He shakes his head. “Look, I was here late last night. I was studying upstairs, and—” He pauses, wondering if it’s wise to tell her what he witnessed. “I saw Mr. Rudra dragging Zan into the lab. He was sobbing. I’ve never seen anyone as scared as that. He kept saying ‘Please,’ that he didn’t mean it.”
Isla looks away without answering, her jaw tight.
“You know I won’t say a word,” he whispers.
She hesitates a moment longer. Finally, she looks back at him and sighs with her lips pressed together. “Zan was caught out at a party two nights ago,” she replies. “He was talking to a crewman from Grand Central.”
Ari’s words catch in his throat. “What was he doing?” he asks.
“Idle gossip,” she answers. “He was drunk. But he shared that he was a Lumines apprentice, along with some of what he’s recently learned.”
Ari swallows. “What happened to him?” he whispers.
Isla meets his gaze again. “Listen to me, Ari,” she says in a quiet voice. “The rivalry between syndicates is not some kind of friendly game, and we take the leak of secrets very seriously. Grand Central is our enemy. When transgressions involve them, there will be no mercy from us. So let this be a lesson to you.”
When Ari doesn’t know what to say in response, Isla turns away and grabs her bag. She slings it over her shoulder. “Work hard and be diligent,” she says to him over her shoulder. “And watch your tongue in this city.”
Then she’s gone, and Ari is the only one left in the library.
Ari looks to the black door at the back of the rotunda. Again, he tries to picture Zan still in there, imagines him standing there in the darkness, white-faced, blank-eyed. He pictures his body lying limp in a chair, staring up at the ceiling, or his body sprawled across the floor, skin transmuted into the marble. A shudder travels through his body, as if the ghosts that must haunt this study have just passed through him. The idea that Mr. Rudra would just return him to Surat should he fail his training, that the worst that can happen would be for his family’s payments to be withheld—what a foolish, naïve thought.
There is no alternative to becoming an alchemist. There is no walking out of here without earning a place in Lumines. And there is no guarantee that he won’t make a mistake like Zan did.
If he steps out of line, he won’t just end his apprenticeship. He will pay for it with his life.
In Taoism, all living creatures should strive to live in a state of perfect balance with the universe. When the body enters absolute harmony with the Tao, the way of the universe, it becomes deathless. To aid in this struggle toward immortality, one may consume Lien Tan, the drug of transmutation, made equally of yin and yang, the rhythm of life.
Alchemical Links in Taoism,
translated from Mandarin, credited to Laozi, 1995
