Mark of the Fool

“Mr. Roth, I was hoping I’d find you here,” a quiet voice came over Alex’s shoulder, startling the young wizard.

“Professor Jules.” Alex wheeled around in his chair, half-rising as his alchemy professor plopped down in a seat beside him.

At the other end of the table—and across the third floor of the library—several students looked at her with a mix of surprise, spite and naked fear. A small smirk played at the edges of the professor’s lips.

“Oh dear, they don’t like the sight of me, do they?” She said lightly, making herself more comfortable in her chair. “Shall I increase the difficulty of my assignments, I wonder?”

‘And this is why students don’t like her that much,’ Alex thought.

‘I do not think she cares…father.’ Claygon looked up from one of Selina’s books on arithmetic.

‘I know, which makes them like her even less,’ Alex thought.

“Were you just thinking about how students don’t like me?” A white eyebrow rose on the professor’s wrinkled forehead.

“Guh, never—” Alex started to say, but was cut off by a dismissive wave of the hand.

“Don’t lie to me, Mr. Roth, I’ll see through it,” she said, then paused. “...is what Iwould say if I had foreseen the Amir situation.”

A dark cloud consumed her expression, stoking Alex’s guilt: he was still lying to her by omission about using her laboratory without permission. If he was lucky, she’d never put it together; and if he had his way, that secret would go with him to the grave.

“In any case, I saw that you’d submitted your course selection,” she said primly. “Which is why I am here: you’ve signed up for the Introduction to Magic Item Creation course?”

“Er, yeah,” Alex said, scratching his beard. “It’s not a problem, is it? I mean, with the expedition and all.”

“No, no, it’s not. I’m glad you’re taking additional alchemy courses, I just think you’re taking the wrong one,” she said bluntly.

“O-oh?” He frowned. “Most potions only go up to third-tier effects, right? And I’ve already been brewing all sorts of potions on my own, I thought I’d go for something a little more advanced…you want me to take another potions course?”

“No, by all the planes, no.” Professor Jules took two forms from her carry-bag, sliding them—and a pen—toward the young wizard. He peered at them nervously, like they were angry weasels ready to spring as she quickly explained. “So, one of those is a form stating that you’ll be withdrawing from the Introduction to Magic Item Creation course, taught by Professor Procipkek, and the other will enrol you in the Advanced Magic Item Creation course taught by me.”

He stared at the two forms, then looked at his professor in shock. “Really? You want me…to skip a course. Even without challenging the exam for credit?”

“You can write it, if you want to, but it’ll be a waste of your time and waste of an afternoon for one of my teaching assistants.” She laced her fingers together before her. “A little bird, named Toraka Shale, tells me that you’re involved in a special project with her. One involving a special substance?”

Alex winced: her body language screamed distaste. “I, er, take it you don’t approve?”

“Of course I don’t,” she scoffed. “You’re running off—half-trained—to put your life in danger finding a powerful substance that we don’t quite fully understand, in an attempt to bring it to market.”

“Er…is that not allowed?”

“It's not a matter of allowed or not allowed, it’s your own private matter, it’s just that you’re triggering a rush more quickly than I anticipated.” She sighed. “I suspect we’ll be dealing with profit-seeking adventurers from all over the place, soon enough. Also, you’re not completely trained in all alchemy safety protocols. You’re risking your life twice over.”

“Um.” He glanced at the application for Advanced Magic Item Creation. “If that’s true…then why am I being rewarded?”

“It’s not a reward, Mr. Roth, it’s a necessity,” she said pointedly. “From the day I met you, you were wanting to run ahead and engage in all manner of dangerous activities without a shred of training. I tried to drill into you the necessity of slowing down and learning all safety procedures before attempting anything too dangerous. And what do you do? You get a job at a golem workshop. And now you’re experimenting on your own. Speaking of which, how’s that staff coming along?”

Alex winced. “Did Baelin tell you?”

“No, you just did,” she said. “Toraka told me a bit about your new project and—after enough whiskey—I got her to give me a peek at your schematics, citing that I was protecting my students. Which I am.” The professor couldn't hide the burning curiosity in her eyes. “And I noticed that your design didn’t call for an entire core’s worth of material. So, I assumed that you—yet again—went off to do something completely and utterly dangerous, funded almost entirely by Toraka’s irresponsible handing over of a small fortune to an eighteen year old student.”

“Nineteen,” Alex corrected.

“Still a baby. In any case, I realised something.” She spread her hands. “I’ve lost, Mr. Roth. You are quite insane, and will probably try to invent a way to snuff out the sun if left to your own devices. However, you are also quite good: Toraka doesn’t have any tolerance for idiots—ask her about the university job fairs sometime—so she certainly wouldn’t start a business partnership with someone like you if you didn’t know your stuff.”

She sighed. “There’s also Professor Val’Rok, who wouldn’t stop bragging about how he taught you Hsieku’s Technique and how you learned in record time. That’s a higher level of skill in mana manipulation than even most four-year alchemy students have these days.”

The Professor then critically sized up his physique. “Then Professor Hak reveals that you somehow managed to join a couple of blood magic spells together to rebuild your own body. Baelin also mentioned this, and informed me you’ll be publishing a paper on it soon.”

“Ah, yeah,” Alex said. “I’ve been juggling that during winter break. At this point, I think it’s almost ready to submit to Baelin for corrections.”

“Charming.” She grimaced. “So, you’re going to further spread your madness. Anyway, Professor Val’Rok, Toraka—when she sobered—Baelin and Professor Hak all insisted that you be allowed to ‘fly’. The point is, you are an intellectual stallion, Mr. Roth, with too much energy, and too little caution.”

