The Alchemist Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The royal inspector came the day after I attended the lecture at the Royal Society. He took a look around the shop, and then was led into the back room by Rachel. The printing press had been covered with a sheet beforehand so that its secrets could be kept a bit longer.

Rachel was the one who handled the conversation. All I did was watch and nod my head. The royal inspector asked a few questions, and then left.

A half hour later a runner came to the door with a parchment order form.

Fifty badgers of plastic were requested by the end of the month. That much, I could create easily. With my calculations it would take about twenty-five barrels of oil—that was three trips. We had plenty of time.

We also sold the technology to mold plastic for a good sum. The royal mint would be the first to produce injection-molded plastic. It was funny that it would be used for currency like this. Not fiat currency; real, solid currency that was worth what was in it. The only thing I could think of to increase the volume of plastic production was to teach some magicians how to create it, and that would be difficult and most likely slow.

We were nowhere near the level of being able to produce plastic using technology.

But this was fine. I was approaching my goal. Video games! There was absolutely no way that I would be able to get close on my own.

Next up was working on the press.

“We need to start thinking about building a company,” I said, to Rachel. “Except, I don’t really know how one would work.”

“Company …” said Rachel. “We can register as a guild at the Guild Hall,” she said. “And then we can start paying people to work on our projects.”

“Let’s make this the technology guild,” I said. “A guild dedicated to making new technology.”

“I’ll start the application process tomorrow,” said Rachel. “In the meantime, let’s keep working at the press.”

We spent the rest of the day improving on the ink formula and the paper composition. When the day was over, everything was in place for the first official print run.

I chose a book that did not have to do with religion. Instead, I went into the guild hall and requested their most recent copy of an epic poem.

They gave me a scroll containing the Epic of Randar. It was about twenty pages of a book of the size we were producing. A good start.

We hired three workers and taught them how to use the press. Each page was laid out in typeface and then pressed sixty times. By the time we had started on that process, it was time for me to go and teach Moray more about science and math.

I met Moray at the entrance to the Guild Hall.

“Your ideas are marvelous,” he said, upon meeting me. “I’ve been talking with my colleagues. We’re going to give you the stage to do your presentations from here on out.”

We walked to the auditorium. Upon entering, I was greeted with a full house.

“I have to talk in front of all these people?” I said, as I walked down the steps towards the stage.

“Are you not good in front of crowds?” said Moray.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just happy to educate people about how things work.”

In truth, I’m scared witless! What am I going to talk about? I wasn’t expecting to be judged by the smartest people in the world!

I walked up to the stage and picked up a piece of chalk. Before I wrote, I turned around. “Does anyone have any questions about the things I talked about with Mr. Moray?”

I assume he told everyone about what I was teaching him? I thought.

“We just want to hear what you have to say, first,” said a man white glorious white hair sitting in the front row.

“Well, um, does everyone know the Pythagorean theorem?” I said.

“Explain,” said the same white-haired man.

I wrote down a triangle. “If this is length a, and this is length b …”

I spent about two hours going on and answering questions about mathematics and science. By the time the lecture was over, even the people who hadn’t been paying attention at the beginning had their eyes on me.

By then I was just happy not to be in front of so many intimidating people anymore.

“Markus,” said Moray, when the lecture was over. “There’s a churning competition going on in a week. I want you to be part of the Royal Society’s team of magicians.”

“Churning?” I said.

“It’s a game where magicians work together to create golems that fight each other under set rules. Your alchemy power would allow us to create some amazing materials.”

“I think I’ll join!” I said. I had an image of a competition sort of like the robot wars we had in my world. This will be fun, I thought. I can do a lot of experimentation. “Where is it held?” I asked. “And what day, exactly, is it?”

“Marnday at seventh morning bell in the Grand Coliseum,” said Moray. “That gives us almost no time. All the other teams have been working on their golems for months.”

“And you haven’t?” I said.

Moray scratched his head. “Well, truth be told, I made a bet yesterday and I don’t think I can do it alone …”

I grabbed Moray’s hand and shook it. “I’m in. This kind of thing excites me. Rachel can handle the printing press and I can hire someone to operate the shop. I just need some time to fulfill an order with the Royal Mint later. Let’s get to work now!”

