Alchemist Academy: Book 1

by Ryan, Matt

  Part of me wanted to help her, but the other part stared at Mark’s shaking head. “I don’t think I’m ready to make this stone. I haven’t even learned anything here yet. I mean, this place is really nothing like I thought it might be.”

  Jackie frowned and looked at the floor. “I think I’m going to be the next one to retire, if I don’t get back what I had.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. By tomorrow I’m sure you’ll be moving up to the middle classes. You can learn all about alchemy and how to make stones for these assholes. Then, if you can find it in your heart to make a simple stone for me, please let me know,” Jackie spat. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

  I put my hand on Mark’s shoulder. He studied me.

  “Don’t give me that look. What’s up with your stomach?”

  “It’s no big deal. Don’t worry about me.” He glanced back at the door. “These damned people want to sink their claws into you. That’s who you should be worried about.”

  He told me not to be worried, but he didn’t know what his mom had told me about his condition. What had she done to keep him alive in the past? How much longer did he have? I gritted my teeth and wanted to get back to Ms. Duval and tell her Mark had regressed, and needed whatever it was she did for him.

  “I can’t help but worry.” I rubbed his arm, and he shook his head with a smile.

  “I think you’re going to get us into a lot of trouble in this place.”

  “Well, we’ve had one hell of a first day.”

  “Listen,” Mark said.

  I wanted to sigh because I felt a lecture coming.

  “You have a thirst to figure these stones out. I get that, but these people see you as a tool to be used. I want to be at your side no matter where they put you. If you’re in another class, you need to demand I go with you.”

  “And what if they won’t listen?”

  He smiled. “I have a feeling you’re going to be very popular here. They’ll do what you want, as long as you can make those stones for them.”

  I chuckled at the thought of being popular … the girl who sat under the oak tree at lunch, alone. Yeah, I wasn’t not the popular type. If too many people started liking me or even worse, were fake to me, I didn’t think I could take it.

  I yawned. “What time is it in this place?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll walk you to your room.” Mark cupped his hand over mine and led me to the door.

  We made it to the staircase, where a waiting Priscilla was standing, looking agitated. She moved away from the wall and crossed her arms. Her fingers tapped on her forearms.

  “Hey, Priscilla,” I said.

  “I need to talk with Allie, alone.” She glared at Mark.

  He paused. “I’ll be right upstairs, within screaming distance, if you need me.”

  I nodded and glanced at Priscilla. I was probably in for another lecture, and I searched for what I might have done wrong during the day, but there weren’t many rules to break.

  “I came to fetch you.”

  “What did I do?” I looked back at the door under the stairs.

  She sighed. “I know you guys make stones in the back rooms, and while I frown upon such activities, it’s not the reason I’m here.” Priscilla straightened out her black jacket. “She wants to meet you.”

  “Who?”

  “President Verity.”

  The spoke contained a couple of Blues on the other side of the fence, looking on with interest—probably their on-duty guards. Priscilla nodded to a Red as we walked by. I didn’t recognize the girl, but she stared at me. I gave a fast wave as we passed her. She lit up with a big smile and matched my wave.

  We entered the hub, walking straight through the middle. I slowed a bit to admire the giant statue. Costas had been in there earlier for his retirement. The water, once frozen, now looked as still as bath water.

  I sped up my steps to catch Priscilla. “Why does Verity want to see me?”

  “You’d better put ‘president’ in that name. She’ll throw you right out of her office if she catches you doing that.”

  “Okay, but what does she want?”

  Priscilla stopped at the double doors and turned to me. Her eyes narrowed, trying to figure me out. “What do you know about the Academy?”

  “I’ve only been here a day, and in that time I’ve learned how to mass-produce growth stones and watched a stone battle between the Reds and the Blues. Oh, and I saw some guy get retired in the globe thingy.”

  Priscilla stopped and turned to face the statue. “That’s Clymene, mother of Atlas. Some of us like to believe her to be the mother of alchemy. Some thought of her as a god, but the world doesn’t like what they can’t understand, so the rubes killed her entire city.” Priscilla smiled. “Some think all of us alchemists are her descendants.”

  I shook my head, looking at the statue. “So I’m a demigod who’s now kissed a relative.”

  She smiled but ignored my comment. “President Verity wants you, and you’ll be respectful and compliant to whatever it is she wants. You may find yourself in the upper classes sooner rather than later.” She shoved the double doors open, stopping the barrage of questions waiting to spill out.

  The doors opened to a large hallway with stone arches towering high into the ceiling. Doors flanked each side of the lengthy hall.

  “Is this the teachers’ quarters?”

  “Yes.”

  She marched down the hall toward another set of doors. When we reached them, she placed her hand on the handle and took her time turning it. When she nudged the door open, the hinges squeaked under the belabored pace.

  Just open the damned door, woman! Finally, the never-ending process was done and Priscilla motioned for me to go in first.

  The flooring transitioned to wood. My boots clicked on the surface and the sound echoed around the wood walls and ceiling. My gaze landed on a long wooden desk with President Verity sitting behind it.

