Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper

The Codex

By the time Thea returned to her dorm, her arm was burning. She had time before her next lesson would start, but where should she go to get herself healed? She realized this was a perfect chance to call her parents with the Divination globe. But she couldn’t stand the thought of asking them for help right now.

She’d rather ask a complete stranger to heal her, she thought, but then she decided that wouldn’t be a good idea either. She had no idea who she could trust. Maleficus Keegan had allowed her to be injured and Charu had probably lied to her about the First Alchemist. Arkose might be the only Alchemist she knew that she could trust, but he surely had a lesson at the moment and wouldn’t have time to heal her.

Maybe she could demand that the Keeper heal her. She set her things down and hurried out her door and down the main hall, all the while breathing deeply to avoid panicking as she walked by all the strange Alchemists and Chemists filling the hall. She reminder herself that she had to believe the Keeper wouldn’t allow her to move out of her parents’ domicile if it was too dangerous for her to be on her own. And the Keeper probably had someone watching her anyway. She wondered if someone had been following her all morning.

She approached the Bookkeeper’s desk and marched up, interrupting a conversation Tenebrous was having with another Alchemist. “I want to see the Keeper!” she snapped.

The Bookkeeper held his hand up to her face and made a point of continuing to look at the Alchemist he had been talking to. After only a few moments, they finished their conversation, and Tenebrous finally looked at her.

“Well? Will you let me see him now?”

“He is holding a meeting with his Astral Dreamers as we speak. Not to be disturbed!” Tenebrous glared at her.

Thea sighed heavily while C.C. twitched in her pocket. She put her hand into her front vest pocket, and C.C. nuzzled her. “Tell him I want to talk to him, please.”

“Oh, so the young miss has found herself some manners!” Tenebrous scoffed. “I’ll tell him you have been pestering me since last night, and we shall see if he bats an eyelash. You best keep in mind that you are a mere Initium, and he is the Code Keeper!”

“I’m a Spectrum Scholar!” Thea snapped.

“Yes, and surprisingly, you aren’t even the rudest of the lot of you! Now be off with you! I’m sure you have a lesson to be attending!” He waved her away and scowled down at his giant book.

Thea tsked and spun on her heel to head back to her dorm. The whole way there, she fumed about her frustrating situation. An idea occurred to her, and when she reached the green hallway, she went straight to Chadwick’s door to ask if he could heal her, but after knocking for a moment, she figured the Chemist must have a lesson at the moment.

So she trudged back to her dorm room and slammed the door shut behind her.

C.C. twitched and a small blast of panic swept over Thea; she pulled C.C. out and sat on the bed. “Sorry C.C. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The Chimaera nuzzled her thumb and unfurled her wings to wrap them around Thea’s hand.

“I think I learned how to make you bigger, so I can ride you again, like I used to before …” Thea looked into C.C.’s strange orange owl-like eyes. “I guess it won’t be exactly like it used to be. And I guess I shouldn’t make you bigger any time soon.”

Her arm burned, and she wished she knew Tajana’s room number so she could ask her friend to heal her. But that nasty Bookkeeper would never tell her. Thinking about Tajana reminded Thea of what Todd had said about the three Spectrum Scholars. He seemed so genuinely upset about it, Thea worried that it meant something was about to happen. She wished she could talk to someone—anyone—to figure out what it all meant.

Thea reclined across the bed and stared at the ceiling, blurry-eyed. Then she remembered the notes she should be taking on her lessons, and she sat up and took out her notebook. She sprawled on the bed, letting C.C. free to wander around the dorm room as she opened her notebook and recorded the notes from the private lesson on the Cardinal Fragment.

She soon finished writing about the Condensation Cloud she learned how to make from Veneficus Charu, and she started adding to the notes she had already made on the Augmentation Insignia. By then her arm burned painfully and her head swam with fatigue. Thea needed a nap, and it was only 10:30 in the morning.

There came a knock on the door, and Thea stood up and opened the door—but instead of Chadwick, a blond-haired blue-eyed man in violet robes stood in the doorway. “Greetings! I am Veneficus Pethboc, here for Ms. Presten’s private lesson on the Amaranthine Fragment.”

“I’m Thea Presten,” she said quickly. “But I didn’t know you were coming here for the lesson.”

“Ah yes, Amaranthine lessons are all taught in private quarters for secrecy’s sake. It’s nice to meet you.” Veneficus Pethboc held out his hand to shake, but then he noticed Thea’s burn. “My heavens, you’re hurt? Here, let me see.”

The Alchemist came into the room and shut the door behind him, and then Thea’s brain finally caught up with what was happening. She realized that C.C. was still on the table just two feet away.

Thea froze. Pethboc made a tsk noise. “What got you? An Ignis Conversion? Or was it Amplification?”

Thea looked down at her arm. “Uh. I was enlarging a match’s flame.”

