TODAY’S HEADLINING NEWS: RESEARCH STALLS ON LAZ POTION PROJECT, IMMORTALITY A SURE FAILURE.

After the disastrous results of yesterday’s experiments, which resulted in an intern having his entire skin solidified into rock, the Joint Rembracht Grants Commission has frozen any further funding to the project. One spokesman, a senior member and teacher at The Institute, said earlier this week, “Our hearts go out to our young intern, and we hope he has a swift recovery in The Institute’s state of the art medical ward. We can assure parents concerned that no student is involved in any experiments like these, and that all necessary safety precautions are in place to protect them.” Mayor Lon has assured the public that increases in incidents of potion and transmutation accidents such as these are temporary and that it is due to lower within the year. He later stated that “The concerns that the city is ‘spiralling out of control’ are not just false, but ridiculous and potentially damaging.” The Rembracht Inquirer reached out to Mayor Lon for further comment about the Laz project, but we have received no response.

Interrogation

Ebb tried to recline further down into his chair but his manacles refused him this luxury. He sighed and looked around the room. The black stone interrogation room kept everything cool, but had a tint of sparkling purple to it that screamed ‘I am a transmuter with too much money and time on my hands.’ The only way he could see this was through what little light flooded through the little barred window on the door. The door remained uniform with the room, being stone and presumably a pain in the ass to open.

Before Ebb could continue scoffing at everything he saw, the door he had been so intently studying swung open revealing an inspector of Rembracht police department. This still-silhouetted figure flicked his trench coat behind him like a pianist ready to play and dropped onto the chair opposite the table. The motion of this caused the inspector’s potion belt to glow ever so slightly. He yanked this out and shook it, flooding the room with light. Ebb caught a glimpse of this rather portly man open his mouth before the potion faded again.

Ebb figured this inconvenience was due to the need to maintain the ‘spooky criminal room’ schtick. It was hard to believe, though, as the man continued swearing and fiddling with the bottle and Ebb had to try his utmost to not laugh.

Another figure dressed in more ceremonial robes waltzed in.

“SHUT THAT BLOODY DOOR,” The inspector bellowed, still trying to figure out the mysteries of the bottle.

The figure, still just as calm, shut the door and the distinct sound of a latch closing on the other side followed.

The inspector finally, with the power of swearing and shaking, got the bottle to glow with a rhythmic pulse. Ebb could tell from his face that it wasn’t supposed to do that, but it would have to do.

“Well then,” Cue well choreographed look at notes, “Ebb. You do understand why you’re here, right?”

He knew, but he had also read too many crime novels. In interrogations, the first person to answer that question doesn’t run the interrogation…or something like that.

Continuing silence.

“No?” The inspector said, feigning surprise, “I’m surprised. After what you did…after your TERRORIST ATTACK—”

“Terrorist attack!?” Ebb shouted back in disbelief.

“Absolutely terrorist attack. You unleashed a potentially deadly pathogen upon an ENTIRE ward of the city. The only question is what do you want. Are you tired of the government, hm? Are you one of those New Light freaks?”

Ebb sat in momentary disbelief, only rousing himself when he realised the longer he stayed silent the more guilty he would sound.

“Absolutely none of the sort!” He shouted back.

“Then why did you do it?”

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I was just messing around with ingredients and---” Ebb was interrupted by a coughing fit, the likes of which he had never felt before. When he pulled away his hand away a crimson splotch was dripping down it.

The Inspector continued, “Is this what this is about? You have some kind of illness and you want to inflict it on others? Do you even care about these people? You haven’t asked once how your victims are doing,” The inspector stated flatly.

“I have, and I know how they’re doing. I was in the same hospital as them, and I apologised to everyone personally. What is wrong with you?”

“You know—”

“Enough, Inspector Lod,” The other man interrupted.

“DETECTIVE Inspector,” Inspector Lod interjected back.

“This isn’t what I’m here for, we aren’t putting him on trial. Just give him his options.”

Detective Inspector Lod gave a long sigh and packed up the notes he had clearly taken a long time to prepare, and filed through them to pull out a notably more well treated page. He placed it down on the table with a surprising amount of care.

Lod was about to open his mouth, but a tap on the shoulder from the figure made him get up and sigh with resignation. The man that replaced him on the chair was a short man who’s voluminous green and yellow cloak couldn’t hide his wiry frame.

He sat down calmly, but he suddenly shot his arms out and shoved the paper towards Ebb.

“Hi Ebb,” he said, with an attempt at forced friendliness that politicians would be proud of.

Ebb had a closer glance at the folded page: APPLICATION FOR APPRENTICESHIP TO THE MAR POTION BREWERY LIVERY COMPANY.

The ridiculously verbose title answered a few questions, but raised many more. Before Ebb could say anything the man unfolded part of the page and showed him a few diagrams Ebb knew all too well.

“The city of Rembracht was pushing for a lengthy prison sentence, and judging by the look of what came out of your mouth,” He said, motioning to Ebb’s hand, “It wouldn’t be a lengthy one.”

Ebb refused to look at his hand again. He was trying to keep his composure, but the terror this illness has inflicted on him is one that’s hard to hide.

“Some of this equipment is decades old, no doubt you fished it out of a bin somewhere.”

Ebb wanted to speak up, but the weight of his chest forced the words back into him.

“But your brewery stand designs and recipes are almost identical to what we would use in The Alchemaic Institute. I am offering you a chance at a fresh start,” He said, tapping the paper three times in rapid succession.

Once again Ebb tried talking, but what came out was more akin to the barking of a dog.

“Ah yes, about that cough. You were trying to cure it, that much is true. There’s an entire ward of people recovering from consumption as we speak who can attest to that.” He gave a half-hearted chuckle and continued. “As part of your apprenticeship we would perform a full physical checkup and could cure you in a matter of minutes. What you were attempting is complicated but with our abilities completely trivial.”

Ebb, despite barely being able to speak, was able to show on his face a feeling of distaste with the whole arrangement.

The man sighed, and packed the diagrams back into the contract.

“Of course,” he began, “If you were to refuse, we would have no reason to treat you and it would all be subject to a jail hospital. I’ve heard they aren’t particularly well skilled.”

Ebb began seeing red. The final piece settled in and he realised what was going on.

“Are you willing to kill me for this stupid apprenticeship?” Ebb shouted.

“Are you willing to die to make a point!?” He shouted back. Ebb was perplexed, he’d never thought this man capable of such fiery language.

He continued. “I know you have a passion. I know you have the fire inside you that drives you to insane things like slapping together a bunch of half-assed machinery together and boiling a pot of sludge you hope to be a potion. It’s not just a desire to live, it’s a desire to learn.”

He paused for an answer but he knew it would take a little time to mull over in his head.

“And you get to live, which is always the correct choice.”

Ebb brought his concentration back to him, giving no attempt to hide his contempt. However, he tried raising his hand but it was pulled sharply back by the rusted manacles he had forgotten was still on him.

“If I am to administer this medicine, he will have to be out of custody.”

“But he is still under arrest pending trial by the city council!” Lod protested.

“Actually,” He began, seemingly pleased with himself, “The Rembracht council doesn’t wanna deal with this one, and has entrusted the Mar Potion Livery Company with the task. Which, as you may have realised by now, is represented by me. As such, would you please unshackle him?”

Lod did as the man asked and just as quickly disappeared out the door, presumably to go scream into a pillow or something of that nature.

Ebb, though already in perfect agreement, still seemed hesitant to actually put ink to paper. However, these things cannot be delayed for long. The man gave him a feather and, opening the light potion, he dabbed the tip a few times and wrote his name above the line, neglecting to read further than ‘We will save your life.’

The ink flashed after a moment and looked fused with the paper.

“You gonna make yourself less mysterious and tell me your name?” Ebb asked incredulously

“If you’re lucky, we won’t be on a first name basis.”

Curing Tuberculosis

It was a surreal experience traipsing across a ward of Rembracht that was once Ebb’s home. Well, his home as of a few minutes ago. It seemed as though with every moment that they walked the landmarks became less and less recognisable. The serpent’s head brass statue on the front of that balm store, that one guy who sweeps the streets despite Ebb being pretty sure he doesn’t actually work for the city, that weird grease stain that was growing across the lone stone building in the ward like a tumour.

All of it faded away for an environment that seemed much more alien. It was still the Rembracht he knew, and it certainly still had that ramshackle overhanging wooden two story slum feel about it, but the lack of familiar faces was starting to make Ebb’s situation real for him.

“Keep up!” He shouted, making no effort to help Ebb keep up.

“Slow down and I will,” Ebb retorted.

The livery company man had traced this route so many times he may as well have dug tracks into the streets. Ebb regularly had to guess after the man had rounded a corner whether or not he had turned left or right straight after. Thankfully he didn’t get lost and one last cobblestone alley gave way to a grand white marble street.

The sight was shocking, it felt like he had walked into a completely different town. By Ebb’s reckoning he was close to the centre of Rembracht so this had to be somewhat of a crown jewel. As he studied each of the buildings he walked past it made more sense why this of all places had seemingly been given more resources than every other part of the town combines. Each was emblazoned with a crest and a coat of arms: These were the livery companies.

Each sailed past seemingly forever. Everything from modest solid coloured coat of arms to extravagantly plated crests lined up next to each other with no rhyme or reason.

The man could see Ebb’s dumbfounded expression at all this, certainly a first for him.

“You can understand, Rembracht being a research city, that the livery companies like to pile more dosh into where they conduct business.”

“This!?” Ebb shouted, snapping himself out, “This is not conducting business. This is a bunch of twats with too much money and nowhere to spend it.”

The man seemed unfazed by this attack.

“The Brewery Company alone has well over a thousand outlets across towns in all three nations of The Isles. If every building had been outfitted like this we’d be bankrupt. No, this is about keeping up with everyone else.”

Ebb confused himself trying to wrap his head around the logic.

“But everyone else does the same thing, right?”

“Yes.”

“So it’s a money and prestige arms race?”

“Essentially, yes. We tried asking them politely to stop gold plating their property but that doesn’t seem to work.”

Even though the man wasn’t looking back at him, Ebb could still see the cheeky grin he had on. They arrived outside a building, possibly the most decorated of all he had seen so far. The road they were walking still stretched on despite the distance they had already walked, like a jewel-encrusted scar on the city.

The man awkwardly hiked up his cloak revealing a much more drab dark-green tunic and he fumbled around in one of its pockets.

The coat of arms above them was divided into thirds [COAT OF ARMS HERE]

The man pulled out a lone key, so small it seemed like a gust of wind could catch it and pull it away. With a quick turn of the lock they were both in the main hall of the Mar Brewery Livey Company.

The interior of the livery hall completely betrayed what Ebb had expected. The outside’s rainbow of jewels that seemed so lovingly hand-crafted gave way to a dark-wooden interior with plain stone trimmings that gave the impression of a lumberjack’s hut.

The man gave him little time to take in the sights as they wound through several deserted corridors. Every room that happened to have an open door was also completely empty. Everything from classrooms to brewing stands to at one point a cafe were all empty.

“Where is everyone? This isn’t gonna be a murder, is it?” Ebb asked.

“It’s the weekend, the only staff here are administrative,” He replied. They approached a door and he pushed it open with the care of a bull. “If you’re lucky you won’t know them by name either.”

The office was just as plain as everything else, but the crap strewn everywhere at least gave it some character. The enormous bookcase which almost stretched to the roof had an impressive pile of papers and books going from the floor back to the case. The only items that weren’t so overloaded that they were spilling onto the floor were bottles of potions, each one either clear or a slightly cloudy white. Presumably this was why there were labels attached on each one with handwriting so rushed it looked like they were written at the end of a sword.

On what little of the desk Ebb could see was a nameplate, embossed in brass.

“Who’s going to be treating me, then…Mr Fob,” Ebb said.

“Mm?” He flicked between Ebb and then the nameplate he was looking at, “Ah, this isn’t my office. I’m just borrowing his because I’m out of…AHA” He shouted, yanking a plastic packet of tar-black sludge from the chest. Ebb stewed as his perceived cleverness got taken down a few pegs.

He disappeared behind the monstrous pile and came back struggling to carry a portable brewery stand. When he slammed it down on another table that miraculously had little crap on it, Ebb took a closer look.

He tried to compare its components to his own ramshackle setup but some of them seemed to be completely alien. The dark grey iron tubing wrapped around and spiralled for no obvious reason. Sometimes reservoirs would form but be condensed by another tube. It simultaneously looked meticulously crafted and designed at random.

Ebb hadn’t been keeping track of Not Fob, so enthralled he was at the stand, that he was jolted awake by the sound of test tubes being dropped on the table. Each one .

“I’m confused about the potions around this office,” Ebb started.

“Oh?” Not Fob mumbled back, focusing on his measurements.

“I thought potions were supposed to have colour. How come everything around here is clear?”

Not Fob took a few moments to finish turning the screw to engage the boiler and turned to face him.

“That’s how most of them look. Colour coding potions is simply a best practice, we usually use one of three dyes ourselves. If you’re just messing around with potions for fun,” He said, gesturing around the room, “Then there’s really no point.”

Ebb felt himself starting to get red with embarrassment. He’d been measuring his success with his setup by how much colour he saw.

As he stewed in shame he didn’t see that Not Fob had already finished and was holding the glass tube in front of him. He grabbed it and inspected the black sludge.

“This one, however, isn’t dye. Drink up,” he said, to Ebb’s horror.

Ebb breathed in and threw it back, making sure it didn’t hit any of his taste buds. Even then, he still grimaced as the putrid liquid slid down his throat.

He coughed a few times and shouted, “Why the hell does that taste like lamp oil?”

“Because it is.”

He retched forward and coughed out a glob of slick black mucus, making an unsatisfying ‘splat’ as it smeared on the floor. It wiggled a few more times before rising off the ground with two tiny, slick, black legs. Ebb stared in disbelief as it scanned its surroundings. After the moment passed it locked on to Ebb and it sped towards him with terrifying speed and leapt towards his face.

Ebb readied himself, holding his tube like a knife and squeaking out a little “How you—” before a large, round glass bottle collided with it, shattering both into a million little pieces.

The moment settled, the only sound Ebb heard was Not Fob mumbling curse words under his breath.

“Sorry about that,” he said halfheartedly, not looking at Ebb, “Consumption can be nasty.”

