Alchimia Rex

It was odd to find a metal screw in the middle of the cobblestone plaza.

The tiny metal item just lay there, innocuous, almost invisible. To the Rick of half a year ago, the object would’ve been ignored, just a bit of trash. Yet he recognized it for the oddity that it was. Wood and stone dominated construction, metal could be found, but rarely due to how expensive it was to make it. The glint caught Rick’s attention like a magnet, drawing him to pick it up and look around for the likely source.

There were tiny shards of glass around the area. Looking up, he found the shattered windows of the second uppermost floors in the ivory fortress.

“Ah.”

With the tiny mystery solved, he pocketed the screw, and approached the white tower, Kiara quietly following behind, her eyes never leaving the back of his head.

The first thing that caught his attention was the blood. There was a dried pool of it next to the entrance, with a trail leading inside to mark the gruesome fight. Why had no one cleaned the blood? There were maidens that could summon water among the tribe, it shouldn’t have been much of a hassle.

But maybe that had been the point.

Its presence marked the end of the Lord and those that supported him.

Rick followed it inside, finding the little spots here and there were splatters would paint the walls. He hadn’t had time to take the place the day before, but it was hard to miss the cracked stone and drag marks that were all over. Continuing his way up, he found broken doors, unhinged ones, and rooms that had been thrashed beyond recognition.

He stopped after the second set of stairs, looking at the wall where four deep lines were gouged into the stone wall. The lines trailed up, arching like a rainbow, and then moving down, ending right above a pool of blood. Rick thumbed the claw-mark, each deep enough to fit his thumb.

Monica.

Had this been before or after the roar? “It was a clean kill.” He muttered.

“How are you sure?” Kiara asked, curious.

There wasn’t any way he could word it, it was a feeling. Rick mimicked the gesture, tracing the mark, and stopping in the pool of blood. It took him a moment to recognize that the only disruption to the stain was when the corpse had been dragged off. It finally clicked. “They didn’t move after they fell.”

The Succubus let out a noncommittal sound, and they continued up the stairs to the workshop.

The room appeared exactly like someone had fought a massive battle within it. Glass, wood, and metal was strewn all over the place, with more blood splattered all over. Rick frowned a little. “Did any of the Mousegirls die?”

“No.” Kiara confirmed. “Mice are good at hiding when there’s danger afoot.”

He wanted to say something about that, but just shrugged off the comment, feeling a breeze and finding himself no longer detecting blood or mold, but the salty sea and beached algae.

Looking at the room, Rick expected to feel… something.

He’d nearly died here less than a day ago. All his brain could supply him with was annoyance. The grand mess had ruined a workshop, and it would need to be cleaned up eventually. His eyes gravitated to the window he’d jumped through. Shattered like all the others.

“I doubt whoever saved you yesterday will do it again if you jump now.” Kiara whispered into his ear, making him squirm and step away from the window.

“Well, that would make her a spoilsport.”

Her brown eyes turned gold as she grinned. Ignoring her for a moment, Rick made his way around the room, trying to identify the purpose the workshop had. Some pieces had the telltale curvature of a lightbulb. He met her gaze again.

“Why are you watching me so closely?”

“Someone needs to keep an eye out for your emotions, make sure you stay healthy up here.” She poked the center of his chest. “It wouldn’t do to have a Lord that seeks tits and drink to drown their woes.”

“Coming from you, that sounds like a threat.” He scoffed at the Succubus. “Are you going to preach abstinence next?”

She rolled her eyes. “The mice and the leech are here.” She pointed at the door with her thumb.

Not ten seconds later, Eva stepped through the door, walking briskly up to him and looking him over once as if to confirm he was in one piece, then bowed with the stiffness of a soldier saluting their commanding officer. “You called for me, my Lord?”

The Succubus’ snicker left Rick groaning. “Keep the title in your pants. There’s no sense wasting time on it.”

The Fledgling sputtered, her face aimed at the floor. Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a chorus that erupted from the workshop’s entrance. “My Lord!” Cried out the Mousegirls, hurrying to step through and bowing low to the point their floppy ears nearly touched the floor.

