Alchemist

I raced through the castle passageways toward my lab, the Grand Hunter in hot pursuit. I knew these halls better than he did and thanks to the potion I was faster, but I was still unused to my enhanced body—I kept running into walls. Plus, the blood streaming from all over my body was distracting. It all balanced out to keep him a few paces behind me the whole time but slowly catching up.

I burst through the open door of my lab just as he turned the corner. I grabbed the little project I had gotten from the blacksmith and hastily poured powder I had made into the front of its hollow tube. Just then, he entered the doorway, slowly advancing with swords outstretched warily.

“An alchemist’s laboratory,” he offered in his usual flat hoarse voice. “The seat of the corruption that poisons the man and the world around him.”

I think a hero of a fantasy story would say something witty here, but I really wasn’t in the mood.

He took another step in as I shoved a small metal ball into the device above the powder. “Show me the fruits of your twisted labor,” he intoned. “Strength? Growth in size? A voice that strikes unnatural fear? Perhaps even a suspension of time? I have fought alchemists who used all these arts and more. They are all dead.” He nodded. “Know this, cancerous blight upon humanity’s land. No alchemy known in this world can defeat me.” He raised his swords and charged.

“This isn’t alchemy, and it’s not from this world.” I pulled the trigger on the crude rifle I held. The lever struck a spark into the black powder with a loud bang, propelling the bullet directly into the Grand Hunter’s chest. It punched through the light armor he wore like it was nothing, penetrating deep into his body.

I half-expectantly waited for him to make some grand dramatic pronouncement just before dying, but he unceremoniously fell over, blood trickling from his new bullet wound.

I forced myself to breathe. I had just killed a man. Sure, he was one of the evilest people I’d ever met, and he wanted to kill me, but I had just killed him.

No. I couldn’t think of that right now. Arnya. Arnya needed help. I needed to go back outside. But if I was to do that, I’d have to stop my bleeding. My head was starting to swim from blood loss.

It was harder than it should have been, both because the high-pressure blood and because I kept snapping the bandages with my super strength. When I finally finished, I jogged back outside to see the fight was going worse for us. There was just one clump of guards left, led by Gwyn, fighting against the black-cloaked Hunters. I wanted to step in, but I could tell from the speed I ran that I was losing strength. I guessed I could only take one more significant action before losing the benefits of the strength potion and/or passing out.

There was one bright side: the sorcerer wasn’t raining fireballs on us anymore. I looked up about 30 feet to see the white-clad sorcerer get her mask sliced off by Arnya. The two sorcerers stared at one another for a moment as Arnya said something.

***

“Hello, my granddaughter,” Queen Elloanwhae said in her musical voice. “I wish it had not come to this.”

“Wha…why…how…why are you here, grandmother?” Arnya stammered.

“Is it not obvious? I could not bear the thought of my family suffering any longer in the human realms. Come, granddaughter, let us return to the elven lands, where all sorcerers belong. If you remain too long here, the presence of such a powerful sorcerer shall disturb the balance of power among the human kingdoms.”

“But why come here in violence and in the company of such villains?” Arnya said, bewildered.

She sadly smiled and said “I was told that the castle was under the dominion of the wicked Court Alchemist who had ensnared the king and coerced you to serve him. So, if he were slain, you would be free to rejoin your family.”

This was such lunacy that Arnya could not speak for a moment. “And who told you this utter fabrication?” she asked at last.

“The Grand Hunter of the Witch Hunters, a most honorable man, and his associate the Lord Farsight, a good and true nobleman.”

Arnya just shook her head in disbelief. “It seems you are a terrible judge of character.” But she straightened, letting all her ice dissolve except the platform she stood on. “You are mistaken, grandmother. I stay here because I love this kingdom, it’s people…and one man in particular.” She took a deep breath. “You say a strong sorcerer ought not exist here? Very well.” She could feel that the wellspring of power within herself was diminished to near nothing, and she knew that should it ever disappear fully, it would never return. She put out one hand and concentrated.

