Julis rubbed her eyes, waking up in the train car heading into the capital of the Kingdom of Valtaria, Belandred. It had been a few days since she had her meeting with the Warden with his questionable offer, but it was better than rotting in prison for the rest of days or until revolution brought freedom to the entire incarcerated population of the kingdom. She sat up on in the leather seat, a private compartment in the car. She stared out of the window as she ruminated on revolution, other kingdoms had done it, that glorious march into an enlightened age, no more people claiming power from some made up mandate of divinity. The people of Valtaria, clung to the monarchy in such a backwards way, rambling on about tradition and how it was a stabilising influence, but why should they kneel and beg for scraps from a group of people who saw themselves above their citizens, no, she though, such a phrase was wrong for the people of Valtaria, they were the subjects of the King.

She turned to look at the door to the compartment, one of the prison guards standing at attention outside, her erstwhile escort to the capital, much to her frustration. A small issue in her plan to bolt and be well on her way. Several things had been sent to her ahead of the departure from the prison, a small leather satchel bag, in a dull reddish brown that was associated with Crown Alchemists. A couple of new clothes, for life outside the prison with a small case that sat in the rack above the seat opposite. She opened the journal she had kept during her time in prison, returning to the pages she had only looked at a couple of days ago, musings on all the theories she had heard about the Philosopher’s Stone and its origin. The main thing which now eluded her, was why the King wanted it, what were his designs for it, was it solely for the prestige or out of a desire to live forever? The one thread on the page that made the most sense in all of this, was a connection between human transmutation, either the attempts to create a human, or change the human form, and the Stone. That was all she understood from some of the esoteric conversations with the older prisoners.

She sighed, still uncertain as to what or why she was being dragged into this search for the Stone or the methods in its creation. A devil’s errand, for a bunch of people she held in absolute contempt, as that thought lingered the train jolted as it came into a station. The guard opened the door to the compartment and yelled in.

“Julis, the Agent from the division of Crown Alchemists was due to meet you here. We have ordered the train to wait for them.”

Julis gave the guard a courteous nod in acknowledgement, returning to look at her notes. She flicked through to find the address of the house she had used for testing her research, thinking about the route.

As her eyes focused on the page, the train car door slammed open with a heavy thud and a young blonde man with purple eyes leapt onboard, yelling out to the station staff. “Do let the driver know, I made it onboard and this thing can get moving. We have a busy day ahead” Everyone word uttered oozed a level of obnoxious authority, that chilled Julis to her core. He then marched into the compartment. Sitting opposite of Julis, a cheery yet unsettling smile plastered across his face. Julis looked up at him, “And you are?”

“Sir Karlois”

She rolled her eyes at the introduction, a fucking knight of the realm, a young one at that, granted honours by the king, that he took seriously enough to mention in his first words to her, a negative impression in this first meeting. He then continued to speak, “I am the liaison sent by the Crown Alchemists, I am attached the research team involved with the Division’s current Royal Directive for the Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Liaison, that is a funny word for what you really are, my Handler. You are in charge of monitoring me, and making sure I don’t escape.” She retorted.

He sighed, crossing his legs and placing his hands on his knees, then speaking to her, his tone an attempted to disarm her. “Yes, that is a more accurate description of my role, much to my own annoyance. You might scoff at the thought of me as a knight, especially for my age, but I’m quite accomplished, in alchemy specialised for combat, my research at the Royal Alchemical Institution was highly respected. But now I find myself babysitting wayward Alchemists like yourself, I don’t like it as much as you do. So lets make a deal okay?”

Julis cocked her head to the side, curious before answering “Let me guess, I make your life easier, and in turn, you run a loose leash and that way the sooner the two of us can part ways never to see each other again? Because if that is the deal, I am more than happy to accept.”

He smirked, nodding at the response. “Exactly, with that attitude, we will get along just fine. I need obviously to be able to provide some substance to my reports, to show we are making some progress, and please don’t actively try to bolt.”

He unbuttoned the jacket of his uniform, reaching into the pocket and pulling out a small metal case. He opened it, presenting a cigarette to the woman standing opposite. “Would you like one, while we chat? And get to know each other?”

She shook her head, “I prefer snuff tobacco, less risk of torching your papers by idly forgetting about it.”

He chuckled and nodded, taking it for himself and lighting it up and taking a long drag. “I know about the extent of your research, and I have to say, I am more than impressed, but we never got to see the research, they never managed to retrieve your journals when you were arrested. I for one think, you are quite the pioneer, but I cannot officially say that in certain circles. More than my knighthood is worth.”

