Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper
Chapter Twenty

The First Lesson

The next day, Thea woke up with a dream reverberating in her mind. She immediately leapt off her bed, tapped the floating globe to turn on the light, and hurried to her table. She scrambled for the empty notebook and her Endless Ink Quill and furiously scribbled all she remembered of the dream: a woman named Brigid argued with a man named Olympio over her secret halls of Verdandi. He wanted her to stop allowing people to join her magical school, but she refused to listen.

Usually Thea dreamed of the same characters and their stories progressed as she continued to dream over weeks or sometimes months. She recognized Brigid, but she didn’t know this new person, Olympio. The dream would make a great story, and she didn’t want to forget any of the details. Finally, after furiously writing for nearly an hour, she felt satisfied that she had recorded the dream in its entirety.

Thea stood up and stretched. She went to her shelf where she had placed her birthday present from the Keeper. The new sundial with its miniature sun projected a shadow just past the numeral VII. Thea sighed as she stared at the fake sun glowing softly. She wouldn’t see the real sun for over five hours, when she went outside with Tajana at one o’clock.

C.C. had awoken when Thea jumped out of bed. Chimaeras always return to their standard size during the night, Thea remembered. Now the size of a small dog, C.C. flew to the table and landed with a loud clop of her hooves and cantered over. “Hi C.C. How are you?” Thea caressed the fluffy wings of her noctos.

C.C. nodded her head, just like her horse Cecelia always used to, but what amazed Thea was the rush of psychic Energy she felt, like getting hit with a powerful blast of mental wind. She couldn’t help but try to send C.C. a similar feeling, though she wasn’t sure if it worked.

Thea dressed in her new Initium uniform and backed away from the sink as far as she could, trying to see herself in her Spectrum Vest. The mirror was too small however, and she couldn’t get a good look. She put her hair up in a French Twist, stepped back to her bed, and got down on her knees. “Come, C.C.”

The noctos followed eagerly, alighting near Thea’s knees.

“Okay, I’m not sure how to make you understand, but you have to stay hidden,” Thea told her small Chimaera. “If my teachers see you, I’ll be in serious trouble. So you’ve got to stay out of sight and hide when I say.” Thea looked at her bed and then turned back to her tiny noctos. “Let’s practice. Hide, C.C.” Thea pointed under her bed. The creature looked up and ruffled her feathers, but she didn’t go hide.

“Come on, C.C., hide!” Thea pointed again.

C.C. nickered happily and half jumped, half flew, up onto Thea’s lap. She found a nice sized pocket in Thea’s vest and put her nose into the pocket, her feathery tail twitching.

“No, C.C. That’s not hiding. I can still see you.” Thea picked C.C. up and set her under her bed. “This is hiding. No one can see you if you hide under the bed. Do you understand?”

C.C. ruffled her feathers and whistled. She came galloping out from under the bed and jumped back into Thea’s lap. Her hooves slipped though, and she sailed all the way over Thea’s leg and slid across the stone floor on her belly.

“Ouch!” Thea helped C.C. to her feet. “Careful. You okay?”

C.C. tossed her head and blew air through her nose.

“Okay, let’s try again. Hide C.C.!” Thea pointed at her bed.

C.C. reared and whinnied happily. Then she ran in the exact opposite direction and Thea sighed heavily as she watched her gallop toward the door and then turn in a wide circle. The small Chimaera came trotting back to Thea and jumped again. This time, she stuck the landing on Thea’s lap. She put her head into Thea’s largest pocket again, trying to fit, but she was much too big.

Thea sighed with exasperation. “C.C.! Didn’t I explain that you aren’t hiding? Just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean I can’t see you.”

C.C. neighed happily and tried again to stick her head in Thea’s pocket. Her feathery tail swished back and forth happily. Finally C.C. pulled her head out of the pocket and looked up. Thea felt a blast of hope that most certainly belonged to C.C.

“Oh. You want to hide in my vest?” Thea asked her.

