The Princess' Harem
Chapter 105: The Alchemist’s Crucible

Chapter 105: The Alchemist’s Crucible

The horses, though tired, seemed to quicken their pace as the first low walls of Elysia Kingdom appeared on the horizon. The sun had risen fully now, showing the land in its harsh reality.

The green fields they were used to seeing were dulled, patches of sickly yellow and brown spreading like a disease. Trees had thin, brittle leaves, and the air carried a faint, sour smell, different from the usual sweet scent of fertile earth.

This was the blight, showing its ugly face even at the very gates of the capital.

A sense of heavy quiet hung over the outer farmlands. Fewer people worked the fields. The usual bustling roads leading to the city were quiet.

When they reached the main gate, the guards, normally stiff and formal, looked tired, their faces drawn with worry. But their eyes widened in surprise and quick relief when they saw Princess Viana, Prince Rayne, and Joel.

"Princess Viana! You’re back!" one guard shouted, his voice rough with emotion. The gate opened quickly.

They rode through the city streets. Even here, in the heart of Elysia, the blight’s touch was clear. Planters by homes held withered flowers.

The great park near the palace had patches of grey, dying grass. The people on the streets moved with a slow, heavy gait, their shoulders slumped. Hope was a rare thing.

Viana ignored the looks, setting up her focus. They went straight to the royal laboratory, a large building next to the palace where alchemists worked. This was where Rissa, the unorthodox alchemist, would be.

They dismounted quickly in the courtyard. Stable hands rushed to take the horses. Arden still clutched the precious wooden box containing the Desert’s Embrace like it was the most fragile thing in the world.

Viana led the way directly to Rissa’s private laboratory, a sealed room at a quiet place. She found Rissa hunched over a worktable, surrounded by bubbling beakers and strange tools.

Rissa’s hair was messy, pulled back carelessly, and her face was smudged with soot and concentration. She looked tired, her eyes red-rimmed, but still sharp and focused.

Rissa looked up, her eyes widening when she saw Viana and the others, especially the Crown Prince of Valendale, and the heavy wooden box in Arden’s hands.

"Princess Viana! You’re back! What... what is this?" Her voice was a mix of surprise and hopeful urgency.

"Rissa," Viana said, stepping forward. "We have it. The Desert’s Embrace."

She nodded towards Arden, who carefully placed the wooden box on Rissa’s clear workspace.

Arden, his voice filled with a scholar’s excitement, began to explain. "It is the plant from the Highest Cradle of Thorns. Joel and Reyes extracted it. It must be kept absolutely dry, Rissa. No water must touch it, or the roots, or even the surrounding soil. The texts say its power is destroyed by moisture."

He opened the box carefully, revealing the small, dark-leaved plant nestled in its dry, red earth. It still glowed faintly, a tiny beacon of light in the dim room.

Rissa leaned closer, her eyes gleaming with scientific hunger. She gently touched a dry leaf, her fingers moving with extreme care.

"Remarkable," she whispered with awe. "It truly is as the legends described. So delicate, yet so resilient."

She took a deep, shaky breath, her tiredness momentarily forgotten. This was the moment she had been working towards for weeks.

Viana watched her, her heart a knot of anxious hope. Rayne stood beside her, his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on Rissa’s every move. Joel and Reyes stood a little behind, their faces grim but hopeful.

Kaley, still new to this deeper magic, watched with a mixture of wonder and fear.

"This is it, then," Rayne said with low voice, breaking the silence. "The cure."

Rissa didn’t answer directly. She was already moving. She moved quickly, but with immense care.

She pushed aside other experiments, clearing the large stone table. She brought over a series of small, strange tools—tiny silver knives, glass vials shaped like teardrops, a small, intricate mortar and pestle made of what looked like polished black stone.

"We need a dry place for processing," Rissa explained, more to herself than to them. "... a dry grinding. No liquids at all at first. The essence is highly volatile."

She picked up the plant box. She took it to a special, heat-sealed chamber in the corner, a glass box that could keep out all moisture.

She carefully placed the Desert’s Embrace inside.

Viana felt a cold dread in her stomach. So much depended on this. So many lives. She gripped her hands together, her knuckles white.

Rissa began her experiment. She used specialized tools to gently remove a single, small leaf from the Desert’s Embrace.

The leaf glowed brighter for a moment when it was taken, then dimmed slightly. Rissa placed it onto a clean, dry piece of parchment. She then brought it to the black stone mortar.

She began to grind leaf with the pestle. It was a slow, careful process. The leaf did not crushed like a normal leaf.

Instead, it slowly, slowly turned into a fine, sparkling dust, like tiny fragments of green light. No moisture, no liquid. Just dry, glowing powder.

The air in the laboratory grew heavy with tension. No one spoke. The only sounds were the soft scrape of the pestle against the mortar and Rissa’s quick, shallow breaths. Every eye in the room was fixed on her hands.

Viana felt the tension in her shoulders. She looked at Rayne. His jaw was tight, his eyes narrowed, watching Rissa.

He caught her gaze and gave her a small, almost imperceptible nod. He knew the weight of this moment too.

As a prince, he carried the burden of his own kingdom, which also suffered from the blight. His presence here was not just support for Viana, but a desperate hope for his own people.

Rissa continued to grind the small leaf until it was a tiny mound of shimmering dust. She then carefully scooped the dust into a teardrop-shaped glass vial.

She held it up to the light. The dust inside glowed with a soft, green light.