Hakko woke up from his sleep, in pain and agony, with a rough dream. He took deep breaths, and remained careful not to hit his head on the wooden bunk bed. Trying to stabilize his breathing, he looked around to realize he is still in his room. His room was moist, airless and was carrying a certain wooden odour to it and it was really untidy. He massaged his forehead, hoping to ease his head pain. He would get headaches after a long night of studying, or intense dreaming. He moved the coverlet off him, looking at his time capsule, realizing he's late for alchemy class.
While adapting to the life in the Ivory Tower, Hakko had a rather routine life. He wouldn't be allowed to leave the tower at any costs, he would keep going for his classes, hoping to finish his apprenticeship and become a full-fledged magician. He would stay in his room most of the time, reading, writing or studying, trying to perfect his knowledge of the unknown. Or he would just grab a warm drink, and stare out of the window in the study room two floors above, staring at the wilderness.
Occasionally he would be called to tournaments to play his favourite board game, the quadrant. It was a game that required four people, drawing some cards and making the best of what they draw, by defeating all the other wizards. It was merely an invented boring card game by the inhabitants of the Ivory Tower, but it did require tactical thinking and patience, along with intelligence to beat your opponents. Hakko was the Quadrant Champion a couple years ago, but he wasn't doing very well in his latest tournaments. Sometimes, he would also join up with some friends at the bottom floor to play some fireball in the large entrance hall. It was forbidden, and they would be punished if they were to be caught. A fireball made by a neutral contestant would be carried all over the place, while all the other wizards would try to control the ball and score to the other side using their hands, wielding it with their magic. But it was the greatest joy, and the biggest physical activity they had in the tower. There would be bets, crowds of applause, any thrill you would expect from a physical sports competition. Aside from these two, Hakko had a very routine life in the tower.
However, nights that are close to the end of his project deliveries were always out of the routine. The time and effort he had to put into things were way too much, he would always leave his routine behind and adapt some changes in his life, like sleeping up to very late and ignoring his daily chores. He would sometimes ignore sleep completely, and work on his project deliveries. One couldn't afford to fail his project, since it would mean elongating his apprenticeship, and that would mean elongated imprisonment for Hakko.
His room was a tiny wooden room, with well-shaped parallel planks on the floor, with inclined ceiling again with planks. It was as big as they would allow a student living in the tower. Considering there was already really little space in every floor, he was really happy about the conditions he lived in the tower, and about the size of his quarters. First graders quarters would be smaller, and narrower below, and private quarters would get larger and bigger as the individual advances in his education. The structure was almost ancient, plans would creak every time a person walks on them, and they would be all worn out. Students living in the tower created dozens of petitions and tried to change this, hoping to get their room looked at for maintenance. However, they were always ignored by the supervisors, using the excuse of "educational funding", as they receive very little from the ministry of magic, to initiate mass repairs. Every now and then, someone's room would have cracks or leakages that make life hard for them, and supervising engineer sent to oversee the flaws would handle the situation finding a shortcut to fix things, making it available for practical use temporarily. The rooms were small and shared by two students, but some first year apprentices would have to share rooms with three people as more people are admitted for education.
Every room within the apprentice's quarters had a couple of wardrobes for both students near the door. A couple desks for studying, along with a valet stand to hang their robes to visually represent they are students. Hierarchy was always really important in any institute that tries to regulate and legalize the use of magic. Every instructor would have different coloured robes, and every grade student would also be wearing different colours to represent their rank and level. There was a worn out linen carpet on the floor along with a single bookshelf for both students to share. Hakko's room was a bit fancier, they had some charms and trinkets hanged up on the ceiling, and near the wall. His roommate was a member of the Clan Fangliths, and he had superstitious beliefs as their bloodline come from a clan of warriors who would live their life, learning from animals such as wolves. All the charms were to protect the owner from certain evil intents, magic, curse, misfortune, weakness or failure. Hakko never believed these charms were good for anything, but he could clearly see the charms were enchanted with magic. Some of it was protective magic, which he was already familiar with, while the others were unknown to him. Also some paintings of his roommate's parents and other accessories of magical nature and other trivial objects such as cups, glasses and a poster of a woman illusionist giving a seductive pose. However, none of it was Hakko's. Hakko had nothing when he arrived to the Ivory Tower, and it always remained the same. He only had some spare clothes, his robe, his study tools and his necklace, which he always kept with himself. On every floor, there were other rooms similar to his, harbouring a couple students on its own.
