Capitol City
836 AC
Three hours after the League invasion started
Inside the collapsed Haberdashery

The young lieutenant had listened, as if enthralled, as the Man in the Suit recounted the exploits of a certain Baroness from Sternbergen. What started innocently enough, a high-society soiree with dinners, petticoats, gossips and wagers - but also backroom dealings, attempts to intercept despatches, cyphers... culminated in a heinous aeritime crime that resulted in over sixty deaths (of which "accident" Lieutenant Gladston remembered reading in the Aecumen times).

"By Jove, Sir, I think I found it." Lieutenant Gladston produced a dusty monocle from somewhere inside the rubble. He shook it off and wiped it with his handkerchief. "It's a bit dusty, Sir, but none the worse for wear."

"Thank the Gods for small mercies, Lieutenant." The man in the suit put the monocle on and adjusted it a bit. "Ah, much better. I can actually see what is written now. But its value is mostly nostalgic - I've mulled over these papers for so long, I know most of their contents by rote."

It had been maybe an hour or so, and so far, there was hardly any indication of a rescue attempt. Both men knew that it sometimes took a day or more to mobilize the rescue crews. But with a war on, who knew?

"But Sir, did I hear you correctly? Did you just say the ruby was The Stone of the Philosophers?"

"I did tell you, lieutenant, that the story would turn out to be quite preposterous."

"Preposterous" was one way of putting it. When the story last left off, Clarissa was captured, taken to a League ship, a witness to an atrocity, tortured, and threatened with execution.

"What do you know of the concept of the Stone of the Philosophers, lieutenant?"

"Enough to know that it's balderdash. Supposedly able to transmute metals into gold, and give eternal life."

"That's the superficial meaning of it, as popularly understood. It is also completely wrong. To those more familiar with alchymical writings - and, over the recent decade or so, this description unfortunately came to include me - it's a bit more complex than that. Alchymists do not like sharing their little secrets, and I shan't repeat too much here - but you will be interested to know that the stone that Freiherrin Engels wore around her neck did not, in fact, provide eternal life, or the ability to create endless mountains of gold, on its own. It is, however, a substance that would allow a skilled alchymist to do... a lot of things they normally wouldn't be able to. Even transmutation of metals becomes possible, though quite slow and not very efficient."

"You mean to say that such a thing really exists?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that the material is not only known to exist, but its use is well understood and documented, and utilized even by the Admiralty?"

"If that was the case, it would be my first hearing about this, Sir."

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Archimedean Quest #3