It was becoming increasingly obvious this title was going to get old and fast. “Raise your heads, all of you.” He took a moment, breathed in, and out. “Now, this workshop, what were you doing in it?”

One of the Mousegirls stepped forward. While the Mousegirls had gunmetal blue hair, this one had a distinct metallic gray. “We made lightbulbs, my Lord.” She declared with a voice that was just an octave away from squeaking.

Rick looked down at the debris, then up at her. “Could you walk me through the process?” He pointed at the ruined space. “Imagine everything was working order. The spot I’m standing on, what would you do here?”

She hesitated, glancing left, then right, and back at him. “That… would be where we’d draw the filaments, my Lord. It is the part that glows.”

He nodded. “That’s where you burn some fibers and pass them through a small hole, right? You’d then add graphite and clay?”

The maiden hesitated. “No, my Lord, the bulbs use a very thin murisium coating.”

Murisium? That was the special metal used for the knight’s armor. “Where do you get it?”

The maiden hesitated a little. “I… do, my Lord. I am a Metalmouse.”

Rick was just about to ask her for a demonstration, when he remembered the Polita and their… method, for making the concoctions. He looked her over for a moment and chose against it. Maybe some other time. “Where would you remove the air from the bulb? Or would you fill it with something other than air?”

Eva gave him a funny look, one mimicked by the confused expressions from the maidens. “Remove… the air? My Lord?”

“It slows down the reaction process by making it harder to burn, prolongs its lifespan… how long do the lightbulbs last before needing replacement?”

“A month, my Lord.”

That was far more than he expected. Without a vacuum, an incandescent bulb would typically last minutes, not days. He rubbed his chin in thought. “What was the shop’s output? How many bulbs would you make in a week?”

“Usually five, my Lord. The components are very brittle and break more often than not.”

Rick nodded again, walking over the room as he kept his eyes on the ground, looking over the debris. “And the glass?”

“We would call for the blower once a month, my Lord, though… not after the ferals.”

“Is she alive?” Kiara asked.

“Yes, my Lady, it’s just that her owner closed his doors and refused further work.” The Metalmouse quickly declared.

Another nod, and a pause when he reached a pile of broken furniture that seemed conspicuously bunched up compared to everything else in the room, there were oil stains on the floor, and pieces of ceramic. “And what did you do in this area?”

“That… was where we-.”

“There is a truth spell in place.” Rick bluffed, his smile thinning.

The maiden swallowed audibly. “The capacitors, my Lord.”

“Ah.” Another interesting little tidbit. “I guess ceramic would work for that too. You’ll have to excuse me, my specialty is in chemistry. But I know a thing or two about engineering.” He glanced at the pile for a second. “What is the purpose of the fortress?”

“My Lord?”

“You generate electricity here.” He said, pointing at the shattered incandescent lightbulbs above. “Is it consumed anywhere else?”

The Mousegirl bowed quickly, staring at the floor hard. “We worked following the designs, my Lord, not told what for.”

The deflection didn’t go unnoticed, but Rick let it slide for now. “Eva?”

“I’m only familiar with a handful of ways they could generate this.” She shrugged. “I would need to look at the generator.”

“Shall we?” Kiara offered, latching herself to Rick’s arm and leading the way to the spiral stairs.

There was no blood to mark the way up, yet it felt as if the air was becoming considerably heavier the closer they got. The metal door at the top was also far heavier than any of the door until now. Kiara even pretended to struggle to open it, shooting a mock glare at Rick when he refused to “lend a hand” much to the confusion of the mice.

Stepping through the threshold of the door sent a shiver down his spine.

The room was a labyrinth of metal and gears; the walls adorned with intricate carvings that pulsed with a thundering energy that tingled against Rick’s skin. The ceiling was a vault of copper and brass, the spokes of several room-wide sized gears visible.

The scent of ozone was thick despite the breeze blowing from one of the large open windows.

The floor was a mosaic of iron and steel plates, worn smooth from use. Arcs of electricity danced across the surfaces, crackling and snapping like the sparks of a blacksmith’s forge. In the center of the room stood a monstrosity of a machine, a hulking beast of cogs and levers, its surface alive with two glowing stones.

There was a slot for a third one, empty.

