The next morning Bjorn woke up late in the morning. Which was weird as he hadn’t slept over 5 hours for the last month and a half. At the same time he felt the best he had in the same amount of time. Sitting up he stretched in his luxurious fluffy bed. That was probably the culprit. It was the most comfortable bed he had slept in since his time on earth. Even then it was more comfortable than any bed he had slept in there as well.

  He threw his new extremely comfortable clothes back on and went about exploring the inside of his room. The night before he was a little distracted as well as tired. There was a large armoire nestled into the corner of the room, it spanned both walls. Opening up one side he found shirts and pants neatly folded and stacked upon each other. Quickly flipping through he was surprised that each set seemed to be able to fit him perfectly. He briefly debated taking it but ultimately decided against it. Who knew how long he would be in town for, best not to annoy Dornan.

  The other side of the armoire had a single bar running across the top of it. Hanging from the bar were several sets of clothes. They looked to be for all occasions and weathers, as well as several different colors to choose from. They didn’t interest him nearly as much as the cloaks. There were several different cloaks of different colors, cuts, and lengths. He couldn’t help himself and grabbed a nice brown cloak and stuffed it into his bag of holding.

  There were other desks that had mirrors mounted to the back obviously to help with getting ready in the morning. One thing that surprised Bjorn was that he hadn’t come across any makeup since he came to the Eld. Likely because anyone who wanted to become more attractive just had to invest points into charisma. It was annoying like that and it made everyone just that much more attractive. It helped everyone look good regardless of what state they were in.

  Finished with the sleeping chamber he walked into the sitting room. Both had windows that led to the outside of the castle and were filled with stained glass to help keep the cold out. Which speaking of, all last night and even this morning the inside of the castle was pleasantly warm, even with the frigid cold on the other side of the window. After a few minutes of investigating he couldn’t tell how they were able to climate control the room as there were no fireplaces to be seen.

  On the table by the door there was a small card, it was the only new thing to be seen in the entire room. Walking over to it he saw that his name had been printed in neat gold ink on the front of the letter. Picking it up he opened it to find the same ink used on the inside.

  “Good morning Bjorn. I awoke early this morning and have put everything we talked about last night in motion. Gram has his personal guard on the look out for anyone by the descriptions you gave us last night. If there is any movement on that end they will find it. They are some of our best people to have on the case.

  With that being said I also set my spymaster on the case as well. If the one’s you spoke about are in town they will not stay hidden. I can assure you that Trist my spymaster will not leave any stone untouched or any inch of this city unscoured in the search for your men.

  The next order of business is that I have set my personal scribes to search both my personal archives as well as talk to the local library to find any information there on spriggans as well as anything to do with dealing with the creatures.

  On the same note I have talked to the city alchemist and have unfortunately hid a dead end for the time being there. He is unfortunately out of town for several days, a fact that I was unaware of last night when we spoke. He should be back in roughly 4 days give or take a day sooner for 2 days later. As soon as he comes back to town I will let you know that he is here and will arrange for the two of you to meet and talk about your spriggan problem.

  I also talked to my healers as well as the apprentice alchemists that work in the palace and neither of them know of a way to regrow your hand. That is assuming of course that we can find a way to separate you from the monster slowly eating your body.

  I sent some servants to collect my two lore books from the archives under the palace and they will have them on standby for whenever you request them. I set one of my scribes to copying the books themselves and he will have them ready by 10am this morning by his account.

  I have talked to my court enchanter and after some discussion as well as answering questions that I had no idea about he has asked to meet with you at your earliest convenience. He seemed rather excitable about the core that I gave him. He gets that way when he is around new magical items that he hasn’t seen before so excuse his actions when you meet him. Also with that being said you are in no rush to go visit the man, he will be absorbed with the item for hours or even days if left alone with it.

  I had the dressers filled with clothes for you to use, the same is true for Adriana. Feel free to take, use, and do whatever you want to do with them. They are yours to do with as you will. The only thing that I ask is please don’t sell them, if you need money come to me and I will make sure you are taken care of.