“Ah, the Augmentation Conversion. You must have a lot of Nodes. Most Initiums’ fire Augmentations barely flare up an inch or two.” Pethboc smiled with excitement. “But you probably only care about getting patched up at the moment. Have a seat, and I’ll have you healed up in no time.”

Thea instinctively went toward her bed and away from the table, the whole time trying to send C.C. a message to hide. Over Pethboc’s shoulder, she could see her Chimaera standing very still atop the table and watching Pethboc with interest, her feathery horse-like tail swishing calmly.

Pethboc motioned for Thea to sit, then sat down and gently took Thea’s arm into his big warm hands. “Just a tiny nick,” he said, and then suddenly he had a small knife, and Thea jolted with surprise as the Veneficus pricked her arm. With extreme care, the man pressed a large ring to her cut. Then he pressed the ring to Thea’s arm and left behind a Restoration Conversion Circle, which must have been engraved into the ring. Finally, he pulled out a vial of clear liquid and poured it into his hand. It was a kind of gel-like substance.

Almost instantly, the burn started to fade. Thea flexed her hand and stared in surprise at Pethboc. “You didn’t speak the Code Word,” Thea said, remembering the word Confervo from when Aunt Fanella had healed Twitchet and her father had healed Cecelia. Was Pethboc just like Thea? She wondered with a surge of excitement.

Pethboc sat up straighter and smiled down at Thea. “I like a Chemist who notices the details. Yes, you are correct, and it’s about time you learned that powerful Alchemists can perform Conversions without their voice. Simply thinking the Word can sometimes be enough. Mind you, you will need to think it hard.” Pethboc pointed at his own temple and smiled.

Thea nodded slowly, silently sighing with relief that she hadn’t said anything about her abilities. Then she realized that Pethboc was sitting on thin air, and she gasped and smiled despite herself. “How are you doing that?”

“Oh, this?” Pethboc held up his hands and gave Thea a knowing look. “A simple Deposition Conversion can easily turn air into a solid surface perfect for sitting. Now then, I introduced myself, and you may call me Veneficus Pethboc or Professor Ruis, if you wish. What shall I call you?” And he gingerly shook Thea’s perfectly healed hand.

“Thea is fine,” she said. “Thank you for healing me, Professor Ruis.”

“Not at all. So what’s your favorite part about Alchemy so far?”

“Hmm…” For the first time, a tutor seemed interested in getting to know her, she realized with a smile. “I think all the Chimaeras are my favorite. Do you have one, Professor?”

Ruis smiled. “I have two,” he replied with a wink. “Lux is guarding someone very important to me, and the other is Nox.” He lifted his arm, and from the sleeve of his robe, out crawled a tiny creature.

Thea leaned forward to look more closely. The Chimaera had tufts of brown fur, tiny pointy teeth, and an ape-like black face with rounded ears. He stared at her with big round eyes like globes of gold. The creature finished crawling to the end of the professor’s upheld arm, sat back on his haunches, and watched Thea.

The Chimaera had human-like hands, with leathery webbing between legs and arms that looked like functioning wings. His fingers and toes ended with long sharp claws ideal for climbing and holding. Finally, a medium-length tail helped the Chimaera climb and stay balanced.

“Wow!” Thea breathed with a smile. “He’s excellent.”

“This is Nox, my vespermius. Nox, say hi to Thea.”

Nox cocked his head and clicked at Thea.

“Hi Nox,” Thea said.

Nox let out a yap and touched Thea’s nose. He kept his claws retracted, to Thea’s relief.

“He likes you,” Ruis said.

Thea smiled. “Is he part monkey?”

Ruis nodded. “Half vervet monkey, half vampire bat. Very useful shadow affinities and smart as well.”

“He’s so neat,” Thea said.

“So is your Chimaera,” Ruis said, and Thea’s eyes went big. Her heart hammered and her mouth instantly went dry. Ruis gestured over his shoulder to where C.C. still stood on the table. “The noctos is yours, right?”

Thea froze.

“Don’t try to deny it. I can see that you are connected as if there was a thread tethering you together.”

She looked over at her tutor, expecting a lecture on following rules. Instead she received a thoughtful smirk. “Don’t worry, Thea, I won’t tell anyone.” Ruis leaned forward on his knees and looked straight into Thea’s eyes. “I think the rule is unfair. If an Initium is powerful enough to create a Chimaera, then she ought to have one, right? And powerful you are. Powerful indeed. That kind of power should be tempered like a good sword, and that’s what I’m here for.”

“Th—Thank you, Professor Ruis,” Thea stammered.

Ruis smiled, his bright blue eyes shining, and Thea smiled back.

“Well, it’s about time we got to work,” Ruis said, stepping toward the table and sitting down. Thea followed him and they both sat down across from each other with C.C. standing still on the table between them, ever watchful. “You won’t be learning any Conversions from me today, though I suspect you could use a break from all that,” Ruis said, and Thea silently sighed with relief. “Instead, today our focus is the Codex.”