There were six rooms in each floor, in a hexagonal design. Each floor would have a wooden circular hallway around the spiral stairway, which goes up close up to as high as dwarven engineering can build. Shamefully, every tower was constructed by Dwarven Engineers, as humans did not have the capability to build such massive structures. Usually every tower would have about eight floors for students, up to sixteen. Between the lower and upper floors, there would be floors and saloons specified for a certain school, like alchemy laboratories or enchantment rooms. Upper floors were for trained graduate magic wielders, special guests, and at the top there would be council chambers. Ivory tower gets thinner as it gets close to the sky, but there were rumours higher ups had the biggest rooms in the entire tower, which sounds completely unreasonable. But I suppose a tower that was built to facilitate wild magic wielders and train them to be better people for the society would have some features that are not comprehensible by reasonable minds.
But there was a reason for everything… These towers were incredibly needed, after magic came to our lives. Once humans discovered that there are some individuals with remarkable talents amongst them, they wished to control this anomaly and regulate these people's living standards. No one would want an angry little kid to burn the entire stables just because he's mad at his parents by flicking his fingers to run around uncontrolled. These towers were necessary prisons made for magic users, to control and teach them how to use their "gift" for the good of humanity. They towers were protected by the organization of Makith, the Guardians. They would oversee everything coming in or out, and control them thoroughly to make sure no wizard escapes, or no disturbance from outside occurs.
Humans did dislike these abominations… To be born with talents that other humans are not capable of, for many it was heresy, and that is why they built these towers and lock them up. Still angry mobs would approach the towers with torches preparing to burn the place down, while only a handful amount of Guardians would protect the tower from angry lot. But these magically talented people were used to this kind of treatment. They would be treated way worse outside the tower, and here they would have protection, and they would have higher ups who are way more experienced in using their talent to teach them. Of course, that would also mean those with talent has to lock themselves up from the beauties of the world. They would lock themselves in a tower, and spend their life in imprisonment with their kin, and accept these terms in return of safety and acceptance.
Hakko was one of these magically talented people, whose talent was revealed by an illusionist, Jordan Kath. He was merely ten years old, when he mistakenly burned down his neighbours cornfields and taken for trial. Humans would have no tolerance of such behaviour, and legalized action would only be taken in big cities. But Hakko was born in a small town, and Makith would have no overseers in little villages. The fortress of Makith was merely a stronghold of mercenaries working for the good interests of mankind and they would only act if they are ordered and paid to do something. The Guardians organization was merely formed to look after magically talented people and control them as they see fit, and overseers would be tasked to find anomalies, delivering them to the magical institutes for training and adaptation. In little communities, citizens would take the justice in their own hands, and dispose of these anomalies with their own methods, such as burning the villain or beheading it publicly when an anomaly does something harmful to the community. Hakko was almost burned on wood and was about to be executed for his crime, when Jordan Kath appeared out of nowhere with two guardians, showed his identity and asked Hakko to be released. For that, he was always eternally grateful to his master, and accepted to be his apprentice within the Ivory Tower. However he didn't know his new life would be way more restricting, then his life outside.
Would one prefer death, instead of being locked on a tower for his entire life? Would one be able to make a reasonable choice of that scale at the age of ten?
