(Recap — In the previous part I gave the introducing description of great king Montana Mustachia and of a secret visit to him by his Ex- Army chief in his castle ….)
Both, the great king Montana Mustachia and Ex- army chief ( now working in a clandestine capacity) were engrossed in a deep deliberation in the private chamber of the king. The gist of the report revealed by the Ex- chief of the army in a nutshell was, ” all the alchemists in the kingdom, of both types, be it sponsored by State or by private persons had nothing dubious activities to be noticed on their part or other people coming into contact with. But one, the promising Alchemist, the son- in- law of Feudal Lord Mogatee been noticed some “off the track behaviour” in his deportment. Those were worth noticing.
The great king demanded the detailed report about that. The Ex- Army chief began, “O! Great king! As His Highness already acquainted with the fact that this young Alchemist is counted as one of the best alchemists among the crowd of alchemists of entire kingdom. This was the reason he was taken into deep consideration by this Feudal Lord Magatee at the time. He caught the opportunity and took this young man under his aegis. This Lord offered him all the amenities needed for the costly research work as a private sponsor. The young Alchemist was in his prime youth, good looking and promising, this also prompted the Feudal Lord to accept him as son-in- law and he got his daughter wed locked with him either. In a way, the daughter being the only child of the feudal Lord, now this son- in-law is supposed ti inherit the entire legacy of the Feudal Lord.
This Feudal Lord has assigned him a small castle for the research work. There this alchemist has set up an excellent work shop with all kinds of facilities like furnaces, godowns for storing piles of ores and an updated laboratory type structure. He too been provided the help of gang of laborores. These are entrusted to fetch him different kinds of ores from the distant mountains , base of hills and of different kinds of sand of rivers of the near places. This alchemist too had accepted two young trainees as probationer to assist him in his research work as junior alchemist. His “change” in behaviour firstly began with these new entrants.”
The Ex- Chief took a little pause, cleared his throat and began,” Your Highness might recall that I had informed you one of these two young trainees was the man who already had affiliation with our “mysterious circle.” In fact we had infiltered him there as a mole. The same man had informed us in the past that this alchemist succeeded in obtaining a white shinning soft metal in the furnace processing. Though the metal obtained as such was modicum in quantity. Further, the utility of this newly obtained metal could not be revealed nor it could be disclosed whether this metal was precious or not. I had instructed this trainee to keep a vigilant eye on the progress.
Secondly, this alchemist too is known to discover an another glittering material out of the river sand in the furnace. The entire process to obtain this new material was lengthy and laborious and confined to the Alchemist only as usual. This newly obtained material is reported to be of transparent in nature. This too was informed that this material could be given a shape in mold. Here Ex- Chief halted again. The king was listening the details with his ears pricked on. After a short while Ex- Chief began again-
” O Great king! Here by mischance our this trainee boy committed a blunder. Though he had succeeded to gain the trust of the promising Alchemist but failed to follow his one major strict order.”
“What was that major strict order Chief?” The great king interrupted.
“Great King, the strict order was, whatever the new materials were obtained as new product, they were not permitted to touch in any given situation. Since that trainee was “fixed: there as a spy, he couldn’t contain himself.” On one day, when this Alchemist was on his regular evening perambulation and workshop was devoid of any living soul, our this man in a curiosity took this newly invented transparent material in the hand to observe it intently. There only, the mishap occurred. That transparent material got slipped from the grip of the hand and thumped on the stoned floor. With a jingling sound it got divided into thousand pieces in a friction of second.
Not only this, this piece of transparent material was kept in the inner lab, where the only bare foot entry were allowed. In panic, the bare foot of the trainee was placed over the pulverized pieces of the material. This resulted in several tiny bleeding cuts in the sole of the bare foot and blood began to ooze out. It was a painful experience and furthered the panic of the trainee and those sharp pieces pierced deep into the skin resulting into the profused bleeding. The outcome was more horrible. The entire floor got smeared with bloody foot prints. Hardly he could remove those piercing tiny pieces from the skin of the foot sole that situation worsened.
At that juncture Alchemist appeared back on the spot from his evening walk. Looking at the situation he became furious at once. He made accusation on the trainee for disobeying the strict orders. The trainee was already in great panic and in the nervousness, to defend the cause, he took the support of a lie and told that this was not damaged by him but by the pet dog of the Alchemist. The dog in a spree had begun to take jump and tumbled down the material. This white lie fueled the anger of the Alchemist on the seventh sky. The reason was obvious. His pet dog was in habit to accompany him daily on his regular evening walk. and on that day dog too was along with Alchemist. When this hot altercation was in progress, the another trainee too appeared on the scene and that innocent fellow too got wrapped in the crisis.”
Then what happened?” the King asked with a curiosity.
“What was to happen His Highness! On the spot both the trainees were fired from the workshop service.” Ex- Chief uttered in a defeated tone.
“Could any of these two trainees find some inkling about the newly found material? What was that?” King asked impatiently.
“No, His Highness, it was not revealed! But when Material was thumped on the floor and divided into multiple pieces, our that boy had secured some pieces into his private pocket. I also brought some of them here to show you.” Ex-Chief said. Then he recovered one tiny shining piece out of his inner pocket and handed that over to the king.
“just touch it softly his Highness. If handled hardly it can piece in the skin and make cut and bleed the skin.” EX-Chief softly suggested. The Great King for long kept scrutinizing the tiny piece and then asked staidly, ” whether such material could be used as part of weapon in our army ?”
“It’s hard to predict now His Highness. ” Ex Chief also responded in the same staid tone . ( End of the part 4th. Cont’d.) Penned by– Vinay Pharasi —