Moray grinned. “That’s the spirit. I’ve got two other magician scientists working with me. The four of us can create something great!” Moray gestured towards a small building beside the Guild Hall.

I followed him. He pushed through an old door and we came into a cluttered workshop. With a gesture, he showed me the room. “Welcome to the pits,” he said.

Two other people were already there, sitting in rocking chairs. Both had pipes hanging out of their mouths. One of them, a young looking man with a long beard and longer hair, took his pipe out of his mouth.

“Moray!” he said. “You finally grace us with your presence.”

“After the bet with Reginald, I didn’t think I could face you guys,” said Moray. He pushed me forwards. “But I found a lifesaver. With his alchemy power and knowledge of engineering and magic, we can create the best golem that has ever been seen in the Grand Coliseum.” Moray pointed to the bearded man. “That’s Jones,” he said. “Next to him is Canary. Both of them are water magicians.”

I recognized Canary as the scientist who had given the lecture on fluid dynamics the first time I was in the auditorium. “Hi,” I said.

Jones walked up to me. He was considerably shorter than I was, but still managed to conjure up a strong presence. “Summon the essence of silver,” he said.

I grabbed some silver from beneath the house and guided it up. The ground began to look wet, and then a flow of liquid silver conglomerated on the floorboards. It rose up in a spout and collected in my hand.

“Like this?” I said.

“Um, no,” said Jones. “But that works. Can you make a signet with it?”

I turned the silver into a small replica toy miniature, a crude representation of a soldier in armor. Jones held out his hand.

I dropped the figure in.

“It’s cold,” he said. “How do you manage to manipulate metal without heating it?” he asked.

“See, molecules are held together by ionic bonds, and if you break those bonds, you can move each molecule individually …” I paused, as I saw three faces change to incredulous expressions.

“Explain molecule to me,” said Jones.

“It’s the smallest manifestation of a particular element of compound,” I said. “While it can be broken into smaller pieces, you would lose the properties of the material in the process and it wouldn’t be that material anymore.”

“So, what happens when you break these molecules?” asked Canary.

“You just have two different elements that both contributed to the whole.”

“So, this explains how water can turn into steam?” said Canary.

“Not exactly,” I said. “Steam is actually the same molecule as water, and ice. They’re just arranged differently and with different energy properties.”

Canary looked very intrigued. “Well, we can talk about this later, and probably in the auditorium.” He rubbed his hands together. “Now we must use your powers to create a bet winning golem.”

“Before that,” I said, picking up my magical communication device. I dialed Rachel. “Hey,” I said. “I’ll be gone for a while. Can you run the shop in my absence?”

“Of course,” said Rachel. “You do have a bet to win, after all.”

Um … Well, that was strange.

“If you’re wondering why Rachel knew about this bet,” said Moray, “It, uh, just happened that our bet became sort of a contest. The whole town is betting on what’s going to happen in this competition.”

“It’s not different than other years, is it?” said Jones. He sat down in his chair and lit his pipe again. “Let’s start brainstorming.”

“How, exactly, dos the control system for the golem work?” I said.

“It works through etherization,” said Canary. He knelt beside a pile of iron scraps, holding out his hand. The metal began to vibrate and then lifted off the ground, spinning for a bit before falling back. Canary looked visibly stressed.

“Ether …” I said. “Is ether conserved?” I asked. “Where does the energy come from?”

“It comes from ourselves,” said Canary. “When you use magic, whatever you do, it takes the same amount of effort as if you had done it yourself, times distance.” He paused. “In an ideal situation, that is. In my case I have very bad resonance. I can’t use ether like Jones can.”

“He’s more of a pencil pusher anyways,” said Jones. “Only good with theory.”

I turned to Moray. “I’m going to figure out exactly how magic and ether work,” I said. “Is that okay?”

“Okay?” said Moray. “It’s great. Your knowledge is so far ahead of ours that you can imagine things we can’t even conceive of. We’ll support you the whole way.” He paused, scratching his head. “After we win this bet, of course.”

“Of course,” I said. “After we win this bet."