Amber Garden

Cynthea Masson

Description

The final instalment in the Alchemists' Council trilogy sees eternal conflicts between the Council and Rebel Branches escalate. Secrets about time travel manipulation and truths about alchemical children are discovered, and a controversial solution to save the dimension is put forward.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 16 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781773054612
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Amber Garden
The Alchemists’ Council Book Three
Cynthea Masson



Contents Prima Materia Prologue I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X Epilogue Acknowledgements About the Author Copyright


In gratitude and dedication to my family:
Rod, Mel, Ken, Vickie, Kathryn, and Greg


The outside world scribes implore you first to read Books One and Two.
Then choose for yourself whether or not to read Book Three.


Prima Materia
In the beginning, Aralia and Osmanthus shaped the Prima Materia of existence into two principal dimensions: the Alchemists’ Council inhabited and maintained the one; the Rebel Branch, the other. As with all alchemy, Council and Flaw dimensions represent the binary opposition of Aralia and Osmanthus: the sulphur and the mercury, the sun and the moon, the light and the dark, the fire and the water, the one and the other. The salt of the earth — the outside world — binds the dimensions into a trinity of physical existence comprising time, space, and form.
Beginning with the Crystalline Wars, and continuing throughout the era of Eirenaeus, conflict raged between the two primary dimensions, and the people of the outside world suffered the consequences. Still, the alchemists and rebels persisted, fighting perpetual battles in their respective quests for victory: one over the other. But all remained relatively stable until, through an act of disobedience by a small group of insurgents, hell broke loose. And the dimensions began to dissolve. Now, only the words and actions of Prima Materia made manifest can initiate a new beginning.


