“Damn that Thousand Tricks. Using our nature as Alchemists against us was cowardly!”
Freed from his interrogation, Nickolaf Smoky left the jail with Sitri once she arrived to pick him up. He had only been held and questioned for a few days, but it had felt like months. Nickolaf was the head of the Primus Institute and a man of noble birth, and thus had a fair amount of power, but the sheer magnitude of this incident meant even he didn’t get off scot-free.
It would be a bit longer before the rest of the researchers would return to the institute. They wouldn’t have been let off nearly so easily if they had been fighting over genuine Strawberry Blaze and not just strawberry milk. If nothing else, Nickolaf would have been removed from his position and banished from the institute. In that case, the institute would have been ruined, since just about every member of the faculty had been involved in the struggle.
“I’m sorry,” Sitri said, noticing Nickolaf’s apparent foul mood. “I, too, allowed myself to be fooled. Krai has something of a sense of humor.”
“Hmph. Who would expect him to deceive his own party members? He’s as merciless as they say.”
Nickolaf had heard that the Thousand Tricks toyed with the emperor himself while escorting him to a conference. Numerous trips into treasure vaults must have numbed his sense of caution. Though it was rare for someone to grow numb not only to dangers but also to authority, it wasn’t unheard of. The most famous of Zebrudian champions, Solis Rodin, was one such person.
Sitri held her hands in front of her face, shielding herself from Nickolaf’s glare. “He can be...exceptionally cruel.”
Those were clearly crocodile tears. An apprentice who had made a name for herself among the vicious world of Alchemists wasn’t going to cry over something like this. The title of Prodigy wasn’t just some pretty decoration. It was proof that she was versed in all the skills necessary to an Alchemist, including playing politics.
“Oh, quit it. Our idiocy made us susceptible to such trickery. In fact, this incident has taught me just how many people want me dead. Sitri, I take it nothing happened in my absence?”
“Nothing. After all, just about everyone was arrested.”
“Augh! We’ve never been more humiliated.”
The knights hadn’t arrested Sitri, which was fortunate for Nickolaf as she was technically his former apprentice. In his precarious situation, few people were willing to associate with him.
She hadn’t been arrested because there was clear evidence she hadn’t been involved in the fighting. That, too, must have been part of the Thousand Tricks’s calculations. Nickolaf could tell his former apprentice had affections for Krai Andrey, and Krai seemed to pay considerable attention to his childhood friend. A combo that consisted of the famously prescient preterhuman artificer and the alchemic Prodigy would be a force to be reckoned with. Though for now, Sitri showed no particular interest in going up in the world.
Suddenly, Nickolaf realized why his former apprentice was in such a good mood despite the circumstances.
“Sitri, did you snatch research materials from the other departments while everyone was gone?”
“How dare you?” she said after a pause. “Do you take me for someone who would do something so terrible? What proof do you have?”
It took more than knowledge and talent to become the Prodigy. You also needed initiative and the guts to take risks. Sitri made a face as if she had been hurt, but she was a woman who smiled when she was truly wounded. The best Alchemists didn’t easily reveal their true emotions.
Nickolaf looked her directly in the eye. She furrowed her brow and tried to resist, but eventually she glanced to the side.
“I didn’t snatch anything, but, well, I couldn’t just let the knights take everything. Nobody was around, so it was a very real possibility!”
“You goddamn opportunist!”
The knights had been outdone. Even if the materials were confiscated, every letter and every line was already inside Sitri’s head. They certainly couldn’t go and erase her memories. Some of these materials contained knowledge that even Nickolaf didn’t possess, things the other departments were keeping top secret.
Knowledge formed the roots of the Primus Institute, and Sitri had essentially stolen it all. Of course, Nickolaf wouldn’t have been surprised to learn if someone else had used the disorder to steal from his laboratory. The institute had just been wrapped up in large-scale turmoil; surely there must have been other members willing to pilfer the materials and results of other laboratories.
Finding these thieves now wouldn’t be easy, but simply letting them go would damage Nickolaf’s reputation. Just as he was beginning to consider how to handle this, Sitri, in a perfectly natural voice and unfaltering expression, said something that threw him for a loop.
“Nickolaf, the truth is, a real sample of Strawberry Blaze exists. The liquid originally contained in that bottle; Krai took it and poured it down the drain.”
“The hell are you talking about?”
He had a legendary potion that could get you executed just for possession, and he just poured it down the drain? Even safer potions weren’t disposed of like that. Nickolaf couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t blame you for thinking that,” Sitri replied. “However, the Thousand Tricks specializes in doing the unbelievable?”
“Why did you say that like a question? Sitri, are you implying there’s a reason he did something so unfathomable?”
It was a simple question, but Nickolaf couldn’t keep the eagerness out of his voice. No matter how diluted, if some of the potion was in there, that could give them a big clue. The imperial capital’s sewers were vast, but a diligent search should turn up something. If nothing else, this was much better than being tricked into believing in something that didn’t really exist.
“As I’m sure you know, the sewers are like a giant web. If the thrall potion ended up down there, then we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone drinking it. Even something like that will quickly dilute to the point of losing its efficacy if it ends up in sewage. Of course, I still think we’ll be able to find some clues as to how we can reproduce it.”
“But if it’s consumed before it dilutes...” Sitri said. “The sewers are inhabited. What if that includes a sewer beast?!”