The Alchemist Chapter 30

 

Chapter 30

I did not go to watch the assassin’s hanging. I couldn’t stomach it. During the week leading up to the event, I felt as if I had a cloud over my head. Being responsible for the death of someone, even if that someone had tried to kill me, was causing me trouble. I also remembered what the Oracle had said about trying my powers on organics. I could probably kill someone very easily by manipulating their blood or shutting off their heart.

I looked at my hand. It was a normal hand. I was sitting in a chair behind the shop’s counter when Yonas came through the door.

“It’s been a while,” I said.

“It has,” said Yonas.

I hadn’t seen him since the assassination attempt.

“I’ve seen the first issue of your “newspaper,”” he said.

We had released the paper in full just two days ago.

“Your economic model for distribution is peculiar,” said Yonas. “I would not have thought of selling the papers at a distribution price and allowing the buyers to make a profit.”

“Does that not happen here in business?” I said.

“No,” said Yonas. “Guilds generally handle the sale and distribution of goods. There are usually no contractors like your model uses.”

I sighed. “And I assume you know about the assassination attempt.”

“Sorry about that,” said Yonas. “But I know Wile is watching over you. He requested that you be given the protection of the dragons.”

“What, exactly, does that mean?” I asked.

“It means the dragons, or at least most of them, will make sure that no harm comes to you.”

I did my best to smile. “Thanks.”

Claude came in through the door carrying a bag of potatoes. “Master Yonas,” she said. “It’s nice to see you after so long.”

“I heard you are guarding this man as well?” said Yonas.

“I am,” said Claude. “I appreciate your help in keeping my ward safe.”

Yonas chuckled. “It’s not me, really. It’s more Wile’s thing.”

“How is Wile?” said Claude.

“Doing well,” said Yonas. “He really enjoys this new material you call plastic. He has a knack for working with it.”

“Ah, yes,” said Claude. “It’s not really designed to be worked with like glass, as far as I’ve heard.”

“Wile is managing,” said Yonas. He looked at me. “I’ve come to make a request,” he said.

“I’m willing to listen,” I said.

“I have it on good authority that you know a lot about otherworldly gadgets.”

“As long as they’re from my sphere,” I said. “If it’s not from Earth I can’t help you.”

Yonas reached into his pocket and pulled out a floppy disc. “I have been told this is some sort of information storage medium.”

I took the disc from him. “Where did you find this?” I asked.

“When raiding the tower of an evil wizard, maybe twenty-five years ago. I’ve been wondering about it ever since.”

I tried to see if there was anything written on it. Nothing. I turned towards the stairs to the second floor. “I think the Oracle has a floppy disc drive,” I said. “Follow me.”

Yonas and Claude followed me up the stairs and into my room. As soon as I entered, I opened the Oracle’s laptop and fed it power. I looked at the computer’s side and, like magic, there was a floppy disc drive. I put the disc in and clicked around a couple of times.

The disc’s contents were a simple notepad document with two lines of text.

To whoever receives this: if you can read it, congratulations. Your species knows how to operate computers. We are an organization based on Earth, a sphere located at A-B0-K2 in the Phlogiston sea. We have sent these “messages in a bottle” across the multiverse to search for something. If you ever happen to find it, please respond as soon as possible. -The People of Earth.

Underneath the text document was a single, low-res picture of a red ball, and then translations in ten different Earth languages.

“You can read this?” said Yonas. “I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“Um, yeah,” I said. “I’m able to speak this language because of magic, but this stuff is written in my native tongue.”

“Well, can you tell me what it says?”

I told him.

Yonas scratched his chin. “They’re looking for that?” he said.

“I guess so,” I said, examining the photo. The resolution was making it hard to distinguish fine features.

The Oracle popped up. “Heya,” he said. “I think my database has something related to the item in the photo. Give me a moment.” Three dots appeared beneath his disembodied face. “Ah, yes. It’s the Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Of course,” I said, putting my hand to my foreheads. “Of course it’s that.”

“Don’t worry,” said the Oracle. “Voldemort isn’t going to find this one anytime soon.”

“Voldewhat?” said Claude.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll be printing Harry Potter before too long.” I chuckled. “And this stone, it isn’t made of human souls?”

“What are you talking about?” said the Oracle. “Ah, it’s a reference to media created after I traveled across the phlogiston.”

“What would my home planet need with the philosopher’s stone?” I asked.

Claude shrugged.

Yonas rubbed his neck. “I can guess. The stone is a source of great power, but it also contains information regarding the Elders.”

“Elder?” I said.

“Beings from between the spheres who have the ability to tear worlds to pieces,” said Yonas.

“Much more dangerous than a demon king,” said Claude. “I’ve heard tales about this monster.”

Yonas tapped his fingers against the wood of my night stand. “And one of these Elders was defeated by a coalition of dragons thousands of years ago. My request to end dragon hunting is partly motivated by fear of his return. Even if all the mortals banded together, they might not be a match for Methuzika,”

“So the dragons are keeping an ancient evil from eating everyone, then?” I said.

