The thunderous sound of the explosion was still ringing in my ears, as the door of the strange house in front of us flew open and a soot-covered figure came dashing out. My first instinct was to protect myself and Sigmir, making me jump back and position the blades in front of me, forming them into a petal-like shield. Sigmir moved in a similar fashion, cautiously blocking in front of me, ready to move from defence into offence at the drop of a hat.

Given that the soot-covered guy wasn’t wearing any armour, there were no weapons visible and I could not detect any sort of powerful magical emanations coming from him that hinted at the use of serious magic, I refrained from following the maxim that the best defence was a good offence. Frankly, the guy looked almost like a stereotypical mad scientist gone steampunk, it made me wonder if it was on purpose.

He stopped a couple of metres from the door, ignoring the dark smoke still pouring out of it, bent over and started coughing his lungs up. It looked quite pitiful, but it gave me a bit of time to look closer. He was wearing a simple, undyed coat of some unknown material and leather goggles with a variety of arms sticking from the headband, all holding extra lenses that looked like they could be moved in front of his eyes, similar to a monocle or magnifying glass. A glance with Lenore’s sight showed me there was delicate magic in all of those goggles but from afar, I was unable to see any details.

Sigmir and I watched for a minute or two, until the strange guy stopped coughing and slowly pushed himself into an upright position, still wheezing from the exertion.

“Leonard, I presume?” I asked, stepping up a little. I was still vigilant but had moved the blades from the shield-like petal formation in front of me into a less threatening one, where they were hovering behind my shoulders.

“Whu…? Who?” he looked around confused and I noticed that soot had completely covered his goggles black, making them impossible to see through. As I was watching, he reached up, wiping across them to clear some of it, only managing in smearing it around. Finally, he opened a clasp at the back, letting them drop to hang around his neck and look at me directly.

“Whoa, you’re Morgana!” he exclaimed, only to start coughing again, the sudden shout too much for his still strained lungs.

“That, I am.” I nodded, chuckling a little at the display. Finally, he managed to get his breath back and under control, looking at me with a mix of awe, curiosity and longing.

“Come in, come in, I’ve got a few things I want to ask you!” he exclaimed, reaching out to grab me. Instinctively, I stepped back, dodging his reaching arm, only for the arm to get stopped well before ever getting hear me, the spike of Sigmir’s axe blocking the way.

“If you want to keep the hand, don’t try grabbing her,” Sigmir told him, her voice completely devoid of emotions, no anger, no passion, merely a freezingly cold warning. And yet, that cold voice made my heart beat a little faster.

“Oh, okay,” Leonard nodded, looking rather confused. “Well, if you would follow me?” he asked, slowly backing away, trying to invite us in.

“What a strange male,” Sigmir muttered under her breath, making me chuckle as we followed the weird guy into the equally weird house.

Inside, the air was still filled with smoke and soot, pouring out of one of the doors in a thick, black cloud. While I was small enough to be mostly below the smoke, Sigmir was getting a face full of it. Frowning, I mentally asked Lenore for help and she obediently shifted out of her Hallow, emerging on my shoulder and quickly cast a wind spell, causing a strong wind to blow through the building, dispersing the smoke.

And causing Leonard to panic, “Stop, stop, my notes!” he yelled, making Lenore stop her magic halfway, leaving quite a bit of smoke still polluting the air around us. There were also sheaves of paper, fluttering in the wind, dancing like blown leaves.

“Dammit, I’ll have to clean that up later,” Leonard cursed, before opening one of the doors and calling us in.

Inside was a simple kitchen, only that half of the kitchen looked more like some sort of alchemist’s laboratory, making me wonder if the guy combined the two disciplines. However, looking at the general state of hygiene in the area, I also made a mental note not to consume anything I hadn’t conjured up myself. While I might have a decently high Vitality and Endurance, I had no interest in finding out how well those attributes protected me from disease.

“Have a seat, please,” he gestured to two of the chairs, before walking back out. Sigmir and I sat down, not quite sure what was going on. I could hear him bustle around in other parts of the house, maybe cleaning up or something and idly played with Sigmir’s fingers, gently caressing and teasing them. Finally, after a few minutes, he returned, plopping down across the table from the two of us.

“Morgana, I saw the last reel and heard that halfling mention your name. Can you give me some details, please?” he asked, his voice filled with anticipation and longing. Unbridled curiosity was shining from his eyes, almost causing sparks to spontaneously appear around his head.

“That entirely depends on what sort of details you want. I don’t know how exactly she did what she did, but I can make educated guesses. However, I won’t blindly share the ideas we discussed in the past and how I think she expanded upon them, those secrets are hers to keep or share,” I tried to slow down his enthusiasm from the start, to make sure there were no false expectations. I wouldn’t just give away Malachite’s work, not after she had done the hard part and demonstrated what was possible. Replicating someone else’s success was always easier than breaking new ground.

I could see Leonard deflate, but he nodded. “Fair,” he let out a sigh, “I guess I have to be content with that.”

With a nod, I began to share the very basics of Alchemy, on a level he most likely already understood and from there, I slowly began to explain the direction in which Malachite had gone. From the questions he asked, it was obvious that he had some understanding of it and was able to follow along and likely extrapolate from there, but I didn’t feel I had given him too much to go on. It would still take a lot of work to get anywhere close to the things Malachite had been working on and was likely now expanding on.

Finally, after a while and two mugs of Liquid Moonlight to keep my throat moisturised, Leonard let out yet another sigh.

“I think I can see where she’s going and from what I saw in the ‘reel, I believe I even understand some of the mechanisms involved,” he shook his head again, an expression of awe on his face, “Using opposite forces, to create resonance, causing an exponential build-up from the Astral, until saturation and catastrophe are reached,” he sighed once more, a look of longing in his eyes.

“If you are interested, I might be able to introduce the two of you, so you can discuss your different approached to the topic?” I suggested, quite interested in what would happen if the two of them got together and going. If I managed to set their meeting up in my capsule space, I would be able to listen in and while I wasn’t focused on Alchemy, the principles could be applied to magic as well, at least to a degree. Maybe there’d be quite a bit of utility in their discussion.

“You would do that?” he asked, his earlier dejection utterly gone. “That would be so great!”

“Well, I might, if you tell me something about your work,” I challenged him, an eyebrow raised. My challenge must have been exactly the right or the wrong thing. Either way, it was enough to get him to let out a stream of consciousness, words pouring from his mouth without break, as he enthusiastically described his efforts to merge woodworking, smithing, alchemy and pure magic. His goal was to make magical tanks, or at least, that was what it sounded like. There was something in there about walkers, mechas and similar things, but by that point, his ideas had left the realm of possibility behind, diverging firmly into pure fantasy and dreams. Why one would want to make a steam-powered, giant robot was beyond me, but it sounded very much like that was his ultimate goal.

After a while, I decided that putting him together with Mal would be the best thing to do, at least if Mundus survived the result. Either way, it would be interesting.