NOTE: This chapter begins something that a number of my readers and reviewers have asked about in response to various earlier fics. So...if you still remember that you asked for it, enjoy!
The residents of Argentine Way were used to displays of wealth and power, from the elegant and understated to the fantastically ostentatious. The street was, after all, home to the mansions of Court ministers, the townhouses of the aristocracy, and the homes of the wealthiest of the nouveau riche bourgeois. If anything, the servants treated the unusual with even more aplomb than their masters according to the rigid codes of belowstairs society, however a-twitter they might be among themselves.
Nonetheless, when two jewel-toned dragons, the lead one the reddish purple of garnet and the trailing one the pale green of jade, spiraled down out of the sky to land within the boundaries of one of the estates, more than one pair of eyes were turned upwards and more than one mouth gaped open.
Had they been able to see the rider who descended from the garnet dragon, they would have gaped even more. Though he wore elegant hand-tooled riding leathers suitable for an aristocrat, his hands were covered in bronze fur and their thick fingers tipped with nonretractable claws while a tufted, furred tail protruded from the back of his breeches. These qualities were strictly secondary ones, reflecting the fact that the man's head was that of a great male lion, at least twice the size of an ordinary human head and with a wild, flowing mane.
With his companion from the second dragon trailing just behind him, the lion-headed man crossed the lawn and went up to the front steps. A footman answered his knock and wasn't able to suppress a flinch at the spectacle.
"Dr. Chartreuse Grande to see Miss Blan," he said in an urbane, educated voice.
"Y-yes, sir," the footman stammered.
"Don't worry, Will; I'll take care of things." Chartreuse couldn't see at first who'd spoken, as the owner of the high-pitched, childlike voice was hidden behind the footman. In the next moment, he stepped into sight, revealing himself as an elf dressed in traditional green. Seeing him next to the servant, Chartreuse realized that the footman's livery suggested the style of the elven outfit as closely as it could while still maintaining its identity as proper livery.
"Do you have any luggage, Doc?" the elf asked.
"Yes, and our mounts will need stabling and fodder, as they were bred rather than summoned."
The elf nodded.
"All right. Will, you and Eric go and get the Doctor and his companion's bags and bring them to the red and blue bedrooms. Have Jenna see to the dragons."
"Yes, sir. D-dragons?"
"Of course dragons. What else do you expect a master magician to ride?"
"Y-yes, sir." The footman scuttled off.
"Come on, Doc. Lillet and Amoretta are on the terrace; they'll be glad to see you."
The elf led the way into the house, with a bemused Chartreuse following along. Elves were among the most common servants used by magicians, but this one appeared to occupy a position of authority in the household. After a moment, he recalled that when Lillet had graduated from the Magic Academy six years ago, she'd taken with her the elf that had been her room caretaker. If this was the same elf, it was no surprise that he now was apparently the majordomo.
He took the guests out onto a marble terrace overlooking a sun-drenched garden. Lillet was seated at a stone table, cups and saucers holding down stacks of documents which she was busy shuffling through and annotating with a quill pen. Amoretta was sitting in the next chair, reading, apparently content to just share the same space as her lover.
"Lillet, Amoretta, your guests are here."
The two women looked up, Lillet happy and Amoretta pensive at the sight of the leonine alchemist. He'd expected the latter, but it still hurt as a reminder of past mistakes. They both rose politely.
"Dr. Chartreuse! I'm so glad you were able to come."
"Not at all, Miss Lillet. I'm aware that it's rather more personal for you, but you've offered me a chance at an extraordinarily fascinating project in alchemical and natural science. Besides which," he added with a glance at Amoretta, "it offers me the opportunity to make amends for wrongs done."
"I would not call it a wrong, Creator," Amoretta told him, "unless you consider your lack of responsibility a sin."
He let out a sigh and nodded slowly.
"I am afraid that I do. You were fortunate to find Miss Lillet to give you what I could not--no, what I did not."
"Good. Lillet told me that you were learning, but I wasn't completely sure." She turned to Chartreuse's companion meaningfully.
Chartreuse nodded again, then performed the introduction.
