Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper

The Return

“Mum!” Quentin cried out. “Dad!” He ran to his parents, who lifted him up and hugged him tightly. “Guess what?! There was a Shadow pretending to be you, Mum! And Thea realized it and saved me!” Quentin continued to ramble on about all that had happened, his story muffled from all the hugs.

Thea locked eyes with her own parents. They ran to her and pulled her into a group hug, but Thea thought about the purple scroll and what the Keeper just told her. Her father wished to keep secret why she could break the laws of Alchemy. He knew what made her so special, and he had lied to her when he’d told her he didn’t know.

Her chest tightened and her stomach clenched. She crossed her arms instead of hugging her parents. She wanted answers, but she knew she wasn’t going to get them right now, and she just couldn’t find it in herself to hide her disappointment with them.

“Oh, thank Heavens, Thea!” her mother said, and she kissed Thea’s forehead.

“You’re not hurt?” her father demanded. “Did they do anything to you?”

Thea shook her head. “They were just holding us prisoner.”

“How did you get out?” her mother wanted to know.

“I was stupid,” Thea said with tears pricking at her eyes. “I came up with this stupid, stupid plan, and Todd died.” Thea took a huffy breath and looked up into the beautiful sunset behind her parents’ backs. “He’s dead because of me.”

“Oh, no,” her mother said, and she hugged Thea again. “What happened?”

But Thea couldn’t bring herself to explain. She just shook her head as she started to sob.

“Don’t blame yourself,” her mother cooed as she held Thea tight.

Her father stared sadly at Thea. “Allie, I know this will be hard for you to believe, but trust me when I say that people die when the Code Breaker gets involved. That’s just the way of it. It could have been any of you, and it wouldn’t have been your fault. I blame the Shadows, and no one else, for Todd’s death, and you should too.”

Mommy and Daddy know best, C.C. added. Those nasty Black Alchemists are to blame for everything wrong in the world, if you ask me. I blame them for all the world’s pain and suffering, death and destruction, famine and fences, molting and horse shoes.

Thea locked her jaw to keep from smiling at C.C.’s joke. She nodded at her dad, honestly trying to believe him. She blinked tears from her eyes and sniffed pitifully.

“We need to get moving,” the Keeper said, and her parents let Thea go. Everyone turned to face the Keeper, forming a semicircle around him. “Someone needs to take Quentin back to Blackthorn. I’d prefer to keep Fanella and Silvanus by my side for the coming encounter. Fiona? Would you be so kind as to take your nephew home?”

Thea’s mother looked longingly at Thea, and then at Aunt Fanella. She set her jaw stubbornly.

“Fiona,” Thea’s father said softly. “We have the Keeper by our side. We’ll be fine. It’ll be safer this way, without Quentin to worry about. I promise to keep Allie safe.”

I’ll be the one keeping you safe, C.C. put in, though Thea knew she was the only one who could hear the Chimaera.

“I’ll need people I know I can trust back at Blackthorn,” the Keeper added. “If word gets out that I left, there could be a Shadow uprising, and I’ll need you to organize my White Cloaks and keep the Chemists safe.”

Finally, Thea’s mother nodded at the Keeper and held her hand out to Quentin. The small boy looked back at his parents, hugged them both tightly, and then took her hand.

“Come back to me,” Thea’s mother said to her father. Then she turned to Thea. “Listen to your father, and be careful!”

You’ll be listening to me, C.C. retorted, and Thea hung her head to hide her smile.

“I will! I’ll see you soon,” Thea promised.

Fanella held her hand up for Twitchet. The tiny lyndis perched on her hand, and Fanella said, “Augendi,” with a seed in her other hand. The Chimaera leapt from Aunt Fanella’s hand as she enlarged to the size of a panther. Twitchet approached Quentin, who wrapped his arm around the Chimaera’s neck. Fiona stepped toward the portal on the hillside, which was still open. She went through the portal with Quentin and the lyndis, and the white circle vanished.

“When we arrive,” the Keeper began, “We will stay together. Do not break away from the group. Althea,” he said, turning to her. “You will stay by my side no matter what, do you understand?”