Nevertheless, here was Hakko sitting on his bunk bed with an intense headache from yesterday's studies. His clothes were stinky and untidy, thrown away near his chest and his desk was overflowing with torn papers, ink and books for studying. He was working on a solution to make a potion of invisibility using different methods. His instructor Borgh Lennon already thought the students how to make a simple potion of invisibility using a dim of nightshade and some other balancing powders. But Hakko was using an old approach done by an old elven sorcerer, Arlen Zumrie, who used very different ingredients and a very different approach using fusion powders with mandrake root and raw sepia. This was his term project, but he hit a dead end because he did not know the right proportions for the mixture, because the potions ingredients were merely a myth and wasn't written on any alchemy related book in the tower. Also his quartermaster told him they were out of freshly acquired sepia from live squids, so he wasn't able to continue his experiments. He was merely using theoretical knowledge and his research to guess the right mixture dosage, and hope when the supplies arrive next week he's ready to make the potion right. Of course, none of these plans would have value if he couldn't make it in time for the alchemy lab, and pass the first evaluation period.
Hakko quickly rose from his bed and started squeezing his wrinkled clothes in his chest, and fixing the chaotic look of the room. He wore a simple wool sweater and pants, wore his robe, grabbed his pen and paper putting them in the middle of the book "Main Ingredient". It was the alchemy book provided by the institute for all students, he wanted to have it around even though there is no class today. However, he made too much noise, waking up his roommate, who woke up saying:
"Did a Zanesh possess you or something? Just go back to bed, we still got an hour…" Hakko knew that his roommate can't see very well without his glasses, so he passed his glasses over to his roommate from the cupboard near the bed.
"By Fangoth, class starts in fifteen minutes!"
But it happened to Hakko once more. Soul stone, carried by a thin string was sitting on his cupboard. It was shining red, and glowing with magic, which would even be noticeable by a naked eye. It was a soulstone, a trophy that he earned years ago, hunting an evil entity with his master. The soulstones, as the name would suggest, would be used to gather, harvest or imprison souls of entities that cannot cross over, some wizards would also use them as pure source of power but Hakko kept his amulet with himself as a souvenir. It represented his first mission, pacifying of an evil lich that took resort in the Silverspire caverns. But his stone was different, Hakko carried them wherever he goes, whatever he does. Not because he was proud of his first achievement, because the stone was still alive. It usually spoke to him, and gave him clues, aided him with his work, whispered him in the night. The stone was carrying the soul of an old vampiric being who turned into a powerful lich called Zane Iddlar. While his master was occupied controlling the spirit, Hakko had to the seal the creature into the soulstone himself and ever since that day, he carried the soulstone wherever he goes.
His roommate knew that, occasionally he would end up focused on the stone, daydreaming and fading out from the real life, talking to it. And it happened again.
Rimman jumped from his bunk bed, slapping his head, waking him up. Hakko sighed, as he was used to this kind of treatment.
"Snap out of it! You are fading out again…"
"Fine Rim, I get it. I was just trying to speak…"
"No you were not, soulstones don't speak." Hakko grabbed his necklace and stormed out of his room, saying "Good luck at the revisions." just before shutting the door really hard with frustration.
"If you break the door you are paying for it from your money, you are the one studying here for free!"
Hakko started climbing the spiral stairs recklessly, he really did not wish to be late and he just did not want to argue with Rim once more about such trivial matters. Rim was not the best roommate you could ask for, but he was a good study friend. He was also a really sociable person, something Hakko never was. Usually in the mornings he would be really grumpy, and in the evenings he would call a friend of his to study together. It would be bothersome, but Hakko would just go down a couple floors and sit in the study room. According to him, Rim's views on life were pretty narrow, but his grades were still way better than his. Maybe he just couldn't accept the fact that, Rim was just better than him in all aspects, or the fact that they come from different circumstances. He was the star pupil; Hakko was the overly hardworking student who is incapable of making social interactions.
