The Peculiar Alchemist

8 || The Letter

The Whitlock's garden was adorned by all kinds of beautiful flowers, all of them hand-picked by Cornelia Whitlock herself as she stood over her garden with a proud look on her face. Everything blended seamlessly, but the most beautiful flowers she had were the blue flowers that were recently sold to her by someone she thought of as suspicious first.

She bought five of them, and although one went missing mysteriously, she excitedly put on her yellow gloves and walked inside her greenhouse where streaks of sunlight entered. It made her sigh happily. She loved to personally tend her flowers, but something made her stop.

She was surprised to see a letter placed on one of the cleaner tables there, where there was no dirt to be found, and she slowly took off her gloves wondering who it was from. She rarely got letters this early in the morning, and so she sat on her chair to read it, curious to what its contents might be.

The first unusual thing about it was that it had a black envelope with her name written neatly with white ink. When she turned it over, she saw that the stamp was nothing special. Just the usual wax used to seal letters, and it was just a big plain circle. No crest, no brand, no indication to where it might be from, no nothing.

She gently opened it to find that even the paper was black, which was very uncommon, and the letters were written with the same white ink that was used on the envelope to write her name.

As Cornelia read on, she became increasingly confused and worried by what it said.

Apparently her blue flowers were stolen from the sender, and while they reassured her that they were aware of her lack of involvement and awareness of the theft, they still asked to meet her to inquire about a few things. Cornelia wanted to send a reply back about how there was nothing they could inquire about, she only bought them.

But then she saw the crest that was right beside the sender's name.

It was the Abbott's crest, and the letter was signed by Lucille Abbott herself.

Cornelia knew it to be genuine, and her hand slowly lowered the letter as she sat deeply in thought. There was no way that she could deny that meeting request, she never met Lucille, but now she was going to invite her here to fulfill her request.

She bit her lip not knowing how to go on about this as she set her letter down, and after a long thoughtful moment, someone walked inside giving her a very welcome distraction. Cornelia was delighted to see that it was her son, Aubrey.

"Good morning." He smiled at her looking like he recently woke up. Cornelia found herself patting down the hair on his head that was sticking up when he got close, and she smiled at how not many things had changed from when he was a kid. "You're tending your flowers?"

"Yes, I was about to." She nodded her head at him finally satisfied with how his hair stayed down. "You're welcome to join me if you'd like."

To her horror, he nodded his head and walked towards the pots that she set up the night before and crouched down to retrieve them without putting any gloves on.

"Sure, I'll join."

He was completely unaware of the disapproving look his mother was sending him as she yanked him back by the back of his shirt. "Exactly what do you think you're doing?"

Aubrey looked up at her in confusion. "Helping?"

But Cornelia shook her head as she whacked his head making him rub it when he stood up. Barely anything changed from when he was a kid, he was still as messy as ever. "Gloves."

"Ah." He sighed unhappily obliging as he looked around for an extra pair. Nowhere on any surface could he find a pair of gloves, and he was getting even more frustrated when all he could find were gardening tools and more pots instead of a pair of gloves. "I can't find any. Is there a single pair I could use?"

She was about to remind him that they kept the gloves in the toolshed outside, but he soon exclaimed in triumph before he leaned down and grabbed a mismatched pair she had never seen before and started putting them on.

"Found them." He told her lifting up his gloved hands smiling at her brightly before she shook her head and gestured for the pots allowing him to continue his help. Her gardener probably forgot these pair.

She watched with mild amusement when he misjudged how light an empty pot was almost dropping it in the process, but he placed two pots on the table for her and for him with no incident.

"Now place some- Oh, you got it." She watched in surprised as Aubrey correctly filled his pot with dirt before he turned to her asking which flower she wanted to place there. Handing him the blue flower, she couldn't help but voice out her amazement. "You're getting better at his."

"I've seen Agnes do this a lot." He shrugged as if she was supposed to know this Agnes he was talking about.

"Agnes who?"

That's when Aubrey realized he hadn't told her anything as he slowly lowered the blue flower into his pot. "She's an old lady who is teaching me alchemy."

Cornelia's eyebrows rose as he gave her a sheepish smile. "You found yourself a mentor?"

"She kidnapped me, so technically she found me." He told her reaching for one of the trowels lying around before placing more dirt in his pot. It was clear that his mother had hoped for more details and wanted to know just what was going on with his life, but he wondered if it was wise to tell her everything.

Seeing how he inherited his inquisitiveness from her, she didn't hold back on her questions. "You and that lady alone? Where is she? How did you convince her to teach you?" She paused for a minute before asking. "Does she know who you are?"

"Uh," Aubrey tried to remember all her questions before shaking his head slowly. "No, we're not alone. There are three guys around my age that keep coming back. I think she blackmailed one of them..."

For some reason, his mother reacted in delight at that. "Oh, you're making friends?"

"Sure, yeah. Friends." The wry tone of his voice should have given her a clue that he didn't actually make any friends, they all just happened to be there somehow.

Toby was indebted to Agnes for some potion he drank, and would have totally left if given the chance. Aubrey probably spoke to him three times ever since they met. Marc kept coming back urging Agnes to find more things about his missing father, and he failed miserably at hiding the fact that he was an Abbott – Aubrey could relate, Agnes knew who he was the moment he opened his eyes after he was kidnapped.

And then there's Kellen.

Infuriatingly annoying Kellen who loved to lie about things just to get on people's nerves, and he found an easy victim in Toby who believed every word he uttered. It took Toby a while to find out that Kellen's name wasn't actually Kevin. Besides, other than the usual graves that he keeps digging and the people he kidnaps, Aubrey had no idea what Kellen does or why he does it.

Everyone had a reason to stick around Agnes, but he seemed to be just there acting as her loyal helper even with all the abuse that she throws at him.

It made him wonder why, but he would not talk to Kellen unless he absolutely has to. The guy just gave him headaches once he opened his mouth.

He'd rather just focus on his alchemy...