Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper
Chapter One

A Visit From Aunt Fanella

Althea Presten lifted her pen to write the climax of her story about Hermes Trismegistus, a brave young stable boy who wanted to rescue all the magical creatures from the evil emperor, but her pen slipped out of her hand. This wouldn’t be a problem for a normal girl, but Thea was far from normal.

For instance, her favorite place to write just so happened to be up in the old oak tree on her parents’ ranch. And this meant that her pen had just fallen twenty feet to the ground below her dangling feet.

Thea tucked her miniature notebook into the chest pocket of her denim overall shorts. The sudden movement startled the song sparrow resting on the nearby branch. The little brown bird took off with a lyrical whistle.

“I’m sorry.” She enviously watched the little brown bird take flight.

Thea’s hair was a similar ginger brown color; long, roughed up from the outdoors, and curly like her mother’s. If Thea was a character in one of her stories, she would describe herself as a gangly fourteen-year-old with sun-bronzed skin and eyes as green as grass.

Thea sat in the tree and tried to decide how the characters in her stories might retrieve the pen she had just dropped. Brigid the Brave would simply levitate the pen with a word, and Alex the Bright would create a new pencil from a tree branch. But today, Thea decided to try to retrieve the pen the way her favorite character, Hermes Trismegistus, would: by asking an animal for help.

Thea closed her eyes and reached out, both physically and mentally. After a little searching, she sensed the bird she had just frightened away, and she gently coaxed the animal to fly back to the tree. A moment later, Thea heard the sound of leaves rustling as the bird landed on a branch above her head.

Thea opened her eyes and smiled at the bird. He hopped down a few more branches until Thea could reach out and touch him. She balanced on her branch and held her hand up, and the bird hopped onto her finger. “Hello,” she whispered. “Can you help me?”

The sparrow gave her the subtlest of nods.

Thea thought hard about her pen, and the bird flew off toward the ground. Thea watched as he flitted around near the base of the tree, but without any luck. The bird eventually came back to Thea and landed on her finger again.

“Couldn’t replace it, huh?” Thea asked.

The bird tilted his head at Thea and chirped softly. Thea smiled and said, “It’s okay. I’ll just go get another one.” She lifted her hand, and the bird hopped off her finger and perched on a branch.

Something caught Thea’s eye: a sort of glossy sheen across the sky, almost as though a giant bubble surrounded her. Thea stood up on her branch and studied the sky. The bubble appeared to pop, and shimmering sparkles dissolved on the wind. Thea’s mouth opened wide in wonder.

“Wow!” She stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled a long shrill note.

Thea quickly knelt and stepped down to a tree branch below her. She walked along the branch, holding her arms out for balance. When she reached the tree trunk, she swung her body down, momentarily hanging from the branch until her feet caught on another branch below. She easily stepped down a few more branches until it was only six feet to the grass below.

Thea pushed off from the trunk of the tree and jumped to the ground. She landed in a crouch and allowed her momentum to take her into a clumsy forward roll. Thea frowned as she imagined how her father would critique the move. You call that a forward roll? her father would probably say. More like a forward fall. But Thea figured she didn’t need to tumble perfectly when she wasn’t in the middle of a kung fu lesson with her dad.

Thea’s brown and white painted horse Cecelia came up the hill. She cantered around the tree and with her white nose, she playfully nuzzled Thea’s curly, brown hair. “This is it!” she told Cecelia. The horse’s brown ears turned toward the sound of Thea’s voice. She half jumped, half pulled herself up onto her horse’s back. “It’s finally happening, Ceil!”

Thea had been waiting her whole life for this moment. For fourteen years, Thea had lived on this ranch with only her parents and all the animals for company. But now it was finally time for her journey to begin. She was finally old enough to leave the ranch and see the world, and her first destination would be the place where her parents were from: Blackthorn and Burtree. Now that this moment was finally here, she couldn’t help but feel nervous underneath her anticipation.

“Let’s go!” Thea said, and Cecelia carried her bareback across the gently sloping field at a lively pace. The bright morning sun warmed her back. As they rode by a patch of tall grass, a pheasant burst out of its nest and flew away with a loud rustle of its feathers.

“Good morning, sleepy head!” Thea called out.

