Today was one of the most important days, and one of her most dreaded days. Today was the day of the finals. Granny thought through her plan for the umptieth time, but couldn’t find any fault in it. “Calm down, Res will be OK.” With heavy steps, she ascended to the exclusive Alchemy booth on the fourth floor. “At least Silvia will be here today. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

In her heart, she still harbored some hope that Res could win the tournament. Yet, she knew it was impossible. Today was the day she had to get Res an apprenticeship at a southerner university. With the protection of the southerner Alchemists, Res would be as safe as he could be. One doesn’t insult, let alone kill a southerner alchemist. Entire noble houses had fallen for less of a slight. With a heavy, but hopeful heart, she passed the colosseum guards at the door and into the booth. She swiped her gaze over the room and found her friend flirting with a married alchemist.

“She can’t stop herself, can she? Bad habits die hard.”She approached the pair and cleared her throat suggestively.

“Lady Silvia Heartfire, may I have a word with you.” The male alchemist wasn’t as deft as not to get the hint and left. Granny planted her arms on her hips. “You are not twenty anymore. You can’t go flirting around with every married man and twisting them to your heart’s contempt like you used to.”

“Come on Sophia, don’t you want to feel that tingling in your belly, the intricate back and forth. Don’t be so dull, you were often accompanying me on my field trips and often getting more attention than me, might I add. Apart from that. I needed to wait for you to approach the ambassador from the southerner academy. You can’t fault me for that.”

Granny gave her old friend a mirthful smile and walked to the balcony that looked over the colosseum. “I had unfinished business. I needed to smuggle my apprentice in.”

Silvia grabbed her by the shoulders and hissed. “Are you stupid? They have all the entrances locked up.”

Granny gave her a mischievous grin. “I found a secret tunnel under the colosseum. A maid told me of it.”

Silvia’s complexion turned even paler, and she made her way over to the balcony to support herself. Now in utter panic, Granny hurried after and took the spot next to her. “What is it? Tell me.”

“You have doomed him. That tunnel is a mock secret tunnel. With only a little asking around, every maid will tell you that there is a secret tunnel that no one knows about. There are hidden guards in that tunnel that take anyone that passes into custody or kill him. Wait, that is not all. They held a surprise meeting only four hours ago to change parts of the tournament. They have completely scrapped the usual testing. This year’s finals are what they call ‘social alchemy test’. They are all given certain ingredients and can trade their assigned ingredients.”

Granny’s entire world came crashing down, and she had to lean on the balcony fence. “I have … I have …”

Only a few meters away, a voice that was burned into her mind sneered: “Sophia, Sophia Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Before I give the command to kill him, I wanted to ask you something. Would you like his head served on a platter or different pieces of him, sent to your little lab?”

Granny whirled around and slapped Evudor with all her force. Her palm landed on target, which hurt like hell, but she enjoyed it. Evudor chuckled and rubbed his jaw: “I will make you mine. It is inevitable.”

“That is impossible.”

“Unimaginable now, but you will see.”

With those last words, Evudor vanished back into the crowd of aghast alchemists. Slow clapping could be heard and a dark and wrinkly skinned woman in a tunic stepped out of the crowd. Granny shoved all her anger and fear down and faced the woman. Her voice was rough with age and carried the typical southerner play of high and low tones. “It is good to see young people not losing their inner spirit.”

Some younger alchemists looked at the woman but luckily kept their mouths shut. The woman in front of her was rumored to be over two hundred years old – The symbol of a true alchemist master.

“I greet you, ambassador Aurora. It is an honor to have you here today.”

Silvia nearly fainted when she saw her idol face to face. The old woman waved the formalities away and took a place next to Granny. “Non importa. Why is an Alchemist’s apprentice the target of an assassination? That is unacceptable, even in your primitive country.”

Granny skipped the insult to Trianon and responded in the most measured way she could muster. “I have been in a competition with the royal alchemist. He has been blackmailing me and killing people around me. Now, he wants to kill the boy.”

The elderly woman looked at her askance as if she had told her that the heaven is green. “Pezzo di merda! Well, then kill the royal alchemist already.”

