Lars the Alchemist

The city of Faywyvern was abandoned for fifty-two years until the Lord Storm-Meadow came to claim the impregnable castle inside its walls. Faywyvern was created by King Mhasrir Thorn, First King of the Dwarves, and The First King of Aprillos, it was a fortress so to hold attacks against revolutionists, a monstrous fortress that ranged far like a forest, any living creature who would have dared to advance through the city defenses would've required double the strength of the strongest army to continuously breach the city until the third and last gate. No one, no living soul has ever gone past the second gate in any siege. The ramparts were getting more and more steep, they had spike walls all over them that even the biggest of trolls and giants can't even climb through, there were murder holes everywhere, if you even get to the peak of the ramparts you would already have been pierced by dozens of arrows from behind the curtain walls. The drawbridges were deliberately weakened and destroyed by defenders before every siege so the men we're always baited into climbing the ramparts. The Dwarven city was an inspiration to many Lords and Kings of the succeeding eras, but there were more than less kingdoms to successfully build a city equivalent to its strength

The remaining races of the alliance to defend the last kingdom in the first war consisted of the last Dwarves, Elves, and Humans called the Great Civilization. All of them were living in harmony but the war wasn't kind. It was certain that the remains of the three races were going to be wiped out as the forces of the allied armies perished, and so the city was abandoned the day the King died in the battlefield. Torgan the Mad Orc Lord, he who caused the rebellion and the First War triumphed, and the remains of the obliterated civilization were scattered around the continent. A decade after the war, the Elves sailed North and discord the country of Aexalim, named after the first Elven King, Trost Exalim, who made the first Kingdom of the Elves and reunited the warriors of the Great Civilization. Then King Trost avenged those who perished in the First War.

When Lord Storm-Meadow found the stronghold during the fourth war, it was practically ruins, there were Wyvern's nesting around high towers, the entirety of the houses were nearly dug to the ground and the surrounding nature were growing inside the curtain walls and the unblemished houses. In the present day, Lord Storm-Meadow has been doing his best in reconstructing every structure in the Dwarven Kingdom. Since the first day he claimed the city for himself he hasn't been able to rest until he polished every bit of the city's defenses. At the current state of the city, it is not the defenses that the menacing Lord is worried about. Two days before, Humans, Orcs, Minotaur's. Any creature men would have feared in the war attacked the Kingdom with no warning. The Lord himself called out every known scholar in the Kingdom, asked for the rarest of people who have the knowledge of the discovered Alchemy but there was only one who was willing to work for Lord Storm-Meadow. Lars the Alchemist and Lord Storm-Meadow's Herbalist who he claimed to have little knowledge of it.

There was a young woman running off with her tome, rushing to work with the gathered scholars of the kingdom, inside the great library Faywyvern. For Fifty-Two years it had been abandoned but with the help of the Lord he had asked to transcribe every page of it, and it were full of the needed concepts to discover the Stars that had landed on Aprillos. As she enters the library, it was packed with men and women who are invited by the Lord, helping the Alchemist she assists.

She breathes tirelessly and puts here book down on the table and the Alchemist looks at her.

"You're late. Again." the alchemist declares.

"I apologize, Sir...? I'm sorry who are you again?" she asked

"Just call me Lars for now. We haven't uncovered anything too great to be called a discovery but uh, we got some things to show you. Are you going to help?" Lars replied. "Your name is?"

"My name is, Viviana." she introduces herself.

"That'll do for now." he smiles, walks around and shows her the basics of what was discovered.

The tables were all placed in the center of the library, the alchemist tools and whatnot to help get some insight were all in a carriage and carried all the way to the library. The scholars wished to help the Court Physician with bringing one of every creature's corpse before they wither, it was rather difficult for them to bolster the soldiers in bringing the smallest Minotaur at the height of seven feet tall.

"First of all, we can't get these stars we call in contact with sun, we found that out in the worst possible way. We used the largest of 'em, but it exploded on that far section in the hallway. I'm hoping that I won't pay Lord Storm-Meadow for that one." Lars said and he walks over the room to the Court Physician.

"And this dead Minotaur-" he says.

"has been dead for at least more than a year, morning to you Ana." the Court Physician claims and looks at Viviana.

She greets him back, "Good morning, Professor Johann. I seem to have overslept while studying last night." she chuckles.

