The Way Ahead

Chapter 90a: Local Cultures

The Guildmaster’s declaration didn’t overly surprise Edwin- he had been half expecting something like this for a while now. However, he wasn’t expecting to be approached on the street by the Master herself. Heck, he didn’t even really know that the guildmaster was a she until just now.

…He needed to get better at preemptively looking up details about people, didn’t he?

“Right now?” he asked.

“Preferably. Unless you have some activity which you find more important that you must attend to, which I find unlikely.”

“Fair enough. Still, though… Anyway, right here?” Edwin figured she’d probably not want a conversation in the middle of the street, and was vindicated when she turned away from him and motioned that he should follow.

“We shall speak in my office,” she explained as they approached the primary Guild hall, “There are fewer prying eyes and ears there.”

Her tone wasn’t harsh, though it was firm, and Edwin distinctly detected the edge of a social Skill at play, trying to worm its way inside his head and put him at ease. He squashed it before it could develop, Infusing his Adaptive Defense in an effort to get some Skill backing behind his efforts. While he still hadn’t figured out exactly what Infused Defense did- if anything at all- using the combination itself was still reassuring to him as a placebo if nothing else.

They didn’t enter through the main entrance of the hall, but took a side door, tucked behind a root and almost invisible from any angle other than straight ahead, instead. Once inside, it was a tight spiral staircase and a short hallway into what must have been inside the trunk of the tree itself. Or just absolutely massive spatial shenanigans, because that was also a possibility.

“Not that I question your decision,” Edwin asked, “But surely you have more important things to do than just track me down and talk to me personally?”

“Understandable,” she agreed, but did not turn to face him, “While your concern for my time is commendable, it is misplaced and you need not worry in the manner in which I spend my time. I assure you, this meeting is not taking away from anything which might be deemed important.”

Even with the reassurance, Edwin still felt a little awkward about taking the time of someone so influential- or just in general, really. He wasn’t that important.

As the two of them entered what seemed to be Kertoa’s office, an identical woman to the guildmaster next to him- tall, dark hair, slightly dark skin- stepped out past the two of them, making eye contact and nodding with her… no, not a twin. While that had been his first thought, it wouldn’t explain why they also had a small, matching burn scar running along each of their chins.

Wait, what?

Eternal Master of Manifold Potions and Elixirs

‘Master Kertoa’ (PanastalisKertoa)

Guildmaster of Panastalis’ Alchemist Guild

Yep, definitely the same person. He’d applied that Almanac note not five minutes ago, which meant there was either time travel or cloning going on. Probably the latter, given she was an alchemist, though just to check, he modified her specific Almanac label to denote her as ‘Master Kertoa 1.’

When he checked the second now, he saw that her Almanac tag was unchanged, and with a nod, updated her to ‘Master Kertoa 2.’ Just to further check, he quickly checked them each out with Skillful Assessment. Sure enough, they were both fully suffused by an identical green-red Skill.

Kertoa looked at him with an impatient eyebrow raised, and Edwin realized she was holding the door open for him. He quickly muttered an apology and ducked through.

“Confused?” she asked, a tilt to her voice Edwin wasn’t entirely sure how to parse. Amusement, perhaps?

“I mean, it seems like a really useful Skill. Would it be… Alchemical Cloning? Alchemical Simulacrum? How many can you have?”

She was taken aback, “Perfected Simulacrum, as the case may be.” She blinked, “Were you forewarned by Alchemist Cope? It is generally assumed I have a twin upon first meeting one of my doubles.”

Edwin shrugged, not really wanting to go into how Almanac worked too much, “Scar on your chin meant twins wouldn’t work, not that twins usually look so similar into adulthood. Since you have time to personally seek me out by standing on a street corner, that means you don’t have too much pressure on your time, or alternatively have some way to be in two places at once. Combine all that with being a ‘Manifold’ alchemist, and some sort of Skill-based biological duplicate made sense.”

“I see,” she replied as they took a seat at her desk.

Unlike most of the offices Edwin had seen with his time in Panastalis, the walls were mostly bare, other than a single massive bookshelf that dominated the back of the room. Even with Seeing, Edwin couldn’t make out the titles of most of the books present, though the few he could see had impressive-sounding titles. “Secrets of the Vast Alchymical Arts,” “On the Homunculus,” “On the Nature of the Gozau,” and “The Vivinomicon” were all represented, none of which Edwin had ever seen before.

The rich wood of her desk- made of something Edwin hadn’t Almanaced yet- was similarly visible, somehow free of the massive piles of paper Edwin normally associated with administration. Was this just a decorative office, then?

“I shall admit to being impressed by your awareness. Although I will not answer your question in its entirety, you are correct in your assessment that thanks to it I need not worry overmuch as to how I spend my time. I am fully capable of speaking with you and performing my numerous other duties simultaneously.”

“That’s... reassuring, I suppose, though also intimidating. Couldn’t you just replace half the alchemist’s guild with that sort of Skill, though?”

