But she wouldn’t fail! Not with both Simon and Imogen at stake.
Kate scrubbed at her face to push away the grit in her eyes. She had been at it all day and very deep into the night. Forcing her burning eyes to scrutinize the spell again, she looked for some element she could seize and conform to her personal use. It was a matter of separating the components of the spell into their unique forms and functions. A portion here regarding the blood of the heart. A fragment there describing the drawing of the aether. She scribbled a new base formula. Crossed it out and tried again. If only she could find a way to reduce the amount of blood needed as well as increase the life span of its transformation.
It was possible there was no way to use the spell to restore magical power without giving up her life. After all she had preached to Simon about the selfishness of sacrifice, that would be ironic to say the least. The stakes were higher though. Was self-sacrifice ever the final recourse? To save the lives of those she loved? To save countless millions?
Perhaps that was how Ash justified her actions using the blood of innocents to achieve immortality. Ash believed it was her right as an ancient guardian, or whatever the hell she believed she was. This was magic that was tainted by the very act of the user. It was a dark art when used for dark purposes.
Kate knew she could never use a blood spell in its true form. Not to save Britain, not even to save Simon or Imogen. Perhaps she might have once, she might have been enticed by the intellectual challenge, but that already felt like eons ago. However, this blood spell showed her that the impossible was possible. That was the key to magic. With an exhausted sigh, Kate returned to her books and to what seemed to be a library full of blank walls.
The next thing Kate knew, it was hours later and the door opened. In surged Penny, wearing a thick leather apron and smelling of soot and smoke. She appeared even more excited than was usual when in the process of inventing.
“I need you to look at something.”
“Of course.” Kate leaned back from her papers. She wasn’t even surprised that Penny was still awake too. “What do you have?”
“You know, I’ve been trying to forge a new key. So I’ve been studying the original hoping to discover its creation mechanism. I found something odd in the key’s makeup. Some strange substance.”
Kate’s curiosity rose as Penny brought the gold key to Kate’s microscope on the opposite table. The young engineer adjusted the settings on the device and made room for Kate.
“Here, look. Tell me what this is.”
Kate pressed her eye to the lens. She gasped. “I can’t believe I missed this.”
Penny blushed sheepishly. “Well, it’s not really obvious until you chip away a bit of the gold. I had to in order to test the density. I had no idea the core of it was that.”
Kate retrieved some liquid from a shelf and proceeded to test the substance under the microscope. After several minutes of painstaking work, she proved what she suspected. She sat back in astonishment.
“Well, what is it?” Penny asked, unable to stand the suspense.
“If I’m not mistaken, that substance is similar to something ancient magi called a spirit stone. A conglomeration, that when properly treated by an alchemist, absorbs the spirits of the dead.”
“Eww,” was Penny’s reaction. “That doesn’t sound good. Why is it in our key?”
Kate looked through the microscope again. “This conglomeration isn’t a true spirit stone. It’s similar but different. This harnesses another mystical substance, namely aether. Do you know what this means? An alchemist was also involved in the forging of the key!” Kate felt closer to her father than ever before. The wonder of it made her reel. “Everything makes sense suddenly. This component is what brought the key back even after Ra’s power drained it. The alchemy in the key continued to work and slowly allowed the metal to be infused with aether again.”
“Can you make such a thing?”
“Perhaps.” Kate glanced back at the scroll and her mountain of notes. Possibilities yawned wide before her. The formula began to make more sense. She knew what she needed to do. She had the mechanism right here in her hand. Impulsively she hugged a surprised Penny.
“So this is a good thing?”
“It’s a bloody fantastic thing, Penny! The conglomeration is the piece that we’ve been missing. With that, we can bring Simon’s aether back to him.”
“Are you serious?” Penny gaped.
“Very!”
“So we don’t need to use that revolting blood spell then?”
“Only parts of it. I will adapt the blood spell with my alchemy. The basic transformational principle should combine with the absorption properties of the conglomeration.”
“I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying, but if it brings Simon’s aether back, I’m excited.”