Chapter 85: V2 Nine

Seated in the back of my wagon, I stroked a hand over the motionless body of an adolescent Leosaur cub. Gazing down at the cub, I cursed my own stupidity for not realizing that Leo, being a cold blooded reptilian creature, would suffer in the snow-covered Almer mountains. Whilst I’d been wrapped up in a warm fur lined cloak with Pyr warming me as I drove the wagon, I had neglected to consider that Leo, who was riding in the wagon's interior, would be freezing alone in the cold. 

Finding the cub curled into a tight ball beneath the blankets of my futon, frozen and near dead, was like being stabbed through the chest with an icy spear. Even after two days in the now heated wagon, the cub didn’t move or show any outward signs of life. Only the bond I shared with him indicated that he was still alive. 

Leo now laid in a fur lined basket next to the furnace where Pyr, my fire wisp, worked to keep the wagon at an almost sweltering heat. I didn’t know when, but I’d grown attached to the Leosaur.

 In the weeks since I found him in the desert, he’d become so much more than just an interesting research specimen. My father didn’t like the idea of having any kind of animal in the house; even a fish was out of the question, so neither Markion nor I had pets growing up. I knew animals needed bedding, food, and water, but hadn’t given much thought to Leo or even Zosimos’s needs beyond that. 

Wiping away the few tears that managed to escape my eyes, I stood from my position on the floor, pressing a hand to the wagon's wall to steady myself. As the wagon trundled along the mountain path with Pia in the driver's seat. 

We’d had taken to swapping drivers every hour, as the weather grew even more frigid the further we traveled into the mountains. Our route to Airus was impeded by thick snow, and every time we stopped, I needed to melt the snow built up around our wagons before we could continue on our trek. 

In addition to my fire, we’d also resorted to using Victoria’s shields as makeshift plows, though the Kijo could only use her shields that way for half an hour before her mana depleted. When we’d been in the desert, I’d despised the heat, but now I would give anything to be back in the underground encampment at Sēkrit. 

“How’s he doing?” Rainy asked softly, peering down at me from the opening that led up to the loft bed, where she was resting after having finished her turn driving the wagon.

“Same as before,” I mumbled.

Rainy didn’t say anything further as I moved towards the bench seat at the front of the wagon, and pulled out the recipe I was attempting to decipher. A moving wagon didn’t make for a safe work environment for working on alchemy, nor could I work on my transmutation circles with the continual swaying making it impossible to draw a straight line.  

When I’d first searched through the recipes I owned looking for a potion to help with keeping warm in the cold. The one titled Frost Elixir did not attract my attention. Instead, I had wasted two days working to translate and decipher the code used in the recipe titled Fire Elixir, only to discover it was an elixir to render a person immune to the effects of fire. As the two recipes were both written by an alchemist known only as Tolzat, I suspected that the Frost Elixir would be for cold immunity despite its misleading name. 

The issue I found was that Tolzat’s recipes used a mixture of the Kaledon version of old Latin known as Latinus, and what I presumed was his own personal code. Many historical alchemists would write their research in code, and I’d discovered those of Kaledon were no different. Only thirty nine of the hundred and sixty four recipes I’d purchased were written in Latinus, without the use of codes. 

Each of those thirty nine were written by Egenor Barothlas, who I’d learned was a priest of Trismegistus. 

According to Trismegistus and the Philosophies of Nature, Egenor was the last known priest of Trismegistus, having disappeared alongside his mentor, High Priestess Hemera. The author of the book was Egenor’s student, Kelnose, and the last pages detailed that the two left the temple, informing no one the reason for their departure. According to Kelnose, not long after their disappearance, Egenor Barothlas’s grimoire appeared, a grimoire I suspected was now in the hands of Ge Hong, the Dreadmere guild's alchemist. 

From the way the book was written, I could only assume Trismegistus intended there to be some kind of expedition or quest to seek the fate of Egenor and Hemera. I wasn’t sure what he’d planned before my arrival, and the ruination of his plans to have a false incarnation of my mother in the world. I just hoped he didn’t expect me to be the one chasing after the fate of his fake Hemera.

I’d not yet managed to work through my feelings about what he’d attempted to do. I was both proud that he would admire my mother so much, and enraged he could ever think anyone could even come close to being anything like her. On the other hand, knowing my mother, she would have been amused to find herself portrayed in the role of a high priestess, and grand alchemist. 

If I was honest with myself, one of the things that annoyed me most was the lack of any recipes written by this world's Hemera among the ones I’d brought from the book of items. The Gaia corporation offered to allow me to purchase any items that were currently sold in the world, with exception of any item that was unique. Any other items of which there was more than one copy, could be bought if it was for sale anywhere in Kaledon. (AN: This is part of changes made to Vol One, her settlement was changed to only being able to buy items actively being sold at the time she was choosing.)

This meant that I’d not been able to purchase any grimoires, and the lack of recipes by Hemera meant they were classified as a unique item, or they were not being sold at that time. Trismegistus said that my mothers research was transcribed into the lore of this world, and that there were books that resemble those she’d authored. This meant they were out in the world somewhere, and I just needed to find them, or convince the old god to bestow me a copy of them. 

Tapping my finger on the thin twelve page book which contained the recipe for the Frost Elixir, I pondered what Trismegistus could have planned with the information about the disappearance of Egenor and Hemera in the book. Did he intend for me to search for more information about the pair's disappearance? I didn’t remember seeing the book among the titles I’d looked at in the book of items, so did that mean it was the only copy? 

