The author sure did pack a lot into a short story and what a very impressive opening. It's an impressive story that grew on me.

I have always done as I have been told, and most of my actions have not been kind ones. I know because the Alchemist did not always tell me to forget and so, trapped inside my jar, I was cursed to remember.

I dreamt the dreams of dolls, and those were the times I could see the past most clearly. I remembered the time I crept inside a true man's workplace to hide false evidence. And when I delivered a botched love potion into a poor serving girl's tea and hid behind a jug of milk to watch as she retched black blood and green bile across the floor..

Tonight as I dreamt, I became aware that these were horrible things. They did not bother me at the time, and they do not bother me now, but I am aware of them in a way that I have never been before. And in the morning I realize one of my fingers is gone.?

Our MC is the alchemist's assistant, she is a homunculus (a miniature human. She is made out of sticks). She does what the alchemists makes her do and then he tells her to forget it and she must do that also. The alchemist is tasked with making a peasant feather for the prince. During the process the homunculus starts remembering things. He can't tell her to forget everything. Through this process we watch what she does when she knows the truth. How does she respond, who is she loyal to?

Offered here: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-alchemists-feather-by-erin-ca......

{short story} ( )

An alchemist is charged with producing a phoenix feather for the king, and his wooden homunculus and test subject is the one who must suffer for it… but maybe not as much as the young girl being kept prisoner for the alchemist’s future plans. This one kept me off my guard, never quite sure until near the end what exactly was going on, but unsure in a way that kept me intrigued rather than annoyed.