[Archived Short Story] Opening The Wall

“One drop of aquar spidoriod silk goo

Half a pale of shadow mouse aura

Thirteen fiery snowflake stones ground unto pyramidal dust

And a wisp of a dying mountains last breath”

A glowing crysglass bottle shakes with the sound of an earthquake. Then a man turns his attention to a massive tome to record the results. “Too much of the dust for this component. Switch to twelve and a half.”

Behind the man, a door opens cautiously and a man dressed in fancy clothes steps through. “Al Inco Jelua, the court requests your presence!”

The man at the tome, Al, straightens up and takes a glance at the bottle. “Do they have the authority to request such a thing?”

The man at the door nods, “While the High Emperor Himself does not require your presence, a Duke has requested it and none of the Kings denied it.”

Al sighs, “At least I won’t have to change into court finery.”

They led Al through a maze of passages as they bring him from one of the lower known catacombs and up to the court. As he enters the more public areas, numerous people turn their attention to him. While all of them show respect for such an accomplished alchemist, he can feel the hidden smirks. His current research project at that awkward confluence between expensive and impossibility.

The court isn’t much better, though the high nobles do a better job of hiding their disdain.

From one side of the enormous hall a man in ornamental armor steps forward. “My master, Duke Jalco Insto’lafo-tearfan Jelua the conqueror of the Hidna Fore’P tribe and honor bound guard of the Grand Silk Forest canal, has raised further concerns in relation to your use of strategic reserves in relation to the rarest product of his lands!”

Al narrows his eyes. “As much as you are an honored citizen and noble of our lands such that you earned a third name, that of our very empire, I too share that honor. We share the True Last Name of Jelua and you bring doubt upon my honor and question whether I have our immortal empire’s best interests in mind?”

Duke Jalco brings his right fist up and taps it on his left shoulder, making a deep ringing sound as his honor plate resonates. “I question not your honor! Rather, I question if you have unknowingly been caught in the throes of the lost cost fallacy.

“The Aquar are a feared foe, to whom my land loses numerous practitioners to every decade. Yet here, separated from the true cost of such things, using a product only harvestable while said foe is still living and within the area. If you buy too much, then the silk goo will go from simply a rare ingredient, to that of a practitioner’s product!

“While the uses aren’t many, the ones it does have are important! The army will be less than happy if their generals and such can no longer receive the protective gear that is their due!”

Al scoffs, “I use drops of the stuff! Drops! However, could my limited use ever encroach on the armor makers? They need to use handfuls of the stuff for each suit.”

Duke Jalco shrugs, “I only repeat what they reported to me. If there was an error in the accounting, you can’t hold me responsible. Still, it isn’t just my materials that you use.”

Al waves the statement off with his hand. “And it seems that for each ingredient I’ve been called here. So far, none of you have found a reason to limit or stop my research.”

A woman a few spots away from Jalco steps forward. “I, Duchess Sil Insto’kal-wafan Jelua, have seen these debates and feel they miss something.”

Al squints at her, “And what might the honored Duchess feel has been missed?”

Duchess Sil, “The combined weight of all the arguments! So far you have delved into the supposed secrets of the Ancient Sage Ze quil’soma del-to deepknowledge sallma’core. One of the few recorded beings to have earned a fifth name.

“Yet instead of researching his proper paths and knowledge? You throw yourself at the wall of his nightmares and wispy guesses. And each time we bring you here, you manage to weasel your way through the individual complaints.

“But why do we keep taking them individually? We should take the numerous arguments together! Maybe if your research only had a couple of complaints against it, this wouldn’t matter. However, you have a complaint against every single ingredient, almost every piece of equipment, and even some of your assistants!”

It took a shocking 57 hours for that argument to be put down. Al was quite cross as he made it back to his lab, the previous test well and truly ruined at this point. He was going to have to repeat it, wasting those “precious” resources.

Of course, Al knew the materials weren’t what the complaints were about. Except it was their only viable argument. Despite the taboo around what he was doing, the Emperor had declared that the old superstitions should stay in the past.

In fact, Al’s advancement to his current position was because of his willingness to do experiments like this one. Except all his previous works had been more along the line of things people were leery of, instead of outright banned. Plus, I had completed them quickly and so everyone got to share in the benefits.

Shared benefits were the best way to get nobles on your side. This though? It took time, cost money and favors, as well as showed no outward signs of success. The key there was “outward”.

Al wasn’t flying blind like most assumed. As always, when something was forbidden, there would be those who couldn’t help but push those boundaries or even outright break them. His lineage was long and storied.

Of course, Al also had no doubts that the Emperor and many other high nobles knew at least a bit of his background. The hope was that the important parts stayed hidden for long enough. In the end, all secrets would come out the light, but his family has survived the bad times and so he should be able to weather this storm as well.

In a separate part of the palace complex, duchess Sil was shaking her head. She had thought that this time, they could stop that cursed alchemist! How could he reveal these secrets that her cult had been guarding since before recorded history?!

