Peter and the Heart of Alchemy (War of Contractia Book 5)

by Tj Dixon

  “Oh. Where you did the ritual. That would work.” I nod and finish what little happy juice is left in my glass. It doesn’t seem very effective because I’m not very happy right now. Hermes and Midori finish theirs quickly too.

  “I’ll port us.” Midori says and takes our hands. Then she ports us and we find ourselves in the cool air. It is fairly mild considering it is winter now and I am protected from the cold by my enchanted shorts. There are a few benches to sit on and most of them are empty. Midori picks the nearest one and sits on my right. Hermes sits on my left.

  “I’ll keep you warm.” Midori grins and pressing her side against me she puts her arm around my shoulder. Hermes blushes and then copies Midori. I blush, but I can’t deny that it is warm and cosy like this. Not that I was cold, but sitting like this feels nice. The bench is even enchanted to feel as soft as a bed.

  “I think I could get some sleep like this.” I admit.

  “Then do.” Midori tells me.

  “Yes, you must be exhausted.” Hermes tells me.

  “And it saves me questioning you.” I grin and Hermes winces. “Just don’t let anyone kill me in my sleep.”

  “We’ll protect you.” Midori assures me.

  “Yes. Nobody will hurt you whilst we’re here.” Hermes promises.

  “Then sleep does sound like a really nice idea right now.” I say and close my eyes. In moments I am asleep.

  I wake gently, still cushioned between Midori and Hermes. From the position of the sun it must be late afternoon, but thanks to my enchanted shorts and the warmth of Midori and Hermes’ bodies I am nice and warm. It seems Hermes dozed off too but Midori seems very alert.

  “Thanks Midori. It must have been boring just sitting here like this.” I tell her quietly, so as not to wake Hermes.

  “It wasn’t boring. I was sitting next to the boy I love.” Midori tells me and makes me blush. Then she looks at me seriously. “If you really are this Sky Lord of Ishki that you were talking about, do you really want to remember everything?”

  “I was always more interested in the future than the past, but if I don’t break the Heart of Alchemy and remember who I really am, I will keep on forgetting. Just like how I forgot my date with Hermes. I don’t want that to happen.”

  “So if we go on a date before you break this Heart of Alchemy you may end up forgetting it too?” Midori asks.

  “Yes.” I admit.

  “Then we have to break this Heart of Alchemy quickly so we can go on our date. I’m scared though, because I don’t want the boy I love to change into a completely different person. Will you promise not to change even when you remember everything?” Midori asks me.

  “I can’t promise that, but I don’t want to change either. It’s a scary thought that I may become someone completely different. I’ll do my best not to let that happen, but without knowing what I’ve forgotten any promise would be a lie.” I tell Midori and she smiles a little sadly.

  “Then just do your best not to change.” Midori tells me.

  “I will do.” I tell Midori.

  “Will do what?” Hermes asks sleepily.

  “Sorry Hermes. I didn’t mean to wake you.” I tell her apologetically.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” Hermes yawns.

  “It’s fine. Midori was here to keep watch. I was just telling Midori that I’ll do my best not to change if I get my memories back.” I tell Hermes.

  “If you get them back you’d better not change, and you’d better remember our date again too!” Hermes tells me crossly.

  “I want to remember it again too.” I tell Hermes.

  “Rin and her mother should have finished catching up by now, right?” I ask Hermes and Midori.

  “I should hope so.” Midori laughs. “She’s probably lying there either asleep or waiting for us to get back.”

  “Probably asleep.” Hermes laughs.

  “Let’s go back and wake her. I want to find out what she knows about the Heart of Alchemy.” I say.

  “I think it would be better if I wake her. If you wake her and start asking those sorts of questions straight away she’s not going to be in a good mood.” Hermes says.

  “I’m not letting you warn her.” I tell Hermes seriously.

  “Then let Midori wake Rin.” Hermes says.

  “Fine.” I agree with a shrug.

  “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to be woken by me.” Midori laughs.

