Amidst the cacophony of rustling parchment and murmuring voices in the bustling library, a young man with short, dark hair sat hunched over while scanning over various rolled pages, his quill poised over the parchments as she dipped it into the small container of ink at the edge of his desk.
"Jin!" A voice roared out, causing the young man to look up from his work. Before him stood an old, hunched figure, his face etched with lines and his back bent with age. In his arms, he carried a stack of leather-bound books and papyrus scrolls.
"Take these to the basement," the old man said, thrusting the items onto Jin's table. "Make sure they're stored properly."
"Yes, Senior Yi," Jin replied, his voice tinged with weariness as he eyed the stack of workbooks and old scrolls.
"I knew I could count on you," Senior Yi said with a thumbs up and a wave before shuffling away.
Jin let out a deep sigh before he made his way down to the dark depths of the library's basement. "I can't believe the senior librarian is always pushing his boring tasks off onto me," he muttered to himself as he carefully placed each item on the dusty shelves.
But his thoughts were interrupted by a loud cracking noise as he reached up to place one of the books on a particularly high shelf. With a deafening crash, the old shelf gave way under the newly added weight, sending a cascade of ancient scrolls, old books, and fragile manuscripts tumbling down onto Jin's head as he was knocked to the rough, cobblestone floor, his head spinning from the impact.
With a groan, Jin pulled himself up from the rubble of books and scrolls that surrounded him, coughing as he shook the dust from his tunic. As he straightened up, his eye caught the title of a particular scroll lying among the debris, its edges frayed with age and its ink faded with time.
"Spirit Medium, First-Level Potion Ingredients and Guide by Dozou Yen," he murmured quietly to himself as his eyes traced along the title area of the scroll whose seal had been broken during the crash.
"Dozou Yen... the name of that famous alchemist, mystic, and philosopher who once advised the royal family before his death many years ago?" Jin thought aloud as he picked the scroll up from the ground, holding it tightly in his hand.
"Could this… "Is he actually for real?"
Jin felt a thrill of excitement course through him as he clutched the scroll tightly in his hands, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Only one way to find out," he muttered to himself, tucking the scroll into his tunic as he lifted himself off the ground.
Jin brushed the dust from his clothes one last time and tried to straighten his sore shoulder as he made his way back up the creaky wooden stairs, the ancient library's musty air filling his lungs. As he emerged into the dimly lit room, he heard a familiar voice echoing through the stacks.
"Finished already, have we?" "That's the kind of work ethic that sets our young apprentice apart!" Senior Yi's booming voice filled the room as Jin winced when the older man slapped him on the shoulder in encouragement.
"Ow," he muttered, his hand instinctively going to his sore shoulder. "Yeah, I finished up down in the basement, but one of the shelves gave out and I had to move some things around."
Senior Yi just chuckled. "Ah, that happens all the time." No need to worry about it, my boy. You've done enough for today. "Why don't you head home and get some rest?"
Jin couldn't help but roll his eyes inwardly at the senior librarian's words. "Even though you always push the boring stuff onto me," he thought to himself as he forced a dry smile. "Sure, thanks, Senior Yi," he replied, his voice lacking any real enthusiasm as he made his way out of the library and into the courtyard that separated the various houses of those that worked on the castle grounds.
Jin, being a junior librarian and page, was a member of the royal library, which was built and maintained on the lower grounds of the royal castle just outside the gates of the imperial family's estate, sitting on a hill far above the capital city below.
Making his way to the housing dorm assigned to librarians on the grounds, Jin slowly headed inside his room, closing the sliding door behind him and removing his shoes.
As Jin sat down at the table in his small dorm, he pulled the scroll from earlier out of his tunic and placed it on the small wooden table before him.
Unfurling the scroll, Jin's eyes widened in amazement. This truly was an alchemical scroll, with all the proper ingredients and instructions listed before him.
Two ounces of lilac powder,
Two leaves of nightshade,
Four parts of yarrow are
one half serving of ginseng,
A tablespoon of saltpeter,
and one pinch of spirit salt.
Jin knew there was only one place on the castle grounds where he could find the ingredients he needed. The alchemical lab, however, was off limits to non-essential personnel, which meant he would have to sneak in to get what he needed.
Jin thought over the idea; he truly wanted to test the potion described in the scroll, but if he were caught sneaking into a restricted area, he would be arrested and possibly even executed.
He waited until midnight, when everyone else aside from the nighttime patrol was normally in bed, to sneak out of the librarian's dorm. Passing through the large courtyard, he dove behind stone sculptures and wooden crates to avoid the weary eyes of tired guards on patrol.
After a short while of weaving between covers, Jin had finally made his way to the alchemy lab, making his way inside while opening and closing the door behind him as quietly as possible.