"As long as you don't get sick or anything, it's fine." as he carves up the remains of the Minotaur.

The Minotaur's ribs were broken and it's skeleton visible, the eyes were purely white, and it's skin was torn apart like it was massacred by something but the Guards claimed that they were attacked by the monstrous Minotaur and also dozens of other creatures that mysteriously appeared.

"That's everything we found out, it hasn't been two whole hours so we don't have anything to worry about so back to work we go then." Lars suggested.

Though Lord Storm-Meadow has brought a number of people to the kingdom to discover something about the phenomenon, there has been only bits of what has been found. Ana continues to work on the corpses as she has taken an interest to the effects in binding alchemy with her work. While collecting the needed things she gathered all the stars of the same sizes that she could find. She thought that if she tried doing it with a mixture of alchemy it could have some effect. The Herbalists in Ikaria had not much of a difference, but Alchemists take their work on another level, they discover further from medicine, they uncover beyond myths and human limits.

The Lord provided her the plants she requested, as part of the Lords court she even gets the rarest resources you find in the deepest caves and valleys. She's bound quite enough and quarter of her resources we're already used up, but the results weren't the exact concept that she'd thought of. The stars were glowing in different shades of colors.

"Looks like you've come across it too," Lars approaches her. "except mine looks like a shade of the orange and purple but that was it. You thinkin' were missing something?" Lars inquired.

"If we did miss a thing we would have come across it already." Ana says as she picks up the white star and notices that her finger had a cut. She puts the white stars back down and cleans up the cut from her finger.

"Viviana look!" Lars exclaims and points in the air.

The crowd in the library exclaims as the white star floats up in the air and vanishes and sends a projectile of wind into the library leaving sparks of light fading away.

"Look out!" Ana sees the tall hourglass get knocked off from the shelf.

Lars covers his head and ducks down on the ground but everything suddenly went quiet. When he places his head up, Ana's hands were raised towards him.

"M-move!" Ana struggled. The hourglass falls down, she stumbles to the ground showing signs of fatigue.

"Ana!" the court physician calls out, he checks up on Ana.

She was tirelessly breathing in and out and she was feverish, but that wasn't any of what the crowd was worried about. Viviana stopped the hourglass from falling on Lars head, no one has ever seen such a thing.

Lars was marveled of what occurred, "Y-you saw what she did right?" he stutters.

"We have no time for that, Lars... We need to bring Ana to her chambers, she's steaming and pale." Johann declared, "Guards!"

As they leave the library, the men and women inside stuck their eyes on Ana. They have just witnessed was some sort of irregularity, while she was unconscious in her bedchambers, Johann and Lars were there to help sort her out. She was whiter than an Elf, as if her blood dried out.

"I think ... that's all I can do for now." Johann says, walking out the chamber. "She's not in pain or in any other anomalies. She has a wild fever and very pale, she's never that sick. Even if she had stayed up for more than three days Ana would still be standing" he claimed.

"You think it's those stars?" Lars added, "It's not impossible, now that we know it brings some kind of miracle like lifting a fifty pound hourglass from ten feet away without actually grasping it."

"...You look into that, I'm only a court physician and you're an alchemist. In the mean time, I'll take care of Ana..." Johann walks off to his lab.

When Johann left the leading role to him, Lars went back to try and rediscover what Ana did in the library. Though the amount of effort and thought he put in his work exceeded, he couldn't replicate anything. The stars, the plants, and even the known resources that he can bind with each other didn't seem to show the same result

The library was almost empty, evening has set in. Lars found out that if the stars were in a certain shape or size they would not dissipate or explode immediately. The white star which he recreated gave Viviana abilities to hold something from far away, but he can't find out how to activate this ability.

After binding resources of many sorts to each other the stars were way different than before, they were more like spheroids so the Alchemist Lars named them 'Orbs'. He heated the white orb that he created and it's effects were almost identical to the event Ana created. The white orb floated up in the air, but this time it stayed there. It did not vanish, but a cold blast of wind was sending books and papers flying all across the library. Lars discovered that the source of this wind that was blowing inside the library was from the orb.

"Find anything?" someone enters the library and the orb falls down, the man speaks to him with a deep voice and he approaches him.

Lars looks at the man. "Lord Storm-Meadow!" he was surprised. "What brings you here tonight my Lord? Oh, and I'm sorry about the mess."

