"How are we using these powers?" Cairon asked.
Ignis looked at him for a moment before a wide smile slowly appeared across his face.
"Okay. That's the first question you actually asked that is worth answering."
Cairon frowned slightly.
Ignis shifted against the Ironbind and continued, "First, let's talk about Aether. Aether is energy. It powers our machines, correct?"
Cairon nodded.
Ignis, as if expecting his affirmation, continued.
"So we know Aether is energy, and we know it is in the air. We breath that air and we researched on ways humans could use it then the first modern alchemist came upon forgotten history , about beasts that lived among humans , surprisingly they could use it but we didn't know how the beasts in the legends could use it."
Marek leaned against the table, listening.
"Think about it," Ignis said. "The beasts were living creatures, just like humans. They weren't machines. They didn't have engines inside them, they didn't have Aetherstones powering their bodies, and they certainly didn't carry little aether powered machines around."
He looked toward Cairon.
"So why couldn't humans do it?"
Cairon remained silent.
Ignis continued, his voice becoming more animated as he spoke.
"That question is what started the real research. Alchemists began studying the workings of Aether, where it existed, what it did, how it behaved, how it moved, and most importantly…"
He paused.
"How could humans use it?"
Ignis tapped a finger against the table.
"You see, Aether exists everywhere. Some places have less of it, some places have much more, but it is always there. It's in the air, and we humans breathe that air every single day."
Cairon glanced toward the pipes running along the warehouse walls.
"So why shouldn't we be able to use it?" Ignis continued. "That was the question that eventually led to the discovery of the real alchemists."
"The real alchemists?" Marek asked.
Ignis nodded.
"Not the people who spend their days researching , mixing chemicals and making strange powders in a basement."
Marek raised an eyebrow.
"That's exactly what most alchemists do."
"Exactly. Those people are disappointing."
Cairon ignored them.
"What do you mean by real alchemists?"
Ignis looked back at him.
"The ones who could take Aether and shape it into something else."
He barely held up his finger.
"Fire."
A small flame flickered above his fingertip.
Marek alarmed, immediately straightened.
Cairon stared at the flame.
Ignis smiled.
"Water, Fire, Wind, in some cases even darkness and light , Things that shouldn't be possible for a human body to produce."
The flame disappeared.
"That was the beginning."
Cairon looked at his own hands.
"So the powers aren't coming from inside the body?"
"Not exactly."
"Then where?"
Ignis pointed upward.
"The same place everything else comes from."
"The air."
"Bingo."
Cairon thought about the pillar of water he had created.
"But where did the water come from?"
Ignis smiled.
"That's the interesting part."
Cairon looked at him.
Ignis leaned forward as much as the Ironbind allowed.
"The Aether was already around you."
He tapped his chest.
"And some of it was already inside you."
Then he pointed toward the air.
"You simply learned how to make it become something."
Cairon remained silent.
Ignis continued.
"Think of it like this. Aether is the energy. Your potential determines what you can shape it into."
"So my potential determines my power."
"More or less."
"And yours is fire ?"
Ignis grinned.
"Fire."
Cairon looked at him, he said while being sarcastic ,
"Not totally obvious ."
Ignis placed a hand over his chest dramatically.
"That hurt."
"You're wearing a crimson coat."
"It's Fashion."
"You're called Ignis."
"Coincidence."
"You lead a gang called the Coilbloods that are alchemists ."
"Also coincidence."
Cairon stared at him.
Ignis smiled.
"Okay, perhaps not that one."
Cairon shook his head.
"So in short…"
Ignis interrupted him.
"In short, we turn Aether into fire."
He pointed toward Cairon.
"And you, my friend, are horribly unlucky and turn it into water."
Cairon stared at him.
Ignis shook his head with exaggerated disappointment.
"Poor lad."
Ignis looked genuinely offended by the thought.
"Still can't believe it had to be water." Mumbling to himself.
Cairon ignored him.
"How?"
Ignis shrugged.
"That part is complicated."
"You just explained it."
"No, I explained where it comes from. That's different."
Cairon stared at him.
Ignis smiled.
"The ancient civilization that first discovered this, The Real alchemists i told you about , left behind scriptures, relics, old ruins, and all sorts of strange things. We spent generations trying to understand how they did it."
"And?"
"And we failed."
Marek frowned.
"You're telling me the people who discovered it didn't leave instructions?"
"They left plenty of things."
"Then what happened?"
"We couldn't understand them."
Ignis spread his hands.
"You know how older civilizations were. In the past people would pray for anything and everything."
Marek gave him a skeptical look.
"That's your explanation?"
"No. That's my complaint."
Ignis sighed.
"We found scriptures, prayers, incantations, fragments of rituals, symbols we couldn't decipher and relics whose purpose we couldn't understand. But the actual method of shaping Aether…"
He shook his head.
"Lost."
Cairon remained silent for a moment.
"So the Coilbloods…"
"Among others," Ignis interrupted. "Spent years trying to rediscover it."
"And you did?"
Ignis smiled.
"Nope ."
Cairon looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"We knew it was possible but nobody could do it ."
For a moment, nobody said anything.
Then….
BANG!
The warehouse door was kicked open.
"Cai! You're back?"
The voice echoed through the warehouse.
Rae hurried inside, almost stumbling through the doorway.
"I heard you were near the explosion at the Clock Tower, I was….."
He stopped.
His eyes moved from Cairon to Marek.
Then to the old man sitting inside the Ironbind.
Rae blinked.
The old man wore a crimson coat.
His hands were bound.
His white beard and short, military-style hair made him look more like an old soldier than a prisoner.
Rae looked at Cairon.
Then at Marek.
Then back at the old man.
"Uh…"
He pointed at them.
"What are you doing?"
Nobody answered.
Rae looked around the room.
"Bullying the elderly?"
Marek sighed.
Cairon rubbed his forehead.
"Rae…"
Rae's eyes finally settled on Ignis.
Ignis looked back at him.
For a few seconds, the two simply stared at each other.
Ignis tilted his head.
"Damn."
"You look scrawny."
Rae's eyebrow twitched.
His expression changed instantly.
"What did you say to me?"
He lunged forward.
Cairon caught him before he could reach the Ironbind and blocked his path.
"Relax, Rae. We were in the middle of something."
Rae stopped.
His expression immediately changed.
The anger disappeared from his face as if someone had switched it off.
He looked at Cairon with wide eyes.
"Oh, Cairon…"
His voice became dramatically apologetic.
"I'm so terribly sorry."
Cairon stared at him.
"I…."
Rae lowered his head.
"I have betrayed you ,forgive me."
"Huh?"
"I should never have interrupted you."
Cairon sighed.
"Rae."
"Tell me what to do."
"Nothing."
"Anything."
"Rae."
"I will do whatever you ask to make up for it."
Marek looked at Cairon.
"What the hell is wrong with him?"
Cairon shook his head.
"I stopped trying to figure that out."
Ignis watched the entire exchange with an amused smile.
"So this guy also respects Cairon."
Rae looked toward him.
Ignis smiled.
"Interesting."
He leaned back against the Ironbind.
"Pleasure meeting you."