Thea and Cecelia reached the top of the hill overlooking a small ranch house. The horse carried Thea down the other side of the hill and up to a fence, and she jumped off.

“Thanks for the ride, Ceil!” Thea ran the rest of the way to the small ranch house and flew up the steps. But as she approached the door, she slowed down and stopped. As sneakily as she could, she peeked through the window to see if she could spot the person who had brought down the White Walls.

Thea spotted her immediately. A woman with hair as golden as spun honeysuckle stood in the small rustic sitting room of the ranch house. The lady had the same hair as Thea’s mother. She spoke heatedly with Thea’s parents, while they all studied a small scroll of purple parchment. They all passed the scroll back and forth amongst each other. Thea’s father seemed especially upset, while her mother seemed mostly curious. The mysterious lady spoke with a conviction that put Thea on edge.

Finally, she pushed the door open and shouted, “Momma! Daddy! Did you see—”

Thea stopped as they all looked up at her, and her father quickly tucked the short little purple scroll into the breast pocket of his favorite denim shirt. The mysterious lady turned, and Thea noticed her green dress and the tattoos all over her arms. She looked so much like Thea’s mother, she knew this had to be a long lost relative.

“Here she is now,” Thea’s father said. “Come say hi to our visitor, Allie.”

Althea put her hands on the railing near the stairs. “Um, hello.”

“Oh, Thea!” the lady said. The lady jumped to her feet, came closer, and grabbed Thea’s elbows with surprisingly strong arms. She smelled like wood smoke and tea leaves and a million other strange things. “Happy fourteenth birthday, Thea. My goodness you’ve grown into a beautiful young woman!” Her accent was like her mother’s, only thicker; it sounded like she was telling her to hop on her birthday. She held Thea at arm’s length. “Why, you have your mother’s emerald eyes and your father’s brown hair.”

It was true that Thea looked a lot like her mother. They both had long curly hair, oval faces, and green eyes. But she didn’t really look much like her father. Thea’s hair was a slightly darker color than her father’s, and though he had a light tan, Thea was somewhat darker in complexion.

Thea couldn’t help but stare at the strange woman who had pockets all over her dress. Even some of her pockets had pockets, and they were all filled with crazy things. The smell of it all made Thea’s head spin. And if Thea’s eyes weren’t playing tricks, then a glowing eerie, viridian haze surrounded the woman.

“Who are you?” Thea asked finally.

“I’m your Aunt Fanella. And I am so excited to finally see you again, after fourteen years!”

Though she had never seen her aunt before, Thea had heard plenty of stories, and she had this wonderful feeling that she would positively love this lady.

Thea’s mother stood up and came over to put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s finally time, Thea.”

“It’s time to go to Blackthorn and Burtree already?” Thea said, though it came out as a question.

“Right you are!” Aunt Fanella replied.

“I’ll go pack!” Thea whirled around to race up to her room.

“Slow down,” Thea’s dad said. “We have some very important things to discuss first. Why don’t you come have a seat with us?” He gestured for Thea to join them in the sitting room. “It’s time we told you something very important.”

Thea followed the three adults into the sitting room. Her parents sat in their red fanback armchairs and Aunt Fanella took the matching sofa. Thea grabbed a pink throw pillow and held it in her lap as she sat beside her mother’s sister, who felt like a part of her family, even though Thea had never met her before.

“Allie,” Thea’s father started. “Today is a very special day for you.”

“I know,” Thea said. “I saw the White Walls dissipate, so we can leave the ranch now.” She smiled. This is how her parents had always explained it to her. Thea distinctly remembered the first time they had discussed it.

Thea had been studying geography, and her curiosity got the better of her as she learned about all the fantastic places in the world. She had asked her parents if she could go visit some of the marvelous locations she was learning about, and they had told her no. Not yet anyways, but when she was older—fourteen to be precise—the barrier holding them on the ranch would disperse and they would finally be able to venture out into the world.

“Thea,” Aunt Fanella put in. “At age fourteen, you can finally attend Blackthorn and Burtree, the sacred halls of Alchemy. You can finally start learning how to do Alchemy.”

