Alchemised

by SenLinYu

Remembered that she’d been placed there as a prisoner, kept preserved, but someday, someone would come for her.

“This is elaborate, beautiful, professional work. A vivimancer manually rewiring the human consciousness.”

All she knew was that as long as those manacles remained locked in place, she wasn’t an alchemist at all.

“Another chance—please! I will not fail you! I swear. You will not regret it.” “No, you will not fail me again,” Morrough said, his rasping voice almost gentle as he reached into Mandl’s open chest, fingers sliding beneath her lungs and extracting a gleaming piece of metal from somewhere near her heart. Little tendrils of viscera were wrapped around it, clinging to both the metal and Morrough’s fingers as it was torn free.

Luc, newly crowned as Principate, had been certain that the citizens of Paladia would be shocked into reason once they realised they were aligning themselves with necromancers. Necromancy had been a mortal crime throughout most of the continent for centuries. Not even the guilds would go so far. He had been wrong.

Penny leaned over the arm of the chair, looking back, her face stricken. “You were right. I’m so sorry. We should have listened to you.”

Surviving didn’t matter. She’d kill herself before they learned anything from her.

Men prone to violence were generally thoughtless, acting with emotion first and applying reason after.

“See?” he said. “It’ll be easier if you obey.”

Her mouth twisted, throat going taut. “I don’t like places I can’t see.” “Since when? I haven’t noticed you keeping the light on in here constantly. Or are these shadows different?”

“You don’t have to push me away to protect me,” he said in a hard, familiar voice. “I can take it. You can stop being lonely. I won’t misunderstand. I know you just want someone to be with.” She looked for a door. An escape. He didn’t let go. “Helena…” She stilled at her name. “I’m alone, too,” he said.

He dipped his head. “Why is it that I have to keep all my promises, but you never seem to keep a single one of yours?”

She rested her head on his shoulder, breathing slowly. “You have to be so careful. It could take months, maybe even years before your soul fully integrates again. No vivimancy or animancy, nothing that could strain your vitality at all. One mistake could be enough to kill you. And you can’t lean into the array anymore. You won’t regenerate, and it could burn your back open.” He tucked a curl behind her ear. “You already told me all this yesterday. You know, I do make a habit of listening when you talk.”

“Love isn’t as pretty or pure as people like to think. There’s a darkness in it sometimes. Kaine and I go hand in hand. I made him who he is. I knew what that array meant when I saved him. If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.”

“Pity someone didn’t kill her,” Kaine finally said. “Someone did,” Helena said in a voice that was almost a hiss. Kaine stared at her blankly. “Don’t,” she said. “Don’t you dare lie to me.” Kaine gave a low sigh, and when he looked up, the sharpness of him reemerged like a raw blade.

Hibernal Solstice, Solar Year 1786 PD. Principate Lucien Holdfast with Paladin Soren Bayard (See: Bayard, Soren; chapter 12, “A Life of Legacy”) and foreign-born alchemist Helena Marino. Marino left the city at the start of the Paladian Civil War to study healing. She survived the war but died during imprisonment prior to Liberation. She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and did not fight.