Dawn was breaking when Siderius returned to the camp. His eyesight became worse and evoking any alchemical process now would be a disaster.
He did the sensible thing and went to sleep. The makeshift shelter was already crumbling down a bit and would need to be rebuilt soon.
"Ah. I need to build myself a better hideout." Siderius mumbled.
A good base provided a good environment for training. Siderius hadn’t even started training this body yet with all the work that needed to be done.
Once everything settled down, he would need to be more serious about his training. Making concoctions to elevate this body’s attributes, training muscle memory, engraving alchemical seals.
So many things that could be improved.
Tasks that were suitable for another day.
Siderius closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.
This time, he met Lyara again. However, it was no longer a dream.
Lyara was sitting at an open field with a giant umbrella above her head. In front of her were two muscular men fighting each other.
Suddenly, she felt a pull.
Normally she wasn’t able to connect with Siderius because his mental fortitude was too strong. But whenever he was asleep, this wall became weaker and she could call upon him.
Only in Lyara’s vision did Siderius appear. He stood beside her, watching the men throwing themselves at each other violently.
"So this is what you witches do for fun." He said.
"Of course not, my love. They are simply fighting each other for a little favor of mine. They want to have tea with me.
Being a High Lady as I am, I have no time for such things. But maybe if they make a good show, I’ll reconsider."
Lyara picked up a pristine teapot with her hands. Her pinky finger stretched out in a delicate way.
"Leave me alone, witch."
Siderius’ body slowly faded as he disconnected their link. But Lyara pulled him back.
"You would want to hear this, my love."
Siderius stopped for a moment. He gave her the chance to speak.
"My offer still stands, Snow. Come to me and I will show you the path of our kind. Your magic must have gone haywired for the last few days, yes?
I can help you. And I can promise you this. No more tricks.
I won’t touch you unless you allow me to do so."
"You killed my mother, Lyara."
"For that, I am sorry. But she’s just a human, Snow. And human lives are fragile.
Sooner or later they will die. Either of old age or sickness. But we won’t. We can live forever."
Siderius raised his eyebrows. Lyara caught his attention. Eternal life was what he was after all along.
"I see that you’re interested. Have you ever heard of the fountain of youth, my love?"
Siderius shook his head.
"It is where we draw our power from. It makes us immortal and forever young. Don’t you want that, my love?"
As soon as Lyara heard that, her eyes perked up with joy. Snow never showed any interest in anything she promised him. Not love, lust, nor wealth.
But for the first time, she could finally feel the emotion that she found in every other man. Desire.
The desire for immortality. Who knew this lowborn circus boy had such a big ambition?
"Then..." Lyara opened her mouth
But Siderius interrupted, "But you still killed my mother, witch. There is no way I will forgive you.
And as I already said. I will kill everyone you hold most dear, Lyara. Then I will make you beg for death.
Siderius severed their connection.
Lyara wasn’t offended by him. Rather, she was more intrigued. She wanted to see how long he could last and how far he could go on his own. Witches needed the fountain of youth to advance. Without this, they had no way to develop their power. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs noᴠelfire.net
"I will have you, Snow. One way or another."
Lyara had stopped the news about Snow escaping and letting him go free for a long time. But now, she would have her people go after him.
She hoped he wouldn’t be caught that soon. Lyara would be disappointed if that’s the case.
The witch of Blossom Glades lifted her fingers. A quilt pen in her hand turned into a raven.
"Go. Have the servants come after him."
"As you wish, my lady."
The raven bowed then flew away.
Siderius woke up in the middle of the night.
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 57/125]
Finally, another psychosis point was lowered. Sleep also lost its potency. Now needed at least two good sleeps to affect the psychosis.
Siderius began his night with the usual meditation.
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 56/125]
Luckily, the meditation technique still had a conversion rate of one point per two hours.
Siderius wasted two hours to lower one point then stopped.
He feasted on his hunted meat then grabbed a bag of salt and the bag of pyrites to go inside Mucktown.
Now he needed to extract Sulfur from the pyrite. The simplest way was to use fire. A very high temperature fire.
He couldn’t make this fire with the survival fire camp that he built. Siderius needed a proper forge that could go to hundreds of Celsius.
George had left town but his forge was still there. It should be abandoned at the moment.
It was the perfect place for Siderius to conduct his alchemy.
Before going inside Mucktown, Siderius went to check up on Ashe first.
Surprisingly, Siderius found one of the previous thugs that he had recruited sleeping on the porch of Ashe’s house.
When the thug saw Siderius, he immediately stood up and bowed.
"Greetings, Lord Watcher!"
He learned fast. The thug even knew how to do a formal greeting to his superior. Siderius suspected that it was Kraus who told them to do this.
"Greetings, brother. Why are you here?"
"I’m here to protect the handler, Lord Watcher!"
"Good man. I haven’t asked your name yet."
"My name is Billy, Lord Watcher."
"Why don’t you go for a patrol around the area, Billy? I need to have a word with the handler."
"Of course, Lord Watcher!"
Billy the former thug went away with high spirit. He really thought himself to be a member of Xander. A guild that Siderius had completely made up.
This wasn’t a bad thing. They needed to believe in something.
Ashe was kneeling at the fireplace in the house. She was still hard-working on her truth-seeking path.
Siderius knocked on the side of the door to catch her attention.