Page 94 of Alchemised

“I should have asked,” she said. “I just—after Luc, I was worried about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

She couldn’t read his expression, but he nodded slowly.

“You have an interesting intuition. I may have underestimated it,” he finally said. “I can’t say I’ve ever thought much of vivimancy. However—you do the Eternal Flame credit.”

W INTER BORE DOWN ON P ALADIA. Icy mountain wind whipped across the river basin, leaving the buildings and windows brilliant with frost. With nothing left to forage, Helena had long hours to work in the lab.

Shiseo had done what no one else could and identified the remaining compounds of the alloy which had been injected into Vanya Gettlich all those months ago.

The final compound in question had evaded analysis.

Shiseo and Helena had worked manually using old chymistry techniques to determine, as the other metallurgists had, that it was not a natural compound but a synthetic fusion of lumithium and something that Helena had never encountered.

When Shiseo checked his work several times, his hands trembled.

“I don’t know how they have this,” he finally said. “This should not be here.”

“What is it?”

He was silent for a long time.

“In the East, there is a rare metal found deep in the mountains. It is—rarer than gold. Only the Emperor himself is permitted to possess it. We called it mo’lian’shi. It—creates inertia.”

Helena had never heard of such a thing. There were metals and substances which were inert in their natural, raw state, and there was lumithium and its emanations which could reverse inertia to create resonance.

Iron was often inert, but once it was processed into steel, even without emanations, it developed a low resonance.

The Irreversibility of Resonance had been established by Cetus about the nature of alchemy. One of his few principles to stand the test of time and scientific interrogation.

Nothing could be made inert.

“I’ve never heard of that,” Helena said.

He shook his head, his eyebrows drawn together.

“You wouldn’t have. It is a part of the Emperor’s power. As lumithium can create resonance, mo’lian’shi takes it back. What this is—” He looked down and seemed deeply troubled. “This is mo’lian’shi fused with lumithium. The simultaneous effect of both together creates a resonance haze.”

He looked at his notes again. “It is unstable. The fusion is deteriorating, but they may perfect their methods in the future. This was probably only a first attempt. But …” His voice trailed off. “I don’t know how they have this.”

He fell silent and did not elaborate for a long time, but finally said, “When the new Emperor came to power, there were questions, mysteries about how he found the wealth to pay his armies.”

Since working with Shiseo, Helena had heard a few rumours about what had brought him to Paladia. That he’d been a eunuch who’d served the previous Emperor, or the illegitimate child of someone in the court.

Helena stared at Shiseo, wondering just who he was. Exceptionally educated was one thing, but knowledgeable about a secret imperial metal was another.

“Perhaps the Undying bought it from the black market,” she said, but she was already thinking about how Crowther and Ilva would interpret this.

If Morrough had an alliance with Hevgoss and secret trade connections with the Eastern Empire, the threat that loomed over Paladia had just grown by magnitudes.

If the new Emperor had obtained his throne selling something of imperial value, that was a violation of his own trade laws.

Shiseo shook his head. “You don’t understand how carefully mo’lian’shi is protected.

It is a rare and delicate thing. Once mined, it must be carefully processed to bring out the effects.

It is often immediately alloyed to prevent it from degrading.

But this—” He touched the vial lightly. “—this was made from pure mo’lian’shi.

Only someone of royal birth, with an Emperor’s seal, could access it. ”

“And you know of it,” she said slowly.

Shiseo met her eyes briefly before they slid away. “And I know of it.”

Now Helena was silent.

“Did you suspect this?” she finally asked. “Is that why you asked for a chance to analyse it?”

He looked absently around the lab. “When I heard of the struggle the metallurgists had, I thought it was a new variety. But this, I am sure, is the Emperor’s. They would not have an identical refining technique.”

Helena felt as though she stood upon a political landmine.

In their hands was proof of a deal not merely between Morrough and another country, but of a treachery between a ruler and his own empire.

The information was dangerous and raised more questions than it answered.

If the Emperor was in debt, how would Morrough have gotten the money to involve himself?

Shiseo was probably the only person who could have discovered it. When the deal was made, it had most likely been done under the assumption that no one could ever connect it to the East.

“Officially, we can call it a synthetic fused metal, using lumithium and an unknown compound,” she said slowly, trying to gauge his reaction. “In the future, if it seems necessary to reveal the Empire’s potential involvement, perhaps we can—discover it, then.”

Shiseo nodded slowly.

“We will have to tell Ilva and Crowther at least. They’ll need to know about this.”

“ KAINE, ” H ELENA SAID QUIETLY. S HE was seated on the floor, trying to relieve the raw sensation in her resonance. “Do you think the Eternal Flame can win the war?”

He was leaning against the wall. “Does it matter what I think?”

“I live among idealists, but all I see are bodies. I’d like the opinion of someone who doesn’t believe that optimism somehow improves the odds.”

He glanced at her. “Does the Eternal Flame have a strategy to win?”

She looked down. As far as she knew, the plan was to reclaim lost territory, drive the Undying back, and burn as many of the dead as possible. The same method that the Eternal Flame had followed in all the Necromancy Wars in the past.

She gave an awkward half nod.

“The High Necromancer will do whatever it takes to win. The method doesn’t matter.

He wants Paladia, ideally with the city intact, but if he can’t get it, he’ll raze it instead.

You’re fighting someone whose only objection to genocide is the waste of potential resources.

Even a genocide is acceptable if it leaves him with the materials for more necrothralls.

And you’re trying to win by—what? Waiting for Sol’s intervention?

Is there any plan that doesn’t hinge on the inherent superiority of goodness? ”

Not that she was aware of.

“Why aid us, then?” she asked. “If you don’t think we can win.”

His expression grew mocking. “Don’t you think you’re worth it?”

“Oh yes, your rose in a graveyard,” she said, lip curling. “Was the array for me, too?”

“Who else?” he asked, his voice empty, just a touch of irony in it.

“Aurelia, perhaps.”

He smiled. “Right. Quite forgot about her.”

“Why are you helping us, Kaine?”

He looked over at her. His features had grown markedly different in recent months. He’d lost all trace of juvenile ungainliness; there was a hardness to his features now that felt more accurate to who he was. His hair more silver every time she saw him. There was no hazel left in his eyes.

He looked a world apart from the dark-haired, insolent boy he’d been when she’d first come to the Outpost. There was an unearthliness to him now.

Touch him and she’d bleed, and yet she could not escape the allure of it.

Their eyes met, and a wave of bitterness swept across his face.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, looking away.

She opened her mouth to argue, but anything she said would be a lie. Whatever his motive was, he didn’t trust the Eternal Flame not to use it against him. They both knew Crowther would.

“I suppose not,” she said, pulling on the thick green pullover to keep out the cold. When she reached the door, she looked back.

Kaine’s gaze flicked away as she turned, as if he hadn’t been watching her go.

There was something haunted about him.

“Don’t die, Kaine,” she said. The line he walked frightened her. If the array was the punishment for a failure, what would the price of betrayal be?

A smirk twisted his mouth as he looked at her. “There are far worse fates than dying, Marino.”

She nodded. “I know. But that one you don’t come back from.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “All right, then, but only because you asked.”