The Ashes of Emerald

MADDIE

The Club Emerald dance floor faded until there was no smoke, no flames, no chaos...

And everything was dark.

And then, instead of the heat of fire on my hands, I felt cool water.

Had ~I~ burned down the club? Was ~I~ capable of creating that green flame?

It didn’t matter now. I was somewhere else entirely.

~I returned to my body slowly, finding myself in a candlelit chamber.~

~Looking down, I found that the liquid on my hands wasn’t water.~

~It was blood.~

~I cried out, but no sound came. I tried to flail my hands, but they didn’t move. I was in this body, but I could not control it.~

~Then came the shriek. The cry of a child.~

~Only then did I make sense of the scene.~

~A woman had just given birth.~

~From the stone on the walls and the cool, still air, I deduced that I was underground.~

~In the corner, a woman lay in a pile of blood-stained cloth. Her dress was soaked with sweat, and her hair stuck to her face.~

~Was this some kind of medieval birthing chamber?~

~The woman closed her eyes as she reclined. Resting after her accomplishment.~

~But was she breathing?~

~Oh god, was she—?~

~But then another woman approached me, the newborn in her arms. The woman stirred.~

~We were the midwives.~

~“Clean your hands,” she instructed softly, “while I bring her the child.”~

~My body walked me to a basin of water, and my hands scrubbed themselves.~

~Then I joined the others.~

~I couldn’t take my eyes off of the mother.~

~It was clear she was alive, though her expression implied that she was suffering.~

~She was beautiful. It was undeniable. Her hair was red, and it curled softly down the front of her stained garment.~

~She looked to be my age.~

~But no, that’s not why she commanded my attention.~

~It was because of how she held her child.~

~Her touch was affectionate as she traced the line of its chin and held the tiny hands in her own.~

~But she did not look at her baby. Her gaze was focused intently on the wall to the right of my head.~

~Her jaw was set, her expression steely. Whatever she was thinking, she was resolved.~

~“A hellish labor that you have weathered,” my companion commented.~

~Though I think she was hoping to make the woman happy, the mother’s eyes only crumpled painfully. As if she might cry.~

~She traced the top of the newborn’s head absentmindedly.~

~“But now your beautiful baby boy is here.”~

~The child cooed, swatting at its mother.~

~The baby looked at me and my heart stopped.~

~In its eyes, I saw grey flames.~

~His mother had one lone tear traveling down her cheek.~

~“What will you name him?” My companion pressed.~

~The mother’s mouth was a thin line.~

~Instead of answering, she began to sing.~

~Her voice was strong and true, even as she cried.~

~"Oh, dark is the wind"~

~“When it blows through the cave"~

~“And the wolf gets the poor shepherd’s flock"~

~“Loud is the blood"~

~“As it lands in the mud"~

~“When it spills from the red, cursed rock.”~

~“Oh, cold is the night"~

~“When the wind pulls the lights"~

~“Cold was the night you were born"~

~“Tell me, where is your grave?~

~"Oh, little one, where is your grave?”~

~"Tell me, where is your grave?"~

~"Oh, little one, where is your grave?”~

Even when the song was through, it echoed in my ears. It grew increasingly louder, and soon I couldn’t hear my companion speaking to the mother.

The woman’s pain shook me to my core.

The sound grew so loud that the volume filled my head with a blinding pain.

I faded from the borrowed body, from the strange, cave-like room, until I was in darkness once more.

Still the words haunted me:

~”Tell me, where is your grave?~

~”Oh, little one, where is your grave?”~

What was this song? Who was that woman?

I felt tied to her, even as the vision faded.

Was that the melody that could reach Loch?

My thoughts swam, disembodied and looping.

And then, once more, all went black.

ZAYDA

I stretched the rubber gloves over my hands and gave them a satisfying ~snap.~

It was early in the morning, and I was happy to have a few minutes alone before Xander and his other star students arrived at the lab.

It gave me a moment to check on my project—~the panacea.~

I’d used modern equipment for the Dragonsleep Potion only to wind up at dead ends. So, I thought...what about looking back in time?

The old alchemy book I found in the lab a few days ago was surprisingly helpful.

I read up on the panacea—a universal healing solution.

Of course, the elixir didn’t have exact ingredients, but the book gave me an idea.

What if I made a panacea for dragons, alongside the Dragonsleep Potion?

I crouched at a nondescript cabinet beneath the lab table, pulling aside the heavy boxes that I had used to hide the panacea.

Finally, I saw it. I lifted the beaker to find it was...white.

I sighed.

The potion was mainly comprised of mine and Loch’s blood. Xander still had plenty of samples leftover from the Dobrzyckas’ imprisonment.

When I began, the mixture was red.

According to the book, the panacea followed the phases of the Magnum Opus.

The Magnum Opus demanded that a substance turn from its original state to black, then white, then yellow, then red.

These physical changes represented the spiritual change of the solvent.

As I watched my potion turn black the first day I mixed it, something seemed to click.

Maybe this alchemy stuff wasn’t mumbo jumbo after all.

The element of the unknown made the process more alluring to me than anything I’d done in Xander’s lab.