  I have also sent word to the gate giving both you and Adriana unrestricted access in and out of the palace while you are here. If for whatever reason you need to go out into the city please feel free to do so. I have a writ for you that should give you access to most if not all sections of the city.

  If you need to contact me just stop one of the servants that you come across in the palace and they will be able to either lead you to me or contact me. If you wish to claim the writ that I have prepared for you then you will have to come to me and I will gladly hand it over. This document could be used by someone with nefarious motives to deal some real harm to this city. With that being said I hope you understand why I must be the one who hands it over to you. I also implore you to make sure that the writ never truly leaves your hands or possession.

  Duke Dornan, the Duke of western Escar.”

  “Impressive.” Bjorn thought to himself. All it took was the right person to mobilize an entire city. And Duke Dornan sure hadn’t been slacking at all that morning. He has gotten more done in one morning than he and Adirana have over the last month and a half of hunting after Kairon’s crew.

  The next thing that he found impressive was the fact that Duke Dornan was able to get so much written on a small 5x7 card. As he read on in the card the text on the paper started to scroll almost like a cellphone able to scroll downwards. The main difference however was that he didn’t have to actively try and scroll, when his vision got towards the middle of the page the text moved upwards keeping the line he was reading in the center of his vision. It was confusing at first as it happened automatically and when he would move his eyes down for the next line sometimes his eyes would track onto the next line after the one he had been reading on.

  With everything finally in order he thought about pulling the rope next to the door to find out what it did. Then he thought that it obviously would summon some sort of servant and decided against it. He wanted to explore the palace on his own. He had been here once before and his map was slightly filled in.

  Opening the door he actually saw a servant bearing a tray laden with food coming down the corridor. “Ah good morning sir.” The elf said. “I brought you some options for food. Are you hungry?”

  “I am, and I was planning on familiarizing myself with the palace that way I won’t need to bother any of you as I need.” Bjorn said as he closed his door making his way towards the servant.

  “Oh there is no need for that sir. Any one of us would gladly accommodate you. All you need to do is ask and someone will drop everything to help you.” He finished making his way to Bjorn and set the tray down on one of the side tables lining the hallway. He opened the see through lid on the tray letting steam waft up from the platter.

  It was filled with pancakes, eggs of different cooking variants, sausages, biscuits, bread, and bacon. My god there was actually bacon. In all of his travels through the Eld he hadn’t come across anything similar to bacon.

  Excitedly, he took one of the strips of bacon still warm with grease and bit into the end of the meat. It was warm, savory, with a slight crisp. It tasted exactly like what it looked like. He let out a small contented sigh and quickly ate the rest of the food.

  Wisely the servant didn’t say a word about Bjorn’s lack of decorum eating in the hallway over the rich carpeted floor. Nor did he say anything about the lack of manners eating with his bare hands. Instead he settled with. “I have a plate here for you if you would like I could fill it up for you.”

  Bjorn excitedly let the servant fill the plate up with food. As he did Bjorn asked him a few questions. “Is Adriana up yet?”

  “The lady you came with? Yes she is. She got up a few hours ago, after she ate she asked about the training grounds. She is there now. I don’t know what her story is but she seems awfully determined to me. I saw her out of the third story windows once getting instruction and covered with mud.”

  “Yeah that sounds about right, she feels useless as we travel together. I am pretty sure she wants to fix that feeling. If I wanted to see Duke Dornan then I can just come up to one of you to ask about him?”

  “Yes sir. We have all been instructed to bring you to him or send word if you ask after him. Would you like for me to take you there now?”

  “No, that is quite alright, I want to get the lay of the land here first. Thank you for breakfast, is there anywhere you suggest I start first?”

