Sam opened her eyes, and stared up at a dark flat ceiling, with metal beams arching across it. She rested on a lumpy mattress and thought that she was not at home, but she barely had the strength to move. Her back ached and her hand throbbed. Her eyes grew heavy again and she passed into another long sleep.
She awoke to the rich aroma of bacon, and heard it sizzling away in the other room. She sat up too quickly and the room began to spin.
“Easy there,” said a voice. Sam turned her head and saw Rodrick sitting in the corner, smoking his pipe.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“Safe. We’re in a bunker hidden beneath the city.”
“We?”
“Yes,” Rodrick answered with a smile. “Victor, Hansel, Silver, Caesar, Gretel and myself. And of course, you.”
Still somewhat muddled, Sam lifted her hand, which was wrapped tightly in a bandage. “My hand is throbbing, and it feels hot.”
“That is a good sign,” said Rodrick. “You were cut by a blade tipped with the venom of a Green-Tailed Wyvern. Nasty stuff. It took all our skill to save you. The fact that you can feel anything at all means that you are healing.”
The dreaded memory of the dagger flashed before her eyes. “Astrid! She…”
“We know,” Rodrick interrupted her. “But you shouldn’t worry about that right now. All you should know is that after you collapsed we picked you up and carried you here, and then we treated your wound.”
“Why here, though? What happened to the academy?”
Rodrick drew from his pipe and sighed. “The academy is no longer in our ownership. Silver is the one with the details, but I can only assume that this attack was our last straw. The government has seized it for themselves and dubbed all Slayers enemies of the state. We’re wanted fugitives. Sorry.”
Sam fell back upon her pillow and stared up at the ceiling again. She was still very tired, and didn’t speak for a while. Then she felt her stomach groan. “Why do I smell bacon?”
“Oh, that? Victor is cooking breakfast.”
On hearing his name, Victor stepped through the door, and Sam had never seen him look so happy. “Oh Sam!” he cried. “You scared the hell out of me! Never do that again!”
Sam blushed and chuckled. “Well, I certainly don’t intend to. Did you take a ride with a wyvern?”
Now Victor laughed, and touched the cut on his cheek. “That’s how I got this. I’ll tell you about it after breakfast, but it is certainly one thing that I don’t intend to do again.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re safe.”
“As am I. Can you stand? Breakfast is ready. Or, I can bring it to you here if that’s easier.”
Sam pushed her blankets aside. “No, I’m alright. I think I need to stretch my legs anyway. Where is everyone?”
Rodrick stood up and answered. “Gretel and Hansel went out to make sure we weren’t followed. Silver and Caesar are trying figure a way to get us out of this mess, and that is where I should be, I think.”
Victor and Sam had their breakfast, mostly in silence, at first, and then over some tea they discussed everything that had happened to them in recent weeks. Sam went over what she had heard between Mr. Silver and Elizabeth, and Victor pointed out that he had seen this Elizabeth character once before on the academy grounds.
“Who is she then?” She wondered, sipping her tea.
“Rodrick told me that she was no friend of ours.”
“And yet she kissed Silver as if they were in love. I had thought they were enemies too until that moment.”
Victor shrugged. “There are a million things about Mr. Silver that I don’t understand. For all we know they actually are enemies.”
Sam went on then to explain her final encounter with Astrid, and how despite everything she seemed heartbroken when she left, and how she carried with her the peculiar red stone.
“It was a philosopher’s stone,” said Victor. “I should have told you this before, and I am sorry that I didn’t, but here it is now…”
He started by saying where he had first seen Elizabeth, right before Mr. Silver had given him the books with the instruction not to read them. He went over his journey to Olvaile to the Library of Annath, and his encounter with the Keeper of Secrets. He then told Sam everything that he had learned there about Mr. Silver and the history of the academy, and she was shocked, but said nothing. He explained how Astrid wanted them to take the philosopher’s stone for themselves.
“I knew that she wanted eternal life,” he said, lowering his eyes. “But I never thought she’d actually do it.”
“I think she would have done it either way. She was Elizabeth’s daughter after all. I can’t believe it. All this time searching for the Grand Elixir – I never thought I’d find it like this!”
Victor stood up. “We don’t have it yet. I think Mr. Silver has some explaining to do.”
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