I had always been a useless alchemist. As an apprentice to the Royal Alchemist, my father, everyone expects great things from me. I knew all the recipes and techniques but my potions were never as strong as they should be. My father says that I’m just inexperienced but I know that it’s because I’m only half elf. Because of my human mother, I don’t have the inherent magic that all Elves should. I hear my so-called friends mocking me from behind my back; making fun of my weak potions and small ears. Soon though, that was about to change.

There is a particular potion that I’ve been reading up on in my father’s notes. It was outlawed generations ago but I think it’s just what I need to get ahead. When brewed properly, drinking the potion could make even the most magically illiterate human into one of the most powerful wizards in the kingdom. I’ve been gathering ingredients in secret for weeks, and all I need now is pixie dust.

Pixie dust is one of the rarest ingredients out there, despite how common pixies are. The dust must be given willingly by a pixie, meaning very few have ever able to acquire it. My father, however, is the king’s personal alchemist; he had to have at least some dust. I snuck into my father’s storeroom after he went to bed and I finally found my prey. In the very back of the storeroom on the highest shelf sat a vial marked “Pixie Dust.”

Today is the day. The ingredients are prepared and my cauldron is heated and ready. I started brewing; stirring the bubbling liquid adding ingredients exactly as my father’s notes describe. The liquid turned a sickly shade of green which means it’s time to add the pixie dust and speak the word of power: a word imbued with mana that alchemists use to give potions their effects.

Carefully, I sprinkled the pixie dust into the cauldron. If this fails my life as an alchemist would be over; using rare ingredients to brew an illegal potion could get me exiled from the kingdom but if it works… oh if it works… they would have no choice but to recognize me as the greatest alchemist — no, the greatest wizard this kingdom has ever known!

I raised my hand above the now golden liquid bubbling in the cauldron and spoke as loudly as clearly as I could: “POWER!” And with that, the liquid grew still as it instantly stopped boiling turned a bright blue. It worked! I quickly bottled the potion, put it to my lips, and drank; not wasting a drop.

I could feel the changes right away, but something was wrong. My ears grew more pointed and my teeth sharpened into points; my arms and legs grew and my body quickly became disproportionate and ripped through my clothes. A sharp pain eminated from my shoulder blades and a moment later there was a pop and large bat-like wings burst through my skin and smashed the shelves behind me.

I screamed in pain and terror, and two guards burst into the room with my father in tow. They beheld my misshapen form with shock and terror. My father saw the tattered remains of my clothes on the floor and shouted to the guards, “That wretched beast has eaten my child, do not let it escape!”

The guards nodded in unison and took up a defensive formation around my father. I saw more guards appear in the doorway as I felt a spear enter my thigh. I let out a roar of pain, shattering glass and shaking the foundations of the castle. Stab after stab; slash after slash; the pain was becoming unbearable. I tried to cry out and say that it’s only me, but the only sound that escaped me was a shriek of pain. I could feel the darkness closing in around me and, as the pain and terror overwhelmed me, I gladly let myself be taken by unconsciousness.

When I awoke I was outside. I shakily opened my eyes and discovered that I still had the horrific misshapen body that I prayed had only been a dream. My hands were malformed with pointed claws and my skin was leathery and green. My limbs were unnaturally thin and my shadow resembled a large bat more than a human.

I didn’t immediately recognize where I was, but it was at the center of a crater spanning several kilometers in all directions. Looking at the landmarks, including the broken remains of an all-too familiar town, I realized with horror that this crater sat where the castle once was. No ruins, no remains, no indication at all that a castle once stood here.

Had I done this? Was this all because I had made that potion? Did I, in my hunger for power, inhialated the kingdom I once called home?

All it took was a sprinkle of pixie dust, a five letter word, and some misguided hope to change my life forever.

Was it worth the cost?