15 Not ready for alchemy

Author's note: this chapter is from Seraphina's point of view

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I went to Aldus's lab that evening, for my usual round of tests.

Part of me feared that I will bump into Lazarus on my way there, or that he might be in the lab, and I exhaled in relief when I reached safely and saw that only Aldus is present.

Aldus did the regular tests and told me that I can go to my room, but I was not willing to leave.

Since I woke up in Aldus's lab in Venice, everything is confusing, but today definitely tops the charts of extraordinary and for some inexplicable reason, I had a feeling that this is only the beginning.

My head buzzed with millions of questions and frankly, I was restless.

Lazarus's appearance and my talk with Aldus from that afternoon left me in a state of anxiety like I just finished a super-exciting chapter of a novel that ended with a cliffhanger.

"We are done, you can go to your room.", Aldus repeated while putting blood vials into one of his numerous machines.

When he finished, his eyes landed on me and he addressed the fact that I am not leaving.

"Is there anything on your mind?"

I was happy that he gestured toward the chair, indicating that I can sit and linger, instead of insisting that I scram.

After dinner, I went to my room and tried sorting out my thoughts. I realized that beyond everything else, I want to find out more about myself. I mean… Aldus said that I heal quickly and that my cells are not aging and there was something about my cells interacting strangely with others, but out of those three, I saw for myself only the healing part and I was curious about the rest.

"You said that when my cells are mixed with foreign ones, mine take over. Can I see that?"

A surprise flashed on Aldus's face and then he broke into a smile.

"Sure. Give me a moment to grab a few samples…"

I watched him as he swiftly gathered several containers from different refrigerators, and he arranged them on the counter around one electronic microscope. I saw many, but this one had a display on the side and a keyboard was attached to it.

"This does not look like a regular microscope.", I voiced my thoughts.

"This is a prototype from Notte Pharmaceuticals. We make much more than medicine to ease headaches.", Aldus said proudly and waved at me to come closer. "Let me show you. With this, I can ensure that an equal amount of cells from both samples are provided…"

I watched him drip the samples and I saw on the display the process of cells mixing, everything turning into one, and then disappearing.

He repeated the process with different combinations of samples, with mine always being one of the two, and every time the outcome was the same.

"Why does this happen?", I asked with a frown. I don't know much about cells, but this didn't look normal.

"What do you think?", he returned me the question.

"I don't know what I'm looking at.", I admitted.

"Don't think of it as cells. Imagine all this was a movie and tell me what you believe happened. Tell me a story."

The whole thing reminded me of some documentary from NatGeo channel about two civilizations at different stages of development. I found it ridiculous that I can remember a silly thing like a TV show from who knows how many years ago, but I have no idea where I used to live one month ago or who my family members are. But… back to the NatGeo correlation to what I saw.

"It looks like my cells belong to an invasive species, and they convert the other ones. But when the conversion is over, they realize that they are not the same and they kill each other. Like slaves turning against their owners when they realize that they are strong enough to retaliate, or maybe owners decide to eliminate slaves because they look like owners but are impostors."

Aldus rubbed his chin. "Interesting story. But that does not explain why every last one of them is dead."

"Maybe the last one felt remorse for so many deaths and committed suicide."

Aldus burst into a laugh. "You should come to the lab more often and entertain me."

I sulked. "I asked you first what is going on, but you didn't answer. Why are you making fun of me?"

"I'm not making fun of you, but that does not mean that I am not having fun. Maybe you are onto something. You think of your cells as invasive species… Invasive species usually have some advantages compared to the other ones. What would you do differently?"

I was pleased that he looked at me earnestly while expecting an answer. What would I do? "It depends… what is my goal?"

He was visibly pleased with my question. "We should find if there is a condition where your cells will be dominated by the other ones, or maybe where they are cohabiting in peace. What do you suggest?"

My brain had no ideas and I felt stupid. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because I tried several things and if I tell you, your mind will gravitate in that direction. I expect you to come up with fresh ideas. It does not need to be right, as long as it's something new, we can give it a try and see what happens. That is what we call experimenting."

"I don't know where to start.", I admitted.

Aldus patted my head, silently telling me that it's OK. "Do you want to learn?"

"About cells and stuff?"