The Livery Machine

They had set Ebb up in a boarding room within the Livery Company’s headquarters. They outright told him that it was in ill-repair purposely to encourage him to get a job and find his own place, and he certainly believed that. The wood was cheap, untreated and splintered, only the floor remained smooth through decades of people walking atop it. There were empty, clean beds which barely qualified as such. Mattresses on the floor with a wood box surrounding it to give the illusion it was raised off the ground.

Ebb was reclined on his bed. He had just finished counting the millionth loose nail in the lodging when he noticed a figure out of the corner of his eye at the doorway. Just as soon as he had saw it, it was gone. Tossed on the ground was a plain envelope. He opened it and inside were two items.

One was the agenda for the rest of the month at the livery company, and the other was a hastily scribbled note.

SEE US

ALLEY BESIDE THE BREWERY INN, FIFTH WARD

TONIGHT

Ebb furrowed his brow. This was definitely a murder attempt. And yet…

Before he could formulate the rest of that thought he flicked his eyes back to the agenda.

9 A.M.

BREWING INITIATION

All of a sudden his stomach felt like it was being strangled. He didn’t know if his failure to attend would void his contract, but he wouldn’t put it past them to put his consumption back in somehow. He bolted out of the door, papers still in hand, scraping his socks on the floor as he ran to…wherever the event was happening.

He let the sound of voices guide him, as the distant sound of clattering steel and glassware came closer with every step. He rounded one final corner and stood, bewildered in the doorway as he took in the chaos of the room. It seemed they had already been given their instructions and were all frantically rushing around between the ingredients bed and their boilers.

He made a beeline for the one person he saw

“This isn’t a school, Master Ebb, you are free to cut classes as you wish. The only consequences will be your stupidity and failure to secure a good mentor,” She said, motioning to a chair.

It had been set up already with a percolator and a small vial of mercury. Ebb understood this immediately, mercury is one of five baseline substances. He was confused why they were starting with the most reactive, volatile substance up front, but soon that was the least of his questions.

“Hey,” he said to the guy next to him, nudging him with his elbow. He was so engrossed in panicked concentration he didn’t register Ebb’s presence. “HEY!” Ebb shouted, grabbing the guy’s shoulder.

“What!” He shouted back, still concentrating on depositing mint extract with a glass eyedropper into the distention valve.

“What are we doing?” Ebb asked, fighting the urge to act anything other than saccharine.

He took a few more moments to hurriedly arrange ingredients on his table before speaking again. “We’re making a potent acid that eats through stone but not wood.”

Ebb widened his eyes with shock. That certainly explained the holes in the floor of the classroom that looked as though they had been attacked by swarms of termites. “What the hell?” He said, not really to anybody in particular. He already had a decent idea of why. Brewing, as he learnt oh so painfully, can be dangerous. If you can’t handle the danger of this volatile job, then you shouldn’t be in the business.

“Wait, if that’s the task then why is everyone freaking out? Is there a time limit or something?”

“You clearly don’t understand, plague boy.” Ebb screwed up his mouth. Seems word had spread. “The only way you can be considered for the best mentor positions is if you work the hardest.” He paused to grab his forceps and deposit a miniature iron rod into the top catchment. “Nobody cares about your status here, the only thing that matters is hard work. Maybe you should try that instead of bugging me.” He turned around to signal the end of his role as a willing interlocutor.

Ebb leaned back in his chair and looked at his stand. A realisation washed over him that he was surprised hadn’t come sooner. He shot his hand up to get the attention of the…education person, Dean. He was met with a smack on the shoulder from his right. “Go up, this isn’t a classroom,” The guy said, exasperated.

Ebb stood up. “Thanks…”

“Err, now please go away.”

Once Ebb looked away Dean was towering over him. He jumped back, almost falling back into his seat. “Did you want something?” Dean asked.

“Oh, yeah. I need a boiler.”

Err dropped his glass eyedropper and looked at him in shock. “A boiler!?” He shouted, “That equipment’s over a hundred years old! Why the hell—”

“It’s what I’m used to,” Ebb interrupted, “Why should I be denied because I’m more old fashioned.”

Dean read Ebb through her crinkled eyes. She then raised her left hand and shouted, “Ur!” A clattering of metal ensued from the other side of the room and a man popped up beside Dean. “Get us a boiler from storage. Should be in the basement. If you find the ritual gear you’ve gone too far.”

He nodded and disappeared out the door.

“What?” Err said, both amused and annoyed at this show of preference.

“It’s said that it’s a bad brewer who blames their tools, but a worse brewer who blames other’s tools. Err, if you need anything particular to yourself let us know. Otherwise, no objections.”

Err opened his mouth to reply but Dean was already turning to leave. “Oh yeah!” Ebb shouted, “I’d also like it delivered to another table.”

He was already gone but was sure she got the message. Ebb mouthed a mocking profanity to Err and scouted the room for an empty space. Everything seemed packed, the heaving mass of apprentices seemed to cover every area they were rushing about so fast, and for a moment Ebb thought he would have to slink back to Err.

However, he noticed another table at the far back corner being occupied by one person. Well, to say person was a stretch. The thing was shaped vaguely like a person, with five appendages somewhat representing a head, two arms and two legs. But these were all rounded and its body as a whole glowed a faint, luminescent sky blue. Even if every other space in the room was free, Ebb would want to sit next to this one out of sheer curiosity.

He plopped down in front of his percolator and looked over at the thing.

“You wanna know why I’m a blob,” It said, smiling. It was staring at Ebb.

Ebb looked to the side and looked back, “Yeah.”

“FINALLY!” It shouted, causing Ebb to jump in his chair, “Everyone else here seems to be ignoring my existence or something.”

Ebb looked with the thing at the rest of the room.

“Do the others hate you or something?” Ebb asked.

“Nope, I just joined about a week ago so I haven’t had time to know anyone”

“Why a week ago?”

“Because I was created about two weeks ago.”

“Okay, wait,” He said, feeling the confusion welling up inside him, “Could we go back a bit?”

“How far?” It replied

Life

It’s curious, being alive for the first time. It’s said that first impressions are everything, and I guess this was my first impression to…everything. My first feeling was coldness, and slickness. I was coated in something. Turns out I was coated in myself. I opened my eyes for the first time and saw what looked like I was melting.

Oh well, I thought, Better to have lived and lost.

I spent what little time I had left learning about the world, which for me was a scorched black room. There were metal fragments stuck in the walls and surrounding me in a vague circle shape. I did, however, see a cloaked gentleman lying down in the corner. You have no idea how excited I was to meet what I presume was my creator. I could ask him all sorts of questions before I died.

I walked over to him, trying not to get to excited about my first steps, and I tapped him a few times, each tap leaving a blue residue on his scorched cloak.

“Excuse me,” I said, “Who am I?”

Are you still listening? Oh yeah, I suppose we should get on with the task. Okay, how about I talk while we work. Great!

I don’t know what else I could’ve asked him, maybe he would have given me a satisfying answer. Turns out it’s hard to have an enlightened conversation with a person who has no vocal tract. I tried, though, oh how I tried. I assumed that’s what all people were like and he was just being rude. Still, I pressed on. After about an hour some people walked through the doorway, and I got a bit embarrassed to tell you the truth.

“Oh,” I started, “If you are alive people then this one’s probably dead.” I pointed to the corpse and they seemed just as confused about the whole situation as I was. They muttered a few things and promptly hosed me down with an ether wash. I guess it was less complicated than a nuanced discussion about the merits of life or whatever.

The strangest thing happened, though. It really burnt like hell, and no matter how much I asked they kept going, but then I stopped melting. I even stopped leaving blue residue everywhere. After I think the twelfth request they finally let up with the hoses.

After they picked me up, and me not wanting to make a fuss, they brought me to an interrogation room.

Oh, you’ve been there too? Don’t tell me you went to the same one with that god awful purple sparkling— oh dear.

I finally got the big picture, though. Turns out my…dad? No, that sounds weird. My creator was a contract researcher at The Institute here in Rembracht but was funnelling supplies out of here to his apartment to create me. Lucky nobody else in the block got hurt. And I guess he succeeded, but it took everything with it in the process. The people at The Institute took to studying me instead but haven’t really gotten anything substantial yet, besides naming me Po. Like potion? Yeah it doesn’t make sense to me either.

All we know so far is if I don’t get myself a vial of ether every day or so, I go back to melting. Bit of a pain in the ass, but you people have to eat and drink all the time so I figure it’s not the worst deal I could have gotten. Hey, careful you don’t add too much sulfum or it’ll melt straight through your boiler.

Assignment

Ebb asked question after question and Po made no attempt to hide anything. Ebb figured shame was an acquired skill and this strangely chipper life form just hadn’t learned it yet.

“How the hell did someone make a person from a potion? That seems a bit suspect,” Ebb asked.

“Hey, I’ve heard the institute made some life a few times.”

“Yeah, a few microscopic creatures who…I think blew up is probably the right term. Speaking of, why do they need to even study you? Didn’t your creator have notes or something?”

“I think they…blew up.”

Ebb chortled, Po genuinely caught him off guard.

“TIME!” A bellowing voice came from the front, almost inhumanly loud. Ebb noticed the half-drunk vial that Dean was discreetly stashing back into her cloak. Ebb opened the south valve of the boiler and out came a sludge which flowed awkwardly into his vial. He held it up to his eyes, unimpressed.

“It didn’t chew through the glass,” Po reassured.

“I doubt this’ll chew through anything,” Ebb said, deadpan.

Everybody was crowded around the front of the room, standing behind the painted line that ran around the stone portion of this room and to the wall. All else in the room was the lovely polished wood of the rest of the building.

“NOW,” Dean began, still speaking at a volume that was really putting eardrums to work. She stood quite firmly on the stone floor “Reminder, your acid should dissolve through this floor. But to really make sure you understand the stakes here, I will first be pouring your acids on my wooden desk.” Dean shot a look at each hopeful. “Who’s first?”

Predictably, and as Ebb suspected exactly what Dean was expecting, nobody volunteered. Ebb noticed a few discreetly holding their vials behind their backs, as if not making it at all would have been better than making something terrible. One was even noticing as her acid was almost imperceptibly but most definitely eating through her vial, yet even she said nothing.

Ebb opened to his mouth to volunteer, hoping an early test would make him less memorable. However, Err stepped into the stone arena.

“I will go first,” He declared, acting like the knight he saw himself as.

“Step back from the line,” Dean demanded. Err bounced back, feeling his ego starting to crumble somewhat. “Vial,” She said, holding out her hand. He dutifully followed the instruction, the burning redness of his face showing every other student his regret.

She started with a visual inspection and grandly rotated it around, using her wrist. It was an almost clear liquid with a slight green tint to it. Ebb was thinking that this, being an aptitude exam that Dean must have done a million times, would make her want to get it over as quickly as he wanted. However, Ebb scanned over her wrinkled face and only saw intense burning concentration and enthusiasm, despite her stony exterior.

She yanked the cork out, causing some of the liquid to slosh up to the rim and cause every student’s breath to be caught in their throats. Dean jerked her head back for a moment, and waved some of the vapours to her nose. Her face lit up.

“Why does this smell so nice?”

“That was me, I added mint extract to mask the smell of the—”

“Did I ask for that?” Her and Err’s faces dropping at the same time, “Was it in my instructions to make it smell like mint? As I’m your customer, are you gonna give me a refund?”

The rest of the class snickered and those next to him playfully jostled him.

“LISTEN UP!” She shouted. “It’s hard enough to tell these potions apart. You know that dye stuff is just a courtesy. The last thing we want is for someone YOU love to drink some mint water and a hole burned through their organs,” She stated, almost underplaying the severity of what she just said.

The jostling and laughing stopped, everyone as sullen as Err. Before anybody could prepare, she tipped the vial and dropped half of the acid on the desk. Everyone looked on, noticing that, while it didn’t dissolve the wood, it was warping, adding little ripples to wherever it spread out.

“I would say you should avoid a career as a chef if you are to overcook food the way you overcooked this potion.”

Each word came like a machine gun, ripping holes through Err and leaving him an emotionally crumpled mess. Dean absent-mindedly poured the rest on the floor and, sure enough, it dutifully fizzled and burned away at the stone. Some vapours rose from the hole, but the plumes of smoke Ebb was expecting did not appear. Dean placed the vial in a holder on her desk and held her hand out. “Next,” She said, moving on before anybody was ready.

Without thinking, Ebb shoved his vial in her hand. This was such a blur that even she wasn’t ready for it. Dean rotated through confusion and bemusement, as Ebb stood there still unsure of what to do.

Just as with before, Dean held the vial up to her face, horrified at the brown sludge that was facing her. It moved more like molasses than any normal liquid. Every other observer was quiet, letting out only stifled laughter and muffled gasps. Dean popped open the cork and some of the mixture slickly followed, attempting to lap up her hand.

She dumped a portion out on her desk, clearly shocked at just how much fell out. It fell with a PLOP and…nothing. Ebb breathed a sigh of relief, this was only mostly a disaster. Po breathed a similar sigh of relief and Ebb shot a glance at them. Po seemed shocked, Ebb relented the rage in his face once he saw the sincerity Po had.

He turned back and Dean was scooping over the mix with a pen, and underneath remained completely unchanged. This was an even better result than Err’s, who’s section of wood had curdled up even further since his turn. People stared in amazement, but the actual test was soon to begin. Not pouring the rest out, Dean manoeuvred the viscous mass toward the edge and off the desk.

After a painful amount of time spent falling, the mix hit the stone floor and dutifully fizzling away. It ate away at an impressive rate, only slowing once it had hit the timber underfloor.

Ebb tried to maintain composure, but in his mind he was punching his fists in the air and celebrating. A certain amount of smugness betrayed him and he let out a small smile, and everyone else seemed to want to hide their reactions just as much. Dean remained ever inscrutable, placed the vial in the holder leaning against Err’s, and moved on. As she was about to pour the next student’s vial she jerked it back and thought for a moment.

“I think your filtration might need work,” She told Ebb.

The tests continued with mixed success. Some students did exactly as they were told and made the perfect potion that ate stone as needed. Others made what was essentially water that burned a bit. Once the last student was finished, Dean looked at Po, seemingly only now noticing that he didn’t look as human as once expected. Nonetheless she walked over to them and held her hand out. He didn’t respond and, confused, she asked, “Potion?”

“Oh, I didn’t make one,” He responded, as chipper as ever.

