Chapter 165: You Slowly Feel Control

Supervisor Chen was laughing so hard it seemed as if tears came from his eyes, making Elias a bit uncomfortable.

“Damn, boy. You really haven’t changed, have you? Still that same stubborn, focused little whelp who wouldn’t give up, no matter how great the challenge I set before you. I thought you would quit after the first week of working underneath the walls, but you lasted there for years, and the first thing you do after your Ascension is to return to work. Do you know that some Siphons spend the first six months celebrating their elevation? And yet, here you are, an Ascendant Candidate, and the only thing on your mind is forging a path forward.” He wiped his eyes.

“Alright. Alright. I’ll sponsor you for the Alchemist Guild. But it’s not a simple process. You’ll need to pass the entrance examinations, demonstrate your knowledge, and complete a trial project. And that’s just to become an apprentice.”

“When can I start?”

Supervisor Chen paused, and then he grinned. “How about now? I’ve got a spare bench, plenty of reagents, and a hundred years of experience to dump into that thick skull of yours. But first—” He stood and walked to a cabinet, pulling out a bottle of amber liquid and two glasses. “First, we drink to the impossible boy who decided being an Ascendant Candidate wasn’t enough, and had to become an Alchemist too. You do not spend months in celebration, but in this small way, we can celebrate your achievements.”

Elias watched him pour, and then he accepted the glass offered to him. His nose caught a distinctive smell from the amber liquid, and he did not hesitate to bring the glass to his mouth and drink the entire thing; anything else and it would be an insult to the Supervisor.

The liquid burned going down, but it was not the familiar heat of normal alcohol; Elias had tried those, and they were useless against him. Instead, the burn he was feeling came with a faint tingling of Lumina and a surge of coldness that flashed through his body before it vanished.

“Restorative elixir,” Supervisor Chen explained. “Good for the nerves. You look like you need it. That kick to your senses you feel would remain for… weeks, since you are a Fury Forge, for me, I will be lucky if it lasts an hour.”

Elias smiled, not wanting to say that his body was always being permanently restored, and the elixir he had just drunk was throwing a few drops of water into the ocean. He would need something stronger or in much greater volumes before it could begin to have any great effect on him, but still, he bowed and said. “Thank you, Supervisor, this would be of great help to me in the weeks to come.”

“Call me Chen. We’re colleagues now. Or we will be, once you pass those exams, um, so you can still be calling me Supervisor for now, I suppose, don’t want you to have a slip of tongue out there… the Grandmasters of the Guilds are sticklers for the rules.” He raised his glass. “To the path ahead, Elias. May it be long, strange, and filled with things that explode.”

Elias laughed a genuine laugh, and he threw back another round of the amber elixir.

Ⓔ

For the next hour, Supervisor Chen tested him. Not formally, because this was not the right place or time, they were just conversation, questions, and observations.

He had Elias identify reagents by smell alone, describe the properties of compounds Elias had used in his tunnel work, and explain the principles behind reactions he’d discovered through trial and error.

Elias had to deliberately make small mistakes to hide the full weight of his knowledge from the Supervisor. Unless he understood more about the intricacies behind the Guilds, he would not be showing too much of his talents here; if possible, he would like to be an average student on the surface, so as to draw attention away from this side of him.

Despite not doing the best that he could, by the end, Chen was nodding with approval.

“You’ve got a solid foundation,” he said. “Rough, self-taught, but solid. The Guild will beat the roughness out of you and replace it with precision. You’ll learn things you never imagined existed, reactions that bend space, elixirs that let you touch the divine, poisons that kill concepts instead of bodies.”

“That’s what I want,” Elias said, his eyes shining.

“Good.” Supervisor Chen stood and walked to a shelf, pulling down a small wooden box. “This is for you. A beginner’s kit, it contains basic reagents, a few formulas, and some notes I made when I was starting out. Study it. Practice. In one month, I’ll take you to the Guild Hall for the entrance examination.”

Elias accepted the box, feeling its weight. It was more than he’d ever hoped for. Supervisor Chen may have dismissively given him his notes, but Elias knew the weight of that gesture and knew that he had been given a priceless gift.

He bowed deeply, causing Supervisor Chen to nod in understanding, while stroking his hairless chin.

“I will be finding my way out,” Elias said, “Evening would soon arrive, and it would take me a few hours to get back to the Asylum.”

“One more thing,” Supervisor Chen said as Elias stood to leave. “The Guild doesn’t care that you’re an Ascendant Candidate. They won’t give you special treatment, they won’t bow to your potential, and they won’t care about your titles. In their eyes, you’ll be an apprentice until you prove otherwise. Can you handle that?”

Elias thought about it for a moment. The answer was clear to him, but he could see why this question would be asked by the Supervisor. Perhaps if he was a normal Ascendant, he may feel a bit indignant, but when he thought about everything that surrounded him at the moment, the weight of three Incursions hanging over his head, the fact that a worldwide conspiracy that would bring the entire world to chaos was centered around him, and the countless mysteries inside him involving his Talents and his past… the idea of being judged solely on his work, on what he could make, was almost relaxing.

“Yes,” he said. “I think I can.”

Chen smiled. “Good. Now get out of here. It’s late, and I have potions to brew. Come back in a month, and we’ll see if you’re ready. And yes, you can continue working in the tunnels, but not for the next three months. I hear a big shot arrived in the royal palace, and for some reason, he sealed off the tunnels and other areas in the Upper Districts. I hear they are also trying to interfere with the affairs of the Guilds, hmm… What is the city coming to when our Lord Protector lets this sort of thing happen?”

Elias paused for a brief moment as he considered what the Supervisor had just said before he stepped out into the Guild district, the wooden box tucked under his arm. The evening air was cool, the sounds of hammers and bubbling reagents fading as the craftsmen began to close their workshops, but not all of them; many of them would still continue to work through the night.

Glancing at the box underneath his arm, the feeling of control that had been missing inside of him began to slowly bloom.

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