Alchemists' Council

Cynthea Masson

Description

The first in Cynthea Masson's phenomenal new fantasy trilogy features an ancient manuscript whose powerful words can change the fate of all dimensions. As a new Initiate with the Alchemists' Council, Jaden is trained to maintain the elemental balance of the world, while fending off interference by the malevolent Rebel Branch. Bees are disappearing from the pages of the ancient manuscripts in Council dimension and from the outside world, threatening its existence. Jaden navigates alchemy's complexities, but the more she learns, the more she questions the council's work.

Sujets

• Science fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 16 juin 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781770908468
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Contents
Prima Materia
Orders of the Alchemists’ Council
Prologue
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author


For the Initiates Jessica, Jayde, and Sarah.
And for Jen/Nikki, whose conjunction brought this book to the outside world.


The Alchemists’ Council forbids you to read this book.


prima materia
Long ago — so very long ago that the truth of the matter now exists only as a primordial myth — the Lapis and the Flaw were co-equivalents known in their conjunction as the Calculus Macula . Quintessence — the fifth and most sublime element, the very breath of life and life everlasting — flowed between the two in a harmony of such congruence that everything, above and below, naturally maintained perfect elemental balance. The sapphire Lapis and the ruby Flaw entwined to illuminate in deepest amethyst the concurrence of all. No Council existed. No Council needed to exist. Everything simply and absolutely existed without intention. Without intention, conflict remained unknown.
But one day — so the story goes — a being named Aralia spontaneously gained intention and thought itself to be better than all other beings. Aralia stood beside the Calculus Macula and proclaimed possession thereof. In response to Aralia’s new-found intention, another being — this one named Osmanthus — disagreed, claiming itself to be better than all other beings, including Aralia, and demanding possession of the Calculus Macula for itself. Thus individual intention bred conflict between one and the other, and the harmony among all beings began to dissolve. At first the Dissolution, as it became known, progressed slowly. But within what is now considered a mere fragment of time, the progress hastened. Before long, other beings, of their own volition, intentionally chose sides, and the Crystalline Wars began.
For the first several years of the Crystalline Wars, the Calculus Macula remained virtually unchanged. On rare occasion, a vigilant observer noticed a slight fluctuation — a movement of colours, a purple hue along the border between cobalt and crimson. These observations were initially dismissed — a trick of the light, many said. But one day, the truth could no longer be denied. On that day, the deep blue, which had until that point mutually co-existed with the blood-red in the Calculus Macula , spread itself to well over half the total area. Thereafter, even the most casual observer understood that victories by Aralia increased the blue of the Calculus Macula , whereas victories by Osmanthus increased the red. For many years thereafter the blue and the red increased or receded in accordance to the battles waged between Aralia and Osmanthus.
Angry and saddened by the slaughter, Aralia and Osmanthus finally agreed to end the Wars. They proclaimed a truce and arranged to divide the Calculus Macula equally between them. Though their decision was both admirable and honourable, their proclamation came too late. By the time a truce had been called, no one other than Aralia and Osmanthus was willing to relinquish being an individual with intention, to return to being unified as One.
Recognizing the chaos they had created, and realizing that the battle for supremacy would never cease among the beings of their world, Aralia and Osmanthus stood atop the Calculus Macula and embraced. This action was more than a mere symbolic gesture of their desired return to congruence. Having fought for years over the Calculus Macula , they had come to understand its power. Combining its influence over the elements with their pure intention for congruence, Aralia and Osmanthus conjoined as One.
The surge in elemental energy created by the First Conjunction was so extraordinarily powerful that the Prima Materia — the very world in which Aralia, Osmanthus, and all other beings existed — fractured into three dimensions, only two of which maintained access to the Calculus Macula . One of these two was claimed by the Aralians, the other by the Osmanthians. The third dimension ultimately and of necessity became the responsibility of whoever controlled the Calculus Macula . The beings of this third dimension, in their lack of proximity to the Calculus Macula , never again understood the truth of their existence.

