“What if I told you that I had found a way to identify unique parts of the “soul” and isolate them and then make potions and elixirs from them? Essentially allowing me to extract stats from monsters and such and add them to others through the consumption of a potion?” Aarav’s eyes widened with this explanation as he realised the implication of what Boren was talking about.

“What are you serious!?” Aarav asked once he had taken a moment to process what he heard. “You have made stat elixirs?” Boren nodded hesitantly. “Well? Do you have any? Can I try them?”

Boren laughed a little sheepishly. “Well…the things is….” Calm down, Aarav, this kid is nine-years-old, and he had made some kind of miracle drug that can enhance people. There has to be a catch. “They are not very strong or reliable yet, but they have worked a little. I have gained a little Strength by doing this, but you have to understand I am very new at this, and it was entirely by accident I stumbled on the method.

“At first, it did not work. I have been trying to work on the substance for the last year, or so, you see, I have always been weak, until about two weeks ago, I was very poorly and frail. I started training differently, and that’s when my strength began to grow. However, I thought I could find a mixture of ingredients to enhance my strength, like some alchemists' potions that temporarily boost people.

“Needless to say, I was unsuccessful and embarrassed to talk to anyone about it also, the solution I required needed to be more permanent than the potions available. Anyway, I managed to make some mixes and tested them on myself. I know that was reckless, you don’t need to tell me, but you don’t understand my situation. Imagine being the weakest runt in a family of powerhouses. Being relegated to something useless. I was loved and cared for, so I am luckier than some, but I was also irrelevant.

Boren knew that feeling of worthlessness, he had felt it what everything was happening to Ami, and he could help her. He had felt the same recently, with the people who captured them in the city and the people who cornered them in the alley. It was the reason he had resolved to get stronger.

“Anyway, I had no success, and some of the concoctions made me very ill. One time, I was sure I had poisoned myself with one of my own mixtures, but lucky Marasa and Haemish together managed to cure me of that. Now that I think about it, that was when Mr Haemish came to the palace. I believe he came to find a cure when Marasa’s healing did not fully get me healthy again. I don’t know if he suspected what I had done, but if he did, he did not tell me.

“Regardless of that failure, though, I did not give up. I felt I had no other option, and I would rather suffer illness again than be weak. So I persevered. Finally, around a week or so ago, while I was looking in the Alchemical lab for new things to try to add and work with, I found a strange set of dishes with clear putty in them. The rest of the dishes in the place had different things in them. One of them had grass of all things! But this dish was other, and it seemed to quiver in my hands when I took a small amount. I used it in my experiments, and suddenly I had much more success. I managed to get a fraction of a stat point, it wasn’t much, but I thought if I could keep refining them and working on them, I could improve on the concept and how it works.

Boren smiled but then frowned. Boren again looked at Aarav, and the Slime just stared back at him. “Let me understand this clearly. You created an unknown substance from unknown monster parts and then decided that you should just take it at the risk of your own life? You know, illness might not have been the worst that could have happened! Boren, you can’t just take risks like that. It is too reckless!” Aarav took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing in a more measured tone. “Boren, suppose this substance had done worse that make you sick to the point that healing didn’t work? What would have happened if you could not be cured at all? What would your mother and father have done?” Aarav asked the boy. He was a genius to have done this much, but it was all with the short-sightedness of a young child trying desperately to find answers.

“What do you mean? They obviously would have tried to find a cure, but losing me would not have cost them anything if they couldn't. I am useless to them as I am now!” Boren said in a desperate whisper.

“Boren, think about how your mother reacted today when you were not found in the palace. Was that the reaction of someone that doesn’t care what happens to you? And if they suspected that you were poisoned, don’t you think that would be looking to see if someone orchestrated it? To find out who might have tried to poison you? They might not automatically think that it was your own doing? At the end of the day, royals are targeted; you know your mother especially is likely to suspect foul play.” Boren tried to explain the now distraught boy as rationally as he could.

“What!? Do you really think they are trying to find someone who could have been why I was poisoned? Would they…fight for me?” Boren said it like it was the last thing he would have expected, and Aarav couldn’t believe how little he believed in the solidarity of his family. Yet all he had seen from the Prince’s parents was caring and love and wanting him to be safe. Who knew what was going on in a young child’s head?

“Yes, Boren. Parents do not always act the way yours do. Trust me, I didn’t even know my parents, and I have never known people that cared about me as your parents do for you. Appreciate that and stop putting yourself at risk; the last thing we need is a war because someone thinks a rival nation hurt you, understand?” Boren nodded to Aarav glumly.

With that out of the way, Aarav continued the previous conversation. “I do think that this is an avenue worth pursuing, though if you have started to get results.”Boren’s eyes lit up at Aarav’s words. “But we need to be smart about this, not take unnecessary risks. Therefore we need to do the testing carefully and not on you!” Aarav raised his voice at the end, driving the word home like a bullet into Boren. “Also, this stuff you took from the lab, do you have any left? And can I see some of the latest experiments?”

Boren nodded and showed the vials and tubes he had arrayed out in front of them. He withdrew a small clear box from a hidden compartment below the desk. In it, there was a small amount of quivering Slime. Yup, that’s a little piece of me right there. I will probably need to tell him at some point, but I can feign ignorance for now. “I think it would be an excellent idea for us to talk to Haemish about this as well. He has more knowledge about Alchemy than anyone I know, and I trust him with this. What do you think?”

Boren was visibly reluctant to share or even hint at his experiments to someone like Haemish, who would more than likely take his toys away and admonish him besides. But with hundreds of years of experience, it was also a very practical suggestion. Also, something he had thought of doing several times himself, it just made so much sense. Still, he stubbornly felt that he did not want to let go of this little piece of his heaven and a chance at taking control of his life. In this small way, he was a master of his own destiny, and he believed that if he could just push hard enough, anything could and would be possible for him.

Aarav saw all that and more flash through the boy’s eyes, and he mulled over his proposition. Aarav completely understood the boy’s situation, and the King, too, had given him something of similar import to think about. They were now both planning to visit someone older and wiser than them to see if they could get some advice on how to proceed.

The one thing that Aarav knew about Haemish was that the man would not, in good conscience, advise them based on his own desires, so it would go against his nature. So he felt very comfortable visiting him in this situation.