Now both Ebb and Dean were staring in amazement. However, she simply shook her head and moved back to her desk. The silence that ensued signalled to everyone that the session was over. Everyone grumbled, a few talked to Dean desperately begging for a do-over only to be met with silence and a none-too-subtle sign to go back to their desks.

Ebb returned to his desk and packed his things as Po…stayed and stared at him. Ebb wanted to call him a creep, but If I was born two weeks ago I’d probably be just as enraptured by everything, he thought.

“You’re clearly not an apprentice here,” Ebb began, “So what are you doing here?”

Po jerked their head forward, surprised. “Do people think I’m an apprentice here? I don’t want to give them the wrong idea.”

Ebb scoffed. “You’re in an apprenticeship appraisal exam. I’m pretty sure they might be getting the wrong idea if you’re not actually a student.”

Po brought their arm up to their head and seemed genuinely shocked and embarrassed. “OOOOH!” They shouted, “That explains so much! I’m being studied at the institute and they brought me here to get some brewery experts to look at me.”

“And you spent your free time here?” Ebb said in amazement.

“Nope, I actually slipped out while they weren’t looking because I was bored. This was pretty interesting, though. Always fun to see how the sausage is made.” Ebb didn’t know whether to be more shocked by the fugitive sitting next to him or the fact that it actually knew the phrase ‘How the sausage is made.’ “What’s that in your hand?” It said, raising a slick, blue arm to point at Ebb’s hand.

Ebb had almost forgotten about the creepy letter in the chaos of the test.

“Mm? Oh, these are…” He fumbled around with the envelope, still in the exact state he opened it in, “A Brewery Company agenda…and a menacing note I got from someone who might want to kill me.”

Po raised their eyebrows. “Wow, that’s intense,” They said with no hint of irony. Ebb handed it to them and read what little there was written on it. “Are you going to do it?” They asked, handing it back.

Ebb shrugged, “I’m curious, but I don’t want to be killed or something worse just as my life is starting to not be terrible. We’ll see.”

The two people Ebb had passed in the hallway earlier rather suddenly ducked into the room.

“Gotta go,” Po said, standing up, “See you later, Ebb.” They followed the beleaguered institute researchers, clearly having had to deal with this problem many times before, and they disappeared around the corner.

Ebb trailed the rest of the apprentice hopefuls and made for the door

“Where were you educated?” Dean asked, just as he was about to leave. He turned to look at her and the rest of the cohort was gone.

“Um, I kinda just picked stuff up through trial and error,” He said, flatly. He was itching to fire back with a snarky response, but his better judgement at such an important figure brought him back down. Dean nodded and turned back to pack her things up, seeming to forget Ebb’s existence. He walked out of the room, rereading the note as if he could get some new information from it. However, there was only one place he could get something like that.

The Alley Beside The Brewery Inn

A chill had descended on Rembracht like a wraith. Ebb was cloaked in all two sets of clothing he owned, plus what coats the people of the livery company were kind enough to leave lying around. Despite this, the frost still nipped at him with great intensity. He had been waiting for ten minutes at this point and the laughter and heat coming from the inn seemed much more welcoming. However, his curiosity was getting the better of him. He needed to know what this was all about.

Two figures emerged from the street through the fog and Ebb fondled his vial belt. While unattended, Ebb used his brewing stand to make a few small potions that may come in handy if he was to be attacked. However, he noticed that one of the figures, a woman, was wearing the cloak of a livery company. In fact, he had seen that cloak earlier that morning.

“Dean, are you stalking me?” He asked. He took his hand off of his belt. The figures momentarily paused, but as they left the fog they confirmed this.

“Hello, Ebb,” She replied. “No, I am not stalking you.”

Ebb ignored her and looked at the man. He was easily a head taller than her and Ebb was doing his neck in trying to look at him. For some reason he was able to place that crook-nosed face hiding under that flat cap.

“You may know my husband,” She began

“Gee Sceptre!”

“Gee Scep— ah,” They said in unison.

“For a famous steel transmuter, shouldn’t you be doing something better with your life than cornering young men in alleys?”

He raised his eyebrows. He clearly envisioned a much more receptive subject.

“Nice to meet you Ebb, as mutual or not the feeling may be,” He stated, ignoring the comment. “You seem to have the wrong idea about all of this. We needed somewhere the Rembracht city council representatives couldn’t find us.”

“And this couldn’t have been somewhere indoors? Or even in my boarding room?”

“We’ve had a lot of representatives lurking around the livery companies,” Dean chimed in. “They seem to be ramping up investigations into us.” She could see the concern on Ebb’s face. “This won’t impact your ability to get a proper apprenticeship, but it is a problem you should be worried about…” She leaned in as if there were an assassin at her back, ready to kill her if she said the wrong thing. “Rembracht is changing. The once free space of research and learning, the founding principles of this city, is being ground down by the council.”

Ebb screwed his face up. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not exactly seeing this craziness you’re talking about.”

“That bridge you cross to get from Fifth Ward to The Livery Arcade?” Gee said. “That’s me. There’s a piece of me in that bridge.”

“That was all you?”

“It was just a little bit, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking.”

Ebb was confused.

“The transmutation needed human flesh to work more efficiently. And surprisingly there were few volunteers.”

Ebb screwed his face up again, this time in disgust. “Surely it couldn’t have been that bad.”

He hiked up his sleeve revealing a perfect rectangle of skin, leaving a thin layer of hardened scab separating his muscle from the air. He looked away, for the first time in their conversation showing a hint of shame.

“But…Why---”

“The council needed it. And nobody says no to the council.”

“But couldn’t you refuse?”

“Of course, refuse and never be hired by anybody this side of The Capitol. Word spreads fast, especially from the mouths of politicians. This kind of thing is happening all over town. Extreme restriction on research, harsh conditions, the long arm of the law.”

He sighed. Explaining this and reliving those memories was taking a lot out of him.

“Seems like your amazingly wonderful city has a few issues.”

“Actually the council is an Anglia government body. It works for them, not for us. That’s where we come in. We joined the New Light Astrological Society.”

Ebb raised his eyebrows and took a step back. “Aren’t they those nutcases who think they can predict the future by looking at the stars?”

“Only Jin, the leader, thinks that. And quite frankly we all just go along with it because it’s more about bringing people together. That’s why we’re talking to you. We know you have suffered at the hands of the council, by The Electorate. Do you want to live like this forever?”

“So let me get this straight, you want me to join your fringe group of crazies who believe stars can predict the future, put any chance of me getting an education and a decent future in jeopardy, so that you guys stop being screwed over by the city?”

“This isn’t just about us, Ebb,” Gee said “This is about you, and your future.”

“No, this is about YOUR future. You got screwed over by the city, you got your right to trade rescinded, boo hoo. I have to go on living here, all you’re doing is acting to me like they did to you.”

Dean sighed and placed her hand on Gee’s shoulder. She nodded and he begun down the road, Ebb noticing subtle tears rolling down his cheeks. Ebb knew he would feel bad about this, but the rage would have to come first.

“Ebb, this does affect all of us. Yes, you were given an education at the behest of the council. But the reason you lived in the slums in the first place was the forced crowding of a city that was being expanded much too quickly. Us researchers wanted to keep the population low, but that ran against Anglia’s policy of rapid expansion. All of these policies only serve the…do you know The Electorate?” She asked.

“You mean the rich people who vote on the leader of the country?”

“Yes. They don’t know us, and many other cities, and what we need. Our group is not about predicting the future, it’s about making it. They only know how to maximise what they gain, and all of us suffer for it. You can help us stop the suffering.”

Not entertaining any further argument, Ebb walked down the alley brushing past Dean and made for his boarding room.

“You know,” Dean stated plainly, “There will come a time when the choice will be made for you. The question is, can you beat fate to the decision?”

Ebb sighed, turned around, and made a beeline for the inn. If he was lucky he wouldn’t remember this conversation.

Meeting Mad

Ebb didn’t sleep much, he couldn’t. Why should he have to care about politics? Why should he have a good life dangled in front of him only to throw it away to take down some rich people he’s never met. The light was streaming in through the ramshackle windows and he gazed at the god rays beaming at the floor.

It had been days since his little chat with the crazy couple. Or were they crazy? Ebb’s mum had been a victim of the overcrowding they were talking about. She was given promises of cleaning work and free lodging. The best she got was maybe a year of accommodation, no job openings, and an illness which…she never got over.

Ebb shook his head, it wouldn’t do him any good to mope in bed. He needed to go out and do something. But what? Back in the village he would hang with his mates and dye potions in the pond. They weren’t a very popular group, but they had fun and that’s all that mattered. The only person he had met and befriended so far he wasn’t sure was even a person.

After a decent amount of thinking, he started walking to The Institute, hoping he would get lucky and meet Po before he got lost in the labyrinthine hallways. He hopped out of bed and headed down the hall. Almost immediately after entering the commotion of the hall he spotted Dean walking his way. She noticed him at the same time and ever so slightly motioned him over to her. He hadn’t seen her since their chat. This would be interesting.

“Your master will be Mad, an apothecary in Bur’s Ward. She says to stop by…” She fumbled into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper, “Whenever.”

Ebb was now more confused than anything else. “Feels like you didn’t need to check that.”

“I value accuracy.”

Ebb nodded and looked around at the people rushing about a bit longer. A person that didn’t grow up the way he did would go crazy trying to sleep with all the classes going on.

“About last time…” He began.

“Think on it some more. If you want to join or do something, hold tight,” She interrupted.

Ebb and Dean looked at each other a bit longer and parted.

“Tell Gee I’m sorry, by the way.”

Dean cracked a rare smile. “I’m sure he knows.”

She faded into the crowd and Ebb needed to do the same, lest he be knocked over and trampled. It was a hard fight to the exit but once he made it he headed straight for Bur’s Ward. Although, there was one stop he could make along the way.

The street with the livery companies was its own ward, because of course it was. For every attempt it made to look lavish, it didn’t seem to be designed to be used by humans. It was just a single line with rows upon rows of interlocked housing. The people rushing around in every direction didn’t help either, as the street was so vast that they could simply be going from one livery company to another. Ebb figured that as long as he travelled down one way he’d exit. Sure enough, he was back on the main streets and on his way to the gargantuan complex in the distance.

The Institute imposed upon the entire city skyline. It was the central point to which every roadway led to, and was visible from every ward. If the sprawling rows of houses, businesses and livery companies were the roots, The Institute was the tree which sucked the nutrients from said roots. The ownership documents had been lost centuries ago, but at that point the idea that anybody could own The Institute was ridiculous. Now, if you have an idea and can make a case for it to the people who resided within, you could get whatever you needed. Reportedly, some have gotten so lost from the labyrinth of corridors and offices spread out with no rhyme or reason that they starved before they escaped.

Ebb thought on this as he grew closer. The first thing he passed was one of the goliath steel supports which propped the structure up and stretched high into the clouds. He briefly considered what would happen if one were to cut it with a steel-eating acid. Hard to procure, but…this train of thought was going to a dark place.

Closer to the front gates and the sheer size of it was becoming apparent. From far away, it almost looked like a toy set of castles, wooden perches and steel cubes smashed together with the care of a firebomber. However, upon a closer inspection it looked as though you could fit entire towns in each section.

For such a bustling city with streets lined with people, the path to the entrance of The Institute was more like a drip feed. The gates were wide open, they were always wide open. Ebb wondered if they had ever been closed in anybody’s lifetime. The bridge that led to the front was lined with ropes that were draped over the side of The Institute and fed to many different windows. Ebb assumed it was to support the bridge, but upon further inspection each had an inscription beneath them. Some were brass and others were hastily scrawled wood.

Person erasure, Full-moon enhancement…Body Horror? The list went on. There was no order to them either, it was just whoever could get there first got a rope and a plaque. Ebb was growing frustrated, this was a long bridge and he couldn’t even begin to think what section—

Po Ebb thought, echoing the plaque he was reading. He was surprised there was nothing else. No -studies or anything of the sort, just his name. He shrugged and gave it a pull. He heard the distinct clattering of bells high above him, indicating Po’s room was pretty close to the bottom. A glass tube attached to a cord whirred its way down and fell at Ebb’s hands. Inside was a note which read:

TO MEDIA PERSONNEL AND CURIOUS STUDENTS: PO IS OFF LIMITS UNTIL MORE EXAMINATIONS ARE COMPLETE

Ebb stared, bewildered. He took the paper and the provided pen and jotted down who he was and what he wanted. He placed it back, and looked around for a way of hauling it back up.

“Mate,” A passerby said, catching Ebb off-guard. “You’ve gotta break the little black vial on the bottom.”

He looked underneath and, indeed, the little black vial was there. He cautiously smashed it on the railing of the bridge and a little green flame burst out, causing the whole bottle to fly from his grasp back up the rope.

“Yeah, cheers,” Ebb mumbled to the man. The man nodded and continued on his way to the gates. It seemed to swallow him whole as he was enveloped by the darkness.

Above him, he heard the whirring of something coming down the rope…except it was much heavier. Ebb looked up and raised his eyebrows. “No way…” He muttered to himself.

Like a swashbuckling pirate captain, Po was sliding their way down the rope, clearly not worried about melting his hand from the friction of a million-storey slide. He landed sickeningly hard on the ground and tumbled forward, ending up on his back with a few unhappy commuters swearing at him. Ebb rushed over and hauled him up. He now had a brown belt with little vials of a clear liquid Ebb could only think was ether.

“Hiya Ebb,” Po began, seemingly unfazed, “What did you want?”

Ebb stood in stunned silence for a beat. Po opened their mouth to speak but Ebb beat him to it. “What in the name of everything was that about?” He asked.

“I thought sending a note back was a bit too formal. Thanks for that, by the way. Always good to know someone’s thinking about you.”

“And you weren’t worried about killing yourself?”

Po furrowed his brow thinking about this, he genuinely hadn’t considered that.

“Well, no, not really. But seems like everything ended up okay.”

Ebb looked back at the rope, still looming over them, shaking back and forth from inertia, but remarkable clean considering what just slid down.

“Um, I was just going to say hi before I do my apprenticeship

“Oh cool! What’s an apprenticeship?” Po asked.

Ebb scanned his face trying to see if they were joking. “It’s what I was working for last week, I’m going to be trained as a brewer…How did you not know that?”

Po shrugged. “Sounds cool, though. Mind if I join?” Ebb was about to speak but Po cut him off. “You should probably answer now because the researcher people weren’t very I left in the middle of a test.”

