Now that Cartaphilus has chosen to enter a long slumber, peace has finally returned to the little cottage west of London. But it's not long before a message arrives for Chise: an invitation to join the college, a society of alchemists. Deep beneath the British Library, the curtain rises on a new story set on a new stage. There, human children learn, think, and grow... but what of those who are inhuman?

Reads from right to left.