Fizzle found himself once again in the frozen ashlands. The scene was more vivid this time and he could not only feel the blowing ash as it entered his nostrils with each breath. He stood atop a small hill in front of a wooden doorway which was attached to nothing. On the doorway was a small inscription in elven :
"Anor Lanliss"
(the sun of Lanliss)
Again he reached for the door and again he could feel the fire from his resurrection begin to burn through his body, erasing his memories of the cold and burning him to his marrow. Just as he touched the door, he was jerked upright and into his body.
Sitting upright on his cot, he slowly remembered where he was. He was not being resurrected, that had happened more than a month ago. He was in his lab, surrounded by his notes and several active experiments. In the time since he had been resurrected he had dreamt this dream every night, always the same and always forgotten shortly after waking. But in the time between waking and forgetting he was struck with terror, to the point that he could not control his shaking. He stood and went to the window, covered in sweat the night chill calmed his feverish body and chilled his nerves. He knew the shaking came from the shock to his body after the release of adrenaline, and it would pass shortly.
The dreams were deeply disturbing but to be expected. This was not his first resurrection and he knew they would last little more than a decade, becoming less frequent over time. For now, he would stop sleeping in the human manner and meditate as he had been taught by his father so long ago. It would not do to have his fellow companions hear him scream in the night, attracting the attention of man and beast.
From the window the landscape was almost pitch black, but a small hue of light on the horizon betrayed the coming dawn. Smells from the growing ramshackle of buildings filtered through the air. Woodsmoke chiefly but also the smells of food cooking, hay being tossed, freshly cut stone and the unmistakable odor of waste from humans and animals alike. Already the soon to be capital was taking on the traits of most other human settlements, far quicker than he had realized. He had begun modifying simple everburning torches to light when the ambient light reached a certain level, and he believed he had the recipe just right so that he could have his students begin making them for the town. They could be made in a variety of colors and shapes and would serve as excellent lighting for streets, bringing the light of sun to the darkness. His first batch would go to the new shrine being built, then to the housing units and businesses in various levels of construction. And of course the keep but he still needed to find a way to turn the torches on and off with a command, a task which may be beyond simple alchemy. For now they would function to light the outside and help bring safety to the citizens of Stagfell.
The dream already forgotten, he dressed and began his work for the day. He spent several hours making healing potions. His old recipe had proven too weak to keep himself and Zuhair conscious during their last battle, and he did not want to fail them again. His experiment that day was I'll-fated, but it did provide him with vital data for future battles. His failing was not in his ability to damage a foe but in his vulnerability to attack. He had gained a lot of respect for his friend's role as not only the tip of the spear, but the human shield which kept them all alive. Had it not been for the courage of chase, himself nearly felled by the brutal ambush, one of them surely would have died.
The sun was high by the time he finished with his third potion. He stretched and sat back in his chair, looking out the window and then to his calendar where today's date was circled in red ink. He paused... There was something important... A slow nagging crept in from the base of his spine but he could not remember why he had circled todays date. Something to do with the academy? He didn't think that was it but he cleaned up his workspace and went to wash himself before going out to find twitch. He was probably out at his pig farm a short distance away from (and downwind of) the town. By the time he arrived, he thought, he would remember whatever task he had neglected. If he was lucky it was another budget meeting and he could miss the entire thing.
The farm was nearly 5 miles past the outer edge of the town, and by the time he arrived Fizzle had forgotten all about the red mark on his calendar. Having decided to walk, he took his time and stopped to gather ingredients for his alchemy kit along the way. As he walked into Galton's barn, he was greeted by the sight of a all too human looking corpse, hanging headless and stripped to the muscle from the rafters. The arms and legs had been been spread eagled and with the body hanging upside down so the blood could drain, which it was doing into a series of buckets and basins. Fizzle's hand went instinctively to his mutagen hanging in a vial around his neck before he realized his mistake. Francis "twitch" Galton stood on a ladder behind the stripped bear, happily whistling away as he worked the corpse, wearing a blood soaked apron and delicately cutting what looked like the femoral vein from the bear's left leg.
"Where on earth did THAT thing come from?" asked Fizzle, remembering his own battle with a similarly sized bear not long ago.
Twitch gave a start and nearly fell from the ladder.
"M - magister Lanliss, you startled me."
"And you me, that thing looks nearly human without the skin. Were it closer to your size, I would have thought you a killer!" Fizzle laughed.
"Y - yes sir, the similarities are remarkable, but the larger size makes it much easier to dissect than a human corpse." Twitch replied, then went wide eyed for a second before losing his balance and falling from the ladder to land with a thud on the dirt floor. If Fizzle heard his remark he made no mention of it as he helped his student to his feet, instead examining the vein Twitch had managed to remove and keep from dropping as he fell.
"I read your proposal for your semester's thesis, does this mean you've already begun? I was coming to give my approval, but it seems it is not needed."
