The radioaktiv Edelstone (page 9)
“The power of the Edelstone can cure and it can kill. It can bring back to life a victim of the emperor of all maladies, and it can become death, and lay waste to armies. Many want to control and exploit its powers.”
Doktor Doktor Bombastus Paracelsus here popped the last of the marzipan into his mouth the way a baby might, pushing it in with his palm, dispensing with fingers, before continuing.
“The Cathayans also know atom-craft. I have heard they have alchemists and other knowledge-crafters building war weapons in the mountains of Qinling.”
He chewed, and then said with genuine sadness, “My little Marie Skłodowska, the most talented alchemy apprentice I ever trained, is gravely ill from it in Paris. Her husband Pierre Curie, too. A fine alchemist in his own right. It is dangerous stuff. And I’ll be damned if that Wiking Alfred Nobel doesn’t give them and Becquerel his prize for their work with it.”
“Have you seen the photographs that fellow Röntgen here in Magna Germania takes of the human skleton with his rays?” Doktor Doktor Bombastus Paracelsus asked of Janosch A. Prufrock, “Marvelous pictures. The human skleton illuminated in all its terrifying glory, from the penetrative power of radioaktiv rays.”
Doktor Doktor Bombastus Paracelsus said magnanimously, “The new generation of alchemists is so fine they put an old alchemist like me to shame.”
He, without a hint of embarrassment, scrounged the tablecloth of the last crumbs of marzipan, and pushed them all into his mouth, “And you, despite all this, or because of all this, want the Edelstone.”