With great difficulty, Noah and the crew first reached the European continent, and from there made their way to Istanbul with the help of several embassies. Months had passed. Burning with anger, Noah immediately sought out Seth, but was stunned to learn that he had fallen victim to an unsolved murder. Seth had been insufferable, yes—but neither the cardinal, nor Dr. Wickens, nor the chief rabbi, nor any of the islanders were the type to kill a man. And Noah found it unlikely that the mystical order had murdered him either, for after their return, Seth had continued carrying out dark tasks in their name.

By then, everyone had settled into new lives in the new world. Twin Island had faded into memory—until an invitation to a conference arrived for Mark and Abraham, stirring those memories once more. Seeing each other’s names on the guest list, Abraham and Mark set out without hesitation. They were thrilled to reunite in Istanbul after such a long time. They met at Hagia Sophia, unaware that a man was following their every step as they walked to the conference venue.

Just then, Noah surprised them, saying:

“The real surprise is still ahead. I’m going to introduce you to the scholar-friend I’ve always told you about—the mastermind behind the rescue operation.”

Noah led them into a room in a house. The man inside stood with his back to them, gazing out the window.

“My scholar friend, our guests have arrived,” Noah announced.

The man turned to face Abraham and Mark, and his first words were:

“Welcome, my disciples.”

Young islanders were utterly stunned. After a brief silence, they finally managed to shake off their astonishment. Mark stammered:

“Ma–ma–master… Ilius, is that really you? We searched everywhere, but once we left the island, I lost all hope. I thought you were dead.”

Ilius stroked Mark’s head as Mark embraced him with longing. Then, turning to Abraham—who was trying hard to hide his joy—he said:

“Abraham, as your master, I now give you permission. You no longer need to hide that you were my disciple.”

With eyes full of amazement and curiosity, Mark looked from Ilius to Abraham. Ilius smiled at him and said:

“Don’t blame him. Like you, he was only doing his duty.”

Mark burst out:

“You deceived me for so long! You acted as if you knew nothing about alchemy, as if secrecy meant nothing to you! You criticized alchemists again and again. When my connection with my master and with Odesa was exposed, you said every hurtful thing imaginable. You accused me of being a professional fraud. What kind of person are you? Everything is over now, we’ve built new lives—but even though I was your closest friend, you never told me anything!”

Abraham gave a sly grin and replied:

“But I had to react like someone ignorant and prejudiced about alchemy. What was I supposed to do, Mark—tell you I was just like you and break my master’s command?”

Mark’s eyes clearly said This isn’t over. We’ll settle this outside.
Then he muttered under his breath:

“Fine, ignore our friendship—but does a man hide so much from his own brother-in-law?”

“Was everything an act? Even your belief in God, in the oneness of the Creator—was that a lie as well?”

Abraham answered with a serious expression:

“Of course not. My faith in God and in the oneness of the Creator does not contradict my being an alchemist or a disciple of Master Ilius. But the role my master assigned me required that I be known among the people as a strong defender of Divine Unity. You know well that religion is what influences people most—it shapes their lives and their decisions. Just as the Lord used religion for his own gain, we needed to use it to destroy his system and free the island.”

Ilius looked at Mark and said:

“Your task was to influence the unbelievers on the island and awaken them to resist the Lord. Abraham’s task was to awaken the believers.”

Mark replied, “But outside, we could have acted unaware of each other while discussing everything privately.”

Ilius shook his head gently.

“You know that for alchemists, secrecy is essential in every circumstance. Someone might have forced you to speak and reveal everything. If you possessed unnecessary knowledge, we could not ignore the risk of you being tortured.”

“So you mean the Lord’s secret spies could have slipped among us and discovered everything—exposing our plans.”

Abraham said:

“And there was always the possibility that you or even I could have been one of the Lord’s spies. My master Ilius had never told me that you were his disciple. You know it was only in the hidden house in the forest that you and Odessa had revealed that truth. Before then, I had known you were interested in alchemy, but I had never known you had been a disciple of Ilius. You were the one who had explained alchemy to me. And I had only learned that Melisa and Odesa were also my master’s disciples on that very same day.”

“When? Where? How had you been meeting in secret?”

