Choice of Chains

by **Kuvarakh** on July 27th, 2012, 3:12 am

35th day of Summer, 512 AV

Either Ionu's mastery did not extend to dust, or he was choosing to emphasize it's visual similarity to the snow outside.

Kuvarakh had always hated cleaning. After his wife died in childbirth he had been forced to accept the inevitable and gotten used to it. Then, after his transformation to Nuit, he had become meticulous, even obsessive, in his cleanliness. But that was by Keeping things clean, not Letting clutter and dust build up in the first place.

It's not that Wanda did not keep her shop clean, but, like many Nuit, the idea of clean was taken almost to a molecular level. Infection was not something that a Nuit had a living organism's resistance to. They had no white blood cells or antibodies. Disinfectant was a way of life.

He was in the process of removing the books from the shelves. Not only to move the unit and clean beneath it, but to wipe down each individual volume as well. He went so far as to tip the units on their side and actually wipe down the underside as he did to each shelf as well. He might not have bothered going to this extent, but he had seen a noticeable decrease in the dust floating in the rays of sunshine since he had begun his detailed cleaning nearly six weeks ago.

Still, it amazed him how dust permeated every surface, high, low, inside and out. He wiped the cobwebs out of the corners of the underside of the shelving unit and tossed the wad into the dustbin. It carried more inertia than he had anticipated and hit with a pronounced "clink".

Curious, he dug it back out. Yes, there was something in the middle, covered with dusty wads of webbing. Before he got it clean enough to identify visually, he could feel that it was a ring. He knew nothing about jewelry or gems, but this ring screamed 'quality'. Heavy, solid, golden and still shiny, with not so much as a spot of discoloration. The stone, bright and lively, seemingly colorless, yet reflecting every spectrum as he held it in a stream of sunlight. it was as though the sun had been set in crystal and held in the center of ten thousand mirrors perfectly arrayed to send cascades of brilliance in every direction at once.

He turned to inform Wanda, but saw that she was in the middle of a transmutation, so he set it in the top drawer of her desk and resumed his cleaning.

by **Kuvarakh** on July 28th, 2012, 4:58 pm

A customer entered and Kuvarakh hurried to tip the shelf back upright and grabbed the first stack of dusted books, replacing them on the bottom shelf. 'Remove from the top down, replace from the bottom up' he thought automatically to himself as he cleared counter space.

"Good day, Ma'am, welcome to Alchemmia Alchae. How can we help you?"

The elderly lady before him was adorable in her distressed, dainty way. Her old style dress and coiffed gray hair bobbing charmingly as she paced in worry. "Oh dear, young man, I've come from the nursery, and, do you know they won't let me hire a strong young man to dig plots in my garden for my flowers?"

"Why, that's a shame. But, I suppose, regardless of the snow, it IS summer, and I suppose it's quite a busy time for them."

She sighed, "Yes, that's just what they said. I would think they should hire more help then, because that's just the problem. The snow, I mean. The ground is so darn hard..." her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in embarrassment at her 'language'. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I'm just so frustrated. I have this simply darling array to have landscaped and I can't so much as scratch the surface of my plots. The ground is like...well...ice."

"Well, um..." Kuvarakh stalled, not sure what brought her to an alchemist for such a problem. "Did you have something in mind? I mean, I would love to help, but there's only Miss Wanda and myself, and I can't walk away from the counter."

"Well actually, yes. You see, my gardening club have all been making the same complaint. We even put in a request at the Sanity Center, but Miss Serenity there said it has to fall under "temporary" work and, so far, no one has approached us. We can't wait much longer or the season will get too late to plant!" her pursed lips and folded hands were so cute a she stood there blinking and pouting, it was difficult for Kuvarakh to suppress a grin.

"I understand, young man, that you need a job to be sufficient to make a profit, and if you're worried that I'm just talking about a few plants, I can promise you that, all members of my gardening club considered, there are well over five hundred of them."

This DID get his attention, but he still was puzzled, "Well, it isn't the number that is the issue, though that definitely makes a difference in that respect, but we have a policy about 'no alchemy on living things' and until I can talk to Miss Wanda, I can't vouch for whether this extends to plants or not."

The little lady snorted daintily and chuckled, "Oh my, where IS my head today! No, of course, we don't want anything done to the plants themselves. It's the pots! We were wondering if there was some trick you could do to make them more easy to put in the ground."

"Ahhhh, I see. Hmmmm...Do you have one with -..." Even before he finished asking, she had whisked one up from the floor and placed it on the counter. It was a simple clay planter pot. An idea began to 'take root'. "Yes, I think I can get them to plant themselves, but I need to check a few things. Can you bring the rest of the pots tomorrow? I will have an answer and a price for you by then."

