Nicole was exhausted and somewhat regretted her choice to burn a piece of her soul, but then she glanced at Ustrina on her shoulder and knew she was worth it.

  The two troll women had obtained hard hats and Lyra led her into a mine lit by heavy-duty overhead lights.

  They turned a corner and Nicole immediately felt comfortable, because they’d just walked into an underground chemistry lab, which appeared to have been stocked with just about every piece of the latest equipment. The room was dusty, because the whole mine was dusty, but at the center of it all was a short, bald figure, covered in wrinkles, slowly shifting from one granite-topped bench to another, all set at a comfortable height for a dwarf, adjusting valves on glass contraptions, through which bubbled mostly clear liquids.

  Eager to meet the ancient-looking chemist, Nicole stepped up. He was a dwarf, though it wasn’t easy to tell, because he was stick-thin and clean-shaved, including both his chin and the top of his head. One side of his face was covered in burn scars, though it was hard to pick out through his mass of wrinkles. If she had to guess the dwarf’s age, based on how he stooped and shuffled around, very slowly, he was at least eighty years old. He clearly didn’t see very well, because he wore a pair of glasses with lenses that were very thick. Attached to the frame of his glasses on his left side was a small magnifier, which could be lowered to allow him to examine very tiny details.

  Ustrina eyed the dwarf with naked contempt from her perch on Nicole’s shoulder and started to growl, until Nicole shushed her.

  “It’s nice to meet you!” Nicole held her hand out.

  The dwarf stared Nicole squarely in the hip. He tried to tilt his head back, but had clear difficulty turning to look her in the face, so Nicole knelt, making it easier for him.

  “Are ye allowed to be here, young lady?” The ancient dwarf asked, in a quavering voice, “Mmm. Last me heard, this mine is a restricted area, though me memory isn’t what it used to be. And why do ye have a dragon on yer shoulder?”

  Lyra stepped up, to answer, “She’s with me.”

  “And the dragon is too young to leave on her own.” Nicole added.

  “Okay.” These answers seemed to satisfy him, so he turned back to Nicole, “Mmm. Do ye know much about chemistry, young miss?”

  Nicole smiled, “It’s my favorite subject. I’ve even got a degree in it.”

  “Oooh, a degree!” The dwarf turned to Lyra and winked, “Me hears talk that’s a fancy piece of paper, isn’t it, what tells ye a person has learned something special?” He turned back to Nicole, “Mmm. Well, around here, experience is what matters and little pieces of paper are used for taking notes on me work.”

  Nicole couldn’t help but feel insulted, because she’d worked very hard to graduate from high school with a university-level degree in chemistry!

  Seeing Nicole getting angry, Lyra prompted, “Stop teasing her, Dadum. She’s here to show you something special and, hopefully, you can help her out, in turn.”

  Stowing her annoyance with the ancient dwarf, Nicole produced the coin.

  Moving with snake-like speed that startled her, because she hadn’t expected it from such an old dwarf, Dadum snatched it from her hand and lowered his magnifying lens, “Mmm. Ye brought me a nice piece of metal, which may include some mythril, though it seems to lack the usual properties. Mmm. Perhaps an alloy me hasn’t seen?” He moved the lens back up, above his glasses.

  He took a long, quiet moment to shuffle across the lab, covering only a short distance, to arrive at an industrial spectrometer that lay on one of the counters, while his visitors followed. The machine appeared to have been customized with additional hardware, though Nicole couldn’t fathom the purpose of the changes at a mere glance.

  Dadum inserted the coin into the sample slot of the spectrometer, which hummed to life. While it worked, he picked up a tablet computer.

  As it finished, he brought the results up and mumbled to himself, “Mmm. One-seventy-five. That’s a new one. One-seventy-six, as expected, with traces of silver and lead, not unusual, but with mercury and magnesium, too. Mmm.”

  He removed the coin from the machine and returned it to Nicole, who impatiently asked, “And what have you learned?”

  He explained, “Yer sample is one third mythril, less commonly known as element number one-hundred-seventy-six. It’s also two-thirds element number one-hundred-seventy-five, which me’s never seen before, forming an alloy somewhat akin to brass, since these elements bear a superficial resemblance to copper and zinc, aside from their inherent magic.”