Ebb couldn’t help but grin, and Po followed suit. “Seems like we don’t have much of a choice, sure. We should probably get a move on, though.”

The two made for the city, Ebb momentarily looking over his shoulder to see if any angry people in cloaks were rushing after him.

The rest of the city completely enraptured Po. The chaos and the mess and the people trying to sell the two anything from glassware to furniture. They took it in stride and Po would have let everything distract them if Ebb wasn’t there to hurry them along.

“This place is amazing!” Po exclaimed.

“Haven’t you been outside The Institute?” Ebb asked.

“Only to your livery company. Cities are amazing, did you grow up in a city like this?”

Ebb paused, thinking back to what used to be. “I lived in a village.”

“Ooh, cool. What’s that?”

“It’s like a city but smaller and less people.”

“Wow!” Ebb was bemused by how enthralled Po was by the simplest explanations. “Did you move here because of how amazing it is?”

Ebb clenched his jaw. Memories flashed past of tearful goodbyes to his friends. Of the long, fraught journey to Rembracht and what eventually happened to his mother.

“Sure,” He replied flatly. “Hey, check that out,” He said, pointing in forced amazement at an overweight man carrying a rickety cart up the sloped cobblestone road. Po seemed less enthusiastic about that, flicking their eyes back at Ebb for a moment.

Assured that angry researchers weren’t following them, Ebb made it to the ward and sooner than that his allotted master’s store. You really couldn’t tell if was a store from the outside, though. It looked exactly like its neighbours with its short, flat, wooden appearance. The overhanging building above it had boarded-up windows and what few gaps there were showed a room that had been uninhabited for decades. But Ebb and Po had been walking along this street for the better part of 10 minutes and this was the only place that seemed even vaguely like a store. Its windows were stained glass and there was something brown inside that blocked any light getting in. The only indication this was an apothecary was a pattern of a vial in the metal that made up the window.

Ebb and Po looked at each other, Ebb asking silently if this was a good idea and Po enthralled at looking at a human face. He pushed opened the door, no easy feat given how jammed it was, and the ringing of a bell echoed through the tiny store. The view inside of the store was one that you might expect from a hoarder. Shelved abounded everywhere but all were filled to the brim and either spilled out onto the floor or onto the sales counter. They were various texts, poems and recipes with hastily scribbled notes such as ‘NO sunflower!!!’ and ‘Explosion hazard, bad recipe’. Ebb picked up a bottle that The label on the bottle looked like it was hastily scribbled down and Ebb had trouble telling if it was actually language.

“Usually clients just drop their orders through the letterbox,” A husky voice said.

Ebb stepped back in shock and saw a middle-aged woman standing next to him, hand outstretched. “Oh, no. I’m…”

“Are you an apothecary?” Po cut in.

Mad looked behind her and studied Po. She seemed equal parts confused and intrigued. “Why are you blue, child?”

Po shrugged and she turned back to Ebb, clicking her fingers. “Come on, the sooner you give me the order the sooner I can get back to my study.”

“I’m the apprentice from the livery company!” Ebb shouted.

She cocked her head slightly. “Which one?”

“You mean you have more than one apprentice?”

“No, I just want to see if you’re lying to me.”

Ebb wondered whether apprentice fraud was a common thing. “The Mar Brewery Company.”

She nodded her head and pointed behind her. “What about him?”

“I’m just here for fun. Ebb is showing me the city!” Po interrupted, eager to blurt out every thought in his head.

She frowned and looked at them, then back to Ebb. “What’s his deal?” She asked.

“They were born from a flask, don’t mind them.”

She sighed and walked down the hall to presumably where her study was. “I don’t care if you lie to me, just make sure they don’t break anything.” She was gone before Ebb could start arguing.

“Doesn’t that name get a bit confusing?” He shouted back.

Mad appeared back out the hall with a stack of loose paper under her arm. “I generally keep the anger on the inside which makes it less of a problem, and I would recommend you do the same if you wish to survive in this field.”

Ebb briefly wondered if the room above was vacant because nobody lived there, or because Mad had killed the previous occupant. She dumped the stack on the bench, a few spilling onto the floor.

“Read these,” She stated, tapping on the stack.

Ebb stared in disbelief. “Even the ones on the floor?” He joked. Mad was not amused.

“This is a selection of notes I’ve made as an apothecary and amateur brewer for the better part of twenty years. Read them.”

Ebb got that same sinking feeling he did when he was in manacles. The feeling that he had no real say in the matter, and that this was happening with or without him. Before he could respond, the ringing of the door bell once again echoed through the store and a bearded man walked through. He was young and his clothing indicated he wasn’t a researcher.

He looked around at the strange blue person that seemed transfixed on him and the guy who was sheepishly picking up some papers from the counter and walked over to Mad.

“Hey, I’m here to pick up an order,” He said, still glancing over at the others. He sounded slimy to Ebb, like a wannabe suave.

Mad scanned his face. “Ah yes,” She realised, “You’re that person who handed his order in person for whatever reason.”

He smiled. “Only because I wanted to see the…dame who would be making my order to perfection.”

Ebb screwed his face up in disgust, Mad looked like she could be doing the same but was forcing on a straight face. She reached under the counter and revealed a wooden box. He reached for it but she slid it to the side. “Money,” She said.

It took a few seconds but he put on that smile again and reached into his pocket. “Of course, how foolish of me.” He looked over to Ebb and rolled his eyes, looking for support from this stranger. Ebb didn’t reciprocate, still studying him with bewilderment.

He placed the coin on the table and Mad scooped it up, dropping it in the brass scales. She pulled out a set of weights and rapidly placed a few on the other side with the finesse of someone who had been doing this for decades. The scale balanced out and she looked satisfied.

“Great!” The man said, “I will take my leave. It has truly been a pleasure,” He said, once again reaching for the box. Once again, Mad slid the box further from his grasp. He looked confused. She grabbed a bottle of green liquid that Ebb hadn’t noticed before and dumped a healthy portion onto the coin. Everybody was intrigued now.

She nodded, saying “Mm hm,” and started using an eyedropper to put the liquid back in the bottle. “Give me another one,” Mad stated flatly.

The man scoffed, “Excuse me?”

“Give me another coin; The price has gone up.”

Everyone was in disbelief. Po looked over to Ebb, silently begging for an explanation which he couldn’t give.

“Well, this is preposterous. I certainly think you’re cute but you can’t use that to swindle me out of money. I will make sure everyone knows that this is a store not to be used. You will regret this.” He said all of this as he slowly backed towards the door, which Po graciously opened for him. Mad remained still the entire time, and Ebb noticed she was trying her utmost to stifle a grin. As soon as the door was closed and the store was once again shrouded in gloom, she moved the rest of the liquid back into the bottle.

“SIR!” Po shouted, opening the door. “You forgot your money!”

Po closed the door, confused. Obviously his money wasn’t that important to him.

“What the hell was that about?” Ebb asked, exasperated.

“Well, little known fact about the Guilder, it’s a currency so intricate and complicated with just the right combination of metals that it would take a master to fabricate it. That’s what gives it that striped, blended white and black colour,” She said, holding it up still dripping. “Which is fine enough when you’re in a village and the most complicated transmutation they can do is whether or not to eat it, but in a city full of geniuses it becomes a problem.”

She plugged the bottle with a glass stopper and tossed to to Ebb. He caught it and read the label: Elixir of Fictive Money. “It’s derived from a plant called ‘Lady Luck’ which most of the community sees as a weed at best. If prepared properly, however, it can be used to detect counterfeit Guilders with the light at just the right angle. The glint isn’t quite right.”

Ebb placed the bottle on the shelf next to him. “Why isn’t this a thing everywhere, this is impressive,” He said in a rare moment of awe.

“Most businesses just take the fake money and spend it regardless. Greedy savages the lot of them. Don’t think you can escape your duties with flattery, I want those papers read.”

Ebb moved to talk but was cut off by a loud shattering, and they both looked at Po who was looking sheepishly at the glass at his feet and the green liquid that was spreading across the floor. “Sorry about that,” He said.

“Actually, I think I have the perfect job for you,” Mad stated, smiling. Ebb wondered if he was to become the next ghost that haunted the upstairs area.

Lady Luck

The problem with finding a weed in a well kept city like Rembracht is that they’re paradoxically hard to find. He and Po had been traipsing around every ward that had even a semblance of greenery, a rare thing in the wood and stone jungle of the city, for the better part of two hours. It probably could have taken just one hour but Po made an effort to stop their search every time he saw something interesting, an infuriatingly frequent event.

“Aren’t your researchers going to come looking for you?” He asked, trying to send out a subtle hint that Po was not picking up “I really don’t want to be tackled by a bunch of scientists and sent to jail.”

“Again?” Po asked, still as sincere as ever. Ebb was unimpressed. Po noticed and quickly moved on. “I think we should be alright. They’ve got plenty of time to find me. Or I’ll find them, whichever happens first.”

Ebb sighed and leaned against a nearby wall. “I can’t believe she’s not letting me back in until I find this stupid weed.”

Before Po could respond they both heard shouting across the city. They looked at each other and Ebb pushed himself off of the wall. It started as the shouting of a few but as they drew closer it intensified, with more voices being added to the outraged chorus. They turned a corner revealing a wide street with a congregation of a few hundred people surrounding an immense wooden platform. The chatter of the crowd was decidedly more angry than Ebb was used to.

A few were waving black potions in the air and quickly dropping them back down again, as if they had missed their cue. Ebb moved closer, just close enough to see and hear but far enough back so people know he wasn’t part of this group. Just in case they were a bunch of wackjobs.

“Shouldn’t we be getting Mad’s ingredient?” Po asked.

“We’ve been searching for hours! I don’t know if you can go forever but I definitely need a break,” Ebb snapped back. Po nodded and took a step next to Ebb. Ebb turned to apologise but the crowd suddenly exploded in activity. Cheers and applause shot through the street. Then, some of them were uncapping their black potions, jets of flame shooting out the second it made contact with the air. They then recapped their potions and a man walked on the stage.

He walked with the air of an aristocrat, his obscenely long cloak dragging well behind him. He opened his cloak, revealing what Ebb could only think was a vial belt, took a swig from a bright aqua liquid and placed it back in.

“I’m so glad you guys could come out here with me,” he said, grinning, his voice effortlessly carrying across the crowd. If he had any less shame he would be holding his arms out like a messiah. “We’re here for the same reasons, you and I. I’m no different to any of you,” He said, getting down to the edge of the stage and dangling his legs off the edge.

“As with everybody here in Rembracht, I am a great believer in the art of science. As I’m sure are you. This city is brilliant, and it was founded with one thing in mind: Progress! There is no way Anglania would be the Pearl of The Isles without this great vanguard of science and technology pushing us forward.”

With every pulse of every emphatic statement, people cheered and hollered. With every cheer it seemed to feed him and he revelled in it. However, this energy dissipated as he brought a solemn hand to his mouth, indicating he was more than well fed and desired no more.

“I thought it would last forever. Science is supposed to march forward, never stopping for anyone. Yet, the unstoppable force has met the immovable object. You’ve seen it yourself,” He said, pointing out at nobody in particular. “This country, this city, they’re all staffed top-to-bottom with…well…you know.” He looked off into the distance and shook his head. Ebb figured he was looking out at a lovely view of a meadow.

“We’re all the same here. We all came here under the promise that science could win over the wealthy that control everything else. We all accept the oligarchy and all its faults because it enables such a great place to exist. But I’m not so sure that great place exists anymore. I had to buy a permit to talk to you today. We need a permit to talk. They permit us to work, they permit us to live,” As he got more angry his speech required more concentration to understand. “They permit us to learn about science. To engage in something as vital to life as knowledge, but only on their terms.”

That last sentence tweaked Ebb’s interest, and possibly not quite in the way the speaker was expecting.

“They permit us to learn THEIR alchemy, because it’s the ‘right’ alchemy. But why can’t we learn something new?” The pieces started connecting in Ebb’s head, he knew who was speaking, and who everyone here were, and that made him much happier in his decision to disassociate with the crowd.

“Why not astrology?” He asked, moving the once solemn crowd back into thunderous applause. Dom, the leader of the New Light Astrological Society. Ebb looked around but there was no sign of Dean or Gee. “You may call it a crazy science. You may call it not a science at all. But how can you be sure? Have you done tests? We have scientists, can you all make some noise?” A smattering of cheers rang out. “We are ready to test this hypothesis, but at every turn we have been blocked by the powers that be, because apparently we’re not good enough. Yet, despite all these accusations I’ve had hurled at me for so long, my predictions have come up correct every time.”

Ebb scoffed. “I knew Mayor Lon would be scrapping the Laz project an entire week before he announced it.” Ebb was taken aback. In his experience when people were trying to sell a steady stream of crap, they don’t throw out verifiable claims like that. “I knew that our own Sep,” He said, pointing into the crowd, “Would have his life completely turned around if he joined our cause a month before any of you knew who he was. I knew that a terrible plague would ravage a ward of our great city by a maniac with a brewery.”

Ebb perked up at that last sentence, and immediately wondered the validity of trying to hide in his shirt.

“I don’t want to be the only person who can do this, I don’t want to be alone in my ability to do great things for the world. You can help. We can’t do much, but what we can do is make some noise.” The crowd murmured. “I SAID MAKE SOME NOISE!” He bellowed, as people cheered, shouted, and all took the caps off of their potions forming a fireball in the air that was threatening the buildings on their sides.

Ebb finally looked away and noticed the town guard had been accumulating while this speech was happening. And not just that, but Not Fom, the man who had cured him not a few weeks ago, was in the crowd. He thought he could be mistaken at first but he turned his head, and there he was. He tugged at Po’s arm, who was enthralled by the chaos and passion of it all. “Po,” He said, “I think we should leave.”

Po looked at Ebb and frowned in disappointment. “But this is what I’ve been here for! The bustle of the city is all right here.”

“Po, seriously. We need to leave, we’re going to get arrested if we stay here, and I don’t need my record any longer than it already is.”

Po finally noticed the guards that had doubled since Ebb checked and dutifully followed Ebb through a side street. Ebb didn’t know where he was going, but as long as they could get distance between them and the crowd it was the right direction. His mind was racing, not just at the scene he had witnessed but he wondered just how many people were a part of this group.

