Alchemised

by SenLinYu

She thought at first if she waited long enough, some glimmer of light would appear, or someone would come. Yet no matter how long she waited, there was nothing.

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

She had to endure. To stay alert. That way she would be ready. She had to stay ready. She would not let herself fade away.

vivimancer. Necromancy’s inverse twin, wielded on the living rather than the dead.

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

By its nature, lumithium bound the four elements of air, water, earth, and fire together, and in that binding, resonance was created.

Usually, resonance was channelled into the alchemy of metals and inorganic compounds, allowing for transmutation or alchemisation. However, in a defective soul which rebelled against Sol’s natural laws, the resonance could be corrupted, enabling vivimancy—like what the woman had used on Helena—and the necromancy used to create necrothralls.

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

“Soul mithridatism…”

I hear new words every single page!

“Penny, what are they—” Helena didn’t get the whole question out as she was shoved towards her room. 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.”

“The war is over. What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours?”

“Do I know you?” she asked as her eyes slid closed. “I suppose you do.”

Soren. Remember Soren. What happened to him?

“Why don’t you die?”

“Prior commitments, I’m afraid.”

“I will die before I lose her,”

“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.”

“She’ll never be yours.”

“Ferron always comes for me,”

“I’m not going to hurt you,”

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.”

“Oh, Marino.” His thumb trailed along her neck, following the scar below her jaw. “If I’d known what pain you’d cause me, I never would have taken you.”

“But at this point I suppose I deserve to burn. I wonder if you’ll burn, too.”

“Stay…please…stay.”

“I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the Eternal Flame. That isn’t a threat. It is a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast’s. If you die, I will kill every single one of them.”

“Kaine Ferron has offered to spy for the Resistance,” said Crowther.

What?

“You think you’re better than us because you’re immortal, but you’re dead inside already.”

“Was it a punishment for you—being made Undying?” He glanced at her, his face empty. “How could immortality be a punishment? It’s what everyone wants.”

“Do I get to know why?” she asked, still staring dully at the floor, ribs aching with every breath. “Did I—did I d-do something?” “You exist, Marino. I think that’s reason enough.”

I don't understand him sometimes

Don’t make me responsible for Kaine Ferron’s death.

“You know, there’s something about you, Marino, that inspires the most terrible decisions from me. I’ll know better, but then I’ll still…”

“You have such a singular mind. Even when I’m not inside it, I can still see it churning away behind those eyes of yours.”

“Thank you, Marino.” She swallowed, lifting her gaze. “Still not Helena?” He exhaled, avoiding her eyes. “Helena.” He said it slowly, drawing it out, as if he was testing the way it sounded.

“I must admit,” he said in a low voice as though making a confession, “if anyone had told me you’d become so lovely, I would never have come near you. I was rather blindsided when I saw you again.”

“You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.”

“Would you do something for me?” The question was quiet. She looked up. His expression had relaxed again, and his hair had fallen across his forehead, softening his features. She scanned him quickly. “What do you want?” He tilted his head. “Will you take your hair down? I want to see it.”

“If you don’t want me to kiss you, you should say so now,” he said.

“You made me feel like the parts of me that aren’t useful still deserve to exist. Like I’m not just all the things I can do.”

“I didn’t know that was something vivimancers could do,” she said, trying to get her thoughts straight. “I don’t think that most can,” Kaine said, straightening. “It’s something only animancers are capable of.” He said it so casually that it took Helena a moment to process his words. She looked at him sharply. “How’d you realise?” she said. A thin smile curved across his face. “It was just a guess.”

“I think…he wants me. Treating the array changed things between us, but he knows what I’m doing.” She swallowed hard. “He’s very obsessive about things. I think he always has been, but the array makes it worse. If things go according to plan, that’ll be good for us. I don’t think he’ll ever abandon the Eternal Flame then. Willingness seems critical with him, and he knows mine is conditional on the Eternal Flame’s survival. But—given how far he’s willing to go for things, I’d say there’s a chance he’d destroy anything that stood in his way. That might include me.”

“You know, I just realised, if I succeed, you’ll control Ferron the same way you use Luc to control me. It makes me feel rather sorry for him.”

“Have you ever tried nickel-titanium alloy?” She shook her head. “It would make a better weapon for you. Very light. You’d waste your strength with steel.”

“You wouldn’t have. It is a part of the Emperor’s power. As lumithium can create resonance, mo’lian’shi takes it back. What this is—” He looked down and seemed deeply troubled. “This is mo’lian’shi fused with lumithium. The simultaneous effect of both together creates a resonance haze.”

“Don’t die, Kaine,” she said. The line he walked frightened her. If the array was the punishment for a failure, what would the price of betrayal be? A smirk twisted his mouth as he looked at her. “There are far worse fates than dying, Marino.” She nodded. “I know. But that one you don’t come back from.” He gave a bitter laugh. “All right, then, but only because you asked.”

“I can’t let you die.”

“You will do anything for that family, won’t you? But someday, Holdfast will realise you don’t belong in his kingdom of gold and purity. I wonder what he’ll do with you then.” She knew he was trying to hurt her, but it was something she had thought about so much, the sting of it had worn away. “He won’t have to do anything; you took care of that for him.” She gave a tight-lipped smile. “But even if you hadn’t, I knew I’d be expendable from the moment I became a healer.”

“And what would your dear Luc say if he learned how you let his father’s killer buy you like a whore?”

Sometimes I forget he killed his farther

“I have—something for you,” he finally said, as if having a tooth extracted. He pulled out something rolled up in an oilcloth and held it towards her. Inside lay a set of beautiful daggers, sheathed in mesh holsters. Helena felt her resonance respond before she even touched them. “The longer one goes on your back, the smaller one on your forearm,” Kaine said when she was silent. “They’re sized for you. Titanium and nickel is a mnemonic alloy, which will allow you to transmute them further than most weapons; they’ll still return to form. It has three memory shapes depending on the resonance phase you use, and you can alter them if you wish. That’s why the sheaths are malleable.”

“You are not ever allowed to take these apart or turn them into medical instruments. Not for anyone.”

“I must say, Marino, you’ve ended up being quite expensive.”