  The door creaked behind me and closed. Priscilla had left me, and it was kind of like landing in the principal’s office. When I had built up the courage, I looked at Verity and swallowed. Ms. Duval’s stern expression felt soft and friendly compared to Verity’s. Her thin frame accentuated her narrow face and pointy nose. Her thin black blouse clung to her, while her fashionable jacket was a size too big. Our eyes met and mine grew as silence ensued.

  “It’s rude not to introduce yourself,” Verity reprimanded me.

  I cleared my throat and approached her desk. “Hello, I’m Allie.” I extended my hand over the desk. Verity hesitated but took it in a rushed shake. Then she pulled a drawer out and plucked a small bottle from it, pumped a clear liquid into her hands and rubbed them together. I smelled the alcohol. It figured she’d use hand sanitizer.

  As she was closing the drawer, I snuck a look at the contents inside, but didn’t see anything resembling a life stone. I fought the urge to plead with her about giving up the stone and letting me save Mark. Her expression didn’t leave any room for pleasantries, let alone charity.

  “Pleasure,” she said. “I am President Verity.”

  “Good to meet you.”

  She sighed and stood up from her desk. “I understand you have a gift with stones.”

  It didn’t feel like a question. “I guess.”

  “Who is your mother?”

  Taken aback by the question, I stammered, “Catherine Norton.”

  “Norton.” She tapped her chin. “And that is her maiden name?”

  “No, it’s Magnus.”

  She stopped and stared at me, searching for my sincerity. I had never put much thought into my last name, let alone my mother’s.

  “Very interesting names. Both have a long history in alchemy. You surprise me once again, Allie.” She moved in front of me and leaned against the desk. Reaching into her pocket, she fumbled around with something, her eyes narrowing as she moved closer. “Your mother is dead?”

  �
�Yes, since I was eight.”

  “And your father?”

  “I … he’s in the Navy. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

  “Practically an orphan. Do you remember anything about your mother?”

  “Yeah, a few things, here and there.”

  “You remember a particular Christmas, though, don’t you?”

  I blinked a few times, searching for what she wanted. The last Christmas I remembered had happened a few months before my mom had died. She had sat on my bed on Christmas Eve and asked me if I could have anything in the world, what would it be? Living in Summerford, a white Christmas wasn’t possible, but I asked for one that day. She smiled and said she’d see what she could do.

  The next morning, I woke to my mom and dad laughing in the backyard. I ran down the stairs and through the patio door, and slid on the icy concrete. I couldn’t believe it. Our backyard had turned into a winter playland. My mom and dad threw snow at each other. When they noticed my arrival, two snowballs hit me consecutively. I laughed and joined in.

  I hadn’t thought about it until Verity asked.

  “My mom used some kind of snow stone, didn’t she? She was the alchemist?”

  Verity nodded and leaned back against her desk. “I hope this isn’t too difficult of a question, but how did your mother die?”

  “Car accident.”

  “You have more thoughts on that, don’t you?”

  “I don’t like talking about my mom.” I slumped in the chair and rubbed my forehead, trying to think of any other times something unusual had happened in my childhood. It was hard to filter magic from my youthful memories, as I hadn’t been told magic didn’t exist. Everything felt magical in my foggy childhood memories.

  “I’m sure she was a wonderful woman who would be proud to see where you are today.”

  “I suppose.”

  While Verity stared at me, I used the awkward silence to study the many paintings of ancient-looking men and women on the wall. I stopped and squinted at one I recognized. “Isaac Newton?”

  “Very good. He was a man of many talents. Sadly, he didn’t have the gift. He may have been a Malki like your friend Mark, but we don’t believe he ever created a single stone.”

  The jab at Mark sent me to the snippy side. “Then why display his picture?”

  “The world watched him blunder in alchemy before he moved to chemistry and physics, helping produce the sciences that sent alchemy into the history books. He helped us become invisible to the world of science. But a history lesson is not why I brought you here.”

  She unfolded her arms and the corners of her mouth crept back in a soft smile. “How was your first day at the Academy?”

  I thought of the many horrible and awesome things I’d witnessed in one day and didn’t know how to answer the question. I had so many questions I wanted to throw back at her. Like, why couldn’t we leave? What the hell had happened to that Costas guy? But the biggest question was, where was the life stone?

  “Fine, I guess.” The response was automatic, probably a trained reaction instilled in all teenagers: the simpler the answer, the better.

  “I spotted you during the retirement. You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

  “It’s a lot to take in. Is this why you wanted to see me? To talk about my day?”

  She gave the slightest shake of her head. “No.” Turning, she walked to a large cabinet behind her desk and pulled a necklace over her head. A small key dangled from the chain. She took the key and slid it into the cabinet’s keyhole.

  I took a few steps left to get a better view of the contents. The life stone had to be in there.

  With the cabinet door open, Verity concealed her next action, but from the motions she made, it looked like she was gathering something from within the cabinet. She used her knee to close the door and when she turned around, she was holding an alchemist’s mixing bowl and a few containers.

  She placed the objects on the desk and wiped her hands with a towel. “There is a curve for stone makers. When you start out, your learning and ability grow exponentially until you hit a plateau. That is where an alchemist can make their greatest work, but it comes at a cost. The more you draw from your inner self, the more you exhaust it, and the downward trend begins. I make it my personal goal to guide special students at the plateau, which is why I brought you in tonight.”