She threw her head back, this obnoxious pretty boy was doing so well with the flattery, all up to that final moment, when he had to mention that his knighthood was the most important thing to him. Deep down, she hoped, this entire venture would enable her to strip him of his dignity and more importantly the ability to refer to himself as a Sir. He took another puff from he cigarette letting the smoke fill the compartment as they made idle chit-chat about research, poetry and the current state of affairs for the remainder of their journey into the Capital.

A few hours had passed, and they found the train pulling into the main station into the capitall, as it did Karlois grabbed his bag and headed to the compartment door, gesturing for the guard to open it. He then turned, ordering Julis. “Please, grab your things, we have an important appointment to make.”

He hurried to the car entrance, letting the station staff slide it open. while Julis grabbed the case from the rack. Following him in a scramble onto the granite platform of central station. Every inch of the complex was an audacious monument, designed to show off the wealth of the kingdom and its commitment to progress, the train-lines serving were the blood vessels spanning to the Kingdom’s four corners.

She stumbled a little as she landed in the platform. Karlois himself standing in awe of the building around them, the smoke from the trains dissipating above them, he reached down into his own leather satchel and pulled out a diary, trying to make out his indecipherable scribbles. He gestured to Julis, and put the diary in front of her. “Can you try and help me work out what I wrote here? I’m convinced it has something to do with our appointment?”

She answered him with a blank stare, in awe of this mans ineptitude, this was the calibre of people they were putting on the Philosopher’s Stone, no wonder they had been getting prisoners involved. She stared at the scribbles on the page, trying to understand before shrugging, “How am I supposed to work out stuff from scribbles you wrote?”

He dramatically took a step back, stunned by her failure, “What do you mean, you cannot make any sense of it? And here I was, convinced you were one of the greatest minds of our generation.”

She stood behind him now, trying to determine whether she should be flattered or insulted by his statement, her instincts about him were right. Obnoxious at every possible level, to degrees that she hadn’t thought even possible. She spoke up, “Shouldn’t we head towards the Crown Alchemist Division building? I have no idea how you lot are operating this search for the Philosopher’s Stone, so how am I supposed to tell you what you need to do.”

He nodded, slamming the diary shut and dropping it back into the Satchel. “Yes, exactly my brilliant thought. We shall head to the Crown Alchemist headquarters.”

She rolled her eyes once more, yes, his brilliant idea, she would let him have it, better to stroke the ego, than constantly beating it out of him, at least for now. She gestured to him to lead them out of the station. He took the lead, mounting the stairs heading up and leading to a raised concourse that allowed a view of all the platforms, ticket inspectors waving them through as he presented official papers. She lowered her head, with a desire to not be perceived by those around her while following him. He marched towards the large archways, that served as the entrance and exit to the building. She watched every movement of his, trying to ascertain what she could from it, he was clearly from a military background of some kind, a regimented footstep, in comparison to her lazy slouching walk. What kind of Alchemist was he, what was his specialism in combat, she herself didn’t really have any, having dabbled across the field herself, medical eventually becoming her own focus for the obvious reasons. She continued to follow behind, contemplating what would happen next, when her opportunity to escape from his grip.

She then spoke up, “So how long have you been involved with the search for the Stone?”

He looked back, his eyes widening a little at Julis’s interest, “So I was brought on slightly after the king had set down the directive to the Alchemists. I was reassigned from my Court posting. I was asked to serve directly at the King’s pleasure for my talents and as a result, earned my knighthood. It was around a month after your arrest and trial, as someone serving his illustrious highness directly, I was one of the people brought in to review what we had obtained on your research.”

She looked at him once more, “I’m not even sure you would have been able to understand my research, or its implications. There are still parts of it, that I am not quite sure about, problems that I still need to solve moving forward. As you said earlier on the train, I did something that was pioneering.”

His gaze remain fixed with hers as they got closer to the exit, “I am curious though, you used yourself as the test subject, why? Others who have engaged with similar research have usually had victims, and suffered worst fates.”

She leaned in and whispered as to keep the secrets around the events close to them, “It was to solve a deeply personal problem, others had mulled the idea over with me, and gave me some guidance. But this was always something to engage with willingly, to blossom into ones truest self.”

He smiled at her answer, however she looked at his with bemusement, puzzled as to whether it was a sincere smile. They then muddled towards the archways, through a couple of streams of travellers arriving ahead of their departure times. Julis squirmed through heaving her case through them. Making way through into the daylight of Belandred. They squinted at the sunlight, before looking to the cobbled streets to get their bearings as to where they would be heading.