The Alchemist's Apprentice

Grappling with the truth

About half an hour after that, a group of weary, battered adventurers arrived at the spring-

“… The hell?”

The normally luminescent waters that overflowed with latent power, the aura of serenity and safety- gone. It was mostly indistinguishable from any other damp corner of the deep woods. 

The group checked markers and maps, but this was the place, even if the background magic was only fractionally higher than normal. Confused, tired and annoyed, they made camp and went about their various chores while grumbling.

After a while, one of the groups magicians, a swarthy male elf, straightened up from where he’d been meditating.

“It’s not gone, but it’s rising slowly- it’s like someone scooped all the magic from the surface.”

“Go figure.” One of his companions, a feline human-variant**, with a voluminous orange tail and short hair, approached the spring and sniffed cautiously around the waters edge.

“Find something?” The group’s leader looked up from where he’d been examining the fresh dents in his armour.

**Human-variants, or sub-humans or demi-humans are referred to in the same catch all fashion as people use ‘fish’ to refer to anything with scales that lives in water despite there being about the same relation between two examples of either as a hippopotamus has in common with a rabbit. Generations ago, a textbook with an in depth and easy to understand guide on how to permanently alter humans, with examples of various traits, affinities and physical changes was circulated- and as a result, countless new sub-variants of humans were created in less than a decade. For better or for worse, the book’s first working example used animalistic features such as ears and tails to describe how to alter a subject’s appearance- and so naturally, they became overwhelmingly more common than any other type. 

“Girl. Human. Young…. Wearing some kind of perfume, certain amount of linen…” The woman smacked her lips and sniffed again, “Scents maybe an hour cold.”- she left the campsite and returned a few minutes later, tropical blue eye’s wide. 

“Whoever it is, girl can really move.”

She described the tracks she’d found leading out of the forest- and the way each imprint was spaced an incredible distance from the last.

“You want I should track her?”

The leader looked at his gauntlet and frowned.

“Think you can catch up?”

“Even odds, boss.”

“Don’t call me that when you don’t mean it. At least we’ll have made an effort. Otherwise we’ll report the thundering and the situation here to management. If we were looking for healing instead of comfort, it could’ve been lethal.”

“I’m a mite uncomfortable knowing they could’ve sucked this place dry. Lotta magic.”

“Then don’t go.”

“Just a mite. I’ll go.”

The elf snorted.

“Curiosity will get you killed.”

“But at least it’ll be an interesting way to go right? Thane, supplies~”

The last member of the group, a reptilian being known as Thane, undid a heavy satchel from the side of his pack and tossed it to her without a word- before turning back to his work, his thick muscly arm moving with care to dip a ladle into the soup pot boiling over the campfire. 

“Fel. Good luck- and if you can’t reach her in three days, start trekking to alkenhearth, we’ll finish up here and wait for you there. Use your judgement. At worst, a description will do.” The group’s de-facto leader trusted Fel’s instincts. Not because she was a variant, but because as an individual, her keen senses and unexpectedly sharp wits added together to give an almost supernatural perceptiveness. 

Besides, she was physically the strongest amongst the party, Thane included.

As such he wasn’t too worried of her falling afoul of whoever had been here ahead of them and so inconsiderately drained the area of magic. Rather as enforcers of the explorers pact, they accepted a healthy stipend in exchange for upholding a solemn oath- specifically to poke their noses into anything suspicious they encountered during their work. Although enforcers began as a means to police crimes committed in the wilderness and across international borders, they eventually got shoehorned into doing double duty as specialists alongside regular watchmen and guards. It was a win-win arrangement, the cost of the arrangement for the participating country was lower than hiring skilled personnel permanently and the guild’s enforcers got internationally recognised jurisdiction. Guild enforcers did their regular jobs, they got a healthy salary, but if they smelled a rat, they were expected to investigate and report properly.

This was a lot more trouble than most enforcers realised when they took up the badge, since prodding their noses into everything that crossed their paths often involved a lot of wild goose chases- or worse, actually uncovering something far more dangerous than they’d like. 

The worst the Foehounds party had encountered was an epidemic of vampirism- which they caught early when Fel heard a rumour from a travelling pedlar of cosmetics about a new skin-whitening fad amongst the nobility. Six weeks later and a tattoo-artist and acupuncturist were both arrested for using vampire teeth to trigger mild onsets of polymorphic haemophilia during their ‘skin whitening’ treatments. The incident affirmed to Armond, the Foehound’s leader, that in truth, greed was just as damaging as pure malice. 

Fel secured the satchel and started stretching.

“ ‘Boss’, I’ll leave you to do the report on the rips and the thunder.”

The woman left with a two fingered salute and began to follow her nose.

Slowing down had been more trouble than Lilly had guessed. Absorbing magic and channeling it into the battery had made her both hungry and tired. The moment she’d reached the edge of the forest, she had decided to chow down on first one, then both pieces of jerky- and take a rest. For a short rest it was more mana efficient to keep using the clock of concealment rather than the Key of Twilight Respite.

Sitting down at the base of a tree, she made herself comfortable on the soft, springy grass. The gentle breeze that washed over her was a reminder that this was the first time in years she had even left the castle. She blinked, once, then twice-

Alkahest was there, right in front of her-she opened her mouth to ask him to stop and wait, but she couldn’t speak. There was so much she didn’t understand, that she wanted to say. The ghost had spent such a short time with her- but…

Something was prodding her face. Blearily she pushed it away- and in an instant her brain shifted gears from ‘sleep addled’ to ‘terrified’ as she leapt up with all the grace of a startled gazelle. 

Her heart was pounding painfully fast as she furiously blinked away the sleep from her eyes and shook away the dizziness-

“Not so fast!” 

