Silver of Ignis - Third discourse

Magister Anaximander 

A skilled alchemist may use the silver of Ingis to accomplish a Great Work that not he alone, nor the metal alone, could. For this, he must make a third essence of the metal, by first roasting it until it is black and grinding it into a course powder. Then he must wash the powder in the manner appropriate for silver, for this is still its nature, until it has been purified and it is white as snow. Then, by adding the appropriate amount of quicksilver and sulphur and salt - a little of the first, less of the second and even less of the third, he will make it return to its silvery color when molten and cast, but he will have it refined into its third essence. In this process the alchemist must take great care to not overwhelm the silver of Ignis, lest it loses its nature. 

And if this third essence is molten together, in equal parts or with just slightly less of the three-times-refined Silver of Ignis, with red gold, which must not have any silver in it, but only one part of purest copper to three parts of purest gold, the alchemist will receive the Great Work known as the Shielding Electrum. 

The Shielding Electrum will have many of the same properties of the metals it was made from, including its weight and its softness, though a little less soft than silver of Ignis itself, and its malleability, and its color will be a little bit more golden than the Silver of Ignis, but much less so than gold. 

It is unknown why, at least to me, but magic will hardly at all be able to move the Shielding Electrum, and talismans may be cast out of it which will protect their wearer against hexes and curses and other forms of enchantment, but only for a while, before the Great Work will crack  and turn white and then black. And if chains are forged out of an alloy of the Great work with iron, they will bind witches and sorcerers well and make them impotent to the degree to which the chains contain the Great Work.