  “You think I’ve plateaued?” The idea seemed incredibly insane. I wanted to scream at all these people and tell them I had no idea what I was doing.

  “I don’t know, but I haven’t seen such creation of stones in a long time. It comes easily to you. Darius said you created a time stone?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I just mixed stuff together. I’m not sure what I made.” I danced around the truth. I knew what I had made because Mark and I had used it to save Bridget’s feelings. Well, mostly Mark used it. Bridget seemed so far away now. How had my world grown so big in the space of a day?

  “Maybe, but what flows through you and into the mix is what differentiates an alchemist from a rube.” She set the wooden spoon in the glass bowl and twisted off the caps of the two containers.

  Each container contained a vial. Verity took her time in lifting the vials from the containers, then placing them near the bowl.

  “You want me to make another time stone?”

  “So you do know what you’re doing.”

  “I just remember these ingredients from Ms. Duval.”

  Verity perked up at the information and I wondered if I’d shared too much.

  “I wondered how she had procured the ingredients. Such things are not easily collected.” She slid the vials closer to me. “In a decade, we might make one time stone, if we’re lucky. If you can make one, it would greatly help the Academy in getting closer to understanding them.”

  I sighed and could hear Mark’s comments bouncing around in my head, telling me not to help this woman. Verity’s face left little to be discussed and the impatience of my pause made parts of her face twitch.

  “I can try, but like I keep telling everyone, I really don’t know what I’m doing.” Saying it aloud was like a safety blanket wrapped around a lie. Verity didn’t respond to my words. It was clear I knew exactly what I was doing, even if I didn’t understand the science behind it. I was beginning to wonder if anyone did.

  I stepped up to the bowl and took the two vials. Everything in my body told me not to make this stone. My face shook in false anger and I pushed the blood to my head, hoping it gave me a red complexion. I emptied one of the vials into the bowl and steam filled the space. Verity leaned forward, staring into the mist. For a second, I thought maybe I’d still make the stone. Maybe I didn’t need any anger to make these stones.

  After the mist settled, Verity took the bowl and swirled the contents.

  “You failed,” she said, and narrowed her eyes. “I hope you gave it your full effort. Those ingredients were very valuable, and now they’re worthless.”

  “I’m sorry,” I lied. “I think I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.” I produced a yawn to back it up.

  “Yes, well, to say I’m disappointed in you is an understatement.” She set the bowl down on the desk with a thud. “Regardless, I’m moving you to room ten,” she announced.

  “What’s room ten?”

  “It’s a place for the more advanced students.”

  I waited for her to add more, but she sat back in her chair and gazed at me as if waiting for me to speak.

  “Uh, I do have a request. Mark, the guy who came with me. I need him in room ten with me.”

  “Need? Such a strong word. From what I understand, he has little innate ability and was recommended to room twenty-eight.”

  “He helps me make stones. Without him, I don’t do as well.”

  Verity raised an eyebrow. “Does he arouse you?”

  My face flushed a bit and I nodded. I couldn’t leave Mark to the attacks the room would be receiving when I was gone. Maybe if I made st
ones for them in advance to turn in….

  “Fine, he can be with you in room ten, but I expect results.” She raised both eyebrows as I stood there in silence, rocking back and forth. “Is there something else?”

  I didn’t want to ask, but thinking of Mark and his condition, I didn’t want to leave anything off the table. She might have life stones piled up in the cabinet behind her.

  “I have a sick friend, and the only thing that can save him is a life stone.” I blurted out the words before I even realized it.

  A wicked smile spread over her face and she leaned back in her chair. Great. She had something on me now. Something she knew I wanted badly, but I didn’t care because I did want it badly.

  “The ingredients for such a stone are much more costly and difficult to work with than the time stone you just failed to make. If you can show me you can make any stone put in front of you, I will help you make a life stone personally.”

  I took in a deep breath and nodded.

  “Good. Now get back to your room.”

  “Good night, Verity.”

  “President Verity.”

  “Oh. Yes. Sorry.”

  The double doors swung open and I walked down the teachers’ hall. Looking for Priscilla, I found the hall to be empty. The doors behind me slammed shut and I winced at the sound echoing through the empty corridor. I took a few steps, studying each door I passed. The teachers probably had piles of books on alchemy stuffed in their quarters. What I wouldn’t do for just one book on the subject. I stopped next to a door unlike any of the others, a plain, painted door with no markings. It stood out like an albatross among pigeons. Had it been there before? Surely I would have noticed it. I ran my hand over the smooth finish and moved to open it.

  The handle creaked and the door swung open. It seemed to want to show me what was inside. I stood there, waiting to accept its picture show. In my dreams it might have been a library, but I stared with my hand over my mouth at a tunnel, maybe wide enough for a gold cart, extending as far as I could see. Stepping into the endless hall, I saw it slightly curve, just enough that I couldn’t see where it ended. I pulled the door closed behind me. The air smelled different here; it had more humidity to it than in the rest of the Academy. It almost tasted stale.