With that cheery, gleeful, shout, Lilly felt her world spin. She was swept off her feet, flipped over, dumped on the ground and sat on by her attacker, who didn’t hesitate to pin her limbs down and render her immobile.

“So sorry!” purred the attacker, in a voice that sounded nothing of the sort- “But if you started running now, I definitely wouldn’t catch up again!”

“Blergh!”

“Mhm. Don’t worry, if you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear from me!”

“Why…”

“I get to go first! Question one, why’d you scoop up all that magic up in the forest- that’s really inconsiderate y’know?”

“Breathe-“

Lilly felt her world flip again- she was on her back now in some kind of chokehold held by her assailant.

“Better?”

“N-yes, I didn’t know-“

“Really? Little dynamo like yourself didn’t know to think of others huh? Okay, Question Two, do ya know what all that thunder was over the forest today?”

Lilly opened her mouth to respond, came to a sudden realisation and changed her answer-

“No-aoow!”

“Try again~ ”

“I went too fast and it got loooud!”

“Ohhhh it was you? Neat! Let’s try another! What do you know about mysterious tears full of monsters. Anything? Yes? No?”

“I don’t- OOOw! Staaaph!” Lilly teared up as the hold tightened. 

“Lying is bad, now, little lady, try again.”

“It’s a long story! I might know what makes them! Please let me go!”

Lilly felt something sharp prick against her neck and stopped speaking.

“Last question I promise~ Lil’ lady, what are you?”

“I’m just a nor… a hum… I’m just a girl! I’m an alchemy apprentice!”

The pricking sensation disappeared. 

“Alrighty! Well not normal not human girl, I’m going to loosen my hold, you’re going to turn off your see through spell and we’re going to have a fun little chat. How’s that sound?”

“Good?”

“Good!”

In the space of a heartbeat Lilly was back on her feet and looking at her captor for the first time. 

Even without the ears or the fluffy tail, the well-proportioned lady before her bore a striking resemblance to the ginger cat that lorded over the castle kitchen and laundry. She radiated a smug confidence that made her seem twice as big as she actually was and the look she was giving Lilly was identical to a tabby gazing at something small and squeaky. 

She was dressed in a mix of leather and cloth armour, with metal capped boots and an intricate metal choker. 

As Lilly watched, the woman spun the dagger in her hand on one finger, before it turned into a point of light and vanished into the jewel set in the middle of the choker.

She leaned forward, a warm and slightly spicy scent enveloping her senses and poked at Lilly’s nose, her bright blue eyes shining with a predatory excitement.

“Still see through~”

Abashed, Lilly deactivated the Clock of invisibility. 

“Ohhhh. You’re good. I would’ve pegged you as a kid!”

“I am though!”

The lady laughed heartily.

“Who would let their kid just go wandering somewhere so dangerous! Better question, what kid has magic items and knows alchemy!”

“You believed me earlier…”

“Well. Say you’re telling the truth. Why are you out here?”

Lilly hesitated and weighed up her options-

“I have your tongue?”

“No! I mean, yes- I mean… My alchemy teacher vanished. He went to stop people using Ablation Alchemy and fix things. I don’t think he can do it on his own, and it’s super important, so I’m going to help!”

Lilly gained confidence as she spoke, finishing with a firm declaration- but when she looked up at the Lady’s face, her expression was stormy.

“I’m going to grab you again, and ask you a question. Just one. Is that okay?”

After a long minute Lilly nodded and found herself in another tight hold.

“How does your master know ablation alchemy dangerous?”

“My teacher is a ghost called Alkahest. He’s a super amazing alchemist, and he says the world is in danger!”

Lilly wasn’t flipped out of the hold this time- instead the Lady’s grip just loosened and she stared intensely at the girl, as if she were a being from another world.

“Okay. So what now?”

“What now?”

“Little lady, I want to help. How can I help?”

“You want to help?”

The lady scratched behind her ears, looking troubled.

“Well… Yes? I live in this world too. Isn’t that a good enough reason? Is that a problem?”

Lilly thought about it and shook her head.

“You thought I was dangerous, but you didn’t kill me and talked to me first, so you’re a good person right? We have to reach a place in that direction.”

“Okay. If you move like you did in the forest I won’t be able to keep up… ah, you can carry me!”

Lilly looked at her arms, and then at the Lady.

“I don’t think I can. Sorry.”

“Just a second.” The lady arched her back and shivered. In an instant her clothes fell into a pile and all that was left was a smug looking blue eyed ginger cat with an ornate collar.

The cat hopped away and dragged a lightweight bag that was lying nearby over and yowled at Lilly.

“Can’t talk like that?” 

She remembered something in that instant and focused on the cat with her glasses.

[ Name: Fel Theos

Level: 56 

Profession: Brawler

Tags: [Master of Many Styles] [Amateur Shapeshifter] [Subhuman*] [Ascendant Physique] [Crazy Lover] [Wanton] [Wanderer] [Keen senses] [God Fist]

STR: 170 (338) AGL: 280 (503) CON: 127 (400) INT: 69 MP: 320/400 HP: 550/600 (1800).

Status: Excited. Shapeshifted form (Housecat). 

Skill Assist: [No Skill-Assists Assigned, see Skill System menu, or say, Skill Help for details]

EXP assist: [Inactive. See EXP Assist menu, or say, EXP assist for details]

Possessions: Collar of Comfort and Convenience.]

There was much to remark upon, but compared to the man who had brought things to her alchemy room, this lady was definitely stronger. It wasn’t even close.

Lilly packed the clothes into the bag and looped the straps over her shoulders. She then picked up the cat in both arms and activated her artifacts.