He was giving me a compliment, and I would not be so rude as to question it. And yet…pleasantly surprised wasstillsurprised.
“What do the colors mean?” I asked Wilder as we stared out at the quadrangle from a bench in front of the Refectory.
He reached into my folded-handkerchief pouch and plucked out a dark morsel of dried fruit. “In this state? Not much, really. I can hardly tell any difference between the cherries, the cranberries, and the currants. And the smaller prunes.” He tossed the morsel into his mouth. “Cherry. Though I’d have guessed it was a currant.”
“Not these colors.Thosecolors.” I gestured toward the quadrangle again, where a couple dozen other students milled in groups of two or three or sat studying on benches artfully positioned on the edges of various flower beds and pathways. “If the Alchemary uniform is a gray frock and a black cloak, why do so many of them wear blue belts, green ribbons, and rust-colored…cuffs? And headbands? And…laces? I’ve even seen frocks in those colors.”
Wilder followed my gaze. “Oh. The Alchemaryprovidesa standard gray frock, for you ladies, and a gray vest for the gentlemen. But students are welcome to wear frocks and vests of the Alchemary style in any color, if they provide the clothing for themselves. As for the choice of colors…” He shrugged. “They’re just declaring their affinities.”
“Affinities? For blue, and green, and…brown, with a bit of red stirred in?”
He chuckled. “For various mineral resources. Mined from water, or vegetation, or from the earth itself. For instance, an alchemist with an earth affinity would use salt mined from deposits in the ground, while someone with a water affinity would prefer salt evaporated from seawater.”
“How would you get salt from vegetation?”
His brows arched, giving him thoughtful expression. “Usually, that means salt of—”
“Tartar,” I finished. “Which is produced as a calcination of tartar, which is a by-product of winemaking. Which involves grapes, which are, of course, a plant.”
“Precisely. You are averyquick study, Amber.”
He looked proud, and I could not resist a smile.
“Salt can also be extracted from the roots and leaves of certain plants, especially during the growth phase. But that’s a huge effort, and it depends, somewhat, upon how much salt is present in the soil and in the water source. Fortunately for those of us who wear the green”—he tapped on the moss-colored leather scabbard attached to his belt—“having an affinity for one kind of mineral source doesn’t mean you can’t use the others. It just means you have a preference.”
“And people who wear multiple colors have multiple affinities?”
“Exactly.”
“Is one affinity better than the others?”
“Yes, of course!” Wilder grinned. “Botany affinity is obviously the best.”
I rolled my eyes.
He laughed. “Everyone will say their own affinity is the best, naturally. But that’s no more accurate than when we used to say that Innswood’s alewives were the best in all of Aethermere. They said the same thing down the road in Kingswallow, and who’s to say who was right? Or thatanyof us were right. At the end of the day, everyone gets drunk on their favorite ale. It’s a matter of preference. But it’s also a bit of…an identity. I know I have a preference in common with anyone out there wearing green. And if I run short of some ingredient, those are the people I’d turn to for help, and the ones I’d help in return. Because we prefer—andprepare—the same kinds of source materials.”
“What about those who wear no colors? They have no affinity?” No…identity?
He shrugged. “Or they preferallof the mineral sources. Which is essentially the same thing as preferring none.”
“Minerals for what? As ingredients in alchemical formulas?”
Wilder nodded. “Yes, as base-level ingredients. But also as a source for beyn.”
Beyn. The distillation of the natural element of change, and a key ingredient in any alchemical compound.
“We all start off in Fundamentals year using one of the basic formulas for beyn. There are several associated with each affinity, and several known as balanced formulas, which use sources from all affinities. But as we learn, we begin to…experiment. To decide what works better for us, as individual alchemists, and to customize our recipes. By the time an alchemist reaches the master level—not the Mastery year, as a student, but the true master level of alchemy—they’ve developed their own very specific and personal beyn formula, and they usually guard it as a secret.”
“But…alchemy is about making a better world. For everyone.” I twisted on the bench to face him. “Why would they deny others a better way to do that, if they have it?”
Wilder gave me a sad smile. “The ideal doesn’t always line up with the reality, Amber. Not just in alchemy, but in life.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Alchemists here do their work on behalf of the world at large. They’re just often unwilling to disclosehowthat work gets done. Operations at the highest level have become a bit…proprietary.”
I frowned out at the quadrangle, squinting against the afternoon sun. “I don’t understand that.”
