The Quest of the Prodigy (The Alchemist of Time Book 1) Read online

  “Like photography, it is important no light is revealed to the object during transformation. Bas, the trumpet please.”

  Bas handed over the trumpet with obvious excitement. Mimi wished she could feel the same, but couldn’t shake the feeling they would return to this black box in forty-eight hours and find a brass trumpet still inside.

  Aimon put a black lid on the box and smiled at the group. “Now all that is needed is time.”

  “Sometimes I hate time,” Bas said with a frown.

  Mimi gaped at him. How could a time traveler hate time? He looked so sad, and she wondered what was running through his mind.

  “Well, this was nothing like I thought Alchemy would be like,” Albert said with a sigh. “Isn’t there anything fun to do in this place?”

  This made Bas cheer up as he nodded. “While Mimi trains, perhaps we can explore the town. I think you’ll like it more than the Academy, because it’s not as educational.”

  Albert beamed at that. “Yeah, Mimi, can I, please?”

  Mimi frowned at the idea of being separated from Albert for two whole days. When she agreed to train with Richie, she had imagined that Albert would be nearby. It wasn’t really fair for Albert to sit around waiting for two days though, so she nodded. “Yes, you may explore. But please don’t leave the town.”

  “Let’s go then!” cried Albert with excitement, and dragged Bas out of the room.

  Suddenly without Bas or Albert, nerves took over. She glanced at Richie. “Um, should we get started?”

  “You look worried,” observed Richie.

  “I am. I’m not sure what I just signed up for with you.”

  “Don’t worry kid, I won’t break you. Just going to get you excited to learn Tai Chi and teach you the basics of Alchemy. It won’t be easy, but I can promise you, it’ll be worth your time.”

  Richie gave Mimi some time alone to prepare, and she timidly used the Time Shifters to return to the Bas House. She had a moment of panic wondering if it was safe or difficult to enter the Bas House floating in space, but then discovered there was a reverse function waiting on the digital face. Mimi found herself in the kitchen of the Bas House in a blast of bright light. As she gave JAB her requests for workout clothes and gear, Mimi wondered if she could steal the Time Shifters to get herself and her brother home. Not right now, but maybe soon?

  “If you want fitness gear, I can make you some quickly using the Fabric Materializer,” offered JAB.

  “That works for me!” Mimi said with genuine enthusiasm. If she had JAB at home, she would never go shopping again. As JAB began conjuring clothes, Mimi allowed herself a brief daydream of seeing her crush, Tucker Clarkson, while dressed in a stylish, futuristic outfit. She would be relaxed, having saved herself the stressful and chaotic process of finding just the right outfit. It would be magical. She shook her head, realizing JAB now had a gym bag filled with tank tops, sweatpants, toiletries, and anything else Mimi could ever need for two days of boot-camp training.

  “JAB, you’re a lifesaver!” she said and hugged the robot awkwardly, forgetting for a moment she was made of metal.

  Richie was waiting for her when she returned, and looked surprised how quickly she’d changed clothes. She imagined for him it had only been a minute since she left.

  “What was that light?” Richie asked her, rubbing the back of his neck.

  Mimi didn’t answer. She trusted Richie, but she had made a promise. “Are we ready to start?”

  “Only if you’re ready,” Richie answered.

  His level of concern made her smile and she nodded. She followed him through the school, wondering again at his kindness. Did he really think she was gorgeous? Didn’t he realize she was nobody?

  He stopped at a door and pulled out a skeleton key that looked like a sun, with nine spokes resembling rays. Richie opened the door and held it for her. It was sad to admit, but it was the most romantic gesture any boy had done for her in her life. She wondered if Richie was like this all the time, or if he was laying on the charm just for her. She was pathetically horrible at reading guys.

  Mimi! Just focus on the mission! This is save the world Step One time, not play Pride and Prejudice with Richie!

  “The pool?” Mimi asked nervously as she saw what room Richie had led her to.

  “What’s wrong with the pool?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” lied Mimi. “I just was wondering why the pool. It’s not exactly a gym.”