Ruis reached into the folds of his robe and pulled out something very tiny, which he held in the palm of his hand, over what Thea recognized to be an Augmentation Circle tattooed on his palm. “Augendi,” Ruis spoke calmly, and the small something grew until it was too large to hold in one hand, and Ruis set it on the table.

It was a colossal book.

C.C. came over and studied the giant book, her tail swishing back and forth.

“The first Alchemist created all the lines of Code and hid them in the Codex for safe keeping. If you can break the Code, you can have them all. There are many among us who still search the Codex for the Long Lost Codes.”

Thea leaned in with interest. “Some of the Codes are lost?”

“Actually, they are hidden,” Ruis said. “It is said that only the Keeper knows them all, so well were they hidden, no one has ever been able to find them.”

“Hidden in a book?” Thea asked skeptically. How hard could it be to find the Code Words in a book?

Ruis raised his eyebrow at Thea and opened the book somewhere in the middle, where a red thread marked the page. He flipped the book and scooted it closer to Thea.

Thea immediately noticed that the writing had begun to fade away, making it nearly impossible to decipher the script written in another language. Thea leaned closer and squinted at the faded text. “What language is that?” she asked, though she had a hunch that she already knew.

“Latin,” Ruis said. “Some say the original Codex was in another language, an older language. It’s possible that the hidden Conversions were lost when the Codex was translated.”

“What languages are older than Latin?” Thea asked.

“That depends on who you ask. If we are talking about written language, then many people believe ancient Greek, Sumerian, and even Egyptian are older than Latin,” Ruis said with a smile.

“But the Code Words are in Latin,” Thea said. “So why would the book be in a different language?”

“Exactly,” Ruis said with a grin. “Some people say the first Alchemist created the Latin language long before the Sumerians started carving letters in clay tablets.”

“Who was the first Alchemist?” Thea asked with excitement.

“You should have had that lesson already,” Ruis said with a frown.

“Yeah …” Thea sighed. “I just got this weird feeling.”

“What kind of feeling?” Ruis leaned in, obviously interested.

“Never mind,” Thea said. She was really starting to like Ruis Pethboc. She didn’t want to make a bad impression by accusing a fellow teacher of lying to her. Besides, Charu had a thick accent. It was completely possible that Thea had misheard him.

With only the wave of his hand, Ruis summoned Thea’s schedule from her bed. It flittered through the air, and he snatched it up. He scanned the names and smiled ruefully at Thea. “You think Veneficus Charu lied to you.”

“How’d you know?” Thea blurted.

“Well for starters, that’s what the Breaker’s men do. Lie.”

“There are teachers working for the Code Breaker? Here?” Thea asked, feigning ignorance. The thought made her wonder if Ruis Pethboc could be trusted.

“Well, this is the only official Hall of Alchemy in the world. All Chemists must come here to start learning. Even the Giver’s people get their start here, though they might be more open to sharing their allegiances than the Breaker’s Chemists. Then of course, some Chemists decide which faction to join only after their schooling has progressed to a certain point.”

“I’m going to work for the Keeper, for sure!” Thea said, just to see Pethboc’s reaction. She’d rather work for the Breaker than work for the Keeper, she realized with a scowl. After how he had manipulated her, and perhaps still continued to manipulate her, why would she trust him? This thought reminded her that she had originally glommed onto the idea of working for the Giver when her father had explained the three factions to her. Of course, that must be who she was meant to work for.

“Of course you are, because you have a good heart, Thea Presten.” Ruis smiled.

“Huh,” Thea said. She had no idea what to make of Ruis Pethboc. Could she trust him? For some reason, she felt conflicted. On the one hand, he had healed her and seemed to be happy that she wanted to work for the Code Keeper. On the other hand, he knew about C.C. and wasn’t going to report Thea for the illegal Chimaera. So he was willing to allow her to break the rules. Could such a man be trusted?

“So this explains that strange feeling you said you felt.” Pethboc raised his eyebrows at Thea.

She nodded. “So who was the First Alchemist?” she asked, unable to resist. She just had to know if the First Alchemist was Hermes Trismegistus.

Pethboc leaned forward and looked down at his folded hands. “The First Alchemist goes by many names. Mercurius ter Maximus, Thoth, Thrisheros, Theyt, Amun, Idris, and Enoch.”

Thea sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry, child. Charu was only trying to manipulate you, and he probably used some very Dark Alchemy to do so.”

Thea figured Ruis spoke the truth. How bizarre would it be for the first Alchemist to share a name with one of Thea’s characters! Still, she felt oddly disappointed. “Professor Ruis, can you do me a favor?” Thea asked.

“What would you have me do?” Ruis asked kindly.

“Can you tell me who else works for the Breaker?” Thea pointed at her schedule.

Ruis set the schedule on the table and pulled a pen from one of his pockets. “Sure. I’ll mark the ones I know about, though there may be others,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“No need to thank me.”

Thea breathed a sigh of relief as she realized she hadn’t felt this calm all day. Finally, she had met an Alchemist she could trust.