A good teacher
1715 Words
The girl stared at the spectre in front of her and then asked, in a chilly tone, “How much?”.
“Everything-“
“Refused!” Her crushing declaration was as resolute as a hero rejecting the demon lords offer of half the world.
“Why?!”
“I’m not going to sell my soul! Also, I need money to live. And my body is-”
The alchemist felt the headache deepen a little. He wasn’t a restless undead, but why did he keep sighing?
“You misunderstand me. I require no fee.”
“You can’t be a very good alchemist then-“
“Little Lady, I am the BEST alchemist!”
“I don’t think the ‘best’ would work for free though?”
The alchemist slapped his forehead- or tried to as his palm went straight through.
“The ‘Fee’ if you could call it that, was paid for you, in full, before you were born. If you truly do not wish for my guidance, then complain to your father.”
The girl dropped the stick, shocked.
“Y- You know my dad?”
“Ruel Grayson, is he not?” the Alchemist regained some of his original poise, only to lose it with her next words.
“I think you got the wrong cauldron? I’m a Fenn. Lilly Fenn.”
“… Impossible, the contract said I would tutor his…”
The alchemist cast back his mind to that fateful day. Ruel, the red haired giant of a man he was, had brought him a sack of crystals, chipped from the edges of a ruined portal, in some ancient monster filled hellhole.
“Well, Alkahest, Is this enough?”
“It’s sufficient, Ruel. What do you wish this time? A new sword? A potion of giants strength- though I suppose I’d need a barrel for it to have any effect on you now.”
“Actually, it’s a bit different.” The hero scratched his stubble and let out a proud but sheepish grin,
“I’m going to have a kid.”
“I see. I’m afraid I haven’t synthesised a living being yet-“
“Oi! You know what I mean.”
“How could I not? Every time you mention either of your wives you have the most incomprehensibly stupefied expression- yes, there! Stop with that disgustingly insipid smile in my presence! If you start raving on about their virtues, this conversation is over!”
Ruel hesitated, seemingly considering whether to try and do exactly that, but, he seemed to regain his reason.
“Well. Anyway. If it’s a daughter, I want you to teach them alchemy. Your alchemy.”
“No. I am a busy man. Not a babysitter.”
“I don’t expect you to train her from birth blockhead, it’s just that, well….” The hero sighed and looked around the workshop. Alkahest’s material receiving room was relatively stark, but within moments of Ruel looking, a chair had pushed open the door and galloped into the room. Ruel sat in the chair, and closed his eyes when it began to vibrate and massage his shoulders with a purring noise.
Alkahest tapped his foot, disrupting the calming mood- and sending a shiver through the seat.
“… Frankly Alkahest, my job, our job is dangerous. If something should happen… They won’t go hungry as an alchemist and, you’re the only one I know who I could safely entrust with my daughter.”
“How can you think that- Beyond kings, lords and adventurers of all stripes, why am I the trustworthy one?!”
Ruel gave alkahest his most sincere look yet.
“Because you have no interest in women!”
“What.” Liquid nitrogen could’ve been warmer.
“Alkahest, my daughters will take after their mothers and be earth-shattering beauties. If I was to entrust their care to anyone else, I’m certain they’d fall for them- or their sons would- It makes me furious thinking about it!”
“They aren’t even born yet-“
“But they will be, and so I want you to promise me, should one of my precious girls want to learn alchemy, you have to tutor them!”
Alkahest looked at the sack on the floor.
“That’s not enough. We will sign a soul contract. A year’s worth of your time dedicated to collecting materials for me, at 50%.... no, 25% of the normal price. In exchange, if, and only if, this fantasy of yours should come about, I will. Teach.”
“Uh. Are you going now?”
“What?” Alkahest snapped back to the present.
“You went quiet.”
“Oh. Ahm. Well. I signed a contract with a man. A hero. It was a special one, capable of enforcing a bargain. Apparently, that includes beyond my death.” Alkahest tried to remember the exact words of the contract they’d eventually signed. Was it possible that by some loophole, rather than daughter, he’d been called to teach a more distant descendant?
“You should read those things more carefully.”
“He was such a simple minded man I couldn’t imagine him hoodwinking me.”
“So what now?”
“I am bound to at least put my best effort into properly training someone into an alchemist. I do not particularly care of your link to that man.”
“Cold.”
“So I’m told. Do you want me to teach you?”
The girl laid the stick aside and thought on the matter.
“You can’t hurt me, right?”
“No.”
“You won’t possess me and make my head spin around and spit goo at people?”
“No.”
“You really just want to teach me alchemy.”
“Want does not come into it, but if you desire it, I will.”
She seemed to make up her mind.
“Alright then, teacher. I’ll be in your care.”
A certain tension seemed to die down with those words. Alkahest felt the bounds of the contract make their presence known, before fading away to the corners of his mind.
Where to start, he wondered, surveying the room and his new student.
“Girl-“
“It’s Lilly.”
“Lilly then. Where are we?” The room they were in was a classic rounded tower view alchemy lab.
In urban areas, alchemists valued high rooms with big windows. Both because they looked nice and because of the practical advantages of being able to clear smoke, or eject an unfortunate experiment from the room before it exploded. Alkahest sneered at such amateurs.
There were volumes on alchemy stacked up above dozens of jars of ingredients, dried, pickled and preserved, waiting for their chance to enter the cauldron. Mysterious bottles, hanging lamps and of course, his new apprentice…. No. Disciple. She had the fiery hair of Ruel, but, unlike his untamed mane, it was straight, neat and ended a few inches below her ears.
She was pale and had sharp green eyes, but, the thing he was most curious about at the moment was-
“Where are we and what is with that robe?”
“Aa… It was in the closet in the room below. I thought wearing it would improve my chances of succeeding. We’re in the castle.”
“Are you a princess?”
“Nnno? The maids usually take care of me, but they’ve been acting weird lately. I thought about it and decided I should learn to be a more useful, responsible adult!”
“What adult?”
“That’s rude! You’re rude!”
“Age is immaterial. I will turn you into a fine alchemist regardless. Though the owner of the tower might trouble us, so naturally we will relocate.”
Lilly puffed up her chest, such as it was.
“There isn’t one. It’s been ages since the king’s had an alchemist, but there aren’t any- that’s why I decided that I’d be the alchemist!”
Apparently, the king had put out an advertisement. Fully stocked lab. Privileged castle position, good view, high ceilings-
“Is he a landlord leasing a room!?”
“It sounds good though? Especially all meals included.”
With theatrical timing, her stomach growled.
“Perhaps you should send someone to fetch you food from the kitchens before we continue.”
Lilly hesitated.
“I don’t really want anyone to know I was up here… and the maids are being weird.”
“Weird?”
“They keep saying I need to go to the prince’s room to eat, because he wants to see me…. But-“
Alkahest was, even if he said it himself, a very intelligent ma- ghost. Thus before she’d finished explaining even the first oddities she’d observed, he’d come to the conclusion that the prince, who was apparently a few years older than Lilly, had taken a fancy to her. This thought made his blood, or ectoplasm, run cold…. Colder.
That damnable doting father, amongst those clauses, was there one like that? He couldn’t be sure, but, he felt the bounds of the soul contract around him like an assassin’s garrotte. It seemed that despite no longer having a body, he was going to have to be both guide and guard for this girl.
“Lilly. We may not have a great deal of time. Since the alchemy I will teach you is naturally, incredible, we shall go to a more suitable location to practice it. But first, might you show me the book you were working from?”
- Writer