  The servant thought for a moment as he finished packing away the extra food. “I think I would start at the entrance to the palace. That will be down those stairs, down the hall, and to your right. That would likely be the best place for you to start. We have been given orders that you are to roam freely, the only place you aren’t allowed to go into until you talk to Dornan are the treasury and the armory. Other than that you are free to go wherever. “

  Bjorn finished popping a sausage into his mouth. “Thank you. What do you want me to do with the plate when I am finished with it?”

  “Just give it to one of the servants you come across and they will take care of it for you.”

  “One final question. How many of you are there?”

  “Servants, you mean sir? There are 136 of us in total.” Even though Bjorn had said that it would be his last question, the man stood there respectfully.

  “Wow. That's a lot. Thank you.” Bjorn made his way down the hall and down the stairs. Following the directions he found the main door into the palace very easily. Over the next several hours he explored the interior of the massive stone structure. He found all sorts of impressive things and many oddities during his exploration.

  Of course he managed to find everything you would expect to find in a palace. He found the kitchens, the dinning hall, the dance hall, tons of sitting rooms, and the libraries to name a few. He came across several private studies, of which some were full and others empty. The entire west wing of the palace was nothing but bedrooms.

  The one of the things that stood out to him as he explored was the armory. It was down a set of stairs in an out building. The out building was a generic barracks, it looked large enough to house 150 maybe 200 soldiers or guards. At the top of the stairs he was stopped by two guards standing at the top of the stairs. They apologized explaining that at the bottom of the stairs was the armory.

  The next thing that stood out to Bjorn was another out building. This building was the alchemy lab. When he explored it he was surprised at how well stocked the building was. It was filled with tons of alchemy equipment, much he recognized. There were a few things that he didn't though.

  More than the physical items that stocked the lab there were alchemical components out everywhere inside the building. Everything that was out seemed to be being used by different alchemists. Out of the 6 alchemists working in the lab there was only one he recognized. She was one of the alchemists that he helped train at the war camp during the snatcher spider raids. The woman was either distracted or didn't recognize Bjorn so he just passed by her.

  There was also a counter that was attached to the main floor of the lab that was manned by another woman. She had a large heavy tomb open in front of her. After some questioning he learned that her job was to monitor the stocks of the lab for a multitude of reasons. The first one being to make sure that they could either order or buy anything that they ran low on. The other was to keep track of who took what. The last one was to make sure that alchemists didn’t get their hands on potentially dangerous herbs that they weren’t ready to work with or didn’t have the clearance for.

  The next place that he went was below ground. The palace that was dug into the rock was just as large if not larger than the one above ground. At first he thought that the building above ground was a maze, but he quickly learned that was wrong. There seemed to be corridors all over the place going every which way. Sometimes a tunnel would wrap back on itself leading either higher or lower in the underground complex. Other times it seemed to just dead-end without warning.

  It was down there by pure happenstance that he managed to stumble upon Duke Dornan, almost quite literally. He was walked around a sharp corner when he chanced upon the gnome. He had to high step and swing his leg high to step over the diminutive man. Still the gnome was uncomfortably close to Bjorn’s manhood for his liking.

  “I'm sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Bjorn said.

  Duke Dornan just waved his hand nonplussed. “It’s alright, it happens all the time. Almost everyone has learned to walk with their head down to make sure they don’t accidentally run into me. Have you found the palace to your liking?”

  Bjorn nodded. “It is a nice place. Any luck finding Kairon or any of his lackeys?”

  The smile that was on Dornan’s face faltered. “No, no I haven’t. Have you managed to make it to the enchanter’s lab yet?”

  “No, I haven’t. I haven’t found it yet.”

  “Well if you want I can show you the way. We aren’t too far off now, and I have a few minutes before my next meeting happens.”

  “Sure lead the way.” Bjorn said.

  With that Dornan started walking back the way Bjorn had come. “I don’t know if you want my advice but I am going to give it to you anyways. Don’t ever take on a title. Ever since I have become a duke I have had to go from one pointless meeting to another. They never seem to end. The management of this large of a city and a trade hub to boot is an endless task as well as a thankless task.”