"Amoretta, I'm certain you already know her, but I would like to formally introduce you to your sister, Tahlea. Tahlea, this is Amoretta Virgine. I've told you about her."
He stepped back and turned to the side so he could see both women at once. The effect was a bit disconcerting, because externally Amoretta and Tahlea were utterly identical, moreso even than human twins, every line of face and figure a precise copy. Their clothing was different; initially Tahlea had worn leftover clothing Amoretta had left behind but had soon developed her own tastes: a sleeveless emerald tunic that fell to knee length worn over pale green tights, with low boots and jingling copper bangles on both wrists. Amoretta's white dress was both less practical and more revealing. Likewise, they had different hairstyles; Amoretta's foxtail fell to waist length and left hair free to spill over her shoulders, while Tahlea's hair was pulled back in an almost boyish queue that didn't even reach the middle of her back. Their faces and bodies, though, were utterly identical, as befitted homunculi created by identical processes with the same laboratory equipment.
Tahlea shivered slightly as she met Amoretta's gaze. She'd been so excited at the thought of meeting her "sister," and though Chartreuse had cautioned her he had the feeling that Tahlea hadn't quite banished the assumption that she was about to expand her family circle by one. That Amoretta might not be of like mind, it seemed, hadn't sunk in as a genuine possibility.
Chartreuse laid a reassuring hand on the homunculus's shoulder.
"It's all right," he said. "I'm sure the two of you have a lot to talk over. You don't need to let my past interfere."
She brightened at once.
"Besides," he continued, "Miss Lillet and I need to talk shop, and while you may be crafted from alchemy I know its minutiae tends to put you to sleep better than a lullaby. Perhaps Amoretta could show you the gardens?"
Amoretta paused a moment, then nodded.
"All right."
"There, you see?"
Tahlea swallowed nervously, then tried to smile.
"Okay, Father."
Lillet blinked in surprise, but didn't comment. Instead she said, "Well, if that's settled, let me show you to the lab, Dr. Chartreuse."
They'd barely gotten one room away from the terrace, though, when Lillet came out with the question.
"She calls you 'Father'?"
"I've learned from my mistakes," Chartreuse said. "That is, after all, the scientific method, and it is equally applicable to human hearts."
"So you said to yourself, 'Well, it didn't work right in the first experiment, so this time I'll try loving her and see what happens'?" Lillet drawled. Her sarcasm stung, but then Chartreuse considered what he'd said and chuckled ruefully.
"I did phrase that badly, didn't I? No, it was more a matter that I came to the realization that I'd failed with Amoretta because I had not loved her for her own sake but only for what she represented as a laboratory experiment, and that any further experimentation along those lines would be equally doomed unless I was capable of making that change. It took nearly a year for that to sink in."
"So Tahlea is around five years old, then?"
Chartreuse shook his massive head, his mane tossed by the motion.
"Oh, no. Coming to an intellectual realization of what was necessary was one thing, but to find the emotional capacity within myself to actually do it was quite another. I knew that I could not chance making another ultimate homunculus until I was certain I could properly treat her with love. Then of course there were the technical questions concerning her core to be addressed--Amoretta's angel core did not provide access to heavenly knowledge, since the homunculus's mind is born without memories, and in addition it made her existence too much of a temptation for devils. So all in all Tahlea had only been born a month before you met her on your recent visit to the tower."
"Is that why she was so shy?"
"To some extent. I chose a fairy core this time, as a fairy is a nature spirit and therefore familiar with an existence as a physical life as its own self. I'd hoped this would make her transition into this new, created life easier than it had been for Amoretta. I neglected, however, the fact that alchemy is inimical to the magic and spirits of glamour, as alchemy manipulates and changes nature while glamour expresses it. Thus as a homunculus with a fairy spirit, the magic of her own body felt threatening and confining to her soul. I gather that it was extremely uncomfortable for her until she came to understand the source of the problem and accustom herself to it. It made her very nervous and fearful when she was young, because her instincts were constantly telling her of danger when there was no apparent threat." He smiled, or as close as a lion's face could, and said with pride, "Tahlea has quite overcome this fear and accepted her current existence, although she is still a bit shy in new situations."