“There had been many underground caves in that vast forest. We had been changing our meeting place frequently so we wouldn’t draw attention. Even though no one but my father Petrus ever entered the forest, we still had been moving from place to place. In recent years, we had been meeting in the underground cave near the lake where we had carried out our work. But before leaving the island, I had seen that the cave had collapsed. So I had feared my master might have died. Yet since I hadn’t seen a body beneath the rubble, I had also believed he might still be alive.”

At that moment Noah stepped between Abraham and Mark.

“I don’t mean to interrupt your conversation, but we have a much bigger problem,” he said, giving Abraham a meaningful look. “No, I wasn’t referring to the issue between you two.”

Pointing to Ilius, he added:

“This man is not my friend. I want to know what had happened to my friend.”

Then, emerging from his hiding place, the real scholar said:

“My friend, calm yourself. I am here.”

The young islanders and Noah stared intently at Ilius and the scholar, trying to understand the connection between them. Ilius and the scholar were nearly the same height and spoke with similar voices. They even shared the same physical trait—both were missing their right arms.

“If you don’t like this face, I can always look like your friend,” Ilius said, pulling a silicone mask and wig from his bag. He put them on.

Noah looked back and forth between his friend and the masked Ilius. There was almost no difference. Only when he stepped closer did he notice the faint edges of the mask.

“When Ilius came to İznik, I had to hide him,” the scholar explained. “Our similar height and the fact that we were both missing our right arms gave us an enormous advantage. A stranger constantly staying in my house would have drawn attention. So, following the technique Newton once described, we used a substance called silicone to craft a face mask and a wig. Not always, but whenever necessary, Ilius would take my place. We knew beforehand that Dr. Wickens and the cardinal were coming, so on those days, Ilius appeared as me. His knowledge of religion was no less than mine, so he easily answered every question Dr. Wickens asked.”

“No,” Noah interrupted, “I’m certain it was you who came to Heybeliada.”

The scholar replied calmly:

“Indeed, that day it was truly me. Since you and my old friend, the chief rabbi, were both present—I knew you would notice the mask at close range. That is why I did not allow Ilius to take my place on that occasion.”

“Master, how did you travel to İznik? What happened to your arm? When and how did you plan all of this?” Abraham asked. Then he paused for a moment, and as if remembering something, he laughed and added:

“Yes… yes, you must have succeeded. There can be no other explanation.”

At that moment, Mark also understood what Abraham meant, but he asked the question that troubled him:

“Master, you must have discovered teleportation. But as far as I know, there is no alchemists’ tower in Istanbul or İznik. Dr. Wickens explained that sound could be carried through tall towers, and that they had done this with the tower in the Alps. If you had teleported there, he most certainly would have told me.” Then he cast a meaningful look at Abraham and added:

“Or did he hide that from me as well?”

“No,” Ilius replied, then continued:

“I still do not understand how it happened. While I was continuing my experiments through trial and error, I suddenly found myself in the tower in London—without my right arm. In an instant, where else could I have gone? At that moment, aside from feeling as if my arm had been torn off, I sensed nothing unusual and saw nothing unusual. I looked for my arm but could not find it. I realized it had separated at the shoulder. Out of curiosity and shock, I felt no pain.

“The place I stood in was a tower. In the dim light, I couldn’t find my arm. I noticed that the stones of the tower wall were newer and better maintained than ours.

“There was no way out of the narrow tower except the door beside me. From what I could see, the tower rose straight upward to the sky just like ours, without stairs. When I touched the door with my tongue and tasted lead, I realized this tower had been built with the same materials and the same principles as ours. That discovery eased my fear. I turned the handle and stepped outside—and there before me stood a tall, white-haired man with a long nose, sharp intelligent eyes, and pale skin, staring directly at me.”

“Then who was this man, if not Dr. Wickens?” Mark asked.

Abraham answered:

“Of course—it was Grandmaster, Isaac Newton.”
Then he added:

“In our last conversation, you told me you had spoken with someone named Isaac Newton. Noah mentioned Dr. Wickens, but he never mentioned Newton—and I found that rather strange. But I couldn’t ask about it without drawing suspicion.”

“It was, in fact, Grandmaster Isaac Newton who decided everything,” Ilius said.