Prologue
Council Dimension — Dawn of the 5th Council
Eburos stood on the Azothian dais, hands raised in the sacred gesture of Ab Uno, voice resonating through Council Chambers. “In the name of the Azoth Magen of the 4th Council of Alchemists, in accordance with the Codes of Law and the tradition of Azothian protocols, I hereby declare the dusk of the reign of Eburos and the dawn of the 5th Council. Thus, on this day, at this hour, in the presence of my Elders, I declare my intention to prepare for Final Ascension. Long live the Quintessence!”
“Long live the Alchemists’ Council!” replied the Elders.
Makala lowered her head, not only to feign respect for the Azoth Magen but also to avoid the possibility that Corylus would see her grin. Now that Eburos had declared his official intention, Council’s progression towards the Ritual of Succession would begin. Over the past few weeks, Rowan Savar had repeatedly warned Makala of Eburos’s intention to delay the Ritual of Ascension for several months. The Azoth Magen had required an unprecedented length of time to decide which of the two Azoths would succeed him. Makala’s faith in her ability to reign victorious over her brother remained unshaken. Soon, no matter Eburos’s delay, she alone would be seated on the dais as Azoth Magen.
Makala had envisaged this moment for as long as her memory extended. Of course, she assumed Corylus harboured similar aspirations. At that very moment, he too was no doubt imagining himself taking pride of place within Azothian Chambers. Since entering the Initiate in the same quarto, Makala and Corylus had for centuries been in literal and figurative competition. With each conjunction, each ascension, each rotation, they had sparred to ascend within the Orders of Council before the other. But whether through coincidence or the alchemical formula of their bloodline, neither had managed to surpass the other long enough for the three nines to slay one or the other. Thus, Makala and Corylus had become Elders of the 4th Council within a week of one another. Now, both currently positioned as Azoths, they knew that only one of them could ascend to Azoth Magen; only one of the two would survive.
They were alchemical twins, after all; they embodied Aralia and Osmanthus’s eternal conflict of opposition. One must die so the other may live . Such was the agreement made during the 1st Council of Alchemists between Rebel Branch High Azoth Deru and Alchemists’ Council Azoth Magen Ashoka during veiled settlement negotiations made in the aftermath of the Crystalline Wars. One must die so the other may live. The Creators will create them: one and the other, a conjunction of opposites, alchemy personified. Our battle will be their battle. In our stead, they will fight to the death. In their stead, we will survive eternally.
But Makala knew that her conquest over Corylus would do more than mark the symbolic end of the Crystalline Wars. It would change the course of the worlds. She lifted her head, dark hair gleaming, and met his crystal-blue eyes.
Your days are numbered. She was holding her pendant, inset with a Dragonblood fragment that would allow him to read her thoughts.
Do not be so naïve. You should have died at birth, Corylus responded. The 5th Council is mine for the taking. As are you.
Meaningless threats. Only I have the corporeal power to carry the Seed , said Makala.
Yet you have no means to do so without me , replied Corylus.
Other than when Council business necessitated, Makala and Corylus did not speak during the eight weeks between the Declaration of Intention and the Ritual of Succession. Makala watched Corylus closely nonetheless, always wary that he would seek a means to cheat, attempt to outwit her and the promise she represented to their parents and to the dimensions throughout the timelines, both to her primordial ancestors and to her bloodline descendants. Eventually she grew apprehensive precisely because Corylus did nothing to warrant her suspicions. She refused to consider beyond the briefest of suppositions whether he had begun to relish the notion of becoming her Azothian consort.
On the appointed day in the ninth week, Makala and Corylus knelt, deceptively humble, on either side of Azoth Magen Eburos. Rowans Palash and Savar stood as honour guards, likewise anxiously awaiting the Azothian decision. Finally, when Eburos raised the Lapidarian sceptre and lowered it towards her shoulder, uttering the long-anticipated words Long live Azoth Magen Makala , Makala cried in joy and Corylus shuddered in agony.
Two weeks later, as Palash and Savar recited the requisite words from the Nabatean Opus , Makala readied herself for duty, raising the Sword of Elixir into position. When Eburos finally succumbed, when a mere skeletal trace of him remained, Makala charged forward, piercing his remains — Lapis-forged steel plunged into Azothian Quintessence for the good of All and One. Makala sank to her knees as the residual particles of Eburos rained down upon her. Now, with dust-drenched face, she would reign over all three dimensions. Now she could propagate the bloodline. Now her ancestral intentions could manifest.
“Long live the Alchemists’ Council,” the attendees chanted.
Knowing full well that no one would hear her beneath the din of collegial cheers, Makala finally uttered the words she had quelled within Council dimension for hundreds of years: I live as the Flaw in the Stone . To save or to destroy: the choice now belonged to her.
She watched Corylus shake his head in dismay. They both knew what must occur. Corylus had only one mission remaining to fulfill before his death. Once each day during the three nines, regardless of their distaste for one another, Corylus must perform his sacred duty and Makala must accept him.
Thus we have bred you. Thus you will breed.
Thus we have directed you. Thus you will enact.
Thus it shall be.
So when Corylus knocked on Makala’s chamber door on her first official night as Azoth Magen, Makala invited him into her bed without hesitation. Experiencing no desire or arousal, Corylus struggled to prepare himself to enter her. Think of someone else , Makala suggested as she guided one of his hands down to rest between his thighs. To his own touch, he responded soon enough. He knelt between her legs, preparing himself until he could wait no longer. Of course, on that night, they had no means to judge the success of their efforts.
By the end of the first week, Makala wondered if she and Corylus had experienced an alchemical transmutation. Perhaps they had triggered a physical or psychological shift on the elemental level as their essences repeatedly conjoined in bodily union. As the days passed, they began to long for each other, barely able to wait for their nightly and mutual release. By the end of the second week, they had become more creative with techniques and positions, spending hours each night pleasuring each other. They got so little rest that they could only haphazardly perform their Council duties. Throughout the third week, they played and laughed and moaned and writhed in a perpetual state of ecstasy that neither of them would have dared imagine a month earlier. They both began to regret their years of mutual antagonism.
On the twenty-seventh day of the three nines, their hesitation emerged not from disdain but from sadness. They both understood that Corylus would never know the outcome of their intimacy beyond the immediacy of its pleasure.
“Hope will carry me to my grave, wherever that may be,” Corylus said, before kissing Makala one final time.
Holding hands, they spent their few remaining hours walking through Council grounds, stopping on occasion to comment on the vibrant green of a tree, to admire the golden ripples of the channel waters, or to bathe in the orange-hued radiance of the evening sky. When Corylus stumbled, Makala reached out to him, putting an arm around his waist. But she could not support his weight. Moments later, they were both on the ground — Corylus, wordlessly gasping; Makala, caressing the fading warmth of his cheek.
Of course,