"Anyway," continued Victor, "why don't you look through your father's codex and we can start your alchemy training tomorrow?" And with that, he left Connor alone in the workshop.

Connor sat at one of the workbenches with his codex in front of him and ran his hands over the smooth, metallic surface.

The polished metal gleamed golden in the workshop lights. Strange runes covered the edges, with a much larger rune in the center and several runes in a circle around it.

Nothing his uncle said had suggested that alchemists used runes, yet here they were.

Had his mother made them?

Victor had always said that she was a powerful magic user. Maybe she was a witch who could create magical runes? He touched the center rune gently as though through it he could once more see his parents.

The rune lit up with a blue glow at his touch, and a humming sound filled the air. Blue light flowed out from the center rune into the ring of runes surrounding it and from there to the edges of the codex until every rune contained the soft blue glow.

The humming grew louder until Connor’s teeth started vibrating. His heart pounded in his chest.

Had he activated some kind of defensive measure?

He dropped the book and felt a sharp pain as he did so.

The surface of the codex had formed a small, sharp edge, which cut his thumb.

Two drops of blood fell from his thumb and splashed on the center rune before he could react.

The blood flowed into the center rune and vanished. The blue glow turned red, and his heart leaped up into his throat.

He’d just found out he was an alchemist and now he was going to die before he could open his father's codex.

The humming grew louder and more intense until he felt like every fiber of his being was shaking apart.

The red glow intensified. He wanted to run, but his body wouldn’t respond. He couldn’t even twitch. Paralyzing magic? Just what kind of trap had he sprung?

He couldn't even blink. He could only watch… and accept his fate.

The humming died down, leaving an eerie silence in its place, and the runes turned from red to blue.

Connor inhaled sharply, and his limbs came free all at once. The codex opened to the first page.

“Access granted. Welcome, Connor Varas,” said a strange, metallic voice that seemed to originate from the codex itself.

Connor let out a relieved sigh. Was alchemy going to be full of surprises like this?

But, even after what felt like a near death experience his excitement hadn’t dimmed in the slightest.

He tentatively touched the codex, and when it didn’t do anything noticeably… odd, he started flipping through the pages.

His father’s codex… that now belonged to him.

Victor had said alchemists could make potions, but how was Connor to expect the sheer variety and power they contained?

The Potion Victor had given him was impressive. But, there were potions that gave the strength to tear down castle walls. Potions that granted speed swifter than the wind. Potions to regenerate from most any wound…

Even a potion that would make the imbiber's urine purple, something which caused Connor to let out a childish giggle.

There were potions to do things he hadn’t even dreamed of, and he couldn’t wait for the day he could make them.

There were also pages filled with the devices Victor had mentioned. And, like the potions, some looked incredibly useful while others less so.

What most caught his eye were the detailed instructions on creating mechanical constructs.

Some were massive metal guardians who, from their description, could crush an armored knight like an annoying insect.

Not all constructs were so powerful though, and some were little more than pets.

Some of the diagrams for battle constructs reminded him of the statues he’d seen fighting the robed figures fifteen years ago…

Were those statues his father’s constructs? Who were the robed figures? Were they responsible for taking his parents away from him?

He sighed. So many questions… and never any answers.

He lost track of time as he flipped through page after page of the codex and still he had not even begun to scratch the surface of what was possible.

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He turned pages for hours and barely made it halfway through the codex.

He was just skimming through, and a lot of what was said didn’t make much sense to him yet, but he got a much broader understanding of alchemy from it.

There were formulas for alchemy, much like spells for wizards, which when followed would produce similar results. However, the effect changed based on the skill and power of the alchemist, just as spells did with wizards.

The codex was a huge tome of a book. Each page was thinner than the hairs on his arm. All with a slight golden sheen to them, Much like the metallic cover.

Not a single letter in the codex had faded even slightly or looked the least bit worn.

He lost himself in the codex until his eyes hurt, and his eyelids grew heavy.

He stretched, his back making satisfying cracking noises as he did so. He took another look at the gleaming, rune-covered book.

Clearly, Victor was right. It was more than a simple book, and he couldn’t wait to uncover its secrets.

What else did the runes do? What had that voice been?

He put it back into the bag of holding, where it vanished without a trace, even its weight was gone.

With tired steps, he dragged himself upstairs and collapsed on his soft bed.

***

The next day, as they entered the workshop, Victor handed Connor a hexagonal rod, exactly like the one used to open the secret door.

“Alchemy takes practice and dedication. It's a never-ending journey of discovery, and there will be times when you need to use the workshop when I’m not around. Take good care of that key. I won’t be giving you another,” Victor said.

Connor gripped the key as though his life depended on it.

“Just remember not to get ahead of yourself,” Victor continued, “Alchemy is dangerous, and needs to be treated with caution and respect.”

