Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper
Chapter Three

The Restoration Conversion

No! This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. What did I do? she thought as the hair on her arms stood up. Her legs suddenly felt shaky and weak. Unable to help it, a little scream erupted from her mouth. Twitchet cowered into the tall grass, disappearing from sight.

The winged wolf leapt over the river toward them, using both its powerful legs and its wings to close in on them. Cecelia reared up, but Thea reached out to her with her mind and tried to calm her down. Cecelia couldn’t outrun a flying wolf; her horse needed to stay by her side so Thea could protect her.

Cecelia screamed and kicked her front legs, but as the winged wolf came closer, she came back down to all fours and remained where she stood, blocking the creature’s path to Thea.

The winged wolf flew high into the air and went into a steep dive. Thea held up her arms, but it was useless. She couldn’t stop the flying wolf. It came so close, Thea could feel the beat of its wings on her face, but then Cecelia was suddenly between her and the creature. The winged wolf clawed and bit her horse, who screamed and snorted and reared and kicked. Cecelia’s front hoof connected with the creature’s neck. With a yelp, the winged wolf flapped its wings and flew several paces away.

Thea screamed too. Then she gulped down a breath, her eyes brimming with tears. She tried to think what to do, but her brain was caught in a fight or flight response. She was frozen in place like a little rabbit, unable to decide which way to run. Then she realized that if she ran, she’d be leaving her horse behind, so she stood beside Cecelia and tried to remember to breathe. Everything was happening so quickly, there was no time to think.

The winged wolf focused on the horse. Thea tried to put herself between the beast and her faithful friend, but the Chimaera only changed direction in midair and approached from behind to claw and bite her horse a second time. Thea felt her anger surge, and she pointed at the winged wolf and tried to visualize a blast of wind blowing it away, or something. Anything to save her friend.

“Leave Ceil alone!” she shouted, and she summoned a powerful gust of wind that caught the Chimaera’s wings and blew it away just enough for Thea to get between the creature and her horse. She clenched her jaw and tried to focus on the wind, and the Chimaera flew past her and landed further down by the river. Her power faded fast, and the wind died away. Thea stumbled to her knees, her ears roaring with the beating of her heart.

Thea heard the sound of her father’s truck, and she turned her head to see it speeding through the field toward them. With a feeling of lightheadedness that nearly made Thea pass out, she struggled to her feet and stumbled up to Cecelia. Despite her injuries, the strong horse appeared ready to challenge the beast should it approach again. Blood gushed down her front legs from ugly gashes. The horse trembled in pain. Tears stung at Thea’s eyes.

“It’s okay, Ceil. I won’t leave you.” She put a hand on her horse’s heaving side and felt the damp lather and sticky blood.

The wolf-Chimaera paced along the bank, watching the approaching truck and seemingly trying to decide if it should run. Then the red truck reached them, and her mother and father jumped out. They ran to Thea immediately and stood in front of her like human shields.

Her mother took her hand and said, “Thank Heaven you’re alright, Thea! Thank Heaven!” Then she took out a pouch and held up her hand to Thea and said, “Praesidium.” The Conversion Circle on her hand glowed purple, and Thea felt a shiver go over her body.

“Where did that lupitris come from?” her father asked, as if talking to himself.

Aunt Fanella jumped out of the truck and ran toward the wolf-Chimaera, which had decided to attack Cecelia again. Twitchet suddenly appeared from the grass and flew to Aunt Fanella’s side.

“Get your filthy paws off them!” Aunt Fanella yelled in a booming voice that made Thea jump. Then she reached out as Twitchet flew above her, and with a single Word, Twitchet suddenly grew to the same size as the wolf-Chimaera. Amazing, Thea thought. Chimaeras can grow! Twitchet flew toward the winged wolf.

The winged wolf took off at Cecelia with a rush of wings, and Twitchet gracefully flew straight toward it and tackled the Chimaera just in time. It dodged and countered with its claws. Twitchet pulled the winged wolf out of the sky and they skidded to a stop in the dirty river bank. Cecelia bolted away as the wolf closed its jaws around Twitchet’s front leg. They tumbled and writhed around, interlocked by both claws and fangs, their wings flailing around. The sound of the two beasts fighting was unlike anything Thea had ever heard before. The flying wolf was growling and yapping, and Twitchet was hissing and meowing angrily.

Somehow, the two beasts disentangled themselves. The wolf growled, and Twitchet roared and backed off. Twitchet flew right toward Thea and her parents. She landed on the ground right beside Cecelia, several paces in front of them. With a whimper, she collapsed in the grass.