  “Don’t worry.” Bjorn said. “I have no plans on ever taking on a lordship.” They came across a crossroads and turned down one of the side tunnels.

  “It can be very rewarding watching the city you are in charge of slowly grow and prosper. But at the same time there are plenty of times where I wish that I didn’t have to sit and listen to reports on food stocks in the granaries. Or listen to the 7th meeting about the changes to the expansion plans for the outer wall. Or listen to expense reports to make sure that no one is committing anything like tax evasion. It is just obnoxious.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes I wish for the days again when I was an adventurer, when I had nothing to do. When every morning I got to wake up with no responsibilities and go where I want. I long to have no responsibilities.”

  “How long have you been duke for?” Bjorn asked.

  They turned down another side tunnel. “I have ruled Blackrock Bay for 19 years. Before that I was put in charge of a small fief on the outskirts of Escar on the Cronkrum border. That was before the war of course. Back when that part of the world was just untouched forest.”

  Dornan took in a deep breath and sighed. “When I was in charge of my fief it was a small back country town with not much going for it. Over several years I grew it into a prosperous town. It was turning into almost a small city. Then the goblins moved in and started to take over and corrupt the forest. My fief was one of the first ones to be attacked. We actually held out surprisingly well. Before we faced the goblins we had mainly only had to fight forest beasts, so we were untested in battle. We lasted 4 months before the city fell.”

  “I’m sorry.” Bjorn said. As they took a left at the T.

  “It happens. Many wonderful lives were lost that day. Myself and only a handful of my villagers survived. When we made it back to the capital I was commended for being able to grow my town into a city and was given the task to watch over Blackrock Bay. The previous lord spent more time drinking and whoring than he did ruling so the King had him removed.”

  They stopped walking before a large arched doorway in the tunnel. “Well this is it. Are you ready?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “For what?”

  “For Ryker. He is a lot to take in, but he is without a doubt a brilliant enchanter. If I had an enchanter half as good as him I would put them in charge as he…” He paused and ran a hand through his hair. “Just brace yourself.” The way that Dornan said that last part he sounded weary, as if the thought of dealing with Ryker was enough to tire the man.

  He placed his hands on the doorway on either side of the double doors and with surprising force from the little man he gave it a shove. The doors swung open revealing the interior of the room. But his sight wasn’t the first thing that caught his attention, it was the sound.

  “...Told them. ‘No I don’t want to sit on your eggs. That would be very uncomfortable. And I am heavy enough that I’ll probably break them.’” An insane sounding laugh escaped the man’s lips.

  Bjorn just looked down at the duke. He was staring right back up at Bjorn and the gnome visibly deflated in front of Bjorn’s eyes. “Who is he talking to?” Bjorn asked in a hushed tone.

  “Himself. Come on time to introduce you.” Dornan walked into the room.

  Bjorn followed after the gnome and started to take in the room. It was a cluttered mess. There were items laid out everywhere inside the room. There were books, gears, swords, body parts of both humanoid and beast floating in a liquid inside jars, and a weird blue powdery substance. The substance was laying over everything, sometimes it was in small piles, the rest of the time it was almost a thin coat laying over everything.

  Bjorn walked over to one of the piles and picked up a pinch of the powder and held it up to see. It looked like granulated sugar that was dyed blue. The substance was made up of tons of small see through chucks of what looked like crystal or glass. The tiny chucks were also mixed in with tons of blue powder, likely the same material just too fine to see any size difference.

  Bjorn’s inspection was cut short by a scream that sounded through the room. It was surprisingly feminine Bjorn’s head whipped around towards the source of the sound. “NOT THE TRUFLES. THE TROGLODITES GOT THE TRUFLES.” From there the screaming broke down into incoherent babbles.

  Dornan rounded a corner in the room and sitting at a table was a stocky elf, which was weird to see. Normally all elves are tall, slender, and almost graceful. It was weird to see an overweight elf. He was sitting with his back to them. From where Bjorn was standing he could see that the elves jet black hair was close cropped and was missing several patches. It wasn’t that he was balding, it looked as if someone took a razor to his head or if they had been burnt off.

  Dornan stopped behind the elf and cleared his throat. The moment he did the elf stopped his incoherent screams and turned around to see who it was. “Ah Dornan, it is good to see you. Did you bring the test subject like I asked you to?” His whole demeanor switched in such a short amount of time that Bjorn was starting to question if it had been a show or not.

  “Hello Ryker. This is Bjorn, he is the one you asked to see. On top of that he is not a test subject. He is here to answer questions and help however he can.” Ryker was giving Bjorn a creepy look as if he was looking at a piece of meat.

  Dornan clearly clued in on the look the fat elf was giving Bjorn as he shouted. “RYKER!” to get his attention.

  The elf's gaze drifted down towards Duke Dornan. “Yes?”

  “Did you hear me?” After a few seconds of no answer Dornan kept talking. “I said this man is not a test subject. I don’t want to hear about you conducting tests on Bjorn, do you understand?” Again there was a few seconds of silence. “Ryker.”

  “No major tests?”

  “No, no tests.”

  “What about minor tests?”

  Dornan turned to make eye contact with an obviously concerned Bjorn. “It’s like I am talking to a wall.”

  “Fine, no tests.” His next part was more of a grumble than an answer. “It’s not like he would be a good subject for body augmentation anyways. I mean look at him, he is scrawny.”

  “Alright, with that done I wish you luck Bjorn.” The gnome spun on his heels and left obviously annoyed.

  After Dornan left the same creepy smile crossed the enchanter’s face again. It unsettled Bjorn just enough that he decided that it was time for some old fashioned W.A.I.L.A.

  “So you're the one who found the magical core. Tell me about it. What did it come out of? How did you find it? What has it done since he got it?” Ryker asked, even though the phrasing of his last question was nowhere grammatically correct Bjorn decided not to question it and just answer.

  As Bjorn was talking telling the story Ryker was obviously getting impatient at the rate at which Bjorn was relaying information and so he moved back over to the table and started work again mumbling to himself. Bjorn was curious and started to move over to see what Ryker was working on.

  He was about to set his foot down when Ryker’s hand flew out. “Don’t step there.” Confused, Bjorn moved his foot about 3 feet to his right when another order came out. “What are you stupid? Can’t you see the higglepuff. Don’t squish it.”

  Bjorn just looked confused at the floor. There was nothing on it but clutter. He had no idea what Ryker was talking about as he was about to step on an open space in the floor. He wasn’t sure what he was pointing at as well as his finger wasn't even pointing near where Bjorn was about to step. Then to top off the weird cocktail, he wasn't even looking in Bjorn’s direction, but without a doubt they were alone in the room.

  “What?” Bjorn asked with a frown on his face.

  “Did I fucking stutter? You heard me, not there.” Was his only reply.

  Instead of arguing Bjorn just repositioned his foot and took one tentative step checking to see if the man would say anything. When nothing seemed to be forthcoming he kept moving forward.

  “Keep talking.” Ryker demanded as he picked up what looked like a sky blue banana and began furiously waving it over his project.

  Bjorn complied and kept telling his story as he drew near the back of the elf. When he drew close enough he was able to see around Ryker's back and he could see that the object of interest was Bjorn's magical core.

  The odd sight made Bjorn falter for a second in his recounting. “Uh, what are you doing with that banana?”

  Ryker stopped his waving and slowly turned his head to Bjorn. The man had a wild look to his face. “I'm attuning it to the core duh. What do you think I'm doing?” With a completely straight face he began peeling the strange fruit like item. Once it was fully peeled he took a bite out of the end of the banana and then nodded his head. He took the peel from the item and threw it over his shoulder onto a small pile of banana peels. Based on the state of decay the peels couldn't have been more than a day old.

  Bjorn continued to recount his story. While he was talking Ryker dropped the banana into a pestle and mortar and began slowly and methodically pulverizing the fruit.

