Page 183 of Alchemised
“That was a yes or no question,” Matias said sharply.
“Yes.”
“And during that dissection, you used transmutational abilities to examine and reverse the creation of the chimaera in ways that any other medical personnel would have been incapable of, did you not?”
“I was instructed to—”
“Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
Matias turned his attention triumphantly back to Luc. “Then my question stands. Healer Marino, as a vivimancer, what would you consider the potential use of people with suppressed alchemy?”
The room faded from view, and all Helena could see was Gettlich, cut open, her arms with the skin purpled and greyish around the injection sites, the holes left behind from the syringes, and her own subconscious puzzling out the methodology, trying to understand the intent and technique, unable to keep from noticing avenues of improvement because that was how she’d been trained to perceive all forms of alchemy. Even torture.
If she admitted those theories, it would be proof of what she was. If she refused, she might endanger the Eternal Flame by withholding imperative information.
“It would control prisoners,” Crowther said before she could answer, “or they may endeavour to weaponise it. Or use it to make human subjects easier to manage during their experimentation. There are many possibilities, Falcon.”
Matias glanced scathingly towards Crowther. There were mutters in the audience. Crowther almost never spoke during meetings.
Helena gave a stilted nod. “There may be a number of potential uses for suppressing alchemy, but there’s currently no evidence that they’ve discovered a reliable means of doing so, only that they’re attempting it.”
“We should prepare for the possibility, but keep the information away from the general population,” Ilva said. “We have no need for fearmongering over something that may never come to pass. And Matias.” She turned imperiously to gaze at the Falcon. “Need I remind this Council that Healer Marino’s work and title come with the blessing of the Faith and the Principate?”
Matias nodded sourly as Helena went back to her seat.
It was both unsurprising and undeniable that Falcon Matias wanted Helena removed from the Eternal Flame, possibly the Resistance. With all the trainee healers, Helena was no longer the necessity she’d once been. Luc might be the only obstacle to that.
The Council was supposed to be five equal votes, but Luc had greater sway than the other four members combined. They could outvote him, but they’d never dared to veto him openly.
They preferred to simply keep him in the dark.
Luc had an overpowering sense of what was right, his decisions ruled by conscience, but as a result, he was left out of many of the Council’s deliberations, nudged to spend his time at the front where choices did not involve such delicate politics.
Helena watched him sitting among the Council, Ilva and Matias on one side and Althorne and Crowther on the other, like a marionette unaware of its strings.
Helena wished she could save him from it, but she knew that left to his own devices he would blindly sacrifice himself at the first opportunity.
CROWTHER GESTURED TO HELENA TO follow him when the meeting ended.
“Is Matias going to be a problem for me?” she asked once they were alone.
“Yes,” he said as they walked across the skybridge into the Alchemy Tower.
They entered the lift, but rather than ascend to his office, he inserted a key and the lift went down.
“He wants you gone, and now he’s begun taking steps to achieve it.”
Helena swallowed hard. “Is that something you’ll allow?”
He glanced towards her. “Are you doing anything that would make interfering worth the effort? Insofar as I’m aware, the only thing you’ve done for the last several weeks is waste our limited opium supplies on Ferron.”
The lift was still descending. They passed the ground floor. Helena’s stomach seemed to drop with it.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“To see how useful you can be,” was all Crowther said as the lift lurched to a stop and the doors opened, revealing a dark passage.