Meanwhile, Aunt Fanella had quickly followed the winged wolf Chimaera down toward the river. She pulled something from one of her pockets. It was another matchstick, which she struck on the top of her knee-high boot and shielded from the wind in front of her. The winged wolf rushed at Twitchet, and Aunt Fanella jumped right in the way; she snapped her fingers and electricity sparked in her hand. “Augendi!” she called out.

The fire on her tiny match changed into a large ball of burning flame. The Chimaera’s hair sizzled as it flew through the fire and over Aunt Fanella’s head. It came to a clumsy landing behind her. Aunt Fanella waved her hands in the air, and the fire swirled around and launched another attack at the wolf, which collapsed in a heap. The fire dispersed into the air in a puff of smoke.

The winged wolf whimpered pitifully. Aunt Fanella walked right up to the beast, put her hand on its back, and mumbled a Word. Right before Thea’s eyes, the beast began to shrink. Then with another Word, the wolf, now a small puppy, lost its wings. A hawk emerged from the small wolf’s back and flew away with a sharp cry.

“Fanella!” Thea’s mother called out. “Are we safe?”

Fanella grasped a stone hanging from a chain around her neck, closed her eyes for a moment, and mumbled something; when she opened her eyes, her irises were like glowing amethysts. She swung her head around, gazing in all directions, and then she closed her eyes.

“There are no traces of anyone close by. That must have been a rogue Chimaera. We’re safe.”

Her mother turned to Thea and hugged her close, and Thea blinked back tears and tried to fight the urge to cry with relief.

“Are you okay?” she asked her daughter.

Thea took a big breath and nodded.

Thea’s father took her by the shoulders. “You sure?” He gave Thea the once-over, searching well enough to replace some scrapes on Thea’s knees, which made her flinch.

“I’m fine.” She watched Twitchet, who had curled up in the grass beside Aunt Fanella, looking rather pitiful. “But—”

“Way to be tough, Allie,” he said, his voice overflowing with pride.

“She’s brave too,” Aunt Fanella added as she put her hands on her Chimaera. “Oh Twitchet! Are you alright?” she crooned. The black and orange feline purred in response. “Let’s patch you up.”

Aunt Fanella used Twitchet’s blood to draw a Symbol on the Chimaera’s side; it was very elaborate and took a while. Finally, she closed her eyes and said, “Confervo.” The Symbol pulsed with purple light, and the winged feline’s cuts and wounds began to disappear. With the flick of her tail, the large Chimaera slowly began to shrink in size until she resembled a calico kitten with gray wings. All back to normal again.

With her pet taken care of, Aunt Fanella situated herself in the cross-legged pose of meditation.

“Wait,” Thea pleaded.

“Shhh,” her father shushed. “Just let her meditate. You’ll learn soon enough that Conversions consume your Energy. It can be rather exhausting to do what Aunt Fanella just did.”

Thea wanted to protest, because Cecelia was still hurt. She turned back to her horse and saw that the wounds on her legs were still bleeding freely. In an act of desperation, Thea put her hands on her horse and imagined the wounds fading away. She inhaled slowly and focused on the wounds as she exhaled. Nothing happened. “Confervo!” she shouted desperately, and a sickening rush of warm power flooded over her; she thought she was going to vomit and pass out. She dropped to her knees beside Cecelia, whose wounds remained unchanged.

Her father approached them and tisked softly. “Listen, Allie. There is only so much you can do without proper training. The Restoration Conversion is one of the most advanced; it requires a Conversion Circle drawn with the blood of whomever you are trying to heal.”

Then he touched Cecelia’s wounds, which made her snort and shy away. “Steady now, that’s a good girl,” he crooned. With his finger, he traced a symbol on Cecelia’s side written in her own blood. Two half circles connected by a horizontal line, surrounded by an elaborate series of overlapping circles. He spoke the Word in a strong, commanding voice. “Confervo!”

The Blood Insignia sparkled with violet light. Just as the wounds had slowly disappeared from Twitchet’s body, they soon began to fade from Cecelia as well. The horse blew air through her nose and trotted away.

Thea leaned against his strong arm and whispered, “Thanks, Daddy.”

“Why on earth did you come out here?” he asked.

Thea shrugged wordlessly, her eyes on the ground.

“Althea?” he said, his voice shockingly quiet.

“I was trying … I wanted to see if I could make a Chimaera.”

“Didn’t we tell you that would have to wait?” her mother chided. She almost sounded amused.