Ever since he came to the Ivory Tower to learn magic, Hakko didn't have many friends. He had Todd, who was one of the most troublemaking apprentices in the tower. It was his sixth year in the institute, and he would just extend his studies because he didn't want to succeed at them, he came to this tower to run away from the society for free and he didn't have any desire of leaving it. There were some students like that, every year you study in the Ivory Tower is basically your debt, and you are forced to work for the Makith and serve the Crown with your talents to pay your debt over the years. They would usually send you to become a buffer in a vampire hunting squad, or they would give you work for maintenance of the cities, some might become associated with diplomatic affairs with elves, or if you are lucky, you would be an advisor to some noble on unexplainable factors, becoming a court magician. Or you would just choose not to graduate, and agree to work in the same tower you are sent in as a librarian, or a maintenance worker. The world out there was a cruel place for magic users and most people did not want to go back there. Hakko wasn't like that, he had other ambitions. He needed to finish his training, pay for his service, have a home and live a life like any other human. He desired to settle down, and have a normal life. He wanted a way out of this tower, and stop being treated as a freak.
Usually the students who would come to the tower would be sent by richer families, as poorer families in urban areas would just deny having someone like that as their son and daughter. They would be killed in the wilderness, or find a way to live on their own, without any type of supervision. He met Todd the first day he came here, after Todd tried to bully him to get his money. Todd realized that he had absolutely no money, and bought him a loaf of bread. Ever since that day, Todd and Hakko were close friends, despite the way Todd treated the newcomers. Hakko knew he had a heart of gold, despite the way he treats those people, and he would always do the right thing when needed.
There was also Evelynn. The unusual girl, her talents were always scary to other people in the tower. She was able to phase in and out of our plane, and become a poltergeist. The whole tower was protected by strange magical wards just because of her being here, and closed off so that she won't escape the tower by phasing out. She was friendless, and when she first came to the tower no one would speak with her, because people were afraid of her powers. As Hakko shared a similar fate with her and they became close. Still Evelynn was a hard person to work with, and always annoyed Hakko every time she speaks.
Of course Master Jordan was also a really young adept, and he could also be considered as a friend. He would always take really good care of Hakko, even though they had the age difference between them. He would supervise him, guide him and teach him to control his magic, and would try to give him a purpose every time. Hakko really idolized him, and his authority. However, they still had the relationship of an apprentice and a master. They might have been good friends, but also distant to each other by the nature of their relationship. A master shouldn't be too attached to his apprentice, and should know how to discipline him when necessary, and Hakko was aware of this.
As Hakko was drifting away in thoughts, one of the maintenance workers interrupted him just before he enters the laboratory and said:
"Hey, Quartermaster Gunrick wanted me to find you. He said the goods you were expecting arrived last night."
"That's terrific news, I'll go there at once!"
"You still should join the class first, be careful of Mr Lennon today seems to be really grumpy."
Hakko nodded and thanked him, and looked at the instructor board sighing.
The smell of random ingredients, and mixtures filled the room, as there was very little ventilation in the alchemy labs. Someone who steps through that door the first time wouldn't be able to breathe with ease, with this heavy odour in the room. You could smell all kinds of chemical ingredients, mixtures and the stink would never go away. After studying here for a term, the nose starts to accept the smell, and adapt to the environment. There were desks and contraptions everywhere, as the left and right side were covered by curved bookshelves. All kinds of books related to alchemy could be found, though the books reserved for this Ivory Tower was a bit scarce. They only had certain fundamental books written by human researchers and translators, instead of original elven copies or other mystical editions.
The orange carpet on the floor had all kinds of stains and colours on them, as a result from hundreds of students who either passed or failed this class. Herbs, chemicals, tubes, mortars, pestles, heaters, shiny stones, all kinds of equipment related to alchemy covered up the entire room on top of desks and cupboards. Most of the equipment here was used frequently, and they got weary, but the higher ups would again ignore the requests to renew equipment due to budget issues. To them, as long as Mr Lennon thought they are good enough, they were good enough. It was also the only floor covered in resin, as it protects the floor from acid contact, and a couple tiny windows to make sure there is very little air circulation, but not enough to get the odour off the room.
