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The laboratory was situated in the basement of the palace. A gift from the Monarch to their "dearest friend, companion, advisor and partner". It was lit up with lanterns, which used tiny bioluminescent organisms as the light source. They created a blue-green light that the whole room bathed in. Waiti didn't really even need them since his vision was meant for the deeper parts of the oceans, but she liked the ambience they created. It was also partially so that Eni could see anything when they came down there to visit.
All of the shelves, cabinets and other places of storage were filled to the brim with anything Waiti might need as an alchemist. It was a stark difference to what her tiny makeshift laboratory had once been. Also courtesy of Eni. Rummaging through said storage, he found everything he needed. A clean small blade, a vial, a self-made disinfectant and clean bandages made from seaweed. The space was a mess. Pages from notebooks everywhere written so hastily only Waiti could understand the abominations he dared call letters that she had scribbled down. Tools everywhere and ingredients likewise, not to speak of the small garden in the middle of the room.
Waiti found it fitting that Tears of the land, amongst other things, were planted in the middle, like an altar or other place of worship. It was the plant that had started it all—it was the source of his damnation and salvation. Meddling with the sacred plant had ripped her away from her community, his family and My. She still mourned the little sister he never saw grow up past toddler years, his first true companion. At the same time, his blasphemous acts had given him Eni. A soul alike hers who could see past anything superficial, right into his very essence. The same core substance ran through both of their veins and sizzled in their bones.
Setting everything up, Waiti waited. Their Majesty was sure taking his precious time, she thought in frustration. In the corner of her eye, she felt a constant presence. The pure nectar of Tears of the land he had gathered that she kept in a bottle. Even after all these years he could never truly be at peace. As much as she was a believer of progress and innovation, he couldn't completely remove the beliefs that had shaped the majority of her life.
The nectar and the plant it came from were revered and sanctified, a gift from the land. The tale was told as followed: The land couldn't bear to watch it's children suffer from sickness, injuries and death on such a large scale. As a result, it gifted its tears to its children so they could be ailed by the caring tears of their creator. The plant came to be called Tears of the land and its nectar was the most potent thing to exist in the entire realm. It grew everywhere and wasn't bound to any circumstance or requirement. No matter what, it grew. Due to its nectar's potency, only minuscule amounts were used. It was diluted by putting very tiny amounts into tea and was used to heal.
Nobody could stay alive forever though. Everybody would some day return to the land, to their creator. Nobody had tried to use too much nectar since its potency was intimidating. Neither was there proof that a higher amount of it would result in anything positive for a patient. There was a thin line between the nectar's healing abilities and unsuspected, strong repercussions that could turn out to be devastating.
What Waiti discovered during her earliest experiments with the plant was its core element that nobody had managed to articulate before him. Its nectar was reality-altering, not just healing. Although, healing in of itself was an altercation of reality. Due to the fickle nature of the concept of reality, the nectar could do anything, in theory. In practice, it could easily cause discord, especially if ingested by a living being.
In Waiti's case, he had discovered that it could pierce through reality, creating a pathway between two realities or so-called realms. That was also a way to alter reality. Though, creating pathways was probably the most far away the usage of the plant could be dragged to from its traditional role. Waiti's discovery and, in her community's eyes, the misuse of something sacred, had a very high prize.
As the bottle sat on a table in the laboratory, its content radiated an unsettling yellowish white hue. It always did, but the color stuck out amongst the contrasting glow of the lanterns. A dying sun in a vast, cold and desolate universe. As much as Waiti claimed to not be of any belief besides alchemy, the respect towards the mythologized plant was steadfast. It almost felt wrong for him to contain something so powerful in a dull, common jar. To her, the nectar and the plant's roots were supposed to run free in the veins of the land's body, wild and unpredictable. Now Eni wanted her to contain the nectar in their veins instead.
Finally, a knock. The door was situated at the top of a set of stairs made of stone. Ignoring the ominous essence looming, Waiti called out: "Come in, I know it is you". Eni had developed an annoying habit of knocking. Like personal space had meant anything to the two of them for years. It was caused by all of this… elitist nonsense they had somehow dug up from his childhood. They now spoke of politeness, as if there was anything polite about them biting him whenever they wanted to rile her up.
Eni opened the door and walked down the steps, all royal and proper. He had started wearing tailored clothes and Waiti had to admit it suited them. Detailed pants paired with shirts full of frills and other intricacies in addition to mantels filled with beautiful embroidery. Earthy tones and different blues and greens both complimented and uplifted their bronze skin and the orange-red undertone of their curls. The sun crown put everything together, symbolizing their presence as a metaphorical light in the literal darkness of the midnight zone.