“What’s wrong, Ebb? Why didn’t you like the nice man’s speech?” He asked.

Ebb sighed. “Seriously? Guy’s a crazy person. Astrology means being able to predict the future by looking at the stars. Nobody can predict the future, least of all him who gets generous donations from his followers.”

“But how do you know that without doing science tests, though?” Po replied.

Ebb grimaced at this inept parroting of phrases back at him. “We haven’t tested if magic is real, or goblins for that matter. Maybe we should pool all our resources into checking if goblins are real. Or better yet, we could pool all our money into a fire for all the good it would do.”

If Ebb thought Po was capable of it, Po could have looked almost offended. “We don’t have any goblins…as far as I know. But how can you explain what he did back there?”

Ebb pretended to give this serious thought but began walking again. “I bet this is some kind of crack at me and she has loads of the stuff in her shop,” He said, exasperated. “I think I need somewhere else to hide out for a bit to make it seem like we searched longer than we have. I don’t think she has a torture elixir, but I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Why don’t you come with me to The Institute?” Po said, just as excited despite the chastisement he received.

Ebb opened his mouth to shoot down this idea, but upon thinking on it a bit longer he began nodding. “I’m sure they’ve got lady luck down there…dear god, Po, have you been smart this entire time?”

Po thought for a moment and shrugged.

Blown

Po had been arguing with the researchers for minutes now as Ebb sat on his hands on the ornate green waiting chair. He was not one to pass up a good argument, but the spectacle of Po getting something approximating angry was a sight to behold. It was more of their usual passionate approach to things, but more pointed than usual.

The researcher’s room was paradoxically small for such an enormous institute. There were few papers and equipment about the place, with testing areas well kept and separate from workstations. Ebb was in awe as every workplace he had seen thus far was a mess of files and bottles.

“We were very clear on the rules, Po. No outside people. You can have friends but we need to clear you. I don’t care if he’s a journalist or—”

“Hey! He’s not a journalist, he’s my friend.” They paused and turned to Ebb. “Right?”

Ebb shrugged and Po turned back to the researchers, “Right!”

This continued for a while, as they were arguing about two different things. The researchers were trying to chastise them for running away, and Po was arguing for the right of Ebb to be here. Ebb had enough and got up. “I’d be happy to just wait somewhere else if you people are done arguing about me.” Ebb stated.

Po got a sad glimmer in their eye, but the lead researcher was more than happy to show him the door. Before Ebb disappeared he peeked his head back in, “Do you know where the library is, egghead?”

The researcher furrowed his brow, and rubbed the top of his bald head. “The information wing is up thirty five floors. You can find where to go there.”

Ebb was about to ask if he was fucking serious he’d have to walk thirty five storeys up, but the door was slammed in his face before he could. The sign on the front jumped up and landed down, with a ‘Po’s Room’ written in such strange, scrawled letters it could have only been written by him. Or a doctor.

The inside of The Institute was just as disjointed and stylistically confusing as the exterior. As he walked down the hall to the stairs, sections of wood seemed to cut through the hall as if a building had fallen on it. Sometimes the wood was smooth and treated, and sometimes it was splintered and rotten, making Ebb cringe at the thought of who might be using that room. The doors were much the same, sometimes hallways shot out from the one he was in and clearly wound around with no rhyme or reason. Some signs weren’t even in a language that Ebb understood.

He went faster, almost breaking out into a sprint, to get away from this confusing place. The stairs greeted him, as the only constant in this whole area was that the main stairways were at the ends of the main hallways. The only places touched by actual designers.

He landed at the information desk, panting and desperate to catch his breath after the climb. He slammed his hand on the bell and it rang out, the sound reverberating through the floor beneath him and travelling away as if it was a creature scurrying away.

By the time someone emerged from the trapdoor under the counter, Ebb had had enough time to calm down and get thoroughly bored of all the provided literature. However, he now had the ability to tell apart an East Anglian Toad and an East Anglian Toad-Frog.

“You people work fast,” Ebb commented dryly, as the beleaguered woman dumped her papers on the desk.

“Sorry about the wait,” She said, choosing to ignore the comment. “It’s strange, we don’t usually get people from this floor upwards looking for directions. Most of the time the researchers just sleep here. Otherwise they’d have to climb those steps every time.” She waited for a response but none came. “So what can I do for you?”

“I’m looking for the library, please tell me it’s not up another million flights of stairs.”

“Which library?” She asked, confused. “Mar? The Daily? Most who are looking for literature just want the Der section, if that’s your…speed,” She said with a slight hint of contempt.

“Uh, I dunno. Anything with newspapers, I guess.”

“Domestic or inter-city?”

What the concierge said tweaked something in Ebb’s head. How far does Dom’s influence extend? He asked himself. “Uh, can I get both?”

“Sure,” She said, somewhere between chipper and sarcastic. “You’ll only find papers from the last fifty years, but if you go up to the next floor and as far as you can go down the hall you’ll find The Daily library. Happy hunting, for whatever,” She said. Before Ebb could respond she had already disappeared.

He dutifully followed her advice, going down the hall as far as he could. Eventually the smell of old newspaper was what was guiding him. He was presented with a room stacked with shelves upon shelves of newspapers, all folded in the exact same way. The main atrium he entered into stretched on forever, with shelves that even extended into the darkness of the roof. There were no stairs to speak of, but ladders on railings provided a convenient, if stomach churning, method to get to higher levels.

Nobody was around, and as far as he could tell nobody had been here for a while. The Rembracht Inquirer was naturally the first section he saw but closest to the entrance were the older copies from fifty years ago. He sighed at the realisation and once again got back to walking monolithic distances to get what he wanted.

He finally got to within his lifetime, and then within the period he actually lived in the city. He pulled out the issue he thought it was and, indeed, it read emblazoned in bold letters:

CHILD SPREADS PLAGUE ACROSS WARD OF REMBRACHT

He tried to ignore the fact that he was an adult and dug further before this. He scooped article after article into his arms and eventually it was too much to carry. There weren’t any tables or study areas for him to use so he dumped his armfuls on the ground and got to reading. He wasn’t much of a researcher, but his need to refute bullshit overrode this.

He poured over every issue he had, sitting against the shelf and looking for evidence of these “predictions.” Somebody as prominent as him who has that much influence had to have an editorial, or at least a hit piece. That’s when the title of an article, buried deep within the pages as if like a shameful secret, jumped out at him.

NLAS LEADER DOM PREDICTS PLAGUE

He was in disbelief. As was the editor, clearly, as it was sandwiched between breakthrough hair loss treatment and some list of the shiniest metals. He poured over the paragraphs and it was clear there was some padding as most of it discussed who Dom was and who the NLAS were. However there was the central quote that the entire piece had based itself around:

“I have witnessed the stars, and they have brought forth that a plague will break out across a ward of Rembracht. The Fifth Ward to be exact. I know it’s hard to believe but you’ll see. Give it a month.”

Ebb scanned the front page. Almost a month to the day from his accident. He furrowed his brow, wondering if he had accidentally gotten a future issue. He checked the day again, and thought really hard about when the accident was. There was no mistaking it, this was it. Somehow, Dom had predicted the future. Ebb shook his head, there was no way he was converting to those wackjobs’ group even if this was magic. He thought about how this could be possible.

Was I spied on? Did he have access to the criminal records? Wait, that happened after. How the hell did that psycho do that? Did he get lucky? That’d have to be it, he just hit the mark by accident. Lucky, lucky bastard.

He took the page out of the newspaper and tucked it into his pocket. Yes, it was a library. But I don’t think anybody would care about a random article from deep in the bowels of the archives. And hey, if it stopped anybody from joining that cult then all the better. He poured over a few more newspapers but he didn’t mention many predictions during his speech.

Ebb immediately dismissed the prediction relating to his own follower for obvious reasons but that other one, the freezing of funding for The Laz Project, that sounded too specific to be just a shot in the dark. This was going to be a harder thing to find, as Ebb wasn’t really keeping track of that news.

After much too much reading and cycling through pages, just as he was about to nod off from boredom, there it was sprawled across the headline:

RESEARCH STALLS ON LAZ POTION PROJECT, IMMORTALITY A SURE FAILURE.

That was the title, now he needed the prediction. Soon enough, just as with his own prediction, he found it. It was almost identical in its padding with beat for beat the same explanation of Dom and the NLAS, but the relevant quote was there.

“I have no doubt in my mind that our weak city council is going to strip funding from the Laz project. How could they do that to us? This is single-handedly the most important thing we have ever done together and they’re going to throw it all away like a used tissue.”

It was almost phrased like an off-hand comment, he didn’t even mention learning this from stars or anything magical. It was a man who was angry about funding a project he was passionate about. But, he had to count it as this was what was convincing everyone else. He tore this out, too, and got up. His eyes were glazed over and he had done enough reading for one lifetime.

While stretching, he heard a glass bottle break outside. That’s when he heard the rush of wind and the shrill sound of screaming coming from the hallway.

Escape

Ebb rushed out of the tinderbox he was in. The thought dropped into his head that he may have the only copies of the articles he has if The Institute burns down. Out in the hall and the blast of heat was unmistakable. The glowing bottles that had once lit the hallways were long since shattered on the floor, the liquid dribbling and sparking against the flames. To his right, where he came from, was blocked off by the wall of fire. It was making short work of the wood and air was rushing in from where the flames chewed it away. The entire building he was in was made of wood, he knew what he had to do: Get to a metal portion of The Institute. Or better yet, get out.

He made a mad dash for the exit on the other side which may or may not have existed. His head was swirling as he had to race somewhere in a building which was famous for people getting lost. Even without the flames. Smoke was flooding the room but it wasn’t clear where it was coming from, it was just fading in. The little notches and holes that the fire was creating was probably the only thing keeping him alive.

He came across a doorway at the end of the hallway. Inside was an empty room, probably not inhabited by anyone in decades. However, it had a spare rope leading to presumably the ground level. He purged the thought, if he didn’t rub the flesh off of his hands getting down he would die from the fall. He was no Po.

He was at the rope. He didn’t make the decision, his body did. Upon looking down he noticed that the rope was actually attached to the side of the institute through a series of hoops before it zipped directly the rest of the way. If he couldn’t escape, he could at least make the trip down easier. The window opened cleanly, the CHUNK of the mechanism and the rush of wind finally dawning on him the danger of what he was doing. He once again decided between a slow death suffocating or a quick death hitting the water below. He gritted his teeth, grasped the rope, and made his decision.

The ordeal was like learning to walk. He slowly put one foot out, then the other. The rope was trembling in his hand. Ebb hoped that it was the rope itself and not his failing strength. The view to below would have been beautiful on any other day. He was so close to the cloud line he could almost touch them. As he was transfixed on it he got the drop on his brain by acting while it was distracted, plunging him down.

The rope burned, taking no time to remind Ebb of the heat of the flames. The more he clumsily abseiled down, the more that the terror gripped his stomach…the windows all had bars on them. One after another, the windows each protected themselves from outside intruders. Ones who would be resourceful enough to climb up tens of flights of stairs, somehow. Ebb once again reintroduced the idea of sliding down and hoping against hope he didn’t lose control of his speed and break his neck. Perhaps someone had laid down a large, soft mattress for just such an occasion.

He had frozen in place, and his arms were shaking from being raised so long. He felt he couldn’t move. He sent the signal to his brain to place his right arm below his left, but nothing responded. He was trapped in his own mind. The rope slipped down, jolting him back into reality.

Further down the windows had eschewed their protections and looked like normal windows. He tapped on one and it felt sturdy, and upon closer inspection it was actually two windows, one next to the other. Once again he thought about sliding down, or just letting go and making the decision instead of having it be made by fate. He shook the thought away and launched himself off the window, against his better judgement. He landed awkwardly, not putting all of his weight into his strike. A million curses ran through his head and he launched again. This was weightier and cracks formed on the outer pane. He needed more, though. He could feel his body slipping and his mind turning to darker ideas. He breathed in, the world fading into the background, and launched off.

He crashed through the windows, and a sharp pain slid sickly up his spine. He screamed and held his back, his hands immediately getting slick. He pulled them back and blood coated both of them. The room he was in didn’t have any bandages so his pant leg would have to do. It was awkwardly stuffed in what remained of his shirt and he walked up to the door. The room he was in was coated in brown and gold metals, stacking up to the ceiling. He swiped one in case of another window that needed breaking and tried the door. He tapped the handle a few times and it was mercifully cold.

Out in the hallway and he rushed down to the main stairwell. He passed by a few other people who were rushing in their own directions, clearly privy to what was happening and with similar ideas about escaping. At the door to the hallway the handle was warm but not ungodly hot. He opened it and saw an orange glow both above and below him. Po would have to be nearby, and he needed to check if he was okay. The more he descended the stairwell and his mortality was facing him, he reconsidered how self-evident this idea was.

Po’s not even human, he argued to himself, Can he even be burnt? His mind kept coming up with self-preservation arguments and every time his sense of right swatted them away. It was a debate that had not even concluded by the time he had gotten close to Po’s floor. The room had gotten noticeably more hot, the air thinner, and the orange glow of the flames more vibrant. The stairs jolted slightly, and Ebb made moves to escape out the floor above Po’s room.

The door wouldn’t open. The handle wouldn’t turn. The stairs above him clearly couldn’t take any more and the only door he knew that would be open was below him slowly being engulfed by flames. He let out a few sharp exhales. He had not dangled outside the institute to be killed in a claustrophobic stairwell. He ran down and the air of a door being opened many storeys above him leapt the flames up to his face. Chunks of glowing wood flew into him and bonded to his skin, peeling off with the same sound tape would make.

His back didn’t hurt anymore. Not when it had third-degree burns to compete with. His arm stung him with a reminder that he may have broken it, and he used all of his strength that he was not spending screaming to charge at the door like a bull. The final step cracked as he stepped and he stumbled into it, but the door was brittle enough to shatter into a million pieces.

The once-familiarly quiet hallway had descended into panic. Most of the people running around were cloaked researchers who were dashing to several different hallways. The different exits they individually knew about. Ebb hobbled over to Po’s room, holding his arm, and bust his way through. Inside Po and a researcher were frantically packing up what they could, until they saw Ebb and dropped everything.

“That bad?” He strained out, the pain wrapping itself around his guts.

“Ebb…” Po began.

“We need to get out of here. You stay any longer and you’re gonna be as crispy as I am. The fire’s almost everywhere.” Ebb tried to force out a laugh but all that came out was sputtering.

