Chapter 20 - Showcase

The rays of light creeped out from behind the walls, illuminating the sky in golden splendor. It was refreshing to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise rather than the stone wall he had grown accustomed to in Tervana. Unable to sleep, Tetsuo had been waiting for the sunrise to feel justified with what he would do. He slid the Ficium sheet in his pocket and exited his room. He walked down the thin short hallway, descended down the wooden ladder leading to the first floor, and found Alon sleeping on bedsheets laid out on the floor.

His house was effectively just two rooms: a bedroom, and a living room. Alon had offered Tetsuo the bedroom, so despite the mess he left around, he chose to sleep there. Ars, in theory, should have made it easy to maintain, which he seemed to take for granted. There were no sinks since he could just pull water from the atmosphere. There was no garbage since he could just move food waste into the ground. Just tables, counters, and pans, a living situation not uncommon for most Alvanians. And yet somehow even with such little housekeeping required, the counters remained covered in greasy pans, and his clothing and equipment lay scattered haphazardly around the ground.

As much as Tetsuo would have liked to spend time cleaning, he had more pressing needs to attend to. He knelt down beside Alon, who was fast asleep. He was still wearing his leather armor from his patrols the day before. It was a miracle he could sleep with how uncomfortable it was to wear.

Gently, Tetsuo tried to shake him awake, but he shrugged him off and rolled over. He tried again, whispering “Alon, wake up.” Alon remained unresponsive. Tetsuo sighed and retrieved two of the pans that had been sitting on the counter. He stood above Alon and struck the two of them together, producing a loud clanging noise that reverberated in the air.

In one swift motion Alon rolled into a kneeling position, drew a knife from his thigh, and pointed it at Tetsuo’s chest. He hadn’t even opened his eyes fully, as when he did he stumbled backwards and breathed out and began to breathe heavily.

“Hah… Dude… Why… would you do that…” Alon slid the knife back into the sheath on his leg and sprawled out across the floor. Tetsuo still hadn’t fully processed what had just happened.

“That was… fast.”

“Well… Veera’s not the only angry father I’ve had to deal with…” Despite his jokes, Tetsuo could see that Alon was visibly shaken, his hands trembling slightly as he pressed them against the ground.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Sorry. But this is really important.” Tetsuo pulled the sheet of Ficium out and handed it to Alon. Alon sat up and received it turning it over in his hand.

“I don’t know the exact details of your deal, but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to–”

“I know, I know. But look just trust me here. I want you to take that sheet, and try to push Ars through it, kinda like what you do with your sword.”

“It’s not gonna work man. And I want to keep my house standing.”

“Just trust me. Please.”

“Can’t we at least do this outsi–”

“NO! No… definitely not. It’s too risky.”

Alon glanced at the sheet then back to Tetsuo. He sighed and stood up. “Get a pan under it then.”

Tetsuo set down one of the pans he was holding and quickly ran around the room shutting all the curtains. Once the room was nearly devoid of light he moved back to where Alon was.

“Alright, so the way I do it is I try to visualize it going thro–”

“Woah!” The sheet flickered on as Alon had already begun pushing Ars through it. “Oh sorry, it’s not very hard for us to push Ars through things. Anyways, look, it's actually working! I’m barely using any Ars at all!” The sheet glowed faintly, as Alon looked on in amazement. Tetsuo held his face in his hands, sweating.

“This is bad, this is really bad…” He looked back at Alon who was looking at the sheet with childlike wonder. “Try using the same amount you use for your sword. Make sure you’re holding it over the pan when you do.”

“Whatever you say.”

The sheet of Ficium rapidly accelerated from a small glow to a blinding light in seconds. Alon and Tetsuo were blinded as what seemed like the sun itself lit the room white. Tetsuo fell back and attempted to cover his eyes with his hand, as Alon dropped the sheet to protect his vision as well. The sheet rang out against the metal pan and slowly began to fade back to it’s metal colors. Carefully, Tetsuo began to open his eyes and the room was dark again. He could see the sheet inside the pan, it’s edges coated in grease. Tetsuo opened the blinds behind him letting the morning sun re-enter the room, and walked over to examine the sheet. The writing on it seemed intact and fine. Tetsuo gave the surface a quick tap with his finger.

Warm, but not hot.

He picked it up and wiped the edges off with his shirt. He pinched the sheet, using his Ars to re-illuminate the sheet. Despite using as much as he could, he couldn’t get it anywhere near the blinding light Alon had it at. Even so, it remained intact, despite everything he had been taught.

“Tetsuo. Did you discover how to make Ficium work for everybody? Not just Earthens?”

“No…”

“This is incredible. I mean it’s less useful for us because we can just use Ars. But who knows! We’d have to completely rethink where we can use it. It’d be a renaissance. We could figure out something better for Lunette’s condition! I mean not that I care…”

“Alon.” Tetsuo interrupted his celebration. “This isn’t what you think it is. I made a mistake and found something I shouldn’t have. This wasn’t a discovery, this is something Eleanor’s ancestors knew and tried to hide. Maybe her too.”

Alon paused his rambling. “There’s no way. I’ve known Eleanor since we were kids. She’s crazy, sure, but kind. She’s the reason we even have Ficium stuff for you to use. If she knew, we’d know.”

While Tetsuo believed Alon was being genuine, that night at Remes made him doubt his words. Regardless, his experiment ‘worked’ and now he faced a new problem.

“I shouldn’t have this. You got any ideas on how to get rid of it?”

“Just give it to me, I’ll get it back in the workshop without anyone noticing.”

Tetsuo passed the sheet to Alon. Alon pulled but Tetsuo didn’t let go.

“You can’t tell anyone about this. No one is supposed to know, nobody can know. Not Eleanor, not anybody.”

“Knights honor.”

Tetsuo let go and let Alon take the sheet. He slid the sheet inside his shirt and began to smile.

“Big changes dude! This changes everything.”

“That’s what I’m scared of.”