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    Alchemy Ever After
    Alchemy Ever After
    Alchemy Ever After
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    Alchemy Ever After

    By Raine O'Tierney and Siôn O'Tierney

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    The city of New Alexandria is filled with powerful magicians-in-training and mechanical follies, the world’s largest library, and marvels beyond compare. The allure of this modern metropolis draws young people from all over the world, but Idrian has come instead for the opportunity to learn the new art of alchemy.

    He’s been taken as an apprentice by Maketh, a scholar experimenting with new ways to combine technology and the ancient mystic arts. Together they’ve animated a living ice sculpture. Idrian cannot wait to unveil the sculpture alongside the other wonders at the annual Spring Festival.

    After witnessing his master in a passionate embrace with another student, Idrian’s mind drifts to things beyond alchemy. And when a warm touch accidentally awakens the consciousness within the living sculpture, Idrian learns firsthand about physicality and the magic of passion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamspinner Press
    Release dateJan 28, 2015
    ISBN9781632163011
    Alchemy Ever After
    Author

    Raine O'Tierney

    Raine O’Tierney loves writing about first loves and friendship. She believes the best thing we can do in this life is be kind to one another, and hopes her stories always reflect that. Raine loves encouraging people to write and has been known to repeat the phrase “I believe everyone has a story to tell” endlessly, until she breaks down even the most stubborn nonwriter! Raine lives outside of Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband, fellow M/M author Siôn O’Tierney. When she’s not writing, she’s either playing video games or fighting the good fight for intellectual freedom at her library day job. Contact her if you’re interested in talking about point-and-click adventure games or about which dachshunds are the best kinds of dachshunds! Website: raineotierney.com Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/RaineOTierneyAuthor Twitter: @RaineOTierney Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/7770350.Raine_O_Tierney

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      Book preview

      Alchemy Ever After - Raine O'Tierney

      For Jessica Ford and her shouts of Consistency!, and Lisa Campbell, whose fancy we meant to tickle.

      Author’s Note

      Once upon a time…

      Siôn wrote a story for Raine about an Alchemist and his lover. It wasn’t a long story, no more than 1,000 words, but the characters made their home in Raine’s heart and held parties and get-togethers and were generally boisterous.

      When Raine asked if she could continue the adventures of the Alchemist and his lover, Siôn agreed enthusiastically.

      The first draft was presented to Siôn who promptly said, Dear wife, that’s not how magic works in my story.

      And Raine said, Dear husband, then you can help me write it, y’jerkface!

      And a collaboration was born.

      We hope that you will enjoy this bit of Alchemy we crafted with our own hands.

      —Raine & Siôn O’Tierney

      Alchemy Ever After

      IDRIAN SWEPT with his eyes fixed on the ground. The frayed bristles of the old broom first caught and then propelled the debris he’d collected. There were bits of gravel, curls of wood, fiercely sharp metal shavings, shards of glittering stone, and dust motes glowing ominously in more colors than he could name. More than once he’d been careless, sweeping the whole lot into the open hearth only to have the flames change color or sizzle out or—in one unfortunate instance—explode with such force that he was knocked back, singed.

      So it was of great import to watch what the old, knobbly broom caught and to be mindful. Mindful what he put into the bin for sorting, and what he put into the fire, and what was too much, altogether, for an apprentice such as himself.

      As he swept, he listened to the hiss of steam, the grinding of gears, and the boiling and bubbling of a dozen alembics. When he wasn’t sweeping, he liked to look around the well-lit space; liked to follow the pneumatic message tubes from one room into the next or watch the mail slot for air deliveries. He especially enjoyed seeing his master at work, either mixing ingredients, noxious and aromatic, or, sometimes, humorously, tightening the tiniest springs from behind three pairs of magnifiers, so that his eyes were giant glassy spheres.

      Now, however, it wasn’t only the danger of magical debris that had Idrian’s eyes trained on the ground.

      He was trying—with more effort than he’d ever mustered even in his studies—to keep from looking across the room to where his master was tangled up with a student from the towering New Alexandria Academy of Engineering & the Magical Arts.

      Idrian had passed the Academy many times on trips into the city proper. Some days, he would stop and stare at the students as they loitered in the courtyard or moved from class to class. As the school’s name implied, there seemed to be two very distinct types of students: conjurers and craftsmen. He marveled at the men who squatted in the dirt with their brilliantly designed mechanical follies. Their automatons would march and turn, and twist and move as if made real, and Idrian admired the ingenuity of their design. Other men cast flames or bid the trees to burst into vibrant, unnatural shades, or put spells over one other in practice, and Idrian’s attention would be swayed to their devious arts.

      But as impressed as he was by their display of collected talents, Idrian was driven by his belief in the work he and his master were doing. He ached to call out to the students and share all he knew about the marriage of old world magics and the new sciences. There was so much he could impart to them concerning his master’s work with alchemy. But he must not. Traditionalists—most of the world—still believed that magics and sciences should be kept separate. Some could be quite vocal, and though rare, even violent, when confronted with the theories of alchemy. That was why there were so few who openly practiced the arts.

      Idrian longed to make them understand that neither magic nor science was weakened by the coupling, but like an alloy, each strengthened the other! Idrian resisted. All would be revealed at the Spring Festival, if only he could be patient awhile longer.

      Always, after seeing the students, he was hard-pressed to concentrate on his shopping duties. He would forget something off the list, grab the wrong quantity of herbs, or buy from a disreputable shopkeeper. But his master was patient about those failures.

      The Academy is seductive, Master Maketh would say, chalking out formulae on his large rolling blackboard. Are you sure you don’t want to go?

      Remembering himself, Idrian would reply with all the fervor in his heart, No. I want to learn to be an alchemist with you. I want to show everyone what we’re developing!

      IDRIAN SWEPT around the legs of the workbench a third time, wondering if he could sneak past his master and the student. As it was, they stood near the door, blocking him in and forcing him to keep pretending he did not see them interlocked.

      The student was compactly muscular and handsome. An intricate array of glowing tattoos was set off against the dark olive of his skin. The man had, minutes before, come through their door unannounced and called out to the master in a terribly familiar fashion. It had left Idrian

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