Waiti watched their descent both with admiration and impatience. With a sigh, he exclaimed: "Finally! Just get over here so I can get it done". Seemingly in a good mood, Eni teased her as he approached: "Is that any way to address Your Majesty, dear Alchemist? Why will you not show respect to your divine ruler?" The primary answer they got was an annoyed growl.
Waiti despised formalities. Eni's conversion to a much more nonsensical, unnecessary and ceremonial way of speech in front of others infuriated her to no end. He deserved the real Eni who he had spent the last 10 years with, not a facade that foolishly imitated what she supposed their father had once been.
A monarch with a stern, calm and regal exterior was what Eni tried to be. She saw right through that. There was still, invisible to any other eye, the shy wanderer with a mysterious past they preferred not to talk about. The human who was first to set foot into her realm alive. His partner in various ways, and most importantly, his other half. Connected by their way of being, of being misunderstood and outcast.
"I am all too tired for that crap today. Just sit down," Waiti replied, exasperated, and gestured to a stool next to him. Eni huffed in amusement and sat down, now on the same height level as their partner. "You are always too tired for anything…," they accused half-heartedly. "You are partially at fault with the way you are making me work. Like I have stated earlier, making an immortality elixir does not happen overnight," Waiti accused back.
As she was about to grab his tools, Eni gently grabbed his wrist before enclosing her hand in theirs. "I know how hard you work and admire that about you," he spoke gently. Waiti was caught off guard. This type of sweet behavior was usually reserved for after a fight or any other conflict. Was the palace staff drugging Eni or- "But have you considered an assistant or two, like I have suggested before?", they suddenly added. There it was, their motive. She knew they had an agenda.
He grabbed his hand away from them pointedly, scowling. "I have already told you, it is non-negotiable. I work alone," She turned away to lean against the table with his hands, pinching the space between his eyebrows. She wasn't about to have this conversation again. Disobeying Waiti's earlier instruction, Eni got up and put his hands on their partner's shoulders from behind in a gesture of affection. "But I have been allowed in your laboratory as an assistant, have I not? Back when where we lived was smaller than this sole space alone. You have experience. Come on Waiti, you know I need the elixir as soon as possible. For the both of us," they spoke gently, but there was something akin to demand in their tone too.
The last part frightened Waiti the most. His dear Eni wanted to become immortal to forever solidify their rule over her home realm. A bit megalomanic, he thought. A bringer of order to uplift the people from the murky depths of anarchy. A way for her to get revenge on the people who wronged her and a way for Eni to fulfill the role he was raised into. But the beliefs she was raised with were stuck in his mind. She outright feared immortality because it was so unnatural to her. Everybody would some day return to the land, to their creator. His options were to create a final divide between the land and her or eventually die and leave her partner behind.
"As I have already told you, any additional hands would simply slow me down. The fastest way you will get it is by being patient with me," he stated with a rigid tone since he had repeated the sentiment many times before. "I am always patient with you," Eni defended themselves. "And are you hinting that my presence in your laboratory has only caused you trouble in the past?", they teased, feigning hurt. Waiti groaned: "You know that is not what I mean. You are a different matter." Petting their partner's shoulder, Eni answered more sincerely: "I know, I know." They let his gaze move down Waiti's arm until they noticed the harsh bruise. They brushed their hand against the injury, asking silently.
"They look at me strangely. I need to bear it somehow and the end of a table is convenient," their partner simply retorted. "Who do I need to execute?", Eni asked, only half-jokingly, as they leaned more onto Waiti from behind. "Nobody. They do not look at me with disgust or hatred, but rather with respect. The majority of them, at least," she sighed. "You are the Alchemist, after all," Eni pointed out. "Yes, but I am not used to such attention. These people are supposed to hate me, but when I finally got used to it they just had to do a complete turnaround," Waiti complained. "It does not align with your revenge?", his partner asked curiously.
Clenching her hands into fists, he snapped: "No! I want those people to hate me while I get my revenge, I want to see them humiliated by the fact that I was right! Of course people outside these walls still hate me, but even this small exception is sickening enough." Eni hummed, then commented: "I still propose execution to you." She shook his head quickly. "No. That is too much. And stop bringing it up, even as a joke. Did you not claim it was scarring to watch executions with your father when you were a child?", he questioned worriedly.
Eni fell silent at that, clenching their jaw. "Maybe, but I should be past that. Besides, a good monarchy needs to have the peasants under control somehow. I am trying to create a good monarchy here, one I was taught was correct. I does not matter what I feel," they tried to resonate. "Eni, you are the Monarch. Your feelings matter the most out of us by rule," Waiti pushed. "Perhaps," her partner simply replied quietly. They then hugged him from behind and nuzzled their face into the crook of her neck.