C.C. nodded her head happily. She turned back to the pocket and tried to climb in, bringing one foreleg up, and Thea sighed and bit her lip. As the Chimaera looked up at her and neighed happily, Thea looked at the ceiling and pondered how she could shrink C.C. down so she could hide in her pocket all day.

She might need to break the laws of Alchemy, she realized. Looking uncertainly around her small room, she took a big breath and closed her eyes. Then she realized she could use her Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy to draw the Conversion Circle.

She grabbed the guidebook from her shelf and sat down at the table. She turned to the chapter on the Effervescent Fragment and quickly found the Conversion Circle for the Reduction Conversion, which she traced into her new Burgeoning Notebook. Code Word Minuo.

She brought the notebook down to the floor and guided C.C. to stand on the Circle. “Minuo!” she said, and her Kundalini swirled around her head and funneled into the Circle. Nothing happened to C.C. though. It seemed that the Component would take some figuring out.

Here in the room, she had the wooden table, the stone floors, and water from the sink. Aunt Fanella and her mother had shrunk her clothes and bookshelf with a lit match. But with a different Focus, it would make sense that the Component would be different too.

She decided to try the wooden table first. Nothing happened to C.C. when Thea said, “Minuo” while her hand touched the table leg. She touched the stone floor and said the Code Word again. This time when she performed the Conversion, the stone in her hand helped her shrink C.C. down.

She kept the Conversion going until C.C. was small enough to fit comfortably in a medium-sized pocket on the front of her vest. She sighed with relief as she carefully scooped her Chimaera up and slid her into the pocket on her vest. C.C. let out a burst of happiness as she snuggled down deep into the pocket. She didn’t make the pocket bulge, but at the right angle, anyone could look down and catch a glimpse of something mottled gray and feathery.

But Chemist kept all sorts of things in their pockets. It was probably the best hiding place for her Chimaera. The Chimaera had been created to keep her safe after all, so this was certainly a smart decision. She liked the idea of keeping her close.

Thea took out her schedule and opened it up.

She noticed right away that she had a Daily Meditation class from one o’clock to two o’clock, so she wouldn’t be able to go into the city with Tajana. Thea’s shoulders sagged.

She tried to imagine what her days would be like with lessons from eight in the morning until nine at night. She would be meeting in the Great Hall for some of her lessons. Did that mean she would be learning while she ate? At least she would have a chance to eat, but she worried this meant she wouldn’t see any of her friends, even for meals. At least her lessons didn’t start until 8:00, which meant she could try and eat breakfast with her friends.

With a sigh she realized that Todd had been right when he said she wouldn’t have time to hang out with him.

She rolled up her schedule, and that’s when she noticed the map on the back. She studied it for a while and planned where she would go for her first lesson. Then she grabbed her notebook and pen and left her room to go to the bathroom all the way down the hall. Thea had found the bathroom yesterday evening when she had taken a shower. Now she just used the restroom and brushed her teeth, and then she headed to the Great Hall to replace something to eat.

She followed the slow pace of everyone else walking down the long hallway. She wanted to walk faster but passing a bunch of people in the hallway would make her stand out. She already stood out because of her Spectrum Vest. She didn’t want to make more people notice her. Her head swam with her father’s warnings and her dark swirling thoughts about the purple scroll.

Considering that her name had already been on her door and that she had met the other Spectrum Scholar last night, obviously the Keeper had still manipulated her regardless of what she had intended when she moved out. Maybe it would be safer to just move back in with her parents. But her parents had betrayed her when they followed the Keeper’s orders on that purple scroll. Even though she missed them, she couldn’t stand the thought of seeing them again right now.

When she reached the Great Hall, she found a section of the buffet line filled with baked goods, and she grabbed a blueberry muffin and found a small table close by where she could sit and eat. The muffin tasted great, but she didn’t have time to really enjoy it. She scarfed down her breakfast and then took off for her first class.

As she left the Great Hall, she looked across the brilliant Antechamber at the Keeper’s door. That awful Bookkeeper Tenebrous still sat at his desk. She knew he would never let her see the Keeper. How could she possibly replace a way to see him so she could demand that he explain himself? It felt hopeless, but maybe she should just keep trying.

She walked up to the Bookkeeper and cleared her throat.

The graying man looked up at her and scoffed at his book. “Here you are again. Come to talk to the Keeper?”

Thea nodded. “I need to talk to him.”

“He’s in the Chamber of Trials preparing for a Trial. Not to be disturbed!” He spat the last part, glared up at her, and then shooed her away.

“Fine. I’m going to come back later.”

“Don’t bother,” Tenebrous said, but Thea didn’t give him the satisfaction of responding.

Thea walked up the main hall of Blackthorn and Burtree. While she walked, she couldn’t help her tumbling thoughts from coming to the surface. All these people surrounding her made her heart race. But most of them had to be good people, right? Most of them were just teenagers like Todd, weren’t they? And the tutors that walked by… most of them must be good people. She tried to convince herself not to worry. Even if one of these people was a Shadow, he’d never attack her in an open place like this. It would be suicide with all these Alchemists everywhere.

Then an idea struck her. If the Keeper had trapped her on the ranch to keep her safe, then why would he allow her to be on her own in Blackthorn and Burtree now? Could he have someone watching her?

Her head hurt from all the thoughts knocking around her skull.

She turned right at the hallway tiled in red. She passed many doors down the red corridor, until she reached the end, where the hallway opened up to a large room. The Cardinal Rotunda, according to the map on the back of Thea’s schedule.

The giant room had a perfect curving dome for a ceiling. The walls formed a large circle around the giant room shaped like a half-sphere, just like the Crowning Chamber. Red marble tiles started in the center with a large red hexagon and slowly proceeded outward in hexagons that steadily faded in color. The spherical ceiling depicted a mural of what looked like the water cycle, with lakes evaporating into clouds, and clouds condensing into rain, and rain falling into rivers along the other side of the ceiling. Along the outer circle of the Rotunda, rosewood cabinets of Components hid amid alcoves and arches and colonnades, all a deep red color.

A spiraling staircase snaked up the far side of the Rotunda to a large arch that led to a second level. Alchemy instructors sat at desks that circled the far side of the room in a crescent, with many Chemists seated at small rosewood tables arranged around the room in small clusters. Each table had only two chairs. All the Protégés wore red Initium vests, while the Mentors all wore different colored Chandler vests, depending on their own Focus Fragments.

“Thea!” someone called, and she turned to see Todd waving his hand at her from a table across the room.

“Hi!” she called as she walked up and sat down.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning.” She smiled at him. Finally, after walking through the halls alone, she felt safe by her Mentor’s side. But that made her think about how he had erased her memory because a tutor had told him to. Should she really trust someone who would do such a thing?

“You have some blueberry,” Todd said, pointing to the edge of his lip. “Just there.”

Thea wiped her mouth quickly and looked down at the table. “Thanks.” She closed her eyes, tilted her head toward the ceiling, and then rolled her eyes at herself.

“Listen, we gotta talk,” Todd said.

Thea looked over at him, expecting him to finally apologize for erasing her memory.

Todd gestured at Thea’s vest. “You’re not serious about becoming a Spectrum Scholar, are you?” Todd had a displeased frown on his face that made Thea look away. He didn’t even wait for Thea to reply. “You don’t know what this means, Thea. You can’t possibly understand, but believe me when I say, you really ought to choose a Focus Fragment.”

Why Todd felt like he could tell her what to study, Thea didn’t know. But she had always been in charge of what she learned, and she didn’t want that to change, especially now that she would be learning Alchemy. This decision could completely change her life, and like her parents had always told her growing up, she was the only one allowed to decide what to do with her future.

“No, what I ought to do is follow my heart” Thea said, surprising herself just as much as Todd. “I’ll be a Spectrum Scholar if I want to be. It’s my life.”