"Yes, sir. I apologize for beginning without your approval, but this specimen arrived from a pair of hunters this morning and needed to be worked right away. I think I've found the correct material to use as a catheter. I was just about to test it's compatibility if you'd like to watch and advise me."
"Of course, I will try not to interfere but I must say I'd like to see this."
For the next hour, the two tried and failed several times to insert a small catheter into the vein using various instruments and techniques. Finally, with just a few inches of the vein remaining they perfected a technique using 2 metal pins and a pair of pliers which caused little damage to the vein and allowed the catheter to be inserted into the vessel. Next, they tried the technique on a vein still attached to the bear. This proved much easier and they soon were able to pump small amounts of water into the vein and watch it come out the bear's severed wrist.
"Excellent! With this I should be able to deliver a variety of healing salves to my pigs and prevent any illness from taking hold! Hoof and mouth disease should be a thing of the past!"
"Easy, twitch" Fizzle said before realizing it. A brief flash of anger swept Francis' face before Fizzle continued. "You still need to try it in a living pig, and I doubt they'll hold still long enough for you to place the cath in their neck.
"Of course, Fizzle, but I dint think it will be a problem." as he said this he drew a wand from his cloak and pointed it at a pig just outside the barn door. A flash of bluish light shot from the wand and flew over the pig's shoulder, striking a rooster on a fence rail before it could dodge the bolt. The rooster made a startled sound, then fell to the ground, Fast asleep.
Fizzle looked from the rooster to Twitch, forgetting his insulting familiarity with his name. "Where did you get something like that? Wands of sleep are not a toy to be flung around!"
"M - my apologies, magister," Twitch replied, as his boldness left him in the sight of his teacher's scorn. "it is only a wand of animal sleep, not very powerful but useful for farmers in my hometown. I received it by mail last week. It only works on small animals, anyone else it strikes would only feel a temporary numbness at the sight."
Fizzle's temper left him for curiosity. "How remarkable. I never considered the usefulness of such a spell for farming, very resourceful." but his mind was already on other uses for the catheter. "Would you mind if I brought a couple of those catheters back to my lab so I can study their composition?"
"Of course! There is a box of them sitting just over here." Francis replaced the wand and moved to the workbench. As he did Fizzle's eyes were drowned to a basin which contained what looked to be the skinned back left paw of the bear sitting in a greenish liquid. Without the skin it looked eerily like a human foot. He was about to comment when Francis returned with three catheters.
"I think I'll need some healing potions to secure the site and cleanse the catheter after I insert it. Did you happen to bring any with you?"
" Um... No," he could have sworn the toe of the bear's foot twitched in the basin. "No I'll have to send some by carrier tonight so you can get started right away." Something else did not fit about that bear's foot...
"Oh, don't worry. I'll have to pick some up myself tonight from town. I need to head to the lake tonight with some plans on how to dredge out a harbor. Do you know how large of skiffs they want to put into that proposed waterfront?"
Fizzle felt his heart skip in his chest and his palms go cold. The calendar. He had marked it two days ago to remind himself not to miss an important meeting not about budgeting, but about his impending marriage to Kalia. He was to meet with her parents an hour before sunset tonight. Looking at the sun, he estimated that to be about a quarter of an hour from now. He cursed himself for walking.
"A horse, I need a horse!"
"Wh - wh - w" Twitch struggled, shocked by the apparent see sawing of emotional states of his teacher.
"Dammit, man where is your HORSE?"
"B- Bu- Bu-" he stuttered, pointing toward the house.
Fizzle ran off like a shot for the pasture behind the house, hurdled the fence there and mounted a very startled grey mare. After a second to calm the horse, he rode off for town, leaving a very puzzled student wondering how he was going to get into town and what had caused his teacher to react so out of character. Looking around the barn, he noticed the foot in the basin sitting on his worktable. He had been working with it this morning when the hunters showed up with the bear and forgotten all about it until now. He stood in the barn door considering his options.
Fizzle cursed himself for forgetting such an important meeting, he was fortunate to have remembered just in time. As he rode into town he prepared what he would say and how he would attempt to flatter Kalia. He knew had never fully understood the mind of human women. His former fiancé, Elise, had been the daughter of a merchant as well. He thought he knew what to say to flatter her and her parents. He knew they would be talking about their wealth and station, and Kalia would likely take after them in their ambitions to amass more wealth. It was important to him to ensure Kalia was comfortable with him, though he did not expect her to ever fully love him. Arranged marriages were rarely more than business deals and the most those involved could expect to do was to tolerate each other long enough to bear children. He would lay out how he expected their marriage to go, and ensure her that her children would profit from long, full lives of wealth and status.
As he planned his night, another nagging feeling crept into the back of his brain. Something not quite right with... The thought left him, to be filed away into the vault of half thoughts and memories he had accumulated over his brief 12 decades.
