Es war einmal… Sie heirateten und lebten glücklich im Land des Prinzen. (page 29)
Once upon a time… They married and lived happily in the prince's country.
Doktor Doktor Bombastus Paracelsus remarked to the sea as he stood on the end of the Vineta sea-bridge:
„Alle Dinge sind Gift, und nichts ist ohne Gift; allein die Dosis machts, daß ein Ding kein Gift sei.“
“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes it, that a thing is not poison.”
Huohu, the Cathayan firefox beside him, heard it and asked him to say it in Latin so he can also understand. So Paracelsus did.
Huohu did not like to be separated from Wilhelmina Wang, a princess of Chang’an, but there was no helping it. He hated even more being on wavy water. First comes the nausea, then comes the fruition of the nausea: the endless vomiting. No, thank you. Huohu will not do seasickness again. So while Wilhelmina sailed off on Störtebeker’s ship the Lord of the Seven Seas for terra nova, Huohu elected to stay behind on known terra firma.
“Your princess is seeking the radioaktiv Edelstone.”
It was not a question, but Huohu nodded nonetheless. Before the great alchemist and so far away from home, he felt alone and helpless before the enormousness of their task.
“Does she want it for its curative or its destructive powers?”
“Curative.”
“And will she be able to protect it, if she were to be… allowed to find it?”
“Oh yes, the princess is very capable.”
“It is not a switch, radioaktivität, between curative and destructive. It can be simultaneous, a matter of degree as the dial of its power turns up and down.”
“She knows.”
“Does she really? She is praying before the saint of desperate cases and lost causes.”
“She has to. She has only one mother. Tang Lili.”