He let out a deep sigh, leaning her head against Eni's and cradling it. They had been so reluctant to talk about his past that had made him suffer back then. Now they were immersing themselves in that wounded past like an infection they purposefully kept nasty. Waiti had started noticing how they were becoming worse. There had been a nightmare just one week ago that had ended up with her comforting them for who knows how long. He had foolishly thought the nightmares had left Eni several years ago.
Even more terrible was the change in their vocabulary. Suddenly, there was peasants instead of people. He was unsure if this was a relic from their past they now evoked or another pathetic attempt at imitating his father. Either way, it made her troublesome. If she had not been their beloved Alchemist, he would be a peasant too. The word left a bitter taste on his tongue. There had been no such thing in his realm before, and the implications of what it meant didn't make Waiti joyous. The monarchy might help him carry out his revenge, but she didn't fully agree with everything that such rule encompassed.
"Your scent is still that of the sea in my realm," Eni mumbled, breaking the silence. She hummed in acknowledgement. Waiti would never be able to detect it himself since the air itself in his realm was comparable to the sea water in her partner's realm. Still, he knew of Eni's love of the human oceans. He hoped that her scent equaled home to them. Forcing himself to let go of them, she declared: "Let us get this over with." He gestured to the stool once more.
Seeming a little sullen due to the loss of contact, Eni sat down. They frowned when they saw the blade. Waiti quickly noticed and scoffed half-heartedly. "Oh come on now, I have done you significantly more harm before. Your lower lip and neck have not been bloody in ages. Or would you prefer for me to extract your blood that way instead?", he half-joked.
Eni had become impatient. "Like you said, let us just get this over with. And you know that type of harm differs from this," he answered defensively. "So you admit you find it attractive when I hurt you in bed?", Waiti bantered. She was surprised they hadn't expressed their annoyance yet. His temper had become more short-fused since becoming monarch and he was recklessly playing with their flame. "I would be surprised to know you did not possess that knowledge yet," Eni said matter-of-factly. "If you are finished with your fuckery, could we now do what I came here for?", they added. She could sense a hint of annoyance, but they hid it well.
Waiti was genuinely astounded by how calmly they were still behaving. She supposed he could respect it, this time. Taking the blade in his hand, they ordered: "Your finger". Complying for once, Eni offered him their left index finger. He held it and saw how they averted their gaze when she cut into his skin and how they winced. It tugged at his heart a little. This way of extracting blood felt too mechanical, clinical. It didn't feel right to have a tool between them, getting in the way of their connection. Waiti would have gladly just bit them himself, but he needed this sample to be sanitarily acquired to minimize the risk of anything else but blood getting into it.
Blood pooled at the surface of Eni's finger like small red pearls. Grabbing the vial, Waiti tipped the finger over so the blood could fall into the small container. She squeezed the cut to get more blood out quicker, which earned a hiss from his partner. "Do you have to do that?", they grumbled through gritted teeth. "Yes, if you want this to be over faster," Waiti replied with a roll of his eyes. He didn't need much and soon put the vial safely aside. Taking the disinfectant, she warned: "This will hurt a little". He then applied it and watched Eni struggle to stay still as the disinfectant stung. Quickly grabbing the bandages, she cut off a small part of it with the now-bloodied blade and wrapped it around the cut, stifling the bleeding. "There you go," he said before getting to the task of cleaning the tools.
Glancing at the vial containing blood, Waiti suddenly felt sick. It felt twisted to have separated something organic from Eni and contained something as vital as blood in some pathetic small vial. Like with the nectar, it felt insulting towards nature itself. The blood should run through their veins, not the nectar, and neither should be trapped to be used for whatever he pleased. She could've just as well drank the blood so it would have some vessel to rush through. It wouldn't be the first or the last time she would've tasted their blood. Besides, was there any point in separating what was hers and what theirs, when they already shared so much?
Trying to ignore his thoughts, Waiti turned towards her partner, asking absent-mindedly: "What took you so long to get here?". Eni, who had been quietly inspecting the bandages now on his finger, replied: "Oh, just a meeting. We were discussing about sending some missionaries into the most isolated parts of this realm we haven't reached yet. To spread the message. It never hurts to have more devoted followers," they smiled a little, upbeat. "No, I suppose not," Waiti offered a rare fragment of a smile back. Eni's good mood had infected him too, despite the constant nagging at the back of his mind. Turning back to continue cleaning after the small operation, silence settled once more. Eni watched Waiti, taking in their partner. How the lights reflected off her brown skin, how his long braid followed his movements. She still seemed to be most at home in a lab coat, despite them gifting her lots of tailored clothes.
"How can you work in this lighting, I cannot see properly," they asked, already knowing the answer, but simply wanting to talk. "Human eyesight is shit," Waiti chuckled as she put away the now-cleaned supplies. Eni deeply cherished the moments where his partner actually smiled or showcased any signs of genuine joy. Even if it came at the cost of getting their eyesight insulted. With all the injuries they occasionally found on her, it was a welcome change. Wanting his partner to remain in a good mood, they continued the light-hearted conversation: "And you still wear that coat more than anything else I have given you. Do you love it that much?". Waiti gently shook his head and reassured: "I truly appreciate your other gifts too. I just do not want to get them dirtied while I work."
The moment was suddenly interrupted by knocking. Eni saw from the look on Waiti's face that she was annoyed. They silently cursed whoever it was at the door. "Did you not tell the staff to leave my laboratory alone?", their partner asked in frustration. "I did, but they might be looking for me," Eni suggested. Before he could offer to go answer the door, their partner was already on his way. "I will get it," she grumbled. Walking up the stairs and swinging the door open harshly, there was a nervous palace worker on the other side.
They spoke meekly: "Greetings, Alchemist. Is Their Majesty with you? They are needed elsewhere-" "Has anyone told you were allowed to knock on this door?", Waiti interrupted rudely. The poor thing didn't respond. "If I or Their Majesty himself has not given you permission, then fuck off", Waiti spit out, but with less venom than usual. The good mood he had just been in still lingered. The palace worker stared at him silently in horror, not at all knowing what to do or how to respond.
Eni had heard the unfortunate interaction and sighed. He still mourned not being able to spend as much time with Waiti as they used to. Their partner's temper and preference for solitude (with them) was also an ill-fitting combination with living in a palace full of people. They got up and quickly made his way up the stairs. Placing his hand on their partner's shoulder, he spoke to the worker in a way that almost made Waiti recoil because she could not recognize them. "I will come with you. Please excuse us, Alchemist," Eni spoke in a neutral tone.
"Do not call me that, Eni," Waiti snarled, putting an emphasis on their name. The palace staff could call him the Alchemist all they wanted, but her partner had a lot of nerve calling her that too outside of teasing. They were not about to start creating a chasm in their years companionship due to titles, of all things. He basked in the confusion of the utterly lost palace worker because he had called the Monarch Eni. Not Their Majesty, His Highness, or even Eneydeval. She found the name laughable. It was even more ridiculous that they called themselves "the second" in order to "honor his father".
Sighing once more, Eni rephrased: "Waiti, I need to go now. I will see you at dinner". Taking his hand in theirs, he placed a kiss on the back of her hand. Waiti immensely enjoyed the contradiction he was presenting to the worker. The Monarch not only spoke to her directly, but also allowed their position to be lowered by her. It was unheard of that they kissed the back of his hand and not the other way around. Ignoring the unreadable expression on the worker's face, she nodded in approval and bid farewell: "I will see you then".
Watching Eni walk away to perform their duties caused the heavy and all-too-familiar feelings to resurge along with the thoughts he had tried to avoid. Walking back down into the laboratory and closing the door felt like getting dragged away from his sun, going against the laws of gravity. The room felt empty and desolate all of a sudden. The abrupt absence of Eni was like a black hole sucking away anything comforting from the space. Inside the black hole, she only found the revolting glow of the liquid, dying sun in a jar.
Sitting down in the stool her partner had just sat on, Waiti stared at the blood vial with dread. If her calculations and understanding of the plant and the nectar were correct, he should mix Eni's blood with the pure nectar. She still needed to find the perfect ratio, but he truly needed only a drop or two of the blood and had plenty. That way, he would create an elixir that gifted immortality to whomever had their blood in the mix. Waiti had figured it to be blood since it, like the nectar, ran through the veins of living beings. As with how the nectar enabled the plant to be able to grow and live without needing specific circumstances, it would do the same with any other living being. That was what he hoped it would do.
The elixir would be just pure nectar and blood and in no way diluted like the traditions required. Waiti felt nauseous at the thought of letting Eni get any of it inside his body, even less in her own. In the end, he had no way of knowing what would truly happen and he didn't want to lose her partner. As much as he despised the thought, he'd rather experiment on herself than let Eni get harmed in any way.
Getting up and taking the blade he had already cleaned, he cut into the skin of her wrist a few times and hissed with each cut, watching the blood seep out of the linear wounds. Unlike with Eni, he never bothered treating the cuts properly afterwards. The pain helped her forget about most of her misery momentarily, but even through it, he knew one thing. He was between two suns and would get scorched no matter which gravitational pull she ended up in. What happened when those two suns collided was a future she didn't dare imagine.