He gave me the 'of course' look. "About everything."

To say that I'm not curious would be a lie. I never saw anything like this, and the idea of taking a part in experimenting and seeing things unseen by humans so far, made me feel a bit like a God.

I guess that Aldus noticed my enthusiasm because before I could respond, he shoved another notebook in my hands.

"This will serve for your personal scientific notes.", he said as I observed dark brown thick notebook filled with blank pages.

"I recommend that you think of a code, something only you will understand."

I blinked. "A code?"

Aldus nodded and reached for the notebook from his desk whose worn-out pages told me that he is using that one for a while.

He opened it randomly and I saw some symbols mixed with words. It didn't make sense to me.

"Who can read this?", I asked.

"This is my personal notebook, so only I can read it…", Aldus paused and gave me a complex look before adding: "…and maybe you, one day. It is written in the code so that if it falls into wrong hands it will be useless."

He flipped a few more pages and pointed while explaining: "I use a circle with a dot as a symbol for Sun and also for gold. Triangle with one corner pointing up is fire, and if it's a triangle with a corner pointing down, that is water. Those are standard Alchemy symbols."

"Alchemy?"

Aldus's eyes flashed in excitement. "I told you I'm an alchemist. Did you think I'm joking?"

At this point, I don't know what to believe anymore. I feel that today I jumped into a river and I'm allowing the currents to take me places while I do my best to stay afloat.

An alchemist... Why not? If I can consider things like immortality and rapid healing and werewolves, then alchemy feels like something reasonable.

"So… can you make an elixir of immortality?"

Aldus stifled a laugh. "Really? Why didn't you ask me if I can turn plain rocks into gold? That is usually more popular."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe between immortals, because you don't need that elixir."

"Well, Serina… You don't need that elixir either."

Right. I forgot that I am immortal. If in ten years from now my appearance does not change, maybe I will believe that one, for real. But I still wanted to know the answer to my question. "Can you make it or not?"

"It does not matter if I can make it. What matters is that you study and make it yourself."

I pursed my lips in disapproval of his words. It's obvious that he does not want to answer my question, and I have no way to force him.

"Can we focus on the task at hand?", Aldus asked and when I nodded, he continued: "We were talking about Alchemy symbols. It will be up to you to decide if you want to use them or not, and I recommend that you come up with symbols of your own. Every master develops his own system of preserving knowledge unless he plans to share it with the world indiscriminately. You can also pick a few words and swap their meanings… Don't write down the key for deciphering and if you can't remember it, then it's better not to do it. You have a computer in your room. Instead of me burying you with random resources for creating codes, check the internet…"

I listened to his explanations and it made me feel like I am part of some super-spy plot. Codes and symbols, swapping meanings… I can do that. Heck, I can do that even for my journal, just in case if someone is reading it behind my back. (I am looking at you, Aldus!)

Aldus packed all the samples that we used previously and walked with me into the library on the first floor.

He carefully picked books, and I was surprised when he used the ladder to reach the one on the high shelf.

"Why don't you use your teleporting ability to get the book?", I asked Aldus.

Aldus arched his eyebrow in disapproval of me naming his ability as 'teleporting', but he didn't tell me how to call it, and I thought it's appropriate.

"I told you that I need to remember holding the item. This one I didn't touch in a long time. I don't want to risk damaging it because I got something wrong."

I was curious. "I thought that if your power fails, the teleport does not happen."

"Sometimes it does not happen... partially."

I imagined him holding onto the cover while pages are still up there, and a chilling thought came to my mind. "I guess you don't use your power on living creatures."

Aldus smiled. "Not usually."

I glanced at the three books he gave me. One was about human anatomy, the second one about biology (with a focus on insects), and the third one was from the highest shelf, it was an old book with the title 'Plants of Dena Lage*'.

"No introduction to alchemy?"

"None in English.", Aldus responded dryly. "I will give you a list of languages to learn. Start with Latin and continue Italian. Other than that, you will learn about the human body, elements in nature, and several other things... That will help you start with alchemy…"

I exhaled in defeat. It seems that I need to learn things in order to be able to learn about things that can help satisfy my curiosity. But if Aldus is right and I am immortal, then the time will not be a problem.

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