  Fun fact: she hated swimming. It was very nearly a phobia. The fear couldn’t be explained. She never had an instance where she almost drowned or anything. She just was a landlubber.

  He chuckled nervously. “Because I already had the room reserved for the night. I told the school’s secretary I wanted to strengthen my swimming, and asked to have exclusive access for the night.”

  Charm must get confident people everything! Mimi thought to herself, then looked around the room. “This doesn’t look like you were getting ready for swim lessons.”

  A few feet away on the golden floor of the pool house was a red and white checked picnic blanket, a spread of chocolate covered strawberries, and what looked like wine. What is the drinking age in the year 3000? Mimi was not impressed.

  He chuckled again. “Yeah, swimming wasn’t what I had in mind. Well, at least not swimming alone.”

  Mimi cringed as she caught on. “You were going to bring a date here tonight? And now you’re bringing me here?”

  He nodded. “It’s the only space we have to be alone and uninterrupted.”

  “Who was it going to be with? Betty? Or that other girl Aimon mentioned?” Mimi felt disgusted. “I don’t have any respect for players, you know. Cheating is wrong. And I certainly don’t have any respect for boys who are only interested in getting in my pants. I don’t know if I’m more grossed out that you date more than one girl, or that you were trying to make me another girl on your list!”

  Richie looked surprised and hurt by her little outburst. He shook his head. “It’s not like that! I only took you here because I know we’d be alone. Aimon said to keep the fact that we had uninvited guests quite. So that’s why I chose this place. And I’m not a player, or whatever it was you said. I have dated more than one girl at a time because I like to make the girls feel good about themselves. It’s not all for me. I enjoy their company and I like making them feel confident, but it’s not like I am in a committed relationship with all of them. Most of them know I go out with other girls. It’s not a big school, Mimi.

  “And,” he continued, “I’m not trying to make you fall in love with me, Mimi. I’m trying to help prepare you for training. We only have two days together. Two days to get you ready to impress Aimon. Two days is not a lot of time, Mimi. I don’t think it’s enough time to fall in love. Love shouldn’t be rushed, but developed and organic.”

  Mimi’s jaw hung open as her heart dissolved into a puddle. She suddenly felt sad that Betty had cancelled her date with Richie. He was such a sincere and generous person. “Well, okay. We’ll keep it strictly Tai Chi and Alchemy,” she muttered, cheeks flushing.

  They shook on it.

  “I’m sorry I overreacted and freaked out on you,” she told him, not wanting him to think he had to walk on eggshells around her. “So, let’s push this ton of awkwardness behind us and get started with training.”

  This made Richie smile. “I like your spirit. Starting promptly it is. But if I’m here to help build your confidence. To ace the test, I first need to get to know you. Including, if not specially, your fears. Because our fears are a part of us; our fears help make us who we are. Especially what we do with our fears. Do we wallow in them? Or concur them? So Mimi, tell me your fears. I want to know all about you.”

  He took her by surprise when he took her hand and led her to the poolside picnic. The poolside picnic meant for Betty. She tried to push the original intent of the picnic from her mind, how warm and gentle his hands were, and the comfort of that grip. He let go and Mimi’s han
d felt cold, as if it were missing something.

  He walked onto one of the corners of the blanket and she sat down across from him. Richie took a plate of the chocolate covered strawberries and poured himself a goblet of wine. She stared at him with mild surprise. He shrugged as he noticed her disapproving look.

  “Well, I’m not going to let it go to waste,” he said with a charming wink.

  Mimi smiled. It was a perfectly good excuse, since she did want a chocolate covered strawberry herself. She wasn’t sure about the wine; she hadn’t had more than a few sips on special occasions. It might relax her, and she definitely needed to relax before Richie began questioning her.

  No one had ever grilled her before. She was always the one in conversations to do the questioning, having learned long ago that people loved to talk about themselves. If she wanted to have a pleasant conversation, she just had to ask them things about themselves. Being under the hot spotlight now, she found it terrifying. What if her answers were lame?

