Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper

The Code Keeper

Thea followed her parents down a dark tunnel toward a softly glowing light. It was a long downward hike and Thea stumbled in the dim light. Her mother reached back to steady her as her shoes scraped the tunnel floor. They emerged from the passageway into a large long underground tunnel lit with floating globes of many-colored lights.

The tunnel ended abruptly at a brightly-lit hallway tiled in white triangles. There they came across several men and women wearing white robes covered in pockets with white capes trimmed in an assortment of colors. They watched the group approach. Thea’s parents grabbed her hands and pulled her up between them, and Aunt Fanella led the way, positioned directly in front of Thea; she suddenly felt small and vulnerable in this large corridor with all these strangers staring at her. She squeezed her parents’ hands and followed them past all the strangers.

Thea got the impression that they were entering through some sort of check point as they passed all the Alchemists in white capes who stood at attention. Aunt Fanella put her right fist over her heart, and the guards mirrored her salute and let them enter.

They left the corridor and entered a massive hall. The walls, floors, and ceiling were tiled in polygons of many colors. The ceiling was vaulted high above and came to a point. The entire hall resembled a heptagonal prism. Everywhere, false windows shaped like tall isosceles triangles allowed multi-colored light to flood the hall.

Statues carved out of white marble decorated the corridor. Thea peered closely at a plaque next to a statue of a wise old man holding up his hand to offer a pile of dust, and she saw a date of birth and death along with the name and description:

Golden Keeper Hamurabi of Mesopotamia, 1818-1750 B.C. Golden Keeper Hamurabi is known for discovering a myriad of uses for the Extraction Conversion. Standing above them all is the Extraction of salt from sea water which allowed Alchemists to settle near ocean coasts and safely drink the sea water.

The halls were filled with history lessons.

Thea studied the elaborate design beneath her feet, marveling at the tessellation of the tiles. Irregular heptagons in large sizes tessellated outwards from a central white heptagon. Each of the seven heptagons that touched the white central tile was a bright color of the rainbow. The heptagons made a rainbow of colors in steadily smaller and smaller heptagons until the pattern reached the edges of the floor, walls, and ceiling. As the tiles spread out from the central white tile, they grew fainter and fainter in color until they were white again near the edges of the floor and ceiling.

The place reminded Thea of the castle in her story about Hermes Trismegistus, with one exception: the false windows. There would be no magnificent views of mountains and oceans and rivers outside of these windows.

Thea followed her parents through the chamber, where they soon reached a set of double doors made of dark oak engraved with intricate leaves and vines and a set of golden rings. Above the arching doors, a symbol embossed in marble marked the door as the Keeper’s. The seal contained a tree within a circle, overlaying two other circles, one with a dragon half concealed under the Keeper’s tree sigil, and the other depicting a small creature climbing a tree, also half hidden behind the Keeper’s sigil.

Another squad of guards in white robes stood at attention around the massive door, watching them closely.

An old man sat at an oak desk before the doors. “Ah, Fanella. Welcome back,” he said in a thick accent. He wore the same white robe with a long cape draped over his shoulders. His pockets, hood, and cape were trimmed in violet.

“Greetings, Tenebrous,” Fanella said with a curt nod. “We would like a Reading for our young Hopeful here.” She gestured to Thea.

“Name please,” Tenebrous responded, turning to the large open book on his desk. He picked up a feathered quill.

“Althea Presten,” Fanella said, rather too loudly for Thea’s comfort. She glanced around the hall, unable to ignore the fact that she had caught the attention of all the nearby Alchemists. Why did Aunt Fanella have to demand a Reading—whatever that meant—and parade Thea around like some valuable ancient artifact that she had discovered?

“You’re scheduled to attend the next Reading on July tenth at three o’clock,” the shriveled man behind the desk said as he scrawled Thea’s name in his large book.

“I’m sure if you just consulted with the Keeper, you would find that there’s enough time for one more Reading today. Right now perhaps,” Fanella said without a shred of doubt.

“Madam Malus, I refuse to interrupt the Code Keeper for this girl that nobody knows; you missed today’s Reading. The next one is in three days, now move along please.” Tenebrous waved his hand dismissively.

“Shall I ask him myself?” Fanella said as she stepped around the desk toward the marvelous double doors.

“Madam, if you would be so kind as to—” Tenebrous began, but at that moment, the colossal door behind his desk cracked open, and Thea saw a man with short silvery hair and chocolate-brown eyes. He wore the same white robes, but instead of the white cape, he donned a multifaceted cloak that seemed to shift from one subtle color to another. Golden vines shimmered along the lining of the pockets, sleeves, and the massive hood that pillowed about his shoulders.