She had figured the reveal of her support would be enough to finish the fool off! Sure, she wasn’t one of those craven plot-spinners that loudly proclaim themselves to be one of the Emperor’s mistresses. But she knew the man on a more personal level than maybe even some of those fools.

That apparently wasn’t enough, though. Not that she weighed such a relationship too heavily from the start. He was the Pantheon Blessed Emperor, after all. Unlike some lower nobles, he doesn’t need to worry about who he shares his time with.

It was still frustrating. She had spent so much time working on the man and trying to turn him from the fool! Not to reinstate the bans of course.

Sil’s family history was stained just as black as the alchemist’s own family, if not blacker. Those idiots only had the outline and a few shoddy tests. Her family? They had reveled in the powers provided by the dark secrets of the past!

After all, her family had managed to become high nobles! That fool alchemist? His family barely managed to feed themselves for many years. What good is holding such secrets if you can’t use them to live a better life?

Of course, neither side quite has the full story. Deep within the palace complex, in a location only those personally escorted by the Emperor Himself can go, He is meeting with four other people.

To the left of the Emperor, a worm-like man with a twisted form that looks scarred by splashes of many strange potions laughs. “Both sides think so small! Honor for a family long reduced to the streets? The belief in some alien being who doesn’t care about them? Hah! As if such small problems could even come close to the big picture.”

The Emperor shakes his head, “Don’t look down on them too much. Both sides have secrets we need to progress. The delicate balance between keeping our pet alchemist sniffing around only the edges against those high nobles using ever more extreme rituals is not one you could handle.”

The twist man snorts, “I’m not one of your damned politicians, boy! If it was up to me, I would just strap them both to my table and eventually they would spill everything they know!”

The lady across from him and to the Emperor’s right shakes her head. “Last time I checked, even your supposedly full proof truth serum wasn’t actually able to work on true fanatics. Maybe the alchemist would bow down to you, but that cult isn’t so easily dealt with. The initiation into the secrets we need requires experiencing concoctions much worse than what you have ready!”

To that lady’s right a man covered in bandages sighs. “The two sidez holding zo tightly to their secretz, yet not realizing the secret hidden even deeper. They are but two sidez to the same coin! Separated at creation to keep the true depthz hidden.

“If one could absorb the other! Oh, what troublez we would face! Don’t look down on their situationz. After all, it doomed them to their lot in life from the start such that neither side would willingly join the other. Our tazk would be so much harder!”

The fifth person at the table, hidden in sourceless shadows, snorts. “What can a high noble do to the Emperor? What can a small-time alchemist family manage against even one of our leader’s concubines?

“All this scuttling around in the dark? I know this is a bit hypocritical, but why bother when we can grab it in the light? There is some danger, but the quicker we know, the sooner we can insulate ourselves from the danger.”

The Emperor shakes his head, “We have time! While the danger of us being discovered by taking the secrets out in the open is small. I do not want the Council to look our way. As long as no one messes this up, we will succeed! So don’t get impatient now.”

Though even those five aren’t as all knowing as they needed to be. An old secret like what all three sides were fighting over? Time has a way of spreading around even the most tightly held secrets.

And a secret this big and this ancient? Well, a number of powerful parties had found their way to this corner of the world just for it. Within the alchemist’s lab where he was supposed to be alone, a wisp of a shadow watched carefully.

The stealth skills being displayed to steal the alchemist’s knowledge had already been used to find out everything on the duchess’s side and so now they focused on what was being discovered in this lab. All this watcher needed was for the alchemist to figure it out and then they could be disposed of and the lab vanished.

Not that this would do much good. An occasional shimmer in the air that when rarely spotted and assumed to be dust. Except, of course, it wasn’t. Instead, it was another faction spying on the alchemist through the use of a scrying technique. They might not be able to change things, but they can certainly watch.

And yet the one who ended up having the last laugh was the alchemist. He had been right, it only needed eleven and a half units of the dust! Not that he revealed these things in the lab.

Now, he didn’t know who all was watching him, but he knew without a doubt that multiple people must have been doing so. On top of that, one of his hidden secrets was about the actual state of his family. Because they had known!

From the very start, they knew that they were only one half of the coin. That they were meant to languish in near poverty. All that and more, was known to them and passed down through oral tradition only when in their families ritual circles, safe from outside prying.

Over the years, various men and women would “leave” the family for a better life. Of course, those people and their children didn’t try anything. They would be watched! However, as generations progressed, those branches would infiltrate into other places.

Sure, the main family was forever a poverty-stricken group of small time healers. If anything, this made control of the branches easier. After all, unlike noble families, being in the main branch was a cursed position so no one tried to steal it.

And so, with time, these branches snuck into all walks of life. Whether it was the high nobles or the darkest of guilds. In particular, they even managed to get someone into the faction that Dutchess Sil was a part of and to steal the true secrets.

While those high nobles might believe their methods are full proof. In the end, they’re trying to use potions against an alchemist family. No matter how poor the family might be, they still had a legacy few could rival. So despite everyone else’s attempts at uniting the secrets, the Al’s family has actually managed it generations ago.