  “I’m going to sound really boring compared to the girls you’re used to.”

  “Why do you say that?” he asked and poured her a glass of wine.

  “Because the year 2015 is quaint, according to Bas,” she said with a shrug.

  “Let me be the judge of that. Besides, I don’t care about the year 2015. I care about you!”

  She blushed and took a sip of wine. The wine was a rich red, and tasted both sweet and bitter. It burned her tongue, like eating too many sour candies. She took another sip, a smaller sip, and this time it wasn’t so bitter. She bit into a piece of dark chocolate and it took away the wine’s bitterness, leaving her taste buds craving more. Her smile widened. Mimi was quite glad she was here.

  She ate another piece of chocolate while she thought. How could she describe all of herself to a complete stranger? It was weird having someone she’d only met a couple of hours ago wanting to know everything about her. But the silence was getting awkward, and she needed to start somewhere.

  “Well, my name is Mimi Mockel. I’m from a pretty famous city called New York City. Battery Park to be exact. I’m a senior at Stuyvesant High School and before yesterday I thought my only troubles were finding time to get to my favorite library, finding courage to talk to my crush, and helping our nanny take care of my ten-year-old sister Teagan and my brother Albert. I guess now my fears are never returning home, failing as a Prodigy and letting down Bas and his father. And not being able to help those poor people in the future. I have a people-pleasing complex and get kind of upset at myself if I let people down. So letting the Barkleys down would totally crush me. And, I’m sort of afraid of water.”

  “Water?” asked Richie with a bit of a laugh in his voice.

  Mimi blushed, but Richie smiled warmly at her, prompting her to continue. “Yeah, water. Swimming, mostly. And I think this fear is so stupid because I can’t explain why I’m afraid of water.” She peeked at him, worried about his reaction.

  To her relief, he didn’t look at her like she was crazy. He didn’t laugh at her. And in that moment of acceptance, Mimi decided she trusted Richie Stiles one hundred percent.

  “I don’t mind if you’re afraid of water. Don’t worry if you can’t explain all your fears. I have fears I can’t explain either. Well, it’s not so much a fear, as it is a reoccurring bad dream.”

  “What is it?” Mimi asked as she took a bite of the chocolate covered strawberries.

  “No. It probably sounds too stupid.”

  “Oh come on!” whined Mimi. “Totally unfair! I told you mine!”

  “Okay,” agreed Richie and took a deep breath before he started to explain. “It’s always the same dream. I’m in a large classroom. Not like I’ve been in the class the whole time, but suddenly I’m just sitting in this chair in a large classroom. The teacher is there in the center of the room. He tells us it is the final exam today. I’m looking around, and all my classmates have their pencils out, ready to go. And I start to panic, because I don’t even know what class it’s for! And then I always wake up, with the panicky feeling of dread and fear, like I’ve forgotten something major.” He poured himself a second glass of wine.

  Mimi took a sip of her wine too. He described it so well that she too had a sense of panic. “I don’t think that dream sounds stupid. It sounds like you’re afraid of failing.”

  Richie leaned back on the plaid blanket, resting on his elbows as he soaked in her words. Mimi thought it was refreshing to talk with someone who listened, instead of someone who was just waiting till it was their turn to talk.

  “I never really analyzed the dream before. But you’re pretty smart, Mimi, to figure it out so quickly. Because that makes a lot of sense.”

  “You’re welcome.” Mimi smiled and drained the last of her wine. “This is nice. Usually my friends just share what’s going on. We don’t talk about things like this. I could get used to this.”

  Richie’s whole face brightened, then darkened. He stood. “Then I’m sorry to be the one to break this off. But now I know more about you, and you seem to trust me, we can start our training.”

  “Oh. Right,” said Mimi, her mood also darker now. She had been enjoying their talk, and didn’t want to start training. She suddenly regretted her words to him insisting on Alchemy and Tai Chai only.

  The pool house was Olympian-sized, and the bottom of the pool was made entirely of gold, making the water look like liquid gold. Above the pool was a large window skylight that looked like it could open up and expose the stars. Mimi marveled at this; the lights of New York City rarely allowed for good stargazing.