"Yeah... I heard about the news, spare me some time? Just gotta request a few things."

"Yes, yes, sure. I'll just pick these books up." Lars sighs.

"I'll save you most of the work." The Lord helps him.

When Lord Storm-Meadow entered the library the Orb lands back to where it was, before blasting wind all over the library. Lars couldn't find anything great ... yet, he considered it a chaotic spawn rather than a discovery. It came to his mind to try a few things different from alchemy and medicine, he had yet more to discover, he though to himself that his growth in alchemy isn't all that special and there are quite a lot more he needs to do in order to progress.

Lars places the remaining stack of books on the table. "That's all the books from the mess," he said, while panting from the pile of work. "So, uh. My Lord you wanted to talk to me about something?"

Lord Storm-Meadow was silent, his face showed a serious expression, fuming. He mumbles, "I guess we're going through this again."

"Huh? Lord Storm-Meadow?..."

"Haven't seen it before, but for certain. You, Mister Alchemist have just discovered magick."

Lars showed a shocked face but he chuckles through it. "I-I-I apologize, it's just. It's a myth in a way. Only elves can acquire magick, it is known."

"It is true in a way, Lars." Lord Storm-Meadow claimed. "King Trost Aexalim, appeared in the first year of Kairo until today, the 98th year. He's still alive. Elves are no ordinary beings made from the very earth and soil of Aprillos, he's the longest living King and the only known being to live longer than eighty. People though magick was some fictional ability that the Elves thought up but everyone was wrong. Elves does have the ability to regenerate limbs and wounds because of magick. It wasn't just a formula they use to live an immortal life, it is used to control the elements of nature and they were born with it. The High King himself ordered me to bring the finest scholars and alchemists to gather in the city. He gave me a troublesome quest that could plague the entire world with gruesome abilities."

It is true and known around the world that Elves were immortal. Magick was only a term created by the Elves for their immortality, the only known abilities they had before were their superhuman qualities in combat and their enhanced abilities. Any army that the King Trost would send out would wipe out an Orc army while only losing less than a quarter of their men. Smart beings they were, the battlefield was nothing but a playground to them.

"If it's an impossible task, why did you not relay it to Lord Wigmore?" Lars asked.

"He already knows of it, as the Lord of this Kingdom I have to take care of it myself. No more should ever have the knowledge magick, and no man should wield this to create terrible power. I don't want this kingdom to fall to the hands of wretched beings.

"You're right, if other nations get a hold of these abilities we won't stand a chance. Orcs, Minotaur's, they are extraordinary races with overwhelming physiques and especially the Ogres." Lars feared.

"That's no more than the essence of this tragedy, soon we'll have to gather the forces of men. The Lord of the opposing region must be mustering all the creatures he could get on his side, I can feel the tension. For now I have things to focus on so I can fortify this place, to keep every human in this city safe. I have a position in my court for you, Alchemist. You had a taste of its power, for that I will allow you in wielding Magick in my kingdom but only if you take my oath. Take the position as my court alchemist and become part of my household."

Lars was startled, he kneeled. "My Lord, I-I cannot accept this. It is too generous for you to make me a part of your court. You can't offer this to a hermit who you just invited."

Lord Storm-Meadow sighs and says. "Stand up, Lars. You call yourself a Hermit yet you were a healer in the war, It might seem that don't not talk about the men lead but I remember their valiant acts. If you choose to accept it, meet the Guild-masters I've requested at the outer gate in three days. I'll have my commander to be with you when he returns. Well then it's getting too late, I'll leave you to your work then."

"Ah, yes." he bows. "Have a good evening Lord Storm-Meadow. I'll think about the position." he said, as Lord Storm-Meadow's guards leave the door closed.

Lars thought that it was too much for him to be offered a court position in one of the greatest cities in Ikaria. His normal life was only led to a ton of work he's done in the forests of Faywyern, but in no way had he even thinking of being recognized by a known Lord.

After a few touches in tidying the library, Lars knew that it'd be best if his experiments were done in a safer place. The library was filled with recovered books but a third of the library still had old tomes that were decaying for it was abandoned in decades. Lord Storm-Meadow had asked the other scholars to recover these books, and so far only five of them had been finished out of more than a hundred. Most of the scholars were unable to decipher the language of the Elves and Dwarves, and most of the information it contained where all history, nothing convenient for the work their doing. So Lars had decided to learn about the Elvish language, though it is not his branch of study he had to decipher these books to progress further into the components of magick.

