The Deathless Tsar

Chapter VI

"What is your name?" Ivan asks the little girl.
"I'm Oblina, and this is is Fariza." She refers to the girl next to her."
"Lana, that is short for Svetlana?" Leo asks.
"Yes, Sventlana Ovlishina." Fariza says.
"Where was the last place you were with Svetlana?" I ask.
"Here, We'll take you."
The two girls lead us down the cobble path to a small square with a fountain. Merchants line the perimeter, and people are everywhere.
"We went and bought candy from that man-" Fariza points, "-and Lana stayed here at the fountain, but when we came back, she wasn't there."
"Did you look all around the square?" I ask.
"Yes." Oblina says.
"Okay, let's split up. Leo, take Oblina and go down the street, I'll take Fariza and go up the street, and Konstantin you stay here." Dmitri directs.
"Mikhail and I can look in the forest," Ivan gestures to the gate leading into the shadowy forest.
"Yes, do that." Dmitri says. "Okay, come on Fariza, let's go."
She nods and takes Dmitri's hand.
Leo and Oblina head down the hill into the crowd.
Ivan lingers a bit. "I hope she isn't in the forest, it would be so hard to find her." He groans and heads off through the stone arch.
I'm left alone. I sit on the fountain in the center of the square, and watch the people mill around, shopping. Slowly, the sun gets closer and closer to the hills, and the shadows on the ground get longer by the minute. The gas lamps are lit, and the water from the fountain sparkles in the golden light. Still, no word from anyone. The merchants put away their goods, and the crowd dwindles. I wonder if little Svetlana would ever be found.
The sun sets behind the hills, leaving a thin golden band across the sky. A cold breeze sweeps in from the forest. My ears and fingers begin to ache from the cold, so I reach into my tunic and put on my ushanka and gloves.
"What's taking so long?" I groan under my breath.
I begin to pace in circles around the fountain. Chisti happily trots behind me. From one of the houses nearby, a woman comes out. She looks elderly and frail, wearing only a nightgown and a scarf. She carries a basket in one hand and a cane in the other.
"Excuse me, young man." Her voice is that of a frog's croak.
"Hello," I'm dumbfounded. What does she want?
"You have been waiting here for quite some time, yes?"
I nod.
"I've been watching you from my window. Are you waiting for someone?"
"Oh, no. I'm from the Academy, I came down with some friends, and these girls came up to s because they were looking for their friend, who is missing. By the way, have you seen a little girl, she has dark hair in long pigtails, goes by Lana, around? She is missing."
"Oh goodness. No, I've not seen her. I had leftover food from my dinner, so I wanted to offer it to you." She hands me the basket.
"Thank you so much, that's very kind of-" She turns away and hobbles back to her home before I finish. "Okay."
I sit on the fountain and open up the basket. It's packed with about a dozen pirozhki. I take a bite into one of the warm pastries and give another to Chisti, who is begging at me at my feet. I start to grow concerned. Charodensk is by no means a large village, it shouldn't be hard to find one little girl. I set the basket down and lay down on the fountain and soon fall asleep.
"Konstantin, wake up." Someone was poking my ribcage. My eyes opened slowly. Mikhail is standing above me. Next to him, Ivan is holding a young girl in his arms. Her braids have twigs and leaves in them, her kokoshnik is cracked, and her skirt is ripped and tattered. She looks as if she is sleeping, but she seems to have strange spasms every couple seconds. It is Svetlana.
"You found Svetlana?" I say.
"Yes, she was laying in the center of a ring of mushrooms, and there were huge crows, like the ones we saw on the way over, all around in the trees." Ivan says solemnly.
"That's weird." I say.
"Zhivo, go to Leo and tell him we found her." Ivan commands his dog. "Konsta, tell Chisti to do the same."
"Okay, Chisti, tell Dmitri that we found Lana."
The dogs disintegrate into clouds of white dust that fly overhead. I watch in wonder.
"I didn't know that was possible." I mutter. "How'd you know that, Ivan?"
"My father uses it all the time. It's very helpful."
"Mine does too. And my mother." says Mikhail. "I want my familiar already,"
"Not yet, Mikhail, just one more night." I grin.
Leo and Oblina come running into the square, following Zhivo. Dmitri and Fariza follow Chisti into the square from the opposite direction seconds later.
"You found her!" screams Oblina, her braids bouncing as she runs to see her friend.
"What's wrong with her?" Fariza mumbles, afraid.
"We don't know, Fariza, we found her like this." Ivan says.
"Is she going to be okay?" Oblina asks.
"We hope so. The nurse is very good at what she does." Ivan says confidently.
"She can cure any curse in the books!" Mikhail smiles.
"Come on, we should be getting back to the school, it's very late" Leo says.
We head up the hill back to the Academy. For some reason, I can't help but to glance over my shoulder frequently. The forest at night is dark and shadowy, strange noises can be heard from everywhere.
Weeks pass, and autumn comes in full swing. In the mornings, frost gathers on the wooden roofs of the village below. The domoviye could be seen sporting gloves and hats, and students began to wear their heavy fur coats.
One especially cold morning, as my dreadful Herbology class is walking out of the greenhouse, Polina slips on a patch of frost. She lands on me, and drapes her arms around my shoulders. She laughs loudly.
"You caught me, Konstantin!" Polina shrieks.
"I guess. It's more like you landed on-" I stammer.
"Spasibo, Konstantin! I would've gotten really hurt otherwise!"
"Um, you're welcome."
Polina laughs.
"Hey, I have to go to class, I'll, um, see you later." I mutter.
