Carter stretched a finger towards the shelf of glass and white marble, as if the movement to manhandle the artifacts was demanded by the strange devices themselves. Of course, Professor Nuckberry slapped his hand away like a petulant child. The Professor was letting the class catch up with his scribbled lecture on the blackboard.
“Stop it, Carter. I need you to clean the phlebology bowls,” the old professor said with a sigh, pointing to the used bowls sitting near the compact sink at the lecture table.
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”
“And mind the plugs this time Carter. Last time you cleaned them, you left the seal rings absolutely filthy,” Professor Nuckberry added.
The first-year college students in the class snickered at the public admonishment, but Carter took it in stride. The one called Ash raised his hand, thankfully pulling the attention away.
“Sir?” He ventured.
“Yes, Ash?” Nuckberry lowered his forehead, peering over his half moon reading glasses.
Ash waved erratically at the shelves of Alchemical detritus. “I know these… devices?”
“Not devices! Instruments!” Professor Nuckberry corrected with a smile.
“Very well, Professor. Can you explain why the… instruments are locked away like that? On those displays? This is a classroom, not a museum.”
“Ah, but the unspoken question is in there as well? Such as why this is a required class for you spry college minds, eh?” Nuckberry grinned.
“Well… that too,” Ash replied pragmatically.
Carter grinned to himself at the first year’s honesty, remembering his own place on the other side of the tables, now instead, playing the part of the nerdy TA turning away to scrub the phlebology bowls in the squat sink. Professor Nuckberry swung a set of keys upwards from his belt, flipping a handful of keys around the ring before settling on the best single candidate with a flourish and a smile.
“These are Instruments… but not any instruments, mind you. But real Alchemic Instruments! Dangerous!”
Some of the other students laughed. A voice from the back called out, “Dangerous? Alchemy doesn’t work!”
“Ah! And that is why this is a required class,” Professor Nuckberry returned with aplomb. “Alchemy used to work. Right? Now it barely does. And I so happen to have one of the greatest Alchemy Instrument collections in the world in these cases about this stage. I am a a collector of sorts… although these cases are under the protection of your King, his Courts, and the armies and navies of the Empire. I have the pleasure of being… nominated to be the keeper of these artifacts, uh, Instruments.”
The same voice from the back, “Museum!!!”
“Hush, whoever that is!” Carter rarely used his TA voice to interject, but he felt a responsibility to protect the Professor.
“Carter, hand me that phlebology bowl. Clean! Clean!” Nuckberry ordered with a flash of annoyance.
Carter jumped at his name, scrubbing the last of the dried brown from the seals and hastily reassembling the pieces before handling it to the Professor.
The Professor continued, “Alchemy! A sublime topic of surprising depth and detail. You should have learned some of the concepts in your primary classes before your inevitable migration to higher education. So anyone… tell me the Alchemical Disciplines that used to be the sum all of science. Anyone?”
A young girl named Masie raised her hand tentatively. The Professor looked over the bowl in his hand quickly before calling on her. “Miss Masie?”
“Metallurgimancy, Energetimancy, Biologimancy, Aerost… Areas… Aeria…” Masie stumbled.
Nuckberry nodded with the save, “Aerostatomancy. For a quick review for the entire rest of the class that was not paying attention in Primary school, I suppose! Metallurgimancy is the alchemical study of the elements of matter itself. Energeticmany is the study of energies created and consumed in the interchanges with matter. Aerostatomancy is the study the chaotic systems that govern the movement of matter. And finally, Biologimancy is the study of the systems that arise in systems of life. The four systems working in harmony, it was theorized, is what gave rise to life in the first place.”
“God gave life,” Ash stated dumbly, sounding as if he was reciting a long lost Sunday School lesson.
“Ah, he did, he did, praise to Him,” Professor Nuckberry responded with admitting nod. “We must always be cognizant of our Creator and give Him praise. However, this class is not about the act of creation, but the systems that govern our world.”
“Do they?” That same voice spoke up from the rear. Carter kept his mouth shut this time.
Nuckberry admitted defeat to his own patience regardless. “Who said that? Stand so I can see you.”
A student in a leather jacket and tasteful, yet expensive, clothing stood with a grin, raising his hand in well rehearsed mock guilt.
Professor Nuckberry rolled his eyes. “By the crown, Mister Wilmot. Come to the front, and at least pretend to be entertained. Your grandfather’s own Metallurgimancy shield is here! You should be respectful of Albion’s great history.”
Devin Wilmot, grandson of the greatest war hero that Albion had ever seen, Captain Arthurian, strolled calmly down the short stairs towards the wide glass and white marble shelves with a grin. “Of course, sir. No disrespect, again, of course. I signed up for this class just so I could understand firsthand my grandfather’s success during the Great War. But my point stands, Professor. Those systems do not govern our world any longer… they haven’t since long before I was born.”
“True,” Professor Nuckberry admitted with a slow nod. He fingered his chin thoughtfully. “But the devices still react, even now in the illustrious sixties, the Great War aside. Come, Mr. Wilmot. Not afraid of a small prick on your finger, are you?”
The pretty girl, Masie, giggled at the flash pf Devin’s momentary discomfort.
“Of course not,” Devin added quickly, covering the hasty emotional reaction that had ran slipshod over his handsome features. Carter noticed it just had all the students that were clustered tightly in the compact lecture hall.
“Good. Do you know what this is?” Nuckberry held the bowl up to Devin’s eyeline.
“Its a bloodsucker.”