  Bjorn finished his story around the same time that the elf was happy with the paste the banana was turned into. He slid the paste into a glass which created a nasty looking layer on the bottom of the glass.

  “What day was it?” Ryker asked as he got up from where he was sitting and very deliberately made his way around to the pile of dust Bjorn had been investigating, he was extremely careful to avoid stepping on the spot he claimed to be filled with higglepuffs.

  “I don't remember.”

  “I need dates, I need the exact date. Come on, think. You have 15 points in intelligence they have to count for something. Don't tell me you don't have the base intelligence high enough to really make use of your increased mental faculties.”

  Ryker grabbed a handful of the blue powder and haphazardly threw it into the glass he was holding. It was impossible to tell if he added too much or too little as his hand was full at the start and by the time it got to the glass some had fallen out on either side and between his fingers.

  “How did you know my intelligence?”

  “That's not important!” Ryker exploded. “What day?”

  “I don't know, maybe the 10th or 11th. I was a litt-”

  “No! No! No! What day of the week?

  “Wednesday?”

  “Hmmm.” Ryker hmmmed. He began to walk over to a previously unexplored part of the junk pile and began to shuffle through it. He picked out daggers, jars, and oddly enough a hair comb made out of bone. Each time he threw them away behind his back, uncaring as to where they landed. “What color shirt was Rickie wearing?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Answer the question! Your feeble mind can’t grasp the magnitude of how much it matters. Maybe if you had an extra 100 points in your intelligence your childish mind could unravel the mysteries of the universe like I can. Even then, probably not.”

  “I am starting to see why Dornan said good luck. The man is certifiably insane.” Bjorn thought to himself. He waited a few seconds after he had that thought, just in case Ryker was able to read minds for some reason. After there was nothing to indicate that Ryker was a physic Bjorn continued to go down the rabbit hole of if this was worth it. His thoughts were interrupted by Ryker.

  “Ah ha!” Ryker said holding up another sky blue banana.

  “Do we need to attune this banana as well?”

  “Why would you think that?” He asked as he started peeling the banana eating the whole thing this time. “No this one is to help me find what I am really looking for.” He said through a half chewed banana. He had stuffed almost the entire thing into his mouth at once.

  “What are these fruits called?” Bjorn asked.

  “Vegetable.”

  “Sorry, what are these vegetables called?”

  “Slpuntoons.”

  Bjorn decided that for some reason he seriously doubted that was the name of the fruit, sorry vegetable. But he wasn’t one to argue. Instead he watched the confusing elf slowly masticate the vegetable. Eventually when he swallowed he got a puzzled look on his face. Eventually he squawked like a parrot and his head whipped around his eyes focused on a particular pile in the corner.

  From there he held his hand out making a claw motion with his hand and he sprinted at the pile. His hand and body slammed into the pile and his arm buried itself into the pile. His body stopped suddenly and it looked like it hurt. Then inexplicably he pulled his arm out holding a jar of a clear liquid.

  “This is exactly what we need.” He said with a smile on his face. “Dream leaf.” he began slowly walking back over to where the glass he had been working on sat. This time as he made his way back over Bjorn was satisfied to see the man walking with a slight limp. “Now shirt color.”

  “Rickie generally didn’t wear a shirt really, he mostly was bare chested.”

  He paused on his walk back. “So what color would you say his shirt was?”

  Bjorn really didn’t want to get into a semantics argument with an insane person. “I guess I would say nude or black? Seeing how he was a large black man, and that was his skin tone.

  Ryker nodded as if that was what he expected to hear. Instead on answer he finished making his way to the table. He pulled the lid off the jar and then picked up the glass. At first he looked like he was going to put in a small dose of the liquid. After a few drops went in he just upended the jar letting the contents of the jar fall into the glass until it was full. Instead of stopping he tipped the jar even more letting the liquid inside the jar overfill the glass and overflow onto the ground.

