The Alchemist's Assistant
Chapter One: The New Assistant
A blur of green, white, and sandy brown blew past the windows of the passenger locomotive. Inside, travelers were packed in like sardines. How we had managed to catch a window seat was beyond me. Still, I curled my body towards the window and held Daisy and our bags in my lap, in an effort to give the men and women around me more room. We passed the town's big white sign. Welcome to Amnemia! It read, in big bold letters. I smiled at it. Amnemia…our new home. We could start over here, build a life for ourselves. I could, hopefully, find a well paying job, rent a modest house, and send Daisy off to a good school. We might even get a dog at some point. I had to give Daisy's puppy, Reginald, away before we came here and I still felt awful about it.
"Are we there yet, Mama?" Asked Daisy.
I looked down at her round, cherub face, her large doe brown eyes and curly black hair. I felt a swirl of both pride and sadness fill my empty belly. Daisy was a beautiful little girl to be sure and she was mine. However, it wasn't from me that she got that beauty. I am perfectly dull, drab, and frumpy. It was her father that passed on those more desirable traits. My Charles. I felt like sighing again for the thousandth time that day. I missed him more and more each day. It's hard, trying to get over someone, when they're staring back at you all day long. "Not yet, Daisy, dear, but almost. The station is right up the tracks."
As soon as the train pulled into the station and the doors were opened, the sardined passengers poured out like a dam had broken, Daisy and I included. After nearly smothering to death and then being trampled by the mob, we finally broke free of them and collapsed onto a bench to catch our breath. "What do we do now?" Asked Daisy. She was already five years old and could speak quite well for her age. Smart as a whip, that one. Another thing that she, unfortunately, did not inherit from me.
I took out the crumpled piece of paper that I had scribbled some notes on from my bag. "First, Mama has to find a job." I showed her the paper. "I've got all the addresses written down here and they're all right here in town. It shouldn't take me too long."
If only I had known. I would never have lied to my child like that. We wandered around Amnemia for hours on end, passing from shop to shop, with little success. Every single place turned me down for various stupid reasons. Oh they felt sorry for the poor single mother, to be sure, but would they give me job? No way in hell!
"I'm hungry." Daisy complained as I dragged her towards yet another shop. Templton's World of Alchemy. I didn't know very much about Alchemy, just that most of the people who practiced it were on the loony side. So, I didn't hold out much hope of getting the job, but I had to try.
Daisy was getting cranky and the latest complaint was just the last of hundreds for the past hour. I was about to scold her when I felt my own stomach twist and growl in protest. "I am too. We just have one more place to go, then we'll go find something to eat." I used the word, "find", because all the money I had brought with me went towards the train ticket and our rent at the local boarding house. We would be extremely lucky if we didn't both go to bed with rumbling bellies that night.
When I opened the door of the alchemy shop it made a little chirp, announcing my entrance. The heels of my dusty work shoes clicked against the wooden planks of the floor. The store was larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. It held dozens of tall shelves, stocked with lots of old alchemy texts and jars of odd and a little disturbing ingredients. There were eyeballs and hearts, things of that sort. I guessed they were for making chimeras, a creature that alchemists often created for protection. I could see a few patrons trolling about the isles, flipping through books and studying the occupants of large pickle jars. All were male. It was funny how the world worked. It seemed that women were entirely restricted to being housewives. Even alchemy seemed to share that prejudice.
"Can I help you, Madame?" Asked the store clerk. He was a stocky old man, with a balding head and a thick, white mustache. A pair of bifocals sat idly on his button shaped nose. His dark eyes flickered over me in what must have been confusion. I'm sure he couldn't imagine why I was there, tugging a child a long with me.
"My name is Matilda Larcosi." I greeted, shaking his hand across the counter. "I'm here about your help wanted add."
The old man's friendly smile fell. "I'm afraid I've already filled the position." He said, jabbing his thumb towards a young boy behind him, restocking the medicinal herb shelves they kept behind the counter.
I heard the door chirp once again as another patron entered. I glanced over my shoulder briefly to see a tall man enter. His shoulders were broad, although his body was wiry. He wore a dark trench coat that was torn and tattered around the hem and had a patch at the bottom of one of the pockets. He wore no hat. His dark blond hair was in terrible need of a trim. It fell in his face and fell over his coat collar to his shoulders. His chin was bristly, in need of a shave, but it was not quite thick enough to be called a beard. His grey eyes met my blue ones for a moment before he made his way one of the book shelves.
Shifting my attention back to the old man, I pleaded desperately with him, throwing all remaining pride out of the window. "You don't understand, I've been to nearly every place in town already and they've either filled the position or they want a man to do it! Please sir, isn't there anything that you could use me for? I'll stock the shelves, I'll sweep and dust, I'll do your laundry, cook! Anything!"