“It is, indeed. Many aspects of Alchemical reactions withing the world of Biologimancy require blood to work. Blood carries nutrition, oxygen, waste products, chemicals and hormones throughout our bodies. In the world of Alchemy, it is a powerful connector to all things that represent life. This phlebology bowl will pull a small measure of your blood into its central core, providing a power source to Alchemical efforts withing that realm,” Nuckberry handed the small bowl over. “Go ahead and put your finger on it. Your grandfather used something very similar to this, albeit it was in the realm of Metallurgimancy, so his battery and the resulting Alchemical miracles he wrought in the battle were focused on the matter around him.”
“Ouch,” Devin inhaled sharply as the small bowl pulled a few milliliters of blood from his hand. He handed it back over to the Professor and moved to the side, out of the view of the rest of the class.
Professor Nuckberry took it with a small formal bow and waved it near the unlocked case. Nothing happened for a moment, but near the bottom, a small device of what looked like five chopsticks rattled in the ceramic bowl which they were resting within. “Ah! See!”
Carter glanced down at the sticks. He couldn’t recall what Instrument it was off the top of his head. He would have to look at the tag after the class was dismissed. No sense in drawing the ire of the Nucks.
The Professor waved it across the front of the glass again, but this time nothing moved or reacted.
“And this is the mystery of Alchemy. Right here. One day, everyone can use it, and it can do amazing things for the advancement of our people and our society. Then the next day, poof! It stops working except for these small demonstrations. It should work. It should!” Professor Nuckberry exclaimed, a measure of small frustration seeping into the tail end of his lecture.
“Carter take this. Clean it again,” Nuckberry said absentmindedly, immediately drowned within his own world of thought. To the class he raised his hands placatingly. “That is the extent of what alchemy can do today. A little rattle, a little shake. Maybe an old Instrument glows for a brief instant and then putters back to nothingness again. Sad old relics, all of it, I suppose.”
Masie raised her hand, still looking out of the corner of her eye at the handsome Wilmot standing nearby. Carter wondered if a girl would ever look at him like that. He was only a junior, so he still had time to find a wife before he graduated. Not that he was trying, but it would be nice to have something before he moved on into the real world. Carter started disassembling the bowl and scrubbing it in the small sink at his station. As a TA, this was his job. Stand around and wait to assist however Professor Nuckberry asked him to assist.
Nuckberry pointed at Masie’s upheld hand. “Yes, my dear?”
“But why?” She asked simply.
“That is the mystery of Alchemy. Three generations without it though, and we all seem to be progressing as a society anyway,” Nuckberry waved it away. “Anyway, that is enough for today. Class is dismissed. Have your notes prepared on my lecture today, on my desk by end of week, please.”
The students collectively groaned as if in a choir.
“Come now. I have to know who was listening,” Professor Nuckberry grinned devilishly.
The class filed out, and Nuckberry followed, waving at the lectern and demonstration table. “Clean up, Carter. Then you are free to go for the day.”
“Yes, sir.” Carter replied with a quiet shrug. “Have a good night.”
The Professor did not respond, as he was already out of the classroom door.
Carter laid the phlebology bowl out on the drying rack, careful to set the seals at an angle so they would dry correctly. As he laid the bloodsucker sideways, the damn thing triggered and caught his thumb.
“Fuck!” Carter harshly spit. “Dammit.”
He stuck his wounded thumb in his mouth, sucking on the welling blood carefully, and started to clean up the Professor’s mess. He sorted the papers, stacked the books, being careful to keep everything in the order Nucks preferred. Carter turned and realized one of the Instrument cases was still unlocked. Carter remembered.
“Ah, Nucks left with the keys, didn’t he?”
He walked over to the shelf, and bent down to read the text on the tag of the chopsticks like metal slivers sitting neatly in their own ceramic bowl. The little paper sign read, ‘Keys of Chifu, Biologimancy. Est: 1680s, Wanli, Ming Dynasty of China.’
“Keys of Chifu, huh? Weird,” Carter tapped the glass with a knuckle and grabbed the door with his opposite hand, swinging it shut.
Without a noise, the thin metal slivers erupted from their ceramic bowl, and struck his finger tips as if guided by their own intelligence. The heat was immense at the back of each finger. Carter grabbed his hand, breathless from the pain of the needles digging and fusing to his fingertips. Without a moment to consider it, he grabbed one, attempting to rip it from his right middle finger with a yank. That was a mistake. The pain erupted across his arm, shooting lightning across his chest, and he fell to his knees in mild shock from the bad choice.
He felt energy in his hand. A strange sensation, since the tag had stated this Instrument was Biologimancy based. But he could sense the energies swirling in the air around his hand, through his hand, and over his skin. It was if he was a holding a dousing rod.
“Oh my God. Merciful father, who art in heaven, hallowed be they name…” Carter whispered. Alchemy was dead.
Alchemy was supposed to be dead! Why was an Instrument working? Carter’s stomach dropped as his brain caught up to the moment, evaluating his options. “Oh, no. How do I explain this?”
Carter held his right hand up in front of him, the long slender chopstick looking bits of metal fused to where his fingernails should have been. He looked like a parody of a whitewashed Chinese villain in one of the penny store comic books he occassionally flipped through as a guilty pleasure.
He flicked his fingers at the tickle of energy and immense gout of dark magic blossomed in front of him, pulling at his clothes, as if enticing him towards the darkness beyond. The portal sucked at him, like it was a vacuum of time and space, the edges wreathed in purple smoke, and nothing but a night sky and a star filled sky laying beyond.
Carter screamed as it the ring of darkness enveloped him without his express permission.
The classroom was empty and quiet once more, papers, once nicely stacked, now settling anywhere the currents of the room took them to rest.
Thousands of miles away, Carter found himself on the side of grass covered mountain side, crooked trees hanging at either side, and a massive temple rising in the twilight before him.
A voice called out in greeting or warning, but Carter could not tell what it was. It sounded foreign. It sounded Chinese.