Nostalgia

When I was a little girl, my father once showed me a bit of magic. Or so it seemed to my childish eyes. Some dark sands and a single spark came together to produce a fountain of light, more brilliant than all the stars in the sky. I asked him if it was magic. He answered that it was alchemy, and that anyone with wisdom could use it. My mind always wanders back to that moment. What does it mean for alchemy when it exists side-by-side with magic? When each works upon the other in turn?