As Jim searched the lab as quickly as he could, he quickly found the ingredients he needed: lilac powder, nightshade, yarrow, and even ginseng and saltpeter; however, he could not find the item listed as "spirit salt" anywhere.
Searching jar by jar and container to container, he could not find an item labeled as "spirit salt" anywhere he looked. When closing one of the drawers he'd looked in, Jin's hand slipped, adding too much force, and the drawer closed with a loud thud resulting from the wood compartment sliding into place.
As the noise roared out, the torches held by guards on night patrol turned towards the alchemy lab as the light they gave off grew brighter as they approached.
"Oh shit." Jin thought, hiding himself behind one of the large desks in the lab; luckily for him, the desk has a bottom compartment that obscured his body from view.
Jin's fear rose as the door to the lab opened and the guard peeked his head inside. Looking around, the guard squinted, straining his eyes to try and discern the source of the noise.
"Guess not." The guard sighed and pulled his head out while closing the door behind him.
"Anything there?" Another guard cried out, "No, but there are some scattered materials that didn't get picked up, sloppy alchemist... The first guard sighed.
Jin's heartbeat returning to normal, he climbed out from under the desk as he smacked his head on the side. "Ow!" he muttered.
Unable to find "spirit salt" or even a mention of it anywhere, Jin left the lab as quietly as he could with the rest of the ingredients he managed to find before returning to his dorm and storing them in a storage container and placing it under a small sheet.
"Guess I wasn't able to find "spirit salt" after all." Jin sighed while wiping the sweat off his brow before laying down on his small futon and going to sleep.
…
The next morning, Senior Yi approached Jin at his desk in the library.
"Is he going to assign me more of his own work?" Jin wondered as he furrowed his brow in annoyance.
"Jin! "How's your day going?" Senior Yi exclaimed with a smile.
Jin thought to himself, "Maybe he just wants to chat." before he replied, "It's going well so far." "By the way, have you heard of an ingredient called "spirit salt"?"
"Spirit salt? "Let me think." Senior Yi murmured, tapping his chin. "Ah yes, it's an old alchemy ingredient. They used to believe it had spiritual properties, but it's now known as pink halite. It's a basic cooking additive. "Why do you ask?"
"I need it for an experiment I'm conducting," Jin said, improvising quickly. "I'm trying to cook something, but the instructions are ancient, and I'm having trouble finding most of the ingredients."
"I see. Well, I have some pink halite in my dorm. You can borrow it if you'd like. "Come by after work." Senior Yi offered, returning to his own desk.
Later that night, Jin finished work and went to Senior Yi's dorm to collect the pink halite. He returned to his own dormitory to prepare the potion.
Jin sat silently in the center of his own room, cross-legged at his small wooden table, with a single cup filled with water resting on its surface and the scroll with its listed ingredients to the side of it.
Jin slowly added each ingredient in the proper order as per the instructions listed on the scroll.
Two ounces of lilac powder,
Two leaves of nightshade,
Four parts of yarrow are
one half serving of ginseng,
A tablespoon of saltpeter,
and one pinch of spirit salt.
Mixing each ingredient one by one into the small cup, Jin stirred the water with a small table spoon as it soon changed color inside the cup, first into a light blue, then a pinkish color, and then into a purple liquid with lightly colored bubbles resting on the surface, signifying the potion was complete.
Jin gulped as he stared down at the strange concoction—could this really possess spiritual properties? And if so, was it even safe?
Strengthening his resolve and putting aside his doubts, Jin lifted the cup and pressed it to his lips, opening his mouth and allowing the contents of the potion to slowly pour in.
As Jin forced down the strange-tasting potion, he swallowed it and confirmed that the cup was empty while staring into it.
"I really did it…. "I wonder.. what happens now?" Jin muttered quietly out loud as his vision grew fuzzy and his body lost its strength.
As Jin's body fell backwards onto the floor, the corners of his small form began to distort, strange effects appeared in the room, entering his line of sight, and he could hear an unfamiliar voice.
"Mister, are you okay?!" The voice cried out.
"Huh? A woman?…" Jin thought as his eyes closed, his consciousness slowly drifting away.
=====END OF THE FIRST CHAPTER=====
Bonus Content:
"Spirit Medium, First-Level Potion Ingredients and Guide by Dozou Yen."
A potion made with contents as described in the doom tablets.
Effects - turns the consumer into a spirit medium, a supernatural creature capable of perceiving and communicating with different kinds of spiritual entities.
Ingredients - Two ounces of lilac powder, Two leaves of nightshade, Four parts of yarrow, One half serving of ginseng, A tablespoon of saltpeter, And one pinch of spirit salt.
Directions - pour ingredients into a cup and mix slowly with warm water. The brewing process will be complete once the water inside the cup has absorbed the ingredients fully, shown by the liquid turning purple with a bubbly surface.
END OF THE BONUS CONTENT.