The Alchemist Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After the conversation about my former world, the group fell silent. Claude stood up and began pacing back and forth across the room. “If this works,” she said, “We’ll be able to finance more soldiers during the yearly incursion.”

“Incursion?” I said.

“Every year we gather an army and advance on the nearest demon king stronghold. That relieves the pressure that the armies of orcs and other monsters put on the countryside.” Claude stopped and then crossed her arms. “These last couple of years we haven’t been able to bring much to the plate during these incursions. Thus, the orc army you saw marching on Richtown.”

“So you guys are in desperate need of funds,” I said. “And I came along at just the right time.”

“Exactly,” said Drex. “You’re the godsend that we’ve all been waiting for.”

I knelt down to the ground. “Well, here’s an idea,” I said. I pulled up just enough metal to create a soda can. I then wrote a list of ingredients on a piece of paper and handed it to Claude. “Can you get me these?” I asked.

Claude nodded. “We have a very prolific spice pantry,” she said.

Tanna stood up with an abrupt motion. “Don’t touch my spices!” she said. “Damn it Claude! The stuff’s not for guests!”

“Well, Markus is not a guest,” said Claude.

I held up my hand. “Don’t worry. What you’re going to experience is totally worth the spices that you’ll put into it.”

Claude looked at me curiously, nodded, and then left the room.

I sat down. “You’re going to love this,” I said, to Tanna.

Tanna grimaced. “You don’t know how long I’ve worked to accumulate those spices.”

“If we sold them, we’d have a lot less trouble with finances!” said Drex.

“We don’t have to worry about that now, do we?” said Tanna. She turned to me, looking at the can that I held in my hands. “What in the name of the deities is that?” she asked.

“Have you ever heard of canned food?” I asked.

Tanna tilted her head. “Canned?” she said. “Like preserves?”

“Almost,” I said. “You cook it and then seal it into a can made of tin.”

“Tin, eh?” said Drex. “Can you gather that as well?”

“Of course,” I said. “I can do any element on the periodic table.”

“Periodic …” said Drex.

“Time for a science lesson!” I said, standing up in one motion. I pressed the button that flipped out the chalkboard. “Here is what an atom is …”

I spent about half an hour teaching Drex and Tanna about atoms, elements, and the periodic table. They were, for the most part, wide-eyed and receptive.

“So, are you some sort of magician?” asked Drex, at one point. “You know all this stuff about reality.”

“Almost everyone over the age of sixteen is taught this,” I said. “It’s common knowledge in my world.”

After about forty-five minutes, Claude came back, holding a couple of jars.

“Is this what you wanted?” she asked. “It took me a while to find exactly what was on the parchment.”

I took the jars from her. “Exactly,” I said.

Claude looked at Tanna and Drex. “What’s up?” she said. “You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Almost,” said Tanna. “Markus was just teaching us about reality.”

Claude turned to me. “Really?” she said, with a curious expression on her face.

“The world is totally different than I thought it was,” said Tanna. “I mean, I thought we knew stuff about how things worked. You know, the five elements and all that.” Tanna chuckled. “It turns out there are over a hundred elements.”

“And each one can combine with others to create compounds,” said Drex. “This kid knows his stuff. I don’t doubt him.”

“I don’t care how it works,” said Claude. She handed me the jars. “Show me what you were going to make.”

I took the jars and placed them on the table. “Do you have a kitchen?” I asked.

Claude pointed to a door. “In there.”

I took the jars and brought them into the kitchen. Using the implements I found there, I made an approximation of Cola, carbonating it with my alchemy ability. After making sure it tasted right, I left the kitchen and handed Claude, Tanna, and Drex each a can of soda.

“Pop the tab like this,” I said, taking my own can.

“Do we have to drink this stuff out of starsilver?” asked Drex.

“It’s part of the experience,” I said. “Just drink it.”

Drex popped open the can. “That was easy,” he said. He took a sip of the soda. “Whoa!” he said. “That burns! What is that bubbly feeling?”

“It’s called carbonation,” I said.

“How did you do it?” asked Drex.

“I dissolved a gas called carbon dioxide into the liquid,” I said.

“Oh my god this is good,” said Tanna. “It’s much better than most liquor I’ve had. I can’t even taste any alcohol!”

“It’s non-alcoholic,” I said. “In my world there was a period of ten years where alcohol was illegal. In that time period, people drank this stuff to get their juice on.”

“Why would a country ban alcohol?” asked Drex.

“Don’t worry about the details,” I said. “I don’t even know exactly myself.”

“A good pint of ale is always a good thing,” said Drex. “I wouldn’t be able to survive without it.”

The door to the conference room opened and Itrim and Blasé entered. Blasé held out a piece of paper.

“I’ve bought twelve pictares of land deep in Alberon Forest,” she said. “We can start our operation now.”

“Let’s go,” said Claude.

The Guardians all stood up and left the room. I followed them into the griffon hangar.

“Is there room for me on Hypo?” I asked, as I watched Drex get up onto the griffon.

“Sure!” said Drex. “You’re a pretty skinny person after all.”

I climbed up onto the griffon’s back. It felt a little weird to have feathers underneath me.

I clutched hypo’s neck as he lifted off and flew out of the hangar. Claude opened her wings and followed us.

We flew for about half an hour until we were over a vast, expansive forest that stretched from horizon to horizon. In the distance I could just barely see the secret base volcano.

We landed in a small clearing.

“I’ve been thinking how to do this,” I said, as I climbed down. “Instead of burying giant nuggets everywhere, I think I should just artificially increase the concentration of starsilver in the dirt and in the river. This way, people won’t be able to mine it all out easily.”

