Something was wrong. The door was open. The heavy wooden door of the lab was never left open. Alchemy was a secret science.† (Contrary to popular belief, there are many excellent reasons for all this secrecy. The most obvious reason being that alchemy, while a gift only to the select few, is still very powerful. Many of alchemy's greatest powers have to be kept secret for the safety of its practitioners. For example, changing base metals into gold is actually something that alchemy learned how to do long ago. The difficulty is that in large quantities the process requires so much energy from the alchemist that it usually results in death. Because this minor technicality rarely discouraged a particularly vicious and greedy king or lowlife, secrets such as these are kept secret on pain of death. Toku was not even allowed to tell Sakura, or even his parents, some of what went on behind that sacred door.)

The second clue to the gravity of the situation revealed itself by way of one of the king's private soldiers flying through the open door and landing in a heap on the ground at Toku's feet. While not mortally harmed, the soldier certainly was not getting up any time soon, and Toku could not help but wince at the nasty knock the poor man's head made as it collided with the floor.

Aleric lived in a small chamber in the very back of the lab. He had inherited the lab, all of its equipment, and its vast library from his master, who had inherited it in turn from his master. In fact, the line of master alchemists that had used this particular lab stretched as far back as anyone could gather from the scant records that still remained. Some even thought that Aleric's particular line went even farther back than the Great War that had driven them below the earth.

Aleric had not slept at all. He had more important things to worry about than sleep. Sometime around the fifth bell he had begun to nod over the ancient parchment he was reading, but a quick gulp out of one of the many vials on his shelf purged his body of fatigue and made his mind spark alive again. To be truthful, Aleric was worried. Very worried. Toku was the closest thing he had to family, and he loved him like a son. What had happened to Toku yesterday made absolutely no sense. Matter simply could not be destroyed in that way through any alchemical method he knew of—and if he did not know of a way, then Toku certainly did not. Toku had been having difficulties with his concentration for a few weeks now. But yesterday's incident seemed to be something of a different sort. Toku was an excellent alchemist given his age and training. Aleric knew he would one day become an even greater alchemist than himself, so it certainly was not becoming of his young apprentice to lose concentration in the middle of experiments. What worried Aleric most of all was the possibility that Toku's incident in the lab could have something to do with Gin's current project.

Leicho Gin's visit had bad news written all over it. There was a rumor going around the alchemy circles that she was researching Elixir. In all his years of study, Aleric had never read of anyone ever coming close to making the famed substance. Legend had it that just a drop of Elixir would give even a mediocre alchemist unprecedented interconnectivity with the subatomic world. Some equations even postulated the possibility that one could ignore the law of conservation of mass through the aid of the Elixir—the Philosopher's Stone. The ability to create...or destroy...by merely willing it. While the idea was theoretically exciting...the thought of such a power in the wrong hands was absolutely terrifying.

Now Gin was going throughout the kingdom recruiting sub-level alchemists. This was what worried Aleric the most. In the past some alchemists had sought to create the substance through some of the most horrific methods conceivable. Their lust for power had even led them to try draining the alchemical power out of other alchemists. He did not want Toku anywhere near that sort of possibility. In a way, then, what had happened the previous morning was a blessing in disguise.

While Aleric was busy with all these worries, he had not even noticed the sound of the door being forced open. What he did hear, though, was the sound of the first bell reverberating through the tunnels. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he got up to prepare the day's work. What he found upon opening the door into the main lab was roughly fifteen of the King's personal soldiers with swords unsheathed, the needle-sharp tips pointed right at him.

A voice came from behind the wall of darkly-clad soldiers.

"Very good timing of you, Aleric. We were beginning to wonder if anyone was home."

Leicho Gin pushed herself through the soldiers, her white robes standing out against the black backdrop of the soldier's dark mail.

"Well, I am home, and it is very rude for guests to show up uninvited without at least informing the host of the purpose of their visit."

But Gin did not answer. Instead she drew out from her robes a tube of white powder. Quickly pulling the stopper off, she tossed it at the aged alchemist.

"You can worry about why we are here after you wake up," she said dryly.

Aleric did not have enough time to adequately prepare himself. But Aleric was good—very good. He instantly calmed himself into the alchemical meditative state that allowed him to feel and practically see the molecules around him. Usually an alchemist required the aid of amplification liquids and the gold and lead electrodes to reach this depth of concentration, but Aleric was no usual alchemist.

