Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper
Chapter Twenty-Eight

Oaths in the Canopy

“So, how will you turn me invisible?” Thea asked.

“You know I can’t explain that to you,” Chadwick said with exasperation.

“You’re right. Sorry.” She waved her hands. “Do I need to close my eyes so I don’t see how you do it?”

“Oh, that’s not necessary.” He pulled a vial of clear liquid from a pocket, flashed a grin at her, and said, “I won’t be able to see you, so try to stick with me.” He grabbed Thea’s arm with one hand, held up the vial of liquid with the other, and said, “Visui!”

With a flash of shimmery green light, the Conversion began to turn her invisible. A ripple washed over her, and suddenly everything appeared refracted. Her whole body looked as if it had been dipped in a human-sized bottle of bubbles. She was overly shiny, as if she was covered in a glossy finish. She grabbed her own arm, and a ripple appeared, like she was surrounded by a large drop of water. The ripple was visible for just a moment, and then it was gone. The sensation felt somewhat familiar after having experienced this Conversion with Tajana.

“Shut your mouth and don’t touch anything. Follow me.” He opened her door and gave her a moment to follow him out before he shut it. He started walking double time down the green hallway for the main hall, and she followed him.

Chadwick quickly led Thea up the long wide corridor toward the Crowning Chamber, and she followed right behind him. She estimated that they wouldn’t have much time before Tajana came back through the secret passageway. With the halls nearly empty right now, it was easy enough for Thea to walk around invisible. If the halls were crowded, Thea knew she’d probably end up running into someone or getting lost in the throng of people.

It seemed that meditation was still in session, but it could end at any moment. They had better hurry. Chadwick seemed to have the same thought, because he was speed walking so fast, she could barely keep up.

As they approached the Crowning Chamber, the sound of the singing bowls and chanting reached her ears. Meditation was still in session. She breathed a sigh of relief.

They arrived at the Crowning Chamber and stopped just outside the entrance, where they could see most of the vast room but hopefully no one could see them. Chadwick looked around, obviously trying to figure out where Thea was standing.

She stepped forward and softly tapped him on the top of his hand. A ripple passed over her, and he looked right at her. She worried that she had canceled the Conversion, but then the ripple disappeared, and his eyes drifted right through her as she became invisible again.

“Where do you think it might be?” Chadwick asked very softly.

“The private rooms,” Thea whispered.

He nodded discreetly. “The Loggia under the Mezzanine,” he whispered. “Go on. I’ll wait here.”

She nodded though he couldn’t see her. She was invisible, and that made her the best one to go find their lost stuff. She was about to learn what happened when an invisible person tried to carry a book out of a library.

When Thea walked out onto the walkway she finally saw how truly crowded the Crowning Chamber really was. Nobody was meditating on the stairs, but every other bit of floor space was taken up by someone meditating.

As carefully as possible, Thea walked across the walkway for the first staircase. She went down each step as slowly as she could, keeping her Invisibility Conversion from rippling. She made it to the ground floor of the library and tried to find a path through the people to the Loggia.

After mentally planning her route, she started walking around each Alchemist or Chemist in the way, keeping her distance as best as she could so she didn’t have to walk directly over someone. As quietly as she could, she slowly crept toward the Guru’s private room.

Thea did her best to breathe silently as she approached the doorway to the Guru’s private room. Guru Ellhorn sat in the doorway meditating, blocking the entrance. Thea stood still and pondered how best to proceed.

Thea went toward the Guru’s left side, since there was more space on that side of the door. Ever so slowly, she stepped over the Guru’s leg and squeezed through the doorway, making sure to lift her feet off the reed mat and step back down without a sound, holding her breath as she tried to sneak past the Alchemist through the doorway into the private room.

Thea exhaled silently as she entered the private room. Forcing herself to take it slow, she tiptoed across the room. Her notebook and the book were no longer on the floor in the center of the room. In the far corner, she spotted a small table piled high with an assortment of books and parchment, and she made for the table.