It was a laboratory straight out of a madman’s imagination, fit for being used in a movie-set where the scientist would run its experiments.

Rick whistled appreciatively, carefully following the crackling sounds. There were multiple machines at the sides of the room, giant hamster wheels devoid of their respective hamsters yet still spinning at a leisurely pace.

And it all converged at the center, on the terminal holding the stones.

“This…” Eva spoke with wide eyes, mouth wide. She looked like a child who’d just entered a candy-store and was standing in awe of the marvels just within reach.

But it was Kiara’s reaction that caught Rick’s attention. The maiden had stiffened, her eyes turning into a hard glare as she took a cautious step away from the machine. Something within the bond seethed at the room like an angry snake, ready to lash out in self-defense.

It didn’t go unnoticed that the Mousegirls nervously huddled together and trying to keep their distance from everything.

“Any guesses, ladies?”

“The elemental stones were overcharged recently, and part of the mechanism discharges them safely rather than have the excess explode out.” The Fledgling quickly declared. “This gathered energy and condense it, but for what purpose…”

“There are some maidens that to get to the ultimate step of their genus, they need to gain a great deal of power, far above what they’d normally be able to wield.” Kiara whispered darkly, hands clenching tightly. “Usually, one can only do so through extraordinary events, needing a great deal of training and experience, others attempt to cheat it. No matter how painful.”

It was only when she said this that Rick noticed a feature of the machine that he’d overlooked. A circle right in front of it, cleared of any clutter or objects. And in it, there were foot-thick monstrous manacles.

“The missing rock?” He asked, frowning.

“Most likely what the Lord used in the plaza.” Eva quickly declared. “Breaking any of these would unleash everything it stored in one go.”

Another slow nod, he turned to the mice, to the gray-haired one. “What do you think of this place?”

She shivered, lowering her gaze to the floor. “It is evil, my Lord.” Her proclamation made the others nod quickly.

Rick considered it for a moment, his hand brushed against the bump in his pocket, and he remembered the screw. With an amused sound, he pulled it out to show it to the Metalmouse. “Do you recognize it?”

Her eyes widened, and slowly, she nodded.

“You saved my life yesterday. Would you trade that favor for the destruction of this room?”

“RICK!” Eva said. “You-”

“Yes.” The Mousegirl declared, resolute.

He handed her the little metal trinket. “Then it’s decided.” He turned to Eva. “I want you to dismantle this room as safely as possible. Determine what can be melted down for reuse, and how much help you’ll need.”

“This is insanity,” she said. “This room is a marvel of engineering, and fully usable! We just-”

“You just need to find a maiden to strap there and put through the process.” Rick stepped closer, looking down at her, all color drained from her face, which to her already pale complexion made her look like she was about to become transparent. “What if the one meant to be strapped down was you?”

It was only then that horror dawned upon her, the understanding. The maiden looked around at the room with an expression full of conflicting emotions. “I… it will be done, my Lord.”

With a nod, he pointed at the two stones. “And make sure those get put somewhere safe.”

“What about the… one meant to get strapped down?” Kiara’s question was blurted out, she looked surprised by the act, as if her own lips had betrayed her. The maiden appeared entirely ignorant of her own clenched fists.

“What about her?” Rick shrugged. “For all we know, it was one of the knights and she’s dead now. It doesn’t matter either way.”

The relief was physical, Kiara nodded, unclenching her hands and turning on the spot to leave.

“Eva, you’re in charge of… What’s your name?” He glanced at the Mousegirls.

“Rafaella, my Lord.”

“You’re in charge of Rafaella and her crew. If you need help, ask for it. Look for anyone with metal-working experience since we’re going to reuse the metal for… I guess farming tools and weapons.”

The proclamation made her choke on a sob, looking at the room with the expression of someone who’d been asked to kill a puppy.

“And I want a report of anything you think might be worth saving out of this… this.” A pause, he pondered for a moment. “Oh, and safety is the first rule. I won’t be happy with any preventable injuries.” His smile was all teeth and no warmth. “Are we clear?”

Eva stiffened, putting her hand against her shoulder in the kingdom’s standard salute. She was all stiffness and discipline, shoving her emotions to the side with practiced ease. The gesture was instantly mimicked by every Mousegirl present.

