********* (I Love You) Chapter XLVII: AlchemyFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I want to apologize for the delay. After the flame war that resulted from the last time I posted an aki here...I almost stopped writing altogether. All of you those came up to me in PM, email, and tells in game telling me to not stop...thank you. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine. I WILL finish this story...no matter what now. So suck it up Spinshark, kk?^^

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

Part V- Secrets (Hiou)

Kasho VI- Hanarebanare (Apart)
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(Chapter XLV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1131636452150807743;num=4;page=1

(Interlude IX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1133800951265217703;num=2;page=1

(Aki XLVI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=113501144625653958#1135182494202893613
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Bonus Story: Rainfall Memories

For Wintaru, Ferra, and Kestra...who managed to get me intrigued enough in alchemy to choose this particular guild to put Demitri up in. This is a plot chapter...next tho, more romance^^
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Chapter XLVII: Alchemy
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I only stayed at that bar for a couple more rounds, before paying off my bill and leaving.

Altana, grant me another chance with her...

I wandered down the nearly empty Tavnazian streets in that mind set until I saw the somewhat familiar cracked wooden sign of an etched out potion vial, swinging down from a rusty metal flagpole over the entrance. I remembered seeing the sign from my last trip here (back when the Archduke made his visit here) but I had never bothered to go inside.

Wordlessly, I stepped beneath the sign, pushing open the door with a creak.

And as I entered the building...

I must say, I was impressed by what I saw.

There were chemicals lining all the walls in shelves of all sorts of colors and sizes and shapes. I could recognize some of them, such as gold and mercury, but I couldn't make head or tails of a gil out of most of them. There was a huge island table in the middle of the room, topped with what looked like fine onyx marble. The table was littered by all sorts of various ongoing chemical experiments, each one having a paper tag attached to it detailing what was happening in some person's half-unintelligible scrawl. But despite this, it was a very clean place, and I could even swear that the air itself was recycled over and over to the point where it had a stale taste to it.

"Welcome...to the Alchemy Guild of the military of Tavnazia."

I looked up from the table to see a tall elvaan standing on the opposite end of it. He was dressed in a tight white apron that had several potions held securely in the pockets via cloth straps, and was wearing armless tinted sunglasses that were sharply angled at the ends. His skin was just a couple shades darker than his snow white hair, but that still wasn't saying too much. The voice had a rasp to it, as if the speaker was not used to dealing with people, and instead preferred to make his company with alchemic equations and bonds. As he walked across the room towards me, I couldn=t help but notice the white saruta cotton gloves that he wore and how he seemed to take great care in not touching anything along the way.

I believe...that the military send you here to live, is that correct?" he said in a stilting tone of voice when he finally got to me. He didn't bother to hold his hand out in greeting, which I found slightly odd. I then simply nodded, my armor clanking slightly as I did so.

Suddenly, the elvaan frowned, a look of displeasure rippling across his face as he gestured at my hands with his own. "Commander...would you please put on a pair of white gloves? We cannot allow you to risk touching anything with those...imperfect...metal...gloves..."

I looked down at my Koenig gloves, flexing them slightly. "What's imperfect about them?" I said quietly, still feeling the after effects of alcohol pulsating against the inside of my skull.

The elvaan only sighed, and looped his arm around my own to get me to follow him. “Come..." he said simply. I tore my arm away instantly, not really wishing to walk arm in arm with another male elvaan.

“Thank you very much...but I can just follow you." I said, keeping an even tone of respect in my voice.

The alchemist didn’t bother reply, but instead walked without pause or hesitation through several other rooms that mimicked the first one almost perfectly, with only slight variations of the experiments going on each of the island tables. Finally we got to a small square room, and it only took me a couple of seconds to realize that there were only a couple shelves and a gleaming metal sink in it. The elvaan walked over to a shelf and pulled off a small opaque bottle and also a small ceramic bowl. With a feat of dexterity, the alchemist uncorked the small bottle and then dumped its contents into the bowl that he was balancing with his other hand. When he was done, he came back over to me and held the bowl out for me to look at. Wrinkling my nose at the slightly repugnant smell that it emitted, I looked down into what appeared to be a dark liquid that was glowing ever so faintly.

"Would you please remove one of your gloves and dip your fingers into the liquid?..."

I hesitated for a moment, then did as I was told. As I slipped my now exposed fingers beneath the surface, the liquid seemed to congeal around my skin, becoming thicker and more gooey. Finally, as I started to pull my fingers back out, I noticed that as the quickly solidifying liquid dripped back down into the bowl, it had started to take on a prismed shine that glittered in the faint light.

“This is a rare and very sensitive substance..." the pale elvaan said, being careful to hold the bowl under my hand as I then walked over to the sink and washed the rainbowed liquid down the drain with a warm hiss of water, watching it swirl away down the drain.

"Oh?..." I replied, kinda wondering what the hell was the point of all that.

“Indeed it was...for you see...that was avatar blood. The oils on your hands...the skin particles that flake off your skin with every motion you make..the cold sweat that drenches your hands...all of those are imperfections of the human body." After he said that, he then dumped the contents of the bowl into the sink and then threw the container away into a small trashbin next to the sink that I must have missed somehow earlier.

"For you see...when you craft something...nothing is ever lost in the process..." he said as he turned back towards me, the pointed glasses slipping a bit down the bridge of his nose. “While the small imperfections of the human body...do not matter so much when making something blocky like an ice staff or a pair of dusk gloves...it matters more than anything else in alchemy."

He gestured at the ruined blood sitting in the sink to help illustrate his point for a moment before continuing in his raspy voice. “This vial of blood was ruined when you touched it...and if you had been synthing...the results would have turned out horribly wrong. You could have easily just have had it all blow up in your face, scarring you for life...”

Even in my alcohol-induced stupor, I could understand his logic, and so I uneasily stripped off my other Koenig glove, attaching them both to my armor body. As soon as I did so, the alchemist produced a pair of white gloves out of seemingly nowhere and handed them to me. Not quite willing to, but realizing that I didn't have a real choice, I slipped the cool saruta cotton gloves over my hands. The elvaan's lips split into a small smile of self-satisfaction as I did so, and he simply nodded once as we then left the room.

"Good...now let me show you where you will be living for the next while..."

As he lead me away to the upstairs, I couldn't help but feel that yes indeed...

This would be a very interesting stay at the Marquisate of Tavnazia.

-fin Chapter XLVII: Alchemy

Edited, Mon Jan 23 13:44:40 2006 by Nightsintdreams

If you stopped writing and left me alone not only would I become the ruiner of worlds for not only the people that convinced you to stop, but also for you as you actually did! Hehe, now you must decide if that is a threat or a promise.

/ja "Coerce" <Nightsintodream>

After I finish "Farewell, Friends" for Wintaru, I am going to attempt a first person story and I'd like you around to critique it.