"Does that mean there are goblin or Veela immortals?" Delilah inquired, deciding to steer things onto safer ground.
"Certainly," Nicholas nodded, calming down a bit. "One of the best goblin artificers found a way to extend his life. And there's a centaur who's been around since the days of ancient Greece."
"So, there's no Illuminati-style secret society of immortals ruling the world from the shadows?" Sam asked, relief evident in his voice.
"HAH!" Nicholas laughed dismissively. "You can barely get regular people to work together for a common goal without there being some in-fighting. You think people who can live for centuries and remember grudges just as long would be able to work together for more than a few weeks? Even magic has its limits!"
"A few have tried," Perenelle tittered in amusement. "But they all fail. The longest one such alliance of immortals lasted was thirteen years. The shortest was two hours. Which, incidentally, was the Illuminati. Or a group who'd taken that name for themselves, at any rate."
"That's good to know," I muttered. One less thing to worry about, I supposed.
"Oh, don't get me wrong, we'll work together at times, and even be cordial with each other, but immortals are just people who've lived a long time, at the end of the day. And some people rub others the wrong way. It is inevitable," Nicholas stated.
"Not gonna tell us who they are?" Sam inquired.
"Etiquette among immortals is not to reveal the identities of other immortals to anyone," Perenelle replied simply, and that was the end of that.
We talked about other topics, happy to discuss a few more things before they left. There was a lot we still wanted to know, and we planned on getting our money's worth.
But after a bit, I noticed that Nicholas was observing me, a contemplative look on his face.
"Edward, might I speak with you for a bit? In private?" Nicholas Flamel asked in a low voice, and I nodded slowly after glancing at the others. They were distracted by Perenelle telling them a story about the time she and Nicholas had fought the Nazis with the French Resistance during World War Two. It sounded really interesting, but the elderly alchemist seemed to have something important to talk about.
Seeing me agree, he stood up from his seat, grunting a bit from the exertion, and I wondered how much longer he had to live without the Elixir to sustain him.
Quietly, we left the house, stepping outside the small hut that had weather the past few centuries remarkably well.
"Ah, so beautiful," he murmured, staring up at the stars. "Did you know I once tried to find a way to get up there, to space? Didn't work. Wrecked a lot of brooms and flying carpets trying. And when I heard about the Space Race, it took all of Perenelle's efforts to convince me not to run off to NASA to join as an astronaut."
"I bet it would be amazing," I agreed, and I silently decided that would be one of my goals for the future as well. A trip to space seemed like the perfect way to prove I'd made it big.
For a few more minutes we continued to admire the night sky, chatting absently about astronomy, astrology, and how the moon affect magic.
But eventually, I grew antsy, waiting for the shoe to drop and the much older man to tell me why we were out here.
"Why did you want to talk to me?" I asked curiously, even as I stared up at the stars with the legendary alchemist by my side.
"What do you want to be in the future?" he asked me out of the blue.
"Obscenely rich, hopefully," I joked, but he shook his head.
"Not what I meant," Nicholas sighed. "Do you have any ambitions of leadership?"
"I don't think I'm the right person to try and tell people what to do," I admitted after a moment to think it over. "Well, I mean, not as a politician or whatever. I'm happy just running a business, making money, and not being an evil corporate scumbag… nothing too outrageous."
"And what about fighting evil? Wouldn't you desire to help people?" he asked. At that, I snorted.
"I'm not some superhero from the American comics," I scoffed. "I'll fight for what's right, and I'll do what is right, but I won't go out of my way to find criminals to beat up. Besides, 'evil' can't be solved that way. Not even if I tried to use magic on it. It's part of human nature."
"There will always be evil," Nicholas Flamel agreed. "But you should not despair. For where there is evil, so too will there be good that arises to counter it. From the dark, comes the light."
"Evil is eternal, but so is good," I muttered thoughtfully.
"Indeed," the alchemist confirmed. "Good and evil both spring from the actions of people. And as such, it is up to people themselves to decide what is wrong, what is right, and what to do about it."
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