The Peculiar Alchemist

17 || Val

There was nothing Val loved more than experimenting with, well, everything. She had dreams of one day writing a book about her discoveries and innovations in various fields of magic, but that was a very distant dream of hers. A dream she was slowly inching towards as her notebook gradually filled with all of what she managed to achieve.

She dived into everything from spells, to runes, and even wards and talismans. She wanted to try her hand at everything, but she was finding it difficult to do that when she stared at the empty section of her notebook.

Alchemy and rituals.

The former was a pain to learn, and those who excelled in alchemy were either dead or too rich and busy to give her a few moments of their time to answer some of her questions. Alchemists were notoriously stuck-up and hard to get ahold of, and alchemy was notoriously hard to learn so she was unlucky there, too.

Rituals on the other hand...

They're simply abhorrent.

Val would never want to meet anyone who'd be willing to perform a ritual. Learning about them was one thing, but actually offering sacrifices and one's own blood was another. Besides, rituals are never anything good. If they weren't used to curse someone, then they were used to bend people's will and find out things that they have no right in knowing. Everything about them was terrible.

There was nothing redeeming about rituals, so their section in the notebook would probably remain blank forever.

But Val tried not to think too much about the blank pages, and instead she decided to focus on something else as she placed three pieces of papers with sigils and symbols drawn on them. Even wards were depicted there as she looked over them. Her goal was to figure them out before she could see if she could combine them, and as her hand brought one of the papers closer, the door opened, blowing them away.

She often loved to study in abandoned buildings, but this one was her favorite, and only one person knew about this place other than her.

"Val, I need help."

She blinked watching her blond friend close the rickety door behind him, giving her a quick apology when he saw that her papers flew away due to the gust of wind that entered with him, and he immediately picked the two papers up and placed them back in front of her.

Smiling gratefully at him, she tilted her head curiously. "What do you need help with?"

There was something that was making her friend nervous as he took a seat across from her, and while Aubrey came from a very wealthy family, it often amazed her how unfazed he was by many things that would offend or shock people of his social status. However, he was always just so unbothered by everything.

But now was one of the rare times that he seemed bothered, and that worried her a little.

That's when Aubrey told her something for the first time. "I can't cast spells."

"What do you mean you can't cast spells?"

Those words shocked her, but somehow it made his strange mannerisms finally make sense. He always walked towards things to grab them instead of just spelling them to his hand, and he often used candles and lanterns whenever it got dark. Val had always thought it was just some of his many idiosyncrasies, but now she realized that this wasn't the case.

But how could that be possible? It just never happened.

"I just can't. Nothing happens when I do." He explained to her before lifting his hand up as if to show her. "Look, I'll try to summon some source of light."

Val watched how perfectly his hands moved on its way to cast a spell, but the moment the magic surged in his hand, everything stopped and nothing happened. Wryly, he bowed his head at her as if he was done with a little show and tonelessly grumbled. "Ta-da!"