  Across from the pool was a golden-framed mirror that Mimi was avoiding looking at. If she saw her reflection holding hands with Richie, she would freak out at how surreal it all was. She had only ever read about walking hand-in-hand with a boy under the stars; she had never dreamed she would experience it. She looked determinedly at the ground, not wanting to fall into the golden pool smelling strongly of chlorine.

  Richie seemed to sense her worry and squeezed her hand. She stared down at her hand in his, feeling both comforted and terrified. Richie was a much bigger concern than the pool. How could this boy suddenly have her emotions in such a state of haywire? They’d only just met! Was it his caring nature, his suave smile, or the fact that he actually wanted to get to know her? Was it his flaming red, neatly cut hair? The more she thought about it, the more nervous she became. She wouldn’t think about it anymore.

  Yeah right, like it’s that easy to tell your heart to shut up! Mimi thought to herself. She tried to focus on training. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d worked out. Gym class, probably, and that had just been running around attempting to play basketball. It had been hopeless. Mimi was the type of person who got hit in the head with the ball because she wasn’t paying enough attention.

  “Right.” Richie rubbed his hands together. “I will first focus on the skill of Tai Chi. You’re clearly smart, so I don’t think you’ll struggle too much with the basics of Alchemy.”

  “You’re putting a lot of faith in me.”

  “I do have a lot of faith in you,” he confirmed, holding eye contact.

  “Glad that makes one of us.”

  Richie laughed deeply, and for a moment Mimi forgot her nerves. His confidence in her was inspiring. “Let’s begin,” he said with a smile.

  Richie bent his knees so his torso was level with them, and motioned her to do the same. She cringed when the strain to her hamstrings. If I survive this Prodigy adventure, I am so joining Meredith next time she goes to the gym! It was too bad page turning wasn’t a sport. She’d be an Olympian.

  Richie cleared his throat. She prayed he couldn’t tell just how much pain she was in. It’d be way too embarrassing if he knew how inflexible she truly was.

  “Tai Chi is an ancient, ancient art. We modernized the martial art by incorporating Alchemy with the fighting technique. As you saw with Aimon, it makes a pretty cool show. There are twelve basic elements
of Alchemy. They are the symbols you may have noticed on the stained glass windows of the front entrance.”

  Mimi nodded.

  “The twelve symbols of Alchemy are Fire, Earth, Air, Mercury, Sulfur, Gold, Tin, Led, Argonic, Magnesium and Bismuth. Most first years spend an entire year learning their Elemental Launcher elements. By the time they get their Elemental Launcher in the second year, they should be able to tell what each element is and how it should be used in combat. Unfortunately, we only have two days. So we’re going to switch it around and get you in shape with Tai Chi, so you’ll be ready for whomever teaches you Alchemy, and more importantly prepare you for the test. Tests at this school are sometimes purely physical. Sometimes they combine mental and physical. Sometimes they are more mental, focusing in on your fears. I can’t be entirely sure which test Aimon is going to choose for you. But this way you are going to be ready if it is more on the physical side.”

  Mimi nodded, grateful for Richie’s insight. “Tai Chi, then.”

  “Yeah, Tai Chi.” His smile was soothing as he placed a hand on her shoulder and gestured her to stand up straight. Her strained knees were grateful.

  “Let’s see if you can kick or punch.”

  Mimi nodded and placed her hand in a tight fist like she’d seen street fighters do in Albert’s video games. The punch was more like a slight slap on Richie’s arm. Mimi knew it was weak and flushed. With an encouraging smile from Richie, she tried a kick. Better than the punch, but still ample room for improvement.

  “Okay, so you’ve got a decent kick,” said Richie encouragingly.

  “You didn’t think that was too pathetic?”

  “Nah, I’ve seen some first years start with similar moves. Now they’re in their third year and kicking some major butt in duels. You can do this too. You’re just starting out. Just like they did. We all start from somewhere, Mimi. This is just your beginning.”