Todd sat up straighter and shook his head. “That’s just it. This isn’t just your life anymore. Listen. Last night I talked with my Mentor, and he gave me some advice. This is our lives. We’re supposed to be partners and work together. But if you’re a Spectrum, then we won’t have time to meet together and prepare for our Joint Trial, and we’ll drift apart. While you’re busy learning basic lessons in every Fragment, I’ll move on to advanced lessons in my Focus Fragment.”

“I’ll drag you down, you mean,” Thea said. Inside her vest pocket, C.C. began to fidget, and Thea noticed that her heart hammered in her chest. She quickly sat forward and put her hand over the pocket.

Todd sighed heavily. “This isn’t just about me either, okay? I’m trying to help you. You don’t know what it means to be a Spectrum Scholar.”

“How about you explain it to me, then,” Thea said, her tone of voice shrill and sarcastic.

Todd held up his hands. “It’s hard to explain, but it doesn’t matter anyway. I can plainly see that you’ve made up your mind. Just … promise you’ll be careful, alright?”

A chill traveled up Thea’s spine. “Careful of what?”

Todd gave Thea a significant look and said, “There are three Spectrums now. There’s no time to explain it all, but trust me when I say this is serious. Promise me you’ll be careful?”

Todd’s sudden concern for her gave her pause. She instantly felt bad for snapping at him. “Okay, I’ll be careful. … I’m sorry if I was rude,” she added.

Todd nodded dismissively. “It’s not fair of me to tell you what to do. I get that. I just … I’m worried … about all of this.” He stared at the tabletop, suddenly lost in thought, and Thea couldn’t help but wonder about what it meant for there to be three Spectrum Scholars. “…There’s our tutor now, Maleficus Arkose.” Todd nodded off to the side, and Thea turned to look.

An Alchemist approached the cluster of tables. He wore red robes that nearly touched the floor, with more pockets than Thea could count. Thea noticed the Alchemist’s Chimaera right away. The animal resembled a lion with wings.

“I see we have a new face,” Maleficus Arkose said, his rosy face splitting into a huge grin. The Alchemist had a strong accent. “I am Maleficus Arkose, and I’m charged with imparting all my knowledge of the Cardinal Fragment. Everyone, let’s welcome back Todd Alder, and congratulate his new Protégé Althea Presten, come all the way from America to learn Alchemy.” The Alchemist led a round of applause. The Mentor-Protégé Pairs sitting at the adjacent tables all clapped for Thea. All the other Chemists around the Rotunda looked up curiously. “Do make sure to welcome them. It looks like Althea’s chosen the path of the Spectrum, so let’s all wish her the best.”

Thea felt her face go hot. No doubt, she had gone red with embarrassment.

Maleficus Arkose said, “All of you, get busy with yesterday’s work for a moment. I’ll be along to give you further instructions.” Then the jolly man came forward and lowered his voice to talk to Thea. “You’ll be a busy girl,” he said with a hint of sympathy. “I do hope you keep in mind that there’s no shame in dropping the Spectrum and focusing on one Fragment at a time.” The man patted Thea’s shoulder while his winged lion Chimaera licked its nose. It blinked bored eyes at Thea and prowled behind the Alchemist’s back, brushing its side against the man’s legs with each pace back and forth.

“Clyde is the most beautiful faleo ever created,” the Alchemist said with pride. “I combined a lion and a falcon. He’s really a marvel, isn’t he?”

Thea nodded absently, watching as the faleo licked his feline fangs.

“Well, let’s get down to your lesson for the day. Your task is to use the Insignias of the Cardinal Fragment to Convert the Focus from a solid to a liquid to a gas, and back to a liquid and finally a solid again! Todd, make sure you help Thea discover and explore. Give her a friendly hint when she needs it!” Maleficus Arkose smiled and added, “Todd holds the record for the fastest first attempt! I’m timing you!” With that, he moved on to one of the other six partnerships sitting at the nearby tables.