“I won't disappoint you, uncle,” Connor said.

Once again, he noticed the soft breeze moving through the workshop. “How did you get air down here?” he asked.

Victor chuckled. "Yesterday, I told you the greatest secret of the Varas family. Now you want to know even more? Soon there will be nothing left. What is a spymaster without a few secrets hmm?" he said.

Connor let out an exasperated sigh.

Victor probably had more secrets than there were drops of water in the ocean.

He let it go though. He was just glad that Victor was in a good mood before teaching him alchemy and that their fight yesterday seemed to already be a thing of the past.

Connor was still amazed as he looked around the workshop.

It staggered him that all of this had been right under his nose for years. Victor must have had similar workshops before they moved to the city as well.

It would explain how the man vanished into thin air at times.

“In future, our lessons will take place at different hours,” Victor said, “you need to keep up the appearance that nothing has changed. So, after today, you will be doing alchemy on top of all your other training and responsibilities.”

“How am I going to manage that?” Connor asked.

“That’s up to you to figure out,” Victor said, “I warned you that nobody can ever know about you being an alchemist. This is my condition for teaching you alchemy. You must continue all of your other training and meet all of your responsibilities as well.”

Connor had no choice but to agree to Victor’s demand.

He hungered to learn everything he could about alchemy, and he wouldn’t risk losing out on that chance.

Though, he had no idea how he’d ever manage to do it all.

The first thing Victor did was give him a complete tour of the workshop, or at least that’s what Victor said... one could never tell with him.

Connor wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few more hidden rooms that Victor neglected to mention.

Together, they made their way through the maze of shelves, and Victor lectured Connor on different materials and ingredients.

He also warned Connor to stay away from certain containers, like the black boxes with golden runes on them, as they contained extremely dangerous things.

Things he wasn’t ready for yet.

Everything was labeled. His uncle's penchant for being organized was incredibly useful for something like alchemy, which had such an overwhelming number of possible ingredients and required a degree of exactness.

The idea of trying to find an ingredient among these shelves without any labels gave Connor a headache.

He gained a new appreciation for what his uncle had taught him over the years. In future, he would have to follow Victor's example far more than he ever had.

The tour alone took several hours as Victor explained about different ingredients and methods of storing them.

Victor was taken aback as Connor, while a gifted student, always had a tendency to slack off when he could.

But, as Victor spoke of something as mundane as the storage of different ingredients Connor was rapt as he soaked in information like a sponge.

Victor was reminded of his brother as he looked at Connor, who was so enthralled while learning about alchemy.

Finally, the tour came to an end.

“Now then,” Victor said, “get your codex out. It’s time to start with some real alchemy. Normally, an alchemist would have to take notes and start their own codex, but you may as well use your father’s.”

Connor pulled out his codex, marveling once again at how the bottomless bag made something heavy and cumbersome so easy to carry.

“What we’re going to be covering now is a basic focusing ritual, so try to find it in your codex while I explain a bit about it for you,” Victor said.

Connor did as instructed, and flipped through the front of the book looking for anything that sounded remotely related.

“That’s the one,” Victor said pointing to the page Connor had just turned to, “though it looks like my brother’s is slightly different from mine, it doesn’t matter that much. The purpose of a focusing ritual is, as the name implies, to focus your energy.

“A skilled and experienced alchemist doesn’t need it, but when you're just starting out this ritual helps you to control and direct your energies.

“Think of it like an embankment and your alchemy like a river. It has its limits, and it doesn’t mean the water can’t overflow, but it helps prevent it and direct the flow where you want it to go. It's a useful technique when you're first starting out.”

Connor looked through the notes his father had made in the codex as his uncle explained everything to him.

“This ritual looks a lot like some of the ones I saw when I looked through the wizard’s book,” he muttered under his breath.

He almost bit off his tongue as he realized what he’d just said. He hadn’t told Victor about his visit with the wizard yet.

“There’s a good reason for that,” Victor said, “they do much the same thing. They direct different forms of energy to do different things, but the purpose is much the same. And, you can stop making that face.

“I already know about your little visit to see Elgar. It was one of the reasons I decided to tell you about alchemy before you got yourself apprenticed to some shady wizard who would go against The Head Wizard.”

“So he really did have me blacklisted?” Connor asked.

“Oh, yes,” Victor said with a chuckle, “now back to work.”

Victor handed Connor a piece of chalk and led him to one of the more open spaces in the workshop.

“Some of the workbenches are mobile, so you can bring whatever you need closer to the circle. Just remember not to destroy the chalk lines you made. Otherwise, you’ll have to do it all over again,” Victor said.

The way Victor said it made Connor think that he’d done exactly that himself a time or two.

No wonder Victor was always so meticulous.