Granny’s mirthful chuckle got stuck in her throat when she saw the dead seriousness in the woman’s eyes. Why had she never killed Evuodor again? Now, she couldn’t find a plausible answer. Luckily, Silvia saved the day, by breaking her silence. “Lady Aurora, I am a lifelong fan of yours. I have read all your books at least ten times and I have been following all the instructions”

Aurora turned to Silvia with a dead-pan face. “All?”

“Yes.”

“The ones I wrote as a practitioner?”

“Of course.”

“Well, they are garbage.”

Silvia tried to interject, but Aurora talked over her. “They are garbage. Have you ever thought about why you would clean a utensil with ‘Holy water’ when normal water suffices? I thought myself clever back then. Please don’t fall in the same trap as me, you have much yet to learn.”

The sixty-five-year-old alchemist nodded and began to recite what Aurora had said. She wanted to continue speaking but was interrupted by a loud bang on a drum. Instead of the expected merry music, a steady, militaristic drumbeat could be heard.

The first musician to emerge was even marching like a soldier. Aurora raised her brow at the display and asked: “You can’t even afford musicians, so you use the military? This is horrible. They can’t even play. Look at the rimbambito marching at the front.”

Something seemed off about the leader of the group. The rhythm of his drumming changed which made him look more like a clown than a musician. Alchemists around them were demanding who was responsible for that pitiful performance. The rest of the audience laughed and grinned at the alchemist’s booth, the organizers. Granny circled aether in her eyes and it finally clicked. She broke out into relieved laughter and all her bottled-up fear was let out.

Eurora looked at her irritated. “Is this so pitiful that you are laughing?”

“No, the young man in the front is my apprentice.”

Eurora tore open her eyes in shock. “He is a musician? Porca puttana, a terrible one at that.”

“He is smuggling himself in so he won’t get killed.”

Eurora’s eyes lit up in understanding. “How brilliant of you.”

“I didn’t know that he would do it that way.”

Now, Eurora was completely flung off balance. “You told your apprentice that he should enter through a tunnel. That turned out to be a trap, but your apprentice’s intuition makes him enter in another disguise? Santo mulo de maria! I would like to meet that apprentice of yours.”

Granny had to keep herself from crying out in joy. Five minutes in and she had already arranged a meeting. Soon, Res wiped off the powders and excused his behavior. She could hear Evudor’s cursing from tens of meters away and reveled in the sound. When all the contestants had assembled, five of the Alchemy Alliance’s alchemists stepped forward.

She had won a small victory against Evudor, but knew she hadn’t won the battle. As customary, the youngest alchemist explained the rules and distributed the carts. Judging from what the other participants received, there was no foul play, and she relaxed. When Res opened his cart though, there were only buck loads of nuts in it. The boy dug deep and only found a nutcracker.

Next to her, Silvia was shaking with rage. “A cartful of nuts?”

Even Eurora sneered out. “Have the northerners no honor? I exclude you two, of course.”

The calmest of them all was Granny. The problem was that she didn’t know whether the boy could have even done anything with the equipment. It wasn’t like he was an alchemist, to be more accurate, he knew nothing. In some ways, she was even glad she now only needed to convince the woman next to her that Res was talented. “I have expected nothing less of Evudor. This tournament is only that – A tournament. In the real world, my apprentice would have beaten everyone.”

She received a challenging look from Silvia. “Ok, not your apprentice.”

Eurora stopped her bragging in a dry tone. “He is lying down and sleeping. That is not the mark of a true alchemist. I have misjudged you.”

Indeed, that stupid apprentice of hers was lying down on his platform with his eyes closed. Granny grabbed Eurora before she could leave and shot out. “It is all planned.”

“You have a plan?”

Granny realized her blatant lie too late but barreled through. She whispered: “It is a secret technique.”

In her head, she screamed at her stupidity, but a small part of her still held some kind of hope. Eurora once again took her place next to Granny and stared at Res. The mocking laughter of Evudor as he told another lie about her apprentice resounded through the booth. Eurora turned to her with a knowing smile on her face.