She searched the table until she spotted her notebook underneath a few pieces of parchment, along with Chadwick’s thick book. Without thinking, she slid the papers off the pile, sending up small ripples near the table. She immediately picked up the notebook and shoved it into the large pocket on the front of her vest. This caused a huge ripple to appear as the notebook entered the field of the Invisibility Conversion. She turned in a flash to make sure she hadn’t been seen, but luckily, the Guru’s back was to her, so he hadn’t noticed the ripples. Besides, his eyes were closed in meditation. He was none the wiser.

Thea quickly grabbed the large book and pulled it into the Invisibility Conversion with another large ripple. She checked to see if the Guru had noticed, and sighed with relief when she saw that she had remained undetected. She held the large book in both hands. Then she took a couple breaths to try and still her beating heart.

She carefully inched her way back across the private room toward the door. Upon reaching the doorway, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to step by if she was holding the book in front of her. She forced herself to stop and take two big slow silent breaths while she tried to decide what to do. Less than three feet away, the Guru sat directly in the way.

Carefully, she inched the book up inside the front of her vest. The heavy book was more or less out of the way now. She put her back toward the door frame and inched her way up to Guru Ellhorn, who sat still with his eyes closed in meditation.

Thea stood just inside the doorway, biting her lip and trying to prepare to sneak by the Guru, when her Kundalini began to stir at the base of her spine. She froze and held her breath against the reflex to gasp. Then she realized that if she didn’t get out of the private room soon, her Kundalini would begin to surge up her spine. And then Guru Ellhorn, an Alchemist who worked for the Code Breaker, would surely catch her trying to take a controversial book out of the library.

Feeling dizzy from holding her breath, Thea lifted her foot and stepped over the Guru’s leg. She brought her foot down as softly as she could, shifted her feet a little, and then lifted her back foot up. She stepped through the doorway, but she continued to hold her breath as she crept across the floor toward the stairs, keeping one eye behind her on Ellhorn while she watched to make sure she didn’t step on anyone in the way. Everyone seemed to be completely unaware of Thea’s presence.

She breathed a quiet sigh of relief and quickened her pace. After quickly inching her way around all the Chemists and Alchemists, she reached the stairs and started up, breathing a little easier.

Sure enough, her Spiritual Energy started tingling and burning, and Thea took a sharp intake of breath as the sensation shot up her spine. She quickly sat down on the stairs, let the book slip into her lap, and put her hand in her pocket to touch C.C. The contact immediately caused her Kundalini to flow up and out of her body, and Thea almost slid down the stairs as her back arched. She choked down a gasp and tried to be patient as her Kundalini collected in the hand that held C.C. Her Energy whirled around her Chimaera in a rush as the sound of the singing bowls reverberated in her ears.

Thea’s Kundalini receded back down her spine to its resting place, and she took a shaky breath of air and climbed back to her feet. After checking to make sure her body still appeared glossy from the Vision Conversion, she lifted the book in her hands and hurried up the stairs out of the library.

She was almost at the top of the steps when the sound of a high cymbal cried out in the Crowning Chamber. It chimed again, and then the singing bowls went silent and the chanting stopped. She heard the high strong voice of that lady Guru, who said, “Thank you for joining us in meditation today. The divine light inside me acknowledges and reflects the divine light within you all. Namaste.”

Everyone repeated the word in unison, and then people began to rise to their feet. Her heart jumped into her throat. She gasped and tried to decide where she could stand where no one would bump into her as they would momentarily be rushing out of the chamber.

Chadwick came speed walking into the chamber, and Thea sighed with relief. She approached him and gently tapped his shoulder as he walked by. “Quick, let’s go up to the upper walkway!” she hissed.

He nodded discreetly and kept walking. Everyone else crowded around him as they walked though, and she began to regret suggesting they go this way. But they needed to hurry. Tajana would return any minute, if she wasn’t already back.

She kept directly behind Chadwick as best as she could as he led them through the throng of people.

She continued down the walkway after Chadwick, who was walking incredibly slowly as he made his way through the crowds. The two Chemists reached the end of the Mezzanine, where a spiraling staircase ascended to the upper walkway.

“Holy Formosus, you’re one barmy bird,” Chadwick said.

