Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper

The Battle

Thea dropped to her knees beside Tajana and held her shoulder. Tajana took another breath and screamed again, even louder and longer this time. “Daddy! Do something!” Thea shouted as Chadwick also dropped to the ground to hold Tajana’s other shoulder.

Tajana uttered the word, “Please,” and then screamed again.

Her soul is splintering! C.C. explained. They need to get Dušan back, now!

The Alchemists sprang into action. The Keeper gestured magnificently, and something tiny and shiny shot through the air and almost collided with the Nightmare’s face. He dodged, however, but the attack staggered him.

Broderick MacNamara leapt forward. He unsheathed his sword and, with three lunges, managed to catch the Nightmare with his blade. The man swore loudly as he backed off, and the other Shadows swarmed in to support their comrade.

The Keeper’s Alchemists reformed their ranks, with the Keeper standing directly over the Spectrum Scholars, while the others formed a circle around them.

Thea’s father made the next move. He aimed his lightning gun at the Shadows and shouted, “Fulgur! Augendi!” Then a blinding bolt of lightning sprang from the end of his gun and hit the group with a loud snap, followed immediately by a crack of thunder so loud, Thea put her hands over her ears.

“Praesidium!” The Code Breaker shouted. A blue sphere appeared around the Shadows. “Transvoro! The man has the gall to use my own weapon against us! Electrocute us all you want,” the Code Breaker taunted. “I could use the boost.”

“His affinity is lightning,” the Keeper said. “We need to attack his weakness. Ainsworth!”

“That’s my specialty!” Ainsworth said, and he broke ranks to take the point of their formation. He held a seed up in his hand and shouted “Materia! Augendi!”

But then he wheeled around and pointed at Thea’s father.

A tiny vine shot out of Ainsworth’s palm and grew exponentially. It came at Thea’s father and started wrapping around his neck, but Uncle Van shouted, “Ignis!” and a rush of fire engulfed the vines before they could pull her father away.

Ainsworth stepped away from the group, stood beside the Code Breaker, and looked back at the Keeper’s Alchemists.

“Oath Breaker!” MacNamara shouted with a string of curse words. “You’ll pay for turning your cloak on us!”

“Calm down, Broderick. I have seen this coming,” the Keeper said unhappily. “Ainsworth, you will soon find that all your seeds have been tampered with. I would especially suggest that you avoid the maple seeds.”

Ainsworth swore, but the Code Breaker laughed. “You always did know how to make a fight more interesting!” he said as he came to stand in the middle of his line of Dark Alchemists. He stood with his hands in his pockets and a smug smile on his face. Now it was the Keeper and his six Alchemists against the Breaker and his seven. Thea realized that the only way to make this fight fair would be for the Spectrum Scholars to step it up and do something to help.

Tajana looked up, and Thea realized that while she wasn’t screaming anymore, she was still gasping and breathing unevenly, and she seemed to be having trouble keeping it together.

“Tajana, are you alright?” Thea asked.

She shook her head. “I can feel him dying,” she said with a hiccup. “Please save him. Please! Before it’s too late.”

Thea jumped to her feet. “We need to rescue Dušan!”

“Do something!” Chadwick shouted, leaping to his feet beside Thea. “We gotta save Splenda, before it’s too late!”

Then Fanella’s Chimaera Winward took a giant step forward, towered over the line of Dark Alchemists, and inhaled a gravely breath. He roared so loudly, Thea covered her ears again, and then a blast of fire spewed out over the Shadows.

Maleficus Barberry jumped toward the Breaker and held up her hands, and Thea saw a red orb appear around them. The other Shadows dove for cover under the fire shield Maleficus Barberry had created, but one of them didn’t make it. He howled in pain as Winward’s fire engulfed him.

“You’ll pay for that!” the Breaker shouted, and he pointed at Winward. The Chimaera finally ran out of fire breath and inhaled, stepping backward as he readied his wings to dart away, but he was too close. The Breaker shouted, “Terra Kinesis!”

The earth began to quake, making all the Alchemists stumble on their feet. A large chunk of earth dislodged from the ground beside the Breaker. He flung the earth at Winward, knocking him right in the head and sending him reeling. Fanella barely managed to leap from his back before he collapsed a short distance away, making the earth shake slightly as his gigantic body hit the ground. Winward let out a grunt with a cloud of smoke.

Fanella waved her hand and Winward returned to his tiny butterfly size. Fanella deftly held the Chimaera in her palm and darted out of the way of another Conversion, just in time. A Shadow had aimed another shower of rocks at them and was already preparing another attack.

Uncle Van broke away to go to Fanella’s aid.

“Silvanus!” the Keeper shouted. “Don’t break ranks!”

But it was too late. Uncle Van and his Chimaera Griff were halfway to Aunt Fanella, who was getting pummeled by stones. Griff flew to her, and with a blast of wind that blew dust into Thea’s eyes, he reduced the earth attack to harmless bits of silt.

In the meantime, the others were trying to take advantage of the confusion from Winward’s fiery attack. Corwyn Conjured a stream of water, which he froze in mid-air and aimed at Maleficus Barberry, not unlike an ice arrow, while MacNamara attacked her wolf-tiger Chimaera with his sword and a blast of rocks that he Conjured from seemingly nowhere.

Bria drew an arrow from her quiver, spoke a Word to infuse the tip with what looked like a green poison, and aimed right at the Breaker. She let loose her arrow, but it was deflected by the lightning field surrounding the Breaker. She drew and let loose another arrow and another, all with the same effect. Finally, she shouted, “Materia Transmuto!” and shot a final arrow that pierced the shield and caught the Breaker in the shoulder.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, staggering back, just as Corwyn forced Animosa Barberry to dodge away from his ice arrows. MacNamara joined in the fray, slashing his sword at her Chimaera and driving them all back.

