Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (16 page)

“Just think about how you want it to show you the recipe for a Stoneskin potion,” Jonathan said before she could even ask.

Alice nodded, focused her thoughts and opened the book to a random page. Ink raced across the aged paper, illustrating detailed instructions on how to create the potion.

Jonathan kept quiet as she followed the steps that her book was guiding her through. She filled her own beaker up with a carefully measured amount of water, placed it on a metal three legged stand, and put the magefire stone underneath. She then lit it and left the water to boil. Once it had, Alice mixed in some of the reagents that Jonathan had left out for her. The water instantly became white and cloudy when she poured them in, and she continued her book’s step-by-step guide until it came to the final stage of adding the Stonebark to the frothy white liquid.

“What are you doing?” Jonathan asked as Alice began searching through his cupboards.

“I need a large round bottom flask, and a mortar and pestle,” she replied, messing up his well-ordered equipment on her search.

He went to the right cupboard and got them out for her before Alice could mess his things up any more. “Don’t you just need to dissolve the Stonebark in the mixture?”

“I don’t know, I thought you were the expert. My book’s saying to heat it and then grind it up first.”

Jonathan blushed. “Oh... well I suppose it might make a difference.”

Alice smiled at his embarrassment. She fitted the round bottom flask diagonally onto the stand before reigniting the magefire stone beneath it. Taking a handful of Stonebark from a wooden container, she began breaking it into pieces and dropping them into the flask. Once it was full, Alice washed her hands and then watched with Jonathan, who was also highly engaged in seeing the results. The Stonebark pieces began throbbing fiery orange and cracking loudly into smaller pieces. Using some tongs, Alice poured the steaming glowing gravel into the mortar and ground it into a fine dust with the pestle, and she then tipped it into the white mixture and watched proudly as it curdled into a mysterious cloudy grey concoction.

“That did go a lot smoother,” Jonathan admitted. “I’ve always just let the pieces float on top and they dissolve eventually, but what you’ve done is really great. You’re a natural.”

Alice laughed. “I came here to get a lesson and I ended up teaching you something, how about that?”

“Well, I’d say it was your book that taught the both of us,” Jonathan chuckled.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll agree to that,” Alice conceded with a grin.

She carried on stirring the grey liquid, thinking back to the recent events that led her to this moment whilst enjoying the company of Jonathan the Mage.

Eventually the mixture started to become stiffer, which was what she was waiting for. “It’s done,” she said with a yawn.

Jonathan looked over from his vials and funnels; he had been busy bottling his energy potion, “Well done. You can go and sit down on my bed if you need a rest? I’ll finish up in here.”

“Yeah,” Alice said sleepily, “that sounds really good. I’ll have a little sit down and then head back to Central Isle after you’re done.”

Jonathan led her to his bedroom, which like the rest of his dwelling looked a good couple of hundred years out of place. He sat Alice down on his impressive four poster bed that occupied a great deal of the room, and put her book down on the bedside table closest to her.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked concerned.

Alice dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “I’m fine. I’m just going to rest up a little bit before I go back.”

“Okay, I‘ll be back in a few minutes.” Jonathan gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading back to the lab.

He neatly poured all of their potion into bottles and small glass vials before having a thorough tidy up. Dirty equipment was a recipe for failure when it came to Alchemy, although he did wish longingly that there was some sort of spell that could do his cleaning for him.

When he was done he went back to his bedroom. “All set…” he began.

Alice had passed out on his bed. He lifted the covers and tried to carefully position her so that he could get them back over her without disturbing her much needed rest. Jonathan kissed her on the forehead, got a blanket out of his wardrobe, and got himself settled in a large comfortable armchair.

“Goodnight Alice,” he whispered as the mage lights dimmed down.

- - -

Veronica fidgeted uncomfortably as she attempted to sleep. Occasionally she would drift off for a few minutes, maybe even half an hour if she was lucky, but she was always awoken by nightmares about Lewis and the Archmage. One time Veronica dreamt that Winston was still by her side, and when she awoke she reached out and almost cried when the realisation that he wasn’t there hit her.

