Alchemised

by SenLinYu

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

Definition of Vivamancer

“Some kind of transmutation. I have never encountered anything like it. I’m going to have to report this. I’ll need a specialist. You have—” The woman paused. “There’s no name for this! I’ll have to come up with a name…”

resonance

Magic?

“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.

the High Necromancer, Morrough,

“This is alteration of the unalterable. Someone—has disassembled the pathways of her mind and created alternative routes for them. How could it be done without knowing all her thoughts and memories? No. No. This is scientifically impossible.”

He turned. Helena’s throat closed as the world around her vanished, footsteps faltering.

Just live, Helena, a voice in her mind begged.

They were perfectly spaced into a circle in her palm. Not large but distinct in the way they marred the skin. She stared at them. The shape felt familiar.

?

“You know,” Ferron said, jolting her from her thoughts, “when I heard it was you I’d be getting, I was looking forward to breaking you.” He shook his head. “But I don’t think it’s possible to exceed what you’ve done to yourself.”

They were remarkably reanimated. A person might not notice they were dead. They were agile and precise in their tasks and without any signs of decomposition.

They are not dead.

The only piece visible was a slender, dark metal ring on his right hand. Her eyes narrowed as she studied it. “What kind of ring is that?” she asked. He looked down. “This?” he asked, as if there were any other rings she could have been referring to. He turned his hand. “Just an old piece.”

it. It was hand-forged rather than transmutationally crafted; she could see the hammer marks that had beaten a scaled, almost geometric pattern onto it. A bizarre thing for an iron alchemist to wear.

Ferron gave a broken gasp and dropped like a stone, falling not prone but over Helena, one arm braced just above her head.

Protecting her

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

“Are you wanting a confession?” he finally asked. “Shall I tell you everything I’ve done?” She could only make out the vaguest shape of him, crouched in front of her. His breathing was still strained as he held her upright. She wondered then if they’d paused there so she could recover, or so he could. The dose of laudanum she’d taken had eased the pain splintering her head. A question rose to her lips, and she felt as if it was vital that she ask. She leaned forward, trying to see his face. “Do you want to?”

“Ferron always comes for me,”

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

“Let me be very clear, then. I don’t want you. I never wanted you. I am not your friend. There is nothing I want more than the moment I’m finally done with you.” He turned and left.

Murrough has to see this. Thats why he's so mean.

“I’m so sorry.”

“No one is going to steal your book,” he said as if he was trying very hard to be patient. He gestured around. “Who even would? If they do, I will buy you a new one. Leave it.”

Aw

“No one is going to hurt your baby,” he said, meeting her eyes.

“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.”

“I swear it, on the spirits of the five gods and my own soul, Kaine Ferron, I’m yours as long as I live.”

His breath smelled like juniper: peppery, sharp, and fresh-cut.

“Are you wanting a confession? Shall I tell you everything I’ve done?” She stared into his mocking eyes. “Do you want to?”

<3

“It’s power that gets you off, isn’t it?” Her voice shook with rage as she forced herself to move down to the next button. “Hurting people is the only way you know how to feel anything. But now even that barely does it for you, so you have to find new ways to do it, make your victims responsible for their pain; making it a choice they made, a vow they consented to. That’s what thrills you now. Using what people care about to coerce and enslave them rather than having to do the physical work of hurting.” She scoffed in his face. “You think you’re better than us because you’re immortal, but you’re dead inside already.”

oh.

Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.

She was replaceable. Ferron wasn’t.

“Don’t die, Marino. I might miss you.”

Instead of perpetually ice-sharp and guarded, he felt like something she might drown in.

remember this chapter Noemi.

Chapter 37

“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.”

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

omg

She had not known it was a hunger. Or that she was starving.

ahhhhhhh

“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.”

love <3

“You know, I forgot your hair looked like that. It’s pretty, the way you braid it now.”

-_- pretty if it's up huh

“I like hurting them. It’s the best part of the job. The rest is boring.”

wow ivy

Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.

They were the inverse and counter to each other. A healer and killer, circling slowly, the push and pull inexorable.

“Who else?” he asked, his voice empty, just a touch of irony in it. “Aurelia, perhaps.” He smiled. “Right. Quite forgot about her.”

lol

Touch him and she’d bleed, and yet she could not escape the allure of it.

“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.”

<3

But worse still was knowing all that and still craving those rare moments in which he was gentle. Because that was all she had left.

“You always have to come back,” she said. “All right? Don’t die. Promise—”

“All right…” he said, “but only because you asked.”

It was not a slow, sweet kiss. It was not a kiss caused by alcohol or insecurity. It was born of rage, despair, and desire so hot, it threatened to burn her into oblivion. It was possibly a kiss goodbye. She wanted him to know. It was real. For her, it had always been real.