Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Breaker

Chapter Thirty-One ~ Signal Words ~ Part I

Chadwick soon said goodbye to Vandread and met Thea at her tutor's desk. She politely thanked her instructor for the lesson and stood to walk with him out of the Rotunda and toward the Great Hall for lunch.

'Chadwick, thank you so much for sending me that stultify stone,' Thea said as they walked side by side. 'And thank you, Stella, for bringing it to me!' She caressed the fluffy Chimaera, who perched on Chadwick's wrist.

'Cheers, Al,' Chadwick said as he watched her walk. She seemed rather unsteady, but she was obviously really trying to hide it. 'You know, you look rather wonky because of it, though. It really would be best if you could avoid taking them as much as possible.'

'I know! They make me feel so discombobulated. I'm completely numb, so even walking is hard unless I really focus. And they make me so tired, too!'

Chadwick snickered. 'You let your mind wander, and you could trip over your own feet and fall fast asleep on your face.'

'It's not funny!' she exclaimed, punching him in the shoulder.

'Help!' Chadwick called out to a passing Alchemist. 'My Protégé is beating me up, and I'm too much of a gentleman to fight back!'

The passing Alchemist stopped walking and gave Chadwick a series of faces: panic, confusion, and exasperation. Then he scoffed at Chadwick and stormed off.

Chadwick and Thea put their heads together and laughed. She hit him again, softly this time, and said, 'Stop it before you overdo it. I'm sure everyone is watching us out of the corner of their eye today, after what's been happening.'

'You're right, of course, but it's so much fun to torment you.'

'Well, you're going to have to control yourself.' By now, they had arrived at the Great Hall with its spectacular mural of the night sky on its ceiling. To Chadwick's surprise, his tutor, Cerulean Praecantor Sharma, waited for them at the door.

'Chandler MacNamara, Initium Presten,' Sharma said. 'It is most reassuring to see you both on your feet and in such high spirits. Come, I'll lead you to our table, so we can get started straight away.' He waved for them to follow him. 'You'll no doubt enjoy the lunch that Praecantor Pots has prepared for us.'

'Oh, how thoughtful of you!' Thea said. 'Thank you.'

'It's our pleasure, truly. We are not nearly as busy as you are, I assure you.' Sharma grinned as he gestured to a table, where Praecantor Pots was sitting with her collection of Alchemy Cauldrons, a large bowl of salad, and a pizza sizzling on the hot plate. 'Let's get started, shall we?'

'Food first, or Alchemy first?' Pots asked as she smiled at Thea and then glanced at Chadwick. She seemed like the motherly type, so when Chadwick said food first, she flashed a grin and snapped her fingers. 'Linguine alfredo and authentic Italian pizza! Enjoy!'

'Thank you!' Thea said.

'My favourite!' Chadwick said as he reached for his bowl. It was piping hot, but he tucked in anyway, while the Cerulean Alchemists and Thea started with a helping of salad.

'Tell us about yourselves,' Pots said as she drizzled dressing over her salad. Chadwick had never met her before, but he'd been working with Sharma for months now. He was honestly surprised at how different Sharma was over a luncheon lesson. He had always struck Chadwick as all business, so seeing him smile as he enjoyed lunch with them really threw him for a loop.

This current set up mirrored his old luncheon lessons in a way, but he and Tajana had always had their Aurulent Joint lessons over lunch before. That extra-long lesson with Sativarg had been a nasty way to spend his lunch. Now, with his schedule change, the two Chemists would see a different pair of tutors over lunch each day of the week, and they would have a similar routine for dinner. He wondered how his other tutors would compare to these two. So far, he was excited about this change to his schedule.

Thea eagerly jumped to answer the Praecantor's question, explaining about where she was from and who her parents were, while Chadwick listened silently, his mouth continuously full of food. He wasn't surprised to hear that Thea grew up with just her parents on a ranch in the American Midwest. It explained why she was so clueless to his British slangs, and why she had very strange social skills. Thea did an excellent job of hiding how truly sad and worried she was about both of her parents as she told the Praecantors about them.

'What about you, handsome?' Pots asked Chadwick, just as soon as Thea was finished with her introduction.

Chadwick finished his bite of food and swallowed. 'Erm, well, I'm Chadwick MacNamara,' he said, feeling strangely awkward at introducing himself to a tutor. It had been six months since he met a new Alchemist at Blackthorn. He'd gotten used to the idea that everybody knew who he was. 'I passed my Joint Trial this weekend and got my Protégé right after. I'm Tajana Pomoći's Protégé.'

'Oh, I know her! She is such a wonder!' Pots said.

'I know!' Chadwick said. 'I was really lucky to have her Mentor me. Did you hear she decided to leave Blackthorn?'

'Did she?' Pots said, very shocked to hear it.

'Yup. She's in Verdandi now.'

'My, my, that is a surprise. She will be very busy indeed! Tell us about your parents,' Pots suggested, keeping the introduction moving right along.

'My mum is Lillianna MacNamara. She's an Astral Dreamer. And my dad's Broderick MacNamara.'

'Oh, he's an excellent Sparring Master,' Pots piped up.

'I'll tell him you said that!' Chadwick said. 'Speaking of which, I am plumb out of Sacred Datura, and I owe my parents a scry. Could either of you spare a pinch?'

'Of course!' Sharma said, digging in his pocket and pulling out a pouch. To Chadwick's surprise, he handed the entire medium-sized bag to Chadwick.

'I can't take all this,' Chadwick said, surprising himself. Why wasn't he just stuffing the lot into his pocket with a casual thanks? It was most certainly what he should have done. But before he could stop himself, he undid the drawstring on the bag and took just an oversized pinch of the expensive Component. He quickly handed the bag back to his tutor. 'Thank you kindly!'

'You're very welcome. There's more where that came from, if you need it. The Magisters have supplied all the Alchemists with an extra ration of the Component, for just this sort of purpose. No doubt, all of us are contacting our families more often now, what with the recent goings on.'

'I can imagine!' Chadwick said.

'You don't know the half of it!' Pots piped up. 'Have you heard what's happened?'

Thea and Chadwick both shook their heads and stopped eating to look at the Praecantor.

'Just a while ago, a whole entourage of Breaker's Shadow Alchemists exposed themselves to the Recreant leaders of the world.'

'What?!' Thea and Chadwick exclaimed together.

Well, my characters may be very surprised about this, but you all saw it coming, right? Who's excited to see what happens next? I know I am looking forward to sharing the rest of this book with you! See you soon for the second half of this chapter.

~A.C.