The Stray

2-39: One Odd Duck (and Other Problems)

"...Do you know the Cranke Theory of Everything? Of course not, it's never been proven by a peer-reviewed lab even though my great great grandfather Cornelius Cranke discovered it like ages ago but the mainstream labs think it's too philosophical and esoteric for practical study, even though it makes total sense if you think about it like really think about it because of course there's a natural order to the world, or how else would echoes and aspects work anyway? So I come into town and set up a secret lab because duh alchemy isn't paying enough for me to rent a room at the bar and I doubt anyone wants to hire me on in their lab once they start asking questions about my license like you guys did so I set up my own lab so I could work on my study of the CTOE without being bothered, because eventually someone starts bothering me no matter where I set up shop so I just stopped telling people and I figured I'd just come out on market days to hawk some homemade glue since that's easy to make but it's so boring and did you ever notice that only the boring alchemy makes money? People just aren't interested in answering the big questions, like what is it all for? What is the grand design tying it all together? Why slimes? Why anything?"

"How close did you say this chick was to getting an arrow in her eye?" V marveled, eyes wide.

Timothy rubbed his forehead. "Do you know what she's on about?" She just held her hands up helplessly.

The witch had really expected to hafta do more. Not that he hadn't sweated blood to get here (the wolf was slumped into one of their rolling chairs,) but once they'd made it back to the watch office, his job had more or less ended. Everything that happened was on record from V's spell and her own report, so mostly they'd made him fill in the blanks. He was damn lucky V'd flown straight to the station instead of trying to smash her way into the secret lab.

"...So, uh, yeah, that's how it happened. Their weapons are probably still lying there, I chucked 'em good. Officer Crowe won't go bowless."

"Oh, it won't be officer much longer at this rate." Only knowing her death glare wasn't aimed at him kept him from straight up falling to his knees cowering. As it was, he still breathed a sigh of relief when she'd grabbed Crowe by the ear and dragged her into her office, followed by her guest. "What were you thinking! Out of uniform, no knock, no warrant! You pointed a weapon at multiple civilians! I swear, if it weren't—" The door slammed shut, then.

About their guest... Now that the captain was on duty and not just doing papers, a spirit had begun to follow her. It was some kind of eyeball with many pupils, a shell of what looked like magically transparent steel. Its shell was orbited by all sorts of ears and antennae and smaller eyeballs and whatnot, all made of wispy Anima. Not only that, but it was tethered to the Captain's stole via a thick, glassy cord of the same spectral stuff, which flashed dully now and then with multicolored lights. She'd called it a Watcher when he'd asked. He hadn't asked for any more details because oh man, the room still smelled of rising heat and anger.

As for the alchemist, well...

"...But that's just it, right? Everything happens for a reason, it's all some great web of fate and beauty, as above so below, the music of the spheres, luck, fate, and numbers all colliding in an infinite fractal of possibility that binds us all as one being so when we hurt one another we're really just hurting ourselves, I am you and you are me and we are all together and so when you find a bottle of rare alchemical plants on the ground you can't question it, it's there for you to use for good and help us all by expanding the volume of kindre knowledge well I mean sapient knowledge, slimes are cool now that I know for sure they're real and awakened are actually proof the theory of everything is right if you think about it and of course dragons are cool as heck you guys have like everything you even lay eggs and that sounds super convenient, doesn't it just feel like ducks should come from eggs too? Maybe in the future we'll all come from eggs because of that cool ritual, what was it, the Egg of Hearts and Blood—"