“Thank you…I guess?” Alex said.

“But, you also have a problem in that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, and so.”

She reached into her carry-bag again, pulling out a stack of textbooks and quietly placing them on the table. “If I allow you to be trapped in a course that is beneath your abilities, you won’t learn anything that’ll help you, yet you’ll still run ahead of yourself and probably blow yourself up sometime in the next six months. Hence, the necessity. I am going to hammer into you skills, learning and safety procedures that are at your level, and you are going to use them to not kill yourself, do you understand me?”

“Yes, mum,” he said, then froze, his mind catching up with what he’d just called her. Heat abruptly raced across his cheeks as his face turned blood red.

A quick flash of amusement ran through Jules body language, but she let the moment pass. “Students make that mistake often,” she said. “Normally, they’re of an age where they’d be beginning their studies at the junior school, but it happens.”

Alex felt himself turning redder. “You know…maybe I’ll just sign these papers now.”

“Maybe you should,” Professor Jules grinned. “Oh and by the way, the next time you see Toraka. Give her hell for me. Showing off proprietary secrets when drunk isn't a good habit to make.”

“But…” Alex paused. “You’re her close friend, right? And you got her drunk, professor!”

“Which is no excuse for breaking safety protocol and any nondisclosure agreements,” Professor Jules sniffed. “Researchers do it all the time with their friends and loved ones, but it’s still no excuse.”

Within a large, symbol encrusted cauldron boiled a liquid that burned with teal and crimson light. Bubbles of black formed in the boiling substance, containing vast concentrations of mana before they burst, spreading their energies into the solution.

Power sparked in the cauldron as Alex guided the reaction along.

“Steady…steady…” he said, watching sparks of power within the cauldron, directing it with his mana. “Would you mind adding a little mana, Toraka?”

“Already ahead of you,” she said, a look of wonder painting her features. Teal and crimson were reflected in her eyes. “This is wonderful, this…substance; Vernia wasn’t exaggerating, its conductivity is something else. Look how it’s enhancing the power of everything around it.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty great, isn’t it?” Alex chuckled, his laugh muffled by his mask, though it still rolled off the underground chamber’s walls.

Alex and Toraka had been working in a restricted workshop, one buried deep within the sub-basement of the golemworks, granting them privacy from prying eyes in the workshop.

Away from distractions, and distractors.

Only one pair of eyes looked on; Claygon stood silently at the edge of the workroom, watching the two golem crafters engaged in their art.

“I think we’re nearly at a resting point,” Toraka said. “Which means it needs time to stabilise before we move on to the next step.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Alex looked to the other side of the room. “You want to work on the body for a while?”

On a sturdy work table at the other end of the space, a partly-completed construction of iron lay, forged in the form of a statuesque woman. Much of the construct’s chest cavity was wide open, revealing a complex network of mana pathways leading into its limbs, and in the centre of its chest, the hole was ready to receive the golem core.

Claygon looked upon the iron golem with shifting emotions, many Alex couldn’t begin to separate. The golem touched his own chest just above the spot where his own core burned, drawing Alex’s attention..

He began to say something when Toraka’s voice cut in. “Sure, let’s work on the body for a while. You’re picking up metalworking fast enough.”

“Thanks,” he said, stirring the solution with his mana conductor. “Honestly, you’re doing most of the heavy lifting on that, though.”

“I should be, I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive.” Toraka shifted her mana within the solution, gradually calming the reaction. “Alright, I’m going to set it to rest.”

Shepressed a sigil on the side of the cauldron, sending a pulse of mana into the substance. Immediately, the rolling boil ceased, the solution stilled until its surface resembled painted glass concealing a source of inner light.

“Good stuff,” he said.

“Very, very good stuff,” she agreed. “I’m very pleased with how things have gone. Honestly, you’re doing a lot more work on the golem core than I thought you would be.”

He shrugged. “It’s my design, right? It’d be kinda weird if I came up with the thing then couldn’t bloody-well make it.”

“You’d be surprised how often that happens,” Toraka sighed. “There’s lots of ‘idea people’ out there, Alex, and not many with the skills to turn innovation into reality.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not one of them,” he carefully placed the cauldron’s lid atop the massive pot’s lip.

Toraka pressed another sigil, and—with a pulse of mana—a click sounded and the lid locked in place. “I’m glad you’re not, but unfortunately, most students with ‘big ideas’ are, though.”

“Really?” Alex wandered over to the golem body, opening a tool kit.

“It’s an epidemic.” She went to a mana-powered forge, pressing a glyph on its side which sparked another pulse of power, followed by a burst of flame and heat within the furnace. “In the early days, after I first bought this shop, I made it a point to go to a career fair that the university put on in the main castle annually. It was always well attended by eager students with the idea being to recruit the best and brightest right out of school.”

“And how’d that go?” Alex asked.

“Well, I don’t go anymore, do I?” Her laugh was bitter. “We did get a few excellent hires, but far more bad ones. Then there were the ones approaching our booth, clutching schematics for magical devices that couldn’t even cut it as passable projects in a second year alchemy class. But of course, to them, their ideas were always the next big thing which only needed a few skilled workers—provided by the workshop of course—to get things started.”

The mention of the word ‘staff’ brought a surge of excitement to Alex.

When he’d left home that morning, the staff had almost completed its growth process.

It was so close to being finished, that he figured it should be complete when he walked through the apartment door that evening.