She clapped her hands in front of her and beamed, "Oh! that would be splendid! With Ionu's grace, I shall have them here first thing!" she fairly skipped out the door, her delight infectious.

Kuvarakh turned with a grin to see Wanda at her desk, the drawer open. His upbeat mood and grin vanished as he saw her lower herself into her chair in a stricken manner, her lip trembling, her eyes glistening as she stared at the ring he had found.

by **Kuvarakh** on July 30th, 2012, 12:56 am

"Wanda? Are you alright?" His question got no response. Wanda sat with her head in her hands, the ring on the desk, right where she could stare at it as she sat. He could see her shake slightly in time to soft whimpers, occasionally sniffling and wiping her eyes.

He went to the window and flipped the sign to read "closed" on the outside. He heard her take a long, deep, shuddering sigh as the chair rolled back. She stood up and turned to face him. "I lost this a few years ago. I didn't make much effort to find it again."

"It was stuck in the dust and webs under the center shelf unit." he added, thinking to break the brooding silence. "It's very similar to the one I gave my wife when I proposed."

She looked up suddenly, a sad smile crossing her face as she sensed a grief not unlike her own, though not as recent. "I...guess...we don't...tend to think of the fact that Nuits used to be human as well." she looked down and took another deep sigh. Kuvarakh waited for her to decide if she wanted to talk about it.

"It's an old story. I was at the University in Zeltiva. My parents wanted the best for me." Her lips trembled and she turned to walk to the window. She took hold of the "open/closed" sign, but didn't turn it back right away.

"I was going to go look into materials for 500 planter pots to be made easy to plant. I thought you might just want to close until I got back." He walked up behind her as he spoke, pulled his cloak off the rack and put his hand sympathetically on her shoulder. "It can wait, if you want to talk."

She let go of the sign and said nothing for a moment. It continued to read "closed" to anyone outside. "There's nothing to tell, really. I met a man. We...thought we...might be in love." she blinked and wiped her eyes, her voice shaking as she went on. "He gave me that ring. I...I...couldn't decide. I wanted to be an alchemist, he wanted me to be a...house...wife." Her voice broke on the last word and she pushed past Kuvarakh and sat back down at the desk, staring at the ring.

Kuvarakh stood at the door, unsure of whether to ask anything more. "Look, I...I know what grief is...and...what it is...to regret a decision. Maybe this is the worst time to ask this. But maybe it's the best time. On a good day, really, on a Good day...do you regret your decision?"

She gave no indication that she hadn't expected the question. She didn't look up. "Off and on...For the first year or two. Then the excitement of alchemy began to replace the...loss...of the...excitement of romance." She leaned back in her chair, spinning it to look at him. "But look around you, what are we going to craft? Planter pots that plant themselves, you said?"

Kuvarakh said nothing as she stood up slowly, wearily, "When the excitement of alchemy wears off, what am I left with?"

He stepped forward, his face sympathetic as he looked in her eyes. He reached out, channeling djed to sense her sadness. He made no attempt to change her mood, but instead, subtly let her perception shift to his understanding of how she felt. 'He's been through it, too.' That would be help enough. He walked up to her, reached past and picked up the ring. He took her hand gently in his and as he slid the ring on her finger, he said, with his own regrets shining in his eyes, "I now pronounce you, alchemy...and wife."

She gave a short laugh, bittersweet, but genuine. "Go get your materials, you old softy, I'm closing for the day."

by **Kuvarakh** on July 31st, 2012, 6:10 am

Kuvarakh returned the next day, the house of mirrors that filled the plaza taking much longer to traverse than the logjam which replaced the bridge over the lake, since, for some reason, Ionu chose not to allow the logs to roll. 'Perhaps logs do not roll as easily in a lake filled with gelatin' he mused as he hopped off the last log to find that the ground was like a trampoline.

Picking himself up off the ground and gathering up his spilled belongings, he noticed a cart in front of the shop. He was impressed. It had been difficult enough to make his way in a simple pedestrian manner. How much more trouble must it have been to drive a cart!

He walked up and patted the horse on the neck, "You are a remarkable animal."

"Don't patronize me, Mack!" the horse growled at him as he nearly fell over his own feet, doing a double take, his eyes wide.

