The Alchemyst

For Claudette, of course

iamque opus exegi

I am legend.

Death has no claim over me, illness cannot touch me. Look at me now and it

would be hard to put an age upon me, and yet I was born in the Year of Our

Lord 1330, more than six hundred and seventy years ago.

I have been many things in my time: a physician and a cook, a bookseller and

a soldier, a teacher of languages and chemistry, both an officer of the law

and a thief.

But before all these I was an alchemyst. I was the Alchemyst.

I was acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of all, sought after by kings

and princes, by emperors and even the Pope himself. I could turn ordinary

metal into gold, I could change common stones into precious jewels. More than

this: I discovered the secret of Life Eternal hidden deep in a book of

ancient magic.

Now my wife, Perenelle, has been kidnapped and the book stolen.

Without the book, she and I will age. Within the full cycle of the moon, we

will wither and die. And if we die, then the evil we have so long fought

against will triumph. The Elder Race will reclaim this Earth again, and they

will wipe humanity from the face of this planet.

But I will not go down without a fight.

For I am the immortal Nicholas Flamel.

From the Day Booke of Nicholas Flamel, Alchemyst

Writ this day, Thursday, 31st May, in

San Francisco, my adopted city

THURSDAY,

31st May