  “You seemed to be getting on ok.” I say in confusion.

  “We do our best not to get on each other’s nerves, but we’re not exactly friends. We are rivals for the same boy.” Midori says.

  “So are you, Hermes and Cherry.” I remind her.

  “Hermes and I aren’t exactly friends either, but we put aside our differences to come save you so it’s easier to get along. Also Rin isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with anyway. As for Cherry, well it would be hard to not get along with Cherry. She’s just too nice to everyone. Even if she is a rival I can’t dislike her. You mean more to me than you do to Cherry though, and because she’s so nice to everyone there’s not much difference between how she treats you and how she treats everyone else.” Midori tells me.

  “Ok. Right now what matters is waking Rin and getting some answers from her.” I tell Midori, ignoring her last point about Cherry.

  “Fine. I’ll wake her.” Midori grins rather demonically.

  “And be nice to Rin.” I tell Midori seriously.

  “I’ll try.” Midori shrugs. Then she gets up and offers us both a hand. “I’ll port us back.”

  “Thanks Midori.” I say gratefully. Hermes and I both stand before taking Midori’s hand. A moment later we are back outside our room.

  “I’ll see you downstairs. It should be fairly quiet, because it’s after the lunch crowd but before the dinner crowd.” Midori tells us.

  “I hope so. Anyway, good luck.” I tell Midori.

  “I’ll be fine.” Midori says and knocks on the door.

  “Let’s go.” Hermes says and leads the way downstairs. It takes a bit longer than this morning because we don’t have Midori spurring us on at close to a run. Instead we walk slowly.

  I find myself nervous about confronting Rin, but I need to know whatever she knows about the Heart of Alchemy. I’m a bit annoyed that Hermes won’t tell me. If she was still my slave I could have made her tell me, but as I think it I am glad Hermes isn’t my slave anymore. I might have given in to the temptation to order her to tell me and that would have been a betrayal of our friendship. I feel a bit betrayed now, but I’d rather be betrayed than be the betrayer.

  We get downstairs and find that it really is quiet in here. Without the need for words we both decide to use the same table as this morning. Hermes sits first and I sit next to her. I’d rather sit opposite Rin than beside her whilst we talk.

  “So what’s wrong?” Rin asks as she ports in, hand in hand with Midori. Midori must have guessed we’d use the same table, but how does Rin know something is wrong?

  “Wrong?” I ask.

  “The only reason you’d have Midori wake me instead of you or Hermes doing it is because something’s wrong.” Rin says with a frown and I suppose she’s right.

  “Both of you sit down first.” I say and Rin’s frown deepens.

  “That bad…” Rin says and she gestures for Midori to sit first. Midori sits and then Rin sits opposite me.

  “What do you know about the Heart of Alchemy?” I ask Rin and she blinks before glaring at Hermes for a moment.

  “How do you know about that?” Rin asks me with an icy glare.

  “The Kuroneko mentioned it.” I tell Rin who thinks for a moment.

  “What did she say?” Rin asks me.

  “I want to know what you know, not what you think I already know.” I tell Rin bluntly.

  “The Heart of Alchemy is a sort of ultimate fusion between potions alchemy like my mother performs and items alchemy like my father performed. It re
quires the bone of a dragon, which dragons aren’t exactly known to happily give up. The bone is carved into a cup which is engraved with dwarven runes and then enchanted. The enchantment is extremely complex and mixes all five elements, but also adds in life magic.

  “Then you need blood taken from five elves, two powerful demons and one angel for the potion. They must be alive not only when the blood is taken but when the potion is used. The enchantment on the potion is even more difficult than the cup and is mainly life magic. A single mistake at any stage will ruin everything and at the later stages will cause a massive explosion and probably kill the alchemist and anyone else nearby.” Rin explains.

  “So what does it do?” I ask.

  “It is generally used to bind a powerful demon to obey a single command. In theory it could be used to force anyone to obey a command, but most people would die from drinking a single sip of the potion. You have to drink the whole potion for it to take effect. Given how difficult it is you wouldn’t bother using it unless it was the only option.” Rin tells me.