“Show them in, Tenebrous.” He spoke with a charming accent. His voice was soft and calm, yet deep and powerful all at once. He left the door ajar and disappeared back into the room.

Tenebrous grumbled as he rose to his feet and shambled toward the door. “Come along then,” he urged as he pulled on the door with all his might, and it slowly swung open. He held onto the golden ring as Thea and her family entered. Just as Thea stepped through the doorway, the wrinkled old man glared at her.

Thea took one step into the grand room, and her mouth fell open as her eyes shot upward to the ceiling. Instead of the same elaborate tiles which covered the walls and floor, the ceiling of the room was kaleidoscopic and shimmering. Thea stared into the bluish light and slowly realized that this was no illusion or magic trick. The ceiling was made of water. It was like looking up at the sky from the bottom of a pool.

“Yes,” said the man with the silver hair. “My ceiling is the bottom of a fjord. Rather ingenious, if I do say so myself.”

“It’s awesome,” Thea said automatically. Then she quickly pulled her eyes away from the water above her head and gave the man her utmost attention. “Sir.” Then she flinched. The Code Keeper would most certainly not be pleased with Thea’s slack-jawed first impression.

The man chuckled softly. “It just so happens I am a scholar, not a knight, so you cannot call me sir.” He winked at Thea.

Thea blinked at the man. Should she apologize? Should she correct herself? The Keeper calmly stared right back at her, seemingly enjoying Thea’s reaction.

“Oh, well … um … yes, Keeper,” Thea said. She looked away and gazed across the vast room, which was shaped like a wide trapezoidal prism. An ornate table in the shape of a tree ran down the center of the room, with a regal chair at the far end, and a large tapestry covering the far wall directly behind the chair.

Thea’s eyes came to rest on the strangest thing she had ever seen—a floppy-eared rabbit-like creature the size of a large dog sitting in the corner of the room near a marvelous oak desk. The creature had hooves and moose antlers, and black and white fur. Thea realized it must be the Keeper’s Chimaera.

The Keeper turned to follow Thea’s gaze. “Ah, so I see you’ve spotted Sampson. He’s my faithful alepus.”

At the mention of the Chimaera, Twitchet emerged from under Fanella’s hair and flitted across the room to pounce on the large rabbit-moose. The creature was five times the size of the small lyndis, but he scampered away with a forlorn yowl and dove for the safety of the Keeper’s massive desk. The lyndis chased the alepus under the desk where they collided with a loud thump!

Thea felt a mental stirring, and in a rush she was reminded of her own Chimaera hidden away in her jacket pocket. She reached into her pocket to pull out her Chimaera, but then she remembered that Hopefuls aren’t allowed to have Chimaeras. Thea left her hand in her pocket and gently caressed the soft feathery wings of her noctos.

“Althea, before someone can become an Alchemist, that person must first become a Chemist, a student of Alchemy.” The Keeper gestured for Thea to follow him across the room to where the tapestry was mounted on the wall. They walked around the massive table, which might actually be a cross section of a giant oak tree, Thea realized. Rather than surround the table with full grown chairs, the table was decorated with miniature chairs which Alchemists could enlarge and sit in as needed. There must have been at least one hundred tiny chairs decorating the edges of the table.

The Keeper’s tree adorned the top of the tapestry, and below that, the seven Chakras were embroidered. And on either side, the students’ and teachers’ titles were listed. At the very bottom of the large tapestry, she read a sentence: Like branches on a tree, we grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one. Thea’s eyes trained upward to the tree, to the words The Keeper.

With a start, she remembered that the Keeper was the leader of Blackthorn and Burtree, and one of the three most important Alchemists in the world, and Thea was in his office having a conversation.

“But before a person can become a Chemist, that person becomes a Hopeful. Hopefuls must have their Chakras Read and then endure a Trial of entry into Blackthorn and Burtree,” the Keeper said.

“There’s a test? Today?” Thea turned to look at her parents.

“Oh, no, no,” the Keeper said with the wave of his hand. “You shall have half a day to prepare.”

Half a day? Thea swallowed. “Okay, so how do I Read my Chakras?”

“Leave that up to me,” the Keeper said as he turned toward the tree-shaped table. He waved his hand, and the regal chair that almost resembled a throne slowly turned to face them. “Stand on the Insignia there,” the Keeper said as he sat down and pointed, and Thea noticed a Conversion Circle embossed in gold on the multi-faceted stone floor.

Thea stepped onto the Insignia and tightened her hand around the noctos in her pocket.

“Animabilis!” the Keeper said in a commanding voice. He closed his eyes and opened them again to reveal irises glowing with a soft light. The Insignia below Thea’s feet started to glow with a purple light.