“Good.”

He followed down the stairs, trailing after the Succubus, and finding her back at the workshop. The maiden was near one window, breathing heavily, staring at the blue sky above. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, and just breathed, mind clearly somewhere else entirely.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“What?”

“Anything,” she said. “Anything at all. Something I don’t know.”

Rick pondered, looking up. “The sky is an illusion, and it’s possible to reach the moon.”

She closed her eyes. “An illusion?”

“A trick of the light so to speak. Like a rainbow, the reason you can’t find the foot of one is because it’s a trick of the light. The sky is the same.” He nodded up, pointing at the clouds above. “Some of the sunlight hits the air, and it scatters, turning blue. If you could go up and up and up, eventually the blue would vanish. And it would be no different from night time. Just with the sun hanging above.”

Kiara took a second, closing her eyes. “I knew of the day turning into night. Not it being because of the air. So if you rise high enough…”

“You would suffocate.” He chuckled. “That’s why to get to the moon you need special suits that let you breathe. They’re these big ugly white sacks that keep the air trapped inside.”

“Like the ones some humans use to dive underwater.” She nodded a bit more empathically, her shoulders eased. “Yes, that… helped.” There was a slow sigh, and a rustling under her dress that could’ve only been made by her wings and tail. “Better.”

“Bad memory?”

Kiara shrugged, looking away. “A drop in the sea.”

“Well, now it’s your turn.” He replied.

“My turn?”

“To tell me something I don’t know. And it needs to be as impressive as the one I gave you.”

“You want to be impressed…” She looked out the window, slowly, turned down at the shadows the sun cast within the room, and used those to orient herself, pointing out in a somewhat eastward direction. “If you could fly, and you headed in that exact direction, you would reach the Golden Sands.”

“I knew that much.” He rolled his eyes. “Yasir comes from there, won’t shut up about it sometimes.”

“And if you do not sway, if you do not change course, and you follow exactly this direction, you will reach the ruins of the City of Glass. It is the only place in the world that has constructions from the age before the maidens. All else has been destroyed, replaced, or built upon.”

“How are you sure?”

Her eyes twinkled, and in that moment he saw it, her, Kiara, for who she was.

What she was.

Not a Succubus, or a maiden, but an ancient being. A creature hundreds of years old that had traveled the land. That had scoured every corner and searched under every rock. A woman that had been gathering inertia for decades, hunting for something.

Suddenly, he felt like the question he should’ve been asking was not of her certainty, but of her cause.

“A jewel for a crown.”

He frowned as that ancient gleam in her eyes became sharp, hungry, predatory, just as dangerous and cunning as Monica’s. But one that came with ageless experience, knowledge, eyes that had seen a great deal of things, both wonderful and terrible.

Her lips curled into a smile of perfect pearly teeth, full red lips, and one full of pride, it was almost warm.

Almost.

Then, she caught the look on his face. “Do not give me that look.” She scoffed. “Even if it turns out you might fall short of my goal, my next best hope would be whatever offspring you sire.”

“That is very creepy.” He crossed his arms, shaking his head. “I’d suspected you were a cradle robber, but not by this much.”

This time she shot him a hard look. “Be grateful I haven’t put you to work as a breeding stallion.”

“Too jealous?”

Kiara’s hand snapped out, snatching his shirt and pulling him close until they were face to face, noses barely touching. “Jealous of what? A mortal barely-HEY!”

Rick had licked her face, getting shoved away as the Succubus palmed at her own face. Now glaring as he broke into laughter. “Serves you right.” He stuck his tongue out. “I have one more question, if you’ll humor it.”

There was a gentle shrug.

“When the feral Angels showed up, you ran to get help. I thought it was because-.”

Kiara just sighed. “There are maidens that possess the power to twist the energy of others. And there are maidens with the power to untwist, to bolster and purify.”

Rick frowned, nodding. “Maybe I should find such a maiden to help Dia.”

“Know that if you ever do, I will kill them.” She spoke the words with the casualness one would comment on the weather, turning to leave. “Now come on, my Lord, we need good old Sir Whitneye to work out this whole militia and guard thing.”