by Matt Ryan
“I guess we better take you to them then,” Bridget interrupted. “It was part of the deal and all.”
I grabbed Bridget’s hand off the door handle. “What deal?”
Bridget and Jackie didn’t say a word.
“Jackie?” I made eye contact with her. “What deal did you make?”
Her face scrunched up with regret. Her mouth moved to one side and one eye almost closed, but not quite. “We sort of had to make a deal to stay here. This is a safe harbor from Cathy. There’s not too many of those left around the world. Ours have all been compromised. If we woke you up outside of their protection zone, your mom would have appeared in about two seconds and snatched you away. Who knows what she’d do to you.”
I became agitated at her dodging the question. “Just tell me. What did you offer them?”
I didn’t need Jackie to answer. I knew what she was going to say. I knew it because it’s what every alchemist wanted from me.
“They want you to make a stone for them,” Jackie said in a rush.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t blame her. I hated the idea, but I imagined she had no choice.
“Does everyone know I made the stone?”
“We tried to tell them your mom made it, but none of them believed it. They all knew you were the creator. I think Quinn made sure to tell the world that.”
So, the entire world knew of my deed. Great.
I held up my hand and looked at the bandages covering the hole where the stone had traveled through. It hurt when I moved my fingers, but the rush of power it pushed through me lingered behind as well. In that moment, I’d felt the near endless power of it. It showed me things. Things I knew were past, present, and future, all mixed together in a way I didn’t quite understand. The people my mother tried to hurt, the ones who’d helped Jackie, I’d seen them in that vision. The little girl, Evelyn.
I wanted to touch the stone again, and I fought back the urge to create one for myself. I could right the wrongs my mother did with it.
“What kind of stone do they want?” I asked.
“I don’t know. They don’t tell us much here,” Jackie said. “We were about to get kicked out, actually.”
She opened the door and what had once been a sidewalk was now a dirt road with a smattering of shacks down either side. It looked like one of those alchemist camps I’d seen before, easily built and disregarded.
I stepped onto the dirt path with the rest of my group. There were other houses surrounding us. Smaller than mine for the most part, and one-story tall. The roofs had sweeping tails on the ends. Their exteriors had lots of color, and a few had red lanterns hanging outside the front doors.
There was a smell to the village, like cooked chicken and spices mixed together. I walked ahead of the group a bit. Jackie walked next to me and motioned to follow. I didn’t like meeting new people under these circumstances. They were going to have all kinds of preconceived notions about me. At the very minimum, they expected me to make some miracle stone for them that no one else dared to try.
“Don’t we have more time to catch up?” I asked. “I’d love to hear what you’ve all been doing for the last four years.”
“We’ll have time for that, but believe me, it took a lot of convincing to get them to allow us to awaken you here. Your mom is a scary person, and while they don’t like her, they also don’t want to be part of her wrath.”
A Chinese couple walked by us and I spotted the satchels at their waists. Alchemists for sure; the whole village was probably alchemists. A few more Chinese people crossed our paths and when I turned around, they were following along with us.
“Guards?” I asked.
“Fan club,” Jackie whispered.
“Want us to get rid of them?” Wes asked.
“Just chill,” Jackie said. “They aren’t going to say shit.”
Mark moved closer to me. “I bet Carly has a portal stone on her. We could jump.”
“Mark,” Bridget warned. “She can’t leave this area. Trust us. This is the safest place she can be right now.”
I glanced back at the group of people following along with us. “Did she hurt these people as well?”
“I don’t think there’s an alchemist out there who hasn’t been affected.” Jackie looked back at the few people following us. “You’re sort of a celebrity now—everybody knows you. But not everyone likes the fact you created the philosopher’s stone either.”
We reached a larger building. Two stories tall, with a bright red door surrounded by a burnt orange stucco. I didn’t understand the Chinese writing on the door, but Jackie walked up and knocked three times. Then she paused and knocked twice. The door opened.
“Knocking code?” I asked.
“Yeah, the Chinese are pretty paranoid. Oh, and don’t make any comments about their enhancements,” Jackie warned.
I looked back at the group that’d followed us, maybe six now. They were all looking at me. I didn’t like the attention. I wanted to be with my friends in a secluded setting, so we could hang and get caught up. I felt as if I’d missed so much in their lives, and I was selfish for only asking about myself and my mom.
Jackie motioned for me to go in, but none of the group moved.
“Aren’t you all coming in with me?” I asked.
“Afraid not. Just you, and of course, Mark.” Like he’d allow anything else to happen. “They’ve blocked us from this building. Don’t trust us.”
“I don’t even know these people, Jackie. I don’t know what deal you’ve made with them.”
“It doesn’t matter what deal I’ve made. You do what you think is right, no more. If they want you to make a stone you don’t want to, then don’t make it. We’ll find a way.”
“Thanks,” I said, then looked at the crowd who’d followed me to the door. “I guess I’ll be seeing you in a bit.” I really didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, don’t let them give you any shit,” Carly said.