Disappointingly, nothing else happened as far as Thea could tell, but the Keeper gazed at her, and even though Thea felt no different, she knew that her Chakras had been Read.

The Keeper closed his eyes and the white light disappeared, ending the Conversion. He nodded discreetly to Thea’s parents, then stood and walked over to the marvelous desk in the corner, where a thick book was left open on the desktop. He sat down and paged through the book, studying the words carefully. A long silent moment passed, and Thea began to fidget uncomfortably. Just when Thea was starting to wonder if she should leave, the Keeper stopped on a page and took up a pen to write something in the book.

“I have chosen your Mentor,” the Keeper said as he rose from his desk. “Your Mentor will prepare you for your Trial tomorrow and work with you for as long as you are a Chemist of Alchemy. This person will be both your most readily available source of information and your most trusted friend.”

The Keeper folded his hands behind his back and walked toward Thea. “Your Mentor is a Chandler who has only been at Blackthorn and Burtree for three months. He progresses very rapidly, and you will be expected to keep up his pace of Advance. I see a great potential in your Chakras, so this should be well within your capabilities. Do you have any questions?”

Thea’s head spun. She blinked hard and tried to think, while behind her, Sampson and Twitchet continued to play their game of cat and mouse. Sampson was most certainly the mouse. “What does it mean to Advance?” Thea asked.

The Keeper smiled. “You are still a Hopeful. When you pass your first Trial, you will Advance and officially become a Chemist, a scholar of Alchemy. There are seven levels of Chemist to Advance through. If you reach the seventh level, you may Advance a final time and become an Alchemist. Alchemists can become professors at Blackthorn and Burtree, or journey forth out into the world, or come work for me. Of course, this will all take time, and I suggest you focus on the task at hand.”

“Yes sir—um, Keeper,” Thea said with her eyes on the floor. Then she realized that the golden Insignia under her feet had somehow been reduced to nothing but a few specs of sparkling gold dust. The Conversion had used up the gold of the Conversion Circle. This made Thea wonder if the Keeper had created the Insignia just for Thea’s arrival, or if Thea had just used up an Insignia that had been prepared for someone else. Either way, it made Thea extremely uncomfortable. She was reminded of all the questions that had come along with her birthday.

But now that she was here in front of the Code Keeper himself, Thea couldn’t help but hesitate to ask her questions. It didn’t seem like a good idea to accuse the Keeper of trapping her in a prison for fourteen years. Of course it wasn’t a good idea, especially not in front of her parents. The ranch was hardly a prison, anyway. But Thea still wanted to know why she had grown up locked away in such a remote place, unable to leave. She wanted to know why she was so special, but she was afraid to ask. She realized she was afraid to know the truth.

In the far corner of the vast room, the alepus moaned as the lyndis tackled him and pinned his antlers to the floor.

“Twitchet, come here,” Aunt Fanella demanded, and the small lyndis flew back to her place on Fanella’s shoulder, hidden behind her ringlets of golden hair.

“Keeper, when is Allie’s Trial?” Thea’s father asked.

“Tomorrow morning at eight o’clock sharp.” The Keeper pointed up at the watery blue ceiling as if to indicate that it was important to remember.

“Keeper, who have you chosen for Thea’s Mentor?” her mother asked.

“The son of the Azure Arch Alchemist, Magister Thomas Alder,” the Keeper answered. “Your Mentor’s name is Todd Alder. Sampson will take you to him now.” The Keeper led them all back toward the massive door.

“Ainsworth!” the Keeper called out, and a young man in white robes came into the room. “I have assigned Todd Alder to be Althea Presten’s Mentor. Please draft the official notice.”

“Yes, Keeper,” Ainsworth said as he approached a smaller desk near the door. In a flurry, the man took up a bit of parchment and a feathered quill. The feather danced as Ainsworth wrote the notice. He folded the paper into thirds and took out a ball of wax from one of his pockets. He balanced the wax on the tip of his finger. “Dissoluendo,” he said, and the ball of wax melted and dripped onto the letter. Thea saw a tattoo on Ainsworth’s fingertip glow red.

Ainsworth stamped the melted wax with a seal. He took a maple seed from one of his pockets and whispered, “Translatio,” and the letter floated through the air toward the alepus, who was trying to hide behind the Keeper. Sampson caught the letter in his moose-like antlers and turned toward the door.

“Farewell,” the Keeper said. Then he set his eyes on Thea. “Nice choice with the noctos,” he whispered with a wink. Thea grinned as she left the Keeper’s office to follow Sampson through the massive antechamber of Blackthorn and Burtree.