I assume that Delia woke first the next morning, as she was gone before I got up. I was a little confused as to where I was, considering I woke up in a strange bed in my day clothes. It only took me a few moments to remember what happened the night before. "Right she got drunk again…" I thought to myself "I wonder where she is?".
At this I decided to get up and locate Delia, which was quite difficult considering the size of the castle as well as the maze of corridors designed to confuse intruders. I eventually found my way to the great hall where I saw Delia standing by the fire. She was talking to someone I couldn't see and didn't seem very happy about his presence.
"I told you before Mortimer I will not accept a marriage proposal off you even if I have just gotten divorced" she sounded incredibly angry.
"Cordi you know full well that if you're not at least engaged that the other nobles won't leave you alone" his voice sounded like a slapped arse and I'd certainly recognise it anywhere.
"I told you not to call me that Mortimer. Furthermore I'll have you know that I am engaged I just haven't announced it yet" Delia said smugly.
"You what?!" Mortimer was understandably pissed "you stupid woman!" He raised his hand to hit her "you know how long I've waited for…" I grabbed his wrist before he could bring it down on Delia.
"Hello chancellor…" I said to my old boss "I would ask for you to refrain from hitting my fiancé".
The Earl Mortimer Virulentius of Evenshire, former Chancellor of Ludtown University, and the cause of much of my pain and suffering. He was cruel calculating and a complete failure to his region of the country. Everything about him was foul despite his outside appearance. If you saw him from afar he would seem like a tall, handsome, muscular man, who holds himself with absolute dignity and confidence; but get too close and you would see very quickly that he was in fact a self serving, egotistical bastard.
"You! I thought I'd stopped you two years ago! I did everything in my power to ensure you two would never be together…" he realised he must have slipped up because he quickly quietened himself
"What do you mean by that Virulentius?" Delias voice had turned cold.
"Nothing… I wish you both good fortune in your marriage" with this he tried to walk out of the room but was stopped by Hugo.
"I think you had better sit down down and explain yourself to us your lordship" Delia said as Hugo forced him back into the great hall and down onto the sofa "lie and I will have Hugo ensure no one ever finds your body"
I had never seen Delia like this it was honestly terrifying (not that it would be my last time seeing her like this).
"You know full well that if I tell you anything it will ruin my reputation…"
Hugo cracked his knuckles and said "Your lordship I believe your reputation was ruined the moment your embezzlement of university funds was discovered, this will just be the final nail in your coffin, finally getting his majesty to revoke the incompetent Virulentius households peerage, now talk…"
"Perhaps I should go…" I said
"You are staying, we both need to hear this" Delia ordered…
From then on ,under the carful watch of Hugo, Virulentius spilled his machinations to us. His harassment of Delia was to cause her to leave university and abandon her feelings for me. What he did not factor was her marriage to Fredrick. Because of this he took his time to become chancellor at the university and ruin my work in retaliation. For a while this worked and he enjoyed indirectly tormenting me until news reached him of Natalia visiting me on campus. This caused him a huge amount of fear, so he quickly fired me as a sort of escape plan. He had thought he'd gotten away with it until he was arrested for a different one of his horrible deeds. Embezzlement, and not just of my funds. He was still thankful however that he had still thwarted Cordelia from finding me again. And upon hearing of her divorce he thought things were going well for him, until now…
"Hugo…"
"Yes mistress"
"Remove Virulentius' motor's spark plug and throw it off the mountain…" she ordered much to Virulentius' dismay
"Already done mistress" Hugo replied
"And make sure he can't call a garage, I want him to push his car down the mountain"
"I'll see to it mistress" Hugo grabbed Virulentius and carried him out of the hall kicking and screaming.
Delia sighed and her face went from stone cold to relaxed. "As much as I hate Virulentius don't you think that was a bit much?" I said
"He ruined our lives" she said
"Good point" I said in return "what's this" I picked up a bottle of dark coloured alcohol
"It's Evenshire brandy" she said in disgust "he brings it every time he comes. Foul stuff…"
"I heard that Evenshire brandy is the finest in Britannia and the colonies" I said looking at the bottle.
"I'll have Hugo give it to someone in town, they always seem to like it. As for me I'll stick to my gin, talking of which… HUGO!"
"Yes mistress" he appeared behind me out of nowhere and made me jump out of my skin.
"Tell me where the gin is Hugo" she asked.
"You'll never find it mistress" he said before quickly walking out the hall nearly being hit by a shoe thrown by Delia.
"I'll FIND IT ONE DAY!" She shouted after him.
"No you won't…" Hugo replied from down the corridor.
"Bald bloody gin hog…" Delia said "couldn't live without him…" she quickly muttered. "anywho would you like to see your new laboratory…"
"New what now?" I said.
She then took me by the hand and pulled me through the castle and down a flight of stairs until we came to a large door in the sub level. Behind the door was a fully stocked laboratory with everything I'd need to finally complete my work. A pair of great electrodes hung from the ceiling and hundreds of books, bottles, vials and papers sat on shelves surrounding the room.
"I know that we only engaged, and knowing you, you may wish to remain that way for a while but I'd like you to consider this a little wedding present"
"I-I don't know what to say…" I stammered walking around the lab.
It quite literally had everything I would need, including all of my research and the one piece of equipment my work relied on to be completed. The machine is called a prismatic energy refraction system. It was large and made, as with all scientific equipment out of treated brass with a lead alloy lined insulated interior, and a crystal glass viewing window with a safety hatch to stop radiation from escaping. It is usually used for the charging of particles for acceleration, but I would be using it to create a similar refraction matrix to the one that I believed the universe was made up of.
"Well I thought you probably wouldn't want to go back to the university due to your bad experience there, and I thought it might be nice to spend some time together while you work…" Delia said.
"What work?" I said "I had basically finished my work when I was fired, all I needed was this machine" I put my hand on prismatic energy refraction system "I can finish my work…" I began to cry "I can finally finish my work…" I turned around to face Delia "thank you… thank you so much" I grabbed her face and kissed her.
"You just kissed me?!" She stammered once I let her go, She staggered back from shock.
"I only need five days…" I said looking around the laboratory.
"I-I've never been kissed on the lips before…" she stammered.
"Yeah neither have I…" I said not really paying attention to the kiss "…five days and I'll have the answer to transmutation…"
Delia shook herself out of her shock "then get to work, I swear I won't marry you for five days until you've finished your work. You've been trying to figure this out for 13 years, I can wait for five days to get married. You deserve this…"
For the next 4 days I worked tirelessly using the machine testing 4 out of the 5 possible permutations of the equation I was working on, until I had the answer to the equation. I had hypothetically discovered transmutation, now all that was left to do was test my hypothesis. But first it was time for a glass of gin with my future wife. Hugo thankfully was quite open to the idea of a drink to toast my works near completion, but this time he insisted that we celebrate at the local pub, which Delia agreed to with great pleasure…