Johann opens the door of the library to see a wooden cart stacked with books of dust and webbing's. "Um, hello there?" he peered over the cart to see Lars on his knees trying to put the last of his tools under the cart. "Lars...?" he said.

"Oh, Professor!" Lars stands up.

"What are you doing, the sun has set ages ago. You know you shouldn't overwork yourself..." he suggested.

Lars chuckled, "I'll get some sleep later, but right now I've got stuff on my mind that I shouldn't forget."

"Oh? Discovered something you can't sleep on have you?" he curiously said.

"I can't say that this is for sure but I think I just discovered magick." Lars claimed with excitement.

"M-magick? Uh, you know what you're saying right, Lars? Immortality can only be obtained by Elves."

"No, no. That's what we thought."

"We?"

Lars told Johann about Lord Storm-Meadow's quest from the High King, Johann has been a part of his court for years so Lars knew he could be trusted. Thus so far only three people in the city have knowledge about magick, and a few confused scholars who had only witnessed a glance of it from Viviana, it was nothing for them to worry about. Lars believed that if his concept is correct, one of each orbs of distinct colors has specific elements of nature, and to further approach this theory he considered mentioning it for an idea to Johann that the orb would trigger an anomaly which can be classified into certain elemental types of magick. Earth, wind and fire. The three basic elements of nature, but Lars was missing plenty of it, so Johann had his back and suggested an idea that helped pique Lars in having an idea that the elements could be bound to each other to produce the other elements. The only problem is that they have to encounter each of the orbs effects, which can certainly cause a disaster.

"Alright, looks like we're here." Johann said as he opens the wooden doors of the unused room. "No one has ever been in this room since the first revolution, to my knowledge. We can do your experiment here if you need more of my help that is."

Lars enters the dark room, it was huge in the inside but the walls were thick with moss, cobwebs, and decaying walls. He felt a cool touch from his back just from entering the room, as if he was frightened for how far it was from the library. "Heh, yeah. I guess we can work it out from here." he replied. Before they set up his own lab, they lit up the the torches in every corner of the walls, and neatly cleaned the cobwebs and ash over the walls and the floor. The room looked like it was an old lab used by Elves as there are Elvish books on the shelves and paper of their writings that are almost decayed.

"Oh! Lars, there are books of Elvish Magick on here!" he exclaimed, pointing at the top shelf

"Hm, you can read Elvish?" Lars walks toward him as Johann puts the dusty elvish tome on the table. "Nice find old man!" It was difficult for an amateur like Lars to read the elvish writing but it did have information talking about Magick and it's elements.

Lars turns the pages in excitement as he sees more illustrations and fragments of rocks similar to the stars that he worked on in the library. He joyfully laughs and says, "This is what we need! We just need to decipher these writings."

"I can try and read most of it but these are old writings, Elves had not evolved much as this writings tell me."

What Lars thought about the writings in the book were right, even if the illustrations were undecipherable at first both of them knew that every piece of paper on the book was the knowledge they needed for Lars experiment. Though it did not say much about his hypothesis, Lars thought that the book was a bridge to that theory.

"I think we gotta get back for this one." Lars said. Once again as he replicates the white orb's magick but it is brighter than it was before. As both of them try to anticipate and cover themselves with the table from the wind that may send a stronger blast it seems that it would not be the case this time.

Johann peeks from the table. "I-I think it's over..." they both stand up and go closer to the orb that is still bright and levitating in the middle of the lab. "Ah, nothing. I think we failed this one, Lars."

Lars walks through and grabs the orb, "You think so? Hm, last time it blew out the entire library." he said, as he grips it with both hands.

"La-Lars, look behind you!" Professor Johann exclaims.

As Lars turns around his eyes became wide open, at least every object in the room were floating around. He drops the white orb and at the same time the tables, shelves and books gliding in the air drop to the ground.

Lars body drops to the ground, laying down he groans to sit up. "I-I g-guess that one worked." He stutters while speaking in a tired voice, breathing every second, and sweating like he was on fire.

"L-Lars, stay here I'll get you something to drink." Johann said with a concerned tone. He rushes out the lab.

