FROM THE OFFICE OF THE ALCHEMIST | vol. 5

[esotericas 1559]

VOL. 5

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A RECOUNTED TALE

 

EX OFFICINA ALCHYMISTAE

 

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Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjkXcRdEDFc

 

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ANY ALCHEMIST OF TRUE experimental nature will know and understand what effects the imbibement of varying Alchemical substances may have upon their mind. None whatsoever is so remarkable in its nature as the flower called Ponderlot; I spent years in my youth exploring the subtleties of its effects and recording my memories of the experiences. Many of the journals in which I did this have been lost to age, time, and travel, but the Exodus that brought Mankind to Aevos has caused me to uncover some of them, and I saw fit to form one of these into a readable account.

 

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I dried the herb underground for three months and then brewed it into a tea, consumed nightly before bed. On one remarkable night, where my notes the following morning were coherent enough to be worth telling, I dreamed I was in a garden. It was the garden of the lord God and the lady Nature, and the garden was the world. In the garden, God sewed the seeds of existence, and watched while Nature watered them, fertilised them, and sheltered them from harm, so they might grow hearty and strong. The garden grew from the wooden slats of an ancient wagon, and as I peered over the wagon’s edge, I saw below me the Ouroboros, the Time-Serpent; it held its own tail in its mouth and so had no ending and no beginning. The garden-wagon rode eternally across the Serpent’s unending back, and with every turn of the wagon’s wheels, seasons passed in the garden of God and Nature. 

 

I then turned back to the garden and perceived before me a maiden and a young man at her side. The maiden was clothed in white with the rounded stomach of a mother, though there was a youthful purity and innocence to her pale face, and she wore a crown of willow branches in her golden hair. The young man was of the same youthful age, clad in the worn armour of a soldier and with a sword hanging limp at his side. I saw at once that they were Life and Death. I asked of them, “What is this place?” and Life told me that I had fallen out of the world, and found myself among the heavens. Death concurred, and ushered me to the wagon’s edge once more. Below me, above me, and to all sides, I saw a field of stars in their truest forms; those only available to astronomers, in their multi-colors and differing sizes and shapes. Death told me, “These are all the souls of the world,” and plucked one from its content resting place in the sky. He crushed the star in his palm and it screamed a scream of anguish and terror, before falling silent as it was made to dust. The lady Life then took the dust in her own hand, and pushed it back into the heavens, sewing a new life in the place of the old one. My heart was filled with mourning for the suffering of the star, and of the soul it held. 

 

I felt an understanding within me then, and nodded to Life and Death. Life then handed me the crown of willow from atop her head, and Death gave to me his sword. When I asked them of the purpose of their gifts, I was instead approached by the lady Nature, as liaison for the lord God. She took me by the hand and removed me from the cart, leaving me to stand atop the back of the Time-Serpent. “You will know what you must do!” called the lady Nature as the wagon receded over the curve of the Serpent’s back. I placed Life’s crown atop my head and raised Death’s sword at my side. I then began to walk, traversing the great unending road of scales that lay before me, until I came upon a gate of Obsydian stone. This gate I knew by name, and so I called its name and it opened for me. A great pain overtook me, and I knelt within the gate for some time, before gathering myself and carrying on. I eventually came to a gate of white marble, and found its name inscribed on the stones below it. Again, I called its name and the gate swung open. I found I was twinned, and walked both on the inside of the Serpent’s stomach, and on its scaly back. I came to a third gate, etched from ruby stone. The name of this one I found half inscribed on the blade of Death’s sword, and half on the branches of Life’s willow crown. I called this name too, and the third gate allowed my passage. 

 

I soon arrived at the head and tail of the Serpent, and I watched as the wagon receded beyond the curve of the Serpent’s back. I removed Life’s crown from my head and raised Death’s sword at my side. The Serpent gazed at me with empty black eyes that reflected all the souls of the cosmos. It spoke to me in an Aetherial voice, though it said no words, and instead conveyed my task to me through emotion alone. I understood it and laid the willow crown on the Serpent’s back. I took the oil from the bark and spread it across the scales to numb the pain, and then drove Death’s sword through the Serpent’s body, breaking it in half. As Time was broken, I was left frozen and unable to move. The Serpent grabbed me in its now-empty mouth and rent me in half as I had done it. As it made to swallow me down its bleeding back half came into my grip and I found myself able to move once more. I grabbed on sharply for fear of falling to my death (though I had long since lost all sense of up or down) and then I heard a sharp bell-like ringing in my ears. I perceived myself to wake up then and instead of finding myself in my own body, I found myself to be the Ouroboros. I was at once greeted with all the knowledge of the universe, with all the sights that the great Serpent called Time sees, but as my feet no longer lay in God’s garden, I was forbidden from ever again touching the world I had left. 

 

The wagon rolled over my head–the Serpent’s head–and it was then that I truly awoke, my ears ringing with the rattling of the wheels far above. I was ill throughout the mourning, and of sour temper from my unsteady, unhappy rest.

 

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SIGNED,

Her Ladyship, 

Court Alchemist of Hanseti-Ruska, Celestial Trustee,

 

His Excellency, FABIAN OTTO KORTREVICH

Grand Lord of Hanseti-Ruska

 

Her Royal Majesty, AMAYA MILENA

Queen-Consort of Hanseti-Ruska

 

 

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[Jaslaw 272]

"So... in short she done drugs?" *The elf questioned to himself as he reads over it. Finally just stating* "Noice." *As he continues on about his day*

[PrimnyaQuorum 1038]

The Lord-Abstract scans through the missive - equal parts admiration towards the Court Alchemist's work, and concern with her unmoderated consumption of Ponderlot in times past.

[__WaterFox__ 631]

A fellow alchemist decides to recreate this experiment and determine it's validity

[ScoutTheWitch 360]

Laurissa, Ward of the Abstract, nodded her head along as she read the strange missive. When her gaze reached the end of the page, she paused before murmuring out, “Aye, I can add t'at into my belief system.”