Alchemised

by SenLinYu

“Is there a reason you’re starving her?” Stroud said, her hard fingers digging into Helena’s arm, lifting it and turning her. “Look at her. You complain about her fevers while feeding her little more than kitchen scraps.” Ferron finally looked at Helena properly. “Pardon?”

....Aureliaaaaaa

Ferron said nothing, but Helena could have sworn he’d somehow paled. “I assumed she’d been eating as Aurelia and I do.” His fingers flexed. “Aurelia has always managed the menu. I will make enquiries.”

Yup that bitch

“I want her eating full meals. As much as she wants, with proper cuts of meat and vegetables. And porridge or broths in between until she’s healthy.” Ferron gave a tight nod. “She’ll be fed properly. I will ensure it.”

Im backing this woman Also from a medical stand point, malnutririon needs to be addressed in waves. A lot of food at first won't do her well

Ferron didn’t move, still looking at Helena until Stroud glanced over her shoulder at him. “Perhaps go see if there’ll be a proper meal tonight.”

AKA: Get the fuck out

“It would seem that I’m obliged to personally see to everything,” he said with a scowl as he stepped back.

YOU THINK???

He’d disliked healers on principle and hated Helena the moment he laid eyes on her.

And you do what? Pray the pain away?

What had she been thinking about? Something about—Lila?

I feel like she betrayed the resistance

When she was hidden behind a large floral arrangement, her right hand shot out, snatching up a beautifully sharp-edged table knife with one smooth motion.

Her mouth went dry. “I was—looking at the flowers.” He glanced towards the dining room again, eyes narrowing. “Were you, now?” She used his distraction to adjust her grip on the knife. “Yes. I like—flowers.”

Horrible liar

She could try killing him. Yes. She’d do that. She let her eyes widen, jaw slackening with surprise. His mouth curved into a faint smirk. She lunged.

Dude youre in no shape or form to fight

She caught the hilt in her left hand, ignoring the pain that shot up her arm. With resonance she would have transmuted the length, but it took a split second longer to slam the blade into his chest, straight for his heart.

I take my previous comment back

He turned back to Helena, examining the knife in his hand. It had sliced into his palm so deep, it was lodged in the bones. He didn’t even wince as he pulled it free, holding it up so the blade caught the light, scarlet blood gleaming along the edge. “How good of Aurelia to have these freshly sharpened and left within your reach.”

Bro Aurelia sure is also trying to gether killed

Mandl died. In front of a crowd of reporters and international visitors, citizens, and foreign dignitaries, one of the Undying, whose appearance marked her as undeniably and visibly among the immortal, died.

The Resistance terrorists believed to have been wiped out had reappeared in a spectacular manner, before an audience that could not be as easily cowed into silence as the national press was.

It was like someone had kicked her repeatedly in the lower abdomen and then stabbed her all over for good measure.

Mmmmmmm...guinea pig to reverse sterilization?

“I was told that the transmutations in her mind would cause difficulty,” Ferron said. “Those difficulties are because she is resisting, because she can resist. This—she is the animancer.”

“I will die before I lose her,” Ferron said, his grip tightening.

“I—” Her throat closed, convulsing. “I—attacked a prison?” “It was after the final battle,” Ferron said, sounding far away. “Seems you were captured after levelling more than half the West Port Laboratory.

I was a healer,” she said. “I wasn’t—they didn’t let me fight.”

“Mandl wasn’t the first of the Undying to be killed,” she said at last. “They’ve been dying for weeks. I didn’t realise what the disappearances had in common until now. I thought it was censorship, that maybe they were dissidents, but it’s the Undying. They’re disappearing because they’re being killed, and you’re the one who’s been covering it up.”

:O

“Morrough doesn’t care about the economy or what kind of alchemists there are in New Paladia. The real reason Stroud’s using selective breeding is to find a way to control what resonance children are born with. That’s why they brought back your father and I saw him at Central. She’s trying to produce an animancer for Morrough. If transference is perfected by the time she does, he’d have the means and the perfect vessel to use, but he’s—he’s running out of time.”

Orochimaru ass

But he’s deteriorating anyway. I saw him only a few months ago, and he wasn’t like that. That throne is now keeping him alive.

Bruh

the source of his power is right in front of us, but it’s been disguised, so that people wouldn’t realise. Perhaps it’s presented as a gift, something people are desperate to earn, but really he’s the one who needs it.”

“The Undying. You’re his source of power, and the Resistance—we figured that out, didn’t we? How to kill him. How to kill all of you.”

