Swiss Alchemy, the first of a series: The Alternate Realm Trilogy, begins with a notion that if all great things involve taking the first step, an invitation is like folding over the spine and turning the first pages of a book opening the mind to a world of possibilities. The testimonial in returning to a place is not the comparison from the previous encounter, but to experience it in the present. An immersion with the essence of it, traversing its steep inclines and encounters with fellow travelers, hosts, and locals alike. Centuries of histories - castles mounting atop cliffs and villages interspersed along winding roadways, rambling rivers, and around lakes that cast hues - cobalt so bright it beams in reflection amidst the surrounding fog. Although, as Mia learns, the relativity of the past spanning ten centuries or a few decades may be as close as a dim light guiding down a dark corridor of an adjacent tower or brushing one's elbow during a gate check-in. When experiences shade the future's lens casting doubt over relationships, longevity, and survivability, and results in neither a wistfulness over nostalgia nor trust in futurism, where does one turn. Can a return to a place as a sanctuary, exhilaration - experiencing things for the first time through the lens of a child color a different perspective, a re-awakening? It is a latent hope when Mia invites her young niece Thalia to Switzerland for a quiet respite soaking in geothermal pools and piano side lounging, steeped in books and filling blank drawing pads. Creating the future by way of imagination and venturing forth. However, they find themselves in situations beyond what they signed up for - exceeding boundaries of the destination, natural disasters, and a speculative realm of members of a covert world order. What they discover in their bonding as a group is not only the unexpected. But, how it also affects them as individuals, and the surprising revelations that follow. From the more deliberate initiative of planning the trip to the happenstance connections that form and comprise a group as well as the events outside anyone's control. It transpires into a thin line between knowledge and experience informing, and the liberation that comes from the calibration of the flow between people, places, and a shared sense of camaraderie along the journey. Despite the appealing nature in drawing from such experiences with closure in progression, Mia may have opened more doors than intended. ****An important note about the book is that it was written before the onset of the conflict and war in Ukraine. The mentions to exercises were references to general preparedness and joint training and in no way inferred such a crisis. The severity tabled the appropriateness of the book's launch such that it's nature is one of a universal sense of shock and catharsis in navigating through it.