Everyone arrived here with a potion, with an uncommon herb mixture or a structure as part of their project to present to their instructor, and everyone was quite on edge. The tension could be felt in the room; people were ignoring each other and focused purely on what they made. He approached his desk, removed his vial of potion and materials along with the parchment he prepared, full of new values he will be testing to find the correct ratio. The desks were rather old, but again covered in resin. But there were still noticeable cracks as careless students cut through it and damaged the desk over the years. They would be renewed and repaired at the end of every year, and any expenses would be cut from the students who are responsible for the well-being of that desk. The desk was just large enough for Hakko to put all his materials, and prepared for his instructor to come over to him and ask his progress.
Mr Lennon started to walk around the laboratory with his tome. Starting from the left side, he would approach the desks, would say good morning in a distant manner, look at the names list to find the name of the person and say it, examine the project and put either a tick or a cross next to the name. In some cases he would talk to the student and give council about his work, which would mean the project is not perfected but he still has a chance to do some things right. Everyone noticed Mr Lennon moving so they prepared their equipment to be checked. Excitement could be read from people's eyes, some people were shaking at the backs while the others kept making adjustments to their contraptions or their formulas. Hakko was also so tense that he kept moving his parchment and thinking about his formulas.
After an endless couple minutes, Mr Lennon had checked three desks so far and two of them failed by getting a cross. One of the girls was so angry that she shouted at her instructor, but Mr Lennon calmly told her to pass her complaint to the Council Chambers. She was so pissed off she stormed off the class with tears. Such behaviour was expected today, as half of the alchemy projects would fail at this stage, a quarter would be denied and warned, and a quarter would pass.
Hakko started to think about numbers, amount of people taking the class, amount of people who are in class to deliver their project, amount of people who might fail or pass. Of course Todd was not here but Evelynn was waiting at the back with an impressive contraption of blue liquid stored in a tube connected to pressure tubes. She noticed him and gave him a tense, forced smile, Hakko returned the favour in kind. At that very same time, the instructor had arrived at Hakko's desk while he was looking at behind.
"Good morning…" As he was looking at the name chart, "Perhaps I don't need to spell out your name if you are not even expecting me in your revision day."
"I'm sorry for looking at… Sir, here is my latest result and here are the next predictions for the mixture."
Mr Lennon grabbed the parchments Hakko prepared; it was about eight pages and theories about perfecting the potion, and testing results for it. Apparently the mixture turned the testing hamster into a carnivore monster and it ate his roommate's cat at one try.
"Poor cat, this is what happens if you fail your concoctions and this is why we need to be strict about your results."
Hakko looked at Rims face with an ashamed expression, and Rim just stared on the floor, not being able to stare back into his eyes.
"Normally this parchment and a failed result would mean that you must fail, but I need you to come see me in my chambers after the revisions. Rest assured, you already failed this class, and there are some things we need to cover before we accept the results. Otherwise you will not be able to repeat the class next term neither. You may leave now."
Mr Lennon walked for the next desk, but Hakko was devastated. He could not have failed alchemy class, not after all he's been through. But words did not come to his mouth, he could not defend himself. He put his bag on the desk, carefully put his orange vial on a safe spot and put the rest of his materials as well into the bag, slowly walking out of the class. Rim mocked him on his way out, as he still held a grudge about his cat.
That walk downstairs took almost half an hour to Hakko. It was a long, thoughtful and worried walk. All he could think was the hardships he had to endure coming up with what he has and how easy it was for his instructor to ignore his report, and fail his labour out of nowhere. It was so unfair. Everything about this institute was unfair. He gently put his bag on his chest, making sure the vial is not broken. Perhaps after talking with his instructor he could pass? Why would they need him in the chambers if he failed his class already? Why is it so hard for Hakko every time? He lied down and put his hands on his necklace, and started talking to it once more.
"What could I have done that would have changed the outcome?"