"Bye, Konstantin."
I sigh and head quickly to Alchemy. Yashkin smiles at me when I come in. Pavel Yankov is sitting at a stool near the front, so I sit next to him. Chisti settles at my feet, and Pavel's kitten leaps onto his shoulder, afraid of her.
"Hey, Konstantin." Hey says.
"You remember that Sixth Year who is like obsessed with me? Her name is Polina."
"Yes, why?"
"She's so annoying. Today I was like walking near her and she slipped on some ice, so she, like, fell on me. And afterwards, she was like, 'Oh my God, Konstantin, you saved my life!'" I complained.
"That's really awkward.'
"And during class, she sits in front of me, so she's always, like, looking behind her and every time she makes eye contact with me and turns back around."
"Well, is she pretty? Maybe you should date her."
"No, I don't want to date her."
"Hey, just an idea."
By now the class had filled up. "Okay everyone, good morning." says Yashkin. "Today, we are going to be talking about gold. Can anyone tell me why gold is special?"
Oleg lazily raises his hand. "Because it's the purest metal. Making it through transfusion is one of the main goals of Alchemy."
"Good, good. One of the main goals of Alchemy is to turn lead, one of the five basic elements, into gold, which is the purest of all metals. It's believed that through Alchemy, you can create an elixir from gold that can make you immortal, or that gold is the gateway to immortality. In the Fifteenth Century, there was a man named Kochei who devoted his life to creating immortality. It's unknown if he achieved his goal, but reports say that he could be seen rubbing his skin with a lump of gold, and that he became so obsessed with his goal that his soul was separated from his body. What can we learn from Kochei? We don't know if he ever converted lead into gold, or if we ever achieved his immortality. We do know that he created an elixir that can be used to cure you of any disease. That is what you will be making in class today. Turn to page five hundred of your recipe book, and begin, you have the rest of the period." Yashkin explains.
The class collectively sighs and pulls out tattered copies of the recipe book. The recipe is listed as The Elixir of Health. I carefully read the directions. It says it will take at least thirty-six hours to brew. I ask Oleg, who is sitting next to me, about it, and he shrugs.
"Master Yashkin?" I raise my hand.
"Yes, Konstantin?" He says.
"I was reading through the recipe and it says it takes over thirty-six hours."
"Good observation. Class, Konstantin pointed out to me that the elixir takes over thirty-six hours to brew. That's because we will be finishing this on Thursday. Carry on."
I spend the class period chopping herbs, boiling liquids, and measuring metals. The elixir is grueling to make, but I am very confident in my abilities in Alchemy, so I am not nervous. Eventually, I pour two liquids into a complex set of flasks that eventually results in the two elixirs fusing into one. I read the next step, which is to wait thirty-six hours.
"I see that some of you are getting the step that takes thirty-six hours, so if you're there, go ahead and go to lunch, class is almost over." Yashkin announces.
I clean up my station, bid goodbye to Oleg and Pavel, and head into the hallway.
The Dining Hall is empty apart from a few domoviye preparing for lunch. I smile and greet them, to which they continue their endless, unintelligible mumbling. I quietly set up a plate of food, offer some to the domoviye, and sit at my usual table. Soon, the period is over and the hall is flooded with hungry students. Leo soon joins me.
"How was Alchemy?" he asks.
"It was interesting, Yashkin told us about this man who was obsessed with immortality, but, oh God, you know Polina? The Sixth Year who is obsessed with me?"
"Yes,"
"Today she slipped on a patch of ice, and she, like, fell on me, and was all excited and was like, 'Oh my God, Konstantin, you saved me!' and ran back to her friends and giggled about it. It was so awkward."
"Oh God, that is awkward. Today, in Astrology, Master Lazarev brought me up to the front of the class and, like, analyzed my entire personality, everything about who I am and how I feel. It was weird."
"That's cool, was it true?"
Leo scoffs. "No."
We laugh.
Karina comes and sits next to Leo. She is clearly frustrated about something, because she slams her books down and sighs heavily as she sits.
"Hello, Karina," says Leo.
"I just got out of the stupidest test." She groans.
"What class?" I ask.
"Literature. We read this book about a stupid love triangle, and we were given the class period to write an essay about the damn tone of the book!" Karina's voice raises as she speaks.
"How'd it go?" Leo asks shyly.
"Fine, I guess, I mean, I only skimmed the book so it was pretty difficult. But I think I did okay."
"Then that's good." I smile.
"Yeah. Hopefully I'll do okay on it."
Ivan comes and sits down. "Remember last month when we were in Charodensk and that girl went missing and we found her in the forest?" He says.
"Yeah, what about her?" I say.
"Well, they found another one. This time she was a Sixth Year. Her name was, um, Veronika, I think. When they found her, though, her eyes were black, and her skin was this sickly white color. Freaky." Ivan immediately begins to eat his food as if he hadn't said anything.
"Woah, that's really weird." I say under my breath.
"Wait, her eyes were black?" Karina is taken aback.
"Is she okay? Wait, what ever happened to that Svetlana girl?" Leo asks.
"Svetlana was fine, the nurse assumed she was just cold. She claimed she had no memory of leaving her friends." I say.
"So Veronika was found in the same way? In a circle of mushrooms with crows everywhere?" Leo asks.
"That's what I was told, yes." Ivan confirms.
"I wonder what's going on. There has to be a connection." Karina's voice trails off.
Galina comes, with her new girlfriend, Katerina, and the conversation quickly changes, and neither Svetlana nor Veronika are remembered for some time.