Game of Alchemy 5 (Patreon)

I bowed low to Tyrion as I entered the room he’d taken to using as an office. He glanced up at me from the parchment and papers in front of him, before gesturing to the seat in front of the desk.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Tyrion,” I said as I took the offered seat. “I have heard much about you.”

“I doubt any of it was pleasant, considering your proximity to my sister,” Tyrion shot back, looking at me with a blank expression.

I gave a small chuckle, “Indeed, the Queen Dowager has very little positive to say about you. To hear her tell it, you are a short demonic creature with a forked tail, a silver tongue, and horns. But no, most of what I have heard from you was either from what Lord Baelish could tell me, or when I spoke to your younger nephew.”

I’d also asked some of the servants in the Red Keep, which from the interactions he’d had, they’d painted him as just another noble. Albeit a short one. Tommen was fond of his diminutive relative, even if he didn’t get to see him much.

“May I ask as to the purpose of this meeting, Lord Tyrion?” I asked after a moment.

He glanced over my shoulder, in the direction of his sellsword guard, before answering, “I have been instructed to determine the validity of your rumored abilities. I have seen enough evidence even in the day since my arrival in King’s Landing to see that they are, so I am to pass on a request for a valyrian steel sword for House Lannister. You will be amply compensated for your services, of course.”

“Of course,” I agreed with a nod. “I do have three promised projects to complete before I can begin, but it will be done as soon as I am able.”

Tyrion stared at me, before saying, “You are much more agreeable than I was anticipating.”

“The more agreeable I am, the less likely I am to insult and thus make enemies out of those around me. Being polite costs me little, but can pay off greatly,” I pointed out with a half shrug.

“An interesting attitude. Tomorrow you are to present your request to the king, have you chosen a boon you will request?”

I took a brief moment to consider how much to tell him, before answering, “I have given the matter much consideration, and I believe I have reached my decision. In addition to practicing my craft, I wish to start a family, so I plan to ask His Grace’s blessing in forming a new House.”

Tyrion stared at me for a moment, “That is all?”

“I do wish to start a project in the future to enable me to teach alchemy to a great many people, but that is something that would take time and a great many resources, hardly something that can be done with a single boon,” I pointed out. “I have little need to ask for a monetary reward, due to my ability to make valyrian steel. Land? That can come later, once I am more firmly established and have time to more thoroughly research the different houses that make up the different regions.”

We talked for about another hour after that, mostly feeling each other out, before I departed. I did have some experiments to do, and preparations to make. I was finally reaching the point where I had the time to practice transmuting dragon bones into animals, with the eventual goal of doing so to myself. But I was going to start with rats. Because I didn’t want to take the chance of screwing up the first time on myself.

That was just one experiment I had planned, the first one I was doing far and away from the rest of my work. I really wanted to know what was in wildfire, if it was magic or something more mundane. Which was why I’d filched a jar from the cache I’d shown Joffrey, and spread the contents out over several dozen glass vials I’d transmuted. They weren’t particularly fancy or high quality glass vials, but they were good enough for my purposes.

Which is how I found myself outside the Red Keep by the spot that, without my presence, Tywin would engage in some fishing while berating Pycelle’s feeble old man act. Swallowing nervously, I put my hands on the edge of the deconstruction circle and triggered it. A surge of energy ran through it, causing the drops of green liquid within to erupt.

I let out a disappointed sigh as the circle fizzled. It seems that wildfire is too reactive for me to deconstruct, as the energy running through it to do so was enough to make it ignite.

“Phooey,” I spat with a grumble before making my way back into the Red Keep.

It would have been so convenient if I could just deconstruct all of the wildfire under the Red Keep. Looks like it would have to be moved out slowly, with all sorts of chances for someone to screw up and make it go boom.

With my wildfire experiment proving to be a bust, I made sure to dispose of it as safely as I could. By which I meant slipping the vials I had of the stuff into the wooden crates packed with sand that the rest of it was being moved out in. Then I headed for my workshop.

My workshop wasn't terribly big, but it was well appointed with all of the tools I'd need for my current project. With a satisfied smile, I picked up a small chunk of dragon bone and set it next to a cage holding a rat. Drawing the transmutation circle for what I wanted took the better part of two hours, a fair part of it being continually referencing and double checking all of my notes. This was my first time doing living transmutation, so I was understandably nervous.

Once everything was set up, I placed my hands on the alchemical circle, and let the energy flow. I held my breath as the transmutation did its work, breaking down the bone and the rat before merging them together. When the light faded, I stared down at the rat in the cage.

“Apparently there was a reason biological transmutation was a niche discipline,” I muttered, looking at the deformed and clearly dead rat.

It looked like a mix of something out of Call of Cthulhu and a sea urchin, with bone spikes growing every which way while merging with the fur and meat. Even as I leaned in for a closer inspection, I couldn’t tell where one material ended and the other began. Yeah, biological transmutation was going to take a lot more practice and experimentation before I felt comfortable doing it on a human.

So that experiment was an unfortunate bust, and the other lab rats looked absolutely terrified, huddling in the corner as far from the horrible mutant corpse as they could. To be honest I didn’t blame them, it was really gnarly to look at. So I quickly disposed of it with a basic deconstruction circle.