"It's not your fault son. The instructors do not give students access to breakthroughs and real mysteries, they only give you fundamental books which could help you to make mushrooms to go tipsy on if you want. I bet if you worked on a mushroom which would affect certain senses, you could have passed. But you chose the hard way."
"I chose the right way. How else can I learn?"
"You still do not understand, they don't want you to learn. They want you to become something they need you to be. You can only learn from me."
"You are not real."
"Despite your roommate willing to drown you in a spoon of water for every time you and I engage in a conversation, we both know I'm pretty much real and present. Denying what is true does not help your current predicament."
"I tried almost every ratio there is…"
"And you failed. It is truly a magnificent way to start the day. You will try again next term. Grab an apple, I want apples. Oh wait, there are no apples in the tower. It's closed off."
"We don't share a stomach, I just carry your soul with me."
"Doesn't matter, I love watching you eat that. It's crispy, juicy and makes the funniest voice when you bite it. You learn to value such things more once you lose what you have like me."
"I need to think."
"You need to think of ways that would get you his favours. If he was a female we could have tried seductive meth…
"Just shut up, please…"
Hakko took his necklace off his neck, put it on the cupboard and tried to close his eyes. He needed more rest before seeing Mr Lennon considering he only slept very little and he was really sleepy. But his eyes wouldn't close, his thoughts were too dense and he could not empty his mind. His ratios kept bothering him, he tried to think of a flaw and he hadn't found any way of making it work.
After lying down for thirty minutes, he stood up, grabbed his bag and necklace, only to find Rim coming inside, shutting the door with anger.
"Hey dumbass… If it makes you feel any good I failed the class too. I think three out of four people failed it. Mr Lennon wasn't having his best day."
"I'm sorry."
"You probably don't even know what it means to be sorry… Hope Mr Lennon punishes your ass for my cat as you rot in the containment cell near the living experiments…"
Hakko wanted to ask him what he meant with that, but he didn't want to argue with Rim again today. As he walks out, Rim gave him a shoulder bump and climbed up to his bed. Hakko, holding his hurt shoulder, got out of their room and started climbing the stairs once more with the eyes of all curious students. They all wanted to know why Mr Lennon called him to his chambers. Everyone was whispering about today's massacre, where Mr Lennon failed three quarters of participants at the first evaluation day.
"I can't believe it!" Evelynn angrily stopped Hakko, talking with a very loud and irritating voice, and forced him to talk to her. Her voice and attitude always bothered Hakko very much, but he was her friend and he had to endure this.
"I have to…"
"I worked so hard for this project! My parents could not visit me and I didn't have a shower for a week!"
"Can we… talk about that later?"
"Why, what's your hurry? Oh yes, Mr Hairless wants you in his chambers. You are the famous kid now, everyone is talking about why he wanted to talk to you so bad. What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Of course you don't. What if your project was so bad that he wants to get you expelled? What if this is about the time you blew his tube tank? Oh my, you are so in trouble!"
"That's not helping…"
"Nothing can help you at your current state. You can always help me instead, we both would have done a favour for the world!"
"Let me pass… Please?" She daintily moved to the left so that Hakko can keep climbing the stairs. Everyone was in a shitty mood today. Who could blame them? But Hakko had to think about his problem first, and once he fixes it, he could start being there for others.
Climbing to the upper chambers was a real challenge. First you would have to go through the libraries, alchemy lab, study rooms, conjuring rooms, damage floor, enchantment storage, guest rooms, master quarters, cafeteria for academicians and many more floors. Hakko tried to count it, and he lost count of the amount of floors he had to climb just to get to the council chambers. No wonder Mr Lennon was usually in his alchemy lab, considering he would have to climb all that way just to get to his class and back to his quarters. There were rumours he usually sleeps there too and the only thing Hakko wondered was how he could sleep with that odour…
Mr Lennon was actually a good man. He would help his students a lot, and show them a lot of new things. He was a good instructor, and he knew more than the textbooks we had in the alchemy labs. He was a bit strict when it comes to giving out grades and accepting projects, because he would give his best to his students and he would expect their best in return. If all instructors were like him here in the Ivory Tower, they would have a much better environment. But perhaps Lord Zane is right, it's not about the quality of the education we get. It's all about holding a candle to the evil until we pass the bridge. Once that is done, it's over.
