The Alchemist

Once upon a time in an extremely stressed out kingdom, there lived an alchemist. By chance, he had discovered the key to eternal life and had become very excited about it. He had run around in the streets and tried to tell the people, but nobody listened to him. He had thrown a fit and had been confined to a monastery for some decades. There, he tried to tell the monks, as they were supposed to be the ones who would understand eternal life better than anyone, but the monks didn't understand him even the ones who would sincerely try to listen, rare as those were. 

The alchemist was exhausted and distraught. In his cell, on a night when rain lashed the old stone buildings and dawn dawned particularly sulphuric grey in misery, he stood up and he said, "Alright. I give up. I've tried my best to tell the people, but they won't listen. So, God, I quit. I'll pretend to not know any of this, smile and nod, work in the garden and talk to the birds. Clearly, that's what you want."

For a moment, there was the silence of the rushing rain beating on the small window pane - and then the sky lit up, with the most enormous thunderclap and the brightest light as a massive lightning bolt struck the monastery tower, the ancient stone exploding out and down in all directions, the entire building shaking and falling apart, crashing and screaming everywhere, and our alchemist running for his life to get outside. 

He helped an old monk who had fallen and been struck by masonry on his way, and not much later, the alchemist stood with the surviving monks in the pouring rain, shivering, cold, safely outside the rubble of what once had been a great monastery, stout and strong of ancient granite grey stone. 

So that was that. 

On that night, they found shelter in the village pub at the crossroads, and a few days later, the alchemist moved in with a friendly widow who was glad of his company, and she had a garden, and there were birds. 

SFX June 2 2026