She didn’t trust anybody, and rightfully so, it was impossible to tell who was on Omniosis’ puppet strings either out of loyalty to him or through ‘alteration’. Following the successful interrogation, Veronica had attempted to keep her head down and out of everybody’s way. She hoped that she came across as deeply sorrowful and in mourning for her latest dead friend. She was, of course, deeply saddened by Lucius’ passing, but her anger and thirst for vengeance far surpassed her sorrow. Lucius wouldn’t want her to mope over his death. He’d want whoever was responsible to meet an unpleasant end, and as soon as she was back by Winston’s side she’d make sure the Archmage and all his cronies suffered to the last for what they had done.

Veronica had been packing a duffle bag full of supplies. She’d attempted to keep the process as stealthy as possible, but on a few occasions she’d had to pay some gang members with her spare gold and silver jewellery to keep quiet, especially as she had raided the hotel’s alchemy storage for Sunshield potions and the materials to make more. It was a necessity, as she planned on leaving on foot and sticking to the most rural regions as possible.

In addition to the Sunshield potions that would allow her to expose herself to the sunlight without disintegrating, she had stuffed plenty of wads of Imperial Credits amongst some clothing that was far more practical than she was used to wearing, most of which she’d stolen from Winston’s wardrobes. She was even attempting to sleep in a pair of black combat trousers and one of Winston’s long sleeved dark grey t-shirts, just in case she had to leave in a hurry.

Veronica was satisfied that she’d left no evidence of her little interrogation, and that the receptionist she’d let go would be too scared to open his mouth, out of fear of both the Archmage and Veronica’s wrath. She was sure that Frank’s absence would eventually be noticed, though. When that happened she assumed that Lewis would come knocking on her door with some bullshit story about how she needed to go
somewhere
and do
something
, to get her out of the way for an easy kill, or walk her straight into a rebel trap like he probably had done with poor Alexander and Brooke. Veronica would be ready for the traitorous little worm.

All that she was missing was blood. She had some glass bottles of it in her refrigerator but it wouldn’t pack well in the duffle bag, and they would be thrown about all over the show if she needed to run for it. She’d been forced to transfer some into a few alchemy vials and pack them into a side pocket. She’d also filled an empty plastic bottle up with the stuff just as a last resort, but she was doubtful about how long it would stay good for over a potentially long journey. She did have a plan, but it was a dangerous one. Veronica would wait until it was the morning, hoping that her enemies would assume she’d want to stick to the comforts of the night, and sneak into the Capital City hospital to steal one of their refrigerated metal suitcases that they used to transport blood packs around in emergencies. As soon as she had it, and was fully stocked up with her precious sustenance, she would leave the Capital calmly and collectively, keeping to a deliberately slow and purposeful pace until she was out of the walls. Then, and only then, would she risk breaking her composure and running as fast as possible away from Imperia City. Then it would be a case of sticking to the shadows, avoiding any pursuers, and finding some way to contact her husband and tell him the awful truth about Omniosis and his best friend, Lewis.

Veronica drifted off again, but only for a mere few moments. She’d had a freaky nightmare about Lewis being at the foot of her bed, grinning at her like a demented idiot. She reached for her bedside lamp’s switch sleepily; there was no way she was getting to sleep and she was fed up of trying. The light came on and a shiver ran through her entire body. She hadn’t been dreaming at all.

Lewis lunged across the bed, stabbing at her head with an evil looking slither of metal, an enchanted extending switchblade. Veronica deftly rolled to one side and her pillow burst into an explosion of feathers. She lashed out at him, but her fists hit into his face with little effect. The black-eyed Book Wielder was negating her powers.

Lewis quickly crawled towards her across the bed on all fours like an animal, keeping the same unnaturally wide grin on his face that he’d had throughout the attack. Veronica slid herself off and smashed the bedside lamp into the side of his face so hard that it broke into pieces. A slither of ceramic cut across Lewis’ cheek and it leaked black blood. Veronica used the tiny window of time she’d bought for herself to move towards the wooden rack that Xavier’s sword was mounted upon. The spell-forged steel blade hung next to the picture that Winston had manifested during their honeymoon, and Veronica grabbed it and slashed frantically behind her, just as Lewis was advancing for the kill.