"Probably it's habit," Lillet suggested, "learned in the equivalent of her childhood."
"I daresay. But since it is merely a mannerism and not a debilitating trait, I see no reason to insist that she try to change. I am, after all, her father rather than her master."
"I wish you'd felt that way about Amoretta."
Chartreuse nodded slowly. They'd continued to walk, passing through rooms and tastefully decorated halls.
"As do I." He considered for a moment whether or not to say more, then decided it was best to be completely open. Lillet, after all, could be his best ally--or if she suspected ulterior motives, an insurmountable obstacle. It was better to simply be direct, as Amoretta would be.
"The truth is," he said, "that's one of the reasons that I agreed to come here. Of course, your own situation is not insignificant; I have the chance to assist a former student solve a personal problem and at the same time confront a fascinating dilemma in alchemy. But I admit that it was more than that which convinced me to take several weeks away from teaching. I'm hoping to make amends and repair my relationship with Amoretta."
"I see. The prodigal father returns?"
"That describes it rather well. Raising Tahlea, being a father to her, has given me an appreciation of how badly I erred with Amoretta. I know I cannot undo past mistakes, but I would like to try and at least admit my failings and be more to Amoretta than just a dispassionate creator. If we are successful, I would like to greet your baby when it is born not just as a research assistant but as his or her grandfather."
"That will be between you and Amoretta," Lillet said. "But, I do hope that you succeed. I'd like it if she could have a real family." For a moment it looked as if Lillet was going to say something more, but whatever it was remained unspoken. Instead, she opened a door and led the way into her library.
"Magnificent," he said. The room was two stories tall and irregularly shaped, tapering at the far end. An overhead skylight let in light, and two massive lanterns bracketed it for night use. The lanterns didn't seem to have any way to be lowered from their chains, suggesting that Lillet had done something with magic to make them illuminate since refilling candles or oil would seem impossible. The bookshelves were floor-to-ceiling along all four walls except for the doorways and the massive hearth; a flying gallery ringed the room on the second story, a gleaming brass rail along its edge, and two curving staircases led up to it on either side of the room. The parquet floor threw back the light from its highly-polished surface, and long tables and comfortable chairs lined the center of the room, each with stacks of paper and pen-trays for taking notes. The bookshelves weren't all full, but were respectably so, with titles ranging from arcane grimoires to treatises on history, philosophy, natural science, and political theory, to popular plays and novels.
"If I didn't live at the Magic Academy," Chartreuse observed, "I would envy you your library."
"That reminds me; I need to return Professor Gammel's copy of the Oberon Script. Would you mind taking it when you go back?"
"Not at all."
"Thank you. It saves me some trouble, and I'd rather entrust a rare grimoire to you than a courier anyway. The lab is just through there, by the way."
She pointed to a door at the tapered end of the room.
"Isn't there a danger of fire or other accident?"
"That wall is specially reinforced, and on top of that I spent about a week shoring it up with some of the most comprehensive magical barriers I know of." She chuckled and added, "I think I gave the Royal Magicians a collective headache when I had the palace security redone to match. It took the better part of two months to finish the job, but the palace has never been safer from magic."
Chartreuse chuckled. While accidents were not as common as cliche painted them, no alchemy lab was free of the occasional incident. He hadn't thought of adapting safety precautions into magical security, though, although it wasn't his job to do so.
"Quite clever, Miss Lillet."
"Well, it keeps our home in one piece."
"Indeed."
Chartreuse observed that she'd gotten quite off the topic of his relationships with Amoretta and Tahlea. It might be that Lillet was simply more concerned with the intensely personal topic that had brought him there, but he doubted it. She had said her piece, and was leaving the rest to him.
He clapped his hands together.
"Well, then. Shall we set to work creating a miracle?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES: Chartreuse's coming to terms with his own feelings about his creations is the subject of my one-shot fic, "An Alchemy of Needs," which most of you reading this have probably already read.
And I admit freely that if I ever get the chance to build my dream home, Lillet's library will be in it!
Back to The Making of a Family Index - Back to GrimGrimoire Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction