Flawless//Broken by Sara Wolf

got greedy. They wanted the source of Azoth for themselves.”
    “So they killed him.”
    Darius’ eyes darken, the gold turning to hard amber shaded with sadness.
    “These greedy alchemists call themselves the Mutus. The Mutus killed Nicholas, but Nicholas was both wise and far-seeing. He created the greatest work of Alchemy ever known - distilling the entire Philosopher’s Stone into the blood of his two daughters. All the Azoth in the world was in their bodies, and could only be removed and used by drawing some of their blood. Blood carries Azoth. But the Mutus didn’t know this, and continued to search for the stone. Nicholas had long sent his daughters to be married elsewhere. The Azoth was safe, for a time. And then his daughters married, and had more daughters, who had their own daughters. And so Azoth spread around the world, held in the bodies of females of Nicholas Flamel’s bloodline.”
    “So I’m -” I look at my hands.
    “This,” Darius holds up the copper bar. “Is what we call prima materia - the most basic form of matter. It can be turned into anything, provided the alchemist has enough Azoth, and an item of equal value to trade for its creation.”
    “So you could just…just make a bunch of gold out of that right now and get even richer?”
    Darius scoffs. “Fortunately, the Sage Council has rules. They keep tabs on every act of alchemy performed in the world. If one of us gets too greedy or too destructive, they arrest us, bring us before trial, and throw us in Darkland if we’re guilty. No one likes to risk it. Darkland is much, much worse than any human jail could ever aspire to be.”
    He puts the prima materia on the table next to the bacon, and motions to it.
    “The Holy Blood is Azoth. Some human women produce higher concentrations of it than others. And you - raw prima materia reacts to the presence of Azoth by refining itself. You refined it in a matter of seconds.”
    “So I have a lot of Azoth.”
    “ Incredible amounts of Azoth,” He corrects.
    “And homunculi…eat Azoth? They eat people like me?”
    “Only the most starving homunculi consume the entire body. The rest prefer to bleed them dry with special incisors they have in their mouth.”
    “Like…like vampires ?”
    Darius scoffs. “Vampires don’t exist. Homunculi do. Your human minds created a monster with a far more intricate mythology than the reality. Humans excel at getting creative when they’re terrified.”
    “This is insane,” I say slowly. “You realize that, right?”
    “What’s insane is you leaving the safety of this house and attempting to live a normal life after what I’ve just told you.”
    “This may come as a shock to you, but I don’t want to be involved with this crazy homicidal thing you alchemists have going on!”
    “You don’t have a choice,” Darius snaps, standing abruptly. “The homunculi will keep coming after you, and the Reapers can only protect you so far.”
    “Reapers? Dudes with hoods and big scythes?”
    “Battle alchemists,” He sighs. “Who focus on hunting and killing homunculi to protect humans - look, that isn’t the point. The point is you should stay here, for your own safety, until I can contact the Sage Council and they find you a strong alchemist. Now that your Azoth has matured, the homunculi will swarm you like hungry wolves.”
    I stuff bacon in my mouth to stop my head from spinning and level my blood pressure out. All of this is too much. I chew furiously, the moment of silence between us heavier than a block of lead.
    “I don’t want a strong alchemist. I want to go home and live my damn life.”
    “Most alchemists have an Azoth. They live with the alchemist, and the alchemist uses their blood for experiments. The ones who can’t afford a live-in Azoth buy vials of it from those who can. You have the strongest Azoth I’ve seen - some very wealthy and powerful alchemists would be more than happy to have you live with them. In exchange