“It does have limits,” she responded, “However, I am certain you understand the desire for circumspection in your Skills, do you not?”

A paper appeared in her hand without so much as a flicker of a Skill, “Edwin Maxlin, Alchemist-Errant. Home registry, Vinstead. Adventurer and Ally of the Empire. Tier two Alchemist with mage Skills, and incredibly, Alchemy as the upgrade to Improvisation of all things, utilizing the Physical Alchemist path. Special notes: a large variety of rather synergistic Skills, and a note-taking and expansion Skill whose details are unknown even to the registrar. You are most unusual.”

Edwin felt himself shrinking back in his chair, “How do you know so much about me?”

A smirk played across her face, “I am the guildmaster of the largest alchemy Guild in the Empire. It is my duty to monitor the pulse of interesting developments, and a tier two Alchemy Skill certainly qualifies. When your name came across my desk a few days past, it took me a little while to place where I had heard it before, but once I went looking…” she tapped the paper resting on her desk, “I found quite the tale.”

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” he defended.

“Oh, I have no doubt you do not. Yet trouble has found you nonetheless. I have never seen Alchemist Galen in such a state before, and while the man can be irritable, you truly managed to push him to some spectacular lengths.”

“So it is about that,” Edwin sighed.

“But of course. Though, we have more to speak about in addition. You are quite the curiosity, Alchemist-Errant Maxlin.”

“You can call me Edwin…” he muttered, “But fine. What did you want to talk about?” he asked resignedly.

“We shall begin with your most recent incident, I do believe. Tell me of what happened between you and Alchemist Galen.”

“Really? You don’t already know?”

“I have heard what Alchemist Galen says about the incident. That is not the full story.”

“Fair enough, I suppose.” Edwin agreed, “So, part of my hope for coming here was to get a Medical License- I have First Aid, and want to be able to use it on other people if the situation requires it- so, anyway, part of my arrangement with Cope was that he’d figure out how I could get the license, and so about two weeks ago he told me he’d set up a meeting…”

“Interesting,” Kertoa said once Edwin had finished. She didn’t have any paper in her hand, but he had the distinct impression she had taken notes regardless. What kind of communication did she have between clones, he wondered? Was it full telepathy? Did she have another body scratching down everything he’d just said? Or did she have some other Skill that she was using, like how he utilized Almanac?

“So,” she continued, oblivious to Edwin’s internal musings, “In short, you challenged the Attribute model of anatomy and disease, you and Alchemist Galen got into an argument about medical ethics, and then you failed to provide sufficient examples that supported your argument? Does that summarize it appropriately?”

“Well, there was… no, actually I suppose that’s about right.” He agreed.

“Hm. Well, hearing your side as well makes me tempted to grab Alchemist Galen and give him a hand throwing you into the river.”

Edwin shrank back in fear, and mentally started assembling potential escape routes.

“However, I recognize that is simply an impulse within myself brought about thanks to my disagreement with and general distaste for your blasé attitude towards human experimentation, neither of which are strictly forbidden within Panastalis. Therefore, I will master this impulse and discard it appropriately, so you need not fear for your well-being.”

Edwin breathed a sigh of relief, though she continued before he could relax too much.

“Do not mistake my acceptance for agreement, Alchemist-Errant Maxlin. I still find your acceptance of human experimentation disgusting, although I can understand why you may hold your views. Similarly, though challenging belief is likewise encouraged, I still feel personal distaste for challenging such old and well-held beliefs in particular.

“Similarly in your defense is that you did not seek to further undermine Alchemist Galen’s judgement. Had you been more belligerent in your efforts after he had dismissed you, this would be far harsher. We appreciate challenges, we do not tolerate baseless harassment.”

She finally paused to take a larger breath, “Though I must inquire as to where you developed such an… unconventional theory as this ‘invisible slime’ postulate, or ‘germ theory’ as you call it. It is wholly unlike anything I had ever heard of.”

Edwin scratched the back of his head, “It’s common knowledge, back where I come from. That microscope I made? It’s really, really weak in comparison to some of the ones back home, where you can actually see inside of cells and see how they work. Then, healers saw that some bacteria only appeared in the blood, in the saliva, and so on, of people who were sick with a certain disease, and it grew from there,” he paused, “Actually, I’m not sure if that’s how it happened, but I think it is.”

“Fascinating,” the note-taking vibe was back, though Edwin couldn’t put his finger on why he thought that. “And you do not believe these are simply created by the body as a symptom of the disease why, exactly?”

“Well, because they can’t be, not really. They’re really, really different from what the body is and how it works. It’s… well, we have a sort of Identify thing that lets us tell what is related to what, and bacteria are less related to us than trees.”

“Hm. Yet you could not prove this why?”

“Well, if I had more time and perhaps a more willing audience, I’m sure I could prove their existence- and disprove spontaneous generation while I was at it, life doesn’t just suddenly appear- but proving they cause disease would be much harder. I don’t really know how to do that without relying on actually unethical human experimentation. Even then that may not be proof exactly, but just strong evidence…”

He realized he was prattling on a bit much and closed his mouth, “So yeah.”

