Oh, yeah, right - it's actually pretty common where I'm from, I tend to forget that it's not like that everywhere else.

[So he's actually not intentionally fucking with you?]

Alchemy is just the practice of turning one thing into another. Technically a power, I'm not going to argue the difference between what I do and magic, if you want to consider it magic you can go ahead and do that. I could make gold out of lead if I really wanted to - I think that's the usual example - but that's not really good for anything. It'll tank the economy if everyone's doing it, so we don't bother, and I'm pretty sure it's illegal besides.

We also don't bother doing it because it's boring. Kind of a waste of talent, really - if you can make anything, why limit yourself to gold?