Thea quickly handed the book to him, creating a ripple in the air.

“You were brilliant, doll,” he said with a playful smile as he hefted the large book in two hands. “I thought you were gonna get caught!”

Thea grinned. “Come on, let’s go up.” She turned and began to skip up the steps.

“Oi! Hold on a tic,” he said as he came after her. “Initiums aren’t allowed up there.”

“Just follow me, please,” she pleaded with him. She continued to scale the spiraling staircase, hoping Chadwick would be too curious to stop following her. She reached the top and looked ahead to see the entrance into the upper hallway. She could see the statue that guarded Tajana’s secret passageway on the edge of the Canopy.

Below her, crowds of Chemists and Alchemists filed up the staircases and out of the Crowning Chamber. Their voices filled the crowded chamber.

Chadwick arrived at the top of the spiraling staircase and gave the empty air beside him a disapproving frown. “Why are we up here?”

“I’m over here, Chadwick,” Thea said with a little laugh, and he turned to face her direction. “Listen. I need to tell you something important.”

“Welcome back to the land of the visible,” he said. “What was it like being undetectable?”

Thea looked down and saw that the Invisibility Conversion was starting to wear off. The shiny gloss was fading from her body and clothes. She looked up to see Chadwick smirking at her.

“That was kinda fun, honestly,” she said with a rosy smile. She stared up at Chadwick and thought, strangely enough, about how wrong it was to be having this much fun when her Mentor was missing and perhaps even in trouble.

“You look great, by the way,” he said with a bashful smile at her.

She smiled and shook her head. “Seriously, listen a second.”

“No, seriously!” he insisted. “You’d never know you were suffering from Kundalini Syndrome, just looking at you.”

“Oh, stop it and listen!” she exclaimed, stamping her foot.

He chuckled. “You’re a real firecracker, you know that? Alright, what have you got to tell me?” He sounded more amused than interested.

“You have to swear that you won’t tell a soul,” she said, looking hard at him.

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“Swear it.”

“What do you want me to do, swear an Alchemical Oath?”

“Yeah.” Thea nodded.

“I can’t. I don’t know the Conversion Circle.”

“I know it.”

“No way!” he said incredulously. “I haven’t even learned that yet. It’s Circumscribed. Only certain Chemists even get to learn it. So there’s no way you’ve been taught it.”

But Thea closed her eyes and pictured herself in the Chamber of Trials. She had said the Code Word Praesum to swear her Alchemical Oath to the Keeper. Then she pictured Guru Ellhorn, sitting cross legged on the floor of his private room. The Alchemist hadn’t spoken the Code Word, but the Insignia had activated on his wrist. She saw it again in her mind’s eye and studied it carefully. Now she knew the Code Word and the Conversion Circle.

She dropped to her knees and opened her Compendium, pulled out Uncle Van’s Endless Ink Quill and drew the Insignia on a page. She opened her mouth to explain, but bit her lip instead. He wasn’t her Protégé either, so she realized she couldn’t teach him the Code Word. So instead she said, “Do you remember the Code Word from your Trial of Entry, when you swore to keep the Alchemical secrets you witnessed a secret?”

He nodded. “If this doesn’t work, you’ll never hear the end of it from me,” he said as he knelt down. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”

Thea actually smiled. “I know this is it. Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, turning his question back on him.

He hesitated. “I cannot lie, I want to know more about this secret you’re going to tell me.”

“Swear to me that you won’t tell anyone, and I’ll tell you a secret about Tajana.”

Chadwick raised his eyebrows. “Alright then. Praesum,” he said without hesitation, and then his eyes went wide with shock as the Conversion Circle filled with the deep blue light of his Kundalini. “Holy Formosus, that worked! I mean, I swear I won’t tell a soul Tajana’s secret,” he said.

She nodded, satisfied. “Tajana uses a secret passageway at the end of this upper walkway to get outside, every day at one o’clock,” she explained. “She goes to feed some orphans in the city.”

He smirked. “I knew she knew how to get out. I knew it! Show me.”

Thea got to her feet and walked back the way they had just come, back across the upper walkway toward the Canopy.

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