that."

"I see," Joe said. "Well, I'll ask my uncle. If there's any project where he could use a young, talented alchemist who knows magic, I'll give you a call."

"Thanks, Joe," I said.