Alchemist's Cookbook

Page 7

Page 7A

Prep: for the next recipe gather in one ancient tomb

      1 sample of royal amber

      1 offering

      1 accident waiting to happen

      1 poorly thought out plan

Prepare for the next step getting these things ready.

      “Eni-mini-miney-May get over here.”

      When I said I wanted a cell phone all I really wanted was to get something that would let me contact my friends, maybe let my folks know I wasn’t in a coma. Of course, with the miracle of capitalism, companies had come up with thousands of ways to separate a consumer from their money. When all but three of said consumers were girls, well, there was a lot of pink.

       I glanced over. May was talking to Mary and some other girls. No help from there. I went back to the phones. After about 30 minutes I was considering just taking one and changing the skin with the cold forge. Without warning one of them started ringing. I picked it up.

       “Hey Jason, you hear me?”

       “Casita, how are you doing this?”

       “I have a friend there. So, like your new phone?”

       I checked. “It’s pink, covered in glitter, and has a unicorn on it, NO!”

       He laughed. “Don’t worry, they’ll change the skin for you. Listen, I need a little help on an assignment, you up for a little grave robbing?”

       “Casita, I work for Dr. Good and in the munitions manufacturing plant. Nowhere in my resume will you find the word “Grave Robber”.

       “What about Kinslayer?” That made me paused. “Thought that would get your attention. Apparently the Fisch don’t like you very much. Want to really make them mad?”

       I thought about it. “So, whose grave are we robbing?”

       “That’s the spirit. There’s this old tomb, really far away from Home ground. I saw it a few days ago on a satellite image. It looks like some sort of pyramid, you know what that means.”

       “Egyptians were here once?”

       “Yep, you know those old caskets made of pure gold? Here on Lower Earth there’s something similar to gold, but just a little different. Even a couple kg and you’d be set for life. Imagine what you could do.”

       I thought about it. I could always use a little cash, but another thing came to mind.

       “A sentient Fisch normally has a tome in their chest. This tome normally has something to do with their abilities. What kind of Fisch could be considered a king?”

       I heard a chuckled. “I don’t know man, but if you find a book you like, by all means, keep it.”

       I felt a burst of excitement, both from myself and the parasite. I don’t know if it knew what was going on exactly, but it was happy about something. Then again, for all I know, it had some sort of built in databank and it knew not only where every article of knowledge was hidden, but exactly what upgrades it wanted.

       “Ok, I just have a few things to settle, I’ll call you back.”

      

       Within fifteen minutes I bought the phone and was remaking it in the cold forge. Phones are delicate instruments. So what do I do? First, pink is not my color. I went with a nice bronze color, same as my pocket watch. I considered combining the two, but that’s just pushing things. Despite thoroughly looking through Wally’s tome I could not figure a safe way to implant a phone in my head, so I just attached it to a cable on a spring and axis, a bit like those retractable dog leashes. With that out of the way I concerned myself with what to bring on this little expedition of Casita’s.