“You make a distinction about ‘ethical’ and ‘unethical’ human experimentation. Why is some experimentation ethical?”

“Well… I guess it’s about intent for the person you’re experimenting with? Sure, lots of horrible stuff can be done by trying to figure out if something is bad for a person, and that’s unethical. But if you’re trying something to help the subject out, then it’s better. Say you hear about some new potion and you think it might help out people with a given problem. If you’re trying to heal them, you’d obviously want to try and give it to them, yes? Because you’re pretty sure it should help. But at the same time, you haven’t really given it a full test yet, so you can’t give it out too freely. Instead, you give it to some people with the problem and don’t give it to others, preferably in line with what they want. Then, you can see how the new potion helped, harmed, or did nothing, and can make an informed decision from there.”

“Yet you are still experimenting on people. Should you not ascertain whether or not something will help first?”

“Well I mean obviously you should perform all due diligence and try to minimize the risk, which can incorporate all sorts of animal testing, or simulating tests… I don’t even know what all you can use to try and simulate it without an actual person, but at some point you need to just go and try it on a human before you can know for certain if it’ll help. The body is really, really complex after all. Sometimes, what works for one person may not work for another, and you just need to figure it out from there. What matters is you’re always trying to help people to the best of your ability.”

“Interesting philosophy. I find it reminiscent of the new Adventurer program in some ways, and although that has shown great promise, I still do not agree it ought to be extended to medicine. However, I shall admit that it is not as tasteless as you first made it sound, Alchemist-Errant Maxlin. ”

“Oops?” he tried, “I’m not… the best with words. I constantly annoy people with how much I talk about all sorts of random stuff, I know, but I also don’t know how to do anything else, so I’m just sort of stuck in the middle.” Edwin confessed.

“I concur.”

Edwin frowned. Was that an insult or was that some kind of a…

“Now, we have spent an inordinate amount of time upon merely the first discussion point of several, and so it is time to move along.

“I hear you have interesting views on potions. Am I correct in understanding you are unable to brew most common elixirs, even under supervision?”

“…Yes.” He admitted, “I don’t know what it might be, though I suspect it might be that my Skills aren’t conducive to it. That, or there’s some sort of magical shenanigans going on that are blocking me.”

“Are you not a mage?”

“I’m not a very good one,” Edwin defended, “I have… three skills that relate to it? Maybe four. A sense, a way to make things magical, a heating Skill, and flight. I don’t know the first thing about how to use magic, and alchemy is undeniably magical.”

“Interesting theory. I do not know of any mages who attempted to become alchemists, so I shall somewhat defer to your judgement there. What has brought you to that conclusion?”

“Because, well, a lot of the interesting stuff is magic. You use faintly magical ingredients a lot of the time, or there’s magic involved in the process somehow… I don’t know exactly, but Alchemy doesn’t work like it should.”

“You have utilized that phrase multiple times now,” the guildmaster continued her interrogation, “What do you mean when you say something ‘should’ work a given way? I was under the impression, given your views upon experimentation, that how something did work was the ultimate authority of all else, regardless of how it ‘ought’ to function?”

“I…” Edwin hesitated, “I don’t actually have an answer to that, I suppose. How things work without magic in play, I guess? Though there’s no real way to isolate that… Huh.”

“So in your view, because alchemy creates things that do not align with what you think would happen in the absence of magic, it is therefore magical in nature?”josei

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Please elaborate on the manner by which you know how potion creation ought to work in the absence of magic. Insofar as I am capable of investigating, it appears more that it is the introduction of magic which interferes with the way potions ‘should’ be created, given you are the only mage we have, and you are unable to make potions.”

“I… I don’t think I can, really,” he was edging close to a lie- a risky proposition given he didn’t know for sure that Master Kertoa didn’t have a truth-telling Skill- but if he phrased things correctly he might be able to skate by on technicalities, “Not without getting into some topics which I don’t think I can really share, by Tara’s advisement.”

“Who?”

“Oh, Enforcer... Lisana. Based out of Vinstead,” he explained after a quick check of Almanac, and the guildmaster nodded in understanding.

“I see. Interesting that you have imperial secrets. Most alchemists never discover something so important that it requires Enforcer involvement.” There was that note-taking impression again, and Edwin had to fight the urge to correct her faulty assumption.

“So now we come to perhaps the most pertinent part of this conversation,” she nodded, “Please, enlighten me on the nature of your relationship with Alchemist Cope?”

“My relationship with Cope? Why is that important?”

“Just answer the question, please. My comments and verdict will only be given at the conclusion of this discussion.”

Well, that wasn’t ominous at all.

“So… Cope, yeah. I mean, when I first entered the Guild, I was met by Thoril, though I didn’t know him at the time, and asked…”

“Thoril? Thoril Viskantal?”

“Um. Maybe? I don’t actually know his last name. Actually, I might have assumed Thoril was his last name? Blue-skinned guy?”

“That is he, then. Do continue.”

“So anyway, he told me…”