Swift Pills

Slow but steady footsteps heralded the arrival of Marcus, as he made his way to the dining table. His long white hair swayed as he took his seat, perpetually cold green eyes warmed as they saw Aiden sitting patiently in his seat. 

" It looks delicious, Aiden, thank you for your hard work," Marcus thanked softly as his eyes wandered over the colorful meal in front of him. 

"You're welcome, Marcus! Hurry up and eat, I will be monitoring your condition to make sure nothing goes wrong," Aiden gently grabbed Marcus's left wrist so that he could sense the other boy's condition without impeding his ability to eat. 

Without any hesitation Marcus started to eat. Strong energy began to flow through his body, his fragile veins and meridians sending needlike pain shooting up through his spine. A faint sweat broke out on his brow, but he didn't stop because Aiden didn't indicate that anything was wrong. Aiden carefully observed as the energy from the dish began to move through Marcus. The energy first burned away any old and necrotic weak and damaged tissues, then immediately new growth appeared in its place. Despite its violent appearance the energy was not in fact causing any damage. Instead the new tissue was much stronger than what had been there before. 

Aiden sighed in relief, before letting go of Marcus' wrist. " Everything is going well, it might feel uncomfortable but that is just a part of the process of new growth." Aiden assured Marcus before turning to his own meal. He spooned up a bit of the fragrant stew, carefully savoring the taste. He was so hungry!

 As the stew entered his stomach, a searing heat ran through his bones. It felt like magma burning him from the inside. Aiden let out a painful gasp as he made sure to continue to eat, it would be a waste to stop halfway. Once the food cools down, reheating it would disturb the alchemical balance wasting the medical efficacy of the cuisine. Marcus looked up, a frown forming between his brow as he saw Aiden in pain. He didn't say anything, but he held Aiden's hand giving silent encouragement. 

Every tendon and bone felt as though a giant hand was crushing and stretching them, Aiden could swear he even heard cracking. He felt as his hand was held by another colder one, and he clung to it as though it were driftwood and he was drowning. After what felt like an eternity, the burning pain faded away. The tension left his taut muscles and his whole body collapsed onto the table trembling.

 Marcus moved closer to the gasping boy in concern. " Aiden, are you okay? What happened?" Despite his cold tone, worry was still clear in his eyes. 

" I-I'm fine. It was j-just a tempering concoction. S-stronger than I thought." Aiden managed to export between gasps. He then turned his gaze inward along his bones and tendons. At this glance he was shocked, with just one meal he had stepped into the peak of the third realm of body tempering, Tendons like Bowstrings. Skipping what could have been weeks or even months of effort. Aiden trembled as he relayed this information to Marcus. 

White eyebrows shot up in surprise, "What ingredients did you use to achieve such earthshaking progress?" Marcus mentally ran through everything that had been in the inventory report that Dylan had handed over to him yesterday. He didn't remember there being any high level alchemical materials added.

 " That's the thing, they were all ordinary materials. Saber Tailed Viper meat, Eidle root, Iron Needle Fruit, and Cold Spring Water. Nothing that should have given me such a result." Aiden replied just as mystified.

 " Explain the process to me as detailed as possible. We need to get to the bottom of this," Marcus requested, if this was a repeatable miracle then the value of this dish was immeasurable. Aiden carefully recounted every step of making the Soft Boned Snake Stew, making sure to not leave anything out. 

After listening to the whole story, Marcus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he thought deeply. A few moments passed before he opened his eyes and smiled. He reached out and rubbed Aiden's hair, smiling happily.

 " I believe I understand what happened. When you were concocting this dish, you entered a state of epiphany. While in this state you reached near perfection in your alchemical skills, leading to this extremely good result. If you tried to make this dish again, although it may not reach the exaggerated progress as this time, the efficacy would probably far surpass what other alchemists at your level could possibly achieve. Congratulations my Little Alchemist, epiphanies are rare treasures that cannot be sought only achieved by chance."

 "Really!?" Aiden's vibrant amber eyes widened as he stared at Marcus in excitement.

 " Really. You are very talented in Alchemy, Aiden. Go boldly and don't worry about failure, your talent demands that you let it have free range to grow." Marcus continued to rub Aiden's hair as he assured him.

 " I will! I'll go right now! I have so many recipes to try!" Aiden leapt to his feet and called to Marcus as he sprinted back into the Alchemy room. Marcus shook his head as he laughed. Then he slowly left the dining room, heading back to his study to speak with Anton about increasing the number of guards around his manor.

 As soon as Aiden returned to the Alchemy room he immediately began to gather ingredients for the Swift Pills. There were three ingredients to this pill; Spiralgale leaves for a strong wind energy, Coal Peppers for the explosiveness, and Rivergrass to provide enough wood energy vitality to prevent the body from tearing itself apart under the extreme force of movement. 

Aiden sat cross legged in front of the cauldron for several minutes to calm himself down and adjust his mental state before beginning the process. His fingers began to weave together emulating a phoenix in flight as he used his mental strength to move the ingredients into the cauldron. As his palms controlled the aura he began to melt each herb down into just its essence. 

Soon three glowing herbal essences floated in the hot cauldron. An emerald green essence, a crimson red essence, and a faintly white transparent essence. Aiden used the emerald green wood essence as a bonding agent between the fire and wind essence as the fire essence tried to consume the wood energy the wind energy suppressed it. When the fire energy seemed to lose power and fade slightly, the wind energy whipped it into a frenzy. As the energies began to fuse tighter and tighter they split into seven equal parts, each piece undergoing its own individual battle for supremacy. 

Aiden sharpened his focus, monitoring each pill embryo like a hawk. With one final movement like the sweeping wings of a giant bird, steam shot up from the cauldron and the tinkling sound of pills hitting the bottom of the cauldron rang out. When the steam cleared, Aiden peered into the cauldron excitement visible on his face. 

Five light yellow pills gathered in the center of the cauldron. Although still not a perfect success, it was a huge improvement over the last time he made pills. Aiden carefully gathered the pills into a porcelain bottle that was prepared for just such an occurrence. Then he sat down in meditation. 

First, he went over in his mind what improvements he would make in the next round. Then he worked on recovering his energy, so that when he tried again he would have enough energy. An hour later, he was refreshed and ready to try again. 

His hands moved in graceful flight, and the essences of the three ingredients melted and began to fuse. This time the fire energy didn't have any time to devour any of the wood energy and the wind energy suppressed and supported it with far more ease than the last time. Soon the energy split again, but unlike before into nine equal portions. Aiden's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but he didn't let his surprise cause his concentration to suffer. His fingers moving rapidly, he brought the swirling energy to a crescendo. Steam shot out of the cauldron in a huge geyser, and among the hiss of the water, the patter of pills landing could be heard. 

Aiden leaned forward in anticipation, waiting for the steam to clear. In the bottom of the cauldron lay eight pills, although one still failed the success rate was another huge improvement. Not only were there far more pills than last time, but two of them were a darker and more vivid yellow as well. Aiden put the six regular pills in with the previous five and then placed the other two in a separate bottle. Then he ran off to see Marcus with the fruits of his labor. He couldn't wait to show off to the older boy.