A sedative!

Sensing the nature of the powder now flying through the air towards him, Aleric quickly focused his energy on the water vapor in the air immediately around him. Although he could not transmute atoms (that was beyond even his abilities without other chemicals and an alchemical basin), he was still able to absorb the energy out of the molecules. As the heat diffused out of the air, a dense fog collected around the old man. The water vapor in the air condensed and became a miniature rainstorm that caught much of the white powder and splashed it to the ground into a puddle. All of this happened in less than a second. However, some of the powder still found its mark.

Leicho Gin did not waste any time. She had not actually expected things to be so easy, after all. She respected Aleric's abilities much more than that.

"Some of the sedative will have taken effect. Go ahead and take him." Giving a nod to the soldiers, Gin retreated behind the line of advancing military might, out of harm's way. The soldiers were a bit reluctant to move forward at first, having just witnessed what appeared to them to be nothing less than magic. However, with Gin's cold face between them and the exit, there was nothing to do but go forward.

The sedative had indeed done its job. Aleric was having trouble concentrating. The world blurred and everything seemed to move a little too quickly. But he still had plenty of fight left in him. Seeing the points of the advancing swords, he knew he did not want to find out what Gin had in mind for him. Taking a deep breath, he again retreated into a meditative state. Stretching his arm out he felt the air all around him. This time, instead of taking energy from the molecules, he gave more to them. The air superheated in an instant, expanding to ten times its normal volume. One of the laws of the universe is that two points of mass cannot hold the same position at the same time. The soldiers found this out the hard way. As the air expanded, it displaced the soldiers, right off their feet and into the wall behind them. One soldier got off easy—he missed the wall, but went careening right down the hall and out the open door to land unconscious at the feet of a surprised young man.

Fearing for his master's life, that same young man foolishly barged right into the lab. Now, it would be wrong to entirely fault Toku for this (for the young man was Toku, of course). Really, the act was quite brave in its own way. Unfortunately, it also resulted in Toku being blown back against the wall of the lab as soon as he had entered. What Toku saw through his winced eyes, already watering from the blow to the back of his head, was Master Aleric, surrounded by the King's soldiers, performing some of the most amazing alchemy Toku had ever seen. Aleric was a master of his craft in the highest order, and when that craft is alchemy, it is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Aleric was holding his own despite the effects of the tranquilizer. The soldiers soon discovered it is quite difficult to capture someone who keeps turning the air into his own personal explosive. Toku sat stunned against the back wall. All he could do was watch. His nose had started to bleed again, and his head was throbbing.

Finally, after having some strange liquid thrown on him that dissolved his sword into a puddle on the floor, one of the soldiers got the idea that they were not going to be able to beat this fiery old man by force alone. Taking careful survey of the room, he noticed Toku lying unresponsive against the wall. Letting his companions continue the attack, he unsheathed his knife and grabbed Toku around his neck, with Toku's head sticking out from the soldier's armpit. The combination of being forcefully picked up and the rank smell wafting through Toku's nostrils and into his consciousness from the soldier's underarm roused Toku a bit. Although his head hurt too much to struggle, his mouth worked fine, and he wasted no time in making his protest known.

"Hey! What are you doing? Put me down! What are you doing to Master Aleric? PUT ME DOWN!!" The last yell managed to exceed even the din of the fighting, and with echoes upon echoes reverberating through the lab, everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned towards the noisy interruption.

Aleric, who was just about to freeze all the water that was now on the floor to send the soldiers slipping and sliding right out of the lab, immediately grasped the gravity of the situation. He placed the vial he was holding on the lab bench and dropped his eyes to the ground. In a sad, low voice he turned towards Toku and said, "Of all the days that you would come to the lab early, Toku. Are you hurt badly?"

Toku did look and awful sight, with blood running down his face and all over the front of his robes. As he was about to answer his master, a quick squeeze from the soldier told him to keep quiet.

"Alright, Alchemist. You put up a good fight, but the time is over for all that. Come with us and nothin' 'appens to the lad," the soldier said, keeping a wary eye on Aleric.

"Very well."