  “So why didn’t you want me to know about this?” I ask Rin, but Rin just shrugs. “How do you break the command that the Heart of Alchemy was used for?”

  “That’s impossible.” Rin tells me honestly.

  “What happens to the cup after the potion has been consumed?” I ask.

  “It can only be used once.” Rin says with a frown.

  “So what happens to the cup?” I ask, sensing evasion from Rin’s aura.

  “It disappears.” Rin says but it is only half the truth.

  “It sounds like this Heart of Alchemy needs two really skilled alchemists. It doesn’t sound like it is something that gets made all the time. How often has it been made?” I ask.

  “I don’t know, but definitely not very often. The last time a dragon was killed was a very, very long time ago and I’ve never heard of an angel being taken prisoner. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least hundreds of years ago that this was last made.” Rin tells me.

  “About five hundred years ago?” I ask and Rin blinks before glaring at Hermes for a moment again.

  “You’re talking about Ishki, right?” Rin asks me.

  “Yes.” I answer bluntly.

  “That probably was the last time it was used. It was supposedly used to order the leader of Ishki to allow himself to be eaten by a hell flower. In later editions of the History of Ishki the leader was female. I assume because it was more palatable for the Contractian public to believe someone as power as the leader of Ishki was female. Later even the revised copies were mostly destroyed, though a copy was kept in a few major libraries.” Rin tells me.

  “How do you know this?” I ask.

  “I did a little research and I asked Silmarion, because she was alive at the time.” Rin tells me.

  “That makes sense. Do you have a copy of the History of Ishki?” I ask and Rin pales. She knows that I can tell if she lies.

  “Why are you so interested in the History of Ishki?” Rin asks me, dodging the question.

  “The Kuroneko told me that I am the Sky Lord of Ishki.” I tell her honestly.

  “But that’s impossible. I just told you he was eaten by a hell flower. As Yu Kii told us, if you’re eaten by a hell flower your soul is eaten. The hell flower won’t even bother eating you if your soul has left your body.” Rin tells me and she truly believes it.

  “If it is so impossible why didn’t you tell me about the History of Ishki?” I ask.

  “Because I knew you’d worry about it. We already knew the Kuroneko had called you the Sky Lord and the leader of Ishki was called the Sky Lord.” Rin sighs.

  “What did he do?” I ask.

  “You don’t want to know.” Rin tells me firmly.

  “Actually I do.” I tell Rin just as firmly.

  “Then read it for yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Rin says and takes her bag out of her skirt pocket. Then she takes the History of Ishki out. “You’ll regret it.”

  “I have to know the truth.” I tell Rin and open the book.

  I can only hope that this doesn’t cause me to lose my memories, but perhaps there is a clue here that will help me destroy this Heart of Alchemy. I can only assume that the command wasn’t simply to have me, if I really am the Sky Lord of Ishki, be eaten. It must be causing me to lose my memories and binding my souls together.

  Do I really want to unbind those souls though? One of them seems intent on killing. But what about my other soul? Is that the true me? Or was Lucy right and the combination is the true me? If so though, that means that part of me wants to kill… I can’t believe that. Lucy must be wrong.

  Chapter 31 (Peter)

  It wasn’t pleasant reading. Having read what the Sky Lord of Ishki is supposed to have done I find myself hoping that the Kuroneko was wrong, but I find that hard to believe. She seemed very confident and clearly wasn’t simply lying.

  The only reason Rin and Hermes don’t believe I am the Sky Lord is because the book says the Sky Lord was killed and his soul eaten. Who’s to say that the book was correct? It could even have been a blatant lie to deceive anyone reading it. I’d like to talk to Silmarion or Lucy, who was probably also alive at the time, but under the circumstance that’s impossible.

  There’s no clue in the book as to how to break the command that the Heart of Alchemy placed on me. The way that the Kuroneko described it sounded like I needed to destroy the Heart of Alchemy itself. I wish the Kuroneko had just told me how to break the Heart of Alchemy. I would have known whether she was telling the truth so I don’t understand why she thought I wouldn’t believe her.