The other Nightmare—the one who had Dušan—stood by with a flame still held up to the helpless caprequos. Unable to join in the offense, he simply sidestepped the action and kept his focus on remaining out of harm’s way.

Thea saw her chance and took it.

She ran at the Nightmare and almost reached him before the man even saw her coming. The Nightmare’s blue eyes fell on her, and he seemingly cowered away as though afraid Thea would hurt him.

“Allie!” her father called, but it was too late. Thea was almost there, and she wasn’t about to stop now, but the Nightmare shoved Duŝan into his pocket and aimed the fire at her.

Thea didn’t stop. She kept sprinting at the Nightmare, and the man hesitated to attack her. She jumped up into a double flying side kick and hit the Nightmare’s torso, sending him sprawling. She landed on her side right beside him. The Nightmare’s mask flickered, and Thea forgot to try and get up when she realized that she knew the man.

It was Ruis Pethboc. The one who had marked Thea’s schedule with the names of Alchemists that allegedly worked for the Breaker. The one who had manipulated Thea into distrusting her own uncle and suspecting Chadwick of being the next Breaker. The one who had used some dark Alchemy to force Thea into trusting him.

Thea just laid there, unable to get up, the shock was so great. Pethboc scrambled to his feet, grabbed Thea roughly around her shoulders, and pulled her up. She kicked and screamed, but his grip was like iron as he held her against his chest. She tried to kick his legs out from underneath himself, but he danced around and pulled her back toward the mansion.

Behind her, she could hear her father shouting her name.

“Hello, Allie,” the Code Breaker said with a grin as Pethoboc pulled Thea up to the leader of the Shadow Faction. They stood at his side, only a foot away.

“Let’s take her inside,” Ruis Pethboc said. All around them, the other Shadows gathered and slowly, the group started inching toward the mansion door.

The Shadows worked hard to keep the Keeper’s Alchemists back. MacNamara had mounted up, and he slashed and lunged with his sword, while Bannon clawed at the nearby Shadows’ feet and sent rocks whizzing at their heads. Pethboc held Thea tight and stood by while the Code Breaker gestured magnificently, and a giant blue spark arched out at the Keeper’s Alchemists, blowing all the Animarum off their feet.

But Thea’s father’s Affinity was lightning. He somehow blocked the attack with a flourish of his arm, and then he mounted up. Tawny spit fiery blasts of wind, and he shot his lightning gun at the Shadows that barred the way to Thea. With ear-splitting cracks of thunder, one Shadow collapsed and the others gathered around Ainsworth, who Conjured a giant tangle of rose bushes to guard against the lightning attacks. Pethboc yanked Thea under the tangle of bushes. She tried to kick him again as he held her tightly from behind, but it did no good.

Uncle Van and Aunt Fanella had both mounted up on Griff. They were closer to the mansion and stood the best chance at stopping the Shadows before they could retreat inside, so they attempted to fly to Thea’s aid, but Animosa and another Shadow moved to hold them off. Animosa Conjured a ball of flame and shot it at them. Uncle Van held up his hand to absorb the fire, but while he did that, the other Shadow shot a blast of water at them. The water hit Uncle Van in the chest and knocked him off his mount. The fire engulfed all of them, sending Griff tumbling to the ground.

Aunt Fanella dove to Uncle Van’s aid, putting herself in front of the jet of water. She Conjured a green orb of light, which seemingly absorbed the water. “Van!?” she called. “Are you okay?”

Uncle Van groaned and rolled to his knees. “Okay. You?”

“Just a little wet,” she said as the last of the Shadow’s water attack washed over her, and she stood holding her arms up, dripping like a half-drowned cat. “Is Griff alright?”

“He’ll make it,” Uncle Van replied as he shrank his aquileo down to the size of a finch and slid him into a pocket.

Bria and Corwyn prepared to shoot attacks of frozen water and tornadoes at Ruis Pethboc, but he threw Thea down and enlarged two Chimaeras to protect him. One looked like a deer with hawk wings, and the other was Nox, his vespermius. The two Chimaeras blocked the wind and water attacks with their shimmery auras.

Thea sprang to her feet to try and escape, but Nox grabbed her with his clawed primate hands. In his enlarged size, he towered over her and held her motionless. Pethboc yanked Thea out of his Chimaera’s grasp and began tugging on her as she kicked and screamed, aiming to drag her back toward the mansion. She tried to fight against his iron grip, but it felt like he had some sort of inhuman strength.

Then Nox flew at Corwyn and Bria, and the two dodged for cover. Nox grabbed Corwyn’s Chimaera in his claws and flew away.

“Niger!” Corwyn shouted, but it was too late. Nox bit the Chimaera’s neck and threw him to the ground. When Niger hit the ground, Corwyn toppled over, dead still.

“Corwyn!” the Keeper shouted. He stood with one arm around Chadwick, who was trying to go after Thea. With his other hand, he shot something tiny and silvery at Nox. The attack hit the Chimaera in the head, and he tumbled to the earth, where he reared up to his full height of nine feet and let out a terrible screech. The object fell to the ground, and Thea saw it was a silver coin. With the flick of his wrist, the Keeper sent a flurry of coins, and all the Shadows were forced to defend themselves against the attacks.

At the Keeper’s feet, Tajana had tipped to her side, curled into a ball with her face tilted toward the night sky. Stars danced in her teary eyes as she stared blankly.

The Breaker finally made his way for the mansion’s front door with Pethboc dragging Thea right behind. The three barreled through the door and slammed it shut behind them, leaving the five remaining Shadows and Pethboc’s two Chimaeras outside to guard the door.