  “What?” Nicole didn’t believe him, because what he was saying flew in the face of what she’d been taught in school, so she protested, “All elements from one-oh-nine on up are all pointlessly unstable!”

  “Oh, look at what Little Miss Degree doesn’t know!” The ancient dwarf cackled, “Mmm. We’ve been hard at work in this lab for about thirty years, studying things mainstream science insists can’t exist, but well, if an educated woman says me’s been wasting me life, then she must be right.” He spoke sarcastically, in an affronted tone, “Young lady, me will have ye know that me’s been a chemist much longer than ye’ve been alive and me knows me sounds crazy, but that’s because me’s been working under a gag order from the Heart Forge council the entire time this mine has been running, because the knowledge is too dangerous.

  “Mmm. In point of fact, young lady, what we discovered here is the long-fabled island of stability chemists have been searching for, over countless years, and though me’s been sworn to secrecy, it’s been me pleasure to study these new elements.”

  “How?” Nicole asked, now filled with curiosity, “How are elements with such high atomic numbers stable?”

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  The old dwarf set aside the tablet computer and shuffled over to a stool, which he sat on, gesturing for his visitors to do the same. Lyra appeared uncomfortable on a dwarf-sized stool, with her knees almost reaching her chin, so Nicole opted to sit on an open space on one of the counters, instead. Since Ustrina started to fidget, nervously, Nicole pulled the dragon off her shoulder and held her in her arms, instead. To calm her down, she stroked Ustrina’s head, quickly resulting in the little dragon closing her eyes to contented slits, though she still watched the dwarf like a hawk.

  Looking at Nicole, Dadum asked, “According to yer book-learning, what are the fundamental forces of the universe that hold atoms together?”

  Nicole gave the answer she’d been taught, “The strong and weak nuclear forces keep the atomic nucleus together and the electromagnetic attraction between the electrons and protons keeps the electrons from flying off on their own.”

  “Mmm. Aye, the modern school answer.” Dadum nodded, then asked, “Are ye familiar with magic, young lady?”

  Getting annoyed, Nicole decided to demonstrate by concentrating to cast a small spell, intending to dazzle the dwarf, having forgotten the magic nullifier she was wearing.

  When nothing happened as a result of waving her hand, she sighed and admitted, “Yes. I happen to be a witch.”

  Dadum shrugged, “Then ye might want to wear a pointy hat. Mmm. Ye would get more respect.”

  Suppressing the urge to strike the dwarf, Nicole glanced at Lyra, who was silently chuckling to herself.

  Nicole turned back to Dadum and assumed he’d lost the conversational thread, due to being old, so she prompted, “You were explaining how the island of stability is stable…”

  “Ah, yes. Mmm. So far, the few elements me’s studied in the island are bound together by magic, on a nuclear scale, if me instruments are correct. Mmm. They draw on the ambient magic of the universe and use it to supplement the nuclear forces, allowing a large nucleus to stabilize. Previous to today, me’s only observed the effect in mythril and shadow iron, also known as element number one-seventy-two.

  “Both elements attract more magic than they require, but the excess produces different effects in each. Mmm. High-purity shadow iron uses the excess to slowly grow in mass over time, producing additional atoms of itself. Me doesn’t know the exact mechanism yet, but me suspects it transmutes the air.

  “Mythril, on the other hand, doesn’t directly use the excess and any user of magic that touches it will find their mind stimulated with greater knowledge of magic. Our experiments and accounts from wizards in the field also show that mythril is mildly unstable, at least in the hands of a magic-user. While touching it, they gain access to great power, but it comes at a lethal price: using mythril for magic causes it to spontaneously split into silver and lead via a fission reaction that produces hard radiation. However, the effects on spells cast this way are incredible, to say the least, with just a few pounds of the stuff able to easily allow a wizard to reach world-shattering potential.

  “That’s why me works under a gag order. Since the initial rumor campaign that kicked off the transmutation reaction, this mine and a few others, nearby, have produced ten pounds of mythril over the years, along with almost a pound of shadow iron.

  “Strangely, mythril is attracted to those that use magic and repelled by dwarves. Mmm. We refine it using dwarf labor, for the sake of safety, because one of the refining steps turns it to a fine powder and the last thing anyone with magic would want is to accidentally inhale it. With the attractive force, ye would never get it out.”

