Ultimus Thesaurus: The last Treasure (Era of Change Book 1) (5 page)

“I would like to show you how it works, but chemical processes are unfortunately not my area of expertise. We have to wait for my father to take care of it. Maybe in the meantime I could explain to you what this transformation means.”

We took a big risk, but it seemed as if Jasper Lawrence had in the end really encountered what he had sought for all his lifetime. What an irony that he had to pay for it with this very life.

Isaac leaned back into his chair and put his glasses on the table. He pulled off the ring which he wore on his right hand, and placed it next to them.

“This ring is very old. It is said to have been in the first alchemist’s possession, but I believe that it is a direct connection to the ancient gods. The symbols on it represent the four elements: earth, water, fire and air. They are connected through a pentagram, which illustrates the interplay between them. Legend claims that this planet was once ruled by the ancient gods and the sources of their power were the elements that were given to them by the creator of the universe itself. Only he was capable of creating something truly new, whereas everything else could only be changed and rearranged.

The creator granted the fire power over the air and so he created the sulphur. The air worked with the water creating the liquid silver, Mercury. This way the water hit the earth and brought forth the salt. But the earth had nothing left to use and thus the last place in this pentagram remains vacant. The first alchemists had the theory that there is a fifth element - the truth. Mankind was only allowed combining sulphur, salt and liquid silver to create things, because the elements themselves remained a mystery to us.

Nature provides us with three basic rules, rules which each alchemical formula follows. First of all: the act of resolution and concentration, which says that nothing is completely destroyed or newly created. Secondly: the law of equal exchange, which says that the sum of any reaction is balanced. And thirdly: the law of truth, telling us that he who finds the last element will be granted the power of the creator overcoming every other law.

The three cornerstones of our existence are thus sulphur, liquid silver and salt. We gave them the name of the body, soul and spirit. 

The search for the last element, and thus the power of the creator himself is also called the opus magnum - the greatest work.”

When Isaac had finished his explanation, I had to take a small drink from the bottle, which was still on the table before me.

“What kind of power are we talking about here exactly? Something like you? To be able to transform?” asked Lucia full of curiosity and it appeared as if she just accepted everything he told us.

“Apologies, I had of course meant to tell you what it was that you have seen. Thirty years ago this was a beautiful property. My father and my mother worked together on creating various alchemical formulas. My mother was a genius in the field of transmutation and she was firmly convinced that she finally understood how one can change things, for example how to create water from wood or how to turn stone to sugar. 

She used this ring, the so-called pentalpha. Her theory was that the life energy of a person acted as a separate element and could be used to break almost any other law of nature. One of the first alchemists had once filled it with many souls, but this energy was lost over the centuries. 

Therefore my mother infused it with a part of her own energy, which reduced her life force greatly. She died a few weeks later. Since she had not been able to explain my father how the ring worked, she gave it to him, so that when I was old enough I could continue her work.

On my thirty-fifth birthday my father had finally achieved his goal. He had succeeded at improving his immune system and he created a completely new type of blood cells. He infused his leukocytes with the liquid silver and thus transformed them into the new kind of argyrozytes. They protect his body not just against diseases but also any kind of magic. His body was thus protected against transmutations. 

He had become the counterpart of the fifth element. But my father made a mistake. 

As I already said, the first law states that nothing can be created entirely new. The body of my father started to counteract against his own life energy. Unfortunately, no single man has enough energy to survive this state for long. Therefore I took this ring and the research of my mother to merge myself and my father as one entity.

But just like the rest of my family, I also made a mistake. Since the body of my father was completely protected against transmutations I couldn’t combine it with my own. Therefore, I transferred only my liquid silver, my soul, into my father. 

His argyrozytes absorbed me and now this body of my father has two kinds of genetic information. We soon succeeded in synthesizing a serum, which allowed us to activate the respective strand. Unfortunately it is necessary to take it every twenty-four hours, otherwise we run the risk that the body rejects one of the two, which in turn would kill us both.”

I wasn’t quite sure whether it was the way in which Isaac told us this story, or his convoluted use of words I never heard of, but every time he spoke a word I had to take a sip from the bottle. And so I presented my conclusion to his story, after taking another considerable gulp.

“If I understand you correctly, you are some kind of magic mutant being?”

He just laughed and put his glasses back on.

“Of course you could phrase it more nicely, but if I understood you properly, then we should work together. If we find this treasure, you may be able to help us all,” said Lucia and I saw that her hope grew by the second.

Isaac took the stone figure in his hand and scratched himself on the chin, while making ominous noises as if it supported his thought process.

“I believe that I know where this figure comes from. Yes, I am almost sure. Show me the map once again,” he said and verified it. 

“Yes, as I thought. Exactly here, about two weeks of travel time away from Gangarra. It is a small island with the name of Singasteinn. I have seen such a figure before. It is said that you could capture tones within it.”

“So in a way it’s a recording device for language? Sounds conspicuously like magicians to me. I thought that magic was as good as gone,” I reached for the bottle again and wanted another drink, but Lucia took it and put it away.

“That’s not how I would put it. As both of you might know, officially there haven’t been any mage schools for many decades. Not since the major revolt, that destroyed two kingdoms. After the loss of Illis they still called them the seven kingdoms for many centuries still. It took Sarpien’s fall to change the world politics. The still existing five kings have a weak position, since without the magic there can be no equilibrium. As I told you already many believe that the gods were granted control over the elements by the creator, to rule over the people. 

And when they were forced to leave our world, they gave this power to their children, the former prophets of our past. The art to master the elements is since called magic. The alchemy however is the science of the understanding of the elements. We alchemists do nothing else than a mage, and many former magicians today are alchemists. We should not rule out the possibility that even schools of magic exist in remote places of the world. Just because something is prohibited, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

My mother awoke the power of the pentalpha and my father created this present form. And someone else has created these stones. We will have to wait for my father to learn more. The decoding of the palimpsest will show us where we must go.”

