Epilogue

Of course, the story of the Princess and the Alchemist didn’t end there.

Almost as soon as the battle ended, Farsight’s forces made a show of trying to occupy the castle, allegedly for the “safety” of everyone inside. Later, Arnya speculated, and Gwyn agreed this must have been part of Farsight’s master plan: use the Witch Hunters to assassinate me, Arnya, and probably the king, then step in to take control in the name of trying to save everyone. But the ordinary soldiers had seen the battle in the sky between two sorcerers and weren’t keen on trying to fight that, so when an actual elf told them to leave, they didn’t resist much.

Lord Farsight himself was a bigger concern, but considering the influence of an elf, he couldn’t do anything besides bluster for almost a whole day before sulkily leaving.

As soon as she got the chance, Elloanwhae insisted on visiting the king. When she saw him in a coma and heard it was my fault (I took the blame since I felt bad for Kyn), I thought she was going to incinerate me, but a few calming words from her granddaughter cooled her off. She did insist on taking his body away to the elven realms for treatment. We knew the king’s continued absence would create a very awkward political situation, but again, nobody wanted to cross the woman who could single-handedly level the castle. When we all consented, she took the king in her arms and flew off like a superhero.

At the next meeting of the Council of Lords, which was called far earlier than normal thanks to the unusual circumstances, Farsight raised a fuss about the whole situation, claiming that we had done away with the king and tried to have him killed under the cover of a fake attack. Things might have turned out badly for us had not Elloanwhae flown in (actually, she blasted a hole in the roof and flew in that way) carrying the king, sickly but alive. He claimed that he grew ill when an assassin poisoned him, and it was only the treatments of the Court Alchemist that kept him alive at all until his queen healed him. I didn’t feel too good about the outright lie, but I was grateful he was willing to cover for me. In his speech, he also heavily insinuated that Farsight was behind both the poisoning and the attack on the castle. Of course, Farsight adamantly denied the claims, and had more supporters than the king, but the influence of an elf was hard to deny. The political battle ended indecisively, but in the end, Farsight’s power in the Council was greatly diminished.

The Witch Hunters still existed, but with their Grand Hunter in this country dead, they lost a lot of power and influence, and more importantly, didn’t seem to have the stomach to try another assassination on myself or Kyn. Still, the prejudice against Alchemists throughout the country was far from eliminated.

But with everything settling down after a number of days, Carina, Kyn, and I were able to focus on putting the final touches on the transference alchemy. Or, at least, the former two were focused. I was very distracted by spending time with Arnya, and if I had thought she was wonderful before, my feelings were only increasing the more I was with her. Thankfully, the other two picked up my slack didn’t give me too much of a hard time about it. Kyn still didn’t respect me for impersonating his master, and I think Arnya and I reminded Carina of her early days with Gwyn.

Still, despite my lack of effort, finally we finished the project. We double, triple, and quadruple checked everything as best we could against the theory of dimensional transfer I recalled from my world and the formulas Kyn recalled the other Rei had used, but finally we reached a point where there was nothing more to do but begin the process.

I stood in the middle of a circle drawn with infused alchemical liquid. On Carina’s signal, I drank the triggering potion. Nothing seemed to happen. Good, that was what we expected.

I cleared my throat. “Hello, Court Alchemist. Or, I suppose I should say, other me. If everything is correct, right now you are inside your old body, but my soul or mind is still controlling it. You probably feel like a helpless passenger. At least, that’s what it felt like the two times you summoned me back to my original world.

“Your body—well, my body originally, but the one you’ve been using recently—is unconscious. When I end this alchemical ritual, you will wake up. When you do, go to the machine. Do you remember the settings you used the day my parents visited? Recalibrate it to those settings, then activate the machine precisely one hour from the end of this dream. On my end, I’ll restart the ritual in precisely one hour. If all goes according to theory, we should return to our original bodies. Understood? Good. One hour from the moment you awaken.” I drank a second potion that ended the effects of the ritual.

Arnya had been watching the whole procedure. She put a brave face on it, but I could tell she was in turmoil because I felt just a trace of unnatural cold in the air, although it could have been my imagination.

I noticed Carina not-so-subtly ushering everyone out. She shut the door, leaving Arnya and I alone. She sat down on the floor, and a moment later I joined her. She leaned into me. For a while we sat there, enjoying each other’s company without saying a word, but eventually she began to talk about Gaz’s family, what she ate for breakfast that day, how she was doing with her training, and several other light topic. But presently, her voice gained more of a tremor, and she eventually trailed off.

“You ok?” I asked.

“Forgive me, Rei, but I think it not unusual to be sad at such a goodbye,” she said softly.

I put my arm around her shoulder. “Everything’s going to go fine.”

“I know it. I have great confidence in your skill as an alchemist, however newfound it may be, and however much you practice it in your home.”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll have alchemy in my world. Even if the awakening process carries over, which I doubt it does, I’ve hypothesized that alchemy only works here because the scientific laws in this world are fundamentally different. But it’s also theoretically possible that alchemy is valid in my world, only because we have no elves, no one has ever been Awakened, which raises the question…ah, sorry. I got carried away.”

She laughed. “You get excited so infrequently that it is a pleasure to hear you truly enthusiastic about something. I will miss that.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. She continued in a soft voice “it may be selfish, but I ask one thing. In your world, even when you grow old and your memory of this journey grows dim, will you remember me?”

My mouth hung open for a moment. How could this have happened? I said, “you know I’m coming back, right?”

“…what?”

“There’s no way I’d give up dimensional travel just after I figured out how to do it! I’m a scientist, Arnya, and from what I’ve heard, the other Rei is basically one too. We’re not going to rest until we’ve perfected the process.” She kept looking at me in a way that made me nervous. “Honestly, all things considered, I think I like this world better. It’s a whole lot more exciting, at the very least. But I miss my family and my friends over there, and I know more about physics than alchemy so I can do the research better on that end. But yeah. I’m coming back. Sooner rather than later if I can help it. I want to figure out how anyone can make the trip. I want you to see Earth. I think you’d like it.” My voice softened. “Besides, I have you here. I’d never abandon that.”

I pulled her into a full-on hug, which she embraced so joyfully I thought I felt a rib crack. But when she separated, she bonked me on the head with an open hand. “Why, you foolish alchemist. How dare you make a princess concerned in such a way?” Our laughter mixed together as the time slipped by.

Far too soon, Carina poked her head in. “Time’s up. Get ready to do the ritual again.”

I helped Arnya to her feet as I stood. “Let’s go.”

As Carina, Kyn, and I did the final preparations, my eyes locked with Arnya’s. Kyn handed me a vial and Carina began counting down with her fingers.

“I love you, Rei,” Arnya called.

Carina put down the last finger. “I love you, Arnya.” I swallowed the contents of the vial and everything went black.

When I came to, I was on my back with my eyes closed. Everything hurt, like I had just fallen over. My head was throbbing painfully against the smooth, slick floor. Wait. That surface. Did that mean…

I opened my eyes. Electric light haloed the bushy head of Professor King. “Did it work?” he asked anxiously. Slowly, I nodded. With an enormous smile he pulled me to my feet, where I surveyed the familiar clutter of the Paratheoretical Science Research Lab. Experimentally, I opened and closed my hand. Yes, no doubt about it, I was in control of my own body.

With the broad grin still on his face, Professor King said “welcome home, Rei.”