Although Toku was quite worried about this sudden change in events from the rest of his morning, he still could not stifle his excitement when they passed through the great iron gate and into the King's Corridor. Of all the tunnels Toku had seen in his life, this was by far the largest and most beautiful. Intricate engravings painted in bright colors passed him on either wall. Where there were not engravings, the walls were decorated with stunning paintings and towering murals depicting noble kings of the past and their glorious battles against the Upper Kingdom. Toku liked one painting in particular. It was a picture of a mighty knight atop some sort of animal Toku had never seen before. It was riding on green ground and the ceiling was blue! Toku could only image what a wonderful place the Upper World must be with green and blue dirt! In the distance, high above the mounted knight was a bright circular disk that looked like it was painted out of solid gold. Toku remembered some stories he had heard about the sun, but this was the first time he had ever seen a picture of it. The mythical sun—a lantern that hung in the sky and could bathe all of the crossroads in its warm glow. Warmth swelled within Toku's breast even as the solemn group passed out of sight of the beautiful mural into a side passage that immediately began slithering down deeper into the earth.

The tunnel became darker, more dank, and colder the farther they went. Several foreboding passages snaked off to either side, but they continued straight down. Finally they reached the end of the horrible tunnel, which was now growing dark even to Toku's eyes. There before the group stood a black cast-iron door that was not at all friendly like the doors back in the Third Residential Shaft. This door had a much darker purpose, as anyone could tell by looking at it. As the soldier pulled back on the handle, the door groaned and struggled to remain closed. Behind the dark door was an even darker room. The chamber was horribly small, only enough room for an average-sized person to lay down diagonally. All six surfaces of the room were perfectly smooth and clean. Toku noticed that even the door had been backed with the same dull stone that made up the rest of the chamber. He shuddered to think what it would be like to be locked in such a place, knowing that this was exactly what was likely to happen to his master.

As if in response to Toku's thoughts, the soldiers pushed Aleric into the cell.

"At least may I have one final word with my apprentice before you close that door for good?" Aleric's voice startled Toku in the midst of the dreary silence.

The soldiers looked at each other. Leicho Gin was not around, and the fact was that many of the soldiers there had looked up to Aleric, especially when they thought he was going to get the position of King's Alchemist. The soldier holding Toku slipped the knife back in its sheath and let Toku loose.

"Alright, go ahead. Just don't take too long. Oh, and hold on." The soldier turned Toku around and gave him a quick pat-down. He stopped at Toku's pocket, and pulled out the mysterious sphere that Toku had completely forgotten about in all the excitement. The ball was no longer giving off its strange light, and now looked only like a dull, scuffed-up metal globe.

"Don't worry, son, I'll give this back to you when you're done talkin'. There's no tellin' what an alchemist like 'im could do with any ordinary little thing you might 'ave stuffed in your pockets." Turning to Aleric the soldier said, kindly, "We'll give you about five minutes, alrigh'? I know we shouldn't be doin' this, but the fact of the matter is none of us here feel much too right about the whole situation and all. It's a real shame if you ask me. Alright then, get goin'"

Toku staggered forward a bit before he found his balance again. The soldiers waited about ten meters up the tunnel, leaving Aleric and his apprentice some privacy while keeping them well within sight.

"What's going on, Master? Why did they take you here?"

"Listen, Toku, we don't have much time, and I doubt Leicho will be as kind as my current captors. I'm here because she knows I would be in the way."

"In the way of what?" Toku asked, unable to understand.

"Please, just be quiet and listen!" Aleric's stern eyes quieted any more questions burning in Toku's mind. "I think she is after the Philosopher's Stone. I don't know how she's planning on making it, but I fear the worst. She's a brilliant alchemist, but ambitious...too ambitious for her or anyone else's good. But don't worry, I'll be okay. What I need you to do is to go and tell the king what is going on. If I can talk to him, I think everything will be okay. I can make him understand."

"What!? The king? You want me to talk to the king? How?"

"Any way that you can! In the meantime, be sure and steer clear of Leicho and anyone else you think might be in with her."

"But I still don't understand! What does all of this have to do with you? If no one has been able to make the Philosopher's Stone up until now, why does it matter if Master Gin tries? Why have they arrested you? What is going on?"

"I'm sorry, Toku, I can't give you all the answers just yet. You just have to trust me and do as I say."