“What good would that do?” asked Claude.

“Do you know about supply and demand?” I asked.

Claude shook her head. “No. Tell me.”

“Well, a good’s worth is based on how many people want it and how much of it there is. Supply and demand. When supply is high and demand is low, the price drops. When supply is low and demand is high, the price goes up.”

“And?” said Claude. “How does that affect us?”

“If we spread starsilver around until it’s everywhere, then it won’t be worth as much.”

“Oh!” said Tanna. “That makes total sense!” She slapped her forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before!”

“Well,” I said, “It took millennia for my society to figure that out.”

Tanna laughed. “Can you teach me more sometime? It may help me manage our finances.”

“Sure,” I said. I probably knew enough about economics to make an impact. I knelt down to the ground. “There’s a river flowing about a mile to the east,” I said. “That would be a good place to place the starsilver lode. I’ll form it into small nuggets and then disperse it via the water. I’ll also bury a considerable amount at a reasonable depth so that people can create mines.”

Claude took a spear and jammed it into the ground. “Let’s stake our claim here,” she said. “And pretend that this is where the largest lode is.”

“No,” I said, “That won’t work. People might become suspicious. Since I can collect as much starsilver as I need, we won’t have to worry about having the biggest claim.” I turned to Itrim. “You bought this entire area, right?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Itrim.

“Once there’s a starsilver rush, we can make a considerable amount of money selling claims to people.”

Tanna raised her eyebrows. “You’re full of good ideas, aren’t you?”

I shrugged. “I just think about a lot of stuff,” I said. I turned to Claude. “Okay. I’m going to implant about a thousand badgers of starsilver total in the ground to a depth of about ten meters.”

“Meter?” said Tanna.

“What do you use to measure length?” I asked.

“Toms,” said Tanna. She held out her hands. “A tom is about this long.”

“Okay, a meter is about twice that,” I said.

Tanna nodded. “That sounds reasonable,” she said.

“There will also be nuggets that will flow down the nearby rivers,” I said. I formed a nugget of aluminum in my hand, making it as natural looking as possible. “Take this and bring it to the nearest town,” I said.

Drex nodded. “I’ll be taking Hypo. You guys can work on setting up the faux mine.”

“Great,” said Claude.

Drex climbed up onto Hypo and then took off.

I turned to Claude. “We can work with about half a badger of starsilver to begin with,” I said. “In the meantime, we have to do as Drex said and set up a mine that we can pretend we got the material out of.”

Claude held up her hand. “Feris Demnai nutrikan!” A ball of bright light rose from her palm, splitting the earth beneath it. The ground rumbled, parting to reveal a long and straight tunnel.

“Will this work?” said Claude.

I knelt down near the entrance. “I think we may need to stabilize it,” I said.

“Here,” said Tanna, holding up her hands. “Ikari! Nam hus!” Several trees grew legs and began marching towards the tunnel. They bent over, entering the hole, and began lining its edges.

“Well that’s cool,” I said. “How did you do that?”

“Magic,” said Tanna. “I have druidic powers that allow me to control trees.”

“I can see that,” I said.

Tanna shrugged.

“Don’t underplay yourself, Tanna,” said Blasé. “You worked hard to be able to do that.”

Tanna shrugged again.

“Hey, do you have any more of that cola stuff?” said Blasé, to Itrim.

Itrim reached his arm into the bag at his side. It went in impossibly deep, and then came out with three cans of soda.

Did I give him those? I thought. Well, I did make a considerable number of cans of soda.

Itrim handed one to Tanna and one to Blasé, keeping one to himself.

“Cheers,” said Tanna, as the three of them downed the drinks.

“This is certainly better than most ales,” said Blasé.

“Not better than Tubman’s,” said Tanna.

“You got me there,” said Blasé.

Claude leaned against a tree with her arms crossed. “Now that we have the starsilver,” she said, “We’re going to have to sell it.”

“Obviously,” said Tanna. “The big question here is how we transport it.”

Everyone looked at Blasé.

Blasé sighed. “Fine,” she said. She snapped his fingers and the pile of starsilver shrank to the size of a Rubik’s cube. She picked it up. “Happy?”

“Do you not like using your powers?” I asked.

Blasé turned away. “Not really,” she said. “It just takes a lot out of me.” She did appear to be breathing heavy and was covered in sweat.

Claude picked up the shrunken half badger of aluminum. “Awesome,” she said. She stopped moving, a curious expression on her face. “I think we have visitors,” she said.

The bushes around the clearing moved. Several small elf-like creatures emerged from the foliage holding short bows.

“Nama shik tum,” said the oldest looking elf. “What are you doing on our land?”

“It’s ours,” said Claude. “We bought it from the crown.”

“We do not recognize your laws around here,” said the elf.

“Dammit Drex!” said Claude. “You had to pick land that was contested with natives.”

“We can buy them off,” said Tanna. “Elves like moon chrome.”

“Moon chrome?” I said. “What element is that?”

Tanna held out a small trinket she was wearing. “This,” she said.

The elves watched with both hostility and curiosity. Tanna handed me the pendant.

“Ah, yes,” I said. “A naturally occurring alloy of copper and silver. While its components are not too rare, finding them in this combination is probably quite difficult.” I put my hand to the ground and conjured about a hundred grams of both elements, mixing them in the proper ratio. I held out the finished charm.

“Here,” I said. “We’ll pay you in moon silver.”

The oldest elf spat. “We don’t want any moon silver tainted with your disgusting human magicks.”

Tanna sighed.

Claude brought out her sword.

Itrim put his hand in his bag of holding.

Blasé twirled a couple of daggers.

Oh boy, I thought. Here we go.