The Alchemist’s Aid. Помощь алхимика

Глава 1He was a great alchemist. All his former colleagues acknowledged it, and he himself knew it to be true. Beyond that, there was objective reality: he had lived an extraordinarily long life. He had witnessed the legendary Nicolas Flamel, been acquainted with Paracelsus, Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), and Felix Yusupov. None of them were alive now; nor could it be said that any of those worthy individuals had even crossed the century mark. But the Alchemist was still in full possession of his wits, his memory was solid, and his health was decent. His joints ached when the weather turned… but people and alchemy still interested him as much as ever.Despite the changing of eras, the dissolution of the Inquisition, and the fragmentation of unified science into chemistry, physics, biology, and others, the Alchemist continued to believe in alchemy alone. After all, he reasoned, to study t…