Jackie moved up close and handed me a single stone, wrapped in paper. She was so quick and sly with it, I didn’t think the rest saw it happen. She whispered in my ear, “Portal stone, just in case.”
I touched my pocket, feeling the stone. “Thanks.”
Mark held my hand and the strength in his grip gave me the guts to go up the couple of stairs and into the house.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I whispered.
“It’s never over.”
The door closed behind us and just past the front door was a solid wall with a metal picture of some Chinese-looking river town, with boats and people on the river’s edge.
We walked around the wall to a grand hall. Tall ceilings and tapestries draped either side. The wood flooring had been engraved with an alchemist circle in it. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was for the stone of life. Such a nasty stone to make though. A person had to die in its creation. I wondered if Mark recognized it. I’d used a life stone on him once to save his life and cure him of his illness.
An old man walked toward us from the end of the hall.
“Hello, I’m Allie, and this is Mark,” I greeted. Not sure why I introduced ourselves. I guess it was something my stepmother always insisted on.
The old Chinese man didn’t respond. He kept hobbling toward us, until he was five feet away. In the dim light of the large room, I could still make out the wrinkly features on his face, the slump of his back, and the bony little fingers shaking as he touched his gray coat.
“You are strong, very strong,” the man said looking somewhere above me.
“Hi, I’m Allie, and this is Mark,” I said much louder, thinking maybe the man was hard of hearing.
“Mmm . . . strong, but not very smart. Go now. You over there, and you over there, against the wall.” He gestured.
Mark let go of me, and I took a few steps to one side of the room. He reluctantly walked to the other. I wasn’t quite sure what the man was looking at above our heads.
“Oh yes, I see
it now. You’re much stronger together. You’re lucky to have found each other. Your lights dim the further apart you are.”
I looked above me to see what was there, but found nothing but the ceiling. “I wanted to say thank you for protecting my friends, and for giving us a safe harbor. I do appreciate it,” I said.
“Oh yes, very curious. It’s an honor for us to see the one who made the stone. So rare. Did it break your hand?” He gestured to my bandaged hand. “May I?”
I extended my hand and he took it in his own. His skin felt soft, but mushy and cold. He pulled at the bandage, causing me to yank my hand away from him.
“That’s enough.” Mark reached for him.
“He’s very protective.”
I rubbed my hand and the pain radiated from the center of it. “People in the past have used me. So, pardon us if we seem a little skeptical here, but what are your intentions?”
“Your mother, Cathy Norton. Strong family lineage. Someone like you doesn’t come into existence but once every hundred or two hundred years. Even then, they lose their marbles before they ever know their true potential. Or they become old and frail, staring into the void. You must be close to your mother.”
“Not really,” I said.
“That’s too bad. There is always time for that. A mother will always love her daughter, no matter what.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Take it from an old man. Nothing is more important than family, because in the end, that is all you have, and all you leave behind. Nothing else matters.” He rubbed his palm as he stared at my hand.
Two big doors at the end of the room burst open when two men walked through, followed by a pair of women who were twins. They stormed toward us, as the twins moved to the far side. The older man wore a black suit with a blood-red tie, and I had trouble imagining his face with anything but a scowl. The younger man wore a gray woolen coat with a high collar. His black hair hung over part of his face, but from what I could see, he resembled the older man.
Now I wished I would’ve asked Jackie for a few satchel stones.
“I see you’ve met our greeter,” the man dressed in black said.
“We’ve just arrived,” I said.
“I hope he didn’t bother you. He was supposed to bring you back to us. Where is your cane, Zhuang? I thought you couldn’t walk without it?”
“I can manage more than you think. Besides, I have had the chance to take in this wondrous sight, if only for just a moment.” He gazed above me with a peaceful expression.
The man in black gave the old man a sideways look and then smiled at me and extended his gloved hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Allie.”
I shook his hand, “Thank you, this is Mark.”
“Mark, a pleasure.”
Mark shook his hand as well.
“Thanks for giving us a place to stay,” I said.
“You are welcome. My name is Kang Zhao, this is my son Jin, and the old man, that’s Zhuang.”
“So, I hear you want me to make a stone?” I said.
“I hear some suspicion in that tone, but when I tell you the stone’s purpose, I think you will understand why we need to make it. Come, let’s go to the next room and we can talk more.”
Mark and I followed him through the double doors. A familiar sight greeted us across the room. Mixing cups, mixing spoons, and all the various ingredients for making stones were stocked on the shelves around the whole room. The smell came back to me, the mixtures of all the different ingredients: sulfur, pewter, metals, dirt, tar and a musty smell overlaying it all. It was almost as if it had rained too many times and the walls and foundation were soaked in it.
Kang gathered us around the table near the middle and told Zhuang and the twins to wait outside. They waited until I sat, before they took their seats.
“What happened to your hand?” Jin asked.
“When I made the philosopher’s stone, the weight of all those souls was too much and it finally split through my hand.”
Mark rubbed my back and I saw the sympathy in his eyes. I resisted the urge to unwrap the bandage to see what it looked like inside. Had the hole sealed up? Were the stitches still holding?
