THE STORY

The story is set in the mid 1800s in the middle of the Industrial Revolution when new inventors were making life changing discoveries and new contraptions and devices were all the rage.  Our story opens on the mountainside village in the remote European country of Pannonia with our protagonist, Aeron as he is in his lab working on a creation, a synthetic female form made up of an assortment of bio materials.  It is clear that he has been working on this manmade being for a very long time. (“Insomnia”)  Being that electricity was still a fairly unconventional concept, it has taken him years to even perfect such craftsmanship and circuitry constructing the wires inside the exoskeleton, as if they were human veins built to maintain life. 

​Once the complex intricate circuitry was complete and ready to be connected, he only had one last piece to add.  He finally brings his creation to life with a human heart he has locked away in a reliquary on an altar in his lab, which has been kept alive by a mysterious green glow.  Was it supernatural, or was it science?  Either way,  it was clear that this was not just any ordinary experiment.  It had become his full blown obsession, meticulously planned out and calculated to the very last detail.  He vowed not to stop until his mission was complete.  And it was.  August was finally born.
 
Like most inventions, Aeron made this woman to serve a purpose, and what other purpose does creating another being serve, than providing companionship, or simply good conversation.  Or what about love?  However, there was a problem that the inventor had not considered.  Any normal human heart has the ability to steer them in certain directions, and aid them in the choices they may make in what they do in life, or even in who they love.  August was more interested in becoming a human so a young handsome man would love her.  Aeron was old and worn from all of the years and hard work he had spent on bringing her to life.  He began to observe August’s disinterest in the love he had to offer her (“Alive”),  and he deemed her ungrateful, so he had decided there were some adjustments to be made. 

Coaxing her into a surgery to make her “human”, he put her under, and instead he confiscated her Free Will (“Free Will”).  He hides it away in an antiqued locket that was also a part of his strange altar.  When August awoke, not only was she still a machine, but she was now unable to feel the things she felt before.  She felt nothing.  Aeron was not sure what was worse, having a machine who felt love for a nonexistent prince charming, to which description Aeron did not fit, or having a machine who now had no ability to love anything or anyone at all.  She now had no idea about the concept of love.  The more Aeron thought about it, the more he realized it was better this way.  He figured the more clueless August was, the more she would take his word for it about things. 

However, she was a machine and could only use physical logic and calculations to compute the things she didn’t understand. Love was too abstract of a concept for her to grasp, as she needed something tangible to associate with love.  Finally he came up with a scheme to get August to comply on these theories on love.  He had given her a special relic (“Relic”), the beloved locket from his altar, and told her that it would represent love and be all that she needed to make her feel “love”.  He did however warn her not to open it, or it would lead to her destruction. 

She does not question it, as she is programmed as a computer to take orders. 
August continues to “love” Aeron until one day a bird comes to her.  It warns her that her love for Aeron is false and that she should not trust him.  It tells her that she should open the locket, and once again she does what she is told without question, due to her mechanical nature.  She finds her free will inside of the locket, and being the rightful owner of it, without surgery, now has the will to do as she wishes, as she starts to feel again.  August is now hurt by Aeron’s betrayal, but she cannot bring it up to Aeron for fear of her own destruction.  She realizes now what a horrible man he is  (“Never Have I Ever”).

Seeing August’s vulnerability after such betrayal, the bird tells her that he can give her the young handsome man that she always dreamed of, if she gave it something in return.  She now had her free will back, and also knows that Aeron never really loved her, so the locket held no more meaning for her.  She wanted to give it to the bird, but her fear of Aeron’s promise of destruction had she ever opened the locket, was still in the back of her mind. She needed a way to cut all ties with the life she currently lived, otherwise Aeron would surely come looking for her after realizing she had made a conscious decision to leave on her own.  How would she have been able to do that without her Free Will? She knew what she had to do.  She took miscellaneous parts from  the lab to construct a mockup of herself which she had planned to throw over the top of the mountain into the frigid waters below, staging her own “accidental” destruction.  With Aeron thinking she is gone for good, she can make her escape to a new happier life. She asked the bird for a little time to carry out her plan, and the bird agreed and reassured her that it would be waiting.