  The Kuroneko said Rin would lie, but Rin truly believed it was impossible to break the command. Rin tried to evade my question about the cup though. She said it disappeared but it felt like that wasn’t entirely true.

  If I can find out what really happens to the cup perhaps I can work out how to destroy the command. Maybe it is as simple as destroying the cup. There are probably other alchemists who know the truth. If nothing else the answer may be in the Great Library, but that will be a dangerous place to search if I need to. I should try other alchemists first.

  “So do you believe us now?” Rin asks, looking up and seeing I have closed the book. Midori and Hermes look up too. They had been semi dozing. The seats at this table are very comfy.

  “That I’m not the Sky Lord, you mean?” I ask.

  “Yes.” Rin answers.

  “I always believed that you believed it, but I’m not convinced. How do I even know that this book isn’t a pack of lies? We already know that the later edition lied about the gender of the Sky Lord and most of the copies were destroyed at some point. Someone wanted to keep the truth hidden. If the Sky Lord was dead, why go to such lengths?” I ask Rin.

  “Maybe to stop other people getting ideas?” Rin suggests.

  “Maybe, but I can’t see anyone wanting to copy the Sky Lord after reading this book. They’d have to be pretty evil.” I tell Rin dubiously.

  “There are evil people. We’ve even met some.” Rin reminds me.

  “People who are evil enough to do this sort of thing probably don’t need to get ideas from a book.” I tell Rin.

  “Maybe, but we don’t know the book is a lie.” Rin tells me, which I can’t deny.

  “I’m going to ask other alchemists about this Heart of Alchemy. I want to know what really happens to the cup.” I tell Rin.

  “I already told you it disappears.” Rin sighs.

  “But that isn’t the whole truth.” I say accusingly.

  “It’s the only thing that I know for a fact. According to some alchemists the bone fuses with the spine of the person who drank the potion, but that doesn’t make sense. Surely the point of the cup is purely to help create the potion. I didn’t tell you about that silly rumour because I don’t believe it.” Rin says and this time she doesn’t seem to be holding anything back. If the cup has fused with my spine it isn’t going to be easy to destro
y and as Rin said that may just be a rumour.

  “Damn. The Kuroneko was wrong. I have no idea how to eliminate this Heart of Alchemy. She also said that you’d lie, but you seem to have told me the truth.” I tell Rin.

  “So what do you plan to do next?” Rin asks.

  “We could see how Hinata and her people are doing.” I suggest.

  “We probably should. She did help us.” Rin agrees.

  “Are we allowed into the refugee camp or do we need to sneak in?” Hermes asks.

  “We’ll need to sneak in. My mother told me the camp is off limits for anyone other than refugees and guards.” Rin says.

  “Why?” I ask, confused.

  “I don’t know.” Rin tells me sounding as confused as I am.

  “If there’s no hope of destroying the Heart of Alchemy right now, I’d also like to have my date with Peter.” Midori says.

  “Utopia Camerona wouldn’t be my first choice of places to have a date, but since we’re stuck here for a while we may as well.” I tell Midori.

  “Then let’s have our date tomorrow. We can check on Hinata today and rest properly tonight.” Midori tells me.

  “That sounds like a plan.” I agree.

  “Then we can have mine the next day.” Rin grins. Then she frowns and looks at Hermes a moment. “Unless you two want to have another date first.”

  “I want Peter to remember our first date together.” Hermes says seriously.

  “Putting aside this stuff about the Heart of Alchemy, how about having my mother take a look at Peter to see if she can detect any curses or anything that might explain the memory loss.” Rin says seriously.

  “I’ll do that before I go on any more dates then. I don’t want to forget them and I’d definitely like to remember my date with Hermes if I can.” I say seriously.

  “Then let’s delay both our dates by a day.” Rin says and Midori nods in agreement. “For now though let’s check on Hinata.”