“Child, I understand that you didn’t want to admit defeat, but I didn’t expect you to stoop that …” She cut off and whirled around to the arena. Her sharp intake of breath was accompanied by furious cycling of aether in her brain.

At first, Granny was thankful that some minor detail had caught Eurora’s attention, but then she felt it. One by one, the surrounding alchemists gasped out loud - A monster was rising from the depths. Through her aether sight, Granny saw the monster towering over Res for the first time. Thousands upon thousands of enormous aether tentacles lashed at the air and expanded. Even the untrained participants realized something felt wrong and stopped their tasks.

Silvia cried out when the enormous construct engulfed her apprentice, Emma. A moment later, Silvia sighed out in relief. The raw aether wouldn’t have hurt Emma, but it could have damaged the potion she was creating. Like a ghost, the tentacles passed through every object it came in touch with.

Eurora pulled in even more aether and circulated it in her head. “That boy … Look at his skin. His channels.”

When Granny followed her advice, she saw it too and had to keep in a gasp of surprise. She nodded as if she knew what she was doing: “Yes, yes, it all runs according to plan. That is a secret technique that allows his reach to not damage any objects.”

Silvia looked at her as if she was the bogeyman. “How can he do that? He is opening and closing his aether channels every quarter second.”

Eurora gave an agreeing nod. “That is extraordinary. Through the opening and closing of the aether channels, he is able to create a mist. Madonna!”

To the amazement of all onlookers, Res increased the frequency of closing and opening. By now, Res’s reach enveloped the entire dirt-packed arena floor and Eurora turned to her in worry. “That was a nice demonstration. So, when will he stop?”

Granny gulped down the lump in her throat and decided to at least save some of her hide. “We will see.”

Eurora’s worried expression eased a little at the perceived insurance. Yet, Res’s aether cloud didn’t stop expanding when it reached the stands and also not when it had passed their booth. Silvia gave her a nervous grin and whispered under her breath. “Fuck me sideways, that boy has some skill.”

The opening and closing blurred, and the air thrummed with power. Finally, the channels stopped and the aether cloud halted. After several tense minutes, each aether particle began to vibrate. Eurora turned to Granny and gave her one of the hardest slaps of her entire life: “Are you crazy? Do you want to kill him? Porco cane – Do you think he can take so much?”

She didn’t why Eurora was so angry and told her so.

“Oh mio Dio! Are you completely braindead or are you playing at being dumb? What do you feel when you cultivate?”

“You direct the aether into your body to gather more aether from your surroundings. The gathering of aether feels warm and your skin tingles. What do you mean?”

“How do you think the tingling in your body is created?”

All the pieces fell into place for Granny. She hadn’t increased her cultivation for a year now, it was too dangerous at her age. Silvia had her eyes fixed on Res with a mixture of awe and horror. “That boy will explode like a tomato under a cartwheel. Bring him away from the participants!”

Luckily, the colosseum staff reacted fast and Res was carried as far away as possible. The aether particles around them began to shiver and shrink. With a deafening boom, all the small liquid aether balls that made out the mist vanished. Not believing her eyes, she circulated aether and looked closer at her surroundings. The aether balls hadn’t vanished.

Instead, they had been compressed down to pipes that led to the person sitting at the edge of the arena. The pipes were of such minuscule size, that they were difficult to notice even for cultivators. The vibrating stopped and everything was still for several moments. During the spectacle, Granny had grabbed Eurora’s hand and was squeezing hard. When their gazes met, Eurora saw her cluelessness in her eyes and asked.

“You have no clue what he is doing, have you?”

“I have had him as an apprentice for less than five days.”

Eurora went deathly pale at that and whispered while clutching her chest: “He is a monster. We will have to invite him to our academies. He can’t roam free with no guidance. Do you agree?”

Granny nodded but added. “I have no power over him. If he doesn’t want to, I can’t force him.”

Eurora squeezed her hand. “Mio caro. It will all work out. Let’s stop him from exploding, shall we?”

She approached a servant handing out refreshments with assured steps. “I am Eurora, ambassador of the southerner kingdoms. I demand that you send a runner to stop the madness down there.”