“I know, but … I thought I could do it by myself. I didn’t even get a chance to try though, because that stupid thing showed up and hurt my horse, and I hate it!” She clenched her teeth and made a violent gesture with her hand. The nearby grass swayed with a blast of powerful wind.

“Calm down, Allie,” her father said. “I’m glad you didn’t have a chance to try it, honestly. On your own, who knows what could have happened. You might have tried to combine the two animals without first properly sizing them. That would have created a malformed Chimaera with wings too small to fly correctly, or maybe even a head too small for its body. It would have been a disaster. Or you could have created a rogue Chimaera, like that lupitris.”

Thea turned to look at her father.

“That Chimaera was probably the offspring of a Native American Alchemist’s creation. They were notorious for creating Chimaeras that didn’t bond properly with their Alchemists. They’re rogue; uncontrollable, beastly creatures that can reproduce, and their offspring are even worse. Most rogue Chimaeras are hunted by Alchemists so that Recreants don’t encounter them. That one must have been eluding hunters for a while now. You’re very lucky it didn’t tear you to shreds, Allie.”

Thea hung her head and nodded. “I think I accidentally called it here. I didn’t realize such a thing even exists.”

“Well, now you know, and I expect you to remember the lesson you’ve learned from all this.”

Thea nodded.

“And what was that lesson?” he asked, taking her by the shoulders and forcing her to look up at him.

Thea took a big breath and sighed. “Don’t create rogue Chimaeras?” She looked up into her father’s face.

He hugged his daughter’s shoulders gently and shook his head with a soft chuckle. “Allie, the lesson is: Don’t do Conversions until you’ve been taught the proper way to go about it. Who knows what the outcome could be otherwise. Next time, you might not be so lucky.”

“Okay,” Thea said, dropping her head again as her ears started burning with embarrassment. It was so lucky they found her when they did. Not only had they rescued her, but they had kept her from trying something very foolish.

Thea crept over to Twitchet. The Chimaera’s ears twitched in her sleep, and she purred softly. Just moments ago this same creature had been so large, and she had bravely fought another Chimaera to save Thea. Now she looked as innocent and harmless as the first time she’d met her. Thea smiled in wonder.

“How did Twitchet grow like that?” Thea asked, unable to leave the question unasked.

“Fanella’s Augmentation Conversion,” her mother explained.

“Wow,” Thea thought aloud. There are Conversions that can make things big? she thought. “But she didn’t use a Conversion to shrink Twitchet back down again,” Thea pointed out. “How did she get small again?”

“All Chimaeras have a natural size,” her father explained. “It’s the size the animals are at the moment when they are combined. Chimaeras can return to their natural size, but otherwise they cannot change their size on their own.”

“Wow!” Thea exclaimed.

“It’s also best to only change the size of one animal,” Thea’s father continued. “If you change both animals’ sizes, it can result in neither animal being strong enough to become dominant. A Chimaera with no dominant animal is not nearly as strong.”

“Huh.”

“Also, while a Chimaera sleeps, it slowly returns to its natural size,” he explained. He seemed to have an interest in Chimaeras that made it very fun for him to talk about them. Thea was starting to realize she had the same interest. Chimaeras were simply fascinating! “So it’s best to shrink the bigger animal to match the size of the smaller animal,” he finished.

Aunt Fanella continued to meditate.

Thea was reminded of the other Chimaera, which now resembled a puppy. Thea stood up and approached the animal, which was lying still in the grass. With a jolt, Thea realized that it wasn’t breathing. Aunt Fanella had killed it.

“Thea, come away from there,” her mother said.

Thea turned to see her mother beckoning for her to step away from the dead beast. She took one more look at the poor creature before she joined her parents.

“I have something to say,” Thea said.

“It had better be an apology,” her father replied.

“Oh.” Thea bit her lip. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean for all this to happen.”

“We forgive you, don’t we?” Aunt Fanella said, before her mother and father could go on and on.

“I suppose,” her father said as he crossed his arms.

“That lupitris wasn’t your fault, after all,” her mother said.

“What were you really going to say?” Aunt Fanella asked Thea.

“Do you remember my dream about the flying horse?”

Thea’s mother looked up with a jolt of recollection. “Yes! You used to dream about that off and on for years.” Then she looked at Thea’s father and raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you remember those dreams, Owen?” She gave Thea’s father a significant look.

“Of course. You used to fly all over the world on that horse. It was a different place every time you dreamed about it.” He nodded, but he kept his arms crossed in a way that made Thea feel like he wasn’t going to listen to her request.

“Yeah, but it was always the same gray horse with wings,” Thea said. “I think … well, I think I’m meant to have a flying horse Chimaera.”

