The Runic Alchemist

Sam nodded. They started going back down — all the ropes were still there, so going down was much easier than going up. They reached near the flowing river; the morning had turned into bright midday. The sun was teetering right above their heads. The question now was..

“What do we do about this Damian?” Maelor asked. “We can’t leave him behind. But what if he dies if we drag him along?”

Lucian looked at the new Damian and took him from Sam, then gently placed him on the grassland at the edge of the dark, flowing river. Then, without a word, she started chanting a healing spell and launched it on Damian. She did it continuously three or four times.. When she started chanting for the fifth time, Sam stopped her.

“Don’t waste your mana..” That was the only thing Sam could say as he saw her eyes glistening with tears.

“Maybe if we do this, the real Damian will be released, and he’ll be back to his old self?” Maelor suggested hopefully. They all knew it was a long shot, but right now, no matter how thin the hope was, they had to grab it with both hands and keep going.

They all stood up and walked near the river; however, before they could extend their hands inside, someone started violently coughing behind them.

It worked!

Sam could not believe his eyes as he turned around and saw the new Damian trying to hold himself up in a coughing fit. Lucian and Maelor rushed to his side in a second; Sam followed behind. Maelor conjured a little water with a spell, and Damian drank it — along with all of them, even though they were not thirsty — it just felt like a thing they should do. Damian finally stabilized and sat straight, looking around to determine where they were.

Before anything though, Damian’s eyes were fixed on Lucian — she was already looking at him. Without a word, she fell into his arms, and Maelor and Sam had to avert their eyes. Lucian didn’t seem to care much, even when she was wearing a very thin cloth dress, barely tied to her waist with a rope. Even a little wind would reveal everything; thankfully, there was no wind here. But running and bending were not very advisable either.

She was much more impressive than Sam ever gave her credit for — weird thing to think about when their lives were on the line. Still, Sam was grateful for the happy distraction.

They quickly explained to Damian what had brought them here to the dark river. He too seemed to agree that it was worth a shot. But there was something else in his face.. Maybe it was his bad condition, but Sam felt like Damian was not very eager to find whatever was on the other side of the dark river. He seemed.. sad.

They all kneeled near the river’s edge and looked at each other. Damian was still very weak, but he had decided to come inside anyway. Sam had to say he was relieved that Damian was with them. Without him, it always felt like he had suddenly aged tens of years. With a nod, they all extended one hand towards the river and touched the dark, flowing thing.

For a second, it felt the same as touching water — only if the water was somehow boiling hot and soul-freezing cold at the same time. But then the familiar darkness came, and Sam lost his vision. He breathed in darkness for a second, and then he was suddenly assaulted with blinding lights all around him.

The black-and-white memory trap was being constructed right before their eyes. People, things, and giant mountains? No, they were too symmetrical to be natural. It was man-made — or giant-made. Shiny glass on the surface, big letters at the top, and it was just one of hundreds of such tall and massive buildings all around him. Sam was very confused.

Where in the hell were they? There was no place in their world that looked like this.

In a second, all sounds disappeared, and just a single voice remained — a woman breathing while looking at a small basket-like thing. Sam walked to the side to take a look; so did everyone around him. Only Damian — the new Damian — remained still. He was looking at the woman. Sam looked at her too, and his eyes widened in shock — there was no face, only a dark scribble where eyes and mouth and nose should be. What monstrous thing was that?

The sound of breathing was clear though — the woman looked at the basket in which Sam saw a little baby cooing. The woman’s shoulders slumped, and then she looked at the man who was holding the basket and said in a very tired and bored tone,

“Take him away. Make sure they find him and the money.”

The man nodded and entered some weird metal box thing that had doors. The man went inside, the doors closed, and the thing drove on. Only then Sam noticed they were on some kind of road.. It was so smooth and big — a paved road? And the strange, fast-moving boxes on wheels were not just one but hundreds, going and coming at surprising speed. They all had glass through which Sam could see people were controlling the thing.

It.. felt similar to Dreamlight. Only it was land-based and smaller. And it was leaving smoke from behind.

The scene changed — the kid they had seen before had grown up, maybe four or five years old. He was sitting on a bench, his hands holding a book, but his eyes were not focusing on it. Instead, he was looking at the other side of the garden-like place where a lot of kids were running around, playing.

There was a woman in black-and-white clothes. She looked pretty. She looked uncomfortable, though, as a large man with an ugly mustache was talking to her constantly, and she was replying with an uncomfortable voice. Her body language clearly indicated she was not happy to be in such a situation, but she had to endure it because the man had to be a noble or something.

Sam had seen such scenes before — it wasn’t anything new. But the place around them where all these things were happening, now that looked like the weirdest possible thing, and he had been to a world where people who looked like pigs lived.

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