“What are you doing?” Elloanwhae gasped, evidently sensing her intention. “You shall lose all sorcery should you expend so much at once in an untrained state!”

With a smile, Arnya waved her hand, and white light filled the air.

***

Only Gwyn and two guards could still fight. I was prepared to spring from the door to make my final stand with them when a blinding white light filled the castle grounds. Accompanying it was a blast of cold so intense I thought I would freeze solid, but a moment later the sensation vanished completely.

All around the yard, where once Witch Hunters had stood, now were pillars of ice. No—in the firelight of a few remaining torches, it was clear that the Hunters were inside the pillars. Every single one in the yard had been encased, and yet not even one on our side was affected.

The guards who could still speak, after a moment of surprise, broke into sounds of celebration, but my eyes scanned the sky for the source. I saw her at once, but instead of standing on a platform of ice, Arnya was beginning to fall. Even from here, I could tell her eyes were closed.

No! Squeezing every drop of speed I could from my bleeding legs, I sprinted toward where she would land. I wasn’t going to make it; she would hit the ground! Summoning my last bit of power, I leapt into the sky as I had seen her do earlier. “ARNYA!” I screamed as I made a perfect arc in the air. At the crest of that arc, I intercepted her descent. She fell into my arms and my momentum carried us both forward.

I had calculated it perfectly; we landed atop the castle wall, my knees buckling from the impact but the last remnants of the potion giving me the strength to remain standing.

Arnya lay in my arms, eyes closed. “Hey, Arnya, wake up!” I said, desperate. “Please, I-I don’t know what I’d do without you, please just open your eyes.”

As if by magic, her eyes slowly opened. “Ah,” she said, her voice strong. “My hero has saved me at last.”

Relief turned my knees to jelly, and I now became aware how heavy a person was. Still, I stayed standing, leaning against the parapet to avoid collapsing. With a voice weak from relief, I asked “what did you do?”

“I ensured we could stay together forever.”

That simple phrase hung in the air, half of a promise. Did she…

I noticed the look in her eyes. In a word, I’d call it affectionate. Deeply affectionate. Suddenly, I knew the feelings that had grown in me over all this time weren’t one-sided.

Maybe in a different life, I would have hemmed and hawed and let the moment pass. Heck, maybe that was the smarter move; maybe my exhaustion was clouding my judgement.

Forget all that. I hadn’t come this far and survived this much to chicken out now.

Screwing up my courage, I cleared my throat. “Um.” Oh, great start, I mentally berated myself. “I know this is a little awkward, since I was the one who suggested we end our engagement, but well, um…”

“End what engagement?” She said, with a touch of playfulness and a whole lot of tenderness. “I was once engaged to a Court Alchemist, but I do not believe Princess Arnya and Rei the traveler of worlds have ever made such a promise.”

“Will you marry me?” I blurted out the words, but as soon as they emerged, I realized that I meant them from the bottom of my heart.

Without hesitation, she said “yes.”

“Wow! Um, thank you! Um, I mean, I love you, oh, I guess I should have said that first, uh,”

“Shh,” she said. She leaned up in my arms and pressed her lips to mine for a perfect moment that felt like it lasted forever.

My legs chose that moment to finally give out and we collapsed into a pile atop the castle wall. After an incredibly awkward moment, we both started laughing as we disentangled ourselves.

It was only now that I took in the surroundings. The sorcerer was hovering a few feet behind us and had clearly heard everything. From below, I heard hearty clapping as Gwyn pounded his hands together in apparent sincerity, joined by the guards who were still conscious and—was that Carina, Gaz, and Kyn? When had they even gotten here?

The first rays of dawn showed I was covered in blood, there were fires all over, and let’s not forget the potentially horrifying human popsicles. I said “should we…start cleaning up?”

“In due time,” she said, leaning her head against my shoulder. “The sun will rise momentarily. For now, I should like to watch it with you, if you are willing.” That sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world right now. So together, we watched the sun rise on a new day.