The old man shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Madame, but I just don't have anything for you at this time." He swiveled his head to look at the customer behind me. "Ah! Mr. Krais! How delightful to see you again! Will you be needing the usual prescription?" He asked the man.
"Yes, thank you, Templeton." Said the customer, pleasantly. I stepped aside and let the blond man who had entered behind me approach the counter. Now that I could see both sides of his face, I could see that that the side that had been turned away from me was deeply marred by a webbing of scars, perhaps from a chemical burn. The scars ran across his cheek, jaw and down his neck, disappearing into his collar. The ear on that side was shriveled and warped.
"Johnny, I need two milligrams of Cholestora and four milligrams of Iroses." He ordered his new shop boy, who hurriedly gathered the alchemist's order. "I hope that you are feeling better, sir." Templeton said kindly.
"A bit. The Cholestora and Iroses elixirs are most helpful with the pain." He replied, smiling on his good side. The scarring on the bad side didn't seem to allow any movement.
"Mama, can I have this?" Asked Daisy, holding up a jar of pickled pigs' snouts.
I made a face at her. "No. Put that back." I said and after pouting a little she finally put it back on the shelf she'd found it on. I took her hand with a heavy sigh and we headed slowly towards the door. "Come on, Daisy. Let's go."
"Wait, Madame." A man called after me. I turned and looked in bewilderment at the blond and scarred customer, Mr. Krais.
"Sir?" I inquired, raising a dark eyebrow.
"I…could not help but overhear. You are looking for work?" He asked, his speech remarkably good for a man who was lacking full movement of his lips.
"I am." I said, turning fully to face him. "I just moved here and I'm in terrible need of a job, but nobody seems to want to hire me. I'm starting to get desperate." I sighed. "Do you have a job opening?" I asked, feeling a bit hopeful for once that day.
"I'm an alchemist, obviously and I've been considering taking on an assistant. Would you be interested?" He asked, smiling lopsidedly.
"Don't you…Don't you want someone with more…experience? I don't know a whole lot about alchemy." I confessed and immediately wanted to kick myself. He was offering me a job and here I was sabotaging it. Like I said, my daughter get's her smarts from my husband.
He chuckled at that. "Don't worry. The most I'll have you doing is fetching my ingredients. That shouldn't require too much alchemic knowledge." He looked down at Daisy and smiled kindly. "Where are you and your family staying?" He asked
"Uh…I was thinking of boarding at Rosanary's Inn for a time, until I could raise enough money to rent a house." I answered.
"There's no need for that." He shook his head. "I work at all hours of the night and day. I do not follow a strict schedule, so it would be best that you stay with me. I have a large house, much too big for just me. There's plenty of room and food and rent would be free of charge."
"That would be wonderful!" I beamed, grinning ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. "You have yourself a new assistant!" I took and shook his hand, overtaken with relieved excitement. Poor man. I think I nearly yanked his arm out of the socket.
He laughed at my enthusiasm. It was a pleasant sound, although a little hoarse sounding. "It'll be a pleasure to work with you, I'm sure, Madame?"
"Matilda Larcosi." I introduced myself.
"I'm Daisy!" My little girl introduced herself with nearly as much enthusiasm as myself.
Mr. Krais knelt down to her level and shook her tiny hand with his rather large one. He was wearing leather gloves, but as he moved his arm, his sleeve rode up and I saw more scarring on his left wrist. "How do you do, Miss Daisy?" He chuckled. "I'm Oliver Krais. It's good to meet you. Tell me, is your Mama a hard worker?" He asked, keeping his somewhat raspy sounding voice light and fun. It was a tone that children seemed to like. My Daisy was no different.
She smiled brightly at him with her expanse of small pearly teeth and giggled happily. "Yep!" She piped. "She's the hardest worker ever!"
"I'm glad to hear it." He laughed.
I said a silent prayer, thanking God for such a delightful child and made a mental note to buy her some chocolate with my first pay.
He stood up and gave me a card. Printed on it was his name, Oliver Krais, and his address. It was just at the edge of town, not too far away. It was within walking distance, actually. That was a plus. "Come to that address tonight. I'll be waiting to let you in. I must warn you, I do have a chimera, but he is well behaved. His name is Bob. I think Daisy will like him. I'll keep him in his pen until you've gotten settled. I don't want him bowling you over as soon as you walk through the door."
"You named your chimera, Bob?" I couldn't help but giggle. It was such a benign name for a such a supposedly wicked creature.
"Yes well…Bob's not a very good chimera." Krais laughed.
"Mr. Krais, I have your order!" Announced the store keeper, Templeton.
"Ah! Thank you, friend." He got his herbal order and tipped his head to me and Daisy as he passed by. "I'll see you tonight, Mrs. Larcosi, Miss Daisy." He bid, walking out the door. The door chirped merrily behind him.