Mastodawn

OK Alchemised thread.
I've never done this shit but I've seen other people do it on other platforms so it must be possible right?

Also I'm audio booking so lol what are names
First off, I heard this was based on a ship from everyone's (least) favorite wizard book series (that isn't Earthsea) and I think that kind of ruined it already lol but I'm curious about and after like chapter 4 or so I'm enjoying it. It got me switched off my Malazan book for the time being, and its similar length.
Anyway what kind of got me hooked is the world building and the post-story setting of it all, but I'm still very early (maybe 10%?) and I have no clue where this goes. But the main character is Helena who is a foreign girlie caught up in religious-secular war, on the side of religion (oops) because she was friends with the pope's son lol (oops). In said world some countries have access to alchemy and its various off-shoots. Which is NOT magic it's SCIENCE. Well depends who you ask actually. Now that I think about it, necromancy is involved and I wouldn't really call that alchemy...

Anyway the narrative is a little broken up because Helena's mind is pretty messed up. She was on the losing side of the war and the book starts with her being woken from a kind of stasis for an undetermined amount of time in a location that no one expect to find her. The Big Bads ('high necromancer', the evil scientist, other cronies) all gather around her and talk about their dilemma of what to do with the last revolutionary they have on their hands and what to do with her brain which is covered in some crazy advanced alchemy shit that presumably is hiding information in it. What is it? Nobody knows, not even Helena (they don't really ask her either since they can just mind scan her lol).
So they send her to the "High Reeve", this total badass who has killed all the coolest revolutionaries, and what do you know it's this dude Helena went to school with. Though his hair is all white and his skin is pale. And he's so slight.

So now the story can start in earnest. Like I was saying Helena has a few problems. She's being held against her will in this big stinky mansion that is covered in iron, and the family that owns it can control iron at will. Her body and mind are severely traumatized - she's weak as a baby from muscle atrophy from being in a pod for more than a year. During this entire time she was conscious (so, sleep paralyzed) and after all that time she developed a fear of the dark or big spaces she doesn't know, so she can't leave her room without having panic attacks. She also had anti-alchemy manacles implanted in her wrists (like,metal ribbon drilled through her wrists and wound around like a cuff) which give her pain and stop her from using alchemy. And the baddies want to comb her brain for secrets to seemingly betray her friends, who at this point are all dead but it's the idea of it all!

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Matcha Tummy

Oh right, the necromancy. I mentioned that secularist schism in society before right? Well that was centered in the mercantile-based Guilds, who want to use alchemy to make tons o' money and all that good stuff. Guilds are also patriarchal inherited institutions (this will be important later :) ) so they form a kind of nobility. Well, the stinky high-necromancer apparently showed up at the start of the war and started showing people how they can live forever, and well that really caught on (the religion was hoping people wouldn't be evil, but oops). The High Reeve, who seems to be this fellow Kaine Ferron, assassinated the religious head at the bidding of the high necormancer - his father was caught and executed (allegedly) and this all started the war.
I keep saying allegedly, because I feel you're not suppose to believe anything you see... Helena's memories are all messed up, and as we go on she remembers more and more and completely forgets people exist.

Helena's role in the war was a healer, which she believes she's the only one, but this is refuted immediately when she wakes up because there's no files on her that the baddies can find. They only find info about a "Elenor" that she doesn't remember existing (sus). Helena was also besties with this shrimp Luc, who was the son of the pope and became the next pope. He was such a nice guy who never did anything wrong and just being near him was like being in the sunlight, and all he wanted was everyone to get along, it's too bad he got thrust into this war and had to make tough decisions. :( Helena's roommate at school was this woman Lilian who became the high paladin or main protector of Luc. They're all dead now.

Oh right necromancers. I keep forgetting. So all the new nobility keep slaves in the form of necorthralls, which as you may presume are animated corpses. Apparently the high necromancer made these popular so they could do tasks like mining for free, so that's what they do with all the people they kill. They also like to kill people and have them kill their family, fun stuff like that. A huge bloodbath at the end of the war is the last thing that Helena remembers before waking up from the stasis at the beginning of the book. The necromancer can somehow enhance people's bodies to become Undying, which is what most people are after through serving him. Undying bodies seem to auto-heal, but there's a limit. And they can also be transferred into necrothralls as a form of punishment, which Moro (the high necromancer) does at the beginning of the book to the person who was running the body storage where they found Helena.

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Matcha Tummy Feb 4

Is that enough background? I dunno it's hard to keep together. I'm just stream of conscious-ing this shit.

Anyway, Helena's primary objective as a captive? Kill herself, lol While everyone she knows and loves is dead, she believe that the fact she's alive must be for a reason and that there must be some secrets in her head. She has to kill herself to stop the baddies from having it, and if there's anyone else out there, to stop them from coming to try to save her, because her capture is put in the newspaper as she finds out soon after being moved to the mansion.