Several sweat drops appeared on the servant’s forehead. “I am sorry My Lady, but I can’t do that. Further than that, I must forbid you to leave the premises until the tournament is over.”

Behind her, she could feel a sudden pull of aether. A look around revealed that the pipes connected to the boy were now glowing red with heat and aether. Granny stepped forward and shoved the golden Alchemy Alliance card in the servant’s face. The servant cringed and whispered: “I am so sorry, Ms. Sophia, but I won’t be able to send any messages.”

Mocking laughter resounded through the booth as Evudor made his way over to her. “You are a funny bunch.”

Eurora stepped forward and shoved a finger in Evudor’s direction. “I will report this crime to my superiors, but I may gloss over some details, if you let us go now!”

Evudor held his arms up in a gesture of helplessness. “I am willing to accept the risks and harbor the rewards of letting a powerful enemy die.“

Eurora hissed back. “I realize why Sophia doesn’t like you. I would recommend buying your coffin now.”

Silvia had tried to slip away but was brought back by elite palace guards. Her kicking and screaming revealed the right amount of skin for several male alchemists to help her. Old tricks are rarely forgotten. Resigned, the three of them got back to their spots. With a sad smile, Eurora hissed: “That Puttana! Don’t worry, he will pay for this insult. You can look away. I am surprised he lasted this long.”

Granny couldn’t avert her eyes from the hundreds of small pipes pumped aether into Res’s body. All gazes in the arena were trained on the madman who continued to absorb aether. The aether intake reached a crescendo, Granny closed her eyes, and she heard the boom she had dreaded. She tore open her eyes and … Res was still lying in the same spot, but the pull of aether had abated.

Granny cried out in joy and hugged the astonished Eurora and Silvia. “My boy is alive!”

All around them, alchemists were muttering in amazement. How had the boy survived? They all wanted to ask her that question, but didn’t dare to interrupt the conversation with Eurora. Instead of the cheerful expression that Granny had expected, Eurora’s face was a mixture of hope and fear.

“That boy is a monster. Do you want to tell me anything? Which organization do you belong to? What kind of secret techniques did you use? What is your price?”

Silvia gasped out in shock and Granny tried to wave it away. “I am no part of an organization and I can’t sell you anyone.”

Eurora looked her dead in the eyes. “You didn’t answer the question about the secret techniques. Especially that one with the pipes.”

Granny gave a frustrated sigh and looked Eurora straight in the eyes. “I know you won’t believe me, but I have already told the truth. I have had him apprenticed for five days. He only turned up in front of my shop.”

Eurora became agitated. “Yes, yes, picito. Who was his former teacher?”

Granny gave a helpless shrug. “No one.”

Eurora chuckled and waggled a finger in front of Granny’s nose. “No, my little Sophia. Lying is bad.”

Her chuckling died off when she saw Granny’s deadpan face. “I am serious. He was a noble before that. One day, he turned up on my doorstep and said he wanted to become an alchemist. I told him he couldn’t, because I didn’t trust him. Somehow, he knew that he wasn’t qualified to do so. I tested him and he was untalented back then, without even one meridian open. He watched me through the back of the window and from feeling aether he opened all his meridians in one go. The pure aether without guidance that he pulled in created an aether tornado.”

Granny hoped Res would understand her telling the southerner academies about his powers. They were the only ones that could help him. In her eyes, Granny could see that Eurora believed each word she said.

Eurora had to steady herself at a nearby pillar and under her breath she wheezed out. “Not a monster, more than that. Such potential for evil, such potential for good. Is it too much of a temptation?”

Granny paled at Eurora’s conclusion and chimed in. “He isn’t like that.”

“That is what every tyrant’s mother said.”

Granny closed her open mouth and shoved her retort down. Instead, she stared at the still form of Res in silence. Doubts were flitting across her mind, but she suppressed them. They all thought in silence while the surrounding alchemists continued their chatter. The theories about the origins of the young man got further and further out of hand. Finally, Eurora broke the silence.

“One can’t judge someone for something they could do. Apart from that, we can’t let that boy fall into the hands of your primitive nobles. Especially not Evudor, that Stronzo.”