  The alchemist inside Bjorn wanted to scream at the man that something called ‘dream leaf’ was probably very expensive and he shouldn’t be wasting it on the ground like that. The more sane part of Bjorn didn’t want to question the insane man’s motive just in case that insanity got turned on Bjorn.

  Once the glass was full and the jar completely empty with almost half of the liquid that was once inside the jar now on the ground he set the glass down. “I need a spoon, find me a spoon.”

  Bjorn looked at the mess around him and gave a weary sigh. Then he began digging. “Why do these things matter anyways?”

  “I told you, don’t question my genius, your mind wouldn’t be able to comprehend. Was Ida in retrograde?”

  “I think so?”

  Ryker nodded as if that was exactly what he expected. Finally Bjorn was able to find a spoon and he brought it back to Ryker. The elf nodded his head from where he was sitting with his legs crossed in a meditation pose.

  He picked up the spoon and put it into the glass and began to violently mix the three ingredients together. He was so vigorous with his mixing that almost another half of the liquid spilled out of the glass and onto the floor and himself. He didn’t care one bit about getting covered in the liquid and just kept mixing.

  The first thing to dissolve into the dream leaf was the powered crystal. It quickly began to break down and get absorbed into the liquid turning it from clear into a dark blue color, keeping its clear quality. Then eventually the crushed banana paste began to dissolve as well into the liquid turning it into more of a yogo sapphire color and it took on a cloudy appearance.

  Finally satisfied with the contents he set down the glass and began to stare at Bjorn. For some reason Bjorn took the stare as some kind of challenge. Instead of answering Bjorn just stared back at Ryker. They held the gaze for an uncomfortably long amount of time. To the tune of 15 minutes. Finally Ryker broke the silence.

  “Alright next thing we have to do is shave some of the core into this drink and then it is ready.” He got up and produced a file from somewhere on his person picking up the magical core. He held the core over the liquid and with two quick motions he shaved just the smallest amount off of the core.

  The small shavings sat on top of the liquid for a few moments before they broke the surface tension and sank into the liquid. It immediately turned from a beautiful blue color into a dark grey, almost black liquid.

  “Hey Ryker?” Bjorn started.

  “Yes?”

  “Why do I feel like this isn’t enchanting?”

  “That’s because this isn’t enchanting.”

  “So why have we spent the last hour getting to this outcome?”

  For the first time since Bjorn met the low elf he didn’t look insane. The insane look behind his eyes cleared and his posture straightened. His voice changed as well, instead of it sounding like a cackle was hidden behind the voice it sounded clear and confident.

  “That is quite simple. We did all of this so that we can un-corrupt this core. I don't know if it was corrupted by someone with nefarious motives or if it was created corrupted. Either way this pure expression of magic is tainted by fell energies. The concoction that we have been making can be used for the person who the core is going to be attuned to, I'm assuming you want it to be you, will be able to purify it.”

  “So what you are telling me is that for the entire time you have been basically doing alchemy?”

  “Yes and no. The method we are going to use is something I have come up with through my research. It will likely work. The process is more of an art than a science so far.” He whispered this next part under his breath and Bjorn could barely even hear what was said. “There is probably a 50/50 chance of success and for you not to die.”

  Bjorn opened his mouth to protest but Ryker just powered on. “What we have been doing is a mix between alchemy, enchanting, and energy manipulation, with just a dash of psychic energy. If you'll follow me we can go where we can start this process.” He picked up the core as well as the glass and began walking through a different section of the lab that Bjorn hadn't seen as it was behind a large pile of crap.

  Slightly wary Bjorn followed after the man. Just to confirm that Ryker was totally insane Bjorn discreetly stepped on the section of ground that the higglepuff was supposed to be. Just as Bjorn expected, his foot just came down on the stone of the floor, not on top of anything. He hurried after Ryker who hadn't noticed Bjorn’s step.