“Alchemy? I thought…” She trailed off. For as long as Thea could remember, she had always been able to do fantastical things, like influence animals, make things float through the air, even predict the future from her dreams. For Thea, this was a normal everyday part of her life, but Aunt Fanella didn’t know that Thea already knew how to do plenty of amazing things.

Her parents could do fantastical things too. Her mother used beautiful blue circles to help make seeds grow in their garden. She taught Thea how to control things with her mind through meditation. Her father used magnificent yellow and green sigils when they went hunting, to track the animals and to shoot arrows that never missed. Thea could do those things too, if she focused hard.

She’d always just thought it was magic, like in the books she was always reading. Now she felt silly for never having asked her parents more about all the magical–Alchemical things they could all do. It had gotten rather infuriating, actually, since they never answered her questions properly. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Alchemy?” she asked her parents.

Her father answered. “Only your Mentor can teach you. All Alchemists swear an Alchemical Oath to keep Alchemy a secret. Once you’re a Chemist, you can learn lessons from Alchemy tutors.”

Alchemical Oath? Thea wondered. That certainly sounded serious. “That’s why you couldn’t answer all my questions about the magic!” Thea exclaimed with a smile. Thea had started to grow frustrated with her parents for never telling her anything about their special circles of beautiful colors. Finally, that made sense.

Thea’s parents both nodded with bashful smiles.

“I didn’t know Blackthorn and Burtree is a school.” Thea tilted her head. She honestly thought it was just the city where her parents grew up.

“It’s not, not really,” Aunt Fanella said. “It’s more of a society for Alchemists, but it’s the only place in the world where Chemists can begin their journey in Alchemy.”

“What sorts of things will I learn?”

“You’ll start with the basics. Alchemy is the art of altering our physical world using a special Code of Symbols, Words, and Components to perform Conversions,” her aunt said. “Take this match for instance.” She pulled a match from one of her many pockets. “With this Component, an Alchemy Symbol, and a Code Word, I can summon fire without striking the match.” Then she held up the match and snapped her fingers, and a spark danced between the rings on her thumb and finger. She said, “Ignis!” and a tattoo on her arm flared blue. And just like that, a flame flickered and burned on the matchstick.

“Wow, nice fire Aunt Fanella!” Thea said.

“Thank you.”

Thea reached out and pulled another match from her aunt’s pocket.

“Oh!” Aunt Fanella exclaimed.

“Althea!” her mother scolded. “It’s rude to take without asking, especially from an Alchemist’s pocket.”

“No, it’s alright, Fiona,” Aunt Fanella said to Thea’s mother.

“I just wanted to try it myself,” Thea said with a bashful smile.

“No worries dear. Go on, then.” Aunt Fanella gestured for Thea to proceed.

Thea stared at the match tip and inhaled slowly. She closed her eyes, imagined a flame on her match, and then she exhaled slowly as she opened her eyes. She stared at the match for a long silent moment, while everyone watched curiously. Finally, after breathing and meditating calmly for a moment, a flame burst into existence on the tip of the matchstick. A slightly warm breeze brushed against her face.

Aunt Fanella shook her head in wonder. “You are brilliant, Thea,” she said. “I’ve never met another living soul who can do what you just did without a Conversion Circle.”

“Really?” Thea asked. “So, do all Alchemists need to use these circles?” She poked a tattoo on Aunt Fanella’s arm.

“Yes,” said Thea’s mother. “And they all need to speak the Code Words too.”

“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about, Allie,” Thea’s dad said. “You’re not like other Alchemists.”

“I’m different?” Thea asked. She suddenly felt ill at ease as this new realization began to sink in. “… Why?”

“We don’t know,” Thea’s father said, holding his palms up and shrugging. “Since you were born, you’ve just been a natural at Alchemy. You have a gift, my girl; a rare gift.”

“But,” Thea said. “If I’m a natural, can I still learn Alchemy at Blackthorn and Burtree?” Thea couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course, you can,” her mother said with a smile.

“Phew,” Thea sighed happily. “Then I’m going to go pack!” She jumped up and ran for the stairs. But before she reached the first step, she saw something strange out of the corner of her eye. She turned, squeezed her eyes shut, and opened them again. No. She wasn’t seeing things. There, right in front of her eyes, was a kitten with bird wings flying across the room.