Academia

New York City, spring of 1929 When the city's new courthouse collapses during its opening ceremony, the two rivaling universities of hermetics and astronomy find themselves embroiled in a far-reaching scandal. For questionable reasons, hermeticist student, Nia Himlan, and astronomer, Aden Fenice, are selected to investigate the extent of their universities' culpability in the incident. Soon, however, their investigation gets hampered by conflicts of interest, and further complicated by the interference of a third university. When further developments make it apparent that the university administrators are more concerned with preserving their reputations than uncovering the truth, Nia and Aden realize that they have much to gain by solving the mystery and everything to lose if they don't. The Mystery Component is the first volume in the alchemy punk series Academia, a story of science, prejudice, and magic.

New York, spring of 1929 In order to obtain the facilities she needs to complete her investigation of the courthouse collapse, hermeticist Nia Himlan has made a deal with some of Little Italy's shadier characters. She is granted access to a laborato

New York, summer of 1929 The documents that hermeticist Nia Himlan and astronomer Aden Fenice tried to save from the fire at the University of Hermetics have been stolen. Nia suspects the divinators, and since they maintain that Aden will eventually