*gasp* And thats what Ferron is up to

“Actually, I’ll tell you…if you tell me what it was that ended up being too good to be true for you.” She swallowed hard, staring at the mountains. “Paladia.” She drew a deep breath and looked at him. “Well?” He met her stare, eyes glittering with a strange look of satisfaction. “Yes, he’s dying.”

She began to suspect that Morrough was torturing him regularly. Since Ferron couldn’t stay dead, Morrough got the pleasure of killing him over and over.

Thats what happened in the sewer

“Worrying about me?” His face twisted into a gloating smile. “I never thought I’d see the day.” Her face burned. “Don’t take it as a compliment. I hate torture.”

“Speaking of fucking,” came a new, sly voice, “how many of you have been to Central lately? Stroud show you the works?”

Rage

“it probably depends on your repertoire. She’ll give you a list of room numbers to choose from. There’s this one girl, pretty thing, scars weren’t too bad. Little bitch managed to bite me, but she was very cooperative after I broke her jaw.

Those poor girls

“If I was Ferron, I’d keep you chained to my bed.”

Ok so my first assumption wasn't off

She turned, eyes dazed, and found Lancaster crumpled against the wall as Ferron stood over him, kicking so violently that bones cracked each time.

perfect timing

“I assumed you wouldn’t mind if I borrowed her, seeing how you let Aurelia out to play. I’m the one who caught her. She should be mine.” “She’ll never be yours.”

“You idiot—why did you come out tonight?” Helena just looked at him. She thought she should say something. What she’d tried to tell Lancaster. “Ferron always comes for me,” she whispered.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said in a tense voice. He took her by the shoulders, turning her towards him. She knew he wouldn’t. He only hurt her on certain days, and this wasn’t one of them, so she sat very still.

Compared with what the rest of the survivors suffered, Ferron was almost kind. It was such a horrible thought.

My mother always said the first two babies were hers, and I was—Kaine Ferron’s. She burned them in the fireplace and buried the ashes in the garden. Spent all her time out there with them.”

“Until you came along, and suddenly he moved in,

ALL THIS TIME HE DIDNT LIVE THERE?

“Erik came here because of you. Kaine killed him because of you. Erik was using me! He used me so he could get to you!”

A lifetime of rejection, yikes

“You know, Kaine’s terribly hard to shop for. I can never find anything he wants, but there is one thing that he started collecting…Do you know what it is?” Helena’s heart was racing. She shook her head. Aurelia nodded towards the far corner of the room. “Eyes.

Aurelia screamed in terror as she was dragged off the floor, fighting to free herself with her own resonance, but the iron bars wrapped tighter and tighter until Helena heard bones breaking and Aurelia went limp, her iron-taloned fingers splayed and contorted where they’d been trying to push back against the bars.

Down with the witch!

He tilted her face up towards his, and his expression grew horrified. He touched her cheek and held her face as he drew several deep breaths. “Your eye is out of the socket, and you have a deep puncture in the white,” he said, his voice shaking. “How do I fix it?”

He set a hand on Aurelia’s chest, and Helena expected to watch Ferron create a new necrothrall. Instead, Aurelia screamed, lurching up from the floor, her eyes wild with terror.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh, are you here for me? No, you aren’t, you’re here because of her.” She pointed accusingly at Helena. “You nearly killed me, and you did kill Erik Lancaster, because of her!”

“Yes, I did. Do you know why? Because she is the last member of the Order of the Eternal Flame, which means that she is important. Infinitely more so than you will ever be. More important than Lancaster dreamed. My job is to keep her mind intact. When your father had you educated, did he ever mention that the eyes have a nerve connecting directly to the brain? What do you think happens if you just rip them out?”

I’ve been willing to overlook your indecent behaviour and petty interferences, but do remember, aside from being somewhat decorative, you are useless to me.

Would of rather stayed dead...yikes

If you ever go near her again, or speak to her, or so much as set foot in this wing again, I will kill you, and I will do it slowly, perhaps over the course of an evening or two. That isn’t a threat. It’s a promise. Now get out of my sight.”

“How did you know I’d be able to fix my eye?”

“You were a healer.” “Yes, but…” Her voice faded. She was unable to explain why she felt dissatisfied with the answer. “Where did you learn to heal?”

Something smells fishy Ferron and its you

“One of life’s great ironies,”

All of this feels like it might be an irony

Stroud noted something in her file, and then made Helena lie back and spent more than a minute kneading her stomach and lower abdomen.

This woman is prepping that womb for sure