He entered the shop and went to the back room to find the floor covered with planter pots. Wanda was talking to the sweet old lady from the day before as she, in turn, was thanking a man holding a riding crop, who nodded to Kuvarakh as he exited the shop to climb into the seat of the wagon. The little lady followed a few minutes later, after confirming that she should return in a week. She climbed up beside the man and they left in the now-empty wagon.

"So, did you get what we need?" Wanda asked him, an odd tone to her voice, as though expecting him to have failed in some way.

"Well, I hope so." he answered hesitatingly, picking up on the vibe. He dumped a variety of root cuttings and bulbs, explaining what the man at the nursery had said about the confusion of the seasons making it difficult to predict which ones might remain dormant or may experience wild growth.

"He said plants that normally are Spring bloomers may be straining to rebirth themselves to accommodate the Winter weather by mistake, while at the same time experiencing a relapse in some ways due to it truly being Summer. The same being true of Fall bloomers, except switching Summer and Winter in his explanation. I've also got some Summer blooms, but, since it's like Winter outside, they also may not -..."

He stopped as Wanda waved him down, her look now indicating that she had been proven right about whatever 'failure' she had been anticipating. "Forget it, Kuvarakh, I got what we need from the market last night. You were on the right track, though. But we don't need anything so grand as cuttings from flowering bushes." She took a step back and gestured to a dirty, lumpy-looking burlap bag.

"Potatoes?" Kuvarakh stared, one eyebrow raising as he wished he would have thought of that. "That's IT?"

"Yep. Now go boil some water, while I cut the lead end off this tuber, we will use the rest of it to filter out the pulpiness. I want to try some water temperature experiments, if we can get these pots warm, but not hot, it will help a lot as well...oh, and...Kuvarakh?"

"Yes?" he stopped, iron pot in hand. She walked up to him and he noticed she still had the ring on her finger from the day before.

"I want to thank you for trying...You have helped me put things in perspective. I AM married to my shop, my...career. I'm just not sure if it makes me as happy as a...relationship...would have. But I suppose it's too late to find out now."

Kuvarakh swallowed uncertainly, this was a remark that was begging for a reply. He knew he had to respond, but he feared making things worse by showing either not enough, or too much, interest.

He cupped his jaw in his right hand and slowly walked around her, blatantly eyeing her up and down. he finally stopped and gave a sympathetic shrug. "I'm afraid you're asking the wrong person, Wanda. Not having any blood in my veins..." he let his gaze drop to his belt line, "I don't have the means to display any confirmation of the answer I would give you."

Her jaw actually dropped, and she stared for a moment. Then she broke out laughing and blushed. "Boy, you are something else! Go boil that water so I can scrub that dirty mind of yours."

Kuvarakh turned as he reached the stairs to see Wanda move to the bag of potatoes, a little more sway in her hips than usual as she walked.

by **Kuvarakh** on August 1st, 2012, 1:50 am

A little over a bell later, Wanda called him back and handed him the test pot. It was warm, just pleasantly so. A second iron pot with cold water had filtered the metal and liquid aspects from the target and the HOT water had cooled during the transmutation, adjusting the temperature during the activation. Kuvarakh wondered how many times she had done this before to get the adjustment just right.

"Go set it outside on a nice cold, hard patch of ground. I'm going to go ahead with a few dozen more today. By that time we can probably tell if the pot is working."

He picked up the pot, hesitated a moment, and turned back to her. "I've been worrying about something. Isn't there a good chance that, even if it works, this gardening club is going to have potatoes cropping up in their flower beds?"

"Shouldn't" she said confidently, "we filtered the potato out of it. If anything, the unattached root aspect will graft to the plant's roots naturally. But, you never really know, do you. That's half the fun." Her eyes widened slightly in realization that she had just made mention of "fun". She smiled and went back to put several stacks of pots in the ring, stopping to call to Kuvarakh to boil some more water.

Several days later, Kuvarakh arrived at the shop to find Wanda deep in a lively, giggly conversation with the sweet little lady customer. Those pots that they had already picked up were working just as hoped and they were solidifying the contract for the remaining 400, between bouts of scandalous gossip.

After a quick but genuinely heartfelt exchange of greetings and well-wishes, Kuvarakh went into the store room to pick up where he had left off dusting and sweeping. After a short while, Wanda called him up.

She was looking towards the front door, where the happy exclamations of the customer were drifting in from outside, as the cart was loaded with several dozen more pots.

"It makes me feel really good to make someone that happy. It wasn't any elaborate, cosmic transmutation expanding the concepts of alchemy, but, you know what?"

He waited. She turned to face him, a bright smile on her face. She held her hand out as though her ring was a newly acquired gem for admiration. "Today is a good day. And I don't regret my decision."