Todd handed her a shiny round stone. “Here’s the Focus; it’s obsidian,” Todd said in a rush, gesturing for Thea to get started.

Thea swallowed and looked around the table at the four Cycle Insignias she would use to complete this task. This felt like another mini Trial.

Thea almost grabbed the Insignia for melt, but then she realized that if she melted the obsidian, it would go all over the place without a container to catch the liquid. Then she would have no way of designating a Focus for the Evaporation Conversion. Thea imagined a cloud raining obsidian. Wouldn’t the rock solidify in midair? She imagined tiny rain droplets turning into sharp slivers of obsidian and taking out somebody’s eye, and she cringed.

Thea would need to freeze the liquid, assuming of course that the obsidian would stay liquid after the Condensation Conversion. Which meant she would have to somehow catch all of her obsidian rain in a container in order to freeze it back into a stone. But she didn’t have a container.

“Boy, you’re slow today,” Todd said with a little smirk. “You are not going to break my record like this.”

Thea resisted the urge to glare at Todd. Instead, she closed her eyes and visualized herself melting, evaporating, condensing, and then freezing her obsidian stone. Finally, Thea grabbed the four Insignias engraved on stone tablets. She stood up, stepped away from the table, and knelt down on the floor.

Todd followed Thea, watching her warily, as she set up the tablets precisely on the floor—the Dispersion Insignia in her hand, with the Evaporation Insignia on the floor directly below, and the other two Insignias close by. Thea carefully studied each Insignia, looking for that tiny notch in the design where her Kundalini could enter the Insignia to power the Alchemy. After making sure she knew where she would focus her Energy, she took three slow breaths, set the obsidian stone on top of the Dispersion Insignia, and held it up in the air above the Evaporation Insignia. She tilted the Insignia just a little and said, “Dissoluendo!”

The Energy gathered around her in a rush and flowed into the Insignia, turning it red, and the tiny black rock immediately melted and ran down the Insignia to splash on the other Insignia on the floor.

Thea set the Dispersion Insignia down and touched the Evaporation Circle and said “Evaporo!” The black liquid slowly evaporated as the Insignia turned red, and simultaneously, Thea grabbed the next Insignia from the floor and sprang to her feet.

A small wisp of black cloud formed. Before it could float toward the ceiling and would be out of reach, Thea said, “Condenseo!” and held the Insignia upside down right above the small cloud as it slowly floated up.

The cloud began to rain tiny black drops. Liquid obsidian. Thea dropped to the floor and set the Insignia aside; she cupped her hands together to catch the shiny black raindrops. It took only a moment for the obsidian vapor to begin liquefying, and Thea caught almost all of it in her hands.

Thea looked up and spotted an expression of shock on Todd’s face.

Thea put her hands above the last Insignia and said, “Duratus.” The Conversion Circle turned red and the liquid rock in her hands hardened into a smooth black stone again, in the shape of Thea’s palm.

Thea jumped to her feet and tossed the stone at Todd.

Maleficus Arkose stepped up, smiling with delight. “Astonishing! Simply astonishing! Three minutes, Todd! Three minutes. Althea, you have broken the record for fastest completion of my first assignment! I do believe you completed the task in half as much time. Well done! Simply marvelous!” Then he turned to Todd. “It’s only fitting that your Protégé would break your record, right Todd?”

The Maleficus smiled at Todd, who shifted his feet and looked down.

“Now, I’m sorry to say that I could not anticipate such a marvelous display on your first task, Althea. I admit that I am not prepared with another lesson at the moment, so you will need to give me some time to gather another set of materials together,” Maleficus Arkose said, but then he made a thoughtful face at Todd. “Or perhaps you’d like to start your Elemental Sparring lessons early today, hmm?” he said, and Todd smiled.

“Thank you, Maleficus Arkose! Come on Thea!” Todd waved for Thea to follow him, and the two young Chemists left the Cardinal Rotunda.