Even if I had always thought of myself as someone who understands this word, I only remained a man in the background. 

And so I decided to do what he said and to wait another day. At that time I was annoyed that our story had such a slow pace, but today I know that I would have preferred to wait longer on what was to come.

“Please remember that it is essential to remind my father that he has to synthesize a new batch of the elixir. It would be fatal, if we run out of vials. And please refrain from telling my father all too much about the situation in the kingdoms, he doesn’t take it lightly nowadays. He spent so much time in this house; he won’t really understand the outside world anymore. It won’t be easy to control him out there,” said Isaac and mixed the ingredients of the elixir together.

He had taken it rather lightly when he heard that a coup d’état had taken place and that it was only a matter of time until the king would be overthrown and the kingdom would disappear. When Isaac had completed the brew he smiled at us and said: “And remember, we absolutely must decrypt the palimpsest. We cannot afford to miss one more day.”

As he was drinking, he began to tremble heavily, but his control of the transformation seemed to be stronger than that of his father. He actually transformed consciously, while his father seemed to just lose his mind. His hair would not fall out entirely, but instead it rapidly changed its colour and his bones shrank as a single unit. As the process was completed, Magnus Doyle sat in front of us again and it was as if he remembered nothing. I was even under the impression that he didn’t even know that Isaac was a part of him, while Isaac obtained all information, while Magnus took over the control.

“Thirst! Now I have to drink something, call the waiter or should I wait ‘till later? Who are you? How did you get in? Can I help you?” he said in quick succession and it was as if he had never before seen us.

Quick-witted Lucia hid away the bottle of alcohol and began to speak with the old man.

“We are friends of Isaac and he has told us that you can help us. It is essential to decode this palimpsest,” she said with a reduced voice and tried to calm Magnus, who had already begun taking his clothes off and scratching himself on his whole body.

“Isaac? My son is also called Isaac! What a coincidence! I haven’t seen him in a long time; I think you should go now. I have a lot to do, especially now. We want to find a remedy, a means to heal. Which is why we should now not linger, but move our lazy finger!” he cried out loudly and ran away from us in the direction of the cellar.

“Isaac should have warned us. How will we manage to translate the palimpsest, if Magnus does not want to help us?” I asked myself and stood up from the chair.

Lucia said nothing and left the room in order to follow the old man. 

I grabbed the stuff, put it back into the crate and followed her, even though I was convinced that we could never get Magnus to help us. When I reached the cellar Magnus was again experimenting with a mouse and Lucia seemed to help him.

“Magnus? Perhaps you can help me here?” she asked him, almost as if she wanted him to believe that he knew her for a long time.

“Who are you? Are you the truth? Did I find it?” he whispered to himself and went on with his work. He avoided any eye contact with Lucia and you could tell that he very much disliked our presence here. 

“It is I, Magnus, your wife. Do you recognize me?” said Lucia, whereupon I understood what it was that she tried.

The old man did not respond to her words, and although it was a good idea, so this old geezer was too disturbed to reason with.

“It was worth a try, Lucia. We should work together to try and decipher the palimpsest. He is of little use to us in this state,” I exclaimed and was already preparing to leave the room.

“We will now go back up, Magnus. If you decide to help me, I will be there and wait for you. Isaac is also here, look! There, the man with the box. We both will wait for you,” she said and went, together with me, back into the room, from which we had come.

I put the box back on the table and opened it. While Lucia looked at the map and the compass, I took the crystal and the statue, still wondering, what use the apple that was left in the box could have.

“The island Isaac spoke of was not marked on the map. I can hardly imagine that my father could’ve known that Isaac was familiar with this island. They seem to have never met before,” said Lucia anxiously looking at the door from time to time.

“He won’t come. I think that your father once knew the old Magnus Doyle. He probably never expected that he is now mentally ill. Perhaps he could have really helped us otherwise.”

And it was precisely in this moment that the old man walked into the room. He had rolled up his trousers’ legs and shirt’s sleeves and wore his tie as some kind of cape on his back. It looked amazing, watching him move strongly across the room wearing a fierce grin on his face. Every second in his life had to be completely new for him. He had probably already forgotten that he was here just a few minutes ago.

“Mentally ill? Good thanks! I am hardly a nut job! And now my dear Isaac arise, arise, come with me and try to look sharp! Where is this palimpsest, the two of you were talking about? Where is it, where is it? Ah, there we have it yes!”

Again he shouted gibberish nonsense and whirled around like a gyroscope. With strong tremor his hands held the papyrus roll and his eyes turned around in his attempt to read the scriptures.

“This seems to be a foreign language! Why didn’t you tell me, that it was useless? I need something of the stuff there from the cabinet, quick Isaac, fast!” he cried and pointed to the cabinet behind me.

When I opened it I noticed some empty bottles and containers, but at first I saw nothing that could have been of importance.

“What exactly do you need?”

“What exactly, what exactly. I need the old cat’s skull from the third tray from the bottom, left-hand side. A few beetles, eggs and a lot of blood. But I believe that these things are not in the cabinet. We should quickly go to the warehouse, where the choice goes to rejoice! Now quickly, while I prepare the kettle!”

I was not sure why he needed these things, but I did what he asked me to. Because I thought that his 'warehouse' was the cellar room, I decided to look there first. I found the eggs, which he sought, relatively quickly. He had painted some of them and hid them in the flower pots. The exact reason remained unclear to me, but the old man certainly shared this sentiment. Lucia decided after some searching, to catch the bugs outside of the house, while I thought about, where to find a larger quantity of blood.