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1

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a graphic of an old man wearing a robe with a chain around his neck. In the right frame is the text: The future. Five years of drought and mysterious disappearing water supplies had created a desperate need for water. Water has become a power commodity in the new world political order. In medieval times, alchemists sought to turn common metals into gold. Now, the modern alchemists seek to turn the commonplace into water. Then came the rise of the Agencia, a powerful class of scientists and cybernetic alchemists who became the new power brokers.

2

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a graphic of a boy on a hill over looking a village by the sea. In the right frame is the text: In the beginning, the ice caps melted, and the polar creatures moved further towards the poles. The growing population began to move to higher ground, like livestock fleeing a flood.

Then, some time after the ice in the glaciers and the floes were gone. People, crowded together on the plateaus and hills and mountains, began to notice something peculiar. The oceans were evaporating. Somehow, in a way that science had never predicted, water was leaving the surface of the earth.

3

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the right frame is a graphic of religious buildings against a desolate landscape. In the right frame is the text: The water continued on its terrible exodus. Science searched for the reasons. Religion did its best to explain why this was happening. Many said that God, the gods, the ancestors, the cosmos were angry, displeased, seeking retribution.

4

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the right frame is a graphic of a tower building with the word ‘Sperimentale’ on the front. In the right frame is the text: The Agencia were the new power brokers. They came with their dark eyes and pale faces, their secrets, and their empty pasts promising salvation. Their mission was to recruit the brightest and best to create water in fortress laboratories across the country. Sperimentale was one of these.

5

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a boy and a man speaking. Text in speech bubbles:

Arsenio: You’re the most promising of all the students Sava. You have a gift. The gift of finding. You must come and work with me at Sperimentale.

Sava: What will I be doing Master Arsenio?

Arsenio: You will find a way to look at the improbable, to consider every possibility, become closer to achieving the impossible. Creating water.

In the right frame is the text: Arsenio, the senior tutor of the Agencia seeks the boy Sava.

6

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame a laboratory with boys working at benches. In the right frame is the text: There were long hours of experimenting, speculating and endless hours of trial and error with little reward. We used chemical, mechanical, even mysterious other sciences in our search. The strange experiments on animals raised questions in my mind about what was happening in the search to create water.

7

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a graphic of a boy sitting overlooking a derelict cityscape. In the right frame is the text: I remembered something Arsenio has said once, ‘The human body is sixty per cent water.’

8

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a man talking to a boy in a workshop.

Text in speech bubbles:

Sava: Do you think my parents are still alive Arsenio?

Arsenio: I know not.

Sava: I know I had a brother. But I was one child too many.

Arsenio: They cannot survive without water.

In the right frame is the text: Sometimes I would slip out of the laboratory and sit alone, gazing at the people below. I thought of my family. I tried to remember my parents.

9

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a graphic of a burning building and cityscape. In the right frame is the text: The Sperimentale was under constant threat from the outside world. There were often attacks from wandering gangs and desperate families, all seeking water. They were becoming more frequent and violent. It was only a matter of time.

During one night attack I escaped.

10

The background is a graduation from red to black. There are religious and alchemist symbols in the background. In the left frame is a boy walking with a backpack in a desolate landscape. In the right frame is the text: I, Sava work alone. I am an alchemist. But the gold I seek to create has no colour. It is not a precious metal; it is far more valuable than that. When it glitters, it catches the eye, and the imagination. It is clear, like a diamond, but it is worth more than even those. It is the very essence of being, of survival.

I seek to create water.