  “You mentioned a rumor campaign?” Nicole asked.

  Lyra explained, “Years back, while he was looking for an advantage in a looming conflict, Levi bought this silver mine and hired a bunch of dwarves to work it, then as soon as they were dirty from work, had them go out, spreading rumors they’d struck mythril, in the hopes the fervent belief of a nation would make it true, just like the belief that dragons sleep on gold eventually produces fairy gold. The short version is that it worked.”

  “Aye,” Dadum nodded, “but it turned out to be so inherently volatile that the rumors had to be squashed. Hence, the gag order on me work.”

  Nicole held up the coin and asked, “Is there anything else you can tell me about the metal this is made from?”

  “Mmm. Not much, though the new element on its own should bear a bit of a resemblance to copper, while mythril bears a superficial resemblance to zinc, so the alloy looks like brass. Mmm. As far as me knows, the new element hasn’t been named, but me thinks this particular alloy has a name, from old Earth myth: orichalcum. The combination seems to be keeping the instability of the mythril under control, so ye can assume the two metals interact on a magical level, which probably means they’re strongly bonded.” He held a hand out for the coin and requested, “Would ye mind if me did a few more tests? Mmm. It’s possible me could learn something more.”

  Nicole readily handed the coin over, “Go right ahead. Break it if you need to. I want to know as much about this as I can.”

  Dadum accepted the coin and very slowly shuffled to a workstation that included various tools, including a mortar and pestle, hammer, chisel, and a set of scalpels. Notably, several of the tools were tipped with a gleaming metal Nicole suspected was mythril. All of the tools that appeared to have been made from mythril were locked into a rack of clamps, probably to make it easier for the dwarf to pick them up without having to struggle with the repulsive force.

  He put the coin in a clamp and selected a mythril-bladed scalpel. He unsuccessfully tried to scrape some of the metal of the coin away, then put the scalpel back in its clamp, pausing to stare at the coin. Next, he removed a mythril chisel from the rack and picked up the hammer. Setting the chisel against the edge of the coin, he carefully aimed the hammer and swung as hard as he could!

  There was a long, sustained ringing sound that went on for close to thirty seconds, seemingly coming from the coin, but nothing else appeared to have happened. Dadum pulled the chisel away and looked at the tip.

  The moment the coin was struck, Nicole’s head ached as if in sympathy and the ringing of the coin reminded her of a scream. When the ringing stopped, Nicole’s headache vanished with it.

  “Well, would ye look at that!” Dadum chuckled and then gestured his visitors to come closer, so he could point out a scratch on the chisel, “This chisel is pure mythril, the hardest thing me’s ever seen, before ye brought this little sample!” He spoke with excitement, “Where did ye find it? Do ye know how it was made? Me would love to know more.”

  “The wizard Maeldoon sent it to me.” Nicole shrugged, “Though he didn’t send any kind of explanation along with it.”

  The previously-cheerful dwarf’s facial expression instantly contorted with distaste, “Me’s never liked him.”

  He quickly unclamped the coin, shuffled back to Nicole with greater speed than ever, almost approaching a normal walking pace, and handed it back, acting as though it were radioactive, now that he knew who the previous owner was.

  “Why not?”

  “Me knew him in the old days, before yer grandfather’s time. He’s not quite as crazy as he used to be, but well…ye never know when a wizard might go back to old ways. Mmm. Me knows me should change me ways, but…well, he’s the looniest wizard me ever met! Me just doesn’t trust him.”

  Lyra smiled and started to laugh. Nicole couldn’t help but smile. Getting dwarves to let go of their prejudice against magic and wizards wasn’t easy, to say the least, even though they would never act on their fears without hard evidence.

  Since they’d come to the end of quick answers through physical analysis, Nicole stood up.

  “I learned a lot of interesting things.” Nicole bowed her head to Dadum, “Thank you.”

  “Aye, ye’re welcome. It was a pleasure meeting ye and seeing a new element, even if Maeldoon is involved.” Dadum rolled his eyes, “If ye find any more magical materials, be sure to bring them in, for analysis. Mmm. The more me learns about the elements in the island, the more me can likely tell ye about all of them.”

  As they left, Nicole set Ustrina on her shoulder. The dragon looked back and growled at the dwarf one last time, before turning to face forward.