Both Silvia and Granny nodded in agreement. Granny determined to lighten the mood a little. “Hey Silvia, your apprentice is talented. The way she incorporates the material with her aether in the distillation isn’t bad.“

Silvia took the bait, and they chattered about daily chores and alchemist problems. After a while they even laughed again. Eurora broke off her story about one of her apprentices who had made a potion that could turn nails green. Her gaze snapped onto Res. “Do you feel it too? He is gathering strength again.”

Granny managed to get out an ‘Oh, no’ before brilliant strands of power arced out from Res, following the pipes. When the white aether reached the ends of the pipes, it would extend even further than that. With increasing horror, they watched as Res finished the extension of the pipes. He pulled in aether once again. This time, the pipes shown like the burning hot sun. In the normal spectrum of colors, she could see the ground around Res distort like rippling waves. His hairs were standing on ends. Eurora whispered while clutching onto the railing.

“Before that, he pulled in approximately two years of cultivating energy. The power to ascend to a higher stage rises exponentially. This is for the best.”

The aether tubes flared up and the exploding sound could be heard again. Still, Res was unhurt. Before Granny could even think of sighing in relief, another wave of aether radiated out from Res. The tubing expanded even further to the great disbelieve of everyone. The pull now was so great that non-aether users even felt it. Each spectator was now watching the spectacle unfold. Granny’s mind had done enough emotional acrobatics today. She only watched with detached fascination.

With a last push, the dull exploding sound resounded once again through the arena. This time, Res was bleeding out of several wounds. Finally, his eyes fluttered open, but it seemed like he was disoriented. Everyone was frozen up in shock, except for one girl. Despite the prince ordering otherwise, Silvia’s apprentice ran over to Res and healed him. From her position in the Alchemist’s booth, she could see nobles gesturing in excitement. Eurora spoke as she watched Res strolling back to his platform.

“Do you know what he has done?”

“Made a lot of nobles interested in him?”

Eurora chuckled, but the corner of her mouth didn’t lift up. “If it only was that. He has entered the global game. The game of kingdoms. A new player on a board that is balanced will bring destruction.”

Granny felt the truth in those statements and nodded along as Res began to crack open nuts. “I will support you if you promise that you will provide for him like you would your own son.”

Eurora cracked a smile. “I promise. I will have to admit that he is childish. Is he that fascinated with Common Farmer Nuts? He is still a young man after all.”

Silvia added. “Young men are always sooo competitive about their manhood, so it is understandable.”

Granny felt that Res wasn’t that kind of person. She had nagged him about spending her money on whores, but she knew that he didn’t go. The smell of cheap perfume and smoke couldn’t escape her notice. “Res has something else up his sleeve.”

Eurora turned thoughtful at her suggestions and watched Res. For fifteen minutes, they watched Res crack open one nut after another.

“He is only cracking nuts open.”, Silvia said in a dry tone.

A grin of triumph bloomed on Res’s face and he cracked open the nut and threw it at the prince who caught it. Eurora chuckled. “Look at the prince, ladies.”

Granny turned her attention to the prince and cried out in the general direction of Evudor. “The prince has the self-control of a three-year-old!” She knew that it was kind of petty, but at this point, she didn’t care. Some nobles took the cry up and the entire stadium laughed at the prince’s expense.

Eurora motioned to Res: “Don’t you think the time for the effect to wear off has come? The normal effect lasts only seconds.”

Silvia murmured, as her specialty was beauty and health. “We would need to extract the nut milk, then concentrate it, then bind it which would make a potion. You can’t insert aether into it, that doesn’t work … What has he done?”

Eurora gave her a weary smile. “I haven’t found out either, but I hope that I will get a better look at the nut. I know why you trusted in him, Sophia.”

Res presented his invention like a fruit seller. She could get one herself … One of the older alchemists, Ismael, volunteered to test the nut and experienced the effects. One of the female alchemists disqualified Res. Granny didn’t expect less. Evudor’s dirty and long fingers of influence reached long. Silvia had gotten security for her apprentice within the Alchemy Alliance. While she had gotten the support from the southerner kingdom. Now Res only needed to be nice to Eurora.

Easy, right?