Thea looked at her father and nodded.

“This whole situation is most likely a ploy to draw me out,” the Keeper said. “I have no doubt that their goal is to coerce me to undo the Conversion that’s keeping the Breaker prisoner. I will set him free to save the Spectrum Scholars, if I must. We will retreat once we have the Spectrums, even if the Breaker is still free. Are we clear?”

“Yes Keeper!” the Alchemists replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“Then it’s time for you to lead us there, Althea,” the Keeper said with a nod.

“It’s about a thirty minute flight,” Thea said, and the Alchemists all Conjured up their preferred method of flying. Two of the Alchemists in white summoned clouds. Uncle Silvanus enlarged his aquileo Griff until he was the size of a horse, and he saddled up. The third Alchemist in white enlarged her Chimaera, which looked like a black griffin to Thea—part hawk, part panther.

Thea watched the strange man with his dark blond hair slicked back in a knot on top of his head; he pulled a Chimaera from a pocket and enlarged it: a faleo with the body of a lion and the talons and wings of a falcon. The Chimaera was literally covered in feathers; even his mane and the tuft at the end of his tail were feathery. The stranger mounted up on a saddle, practically hidden amid the feathery mane; he waited impatiently.

Then Aunt Fanella pulled the zebra butterfly out of her blonde hair and spoke the Word that enlarged the creature. It turned out to be a Chimaera that looked like a black lizard with zebra wings—some sort of dragon-like Chimaera—and she enlarged the creature until he was two stories tall with a wingspan three times that length. She carefully climbed up and situated herself into a saddle behind the horns on the Chimaera’s neck, in front of the ridge of spikes down his back. Thea felt herself smile at the sight.

Thea’s father pulled a Component from one of his pockets and said, “Augendi.” A Chimaera slowly enlarged until it was nearly as big as Aunt Fanella’s Chimaera. He climbed up the Chimaera’s leg into a tan saddle strapped to its shoulders.

Thea studied the creature, which looked like a combination of a lizard and a bird. The Chimaera’s body was covered in dappled beige and white scales. She had a tuft of bird-like feathers for a tail. Her wings were both leathery and feathery. The Chimaera walked on lizard-like legs. She had a long slender neck and terrifying talon-like claws. Thea wanted to know what to call this Chimaera.

The Keeper changed his form again, this time turning into a giant bird that looked like a cross between a hawk and an eagle.

Everyone turned to wait for Thea. Even C.C. watched her. Shall we fly as one? C.C. asked. Thea looked at her father, set her jaw, and then held C.C. up. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and imagined herself falling. Just like that, the natural instinct to transform kicked in, and Thea felt her body melting away as she shapeshifted into a noctos.

She opened her eyes to see all the Alchemists watching her, some with surprise in their eyes, and others with amazement. Her father shook his head sadly at Thea. Finally, Thea turned toward the setting sun and took to the skies.

Thea focused on flying in order to keep the nervousness away, as the seven Alchemists and the Keeper followed her back toward the mansion.

Althea, allow me to introduce you to our companions. Thea heard the Keeper’s voice in her head. The three Alchemists in white are higher ranking Animarum—Alchemists working for me.

“I’m Ainsworth, a Keeper’s Voice,” said the first Alchemist on a cloud, talking loudly to make his voice heard over the wind. Thea remembered him as the Alchemist who wrote the note proclaiming Thea was Todd’s Protégé. He had light blue trim on his white Anima uniform.

Nice to see you again, Ainsworth, Thea replied politely.

“I’m Bria and this is Velvet, my pardutris,” said the next Alchemist in white, with yellow-trimmed sleeves and hood. Bria’s pardutris Velvet was pitch black from her hawk beak to her panther claws, while Bria had blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a quiver of arrows and a long bow slung over one shoulder. “I’m a Keeper’s Eye. I was there standing watch in the Keeper’s Antechamber when you received your Spectrum Vest. I knew you were going to be brilliant, right then and there, but I never imagined this.” She gestured to Thea’s shapeshifted form. “Well done, Althea. I’m very impressed.”