Ebb left without a word more. He ran as fast as he could down the hall to what was hopefully an exit. Apparently it wasn’t that fast because the two caught up in no time.

“I know another route from a different project I was on,” The researcher said, sliding under Ebb’s arm for some much needed support. Po was hot on their tail and Ebb could see that nobody was left running around. Everybody had left.

They turned right at the end of the hallway, coming across that snake-like hallway again until they encountered a man dressed head to toe in black. He looked like he was freaking out as he glanced in every direction looking for an exit. He was so distracted it took him a moment to notice the two. There was a moment of silence, the crackling of the fire being their only ambience, until he ripped a black potion from his bandolier and flung it the two.

The researcher ducked with a yelp and Ebb tumbled down with him. The potion ignited the hallway, the flames climbing across the walls and dropping a pile of wooden rubble down. The man fled down the other way and Ebb and the scientist hauled themselves back.

“What the fuck!” He exclaimed, “Absolute monster. We need to go anywhere else or we’ll run out of air.”

As they turned around, the researcher missed it but Ebb didn’t. Po was trapped on the other side of the rubble and was hauling himself back to his feet. Ebb made moves to tell the researcher and turn back to help…but then he didn’t. They were heading the other way, and Ebb quietened his mind down. Each step drilled further into his soul what he had done. Condemning this creature to die. Ebb tried reasoning with himself about the infeasibility of saving Po, but this was drowned out by his guilt.

He was so trapped in his own mind he almost missed a room with a giant “GENERAL BREWERY” nameplate above it.

“WAIT!” Ebb exclaimed, pointing at the door.

“What?”

“Take me here, I can do something with this.”

The researcher sighed and walked him into the room. Ebb was sure if there was any other choice and the situation less dire, he would have said no. Taking advantage, Ebb saw the abounding brewery stands and cabinets presumably filled with ingredients, and slid off the researcher’s arm.

“What happened to Po?” He asked Ebb. Ebb froze in place.

“I don’t know,” He forced out, hating himself more with every word. The researcher tapped on the handle and him quickly pulling his hand away indicated how hot it was.

“Shit!” He screamed, “I don’t think he’ll make it. Damn it!”

Ebb looked at him. He was angry. It wasn’t a rage about the loss of a loved one, however. He probably saw his Institute grant fade away before his eyes. Ebb gritted his teeth, hating both this man and himself, and set up the boiler stand. He glanced at the door and saw smoke beginning to creep in.

He wrestled with ingredients, only having one hand to do so, and poured through everything he could find. He opened one cabinet and saw a bottle of honey, and immediately knew what he could do with this.

“Are you making yourself a bloody snack?”

“I’m gonna make a sticky foam to seal up the door. Now, go find me eucalyptus or shut up. Whichever’s more convenient for you.”

He opened the top of the percolator and dropped in the ingredients. He still barely knew how to use it, but fear trumps uncertainty every time. The researcher dutifully dumped the leaves on the bench and Ebb cracked them open, letting the little drops of oil drip in. Finally, he added a jug of water and closed the top. He turned the flames off and stood back, staring at the concoction, confused.

“What?” The researcher asked.

“It’s not supposed to do that.”

The researcher glanced at the smoke now creeping further in and back at Ebb.

“You told me you could do this!”

“It needs to be foamy! It’s supposed to foam! I’m sorry I’m not a master brewer like you but just give me a moment.”

He cursed himself. He’d done everything wrong. Dangerously scaling the walls, leaving his friend behind, running away from the crazy person in black instead of tackling them, not being able to do anything. He called himself every name under the sun and slapped the mix with what little force he could muster. That was when the first few bubbles formed. He looked, perplexed, and shook it a bit, more bubbles.

He smiled, averting his death once again and shook it madly. It bubbled up more and more until it settled into a foamy clear-blue liquid. He yanked a nearby flask and shoved it underneath, the mixture dutifully draining. He handed it to the researcher.

“Throw it,” He said.

“Shouldn’t I use it on the gaps, instead?”

“NO!” He shouted, “It needs force, throw it you coward!”

The researcher angrily chucked it at the door, the mixture fizzling for a few moments, and then launching upwards, exploding in a foamy wave. The door was sealed, and the foam hardened. Then it expanded further, then further still. It expanded so far that Ebb and the researcher both took a few steps backwards to avoid being sucked in.

It finally stopped and Ebb sighed. The open window sucked the remaining smoke out and the researcher tried stepping back. His shoe was stuck. He gave it an almighty tug and out came a foot instead. Ebb laughed. He laughed about being alive, he laughed at this spectacle. His laughter was uproarious despite the angry threats of the researcher.

“What the hell was that?” He asked.

“Simple brewing. Sticky foam, great for insulating. And provided that fire doesn’t get too hot which, since it’s chewing through rotten wood, won’t be that much.”

This was until there was a scraping at the window, and a familiar blue face popped up.

“Hi guys.”

Help

The journey down had been an arduous one. But along with the rest of the victims, Po, the researcher and Ebb were on the ground. Ebb didn’t think he’d see the ground ever again unless it was speeding towards him at terminal velocity. And yet here it was, and the more the relaxation set in the more the pain became unbearable.

“Po,” Ebb mumbled, using what strength he had left. “Get me to help.”

The words rattled around Po’s head for a while, until he noticed the researcher sliding out from under Ebb. “Hey, where are you going?” They asked. The researcher looked frazzled, barely a step above an animal in comprehension. Po would have shrugged if it wouldn’t have cause Ebb unspeakable pain.

As Po hauled Ebb across the bridge, he noticed a great number of the people were either dressed head to toe in all red, or were charging across the bridge clad in rubber brown clothes hauling hoses. The ones in bright red were pouring various potions in various wounds, so they went immediately to one who seemed less busy.

“Excuse me,” Po asked, getting more nervous as Ebb was becoming heavier under his arm. The worker glanced back before going back to their work.

“Class 4, non-lethal. Go to a doctor,” he stated.

Po would have stood there in disbelief but they knew time was of the essence. They readjusted Ebb to be more comfortable but stopped and turned around. “Where’s a doctor?”

He picked up the pace on the patient as she began convulsing, desperately trying different mixtures and working a portable boiler on the fly. Po turned back and pressed on.

The city streets were as chaotic as ever, but the energy had completely changed. Where once it had been alive with an energy that was trying to capture your attention, now it was crying out for help, for answers. Most of wherever the two went, they were met with stares and hand-on-mouth horror. Then Po saw a symbol, once he’d seen not moments ago. A red triangle with a rounded bottom, but this building had a line of equally panicked loved ones wrapped down the street. They felt a tension they hadn’t felt in their short life. He had readjusted Ebb so much they were now carrying him across their shoulders. They demanded that today would not be the day they would learn what loss was. There was only one place they could go where they were sure nobody else would dare.

Winding around the streets, backtracking and going all the way back to where they came from, they were wondering how to explain they hadn’t gotten any Lady Luck. The street where the nice man was speaking was deserted, presumably a fair while before any of this chaos had begun. Finally, they were outside the door, with the abandoned upper floor and cupboards covering the windows.

They kicked the door a few times and Ebb was gurgling into consciousness.

“How are you?” Ebb seemed to burble out. The door opened and Mad looked shocked, her eyes full of tears seemingly before they had arrived.

“You need to help him,” Po said. “I’m scared.”

Mad ushered them inside and she grandly swept her belongings off the table, some of them drifting to the ground and others shattering into a million little pieces. She was moving with a dedication and swiftness that Po hadn’t seen. Unspeaking, she ground ingredients in a mortar, the shaking of her hands betraying her composure.

She swore and cursed as the percolator refused to do exactly as she wanted exactly as it was. But finally, she jammed a vial underneath it, twisted it, and out came a milky-white concoction. She walked over to Ebb, reached over to the sink, and splashed water onto his face.

Ebb sputtered and Po looked on in confusion. “He needs to be awake for this to work,” She declared. She uncorked the vial and dipped her fingers as far as they would go. “Now, if I apply too much of this balm, it’s going to burn like hell. If it touches any part of you that’s not affected, it’s going to burn like hell.”

“Aren’t you touching it, doctor?” Ebb asked, Po not sure if he was sarcastic or delirious.

“Yes, and it burns like hell. Hold still.”

She elegantly swept over every burn and every little mark. It was only now that Po was getting the full picture of what Ebb had been through to help them. It seemed like there was no part of his body that wasn’t peeling or blistered. However, with every layer of this mix applied, he looked less red and more himself.

Ebb looked over to Po and tears began to well up in his face. “I don’t think I can come visit you anymore.”

And as Ebb once again drifted out of consciousness, Mad was flipping him over and wiping a different mixture on his back. Po agreed on one thing, they weren’t going back to The Institute for at least a while.”

Emergency Decree

Ebb looked out of the window. The ceiling had gotten boring to stare at so he figured this was a nice change of pace. The room above Mad’s workshop was blessedly not haunted, but was still just as uninviting as ever. He hoped to spend as little time here as possible here.

However, it was only now striking Ebb that this was the first place that he felt he could properly call a home since he moved here. The boarding room was even designed from the get-go to repulse any in its orbit. This dilapidated room above an overcrowded apothecary had a strange sense of homeliness. Despite its haunting.

A commotion broke Ebb’s concentration. The sound of a very angry Mad shouting did very little to halt whatever procession was about to go through his door. He hauled himself onto his elbow, the little stinging patches never letting the flames truly go away. Just in time a gang of men in regal cloaks flung open the door and the shortest of them walked ahead.

“Hi there, Ebb,” He said, sitting on the end of the bed. Ebb squirmed to the edge, wondering if he was going to have to get in a fight after all that happened.

“I think Mad’s pretty clear about visitors here. You should probably follow her advice.”

The man looked at his staff and back at Ebb. “Sir, do you know who I am?”

Ebb scanned him up and down but still had no idea. His weight was enough to almost make him slip off the bed and his breath stank of onions. However, his cloak was more ornate that anybody’s he had seen with gold trimmings and an intricate chain design that weaved in and out of itself.

The man noted Ebb’s confusion immediately and spoke up. “I’m Lord-Mayor Lon. I’ve been going to every victim of The Institute incident and ensuring everyone is in good condition.”

“So we’re calling it an ‘incident’ now, are we?” Ebb asked.

“I just want to make sure that everybody involved is okay. As Lord-Mayor I want to make sure that every citizen in my city is well protected and cared for.” He squeezed Ebb’s hand as he said this.

Ebb flicked his eyes towards his hand and to a figure he previously hadn’t noticed. A man was in the corner of the room. He seemed to be scribbling down the last of what Lon had said and looked tentatively towards them.

“Hey,” Ebb said towards him, “If you’re writing an article about me, can you give me a pseudonym. Like Jo or something.” Ebb looked back at Lon. “Nobody would know it was me if I have a woman’s name.”

Lon sighed. Ebb didn’t know if he was the first or the hundredth person he talked to but he seemed done either way.

“What about the person in black who firebombed the place?”

Lon pricked his ears up. “I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah, while I was escaping I bumped into the maniac or one of the maniacs who starting the blaze. They chucked a bomb at me and…” His voice trailed off. Po.

Lon finally let go of Ebb’s hand and whispered into one of the guard’s ear. Once again, to Ebb’s frustration, he held his hand again. “I can assure you we will pass this information on to the proper authorities. What has been done to you will no go unanswered.”

Ebb patted Lon’s hand and put on the same voice as if he was comforting a child. “Your concern has been noted. Now please leave.”

Lon turned to the rest of his procession and flipped up his cloak to turn and leave. He walked past Mad who had been staring daggers into his head the whole time.

“Thank you for having us,” Lon said with all the sincerity in the world. And then he was gone.

Ebb fell back into bed, anticipating another few days of staring at nothing. From glancing at Mad he noticed that she was clenching her jaw, some tears welling up but being forced back down through sheer will. She turned to leave but froze as she watched a figure walk up the stairs.

Ebb himself was almost in disbelief when he saw them. Except they were different. They were orange.

“Hiya Ebb,” They said, bounding up to the bed. “How you feeling?”

“What, why. Why…why?” Ebb sputtered out.

“Hm?” Po asked, genuinely confused. Ebb pointed at them and they looked down at themselves. “Ah! You’re probably confused about this.”

He widened his eyes and nodded his head violently. “Yes I’m confused about that. Why are you orange? What happened?”

“Well, you know that drink you made way back in your class thing?”

Ebb furrowed his brow. Drink? Do they mean the…oh no.

“Please don’t tell me you drank that,” Mad pleaded.

Po pursed their…well not lips but a close approximation of it. Ebb was on his way to doing the same.

“How do you feel?” Ebb asked.

“I don’t know. Kinda on edge.”

“I’m not surprised, you drank acid and turned orange.”

Po shook their head. “No, it’s not that. I think I prefer orange, actually. But my brain…or wait no hang on. My…head? My head feels like it’s firing a million messages at once.”

“You need to see a doctor,” Ebb stated.

By now Mad had overcome her shock and entered the room. “What’s a doctor going to do about this?” She asked. “If they were a person and drank that they’d be dead. I don’t exactly know what a doctor would do to fix ‘orange’.”

All three stood in silence. It was a good point. Ebb had always thought that there’s always an option to fix anything. A doctor for sickness, a carpenter for repairs, a transmuter for lack of gold. This is the first time Ebb had encountered something he couldn’t even begin to solve.

A ringing from downstairs came and Mad disappeared down the stairs. Po finally broke the silence.

“So, how are you feeling anyway?” They asked.

Ebb thought for a moment. Good question.

“Well, my skin stopped peeling. Which I’ve heard is a good thing.”

Po nodded, satisfied with that answer. “Are you going to the thing tomorrow?”

“What thing?”

“Y’know, the town thing.”

“Po, adding extra words to ‘thing’ doesn’t make it any clearer. What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh! Right, you were unconscious. There’s something called an ‘emergency decree’ meeting happening in the town centre. Well, not literally the centre of the town because that’s where The Institute is and that’s a bit of a sore—”

“Wait,” Ebb interrupted, “The mayor called a public meeting?”

Po nodded, happy their words finally got through to him. Ebb placed his hand behind him and pushed himself off the bed with a groan. A stabbing pain shot through his shoulder and he clutched it tightly. “Woah, are you going to be alright?” Po asked.