He leapt backwards acrobatically and wiped the black blood from his cheek. “Well, you’re putting up a better fight than Lucius did,” he said snidely.

Veronica snarled. She could tell that he was trying to goad her into making a sloppy attack, and she wasn’t about to fall for such an obvious move. She expertly spun the blade around and beckoned for him to make the first move.

Even without her powers she could still handle a blade pretty well, although she was admittedly out of practise. She had learned at an early age in her human years that being an attractive, slim yet curvaceous girl could draw the wrong kind of attention. She’d snuck out at night on regular basis after her first close encounter, to get training from young knight who was more than willing to show her how to wield a sword – as long as she wielded his in return. He had been very handsome, so Veronica was more than willing to pay him in pleasure, but her parents would have probably murdered her if they’d found out that she’d wasted her ‘precious virtue’. Her precious virtue that they had always intended to sell off to the highest bidder.

Lewis snarled like a feral beast and slashed randomly at her. The blows were strong and Veronica had to struggle greatly without her vampiric strength to parry them, but they were undisciplined and slack moves. She wondered if Lewis only specialised in attacking unsuspecting foes like a coward. She then realised that as a Book Wielders spells would be more his thing, and maybe guns too, but both of those would cause a great deal of damage to their surroundings. Suddenly, his poor swordsmanship made sense; Veronica realised that he was avoiding causing too much damage to the room, or at least to the things that couldn’t be easily replaced. With a sly smile, she pushed him with all of her might, and he crashed into the television. It smashed and he fell to the floor.

He dragged himself up off the floor quickly, looking as if he’d been tugged back to his feet unnaturally by an invisible set of puppet strings. Lewis growled angrily and surged towards her, his blade raised high ready to swing down at Veronica with all of his might. Veronica moved sideways at the last minute and swung the spell-forged steel upwards, and as Lewis’ blade came down, Veronica’s sliced into him. Her blade flashed with white light as it connected with his Gloom-exposed flesh and cut his entire arm off at the shoulder joint.

The black-eyed Book Wielder wailed like a dying cat as he clutched at where his arm should have been. Black blood, half blackened and half pink muscle tissue, and fluffy white stuffing smouldered and seeped from the grievous wound. Mortissa Aurorana had done an amazing job heavily altering him while keeping his outer layers of tissue looking as human as possible, but even she would have a hard time repairing the damage Veronica had just dealt to his shoulder.

While Lewis was in agony, Veronica’s powers were returned to her, and she wasted no time stopping to observing the horrid half-human half-Freak that was once her ally. Instead she grabbed her duffle bag and headed for the window. The door to her and Winston’s room smashed off the hinges and altered Inquisition troopers burst through the door. Without a second glance, Veronica flung herself out of the window, splintering the wooden frame and shattering the glass, and leapt out into Capital City’s night sky.

For a few seconds it seemed like she was flying, soaring high above the busy well-lit city amongst the other tall buildings, but soon enough Veronica quickly fell towards the ground so she prepped herself for a hard landing. Being a Bloodmage, acrobatics and extreme physical feats were not her specialities, but by directing her telekinesis downwards she managed to land impressively on her feet.

With her duffle bag full of supplies around one shoulder held steady by her hand, and Xavier’s spell-forged sword in the other hand, Veronica ran out of Imperia City as fast as she could. She kept to the part of her plan that was still intact, and headed north towards the thick forests that led to the steep hills and mountains at the back edge of the continent. Veronica didn’t stop running until she had lost herself within the deep dark depths of the thick forestland, where she risked dropping her pace down to a fast walk. Her red Vampire eyes allowed her to see in the dark without a hitch, so she carried on heading further away from her home and closer to what she hoped was safety. When the sun began to rise, she treated herself to a quick rest on a fallen log as she drank a mouthful of blood and the bare minimum amount of Sunshield potion she could get away with. It could be a while until she was safe again and she would need to keep as much of the precious potion as she could on hand for emergencies. As the golden rays of sunlight began to beam down in-between the leaves and branches, and the flocks of birds began to sing their sweet melodies, Veronica got back on her feet and continued walking quickly. All she had to do now was stay hidden and find a way to contact Winston before it was too late.