Hakko arrived at council member's floor which has six quarters belonging to higher-ups. There were more upstairs, and there was the council gathering room a couple floors from where he is. He gently knocked his doors, and Mr Lennon asked him to come inside. Hakko didn't even know how to begin the conversation, his tongue was paralyzed. The rumour about council member's chambers looking smaller but being bigger was correct. It looked half as big as his room for Hakko but when he entered, he realized its triple the size of the student rooms.
The room was covered with luxury silk red carpet and furs on the walls, with pictures like portraits. It was easy to notice Mr Lennon did have an interest in paintings of women. There were many pictures in his room of the same women. Also there was a cupboard in the middle with four drawers, with an hourglass, a crystal ball and a wizard's staff on top of it. The room was shaped in a hexagonal design just like most rooms, and once every two sides there were bookshelves. Here, Hakko noticed book covers and names he had not seen before, and many more writings in languages Hakko did not understand. At left there was a flange and there was a corpse of something on top of it, dissected and smelly. The scene was still gruesome for Hakko, even though they dissected certain living creatures to extract certain ingredients for potion making in the past. The thing appeared to be a fey of some kind, a female but it was hard to make up if not for its ears. With cupboards and drawers around the room were filled with candles on top and certain alchemical materials. Mortars, some herbs, roots, books were on the cupboards, put in a very disorderly fashion and ahead in the middle, there was a large desk with a wooden uncomfortable chair. On the desk, there was a pen and an ink as he was writing something, with a lot of books at his left side. Some soul stones, enchantment stones, many other magical items were present in his room. At right there was a curtain and behind it there was a bed with unwrapped sheets, rather looking untidy.
Hakko thought of many questions. Would he be able to fit all this in his room? How does this man sleep with this odour of a dissected fey next to him? How did this man have access to these books that he had never seen before? Who is the woman in the pictures? Was it the fey, or was it his wife or someone close?
"Sit." said Mr Lennon, in a gentle and calm voice, pointing the wooden chair in front of the desk. Hakko hesitantly moved to the chair with a lot of noise coming from creaking planks, and put his bag on the wooden floor and sit downs on the wooden chair.
"Don't mind the hag behind you, it was a unique creature and I needed some of its organs to add into our storage for potion making. Things that look easy to obtain are never as easy as they look to obtain." After a brief silence…"So you have been trying to create an invisibility potion, and you failed."
"I don't know what went wrong with it sir. I'm following one of my findings in the "Main Ingredients" book but there is no information of the ratio."
"Someone took a certain interest in your research. The name prefers to be anonymous for the time being, but it wishes you to finish your research. You could not complete your project in time but I'm going to have to ask you to get back to it. The person was very generous with his claims, saying that he will gladly pay a couple years of your education bills if you can deliver him results."
"But sir, I tried any ratio that there is. The formulas are algorithmic, and they cover up all the possible substance levels. I used mathematical variances, along with possibilities covered."
"I decided to help you a little bit. You might need to add something else to your mixture." He slowly walked to his bookshelf, and pulled a book with a green cover, with letters written in golden sparkly shapes.
"The book is for you, and delivered to you specially. The person also asked me to change your current grade to satisfactory, if you can manage to make the potion for him. Normally I wouldn't allow such outside interference, but there are other delicate matters at hand, and I'm obliged to help you finish your project for the moment." His voice was shaken, hesitant and low instead of his usual self, loud and decisive.
"So… If I manage the potion in the time I am given, I pass the class?"
"Yes."
"Who is this person?"
"Sadly I don't have the authority to tell you the identity of the person trying to help you with your project."
"This is just… terrific news sir. I could get back to it right away."
"You should, you also have a time limit of three days."
"Three?"
