Journey | Albedo's Descent Book 3

Chapter 12: A New Discovery

*A day later*
Albedo crouched down close to the ground. What was that?
He took a vial from his pocket and carefully pushed the contaminated snow into the glass without touching it. Even though he was wearing gloves he wasn't about to go poking dangerous-looking things.
The snow was black. But not entirely. It had traces of other colors as well. It seemed strangely familiar, but Albedo couldn't quite put his finger on it.
He stood back up as he put a cork in the vial. He'd have to study it later. Right now he was collecting materials to make a more sturdy stand for his telescope. He hadn't used it in a while so he hadn't noticed how wobbly it was.
It made him feel nervous to have glass with that thing in it in his pocket, so he hurried to get back and put it under a microscope.
It seemed it was made up of tiny crystals just like snow was, but it definitely wasn't frozen water. Whatever it was, it was much denser.
Albedo took a small portion and melted it over a flame.
It sizzled and bubbled as it doubled in size, becoming a tar-like substance. As it grew it made a high-pitched squealing noise. Albedo swiftly wrote down his observations and split off a small bit of the still-frozen portion and put fire directly onto it.
This time the high-pitched sound was more like agonized screaming. The mostly black solid instantly went up in flames, creating a huge cloud of smoke that flooded his camp.
But the fire went out almost immediately because the snow mixed in had become a small puddle in the bottom of the dish.
Albedo held his breath and he quickly opened the tapestries and forced the smoke out. That could not be safe the breathe in.
The substance must have gotten extremely hot extremely fast because there were scorch marks left on the Petri dish.
Albedo was stumped as he stared down at his notebook. This thing, whatever it was, had such strange reactions to heat... He hadn't seen anything that behaved like it.
Albedo spent the rest of his day, which was about half of it, conducting extremely careful and intricate experiments on this weird substance because he didn't have much of it.
In the evening he went back to his star-mapping on his wobbly stand because he hadn't fixed it yet. He sighed, saying he'd do it after he'd finished mapping a good portion of the sky.
He had a few books he had borrowed from Lisa about the stars, but none of them were entirely accurate. All the maps had been done quickly and by people of little skill. But, at least, it wasn't nothing.
Albedo found it so weird that he felt tired around 11:30-ish. He wasn't used to being in need of rest so early. But, he figured he should listen to his body for once.
He began cleaning up and storing things away where they belonged.
Albedo felt a headache coming on. Then he felt dizzy so he leaned against the cave wall for a moment. Maybe he wasn't entirely free of the candles and their side effects.
The alchemist took a few deep breaths and was able to stand back up again. He carefully walked to the camp entrance and took one last look outside before he would turn in for the night.
Or so he thought.
Instead, something caught his eye. A good twenty meters away, on the snow, was more of that mysterious, black mass.
Albedo carefully walked out and collected more of it. He noticed it had no smell, he would have remembered writing that down if it did. Albedo looked up, a bird catching his attention.
Another distance away, right where that bird has taken off from, was more.
Albedo stood up slowly, gazing around without moving his head. If someone - or something - was behind this, he didn't want them knowing he was onto them.
He pocketed his specimen as if nothing had happened. The snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked towards the mostly black oddity. He didn't move to collect it this time. He carefully looked around.
Again, there was more not too far off.
Either someone was leading him somewhere, a trap probably, or something was leaving this behind as it moved. No matter what, it couldn't be good news.
"How exciting," Albedo felt a smile spreads over his lips, "finally, something new..."
Albedo followed this trail until it led him to the ancient palace ruins by the statue of Barbatos. That's were it got harder to follow. The trail was hard to pick out against the dark stone with little light. But Albedo managed.
Finally, it came to an end just beyond the stone circle, on the edge of the cliff.
Albedo looked up to see it again.
The swirling, confusing mass of smoke, dust, and colors.
His breath caught in his throat as his body froze in place. Just when he thought it was all over...
Once again, it faced away from the alchemist. It looked humanoid... but also not in the way it should, in the same way a warped mirror would make a person look.
It seemed to turn around, extending a writhing hand in eery anticipation, "half of me..."
"I don't know what you want..." Albedo said breathlessly.
It's hand lowered slightly as its posture did the same. It's uneven shoulders slumped and it's head came forward. From its shaking hand fell a liquid with a disgusting splat.
The dark and swirling mass fell like a ten pound weight and froze into the snow on impact as if it weighted nothing.
This is where it came from? This thing was secreting the strange substance?
But that couldn't be possible. This thing wasn't real. It couldn't be. This was just a hallucination...
But hallucinations couldn't be things you haven't seen, just like dreams, couldn't they?...
...
"Uhn," it held both its hands out, "half... find the other half..."
"I can't- I don't know what you-"
"Half... half..." this time it's cracking and changing voice sounded upset and sad. It sank lower into itself, "find it, fInd it..."
Albedo found himself able to move again. He took a step forward, "I-"
Gone.
Just like it hadn't even been there.
Just like the first time he saw it.
Albedo stared at the smear in the snow it had left behind.

Sleep could wait it's turn.
Albedo didn't care that he had agreed with Lisa to sleep.
Not anymore.
This was far too important.
Albedo felt like he might pull his hair out from frustration if he couldn't figure out what this was.
After hours on top of hours he had come up with nothing but confusing results. The only thing he hadn't tried was tasting and ingesting it, which he saved only as a desperate last resort.
He kept reminding himself that he couldn't just leave Klee alone like that.
Albedo sighed as he sat down and pressed his palms into his eyes. What was he supposed to do now? It seemed like there was nothing else he could do.
. . .
Albedo looked up, "maybe..." He stood and walked to his easel. He set a canvas on it, "just maybe..."