“Maybe I should make some copies of the book and send it to the disciples as quest rewards. There is a lot of information about historical alchemists in there, along with things about Tris.” I mused, leaning my head back against the wall of the wagon. 

The sound of howling broke me from my thoughts, and I leapt to my feet as the wagon came to a jarring halt. Loud cries from the horses, and Pia’s shout of ‘come get some bitches’ sent me rushing to the rear door of the wagon as Rainy jumped from the loft. 

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Opening the door of the wagon, we were met with the sight of three large blue wolves rushing past, heading for the horses. Rainy jumped out first, and I followed, bolting the wagon door behind me. 

As I turned to follow Rainy to where our teammates were trying to keep the wolves from attacking our horses, my fur lined cloak squeezed my shoulders in warning. Faux’s warning came just in time, as a pony sized wolf leapt towards me from the roof of the wagon I’d just exited. Acting on pure instinct, my body morphed into that of a red fox, my cloak falling to the snow as the mimic possessing it was unable to change with me as my clothing did.

 Its target now much smaller, the wolf overshot its attack, flying over my head. With a yowling scream, I leapt for the wolf, fire coating my fur as I sank my teeth into its hind leg. The fire coating my fur spread over the frost wolf's body, as it let out high pitched whimpers of pain. The wolf was dead in less than a minute, its flesh melting away to reveal icy bones. 

Using my fox form, I was able to traverse the battlefield much easier than my teammates who struggled in the knee deep snow and soon three more frost wolves fell to my flames.

 Half a dozen more wolves were melted by Kip, who was using the fire strike transmutation circle to send streaks of fire towards the wolves. The rest of our team were throwing Kitsune’s Fury orbs at the wolves to great effect, and as I darted past the three girls who were guarding the horses, I made a mental note to restock our supply of the fire orbs.

“Fire strike, fire strike, fire strike. Tris’s burning beard! Can’t we come up with a form of silent activation.” Kip roared, and I yipped gleefully in response to his cursing as I chased down another wolf. 

A howl filled the air, and the wolf I was chasing spun away, dashing down the side of the mountain. Several others followed it as the pack retreated, and I let out a yowling cry of victory as I stood at the edge of the steep incline, watching the frost wolves flee. 

Distracted with serenading the wolves retreat, I failed to notice the Faun creeping up behind me until she body-slammed me into the snow. 

“Floofy!” Pia shouted, and I let out a cry of distress as the Faun proceeded to roughly stroke my fur. 

“Pia, leave her be. You know Foxy doesn’t like you molesting her fur.” Victoria called out, and I yipped in agreement as the Faun reluctantly let me wriggle free of her grasp. 

 

Once freed, I bounded through the snow towards the nearest set of Frost Wolf bones, and shifted back into my human form so I could gather the bones. 

Even though I was still working to decode the Frost Elixir recipe, I had managed to uncover the components it used. Included in that list were Frost Wolf bones, Ice Pearls, Snow Blossoms, and something called a Glacies Bufo. 

The Frost Wolf bones were easy to attain, as we’d been attacked on four occasions by packs of wolves. It was the other ingredients I was worried about, especially the Glacies Bufo, which I was ninety percent sure would be some kind of toad. 

The Ice Pearls, and Snow Blossoms were both mentioned in Plants and Fungi of Salvia, with the book noting they were found growing on the snow covered Almer mountains, though so far we’d not located either plant. 

Once we’d gathered up all the Frost Wolf bones, I did a quick lap around the wagons, melting the snow away from the wheels before retreating back into my wagon. Rainy would be driving the wagon this time, allowing Pia to join Victoria in the other wagon to warm up while Kip drove. 

As the wagon began moving once more, I pulled a rib bone from the bag I’d packed the Frost Wolf remains into and stared at it in contemplation. So far I’d not managed to find a way to grind the bones, and even with Pyr burning the bones it took a very long time for the bone to show any signs of melting. While the flesh of a Frost Wolf appeared as snow coating the icy bones, the bones themselves were as hard as steel, and freezing to the touch. This made working with the bones even more difficult, as even wearing gloves I could feel the chill from them. 

Touching a bone with bare skin, or being bitten by one of the wolves, would cause a severe case of frostbite. Something we discovered during our first encounter with the wolves, when one managed to sink its teeth into Kip’s shoulder. The Dwarf still hadn’t recovered from the bite, with the skin on his shoulder blackened, and hard to the touch. Despite our best efforts to treat the wound, there was little we could do to reverse the effects of the Frost Wolf's bite. With luck, we would find one of our guilds magic using healers at the Airus guild hall, or we’d need to visit the temple of light to ask one of the priests for a healing. 

Hammering it didn’t work, and melting it makes liquid, not powder. Trying to transmute it didn't work either, as I ran out of mana before any effect could be seen.  Staring down at the rib bone, I mulled over how to process the bone into powder. What about milling it with a large grind stone? Would that work?

With a sigh, I shoved the bone back into my bag, and retrieved the recipe for the Frost Elixir. The parts of the recipe I’d managed to read only said to use ground Frost Wolf bones, with no mention of how to achieve the grinding. But perhaps once I finished decoding the remainder of the recipe the method would be revealed.

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