The Alchemists

Everyone got ready to attend Ned and Portia's party in Scotland. Only Lauriel was busy in the kitchen making the potion Caspar had asked for. At noon, before they departed, Caspar asked everyone to gather in the living room. Katia was seated in a chair in the middle of the room.

"Lauriel, can I have your antidote..." Caspar stood in the middle of the room and extended his hand towards Lauriel. The long-haired man pulled out a small bottle from his pocket and handed it to Caspar.

Caspar took it and signaled Katia to open her mouth. The girl complied, because she remembered that Caspar had promised to help her. After taking the potion in the bottle, Katia sat in a chair. Her whole body felt very hot.

"Ahh... my body hurts..." she groaned while holding her chest. Her chaotic face looked very painful.

Caspar looked at Lauriel in confusion and Lauriel just shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner.

"That is indeed the right antidote. I deliberately did not make the easy antidote. People who drink my poison are not entitled to getting the lighter antidote. They must suffer a little..."

"Ahh... you're so mean, Lauriel!!" screamed Katia. She was very angry to hear that even now Lauriel still wanted to torture her.

A moment later she was quiet.

She just heard Lauriel's voice...

With surprise she opened her eyes and looked around. She saw people gathering around her with hateful eyes staring at her.

Her hearing had recovered!

She could also see again...

"I... I can see again..." she whispered in a hoarse voice. "I can already hear..."

She looked at Caspar and Lauriel alternately.

"Katia... what you did to Aleksis was unforgivable..." Caspar said in a flat voice. "I understand that I too hurt you and I apologized for my actions. I made you leave your family and friends and brought you into the Alchemist community, without giving you a new family. I regret my actions, but hurting an innocent child just to get back at me is a truly heinous act. I cannot forgive you what you did to my daughter, therefore I sentence you to death."

Caspar took out a small bottle from his shirt pocket and handed it to Katia.

"W... what's this?" Katia asked, stammer.

"This is Death... I was the one who gave you immortality, and now I will take it from you. After you take this potion, you become an ordinary human again. You will age and die like a normal human being. You are no longer a part of our society." Caspar gave Katia a stern stare and forced her to take the bottle. "You have experienced it yourself, what Lauriel can do to you. If you do not want to drink death, I will hand you over to him and he will be happy to punish you again with yesterday's poison."

Instantly Katia's face shuddered in terror. With a heavy heart she took the bottle of Death from Caspar's hand. Tears were streaming down her face.

"You... you're so mean... You have the heart to tell me..." she cried as she covered her face with both hands after she finished the content in the bottle.

"Lauriel, can I ask for a memory potion?" Caspar turned to Lauriel, who immediately handed another small bottle into his hand.

"This is it."

"Thank you..." Caspar pulled Katia's hand and placed the second bottle in her hand. "Katia... because now you are a regular human, you must not store the knowledge about the Alchemist community. From now on you must forget everything about us. You must also forget about the grudges between us. From now on, there is no longer any relationship between us."

Katia looked at Caspar with a pair of very sad eyes. She loved this man ever since they met 58 years ago ... She had patiently waited for Caspar for 50 years as his fiancée and tolerated all his games and the many women he dated...

But finally, the man fell in love with Finland and left her alone and miserable.

Katia was able to accept that she had to take Death... because after all, for her, to live forever was meaningless without the man she loved beside her...

But being forced to forget Caspar and all the memories they had together for decades... was a punishment which was more severe than Death itself...

Katia burst into tears.

Finland, who was unable to see the scene, carried Aleksis out of the room to the balcony to calm down.

"I don't want to forget you..." Katia cried miserably. Caspar shook his head and tapped her shoulder gently, for the last time.

"Drink up, Katia. You must forget all this and break all the grudges between us..."

Katia shook her head with tears still streaming down.

"You may kill me... but I don't want to forget about us..." she whispered sadly. Everyone in the room seemed uncomfortable. Some of them looked away, others sighed. Caspar was stunned for a few moments, then he turned to Lauriel.

"I have no choice. She chose her own punishment..." said Caspar. Lauriel nodded at Petra, who took out a pistol with silencer and placed the tip on Katia's hand.

"There is only one bullet there. You have chosen your own punishment," Lauriel said in a cold voice. "Don't waste our time any longer."

Katia cried even more loudly. She stared at the gun in her hand with glazed eyes. She was not a weak girl; she learned to use a gun decades ago and always carried a weapon with her when traveling. She could use the gun in her hand properly.

"You... Don't you want to say goodbye...?" She finally looked up and stared at Caspar with tears in her eyes.

Caspar looked back at her with a very sad look. Fifty years ago, he would never have thought that he and Katia would end like this...

"Katia..." His words stopped in the air; he did not know how to say good-bye to the girl who had once filled fifty years of his life. She had become his best friend, who accompanied him for decades.

Katia slowly raised the gun to her forehead...

When all people were lost in gloomy thoughts, Katia suddenly turned her gun toward Caspar's direction and pulled the trigger.

When they realized what was happening, it was already too late...

Caspar didn't even try to evade her shot. His face darkened, and his eyes looked deeply hurt.

CLICK!

Katia turned pale when she realized that the gun didn't explode.

Lauriel lied when he said that the gun had one bullet in it.

"Lauriel and I wanted to give you a chance to redeem yourself. If you chose to fire the bullet into your head, we would have forgiven you and let you go. We deliberately gave you a gun with an empty shell." Caspar shook his head slowly, his expression was very dark, "But it turns out that you really can't change. I can't give you any more mercy by considering our past relationship. You should be sentenced to death..."

Katia was speechless. She did not think for one second that the two men actually considered of forgiving her. In her desperation she decided to aim her gun at Caspar and kill him. She was determined that if she couldn't get Caspar, then Finland shouldn't either. She would die willingly if Caspar died with her...

"I... I... I'm... sorry... I made a mistake..." Katia cried. "Forgive me... please, I want to live... I promise I won't bother you anymore..."

Lauriel was sick of seeing her. He immediately gave a signal to Petra and Esso to get rid of Katia.

"Katia has chosen her own sentence. I don't want to see blood here. Take her to her house and finish her there."

Without needing to be told twice, the two men had lifted Katia, who screamed and kicked in desperation. Esso pressed the back of her neck once and in an instant Katia collapsed and fell silent. They quickly got rid of Katia and disappeared from the penthouse.

The atmosphere immediately became very gloomy.

Nobody spoke for a long time. They all got their things ready in silence and immediately left for the airport to head for Scotland.

***