Page 224 of Alchemised
“Not enough to be entirely deconstructed. Are we clear, Marino?” His voice was icy.
“All right. I promise,” she said, rolling her eyes. Trust Kaine to ruin any moment.
After a pause she looked at him again. “Thank you. I don’t even know what to say. They’re beautiful.”
He avoided meeting her eyes. “It’s nothing.” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you like them, though, because I expect you to wear both every time you set foot outside of Headquarters. Actually—you should always be wearing them. They shouldn’t come off unless you’re asleep. These do not belong in the bottom of your satchel. When you arrive here, I will expect to see them already on you, every time. Are we clear?”
“Yes, I’ll wear them,” she said as if it were a concession. She didn’t ever want to put them down.
“Good.” He shifted. “Well, this has been delightful. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve wished someone would lecture me on the systems of the human body.”
She looked up, and he smiled insincerely at her.
He started turning to leave and then paused. “Now that you have a decent weapon, I think we’ll move on to training that’s a bit more intense. Be ready for that next week.” He held out an envelope. “My latest instalment.”
As she reached to take it, he held on until she met his eyes.
“I must say, Marino, you’ve ended up being quite expensive.”
CHAPTER 45
Decembris 1786
CROWTHER WAS STILL ABSENT FROM HEADQUARTERS, SO Helena had no choice but to take her report to Ilva.
As she ascended the floors to Ilva’s office in the main building, she kept thinking about all the things Ilva knew about her. She’d been on the board that had approved Helena’s scholarship each year, and likely the admissions board, too.
The particular interest Ilva had personally taken in her since her father’s death felt much less warming now.
Ilva was staring down at a report, a pen dangling from one hand as she read, and didn’t look up when the guard let Helena in.
“Marino,” she said, her voice cool. “Sit. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Helena waited, fingers flexing.
“How is your work on the nullium with Shiseo progressing?” Ilva asked, flipping the file closed and looking up.
The Council had named the lumithium-mo’lian’shi alloy nullium for the sake of convenience. While the knowledge of the alloy was not widespread, several metallurgists and chymists were all experimenting with it.
The question caught Helena off guard; she’d expected enquiries about Kaine.
“Good. We’ve finished synthesising the chelating agent using the samples I took from Ferron. If any of our combatants are injured by it, hopefully it will be able to capture and remove the traces of metal in the blood.”
The shrapnel samples Helena had retrieved could not make a sturdy weapon, but the alloy wasn’t supposed to. The fusion was intentionally unstable; it shattered on impact and the shards tended to deteriorate quickly when exposed to blood, dissolving like a poison blade targeting resonance. Helena and Shiseo had been instructed to pursue potential treatment methods.
Because metal toxicity could happen frequently in certain fields of alchemy, chelators were already commonplace.
Ilva nodded. “What does Shiseo think?”
“He doesn’t think that true alchemy suppression is possible with the method they’re using. While it does prevent healing and alchemical surgery, it’s of limited use for combat, but that could change if they reconfigure the ratio and composition.”
Ilva’s eyes narrowed. “Is there an alternative method that you and Shiseo have in mind?”
Helena swallowed, trying not to squirm. “We have an idea, but it’s purely theoretical. We don’t have enough nullium to test it.”
“And it is …”
Helena’s stomach knotted. She hated these kinds of conversations.
