Ari
The first thing Ari learns about alchemy is that you don’t talk about it.
To the rest of the world, it is an outdated pseudoscience from another era, old-world mythology that has given way to chemistry and modern medicine. It is Eastern emperors swallowing mercury tablets in the hopes of living forever, and Western scientists trying in vain to turn lead into gold. You do not speak of it because it cannot be spoken seriously about, because, unless you know, it isn’t real.
“But youcanturn lead into gold,” a student protests during one of their afternoons, as Ari and the others sit around Isla and absorb her review of the day’s lesson. It is a golden, smoky day outside, the light filtering in from the dome hazy with dust motes.
“Of course,” Isla says with a shrug. She writes on the chalkboard:7|1. “They’re both metals, as you know, and thus only involve a single transmutation. But remember: equations must always be what?”
“Equal on both sides,” the class answers in unison.
“Good. Equal on both sides. And gold is much denser than lead. So lead will turn into a smaller amount of gold in order to keep the equation balanced.”
“Were there real alchemists back then, who succeeded in that transmutation?” Dominique, the friendly girl with a braided crown, asks.
“Of course there were,” another girl scoffs. “Isaac Newton wrote about it.”
“Was it really Isaac Newton?” Isla says casually, and the girl blushes. “Or was it an alchemist using Newton as his attribution?”
There’s a brief silence.
“Why do alchemists have attributions?” Isla asks the class. “Anyone know? Why bother with an extra name in addition to their own?”
Dominique answers. “Whenever one of the first alchemists passed away, another would use their name in all their correspondences, with nodifferentiation between the old and the new. We live on forever this way, taking on their attributions, as if we are one and the same being, immortal and omniscient and eternal.”
“Very good,” Isla says, and Dominique beams from her approval. “Oftentimes, when ancient alchemical scripts are supposedly written by Isaac Newton or Socrates or the like, it is actually a more modern alchemist who took on their name as their attribution. There have been many Isaac Newtons since the original man lived. There is a living Socrates today, a living Confucius, a living Moses. It is our way of honoring those who came before us.”
“Moses was an alchemist?” another boy asks.
“An elementalist, to be precise. He parted the Red Sea, after all.”
“How far back do they go?” a girl asks. “The first alchemists?”
“We can’t be sure. We can only guess at some of our ancestors, as early alchemy was simply considered magic and interpreted through the lens of mythology. The Greek gods, for example, were human alchemists. Zeus was an elementalist who could transmute lightning from nitrogen and oxygen in the air. Demeter was a bioalchemist who specialized in the healing of living things.”
“Doesn’t the birthplace of alchemy lie in ancient Egypt?” a boy named Zan pipes up.
“Yes. Isis, Amun, and Cleopatra are common attributions too. But let’s focus on Greece for a second. What’s significant about alchemy’s migration there? Ari?”
Ari reaches for his notes, but Zan sneers at him. “Don’t you remember?” he says.
Ari tries to ignore him and thinks. Finally, he says, “The Greeks named it.”
“Good. What did they call it?”
Ari starts to answer, but Zan cuts him off.
“Khemia,” says Zan effortlessly. “The Black Art. Then, when practitioners fled persecution to the safety offered by the Persian caliphs, they added the Arabic prefixal-.”
Isla nods, and says, “Al-Khemia.”
“That’s why there are so many Persian attributions,” Zan finishes. “Cyrus, Anahita, Xerxes, and so on.”
It is still jarring to Ari to hear the name Persia instead of Iran, what hisparents would say in Gujarat. He wonders about Indian attributions, whether some of the legendary figures he grew up learning about—Gandhi, Ashoka, Siddhartha—were alchemists too. Had Mr. Rudra known any alchemists in Gujarat? Were alchemists hiding in plain sight at the temples?
He raises his hand shyly. Isla looks at him. “Yes?”
“How does an alchemist choose their attribution?”