Unfortunately for her, she is guarded all the time by zombies, and there's nothing around to kill herself with. The mansion's balconies are all extended like a cage (easily done because made of iron like I said before) so she can't jump off anything, there's nothing to strangle herself with, and she can't find anything sharp. Boohoo. She's also too scared to leave her room because the mansion is so scary to her she gets dizzy or faints when she leaves the safe confinement of her room. And yes she realizes that's fucked up.

The High Reeve, Ferron, is also married to a young woman (Helena and Ferron are the same age and I assume, mid20's? maybe 30) "barely older than a girl" (sus) who of course hates Helena on sight. She tortures her for fun by trying to scare her with parlor tricks (she can turn rings she has on into claws and shit) and only feeds Helena shitty gruel. Well, sends the zombies to feed her. She also sees that Helena is also afraid of the color red (PTSD flashbacks to the war) so she only gives her red clothes to wear. lol

So Helena is just miserable! The whole reason she's here is for Ferron to perform "Transference" on her, which seems to be some technique (she doesn't understand either) which imposes his consciousness on hers, presumably so he can unlock her hidden memories. He can also just read her normal memories at will, even see her dreams retroactively, and he does often. So basically she can't even plan how to kill herself because he sees her plans and then counters them. lol Anyway, the transference needs to be done a little at a time, basically to build a tolerance, because it really fucks both of them up when performed. And since Helena is so weak, she has seizures, short term memory loss, the whole thing, after they do it the first time. She starts having memories/nightmares of stuff she couldn't remember before though - she has a memory of her friend Luc doing opium. That seems odd doesn't it? And he was also trying to kill himself, what a surprise. Kind of changes our image of the perfect guy doesn't it? But he was under a lot of stress with a war going on and such.

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Matcha Tummy Feb 4

Ferron, of course looks at Helena with disgust and apathy and all those good words. He seems to not be interested in this, but Moro (the necromancer) has asked him to and he obeys right? Huh kind of Vadery now that I think about it. All Helena remembers of Ferron from school is that he was a Guild kid, which mean he never really talked to a sponsored kid like her (someone who had talent for alchemy but was from another country. Remember, she's an immigrant too.) She doesn't remember him outright bullying her, but he and her competed for the top of the class spot on the yearly big exams. Hm interesting dynamic I'm sure nothing is there at all huh? He has to take her on daily walkies because she's so weak to build up her constitution. But he reeeaaaally hates it! He just reads a newspaper and definitely isn't paying attention to her and trying to stop her from killing herself all the time. (Such as freezing to death, which is easy because they don't give her good clothes or boots lol.) After she gets fucked up from transference, the scientist determines they can only do it once a month. She's basically bedridden for a week after, and then has to build herself up. Ferron notes to Helena he was excited when he heard she was coming because he would get to break her, but she's already broken her self (chapter end lol)

The wife like I said also hates Helena. In the chapter I was reading last, the scientist doing a checkup on Helena asks her what she's eating, because it's been months and she's not gaining any weight. Helena says she just eats boiled apple peels and random vegetables. The scientist (Stroud I think) gets pissed and asks Ferron what's going on? He "pales" and says his wife is in charge of feeding Helena so he assumed she ate what they did. lol, lmao So now she gets food.

Oh I forgot, on the topic of the wife, she's also cheating on the husband lol Helena was worried when she discovered it because Ferron would see it in her memories but he just laughs when he sees it, so that's pretty funny. What a cuck.
Oh yeah, and when they had a new years party, Helena (who is slowly getting over the PTSD fear of the dark thing) watched the party from a third floor balcony. During the happy new year kiss photo-op Ferron and his wife have, he locks eyes with Helena way up there the whole time during the kiss. Odd thing for him to do. But stuff like this happens and he goes back to ignoring her for weeks on end.
Hmmm I think that's about all I can type for now. Now that I've started I'll see if I can bring more salacious details back to blorb.

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deflectric Feb 4

@matchalatte this is all so much more insane than I expected??? The worldbuilding sounds so intense LOL embedded handcuffs that the baddies(allegedly) can bend at will????? wtf... I thought this was gonna be more in the werewolf alpha romance direction for some reason, but it seems very high fantasy political allegory kinda vibe

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Matcha Tummy Feb 4

@deflectric yeah there's a bit of economic and political shit going on
From what I understand the country with alchemy that the book takes place in is more of a city-state which like I mentioned was held up by the religious order that trained alchemists (who maintained it was a gift from a god) and the Guilds that exploited it for economic trade. There's a few other countries mentioned like the MC's which I think is like a coastal pastoral country (though her parents were a pharmacist and apothecary), a war mongering country, and a third one I can't remember well but was just noted as not trading with the alchemy country which is leading to a grain shortage.
So there's a little going on.
Someone just got assassinated even though they're Undying which leads to two questions - how do you kill supposedly immortal people and I guess the resistance isn't all dead like we're told ;)