“I’m… going to wait a while before trying again,” I said, pushing down the shiver that ran down my spine as I looked at the pile of raw carbon and other elements that had once been a rat.

[hr][/hr]

Dinner that evening was a little bit surprising, but either the ROB that sent me here was paying a lot more attention than I assumed or Cersei was capable of some subtlety. Because Sansa was no longer betrothed to Joffrey, she wasn’t sitting at the head table anymore, moved to the lower tables, and “coincidentally” she was being seated next to me.

“Lady Sansa,” I greeted her, holding out the chair for her.

“Thank you, Ser Flamel,” she returned demurely, holding her dress to the back of her legs as I pushed in the chair.

“I am no knight, my lady, but you are most welcome,” I said with a smile as I sat down.

As the food was served, I glanced again at Sansa, her back straight and her hands folded in her lap. She was pretty, her hair a vibrant, vivid red and her body just beginning to blossom into womanhood. Her features were delicate, but her eyes were wide-set and her lips full, giving her an almost feline look. The thought crossed my mind that she might be a bit of a wildcat when it came to bedding down…and I had every intention of making sure I got a chance to find out.

“If I may be so bold, Lady Sansa, would you be willing to tell me about Winterfell?” I asked as I cut a piece of thigh off what I was pretty sure was pheasant and placed it on her plate. “I confess curiosity about the North. King's Landing is much warmer than I am used to.”

She glanced up at me, confusion and suspicion on her face, “Why do you wish to know?”

“As I said, I am curious. I always have been,” I gave a small chuckle as I placed some pheasant on my own plate. “It used to drive my parents mad, my father would joke that my first word was ‘why’ instead of anything more normal.”

She hesitated for a minute, before answering, “Winterfell is beautiful, there are many lakes where one can fish or sail. There are forests to hunt in and even some mountains. The castle itself is old, very old, but well built. It has stood since before the Long Night. Bran the Builder chose its location because it sits over a hot spring, and pipes lead the warm water through the walls.”

“That sounds nice,” I mused as I took a sip of wine. “What of the surrounding lands? What does the land surrounding Winterfell look like?”

“The only nearby settlement is Wintertown, which spreads out from Winterfell. A few villages are scattered across the countryside. They make their living by farming, hunting and fishing. The Wolfswood lies to the north. Most of it is thick woods, though there are some farms along the rivers,” Sansa said, her eyes going distant as she remembered her home.

“It sounds wonderful,” I said gently. “I hope that fortune allows me to see it one day.”

My words pulled her out of her memories, her gaze shifting back to me, “I am surprised. With how…”

I smiled as she trailed off, forcing herself to avoid saying what she was truly thinking, “There was a philosopher from my homeland, long dead, named Zeno from the city of Citium. He wasn’t born to a noble or wealthy family, he was a humble merchant. One day, the ship carrying everything he owned sank outside a major port city named Athens. He had few connections, no wealth to his name, everything he had was sitting at the bottom of the river.

“For want of anything better to do, he went to a local library and read the works of an earlier philosopher. The works inspired him to develop his own philosophy of behavior and value. The philosophy as a whole has changed and shifted over the ages, and is referred to as Stoicism. The core tenets of Stoicism, as I practice it, focus on the material: the world is full of hardships, be they natural or from our fellow man, and we cannot change that. We cannot control the circumstances around us, for as long as we live we will suffer, physically, spiritually and emotionally.

“What we can control is how we respond to those circumstances. I found myself on the shores of a land I did not know, with nothing but the clothes on my back and the skills I’d been taught. I could have despaired and wallowed in pity, but that would not have helped me in my situation at all. So I did what I could to learn of this land I’d found myself in, and once I had learned what I could, I moved to integrate myself with those who could help me start a new life for myself…” I trailed off, realizing I’d gotten more into my speech than I’d intended. “I apologize, I have been unable to share much of my homeland since I arrived in Westeros.”

“It is… alright,” Sansa said, a look of consideration and contemplation on her face. “I do not mind.”

I smiled, while mentally giving a sigh of relief that my ramblings hadn’t soured her opinion of me. Sure, I’d stick to my agreement with Cersei and the queen herself proved that love wasn’t necessary for a productive marriage, but having pleasant conversations with her would make my request for her hand down the line much more believable. Although come to think of it, I probably shouldn’t have used Cersei as an example of anything resembling a marriage.

The rest of dinner passed pleasantly, Sansa and I chatting as I mentally planned my next moves. I was very well established by this point, and no longer needed Baelish as a patron. With his tendency to backstab everyone around him, combined with his obsession for Sansa’s mother, he was liable to turn on me the moment a betrothal with the ginger girl was announced.

So he needed to go, and I didn’t have an easy way to point Joffrey at him. Poison was my best option, but getting him to actually take said poison would be the tricky part. Maybe a goblet with a transmutation circle on it? Though I would need an explanation for the light show it would produce.

I’d just taken another sip of wine when the idea hit me. It would take a bit of finagling, and conducting an experiment that I had been hesitating to perform, but I should have him dead to rights before asking Joffrey for my boon tomorrow.