But I was hoping my panacea would have turned red again by now. Its slow progress made me wonder if I was cut out to be an alchemist after all...

I was impatient to hurry my project along, but I couldn’t think of anything to do the trick.

I returned the boxes to their places and stood up, straightening my goggles.

My phone pinged madly. What was going on?

Thea

BREAKING!! Emerald Club Burnt to Ground Early This Morning

Thea

Notorious Night Club Scorched at Sunrise

Thea

Omg

Thea

Have u seen about emerald?

Thea

I mean idgaf about that shithole

Thea

But there are people missing

Thea

U don’t think Harry and Maddie were there, do you?

Thea’s last text made my heart drop.

~Had~ my friends been in the club last night?

Since my falling out with Maddie, I hadn’t reached out to her even once.

Honestly, I hadn’t reached out to ~anyone.~

After I moved in with Xythor, I’d been spending my time with him. And only him.

It felt so easy.

Even after a few hours in the lab, I missed him. Every day, I kept a mental note of all the things I wanted to tell him. Then I ran home into his arms. We both knew we were falling in love… I felt it in my heart.

But neither of us dared to say it.

Just then, the door to the lab swung open and Xander walked in.

He didn’t greet me at first. He just pulled his lab coat on over his button-down shirt.

I typed a quick text to Harry.

Zayda

Harry

Zayda

U ok?

Zayda

Just heard what happened at Emerald

Zayda

And got worried…

I wouldn’t text Maddie, at least not for now.

“Zayda,” Xander called by way of greeting. He gathered the supplies from the refrigerator and began to set up the apparatus on the table.

I set to work, silencing my phone and shoving it in my bag.

I grabbed the Bunsen burner and hauled it over to Xander’s workspace.

He paused across the table, and I felt his eyes on me.

“You might be pleased to know that I’ve arranged alternate meeting times for your fellow students.” He smiled.

My breath caught. Xander and I would be working ~alone?~

I dodged his gaze as I arranged the workspace.

“Oh,” I replied, hoping my discomfort wasn’t obvious. “Why did you do that?”

“So I can give special attention to my most promising intern.”

His words should’ve made me proud, but instead they made my skin crawl.

“Thank you,” I managed.

“I have a new hypothesis that I’m excited to share,” Xander continued, “pertaining to the Dragonsleep Potion. I recommend a slight shift in focus.”

My stomach churned. Why did it feel like this was Xander’s plan all along?

“We’ll tailor the first batch especially for Loch Dobrzycka.”

Xander smiled and ran his tongue over his teeth before going on.

“I know we reached a dead end with the connection between Loch and the Loch Ness Monster, but I had a thought.” Xander smiled his self-important little smile. “But perhaps a bit of flora from ~Scotland of the Old World~ might target that so-far-unreachable beast…”

Xander pushed a book toward me and it flipped open to a worn page.

I eyed the image of an ugly, reddish fungus that resembled a bloated maggot more than it did plantlife. I quickly turned to its poisonous properties.

Xander pulled a glass container from his bag and passed it my way.

The specimen inside was even more grotesque than its image.

It literally appeared to be bleeding. It was a fungus of sorts, that much was clear. But there was a thick, red liquid oozing through pores on its surface.

“Devil’s Tooth Mushroom,” he grinned.

“Yikes,” I replied. “Looks like it’s bleeding.”

“Indeed.” Xander removed it from its case and began to slice it with a scalpel. The red liquid spilled onto the tray. “Let’s hope it will make Loch bleed.”

I didn’t reply.

“I suppose you heard about that night club,” Xander said without looking up.

“Yes.”

“You don’t know anyone who attends a place like that, do you?”

“No, sir,” I replied.

I was just praying I didn’t know anyone attending the club ~last night.~

“Well, I guess it serves them right,” Xander concluded.

He wiped the red liquid from his gloves onto a rag. I said nothing.

“Say, how’d you like some coffee?” Xander asked.

I felt his electric blue eyes on my face.

“No, thank you,” I replied.

“Water?” he asked, his eye twitching for a nearly imperceptible moment.

“I’m alright.”

I gave a strained smile. And his expression hardened.

“Well, then,” he replied, finally, turning on the heat below the mixture. “Zayda. One more thing.”

I nodded.

“I was thinking for this ~altered~ potion, we might use some principles from the ancient art of ~alchemy.”~

Once again, my heart dropped into my stomach.

“You don’t happen to know anything about it, do you?” he asked.

His eyes glittered. I gulped.

“No, sir.” I repeated.

Would he notice that whenever I called him “sir,” I was lying?

“Well, isn’t that a shame.”

A sinister smile played on his thin lips as he gazed at me.

“I, um, have to use the restroom,” I stammered. My heart raced. Was it possible that Xander knew about my sneaky little side project?

Ignoring me, he gazed into the growing flame of the burner. “We’ll be employing the process of the Magnus Opus.”

I turned on my heel and charged from the lab.

As the door swung closed behind me, I heard Xander call: “When you return, I’ll tell you all about it!”

I burst into the dimly lit corridor.

I swallowed the bile that rose from my stomach.

My head swam. Did this mean Xander knew what I was doing?

What would he do if he did?

All I knew was that had me under a microscope.

All alone.