Page 138 of Alchemised
CHAPTER 26
Februa 1786
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR RESONANCE FELT wrong?” Crowther said when Helena finished reciting all that had happened. He’d summoned her to his office the moment she’d walked through the gates.
Helena crossed her arms, hugging herself.
“I assume it’s because he’s Undying. It was different than I expected. I’m not sure if I can transmute him. He looks identical to his student portrait; maybe he can’t be changed. He doesn’t feel like it’s possible, and even if it is, I’m not sure I can do this subtly enough.”
“Would a test subject help?”
She stared at him in blank horror. “What? No.”
“It would be effective, wouldn’t it?”
“No,” she said again. “I’m a healer, I’ve taken oaths—”
“No, you’re not,” Crowther cut in, a susurration in his voice like the snap of scissors. “Not in this room, not on this assignment. I don’t have any use for a healer. I need a vivimancer who will do what is necessary. Heroism is something for others to perform for the masses. Intelligence work—our work—is breaking people open by whatever means necessary to reach their secrets. That is what you are a part of now.”
Helena glared at him. “I know how to perform the physiological aspects; it’s the regeneration that I’m not sure about. Unless you have one of the Undying on hand, a test subject isn’t any use.”
Crowther sat back and looked sour. “Not at present, but it’s possible if need be.” His eyes narrowed. “Did he give you that ring?”
Helena slipped it off, sliding it across the desk. “It’s entangled. He intends to use it to summon me in emergencies. He was very specific that the deal’s off if I ever use it in reverse. You were right about him, he’s incredibly prideful. Just the idea of being called by me practically threw him into a rage.”
Crowther scrutinised the ring, rolling it between his fingers. “Is this silver?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “He must have inherited it from his mother. She was a silver alchemist here at the Institute. Minor noble family but passable talent. Atreus was quite taken with her for a time.”
“You knew them?” Helena stared curiously at Crowther.
“Of them. The sentiments among the guilds towards sponsored students were no different then. Everyone assumed it was a brief infatuation. A Ferron would hardly stray outside his resonance to that degree. It was a shock when Atreus quietly married her, obviously out of obligation. I can’t imagine how an ambitious man like Atreus chafed from his entanglement, but he could hardly afford the social and religious condemnation of putting her aside.”
Anyone who studied metallurgy knew that silver and iron were incompatible metals. They couldn’t be alloyed. Silver was a noble metal, however, which would have placed the wife above her husband in station if not fortune.
“Kaine was conceived out of wedlock, then?” she asked hesitantly.
Crowther shook his head. “No, he came sometime later. Enid had—difficulties. There were miscarriages, clearly an unfortunate combination of resonance. When Enid was brought to the hospital, pregnant, the doctors had reason to believe her condition showed clear signs of vivimancy in the child. The Ferrons were warned of what she carried, and advised, but Atreus was desperate for an heir. They disappeared to their country estate. A few months later Atreus was caught employing vivimancers to help manage the pregnancy and arrested for several weeks. By the time he was released, Kaine had been born.”
Crowther set the ring on his desk.
“They lived very quietly at their country estate after that. The birth was said to have been so traumatising for Enid that she never went into society again. Atreus rarely spoke of her. Rumours sprang up among the guilds that Kaine was a Lapse and the family was endeavouring to hide it. Eventually the belief grew so widespread, Atreus had no choice but to present him to guild society, but he was controlling of the boy. Like a dog on a chain. He knew that if there were any signs of vivimancy, the Eternal Flame would act. Atreus had paid so dearly for his heir, he could hardly afford to lose him. It was something of a surprise when Atreus enrolled him in the Institute, but what else could he do? If Kaine couldn’t disprove the rumours about his abilities and earn the certification, the family would have lost control of the guilds.”
“How do you know all this?” Helena asked, slipping the ring back on.
Crowther raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think I was brought onto the faculty and made Kaine Ferron’s academic advisor?”
Helena’s eyes went wide. “You were watching him for signs.”
Crowther gave a short nod. “Yes, he was one of the students I was asked to observe. Unfortunately, I was reassigned to investigate rumours in the city. If I’d been here, I would have noticed something was amiss when he returned after his father’s execution. Everything might have been quite different then.”
WHEN HELENA ARRIVED AT THE tenement the next week, she pulled her gloves off and paused, pressing her hand against the door, using her resonance to sense the mechanism inside. Even though the unit looked abandoned both inside and out, she could tell the door contained an intricate lock.
The best locks were a mix of metal and rare compounds, often tailored to the owner’s particular resonance, and usually included some inert metals as well, all intended to create blind spots. To unlock it, the alchemist had to know how the movement of the mechanisms was supposed to feel, and which ones to manipulate.
She left her fingers on the panel as she knocked. She was tracking how they spun, so focused on the pattern they followed that she wasn’t prepared when a pale hand shot out, catching her by the wrist and dragging her inside.