One day while Aeron was working in his lab, August told him that she was going to the top of the mountain to pick flowers and that she would be back later that afternoon.  Now was her chance to set her plan into motion. (“Away With the Sea”)  She dragged her likeness to the top of the mountain and hurled it off into the crashing waves below, as she let out the most blood curdling scream.  She ran and hid as she watched Aeron run up to the top of the mountain seeing the horror below.  There was nothing more he could do then stand there and sob as he watched the manmade carcass float away from the base of the mountain.  The bird landed on a tree next to August waiting for his payment. She carefully placed the locket in it’s bill, and the bird motioned for her to follow it farther into the woods. 

As she made her way through the woods to the other side and down the mountain, she had lost site of the bird.  However, her focus gravitated toward a male figure standing on the shore. (“FLY”)  She approached cautiously as the man’s features became more prominent the closer she moved in.  He was the most handsome young man that she had ever seen. The man told her that he would treat her like gold, and give her anything that she wanted, as he appeared to be very wealthy.  He hands her a beautiful fragrant day lily flower, as she gets onto his boat.  She puts her nose to the petals to take in the sweet aroma, and before she could speak another word or ask where they were going, she dozes off into a deep sleep as they embark on their journey to a land unknown. 

Later, while Aeron is mourning the loss of his dear August, he gets a visit from the bird.  He starts talking to it, unaware that the bird was capable of any sort of response.  He agonizes over August being gone.  In the midst of his frustration over losing the one thing he had worked so hard to obtain, he hit a mirror, puncturing his skin, only to bleed the same green glow which had kept August’s heart alive for so long.  Exactly how long could it have been alive for? The skin from Aeron’s wound mysteriously patched itself back up again.  He expresses that he can not bare to live another century without his unrequited love.  It is quite apparent that he has been alive for centuries!  He deems himself a failure and says he would give anything to be able to put himself out of his own misery. The bird tells him that there is a way to gain back his mortality.   At first, Aeron is attentive until the bird tells him that all he has to do is destroy the enchanted heart.  Aeron insists it is an impossible feat, being that August’s mechanical corpse is probably at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.  Oh but the bird insists that August is still alive! 

 Aeron shoos the bird and tells him that he is being ridiculous, and to stop making a mockery of him. The bird then reveals to Aeron that he has August’s locket.  At first Aeron was happy and hopeful that she had survived her fall, and begged the bird to tell him where she was so he can go to her aid.  The bird instigated that August was in fact very well and alive enjoying a life with a new lover.  Aeron started to get worked up, calling the bird a liar.  The bird insisted it was telling the truth, as it opened the locket to display a vision of August enjoying her life with her new love.  It was the only proof Aeron needed to believe that August had obtained her free will.  The bird poked fun that she chose to leave him because she had never loved him and reminded Aeron about his promise to August if she had ever betrayed his trust. 

Aeron insisted that he never truly meant what he said about destroying August, it was merely just a threat to keep her close to him.  He truly did love her.  The bird warns Aeron that the destruction of August and the heart is the only way that Aeron can have his mortality back.  It asks him what is the point of living for her, if she is not living for you? It pains Aeron so, but he soon realizes that she must be destroyed.  The bird tells him that the only way he can get to August is via air transport as she is a few days journey across the ocean and that once she is destroyed, he can have his mortality at last!  Aeron decides to construct a hot air balloon in order to get to August. (“Clockwork”)

On the other side of the ocean, August’s new lover gives her a locket to symbolize her humanity.  She was still a mechanical being in every physical way, but she possessed her Free Will again, and she had her dream man and the choice to be with him.  It was all she had ever wanted.  However, the new locket shared a strange resemblance to the one that the bird had possessed from her, only it was gold, like everything else he has given her.  It was in fact the life she was promised.  She thanked the man graciously but remained skeptical on how he had obtained a locket so similar looking to the one Aeron had given her, the one the bird had taken away. Not to mention a small stray feather that she had noticed on his lapel as she embraced him in gratitude. 

Later that night, her skepticism had led her to creep into her lover’s quarters, and her suspicions proved to be true! Before her very eyes, she had witnessed her prince charming morph into the bird that she paid off, just to give her nothing but this life of nonsense! (“My Mistake”) Instead of confronting the conniving creature for fear of it’s actions in defense of her discovery, she decided to write a letter to Aeron to send for help and apologize for all that she had done and that she had not meant to hurt him the way that she now knew she had.  She had now learned her lesson, and her heart now had what it needed to realize what true love really was.  It had to truly be broken before it could learn to love.  She understood what she had put him though for so long.  She now knew that he was and would be the only one to ever truly love her. 

