Alchemy
Up until I was thrown out of my home by my stepmother at fourteen, I received the finest education in Aegina. My father, Damien, though weak-willed in some respects, had an unorthodox belief that women and men could receive and use equal education. So, he hired tutors from all over Greece, and awakened in me a voracious hunger for knowledge.
Perhaps it was not unusual, but I developed a great interest in the earth – not so much in terms of Demeter and her graces towards mankind, but the properties of soil, of stone. Every description I read, I absorbed, tucked away in my mind for another time. By the time I was cursed, I was able to identify any stone I happened to tread upon. What’s more, I learned about how the minerals in certain stones could be mined and purified, and later forged into metal. I had enough of a typical mindset to not wish to become any sort of smith – who would have let a woman do the work of Hephaestus?
However, when I was cursed, I discovered that I was instinctively accessing my memory about minerals and such. After being sent to the desert world by Hermes, and cared for by the human family, they asked me if I knew how to turn things into specific types of stone. I hadn’t truly considered it, but once the seed of the idea was planted, I considered it seriously – stone has its value, especially in a gem form. It took me several years to refine this process. At first, nothing changed into the type of stone I wanted – the failed products became target practice, so my skills were honed in that respect, too.
With concentration, and intense recall of my knowledge, I finally was able to change an object into something with resale value. I sold it to a merchant, and received credits. This was the first time I had ever earned money for myself… and it felt good. However, I knew that markets for such products would be limited, depending on where I was… so I kept it as a secondary occupation, leaving my primary to be a mercenary… a gun for hire.
Still, by the time I had joined the crew of the Defiance, my skills with stone had been much refined, as had my shooting abilities. The quality of my created stone had raised into the semi-precious level, where I was changing wooden beads into lapis, tiger’s eye, malachite, etc. I had a good cache of credits, although I was somewhat aware that my skills could improve… but I guess I felt that it was all right to live simply, with less to worry about in terms of thievery.
After ONI, my skills had progressed even further, to where I was able to change anything to a precious stone – including diamond. I discovered that diamond was the hardest to transform, perhaps because of how physically hard it is as a gem. Still, I devised methods to practice my gemcrafting skill, which resulted in several valuable objects that I have either sold or given as gifts. By the time I purchased the Vision, creating gems from stones at the side of the lake outside NavKor was practically child’s play. It almost got a bystander killed, as he basically tried to convince me to give him some of the gems I had recently transmuted on the lake shore. Naturally, I refused, and when he persisted, Tix showed up with a gun. The man quickly reconsidered, and left without further incident.
However, I had not considered yet another form of transmutation… that of minerals that were already refined into metal. This idea was broached upon me by my ex-boyfriend, Rival. He had the need for… wedding bands. These rings were not for an actual proposal, but for a cover story where he, his current girlfriend Emerald (I will probably write more about her later), and their protector Phobetor would all be married. (Perhaps not at the same time? I wonder…) At any rate, I have no technical skill as a craftsman of jewelry… but I was struck with the idea of changing the minerals in a cheaper ring – say, one of a brass alloy – into that of gold. I was on Denon when I was given this request, so it was quite easy for me to buy cheap rings – and, as our money situation is well in hand, it was hardly any skin off my nose to do so.
The difficult part was the concentration – perfecting the quantity and quality. The first step was actually replacing the brass alloy with mostly pure gold. Since gold is such a pliable metal, it would be foolish to have it be completely pure, twenty-four carats. I was able to narrow it down to fourteen carats, a reasonable balance for a durable gold ring. Even so, the color and tone of my earlier attempts were… hideous. I was glad that I bought so many brass rings! I managed to get the color consistent, but then there was the need for sheen – a dull wedding band is hardly worth giving. It took maybe two days of experimentation, but I finally got the necessary concentration and method down. The first perfect ring I made… well, I gave it to Tix. It fit his finger well, but I felt strange in giving it… like I was setting a future in motion that I was not ready to commit to. I asked him to save it for a future time, and he agreed.
I contacted Rival again for the necessary ring sizes, and crafted three rings – Emerald’s was the smallest, at a size five, and Phobetor’s ring was twice that, at ten. Rival’s was six (rather small for a man, wouldn’t you say?). We delivered it to Tynnara this past evening – Rival, and a young man named Kalei, met us at the lake. Rival was prepared to give me 200,000 credits for my work.
200,000! That could buy the Vision twice over, new! I refused to take it – it was practically an insult. He insisted – I insisted again. He asked me how much I wanted, and I told him that I wanted ten percent – 20,000 credits. That’s about how much I would charge for taking passengers or cargo to another planet. Rival still insisted on tipping me 50,000 credits, and explained his reasoning – he wanted to apologize for the recent clash I had with Emerald. I had previously explained my reasoning to him – I knew the value of my work, and I would have charged him less because of how much I had learned from making them. I did not mention the fact that now knowing how to change other metals to gold – alchemy – would keep me and Tix rolling in credits, even without the gems I could make. Rival understood why I had protested so much, and apologized. I accepted his apology, his money, and was able to relax more because our business was concluded.
One thing is certain – due to this experience, Tix and I shall want for nothing, at least in terms of material things. This bodes well for whatever future we will have together – hopefully the ones I’ve been perceiving in his eyes – but that is a story for another time.