All that had been missing was the resources. Resources that a certain Emperor was more than happy to foot the bill on. The trick, after getting all the resources he could want was to hide the actual results behind success and failure alike. The watchers would notice if failures weren’t and so try to puzzle together the answer through that.

Al instead randomly chose how to portray each actual success. You would need to examine every test and judge whether it did what he wanted or not. No one had managed this and besides, everyone else truly believed that his family had not gotten a hold of the secrets of the cult.

So as the alchemist mixes together his final “failure”, things begin to happen fast. Al tossed the resulting mix into a pot used to dispose of the various tests and mixed with previous results. As this happened a glow formed around the alchemist and set off a number of responses.

The scrying focus winked out as chaotic power filled the area. That hidden spy attempted to go for the kill only to lose an arm to the glow. Outside of the lab, a contingent of soldiers surrounded the place in every direction including up and down. On top of that, a number of less involved factions became informed that something was going down.

All for nothing as Al grabbed not only the pot, but a number of other vials and previous experiments before vanishing. The palace wards strained to prevent the teleportation, but their holes had long ago been sussed out by Al’s family. It was a little touch and go when the teleportation hit a number of third party wards meant to prevent exactly this, but in the end he got away.

Not that people don’t know where he went. It was as obvious as the sun in the sky. His family’s ancient hovel suddenly glowing and expanding outward? Kind of hard to miss.

They had played the part and lived like peasants or worse, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t prepared for the future. So when Al popped back into his home, instead of the one room building he had grown up in, he appeared in a marble courtyard. Around him, magic lights lit up the night and works of art dotted the area.

All ignored as Al hauled his various alchemic concoctions into a specially prepared room. It was time to finish things! Of course, the other groups weren’t going to let things go that easily.

The Emperor and his four subjects rose up out of the palace complex and rained magical annihilation down on the distant hovel turned mansion. Off to the side, a group of high nobles led by Sil did the same, though with much less impressive magic. Neither, however, could scratch a single wall, let alone disturb Al.

From all around, people rush this new mansion, which seems to still be expanding. Some to see what is happening, while others slip right through the light wall, to join up with their true family. Of course, many keep well back, seeing as so much firepower is being directed at the place.

Deep in the center of the mansion that is soon to be a palace, Al begins work as five withered people join him. The five are ancestors of his family, so old as to have lost their names. No information on them remains, not even their gender.

Though the five can only offer support. They had taken certain secret products to extend their lives at the cost of a primal separation from the world. Good thing Al, as the heir to the family, has had the needed skills saturated into his body and mind since before he could even remember.

It took exactly ten days and nights for the process to finish. Maybe if Al had the assistance of some other professions, it could have gone quicker, but he was of an alchemist tradition and they had their own sort of pride. Maybe if it had needed something else to work, he would have bowed his head, but it didn’t.

From the skies above, great multicolored bolts of lightning and streamers of fire raged down upon the center of the new palace, cutting through all wards and barriers as if they didn’t exist. Al was ready for this though and his cauldron rose up and absorbed the heavens wrath. Well, calling it “his” cauldron wouldn’t be quite correct.

It was the family cauldron and had been with them since before the secret. Each generation fortifying the cauldron with strange rituals and odd ingredients. This preparation proved itself as not even a single burn appeared on the outside.

Then, as the sky cleared, a fae glow encompassed the land for hundreds of miles around. Leaves danced in a non-existent wind as mushrooms spontaneously grew in circles. At the center of it, Al reveled in deals fulfilled.

Long before the modern calendar, the Fae Wilds had been sealed away. Locked behind the walls of reality such that only powerful Fae could whisper through the gaps. His family had been one able to hear those whispers, but knew the way history was leaning and so joined the winning side.

Those dark secrets? The ancient rites, rituals, and deals that the Fae had made. Power sealed and yet still vibrant after uncountable years, just waiting for the walls of reality to fall.

His family had never truly broken any of their deals with the Fae. Part of their poverty came from constantly sacrificing that which they should despite receiving nothing in return. Yet now, now it would all be worth it!

Al laughed wildly as he could sense the forests becoming deeper. Small critters popping into existence to pick up their ancient task. Oh, and the darker sorts once more freed to reap their bloody toll on the populace.

Al didn’t care as he watched the first Fae noble step through. All the promises! All the deals and rituals! All the endless pain and grief! It would finally be worth it!

Off in the distance, the Emperor roared in pain as the bandage wrapped man slipped a poisoned knife into his back. Sil lost her voice and beauty as deals long broken took hold. And of course, a number of other organizations started to fall as people revealed their true allegiances, ripping them apart from the inside.

All the while, Al and the five elders sucked in the power flowing out of the Fae Wilds. Those old ones twisting into strange shapes and being pulled through to join the Fae. Al, on the other hand remained himself, though the power planted a seed.

A seed meant to fulfill certain deals upheld. That of immortality and power. For once he died a mortal’s death, he would be reborn within the Fae Wilds with his memories intact. Now all that remains to be seen is if he will truly like that new life. For now, though, he can revel in the power and authority gifted to him.