Just as she was about to put it into a sea glass bottle to throw into the ocean in hopes of it finding its way to Aeron, outside of her chamber window, high upon a cliff, she saw the figure of a hot air balloon making it’s way toward her.  As it made its way closer to the dwelling on top of the mountain, she crept outside, careful not to wake the hideous creature that she no longer viewed as her handsome dream man. She was hoping it was a helpful experienced pilot who could help take her across the ocean, back to a place she once called home. She had taken the note with her, incase the balloon was faulty and her physical self did not make it back, she hoped at least the note would find its way back somehow.  Upon the balloon’s landing, she noticed that it was Aeron!  She didn’t know whether to be happy to see him, or fearful of the consequences he had promised her upon her betrayal of him.  

(“Magnetic Poetry”) She approached with caution, as Aeron made his way out of the capsule.  They both hesitated for a moment before ecstatically throwing their arms around each other in an embrace.  August had slipped the note into his coat pocket so Aeron would not notice what she had held.  She would rather tell him in person but now was not the time.  He begged her to let him take her away in his balloon, and pleaded with her to never leave him again, for he has gone through so much to create her, only to lose her, and gone through even more to get her back.  He tells her that he could be the one to give her the world, and that she had to see it from up above.  She agrees to go with him.  They make their way up into the atmosphere and are so high up now, it is almost dreamlike.  He is so wrapped up in finally feeling what it would be like to have her truly love him but he knew it was a lost cause. 

A single tear streamed from his eye and August reached out to catch it, setting off tiny jolts of electricity through her fingertips.  Just then the flicker of the fire light in the burners above which kept the balloon afloat, got caught in the reflection of something August was wearing around her neck and broke the moment.  He placed his hand on her locket, confused.  He had asked her where she had gotten a gold one just the same as the old one that he gave her.  She explained that she had gotten it from her prince, who has shifted into the bird which she bribed with the original locket, for the life of wealth and happiness.  Aeron now remembers why he had come there in the first place.  He feels played from both sides, and before August had a chance to explain her change of “heart”, Aeron struggles with the robot, throwing her out of the balloon.  He reaches into his pocket only to find the note from August, discovering that she had learned her lesson and realized that she truly did love him.  

As August is falling from the sky, she recalls thoughts about not having the chance to make things right, and now it is too late. (“Aerborne”) He immediately regrets his decision and can’t believe what he had just done! She was lost in the ocean forever! August has now short circuited into the waves below.  He struggles to lower his balloon, and instead the wind picks up and spirals him higher and eventually crashes him down onto the beach.

Aeron wakes up in the wreckage of the crash on the shore, and after remembering the tragic turn of events, he sulks about losing August again, this time maybe even for forever.  He then realizes that he is still alive.  Any mortal would have surely perished in such a disaster!  He remembers his deal with the bird.  Was he not supposed to have his mortality now that she was destroyed? The bird pays him one last visit and he questions it why he is still alive and suffering in this world when he had destroyed all he had ever loved as the bird had told him.  The bird replied, “Because the heart is not destroyed”.   Aeron was confused and asked the trickster how that was possible if he had thrown her into the ocean with his own two hands.  The bird told Aeron that August was just made of metal and wires, but a heart containing the free will to realize a true love for someone, will live forever.  Aeron realizes he is still doomed to the earth as long as the heart shall live, wherever it may be, on the bottom of the ocean.  Aeron sings a song of woe to say 
(“Goodbye August”).  Just then a bushel of the brightest yellow day lilies grew out of the sand before his very eyes, and heknew then that he would find the heart again.

As August floats to the bottom of the ocean, her wires shorting out, she is realizing that no matter how much she could love him back, he would always be a man filled with rage. The heart remained enchanted and still intact inside of August as her exoskeleton and circuitry are destroyed by the water.  

(“As I Lay Here”)

What happened in Aeron’s past that made him want to make August? Where did he get this mysterious human heart? READ OUR PREQUEL BELOW TO FIND OUT!

THE STORY

COMIC ART

CONCEPT ART

GUITAR

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AERON OF ALCHEMY 

It was the beginning of the 16th century (1486-1535)


Aeron, a blacksmith, and aspiring Renaissance man and Alchemist, sees Lily, an unattainable
opera singer. He falls in love with her.


Aeron confesses his love for Lily and promises her the world, and she denies him because he
is a poor man, and will only settle for one of fame and riches.