“Yes,” said Yonas.”

“And they want to destroy my home plane,” I said.

“Probably,” said Yonas. “They are very indiscriminate.”

“Enough of this,” I said. “I can’t do anything about it at the moment.” I paused. “On another subject. I think I’ve figured out what to do with the parchment guild.”

“And?” said Claude.

“I’ll go directly to the head.”

Claude crossed her arms. “That would be foolish,” she said. “When people want you dead enough to send an assassin after you, they aren’t going to be willing to negotiate.”

“That’s true,” I said. “So I’m going to bring a present to settle the waters.”

“What kind of present?” said Claude.

“The formula for paper,” I said. “We’ve been keeping it a secret, right?”

“Um, yeah,” said Claude. “For good reason. We don’t want any competition.”

“Besides my obvious thought that competition is good, I also know that the parchment guild will see cris signs and stop trying to kill me,” I said. “It’s a good gift to change their minds about me.”

“You keep doing this!” said Claude.

Rachel entered the shop front—from the back—and crossed her arms. “Is Markus planning to make more of our trade secrets known?” she said.

“I told you,” I said, “That telling people how to make essential goods is better in the long term. We are not in it for a quick buck. Relationships are more important than a bit of knowledge that may earn us money in the short term.”

“They tried to kill you,” said Rachel.

“They paid someone to do it,” said Claude.

“And that’s what I’m saying,” I said. “I want to end the enmity between us and the parchment makers’ guild.”

“And turn it into our biggest competitor?” said Rachel.

“I’ll negotiate. We produce all our own paper, right?” I said. “What if we get the parchment guild to do all the work? We sell them the recipe, and they give us a discount on the paper they produce. I’m sure their expertise with this kind of thing will result in better quality product on all sides.”

“I’m starting to like this proposal,” said Yonas. He grinned. “I’m with you.”

“If the dragon says so,” said Claude.

Rachel sighed. “I can’t stop you and I never have been able to,” she said. “Go. Do as you please.”

“Can we write down the formula and methods?” I said.

Ten minutes later I had a scroll with the recipe for paper in it. I took it and left the shop with Claude, saying goodbye to Yonas. We traveled the streets until we made it to the center of the parchment guild’s HQ.

I knocked on the large, ornate door. “Hello?” I said.

The door opened. The person who opened it appeared surprised. “Mr. Peters,” he said. “We were not, ah, expecting you.”

“Of course you weren’t,” I said. “If you’d had your way with me, I’d be dead.”

The man scratched his forehead. “Um, about that,” he said, “I’m very thankful that you did not divulge the fact that we paid the assassin.”

I was a bit taken aback. “Thankful?” I said. “You were the ones who sent him.”

“And we are terribly sorry about it,” said the man. “Here, come in.”

“Looks like there’s been a power struggle,” said Claude. “The old guard may have overstepped their bounds by trying to assassinate you.”

“I am protected by the Royals, the Guardians, and the Dragons. They know about at least two of those,” I said.

Claude scoffed. “And they’d better.”

We entered behind the doorman, following him up a grand staircase and into a small office, behind which sat an old man. He looked up from his papers.

“I apologize for whatever trouble my predecessor may have caused you,” he said. “My name is Gregor. I am the new guild master of the Parchment Makers’ Guild.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“The previous master was arrested for embezzlement,” said Gregor. “Among other things. He was not the best suited for our work environment.”

I slapped the paper containing the secrets to paper making on the table. “I want to sell you the recipe for paper,” I said.

“Of course,” said Gregor. “What prompts you to do such a thing?”

“It’s an act of good faith,” I said. “I’ll sell it to you if you agree to work with us. We need to expand our production facilities and, at the rate we’re going, we don’t have enough administrative staff. That’s where you can come in.”

Gregor seemed to think for a moment. “It’s a deal. How much are you selling the recipe for?”

“One thousand Cris,” I said. “Plus a contractual production agreement.”

“Done,” said Gregor. He took out a piece of parchment. “I can see the future. Parchment like this will be a thing of the past.” He began to draft an agreement.

I looked it over, made sure it was favorable, and then signed it. I placed the pen back down on the desk.

“Can I ask something?” I said.

“Go ahead,” said Gregor.

“Why did your predecessor try to kill me?”

Gregor sighed. “It’s a long story. My previous guild master had a temper, and always worked for “the good of the guild.”” Gregor cringed. “And when we found out that the line was code for “his own good,” it threw a wrench into the loyalty of our ranks. The previous guild master wanted an excuse for all of his deeds, so he tried diverting attention to the failing state of the guild due to competition by plant based paper.”

“And so he tried to kill me?” I asked.

“He hoped that, through your death, he would end the competition,” said Gregor.

I sighed. “Well, that’s how politics works.”

Gregor hung his head. “I cannot apologize enough,” he said.

“Apologize by being a good business partner,” I said.

Gregor brought his head up. “That is a sentiment that I can understand,” he said.

We shook hands.