“How so, Marcellus?” asked Marcia.

“How so? I will tell you how so. This”—Marcellus made a huge effort to control himself—“person here, in order to impress some tin-pot Wizard from I-don’t-know-where, not only invaded my Chamber of Fyre—yes, Marcia, as you have already guessed, it does exist and I apologize for keeping it from you—he then deceitfully, deviously and recklessly threw the most dangerous thing possible into the Fyre Cauldron—the Two-Faced Ring!”

Marcia looked confused. “What is wrong with that? Surely, that is what we are going to do after the Committal.”

Julius Pike sensed an ally. “Quite, ExtraOrdinary. This is purely a fuss about protocol. I admit I did not ask your permission, Marcellus, for which I apologize. But this has nothing to do with the Great Alchemie Disaster, which happened weeks later.”

“Julius, it had everything to do with it. If you want to DeNature something in the Fyre you don’t just chuck it in like an old candy wrapper. The Fyre Cauldron is not a dustbin. DeNaturing by Fyre is a delicate task. You must keep the object suspended in the very center of the Fyre for many days and whatever you do, you must not let it touch the side of the Cauldron.”

Julius Pike began to Disappear. This did not go down well with Marcia.

“Mr. Pike. Pray do us the courtesy of remaining visible.”

“Thank you, Marcia,” said Marcellus. “So, Julius, when you threw the Two-Faced Ring into the Fyre it sank down through the Fyre rods and sat on the bottom of the Cauldron where, over the next three weeks, it Migrated. And the moment it made the hole, the Cauldron cracked, the water rushed out and the Fyre rods began to heat up, which they do when they lose water suddenly. My Drummins contained the Fyre by dousing it with our special cannel coal, as they are doing at this very moment—do not interrupt, Julius; this is the Alchemie Way and it works. But you, Julius, would not trust us to do our job. You would not listen to me when I explained. You panicked. You shut off our water. You shut off our air and just to make sure, you forced me to ice up our beautiful cooling system that kept the whole Castle warm in the winter. It was you, Julius, who caused the Great Alchemie Disaster.”

“Rubbish!” spluttered the ghost.

“Julius, it is the truth. I know this because after you Sealed my Fyre Chamber, my Drummins found the Two-Faced Ring on the ground. They knew what it was and they threw it into the drainage system to get rid of it. But they could not tell me, because by then you had dragged me away, and had left my faithful Drummins—more loyal to me than you ever were—to die.”

“Drummins?” asked Marcia.

“False creations,” said Julius Pike. “Alchemical abominations.”

“They are living, breathing, sentient beings, however they may have been created,” retorted Marcellus. “But leaving the Drummins to die was not enough for you. You had to make sure that Alchemie died too.”

“For the good of the Castle, Marcellus,” Julius protested. “Which Alchemie had so very nearly destroyed.”

“No, Julius. Which you had so very nearly destroyed, by your deceit. And it did not stop there, did it? You falsified records, you obliterated ancient knowledge and you instilled a deep suspicion of Alchemie into all Wizards, so much so that to this day all new Wizards swear to ‘abjure all things Alchemical,’ do they not? And yet in the past, Wizards and Alchemists did great things together. They worked as one. And in order to finally rid ourselves of this ring, we shall have to do so again. There is no other way.”

Marcellus became aware that a large crowd of Ordinary Wizards had gathered and were listening in shocked silence. When they realized that he had finally finished all he had to say, a few began to clap in approval. The ripple spread and soon the Great Hall was ringing with the sound of applause.

Rose and Septimus were spinning down through the floors on Emergency setting when they heard the sound of the ovation rising to meet them.

“They know you’ve done it, Septimus,” said Rose. They jumped off the stairs to find it was not they who were the center of attention but Marcia and Marcellus, arm in arm.

“Crumbs,” Rose whispered to Septimus. “It looks like they’re going to get married or something.”

“No way!” said Septimus.

Marcia caught sight of Septimus. She saw the horrified expression on his face and her heart sank. “It didn’t work, did it?”

“Yes, it did. Perfectly. I’ve got the Committal here.”

A huge smile spread across Marcia’s weary features and her green eyes sparkled for the first time in days. “Septimus, that is wonderful. I should have known it would be you who would finally DeCypher the top of the Pyramid. Congratulations! I think I can safely say that you have passed your DeCyphering module with distinction. And then some.”