Her parents’ eyes went wide with understanding.

Aunt Fanella interrupted suddenly. “Of course you are!”

Everyone turned to see her stand up from her meditation pose in the grass. “I think we had better help Thea make a Chimaera now.”

Thea gaped at her aunt. Then she turned to look at her mother and father.

“Absolutely not!” her father said, outraged. “I am not rewarding her for her poor choices by letting her break the rules.”

Thea’s mother stepped up to him and patted him on the chest, right over his pocket. “You know Thea as well as I do. She’s so impulsive and curious about everything. It’s going to be impossible for us to keep her safe from every danger. Think about what just happened! We haven’t even made it to Blackthorn and Burtree, and Thea is already getting herself into mortal danger. It would certainly ease my mind, knowing she had a Chimaera by her side at all times to protect her.”

Thea kept her mouth shut and looked at her father and then back at her mother.

“Do you really think someone as impulsive as Thea could keep a Chimaera hidden?” Her father’s voice dripped with skepticism.

“I promise I would!” Thea piped up.

Fanella joined them. “If that’s your only concern, then the benefits far outweigh the risks,” she pointed out. “The Keeper would surely intervene if her Chimaera was discovered.”

Thea’s father turned to look at his wife’s sister. “I just don’t know…”

“For her birthday,” Aunt Fanella said, patting Thea’s father on his chest, right on top of his chest pocket. Then she put her hands together and batted her eyelashes at Thea’s parents. “Please?” she said, drawing out the word.

“Please!?” Thea begged.

Soon enough, they were both standing together with their hands up in pleading gestures, drawing out the word please and smiling big cheesy grins.

Finally, Thea’s mother joined in, and Thea’s father threw his hands up into the air. “Alright, alright!” he said. “You’re right, of course,” he agreed. “She obviously needs the protection.”

“Besides, it would make a fantastic birthday present, wouldn’t it?” her mother said.

“I think it must be destiny,” Aunt Fanella said.

“Destiny?” Thea asked, turning to look at her Aunt.

“Of course,” she said with a grin as she patted Thea’s father on the chest, right on his chest pocket. Thea suddenly remembered about that purple scroll they had all been looking at so intently, back when Thea first ran up to the house. Her father had put it in his chest pocket. “Fulfilling a dream like that can only be destiny,” Aunt Fanella added.

“If it’s a Chimaera you want, then a Chimaera you shall have. Happy birthday, Thea,” her mother said.

Thea jumped up and made a V with her arms. “Yes!” she whooped. “This is the best birthday present ever!”

“Yes, it is,” Aunt Fanella said. “Chimaeras are created with a rather complex Amalgamation Conversion. They must be planned carefully and executed precisely. You cannot just combine animals willy-nilly. A mistake can cause malformations, rogue beasts, and all sorts of unpleasant consequences. It’s best to choose one animal first and choose the second animal from a list of safe combinations.”

“Hmm.” Thea pursed her lips together, but she had already made her decision. “What can you combine with a horse?”

“A horse can be combined with a falcon,” her mother said with a smile. “The falquos is a smart and strong Chimaera.”

Thea perked up at the suggestion. “What does it look like?”

Thea’s father chimed in. “Like Hippogriff, a famous falquos. It has the head and wings of a falcon and the body of a horse.”

Thea sucked on her teeth and shook her head. “What else?”

“You can put a horse and a fish together,” Thea’s father said. “The piquos is a steadfast versatile companion.”

Thea made a face and shook her head.

“The horse can be combined with a rooster,” her mother said. “The equollus is a fast and fierce Chimaera.”

“Is that like the Greek hippalectryon?” Thea asked and her father nodded. Thea shook her head; that hybrid mythological creature had the hind half of a rooster and the front half of a horse. Thea always thought it looked rather foolish. “I want a plain old flying horse, like in my dream!”

Thea’s father and mother exchanged looks. “Aside from the falcon, I don’t know of any birds around here that are big and strong enough to combine with a horse,” Thea’s dad said.

“I do!” Aunt Fanella smiled brightly and said, “But before you can do any Alchemy, I must teach you how to channel your Spiritual Energy into Conversion Circles. And before I do that, I want to read your Chakras.”

“My Chakras?” Thea said, unable to overcome her skepticism. “I thought I was becoming an Alchemist, not a Buddhist.”

Aunt Fanella laughed, which sounded very much like an hysterical witch-cackle. “Recreants might know about Chakras, but only Alchemists can tap into the Spiritual Energy of the Chakras. I’ll show you. Come along, Thea.” And she turned toward the nearby woods.