Lars continues to lay down on the mossy ground, abnormally breathing. He puts his hand on his face and says. "I-I guess that one was a success." He smirks.

A few minutes later, he hears footsteps of what seems to be armored men. He only saw Lord Storm-Meadow from a glance but it looks like he was half-unconscious, being carried by the Lords men in the hallways of the castle and into an empty chamber. The guards carefully lay Lars down on the bed as the Lord commanded, Johann comes in from behind them into the room with his equipment.

"What happened to the Alchemist, Professor Johann?" the Lord says with a curious tone. "He's pale and skinny."

Professor Johann covers up a wet cloth on Lars head as he replies to Lord Storm-Meadow, "I apologize my Lord, but I can't discuss it with you at the moment."

"Well I command you as a part of my court, Professor." Lord Storm-Meadow insisted in knowing.

Professor Johann gestures with his eyebrows to Lord Storm-Meadows men, it was a secret only to the three of them in that room.

Lord Storm-Meadow looks at the four armored men and commands them, "Leave us, make sure no one comes in without my word." The four men bowed, leaves the chamber and it's doors closed.

"Magick, I suppose?" the Lord continued.

"Yes, but I can't put in the other pieces to how Lars fell unconscious." Johann replied. "I got a few things to tell you though, my Lord. His experiment with these 'Orbs' he calls worked."

"He can control magick now huh."

"You knew about this firsthand, my Lord?"

"Yeah, I asked him to work for me in the meantime, but he can only use it if he becomes my court alchemist."

"Well, I wouldn't really say he controlled it. He was quite shocked himself before he went down."

A loud bang is heard from the bed. "It worked!" bursts with excitement.

Lord Storm-Meadow stands up and says, "Lars? You were unconscious for quite a while."

"Lars! Don't be too excited now, you're still-" Johann sees that his body regained it's normal state, his skin went from very pale to a warm color suddenly.

"I-I'm alright" Lars interrupts, "What happened?"

"A minute ago you were half-dead." Lord Storm-Meadow joined in

"Lord Storm-Meadow!" Lars stands up from the bed and bows.

Lord Storm-Meadow smiles, he was reassured. "He's alright after all. Now it looks like we have to figure out why he was only unconscious for a few minutes."

"Hey! Lars, where are you going?" Johann calls out Lars, wearing his shirt.

Lars responds, "Huh? I'm going back to work, Professor."

"You were just unconscious. You shouldn't be on your feet right now." Professor Johann suggested.

"It's alright, I remember being unconscious ... but it's like my body feels different all of a sudden."

Lord Storm-Meadow acknowledged, "He's right, Professor. If you haven't noticed it yet, his shirt is loose and he looks taller than when I last saw him. That orb he experimented on might've had some effect on his physique."

"Now that you say it, I do see how thin he is too..." Professor Johann agreed.

When Lars was unconscious he was soft and pale, he was like a sick old man but it seems that the magick was absorbed from the orb then shifted onto his body which transformed the build of Lars body. He's more energetic than usual, he shouted, and stood up like nothing happened to him. Professor Johann thought it was perfect for him as a physician. Magick and the anatomy of humans will extend branches of his studies.

"Remember what I told you about Elvish magick, Lars. Upon exposing yourself with this certain orb you experimented on. You're tall, muscular, and thin, you have an Elf-like body. We just don't know if you are immortal like them, we can't prove that by unnecessarily wounding you." Lord Storm-Meadow doubts that he's immortal, but the time it took for Lars to recover tells him he might.

"Sounds like my body is healthy to me Professor. Like Lord Storm-Meadow said, I'm probably healed from the magick."

"If you're going back to the old lab, allow me to assist both of you." Lord Storm-Meadow said.

"My Lord, you are too important in this city, to be involved in this anomaly might cause unfortunate things for you." the Professor warned him.

Lord Storm-Meadow grinned, "Do not worry, Professor. If the alchemist can recover in only a few minutes that means I might not fall unconscious to this one."

It's true that Lord Storm-Meadow could get past this irregularity, with his battle-hardened constitution it might just work out better for him than Lars. He's six feet tall, as muscular as any orc you'd see, and he is not much older than he looks for a thirty-eight year old man, Johann thought. He may be well matched for this supernatural abilities, but there's only one way to find out.