“I just need a mountain of analgesics and I’ll be alright. I’ve got a meeting to attend.”

Rally Cry

The chattering of the crowd seemed much more pointed here than on the streets. It had an angrier, more outraged energy to it. Ebb seated himself at the far back of the hall. He didn’t know if Lon would ban him for mouthing off at him during his photo-op, but he wouldn’t discount the idea.

The crowd died down as a little speck walked on the tiny stage up front. It grabbed a blue potion from inside its cloak, took a swig, and tucked it back in.

“Good people of Rembracht,” It boomed. That speck was Lord-Mayor Lon. “I have called this emergency decree meeting in response to the outrageous attack on our most incredible Institute.”

People grumbled. This ostentatious style of speaking was not endearing him to people. Ebb stood up.

“What are you doing?” Mad hissed.

“I can’t take this politics stuff anymore. I’m going to hobble up to that stage and run my mouth a bit.”

“Please just wait a bit,” Mad said.

“You go, champ!” Po said. Mad turned Po around and whisper-yelled at them for being such an idiot. When they looked back, Ebb was already making his way down the aisle.

“It may please you in the scientific community to know that there was no lasting damage to The Institute.”

“What about the people who died and got injured?” Someone shouted. People were saying “Yeah!” and murmuring in agreement. Ebb was about a quarter of the way down the aisle.

Lon seemed to be genuinely thrown for a loop. He sighed unfortunately loudly and wiped his brow. “Rest assured that new safety guidelines will be implemented, including clearly marked fire exits and…”

Halfway there, the guards were starting to take notice of him. “…paths of travel to exits.”

“What about the people in black who started the fires?” A woman in the crowd asked. A more impassioned chorus of agreement rang through the hall.

Lon remained cool, besides the waves of sweat flowing over his face. Determined not to acknowledge it he pressed on. “Rest…You can be assured that the reports of these masked assailants will be tracked down and prosecuted to the fulled abilities of our capable investigatory team.” He motioned to the front row to his right.

Ebb was within spitting distance of the stage. The guard in front of the ramp reached into her pocket and rested her thumb on the vial. Ebb knew that with one flick of the cork, that was going to become an imposing sword.

“Ah, Ebb, child.” Ebb looked at Lon with contempt. “Let him through, Jin, let him through,” Lon said, waving at her. She dutifully stood aside and Ebb hobbled his way up the ramp. He felt an arm lifting him up, taking some of the pressure off, and Jin was helping him up.

Lon turned to the crowd. “In the interest of public participation, I have invited on stage a victim of these horrible attacks. I can only hope his words can help soothe our wounds just as our talented fleet of doctors have.” The crowd was now murmuring differently. They were now murmuring in confusion. Ebb was half convinced they were going to rush the stage in a different act of ‘public participation’.

Lon reached into his cloak and pulled out a vial of the same blue potion. “Take a drink,” Lon said, handing it to him. Ebb was almost sure this would kill him, but at least it would make for a spectacle in front of everyone. He popped the cork and swigged it down. It was alarmingly viscous and slid awkwardly down his throat. He could feel it coating his oesophagus and windpipe, creating a fit of coughing in the process.

“Hi,” He told the crowd, being caught off-guard by how suddenly loud and booming his voice had become. He shook his head and continued, the crowd was now silent as a funeral wondering where this was going.

“Hey, hi. How are you all doing?” Ebb began.

“Oh no,” Mad whispered to herself.

“I’ve lived in this city for about five years now.” Lon was nodding along with everything. Ebb smiled slightly at the dramatic irony. He certainly wouldn’t be nodding along soon. “Me and my mum moved here, the shining jewel of Anglia, the jewel of the pearl, because one of the city’s agents came to my little village and promised opportunity. I still haven’t seen my old friends in years.”

Lon briefly interrupted his nodding. This was starting to stray.

“Uh,” He continued, searching for more words. “She, my mum, came here for opportunity. She was an amazing woman. She was resilient and had the kind of sharp tongue you could only get from living in an Anglan village.” Some of the crowd chuckled, but all attention was still firmly on him.

Ebb paused. He could feel the words balling up in his throat but they would be hard to get out. “She didn’t make it out of here alive.” Ebb thought if he put it as bluntly as possible he would be able to deal with the pain faster. He was still waiting for it to work. “She contracted a disease, same with me. Probably a result of more people crammed here than should be humanly possible. And with the stress of not getting any of the jobs that we were promised…”

He could feel the hot tears stinging his eyes but wiped them away and continued. The rage, the pain. He needed to get this out. Lon had ceased moving at all. He was frozen in place and could only watch on in horror. Ebb decided to see how far he could push it.

“We didn’t make it here. She…didn’t make it here. I sometimes stay up all night thinking about her. About how she looked near the end. I had the same thing, I think I only stayed alive as long as I did because I was younger. I was saved by a last minute livery company contract, after I was arrested for that plague outbreak you probably read on the news. Sorry about that one. I stared my death in the mouth for years, caused in part by the efforts of the government, and was only saved by the people who made this place in the first place. The researchers.”

There was a scuffle near the ramp but he couldn’t quite make out what was happening. Lon was clearly being crushed under the weight of all that was happening and was trying to make this mystery person go away.

“Lonny here talked about our doctors treating us,” Ebb continued before he was unceremoniously thrown off, “But I had to go to a very talented apothecary who I’m doing my apprenticeship under.” Ebb looked at her but spared her the embarrassment of singling her out. She was just a dark speck in the background but he could feel her pain. Regardless, he pressed on. The crowd was turning to his side. “She did a great job. I’m sure the doctors did as well. But the doctors can only deal with so much. And if you lure people like me from our homes across the country, you’d better be ready to handle the tidal wave you created,” He said, almost pointing an accusatory finger at Lon.

The commotion at the ramp was broken, and Dom was walking with purpose towards him. He widened his eyes as he cajoled a potion out of Lon and downed much of it in one go.

“Ebb…” He said, forcing the passion up into his throat like bile. “I am so sorry for what happened to you.” Lon made a throat-cut motion to the guard. Not enough to be visible to anyone but who was on stage. Jin made her way on stage and put her hand on Dom’s shoulder. The crowd was starting to get outraged

“Let him speak!” They were crying. “Tyrant!” Another yelled out. Lon panickedly waved Jin off and stood back. This fire was going to have to burn itself out.

Ebb was not amused by Dom’s attempt at humanity. “Nobody should have to go what you went through.” He turned to the audience. “This is just one story. I’m sure a million of you guys have a million of your own stories just like this. Lured with the promise of fortune and becoming a pawn in a sick governmental game.”

“Um, what are you doing?” He tried to say as quietly as possible, his throat still well coated.

“I’m your advocate, Ebb. We’re all together with you on this.”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t need—”

“This one is for all our families who have been affected by this place. To everyone who has gotten sick from the bad energy of this city. To everyone who has had horrific injuries by the inaction of our city inspectors.”

Ebb let the realisation sink in. He had unwittingly become the spokesperson for the NLAS. Once he realised he had lost control of his own narrative, he hobbled back over to the ramp and back to Jin. As he walked past, he noticed Detective Inspector Lod, staring in horror at the stage as he remained ram-rod upright. He didn’t even glance at Lod as the whole crowd was shouting and jeering in agreement with Dom.

Dom owned the stage for that entire time, undercutting and insulting both Lon and the city council as a whole with every breath. With each beat of his speech more people from different sects were applauding. “The savages that live in Barbaricum enjoy a right that we do not share: The right to vote. We toil away at our desks and in the city for years, yet we still serve under masters who give nothing back.”

Ebb collapsed back down into his chair and held his shoulder which was once again feeling like a knife being twisted. Mad didn’t say anything, but she could tell what had happened. Po continued staring at Dom and being enthralled at every word, paying Ebb no mind.

“I may have made a mistake,” He said, resting his head in his hand.

Popularity Contest

There went another one. And another one. And another one, all wearing the same pin. A purple triangle with an eye and sun rays coming from it. A needle behind it struck through. Every second person in the street was wearing one on either the trim of their cloaks or on their sleeve just above the wrist.

“I’m pretty sure most of these people don’t even know about the astrology stuff,” Ebb said, walking alongside Po. His injuries had healed to the point that he could walk around and

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Po said, reaching into their bandolier pocket and pulling out the same pin, the eye mocking Ebb.

“Oh no, Po, why? What are you doing?” Ebb asked.

Po looked confused but Ebb pointed to the pin. “I’ve always wanted to learn about the world and this guy seems to know all about it. He connects stuff that I never even thought about.”

“Like?” Ebb asked, getting annoyed.

“Like…” Po trailed off. “Just the world.”

Po and Ebb had come back from The Institute to look for Po’s researchers, but the room was abandoned and the equipment cleaned out. They had met the concierge again. “She seemed really happy to see me. Like, really excited but also shy.” They said. “Which is strange because I barely knew her and she barely knew me. It was nice, though. She didn’t seem that fond of you, though.” Ebb looked away awkwardly, not excited to tell Po about the first time they met.

They made it to the apothecary but the door was open. No big deal, Ebb thought, It’s kind of hot today. But as they peered inside, papers strewn across the floor and bottles broken, Ebb knew something had happened.

“Uh oh,” Po said. “What did Mad do in here?”

Muddy boot prints adorned the floor and led out into the street. Ebb crunched glass underfoot and walked around to behind the counter and a label caught his eye.

“PUT ME IN YOUR EYES, EBB,” It ordered. He hauled it up and placed it on the counter. He was unsure about following such a terrifying instruction but the plug made for a perfect eyedropper. Po looked confused and Ebb turned around the bottle so the label faced them.

“Looks like Mad’s giving you another test.”

“You mean like the one where she sent us out to get an ingredient and we almost died?”

“Yeah!” Po exclaimed.

Ebb sighed and removed the eyedropper. He reasoned if Mad was trying to kill him she’d have done it by now. He dutifully dropped a glob into each eye.

Then everything went black. In his alarm he stumbled back and slammed his hand on the counter for support.

“Are you okay?” Po asked, holding Ebb for support.

With every blink, the world became just a bit clearer. First he could make out Po, then the contours of the counter. Everything soon came back, but tinted a slight red. A foggy blue trail led out of the door and through the street.

“She could have just told us where to go,” Ebb muttered to himself. He followed the trail, with a confused Po in hot pursuit.

“The potion’s called a seeker,” Ebb explained to Po. “Me and Mad were talking about it a little while ago. It creates a trail of where a person went for the next hour. Lucky we got here in time.” Ebb then realised what he had just put in his eyes. “It needs the skin, hair, and…” He paused, “Blood. Ew.” He winced.

“Do I look funky?” Po asked, ignoring Ebb.

“Yes,” Ebb said, still focused on the ground.

The trail was fairly erratic, as if the person had been drunk and flailing around when they made it. It took them down many side streets but the next one they came out of displayed a row of ornate buildings. One of them Ebb had seen many times in drawings and described in excruciating detail. It was the Rembracht town hall.

As they walked past, a bald man with a screwed up face in a gold trimmed cloak drifted out. Ebb squinted and noticed a small purple blob affixed to the lapel. “Uh oh,” He mumbled, realising.

“What?” Po asked.

“Nothing,” Ebb replied. It was probably nothing, just some random civil servant.

Ebb saw where the trail terminated, right outside the front door of a very familiar building. He sighed.

“Great. Mad makes me put her blood in my eyes, we walk all the way down here. And she’s in prison.”

“Oh no, I hope she’s okay.”

“She’ll be fine. She’s probably here for the night because she was off her head drunk.”

They made a beeline for the door but a “PSST” from one of the windows interrupted them. The crowd was busy as it was the middle of the day so they had to wade through everyone to get to the window. Ebb popped out, but Po was nowhere to be seen. He peered into the window that had spoken to him and Mad greeted him.

“There you are!” Ebb said. “If you’re going to ask me to break you out I should let you know I already have a record.”

“Ebb, you need to stop talking for once and listen. We don’t have much time. You need to leave Rembracht. Now.” Ebb moved to speak, but decided to follow her advice. Po emerged from the crowd.

“Hi guys.”

“They’re a known associate of you, you’re going to have to take them with you.”

“Okay, back up,” Ebb interrupted. “Why are you in prison and why am I in danger? What have you gotten me into?”

“I’m sorry, dear. Truly, I am. But you’ve been swept up in something you had nothing to do with. I am not in here for whatever crime they’ve decided to pin me to, but I refused to sell to them again.”

“Again? Who are you talking about?” Ebb asked, exasperated.

Mad looked down in shame. “The New Light Astronomical Society. I unwittingly sent them ingredients that could be used in the exact weapons that were used on The Institute.”

Ebb stared in shock, but Mad continued. “I was ashamed of myself and terrified when I heard the news. I refused to sell anything more or wear the pin and they put me here. I don’t know who pulled what strings to get me in here, but I know they’re coming for my associates which is a short list, luckily. However, you are one of them. And with your previous incident they won’t have a hard time pinning you to any number of crimes.”

“Good lord.” He said, exasperated. There was never going to be a day when he was free of that accident. “What about you? Am I supposed to leave you in this dungeon?”

“It’s not as dire as it seems. I have a plan, besides. You just think about keeping everyone safe.” She turned to Po. “Same goes to you.”

“I feel so included!” Po said in earnest.

“Now go, eyes will be upon you. You can go back to the store, I will have some customer’s orders there. They will not be entirely useful, but they are better than nothing.”

Ebb left without question. He didn’t want to say anything to Mad that he’d regret if she…disappeared.

“One more thing,” Mad said before Ebb could escape. “If you see Dom again…” She leaned in, the black around her eyes seemed to intensify, like she was threatening him. “I want you to kill the son of a bitch.” Ebb nodded and left. It was easier than saying ‘Absolutely not, you nutcase.’

The potion was starting to wear off and the world was melting into a mix of vibrancy and harsh red haze. The trail sucked back into the police headquarters and disappeared behind the door.

With each step, the force of each reverberating through his body, they built up a rage inside him. Another home gone. Another lifetime without a bed to look forward to. Ebb never noticed how many eyes there were.

Mo’s Discrepancy

There has been a grave issue with the way we conduct scientific research here in Rembracht, and I think it’s high time that somebody addresses it. I guess it’s fitting that it would be someone like me, a researcher who’s methods many call “Immoral,” or worse yet, “Inelegant.” I would call them “Revolutionary” but no such label will be attached to me in my lifetime.