  They walked around a corner and what lay before him was what exactly he would expect out of a terrible Frankenstein movie. There were two beds laying next to each other sitting at a 30 degree angle from the ground. The beds were connected by tubing and long metal wires. But by what Bjorn could see the stuff connecting the two beds together had zero purpose. There didn't seem to be anything that would indicate that they did anything. The surface of the beds was just plain wood and there were no holes in the surface of the wood.

  One of the two beds was fitted with a small leather half circle pouch that looked to be the right dimensions to house the core. The other one had a small wooden platform on the bottom of the bed so someone could rest their feet on the platform and hopefully not slide off the bed. Other than that there were no restraints or anything that looked like it could be used to hold someone to the bed.

  “Ryker?” Bjorn asked

  “Yes.”

  Do you expect me to get on the bed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are these beds going to do something like sick my soul out of my body? Or suck years off my life as soon as you turn in some kind of machine.”

  The elf turned and met Bjorn's eyes for the first time. He held Bjorn's gaze for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Why would I do something like that? That would be an inefficient way about getting your soul. No, it will help establish a link so you can purify the core.”

  “It’s just where I come from this type of set up causes someone to cackle madly as he yells ‘It is alive!’”

  Ryker looked at Bjorn for entirely way too long for Bjorn’s comfort before he cleared his throat. “Anyways I am going to need you to lay down on that table over there.”

  “This fucker is going to do it I swear.” Bjorn thought to himself as he walked up to the table. “Just a second, I have to check something.” He crouched down so he could see the underside of the table. From what he could tell there wasn’t any magical runes or engravings in the bottom of the table. It looked like a regular slab of wood. The tubing and cables didn’t even attach to the surface Bjorn was going to be laying on.

  Finally satisfied, Bjorn gave the crazy man a glare as he lay back on the wood. “Remember. Duke Dornan said no tests.”

  Ryker wasn’t really listening. “Uh huh. No tests. Now lay back I need to calibrate a few things.” He moved around the back of the table and started messing with all of the useless stuff on the back. Apparently he went back to insane mode and his moment of clarity was gone.

  After a minute of moving shit around he popped back into Bjorn’s vision. “Alright, now the last thing you have to do for us to get this party started is drink this.” He held the glass out for Bjorn to see.

  Hell to the no. He watched Ryker put a ton of unknown materials into the glass. He was also kind of certain he watched Ryker pluck one of his hairs out and drop it into the glass when Bjorn wasn’t watching. “Fuck that.”

  “If you don’t then we will not be able to clean the core of corruption."

  “Why does it have to be me? Why can’t you be the one to do this?”

  “Because I am not the owner of the core. If you successfully purify it the core will become attuned to you.”

  “You keep saying that what is the benefit of that?”

  “That’s quite simple. There are tons of benefits.” Ryker stood there with his mouth hanging open. It looked like he was going to keep speaking but he just didn’t.

  “Such as?” Bjorn asked finally.

  “Such as great things. Now drink this so we can get this going. This concoction isn’t going to last forever.”

  Bjorn did some quick mental math and decided that the potential benefits would definitely outweigh the risks. Finally he took the glass and as quickly as he could he drank down the black concoction. It wasn’t an unpleasant texture, kind of grainy with a hint of slime. The taste however was horrid, it tasted like he was eating weeks old socks. He gagged as soon as he finished drinking the glass.

  “Wow you took that like a champ.” Ryker said.

  “Thanks. I have to know, what was the real reason for the banana?”

  “Oh that is there to try and cut down on the terrible taste.”

  “That cuts down the nasty taste?”

  “Yep.”

  “How long until it starts to take effect?”

  “Right about now.”

  Bjorn’s vision started to slowly close in from the edges first. Almost like the old cathode ray tube tv’s when they were shut off, only much slower. As his vision continued to shrink it started to get fuzzy. Just before he past out he could swear he heard and saw Ryker standing of Bjorn with both of his hands held wide with his palms upturned. He was vaguely aware of maniacal laughing and he heard the words “IT IS ALIVE!” Then his world went dark.