The flickering candlelight danced across the aged pages of Professor Eldrin's alchemical notes, casting long, distorted shadows on the walls of Finn's small, secluded chamber within the Order. Dust motes swirled in the air, disturbed by the rare movement within the usually still space. Years had passed since Brother Thaddeus had gifted him the fragile tome, and Finn had devoured its contents, line by painstaking line, deciphering the professor’s cryptic script and the arcane symbolism that permeated every formula.