Thank you, Thea replied.

“I’m Corwyn,” said the last Alchemist in White, with green accents on his robes; he flew on a cloud like Ainsworth. “I’m an Eye as well. I was asked to follow you and watch over you, actually.” Corwyn rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “I ran into you while invisible and gave you quite a fright, I’m afraid. Your uncle decided to erase your memory of the incident, so that I could continue to watch over you and keep you safe. I imagine I’ll be punished for being such a dolt.” He laughed nervously and glanced at the Keeper. “I suppose I owe you an apology for that.”

Thea looked over at her uncle and let out a nicker. That’s why you erased my memory? When were you going to fill me in?

Everyone laughed.

Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Thea couldn’t help but ask.

I believe it was your destiny to forget, the Keeper said. The statement brought a solemn moment of silence. If she hadn’t lost her memory then she most certainly wouldn’t have been kidnapped, and that meant this whole thing had been destined to happen. But was destiny on their side?

Then she couldn’t help but wonder if the Keeper knew her future. Considering he had written those words on the purple scroll, he seemed to know what was supposed to happen. Had it been destiny? Or had the Keeper manipulated everything to happen this way?

Todd had died, and Thea had a very uncomfortable feeling that the Keeper let him die to fulfill some sort of twisted fate. She felt her chest constrict at the thought.

“You were with my son,” said the man on the faleo who had long dark blond hair and a goatee. “I’m Broderick MacNamara, and this is Bannon.” The faleo was as gray as a storm cloud from his feathery mane to the tips of his wings and the tuft of his tail.

Thea realized the man had Chadwick’s hazel eyes. He wore a brown leather trench coat with pockets sewn inside the lining and a sword at his belt. Yes, we were together, Thea replied telepathically as they flew through the dusky sky.

“Is Chadwick alright?” MacNamara asked.

The last I saw of him, yes. He got knocked out when the Nightmare took us, and he hurt himself on a Protection Conversion, but Tajana healed him. He offered to be the Component to make a homunculus, too, so he’s been through a lot, but he was doing okay the last time I saw him. We got out of the place where they were holding us and split up. He was supposed to call for help.

“We never heard from him,” MacNamara said. “Do you think he’s hurt?”

I think even if the Shadows recaptured him, they wouldn’t hurt him, Thea reassured Chadwick’s father. They didn’t seem to want to hurt us, only to hold us captive. Keeper, you said that you think the Shadows are trying to draw you out.

I imprisoned the Code Breaker in an Eternity Prison, the Keeper explained. His Shadows have no doubt been trying to free him without success. The second that all three Spectrum Scholars simultaneously went missing, I suspected they were planning to force me to release the Code Breaker by holding the Spectrums hostage.

“It seems likely, but I still can’t figure out why they took Quentin,” Uncle Van shouted over the wind. “Or Todd, for that matter.”

It’s how they got us to come quietly, Thea explained. A Shadow had Quentin, and threatened to kill him if we resisted. Thinking about Todd brought tears to Thea’s eyes, and she blinked hard; the tears blew away on the wind.

“Thank you for looking after our boy,” Aunt Fanella called.

You’re welcome. Thea drifted closer to Aunt Fanella and her amazing Chimaera. I didn’t know you had a second Chimaera, Aunt Fanella!

“This is Winward,” Aunt Fanella said, raising her voice. “He’s a pacerta, part chameleon, part butterfly.” Thea could not believe how big he was, considering she thought Winward had only been a butterfly this whole time. He had amazing spiked horns and wings, which were black and white in jagged stripes. His tail curled into a spiral like a chameleon’s. His wings fluttered amazingly fast, especially for how big he was.

Silence fell over them. Daddy? You made a Chimaera? Thea asked finally.

“Yes, a lavem. She’s part owl, part lizard. I named her Tawny,” he explained, raising his voice to be heard over the wind as they flew. “Uncle Van talked me into it, so that I would … well, so I would be prepared for moments like this.”

Thea didn’t know what to say. She wanted to ask her father about the secrets, but she knew she shouldn’t, not in front of all these people.

Then she looked down and spotted the mansion.