The reason this town was founded in the first place, as the story goes, was that a group of brewers were fleeing from the intellectuals purge of Grand Orator Gin. This was at a time when the Grand Orator actually was the highest authority in the nation, so naturally this is pre-history. These great men and women had set up simple wooden palisades with the expectation that it may allow them to live for a few extra days.

*However, they found that mixing certain quantities of the plants that littered the slick, muddy ground, whilst making for bitter meals, made great acids. And that there has been the bedrock of our great community. The desperate need to innovate, sometimes as our lives depended on it, created both awe-inspiring weaponry and incredible boons for humanity. *

Somewhere along the way, this ambition turned into a lust. Everybody felt it, minus myself and a few others. It was a sick obsession with chasing not just what was possible, but what was supernatural. No longer were we trying to cure some of the worst diseases we know, we were trying to cure every disease in one potion. Where you once made ageing more graceful, you were chasing after immortality itself and leaving these people by the wayside.

This would be an honourable endeavour, had anybody produced anything supernatural in all our careers. You have made science a sick game and left it to people like us who make the world a better place in spite of you.

In honour of its discoverer, I have named this problem “Mo’s Discrepancy,” and it is a discrepancy of the highest order.

Would we not be a more focused community if we dropped this sick game and tried once again to chase after more reasonable goals? Hunger, disease, happiness, are these not admirable issues to solve without jumping five hundred hurdles at once? I suppose not, judging by where all of The Institute’s grant money goes to.

*As a respected member of the scientific community, there is no reason that the intelligentsia would ignore me unless they were more worried about their bloody grants than science itself. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. *

[UNINTELLIGIBLE SCRIBBLING]

- Letter recovered from the desk of Mo, chief of the “Mo School of Transmutation”

Sneaking In, Sneaking Out

Ebb started by keeping track of everyone who had a pin on, but that was a waste of time. Everybody and their mums seemed to have joined this movement or whatever it was.

Was it worth calling them a cult anymore if half of the entire city, at least in this ward, were members? How had he done it, did he just tone down the craziness and amp up the politicking? The more they walked the more the bustle seemed to fade away and melt down the drain.

On the approach to the store Ebb had a realisation, and he held his arm out smacking Po unfortunately hard and pushing them behind a protruding building.

“Ow!”

“Sorry…Wait right here.”

“Is there a fire in the street?” Po asked.

“No it…what? No, I’ve just realised something. If Mad’s not crazy or delusional, and we’re actually in danger, we shouldn’t be rushing into anything without taking stock.”

Po frowned and looked at the ground. “Taking…st—”

“It’s just a saying. We need to know if there are any people waiting behind the door. And then we have to figure out how breakable their bones are.”

“Oh no, Ebb you’re not going to hurt anyone, are you?” Po asked.

“Not unless I have to.”

Ebb scanned outside the front door. People really were starting to stare at them regardless of NLAS status. The sight of two people stacked up behind a protruding building was something expected of a juice abuser.

As usual the cabinets in the windows obscured any view in, but he couldn’t see any shadows moving about. Maybe he could open the door and stand out in public so they couldn’t do anything. Although it’s not like anybody would do anything if he was kidnapped. He spent years with consumption and people mostly ignored him.

If that was out then clearly there was only one option.

”…Throw a rock through the window.”

“What!?” Po said, their eyes widening.

“Seriously. If we want to draw their attention, rock through the window is usually how you do it.”

“But, are there any other ways?”

“Well, sometimes a brick works.”

“No! I’m sorry Ebb but I can’t do it.”

“I have a record, if I get caught I’m back in the tacky prison. But if the goo guy everybody likes gets caught, you get a hearty laugh and a slap on the ass.”

“No, Ebb, I’m sorry. I can’t do that. If that’s our only option then I say we go on.”

Ebb stared in bewilderment. And then pride. “Po, I think you’ve said no to me for the first time ever. I’m so proud of you.”

Now it was Po’s turn to stare in bewilderment.

“Fine, I’ll do the rock thing. But you’re bailing me out when I go to prison again.”

Ebb picked up a grey rock that was lying against the wall and hesitantly raised it to launch. Once again he was concerned that people seemed to care more about them looking kind of weird against a wall and not the fact that he was about to commit a crime.

“Hello, young man,” A voice next to him said. He panicked and hid the rock behind him. The voice came from an older woman in the doorway next to the apothecary.

“Oh, hello ma’am, I’m actually—”

“You must be the Livery man I asked for to fix my percolator. You boys mustn’t be so shy, you can knock on the door if you wish,” She said, beaming a sunny smile at Ebb. Ebb dropped the rock behind him while she talked.

From here Ebb could see a route directly into the back courtyard, and a fence hop that would deliver him to the apothecary’s miniscule garden.

“Uh, yes! That’s me, the name’s…” He said, outstretching his hand. “Febb.” He winced as she gripped his hand.

“Mhm, come right in. Don’t mind the mess, it was reading club yesterday and the younger members like to treat my house like their own personal library,” She unloaded onto Ebb as she walked back in.

“Oh, you know what? I should probably call my assistant over.”

He cleared his throat and looked right. “PO! GET INTO THIS BUILDING HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE.” As Po arrived in a hurry the woman looked confused. “Um, we were told the wrong address. Also this one accidentally fell into a vat of dye. What a fool.” Po looked confused but, to the relief of Ebb, was able to read the room and laughed.

“I am such a klutz,” They said, staring at Ebb for an explanation. Ebb shrugged and motioned over to the percolator sitting on the coffee table. Po did all he could think of, and started fixing the machine.

Well, as long as ‘fixing’ means ‘staring at bewilderment.’ Ebb once again glanced out the window and considered means of sneaking out without the lady noticing.

“Can I get you anything?” She asked sweetly.

Ebb snapped out of it. “Oh, um, a tea would be brilliant right now.”

She smiled and nodded. “Let me go around back to the kitchen and get you sorted.” She disappeared around the corner and as soon as Ebb was sure she was out of earshot he dove for the door.

“What are you doing!?” Po whisper-yelled.

“I’m sneaking into the store. I’ll be fast.”

“What do I tell her, then?”

“Tell her I went to the bathroom.”

“WHAT BATHROOM?”

“Any bathroom I don’t know. Be back soon.”

Before Po could protest any more Ebb had disappeared.

The cool breeze smacked him in the face, far away from the warm embrace of the house. Ebb scrambled up the window, taking great pains to not tear his cloak. Yet he still landed on his face in what turned out to be Mad’s herb garden. Ebb’s pang of terror at crushing her plants went away when he remembered she was in prison.

He placed his ear up to the door and heard what could be the muffled sounds of two people talking. No words, just a bassy mumble between two people. He needed to draw them out. Ebb was growing concerned how many plans he had that amounted to “Throw rock and hide.” He stood there, arm poised and ready to go, internally apologising to Mad for crushing her

This time, there was no neighbour to interrupt. CRASH, flecks of glass dusted both the garden and the store. Ebb ran for where the door would open into and lay in wait. The door swung open, Ebb’s outstretched arms the only thing saving him from a broken nose. He caught a man and a woman mid conversation.

“How in the world could it be a rodent. You ever seen rodents throwin’ rocks around?” She asked.

“Well dear, unless backyard vandalism is a thing

“Oh dear, there’s glass everywhere. I sure hope she isn’t too inconvenienced by this.”

As Ebb inched around the door he was relieved to see a latch lock. He could get at least a little time before they break in. Although seeing how averse they were to destruction of property…

They turned and stared in shock at Ebb. His heart started beating like it was being squeezed. There was a moment of this stand-off before Ebb slammed the door closed and latched it. Outside was a cacophony of the rattling of the door handle and a confused, panicked conversation between the two.

“Dear,” The man said, “Could you please come out here, we have a message for you.”

“Maybe you can pencil in my kidnapping for tomorrow, instead,” He shouted, punching the door. He sped off and immediately clocked a few brown parcels lying under the bench. He ripped each open and each had its own bottle or vial that he could slide easily into his bandolier. The cabinet in front of the broken window began rattling and Ebb knew that was his cue to leave. He opened the front door, his leave indicated by the ringing bell, and entered next door.

“Now, miss Mar, you should always take better care of your release trap. Residue builds up if you’re not too careful,” Po explained to Mar. When Ebb arrived the two stared, bewildered.

“Uh, I got lost looking for the bathroom. I just used next door’s.”

Hold on, that name sounded familiar to Ebb, but he didn’t press the issue. “Po, we should probably—” He was interrupted by a smashing sound next door and the two ran past their window after a phantom Ebb down the street.

“Oh dear,” Mar said, “What’s happening over there?”

Mar. Financier of the Brewery Livery Company. HIS livery company. He felt his heart sink to his chest after he realised.

“Um, we, um, we have to go. Po, let’s go. Now. let’s go now.”

“Oh, okay.” Po turned to Mar, “You have a lovely day, ma’am. Glad we could be of service.”

They both left as non-nonchalantly as possible, and as soon as they were out of sight of the house they bolted down the street.

“Are we going to have to do that every time we enter a building?” Po said between huffs and puffs.

The apothecary faded from view. Once again, Ebb’s home had been unceremoniously yanked out from under him because of outside forces. At least wherever he was going there wasn’t a cult trying to arrest him.

Firestarter

Po dumped two armfuls of sticks onto the clearing ground, fighting against the wind that was shoving him back. The trees that surrounded them rocked back and forth in kind, dancing to the waves of air blowing over them.

Ebb remained unfazed as he scanned each potion he had taken.

“What’s our stock?” Po asked.

Ebb grumbled. “We’ve got a hair loss treatment, three fertilising vials…” He swirled around a jet-black bottle. ”…A firestarter, and something green.”

“The fertiliser looks useful.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve always thought shit could be used as an effective weapon if only people gave it a chance,” Ebb said sarcastically. “Just about the most useful things here are the bottles, at least you can crack someone’s skull open with them.”

The howling of the wind punctuated that last sentence, as it drowned out whatever response Po could have possibly made. Ebb pulled out the firestarter and against his better judgement he walked over to the fire pit.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Po said in an unfortunately timed gap in the wind.

“Nope, but I’m freezing and would rather be burnt alive again than deal with it.”

He popped the cork and immediately a flame blasted out of the neck of the bottle. It heated up to a million degrees in no seconds flat and as soon as Ebb felt the searing of his hand he dropped the bottle in a cacophony of swearing and glass breaking.

It shattered on the pit, and a few patches of grass around it but a panicked Ebb and Po were able to put them out. The fell around the fire as dusk faded into night. Ebb was quietly swearing to himself.

“I’m sure we’ll make it to a village tomorrow,” Po reassured Ebb. “We can figure out what to do from there.”

Ebb opened his mouth to launch a barrage of profanity at Po, but he relented. What little common sense Ebb had after such a stressful time was telling him not to kick the dog.

“Then what?” Ebb asked.

“What do you mean?” Po asked, still earnest.

“Are we just never able to return? Is this another home that I’ve torched?”

Po looked at him confused. “But the only thing you’ve set on fire today is this pit. And it’s quite nice.”

Ebb laughed. He laughed more than he expected for such a lame misunderstanding. This whole day had weighed heavy on him, and he had a misery debt to his happiness.

Once he wiped away the foggy tears, he said, “I think I’ve had enough fire talk for one lifetime.”

The silence permeated the air. The wind whispered in their ears and a chill came over Ebb with every weakening of the fire. “I wouldn’t be here without you, Ebb.”

“Is that an insult?”

“NO NO! Not at all. The researchers were interested in me for my value. But there’s a reason I’ve been with you for more of my life than without.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Po. Please don’t get all sentimental on me. We can save that for when we’re not on the run from a bunch of cultists, hm?”

Once again silence descended on them. Ebb felt less uncomfortable, staring into the fire and just thinking.

“What about your family?” Po asked.

“Hm?”

“You never told me about where you came from. It sounds interesting.”

Ebb readjusted himself up to his elbow and faced Ebb. He looked at the vibrant constellation above them, as if he was plucking the words from the sky. “Well, back in the village, it was called Parho. It was named after the founder I think.”

“A two syllable name, were they a foreigner?”

“No I think his parents were just high or something. But I never met my mum. I could feel the pain in dad whenever the topic was even approached so I never asked. It was the one bit of restraint I’ve ever consciously exercised in my life.”

“What about him?”

“He got sick when I was a teenager. Probably the flu or something.”

“The flu!? Isn’t that instantly curable?”

“In Rembracht? Yes. But most villages are outside that alchemaic sphere. For the rest of us it’s either you get better or you don’t.”

“No offense, but you seem awfully calm about it.”

Ebb shrugged. “He died. People die. It happens. I cried, but crying didn’t bring him back. I got angry, but that didn’t work either. I just pushed everyone who still loved me out of my life. So I figure fuck it. Any of us can get the flu, so why bother worrying about that stuff.”

Po thought for a moment, clearly out of his depth. “So he never told you about the Birsen Bees?”

Ebb furrowed his brow. “What?”

“It was something some kids in Rembracht were talking about. Apparently everybody’s parents talked about Birsen Bees at some point.”

The realisation his Ebb like a ton of bricks. “The BIRDS and the BEES. That’s what they were talking about you half-wit.”

“Which birds and bees were they talking about?”

“No, they…” Ebb placed a finger thoughtfully to his chin. “You know what? It’s been a long day. I’m going to sleep.” He turned over, but turned back again. “Do you actually sleep?” He asked.

“That thing where people close their eyes for hours? Nah, that’s too boring for me. I can keep myself occupied, though.”

Ebb nodded and rolled back over, the black of his eyelids fading into a whirlpool of activity.

Fit for Purpose

The fire had raged for so long and run out of fuel so long ago that it had tunnelled metres below the pit still in a perfect circle. It was a barely visible orange glow at the bottom of a smoky dirt shaft.

“Oops,” Ebb muttered to himself.

- Po disappears but doesn’t actually

-----

If we are to usher in a new era, we need everyone working towards the goal like the gears of a watch.

-----

“I have to say, even with our short-lived time together, you are one of the worst liars I have ever talked to.” (From Mar after meeting Ebb again)

-----

“Am I dead?”

“No.”

“Should I be dead?”

“That’s up to you.”

“I still miss you, dad. I think about you every day. It’ll only get easier if I forget about you, but I don’t want to.”

-----

“You boys are so quick to give up.”

“I’m not a boy,” Po stated.