“Simply unbelievable,” Jin said. “You must be an amazing alchemist.”
Kang nodded. “Every alchemist worth their salt feels the need to make the philosopher’s stone at one time or another. You must be very special to have accomplished such a feat.”
“I didn’t really want to create it,” I said, before realizing that wasn’t true. “No, that’s a lie. Once it was pushed upon me, I wanted to make it, to see how much power I had. But I don’t believe I would have ever attempted it on my own.”
“Why didn’t you take the stone? The creator of the philosopher’s stone is supposed to be the person who wields it. I think you made a grave error in giving it to your mom. The stone wants to be with you. I’m surprised it hasn’t pursued you, or maybe it couldn’t because you were so far away.
“Since the stone has a lesser suitor, it requires a lot from Cathy. It’s sucking the life from her, taking her for its own gain. It is getting stronger, while she is becoming weaker. A balance that is shifting in the stone’s favor every day. No matter how many souls Cathy consumes, it’s never going to be enough.”
“Exactly.” I’d felt it when I touched the stone; it had shown me all the worlds, trying to explain the universe as it slipped through my hand. I knew I would be the one to control it, but I felt empty with the stone as well. I would have had to give up Mark, and I wasn’t willing to entertain that idea.
“You know how to stop her?” Mark asked.
Kang leaned back and placed his hands atop the table, lacing his fingers together. “There is a way. We must create many types of stones. Jin here is an expert in the matter.” He looked to his son. “Go prepare the ingredients.”
His son left the table in a huff, sending his chair back a few inches. One glare from Kang and he visibly reined in his ire. I watched him for a little bit, but then Kang said, “You two love each other?”
“Yes, we do,” I said and touched Mark’s hand.
Saying it wasn’t as much as feeling it. I did love saying it, though. The things we’d been through would’ve been impossible without each other. I knew he felt the same way.
“That’s good. Love is good. Love can be a powerful stone creation device. You two make any stones together?”
“Together? No.”
“Before the end of this, that will change. We are lucky to have both of you.”
Just then, Jin set down a few jars of ingredients I wasn’t familiar with, then a bowl and mixing spoon.
“What kind of stone is it?” I tried piecing together ingredients, but some of them were still in their cases, or I didn’t recognize them. There were five ingredients, which was an unusual amount for any stone.
“This is our Dragon stone,” Kang explained. “The only way to stop a philosopher’s stone is to create a stone to break it.”
“So, this Dragon stone will break it?”
“No, it’s but one piece of the puzzle. Once all the stones are assembled, you can make the breaker stone and free your mother from the binds of the Philosopher’s stone.”
“You can break the stone? I didn’t think that was possible,” I said.
“Do you really think that over thousands of years the world has never seen one created before? That’s the problem with western Alchemy. You stop looking past your grandparent’s knowledge. If you go way back to the golden books, there’s magic in them, filled with great people who did amazing things with the stone. You could’ve been one of those great people, but instead, you let someone else take the stone—corrupting the pattern. There is a history in Chinese alchemy about how to destroy the philosopher’s stone. It has been done before, and we will do it again.”
“Did it kill the person?” I asked.
“The old texts aren’t specific. It only describes it as a new beginning.�
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“A new beginning is what she needs.” What I didn’t tell Kang is that I knew how to get the stone from her. “The life she’s living now is something she wouldn’t want to live with anyways.”
“She’s hurting people,” Jin added.
“The stone’s hurting people,” I correct. “It wants to be more powerful. It’s using her.”
“She’s feeding again,” Kang said.
“What do you mean she’s feeding?”
“Alchemists outside of the protection zones keep going missing. Reports from around the world say the same thing. Just a few here and there, but way more than what would be deemed normal. But you can create this Dragon stone and we will take the first step toward stopping her.”
My mother didn’t want to hurt us. She had said as much. “I agree with you. She needs to be stopped. But I want to be involved. I want to make the stones each step of the way. Just make sure you are being honest with me. In the end, it has to be me and my mother. It has to come from me.”
“It’s your sword to fall on,” Kang said. “If I get the sense you’re going to spare your mother and her stone, I will take over at that point. She’s a wrecker of worlds. She needs to be stopped. We can’t let the emotions of her being your mother get involved. This will end with us breaking that stone.”
“I understand. Let’s make the stone and come up with a plan. Oh, and stop blocking my friends from this place. I’m going to need their help.”
“Okay, everyone clear the room. Let’s give Allie some space.”
Chapter Three
“Very impressive,” Kang said as he walked up to the bowl.
I’d mixed the ingredients and had a solid stone rolling around in under a minute. An odd, green cloud hovered over the bowl and hid the stone, but I knew it was in there.
He reached in with a black cloth and plucked it from the bowl. Wrapping it carefully, Kang placed it in a small, wooden box. Alchemist circles were inscribed on the lid, and I had a sinking feeling I’d just done something awful.
The back doors opened and the twins walked in. I wasn’t watching them though; my attention was focused solely on the man with white hair, who had a plastic-looking face.
