8. Arcady: Quickgold

Arcady arrives early to a basement alchemy lab at the university, noting fire-safe furnishings and basic equipment. Among students from elite drakine and guilder families, acolytes of the Citadel Order stand out; scholarship students remain isolated. Arcady hopes to befriend well-connected Rahela and ignores snide drakines Delin and Kala.

Professor Hayden, a pregnant-seeming master of Aura with notable Piater skill, orders robes stowed for safety and opens with why alchemy belongs to Aura. They demonstrate chrysopoeia, turning lead to gold that soon reverts, and discuss metal associations with the gods, skirting outlawed mind-magic. A question on the Elixir of Life prompts a caution that it’s unproven but worth scholarly pursuit.

In the lab exercise, pairs receive quicksilver and gold leaf to create a soft amalgam, “quickgold,” learning its mining and gilding uses and impermanence. An aluminum block reacts with quicksilver, sprouting white filaments, illustrating varied amalgams. Arcady, moved by the melding-and-separation metaphor, struggles with grief over the forced severing of the human–dragon bond.

Professor Hayden then recalls the quicksilver with deft red-silver magic, displaying formidable control. The class ends with readings assigned and a directive to keep the same partners.

Arcady greets the lab partner, who proves hostile. She introduces herself as Sorin of the Order of the Dragons. The revelation, coupled with Sorin’s demeanor, threatens Arcady’s anonymity and heightens the stakes around Arcady’s secret connection to dragons.