"Perhaps the greatest cost though is loneliness," Nicholas admitted, a tired sigh leaving him. "Had we had children, I have no doubt that their loss would have crushed us. And I do not doubt for a second that I wouldn't have been able to endure half as long without my beloved Pear by my side."
"A long life is meaningless if spent alone," Perenelle said, leaning in to her husband's shoulder when he used the pet name for her.
"Even so, we have spent long enough among the living. We've grown weary of seeing friends die and the world change while we do neither. That is why, when we gave Albus the stone, it was already worthless in our eyes. We had been planning on departing this world for many years beforehand. We just couldn't decide on 'when.' In a way, my old student's request was the perfect excuse to let go," Nicholas revealed, and I gawked a bit.
"Hang on, then was the Philosopher's Stone in the mirror real and not a fake?" I asked in disbelief.
"It was the real thing, simply inert. It had just enough magical charge to make one last dose of Elixir or approximately ten kilograms of gold, but no more. That magical energy would be enough to fool anyone into believing it could do more, but in truth we used the last of its power beforehand," the alchemist revealed.
"That does not change the fact that we meant every word we said to young Harry," Perenelle assured me. "To have the stone in his grasp, yet not have any desire at all to use it? Even we could not do that, and we were the ones to willingly give up on it."
"He is a strong young man. He will do great things in the future," Nicholas declared solemnly, though there was a twinkle of fondness in his eyes at the thought of the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I see… are you not worried somebody else might try and find a way to copy it? Make a new stone?" I asked hesitantly.
"Somebody like you?" Nicholas asked, and I chuckled, unsurprised he'd seen through me.
"Yes. I won't deny that the desire to do so is very strong," I admitted.
"Then you'd best start improving your skills in Alchemy," the legendary man stated, not at all concerned by my ambition.
"I will," I promised.
"Hmm. Tell me, young Edward. The Philosopher's Stone is lauded as the greatest achievement in Alchemy, but do you know why?" Nicholas asked, and I frowned.
"It can create the Elixir of Life and turn ordinary metals into gold, correct?" I replied.
"Indeed. But did you know that creating the Elixir of Life as well as the transmutation of gold are both possible without the stone?" the old man asked, and I blinked in surprise.
"The Elixir of Life has many names, and in fact there are many variants, though the one I created using the stone was first invented by Asclepius, and is known as the Cure of Death, a potion that mimics the potent healing power of phoenixes, while also extending the life of the imbiber. The recipe for creating it is ancient and scant few know of it today. It also requires phoenix tears as a main ingredient," Nicholas explained. "And gold? It can be done using the art of Transmutation. In fact, the closer the base material is on the Periodic Table of Elements, the easier it is."
"The Philosopher's Stone is so incredible because it is a catalyst to allow one to perform Transmutation, Enchantments, and other spells without needing to know the first thing about them," Nicholas continued, a wide grin on his face as he explained and watched my wide-eyed expression. "The stone itself is an impressive bit of Alchemy, but it is my greatest work for a different reason than most believe."
"You cannot Transfigure lead into gold, but you can Transmute one into the other. And there are a dozen ways to enhance your lifespan using the complex healing arts, though without an Enchantment to anchor them to oneself, they are temporary stopgaps at best. The Philosopher's Stone on the other hand lets a person do these advanced forms of magic as easily as performing a First-Year spell, to use the parlance of the modern day," Nicholas explained. "How? Quite simple, actually. The stone has two functions; storing spells, and storing magic. That's it."
"Then, that means the Philosopher's Stone is more of a battery than anything else! Or perhaps closer to a crystalline grimoire that can store specific spell formula! Like a magical computer and printer!" I exclaimed, instantly understanding what he was talking about. "You somehow 'inscribe' the stone with a spell or two, perhaps through a ritual, and then channel magic into it, which is stored until needed. Then, you can cast the spells whenever you want!"
"Yes! Exactly!" Nicholas said excitedly. "The Philosopher's Stone can create the Elixir of Life and transmute gold because those are the magical processes I embedded into the stone itself during its creation! A sample of the Elixir of Life was imbued into the stone, and it uses the massive amount of stored magical energy to Transmute raw materials into a perfect copy of said sample. I only had to brew the Elixir once, and never again! Same deal for making gold via a Transmutation spell. I imbued it into the stone alongside the sample of Elixir, and have never wanted for wealth since. The stone is merely a medium that stores both information and power, in the end. Just like a book, or for a more modern comparison, a computer program!"
"And you can simply cast the 'spells' stored in the stone over and over again, until it runs out of magical power!" I realized. "And since you claim you only brewed the Elixir of Life once, that means materials that are created by the Philosopher's Stone can be copied as well, with no apparent degradation!"
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