Xerxes Falls
"Hey there! Welcome to my humble home, Mr. I'm Going to Make My King Immortal! But's that a little down the road so let's shelf that."
The man could only stare at the floating thing before him. "Who are you?"
The triangular thing lifted its hat in greetings. "Name's Bill and I'm a muse. Every century or two I stop by and see promising guys like you about to change the world. So, I hear you gotta to find a way to make your king immortal."
"How do you know that?" The man asked.
"Oh, I know lots of things." The triangular thing showed many images on its body. "LOTS OF THINGS….so, you're working summon the Gate. Not a bad plan and I'm impressed with the arrays you've made, even if they're a little crude."
"You know of the Gate?" The man asked, now intrigued.
"I told you, I know lots of things. So, how do you plan to summon the gate?" The creature summoned the formula the alchemist had been working on. "Not bad but you still got a lot of work to do. I mean, if you want something from the metaphysical to exist in the physical you need something important."
"You seek to help me?" The King's alchemist asked.
"Sure, I got nothing better to do. I help you and you can help me if you ever get the chance. You know, before you die and all that." The triangular thing named Bill held out its hand that was suddenly engulfed in blue flames.
The alchemist stared at the hand, slowly reaching out and shaking it. "What do I need?"
"What does every living breathing sack of meat need to live aside from air and food?" Bill asked rhetorically. "Don't worry you'll get it based on my impression of you in about ten seconds." He suddenly raised one arm overhead and proclaimed, "THAT'S IT!"
The alchemist woke up suddenly, sitting on his desk and looking around his private study. "What a strange dream…What does someone need to live aside from air and food…Wait…What everyone needs to live…Blood! We need blood! That's it!"
He now understood what was missing. If he was to extract something from the realm of knowledge he needed to create a vessel of some kind that would allow it to live on the physical plane.
Could he use his blood?
"No, I have plenty of servants and slaves for that. There could be a side effect of using blood and I cannot afford to be harmed in any way."
It would become a success when he used the blood of the twenty third slave serving him. He managed to extract a piece of the Gate and kept it alive in a flask.
The Dwarf in the Flask, Homunculus.