"Yes, quartermaster Gunrick will oversee all your needs on materials. You are given an endless amount of sepia for your iterations, and more of another material that might help you with your experiments. Consider yourself very lucky to have been given a second opportunity ."
Hakko's eyes were full of happiness and joy, with hope. He was given a second chance, all thanks to an anonymous individual, plus his two years of debt would be paid! It was an amazing opportunity.
" You may leave now." Said Mr Lennon, with a low voice and went back to writing with his pen.
"I will not let you down sir." Mr Lennon nodded to him without looking at him, but there was something to it, Mr Lennon was always a cold instructor with dominant eyes. In this case, it looked as if he was hesitant, and a bit windy. His voice was usually clear, and very authoritarian, but it was shaking this time. Something was off, but Hakko was in no position to judge the opportunity he is given. He put the green thick book in his bag with an elvish writing he could not read and ran back to his quarters to grab his alchemy supplies, with curious eyes of all other students while on his way on every floor.
The labs were completely empty, and abandoned. Most of the students left their equipment to rust after hearing they failed the class, and it wasn't cleaned yet, and it would remain this way until the last project delivery date. He carefully put the parchments that included his guesses and theories, and prepared scales so that he can perfectly mix the ingredients with precision. As he realized he had everything up and running, he took a deep breath and put his fingers on his necklace once more.
In a silent voice, he started talking to it.
"It wasn't so bad after all."
"So we are dealing with an anonymous man who is authoritarian enough to strike fear into the hearts of an Ivory Councilman, who is ready to donate you your two years of educational debt for an elven invisibility potion. What can possibly go wrong?
"You could just help me with the potion."
"I thought you wanted to learn this yourself, isn't that why you chose this project? Then again, you paying less debt would mean less time stuck in service of High Liege."
"This new book has the key, I'm sure of it. But it's Elvish… I do know it a little bit, but not good enough to read this."
"I don't know, maybe moving a heavy object on top of you is also a way to make one invisible to the naked eye. You would end up being squished and turn into the object itself, so in itself it's some sort of camouflage."
"Come on Zane…"
"Listen to me now. I don't care about your project, or your worries. This anonymous man might be the key to putting some new events to the motion, so I fear you are underestimating the gravity of the upcoming events. Open your horizons and I suggest you to forget about sleeping tonight. Our time of breaking our chains might be closer than you think."
"Breaking our chains?"
"Our freedom is close, I can feel it. Work, and finish your part of the deal. Let the rest happen, but keep your eyes open. There aren't many people who know the potential uses of the potion you are making, and the ones that I know are not the gentle ones. The word you are looking for is camouflage. Find an elven translator, and find the missing ingredient."
"This is more than just a potion of invisibility, it's a potion of camouflage? What is the difference?"
"Invisibility potion derived by humans is simply a mixture of a material that allows the ingredient to get into your blood flow faster, and it affects your skin in such a way that you do not reflect light, instead you feed on it. The common invisibility potions merely work in the dark, as you become a black entity that can blend in when there is no light. What you are working on is the real invisibility potion, which helps your skin adapt with its background colour, making you completely invisible to the naked eye if there is no movement, like a cloaking spell. Human's pathetic knowledge of Arcana never fails to amuse me, since you just ripped off elves to learn the magic but never theorized it to truly understand it. Your research can be used on many applications as you are about to make a breakthrough in human Arcana."
"It's good to know that I stumbled upon something spectacularly new for my race…"
"Knowing this fact, I want you to be more careful. I want you to have eyes behind you, and be prepared to face the worst. Or perhaps, seize any opportunity once u see it."
Hakko, confused and motivated at the same time, decisively dropped the necklace and started to work on his ratios. The potion had to be completed in three days, and now he knew what he was working on. He needed to find someone who is fluent in elven, and he needed to do the mixture right, to create his potion. He felt as if, all of a sudden, this became bigger than him and his attitude. Perhaps that is why Zane avoided telling him anything about the potion… Or maybe there was more to it?
