Page 96 of Brimstone

The vampire’s curiosity rose as he angled his head, inspecting the back of my right hand. “Remarkable. Truly. I’ve never seen an Alchimeran shield this intricate before.”

“Alchimeran shield?”

“Yes. This,” he said impatiently, tapping the back of my hand. “Thisis your shield. All Alchemists had them.”

“You don’t need to talk to me like I’m stupid. Magic hasn’t existed in Zilvaren for a very, very long time. How amIsupposed to know any of this?”

From his expression, Foley wasn’t about to accept my upbringing or my background as an excuse for my ignorance. “You cannot eradicate magic from a city. Once it takes root within a community, it never leaves. It will find a way to thrive, one way or another. You just didn’t care to look for it. Like within yourself, for example.”

“I kind of had some other things going on at the time. Y’know, trying to make sure my brother and I didn’t die of dysentery.”

Foley disregarded the comment, refusing to give it weight. “Your power didn’t just show up overnight. It’s been with you since birth. You must have been using it haphazardly for many years without any attempt to control it. You’ve been utilizing your affinity with quicksilver even more of late. That’s how you find yourself inthisposition.”

“All right, Foley. Leave her be. She had no clue what she was dealing with back in Zilvaren. You judging her for it won’t help us now, will it?”

Foley cracked his knuckles as he skirted around the table toward the tallest stack of books he had compiled. Casually, Lorreth picked up Avisiéth and moved the sword, placing it down close to the vampire again. Foley saw what he did; he shot the warrior a look full of recrimination, then took up a book and flicked through it for a moment, his dark eyes scanning the pages until he found what he was looking for.

He handed the book to me, open toward the front, the aged pages marked with small, hand-drawn symbols. “Can you read this?” he demanded.

My eyes skipped over the page, taking in the spidery black handwriting that filled it from top to bottom.

. . .unorthodox Tria Prima, the basis of which is always the same: Salt. Quicksilver. Brimstone. The uses for all three are varied and wide. Combined, they . . .

I looked up from the page. “I can.”

“Good. Turn the page. Read the exercise at the top of the page there, on the left.”

I did as he bid, reading out loud. “A Faeling may be fearful at first. Opening themselves to the energetic flow of the quicksilver can be an overwhelming sensation. The Faeling should learn to embody the quicksilver’s energy, aligning themselves with it in body and mind, before they try to transmute the substance from a metal to a solid. Every day, the Faeling should be encouraged to alter the quicksilver repeatedly between its natural states until this skill comes easily and they have built a rapport with the quicksilver itself. Once the Faeling has mastered this skill, they will be ready to set their affinity for the quicksilver’s magic and seal their first Alchemical rune.”

I sought out Lorreth, relief building inside me. “You heard that, right? I’m ready to seal the quicksilver’s rune at least.”

Foley jumped in before Lorreth could. “You’refarfrom ready, Saeris.”

“But I can already transmute the quicksilver from one state to another. According to this, Iamready to seal the rune.”

“Is that so? Is it as simple as turning a handle and stepping through the door? Or do you kick the door down and fall ass over tit through it as a result?”

Slowly but surely, I was beginning to hate this vampire. “I don’t see that it matters how I get the job done, so long as it gets done.”

“If you have to force your magic to obey your will, then you haven’t mastered it. You’ve learned how to violate it. You can either develop a partnership with your magic, with give-and-take and understanding, or you can cow it into submission. Which do you think would prove to be the more beneficial relationship? No, tell me, since you seem to be such an expert on the matter, what happens when something or someone isoppressed for long enough that it finally rises up and says enough? Hm?”

The gods and martyrs damn him all the way to the bottom circle of hell. He had a point. “I want to treat the quicksilver fairly. I want to partner with it in the right way, believe me. I’m just very worried that I don’t have time to masterchildren’sexercises, or . . . or these simple, nonsense pictures!”

“Simple, nonsense . . .?” His expression indicated that my comment had left a foul taste in his mouth. “Show me this simple, nonsense picture you’re referring to.”

I looked down at the book and huffed. “There. How about this one. A circle. How is a circle supposed to be important?”

Foley looked down at the plain black band of ink that formed a circle on the page I held out to him, then gave me a bone-dry look. He spoke slowly as if he were dealing with someone too simple to understand basic constructs. “That is notjusta circle.Thatis the foundation ofallpowerful sigils and runes. The strongest magic is circular, like a wheel. It is the symbol of forever, the beginning and the end of everything. It carries magic on a loop, amplifying it, giving it strength. That is the most important magical symbol thereis.”

Ahh.

Shit.

My cheeks flushed hotly.

“Additionally, those exercisesaren’tfor children. They’re for Faelings. Faelings are far smarter than human young. But that’s academic. The skills this book teaches are designed for an individual starting out on a journey to become a proficient Alchemist, no matter their age. They form the foundation upon which all other skills and abilities rely. Would you build a house on top of shifting sand, Saeris Fane? Willingly? Knowing that itwillcome crashing down around your ears?”

If he had used any other analogy, literallyanyother, I wouldn’t have had any qualms about ignoring him. But hehadused that one, and it tore at a buried hurt deep inside me that still woke me, sweating, from my dreams sometimes.