Chapter 23: A New Race

  Altaya

  If the situation wasn’t so unexpected Julien’s expression would’ve made Altaya laugh. As it was she had to Suppress a nervous giggle when Petra went to a glass cabinet and pulled out a leather roll. She went to a table and unrolled the package. Inside the roll were an assortment of tools that looked more like torture devices than medical tools. She pulled a very thin metal sliver with a glass cylinder attached to one side. She fiddled with a piece of wood sticking out of the back of the cylinder before she turned unceremoniously toward Julien a manic look in her eye. Altaya stepped forward intending to stop the obviously unstable woman but an arm shot out in front of her stopping her.

  She turned to see the King staring at her with a amused expression.

  “I know you’ve never experienced her methods before but there is a reason she is the only one in our kingdom the Elves allowed to inherit the ancient practices. I promise you she means no harm to my son.” Altaya returned the stare but ultimately backed up. The King seemed to know more about this than she did. Hopefully he would explain. And she wasn’t disappointed. After Petra busied herself with a clean white rag as she poured an aweful smelling liquid on it and approached a stunned Julien.

  Altaya didn’t even have time to react as Petra swiftly pulled up the arms on one side of Julien’s tunic before wiping his arm down with the rag and plunging the cylinder shaped device into his arm. Julien jerked away eliciting a hiss of pain.

  “Stay put Prince!” Petra ordered with uncommon sternness. “If you move now you can cause me to harm you by accident.”

  “She is taking a vial of his blood,” the king explained next to her.

  “Why would she do that?” Altaya asked, and she couldn’t hide the mild disgust in her voice. The king looked at her with simple amusement.

  “There are many reasons but from the way she described it to me every living thing has markers in their blood. They are so tiny that they can’t be seen by the eyes.”

  “Then how does she know this if she can’t see it with her eyes?” Altaya was skeptical of all this. She’d never been one for religion either and this sounded an aweful lot like it. Of course she was actively trying not to think about the changes to her body in that light. The only thing that could change them to that extent would have to be one of the primordials or gods as the church calls them.

  She shook her head to dislodge these thoughts as she realized Petra was now slowly pulling the wooden stick attached to the back of the cylinder backwards slowly. Thick golden liquid traveled from Julien’s arm into the cylinder.

  Altaya was transfixed by the sight of the shimmering golden blood. Even Petra let out a small gasp when seeing the golden hue of the blood. It really managed to drive home to her in that moment just how different she was from how she used to be.

  She looked down briefly at her arms. Just how much of her had changed? There was no real way to know.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Watch carefully now,” The King Darius stated as he slapped her on the shoulder with affection. “She is going to take that blood and run it through that weird contraption.” He pointed over toward a wooden frame with many levers and dials with many concentric circle of glass lenses all looking down at a small plate of glass.

  Altaya moved across the room as Petra wrapped Julien’s arm in a bandage before she carried the cylinder containing her friends blood over to the contraption.

  “According to what she has shown me that thing is called a seeing scope it allows her to see the markers I talked about earlier. Apparently she can read the markers to get different information.”

  “Like what?” Altaya had to admit she was intrigued by this point. Besides it had been awhile since she had seen the man who was like an uncle to her so excited. His bearded face broke with a wide grin at her question.

  “Petra says a curious mind is the first indicator someone could be a learner of the Ancient Science. Anyway it can tell her many things. According to her the markers hold much information, such as the the formation of one’s body, what gender you are, what kind and color of eyes you have, what species or race you are, and many many more things. It is the secret code that makes up all living things.”

  Altaya blinked, as she stared at her king a mixture of awe and dread filling her as understanding dawned in her mind. This contraption could possibly tell them exactly what happened to them. It might even tell them how they could reverse it. Julien who had just wondered over and even Carlouse, Aramin, and Katrina who had been quiet until now were now staring at the king.

  Altaya could see mixed feeling upon their faces. It was Petra who crushed their mood though.

  “Oh it should be quite revealing but it won’t tell me how to reverse it. I don’t think that’s even possible. Whatever has happened to you it even altered your blood’s composition, I highly doubt it can be reversed.” Beside her Katrina reeled like she had been struck but the rest just moved in closer to see what Petra was doing. Altaya was forced to move again as her excitement was now also rising and she wanted to see what Petra would do.

  she had already guessed that the transformation was permanent based on how everything felt different for her now. Petra grabbed two small hair things pieces of glass from a drawer. One was slightly bigger than the other. She once again manipulated the wooden stick hanging on the outside of cylinder until a drop felt from the thin metal sliver onto the bigger of the glass squares. Then she placed the other glass square on top before putting it on the glass plate directly u see the lenses.

  “I need light a lot of it please light six of the extra lanterns you’ll find them in the drawers over there,” Petra directed them. Carlouse was the first to move but followed him. It took them a few minutes to find a flint and steel but they lit all the lanterns and returned to Petra who directed them to hold them in the air at different intervals. There even seemed to be hooks hanging from the ceiling over the contraption for such things.

  The room went deathly silent as Petra leaned forward and looked through the lenses. For a tense couple of minutes no one spoke as they studied Petra for any reaction. For a long moment Petra made no reaction. Altaya was the first to see it. A slight shaking of the knees. Then Petra’s whole body was shaking. She leapt forward just as the older woman collapsed her eyes as wide as dinner plates. She caught the woman and moved her away to the same low bench she had directed Julien to sit on.

  “What did you see?” Altaya asked. Petra looked up at her a vacant expression in her eyes. But there was now a hint of fear in them as well.

  “What did you see!?” The demand came from the King as he marched over the excitement gone, replaced with the worry of a father.

  Petra’s voice was shaky but cold when she spoke and it sent shivers down her spine.

  “They are not human Your Majesty of that you can be assured. Neither are they self, Dwarf, Beastman, fairy, nor any of the other races.” She paused and Altaya saw her swallow hard before she continued.

  “In fact they are not like any other race on this world. They are something completely new! A new Race entirely!”