Aeron is sitting under a tree in despair and is at a loss with how to get Lily to love him. All
of the sudden he hears "Clioooo" and looks up and sees a bird. He decides to follow it, and it
leads to a gypsy dwelling, to a witch named Cliodhna (Clio). He asks her who she is and she
insists that she is just who he is looking for.


Gypsy Song
Clio tells him that he can "have Lily's heart" if he can turn
a hunk of lead into Gold, using a stone.
"What stone?" he asks
"You will know..." she says.


“Awestruck”
Aeron goes to the Yew tree, and picks up random stones, clacking the lead and stones
together hopelessly trying different ones. He picks up a shiny red stone and does the same,
but he hits his finger instead and cuts himself in the process. He then gets frustrated and
chucks the red stone at the tree, which punctures a hole in the bark. He sits under the tree in
despair, to gather his thoughts. Thick sap starts to drip down from the wound in the bark,
and falls onto his flesh wound. His wound then closes and heals miraculously. He discovers
the Elixir of Life (also associated with Philosophers Stone). He is awestruck! He then takes
the lead, holds it under the sap, and watches the lead turn to gold right before his very
eyes....


He goes back to Clio to show her his accomplishments. She cannot believe what he had
done! She tells him that all he has to do now is cast the hunk of gold into a locket for Lily
to wear close to her heart, and he will have her heart forever. Before he leaves, Clio warns
Aeron to be careful with the elixir, don't over use it or there will be consequences.


(Possible song title: Fool's Gold)
Aeron goes back to his blacksmith shop and casts the gold into a locket to give to Lily. He
wins over Lily, but only because he has achieved alchemy. Aeron becomes greedy. He keeps
turning everything to gold.


He ignores the witch’s warnings and becomes greedy and abuses the elixir.
He can’t stop feeding off of this tree of life. He keeps drinking, and becomes very wealthy
and powerful, and simultaneously, he becomes immortal without his realizing.


"Bird's Eye View"
The Clio bird, which dwells in this Yew tree, keeps seeing Aeron come and go from the tree,
feeding off of it and using its powers to his advantage.


(Maybe there is a second warning? Aeron in his greed gets defensive, and tells Clio to stay
away, and that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about)


“The Adverse Effects”
Clio wants to teach Aeron a lesson, so she casts a spell to reverse the gold back to lead.


"The Deep End"
Lily is still wearing this locket and is inflicted with side effects of lead poisoning. She slowly
goes mad as a result. Lily starts to push Aeron away because she doesn't know what is
wrong with her. Little does she know, the enchantment of the locket is wearing off and she
is losing her feelings for Aeron (She is also losing her health/life). He pleads with her not to
leave. They get in a big argument, and she leaves him.


"Never Better'
Lily has a big show at the opera one night to a packed house. In the middle of her
performance she is singing on top of a riser/balcony, and she starts having a hallucination
of the Clio birds flying at her from every direction. She violently tries to swat the birds
away. Finally, to get away from her visions, she jumps, falling to her death.
Aeron finds out about Lily's Death and tries to kill himself. He tries everything to die, but
will not. He goes back to Clio and gets mad because she told him he was going to have her
heart forever. She says "Nothing is forever... for mortals."


He asks, "What do you mean for mortals? What else would there be?"
Clio insists that she warned him about the consequences of the elixir. Aeron says, “But you
said that we would be together forever.”


Clio says, “Well as we agreed, her heart is yours forever.”


“Don’t Let it Die”
He then has the flashback to his healing wound, and comes to the realization that he is
immortal. Aeron is outraged! Even though Clio warned him, he feels like he has been
had. He storms out and he is shown wrecking his room in anger.  Everything that was once gold is now tarnished. He knocks over a sewing mannequin, which was once used for Lily's Theater costumes, and he sits down in anguish. He glances over at the
it and has an idea.. Once he comes to the realization that he has the materials to bring
life ... he also starts laughing maniacally.


Scene End


Lily's funeral... Aeron is suspiciously watching the ceremony from behind a tree. He sees
groups of people sprinkling their handfuls of dirt over the casket. Then, a cloaked figure
(Clio) extends a hand, and places a Day Lily on top of the casket. He hides behind the tree
some more, and waits until nightfall.


"Abracadavers"
He digs up Lily's body and steals her heart from the grave in plans to create
another "amended lover". The Clio bird keeps watching and observing Aeron's every move.
He also takes the locket. He goes to the Tree to get one last drop of elixir and then flees. An
over the shoulder view of Clio is shown, as she is watching him flee.