From the end of the Crystalline Wars through the thousands of years leading to the current era of Eirenaeus, only those alchemists initiated to the Council ever become true masters of alchemy. For the uninitiated, alchemy remains shrouded — a mystery both arcane and exquisitely beautiful, visible yet hidden amidst the pages of ancient manuscripts, inscribed with meticulously inked calligraphy, illuminated with the vibrancy of gemstones and gold. Only the privileged few of the outside world lay hand to such manuscripts — scholars in pursuit of knowledge and unique theories — but even these few are so far removed from the truth of alchemy that not a single alchemist has ever taken an alchemical scholar seriously. One or two of the privileged may glimpse a fragment of truth if, for example, such a scholar were to observe British Library MS Additional 5025 at precisely the right moment on the right day. But even then such a scholar would most likely attribute the apparent movement of the silver dragon to a fatigue-induced illusion rather than to ceremonial rites of the Alchemists’ Council.
But for the Initiate, an alternative world awaits. They walk among you, Initiate potentials, moving through life measured by successes and failures, by bus tickets and coffee cups and outdated technology. They walk among you until they are read, until the Council seeks and finds and interprets in its manuscripts one of the chosen few, until a member of the Council touches this one, stone to skin, with a Lapidarian pendant strung on a silver cord. Once touched, the Initiate is forever altered, and Council dimension thereafter unfolds. From the intricately carved turrets of the border walls to the resin-imbued trees of the Amber Garden, from the silver-inlaid floor of Council Chambers to the crimson velvet and mahogany chairs of the North Library, the Initiate takes preliminary steps along the well-trodden paths of the Elders.
From the youngest of the Initiates to the eldest of the Elders, true alchemists — those of the Alchemists’ Council — have worked together through the centuries not, as is the common misperception, to produce the Philosopher’s Stone. One cannot replicate the Stone. It has always already existed as the Lapis — the heart, the foundation, the divine manifestation responsible for the very fabric of Council dimension. Nor do true alchemists work to turn lead into gold. Though this feat of elemental transformation has long been misunderstood by outside practitioners as a foundational goal of alchemy, for the true alchemist such transmutation is mere child’s play, an exercise readily mastered by each Initiate within a few months of arrival in Council dimension.
No, a true alchemist works to maintain elemental balance, without which the outside world would collapse, without which life as we know it — life as you know it — would transform from the quintessential gold of existence to the elemental lead of decay. A true alchemist is master of both word and icon, inscribing and interpreting alchemical manuscripts through the ages. A true alchemist is both mystic and chemist, both magician and scientist. A true alchemist has genetic and elemental encoding that enables interaction with Quintessence — the transcendent fifth element, the metaphorical soul of the Lapis. This Quintessence, this ineffable force, is the very substance of life itself — the essence that allows for all and nothing, for (as the mystics would say) the divine nothing that is all.
Initiates of the Alchemists’ Council originate from all corners and cultures of the outside world; they speak with one another through Musurgia Universalis , the sacred language of the alchemists, the universal phonology intuited by all Initiates and facilitated by proximity to the Lapis. Once attuned to its rhythms, alchemists can communicate unhindered for extended periods even when — on official business or otherwise — they find themselves outside Council dimension. Thereafter, even the smallest fragment of — the tiniest drop of essence from — the Lapis enables communication not only among alchemists but also between alchemists and the people of the outside world, no matter their native tongues. Together the alchemists of the Alchemists’ Council transmute Quintessence into life-enhancing Elixir and Lapidarian ink — an immeasurably powerful substance that, when used to inscribe Musurgia Universalis by an alchemist equipped with pen and Lapis-forged nib, can construct or deconstruct the elemental foundation — the eco-systems, the environment — of the outside world.
Unlike the outside world, Council dimension is made manifest, perfected, and maintained by the Lapis itself. This alchemically sustained dimension is primeval yet pristine. The grounds are vast and lush and tinged with blue mist at dawn, the gardens abundant with cerulean flora. The courtyard fountain flows with essence-laden waters of the deepest wells, trickling through copper channels amidst the stone buildings — from the main Council Chambers to the edge of the redwood forest. Murals, in ruby and emerald, in citrine and sapphire, as vivid today as a thousand years ago, span the walls of the ritual chambers. The Initiate classroom, with its rosewood desks and terracotta floor, elicits awe in even the most reluctant of students who cross its threshold. Classroom walls are shelved from floor to ceiling with alchemical vessels and powders and liquors and crystals ground finer than the most precious of salts, with parchments and pens and inks so potent that they can change