Alright, here's my first snippet. Read it. Critique it. Rip it to pieces. Just do it kindly. :)

Over the past several days, Sakura continued to listen at Leicho's chamber. If she discovered any pressing fact or interesting tidbit of information, she would wait until all talk had ceased and immediately report the news back to Aleric. Slowly, they began to piece together some of what was happening in the Royal Chambers.
“This news about the King being off on some quest in the Upper Kingdom is disturbing,” Aleric was saying almost to himself after listening to the latest news Sakura had brought down their secret corridor.
“He's probably just leading some expedition, or something, right? I mean, he's the king. He must lead the soldiers now and then, right?” Sakura asked.
“Well, it's not unheard of. But also not very common. I'm just not sure.” Aleric paused to allow his thoughts to settle. Sakura patiently waited. She had become used to the wizened master alchemist's way of calmly sifting through information.
At last Aleric broke the silence in the cramped cell. “I am beginning to wonder if the King must no know about Leicho's quest for the Stone. In fact, it may be he that is behind it. But if he is...then Leicho, or someone, has broken one of the primary rules of alchemy by revealing the theory of the Philosopher's Stone to the King.”
“Um...but...” Sakura began, unsure if she should say anything.
“Yes, my dear?” Aleric said, patiently.
“But...didn't you tell me about the Stone. Aren't you breaking the same rule?”
Aleric looked at Sakura for a moment in silence, his blank face revealing nothing. Suddenly a smile and a chuckle cracked his serious look.
“Yes, indeed I did. But do not worry. The rule is designed to keep monarchs from knowing about the theory of the Stone. You are not a monarch, nor do I ever expect you to become one. And to add to all of this...I trust you. You are my apprentice's best friend, after all.” He finished speaking with a wink and another smile. Sakura couldn't help but to smile back.
“Still, even if the King is involved, that does not change our task. We need to continue listening, and hopefully they will say something about the location of the Stone.”
Sakura nodded in response and prepared to crawl back into the tunnel to continue her work.
Suddenly, a thought struck her.
“Wait! Sofphis, the guy Master Gin was talking to...he said something about digging! If the King is involved in all this...do you think the new shaft...it might be...”
“Yes!” Aleric almost yelled. “How stupid am I? That would definitely explain the new shaft. And from what you've told me of your work there, they seem to be much more worried about speed than quality.”
“So what do we do? I mean, I'm already helping dig the new shaft. Should I just keep my eyes open, and hope I'm the one to find the Stone?”
“No. I don't think we need to worry about one of the workers finding the Stone. I'm sure as soon as Leicho suspects you're getting close, all the miners will be removed and only trusted Royal Engineers will be allowed down the shaft. No, I think the best thing to do now is for you to keep listening...and I will do my own bit of reconnaissance.”
“What...kind of reconnaissance?” Sakura asked, curious about what the alchemist had in mind.
“Well, let's just say that I've done quite a bit of research on the Stone, myself. I know the things to look for. And, as an alchemist, I'm not limited to what I can see with my eyes.”
Accepting the fact that she probably wouldn't understand it even if she pressed Aleric for more, Sakura turned and began crawling her way up to her listening post, hoping to hear something that might shed some light to her darkened mind.

The second snippet, from the same chapter. I'm having some troubles deciding where to end this chapter. There's a lot of dialoging and sorting out information between characters. The problem is, it's mostly information the reader already knows, so I don't want to just rehash it all. I'm going to need to do some flash-forwarding or something, but I've never really figured out the best way to do that.

Anyway, here's the snippet:

As Sakura left his cell, Aleric settled himself into a corner. After taking several deep breaths, he allowed his mind and body to relax. Slowly, he allowed his senses to dull away, and he pushed his mind into an ever deeper alchemical trance. He saw nothing and everything. The atomic world poured through his mind, but he allowed non of it to distract his trance. Slowly, he moved his consciousness from the intense magnification normally associated with alchemy, and he zoomed out with his mind. He saw the cell in which he sat clearly—or at least he saw all the particles, molecules, and atoms which made up the cell. Farther he traveled with his mind. Through Sakura's shaft he traveled, until he reached the opening into the new shaft. Past the miners...into the stone...sand and dirt filled Aleric's mind. Scanning and probing. He did not know exactly what the Stone would feel like in his mind, but he was counting on the fact that it would be extraordinary and that he would not miss it.

A crevice. A small break in the rock. Through the narrow vein he traveled. A small opening. There was a strange presence here. Or at least there was—it was gone now.

Back to the head of the shaft. Down again into the rock. He sensed the picks and hammers pounding on the surface. Deeper he delved. Aleric sensed he was reaching the limit of his abilities. The atomic world was becoming muddied by the distance. But just as his concentration was about to be strained too far, he sensed...what was it..was it...

“Water,” Aleric said to himself as he lay down, exhausted.

One of the biggest problems I've had with Elixir is putting together the motivations for the characters to follow. For example, it has always been unclear to me why Aleric is so worried about keeping the King from finding the Philosopher's Stone. After all, they are at war with the Upper Kingdom. The Philosopher's Stone could be the key to a Lower Kingdom victory. Well, I still haven't figured all that out, but in this little snippet I found a way to express my exasperation with this logical problem through Sakura. Sakura often serves as my means of expressing problems with my writing. I think it's because she's my favorite character, so I naturally assume she will react to things as I would (or as I would want to). Here, she's finally had enough of all the craziness:

“What are you talking about?!” Sakura suddenly erupted. “I don't care about that stupid rock. Who cares if the King gets the Stone? Good! Maybe he'll be able to use it to put a true end to the war!” Sakura glared at Theodora. “Look, all I care about, and all I've ever cared about is finding Toku. The only reason I was looking for the Stone is because you said it might have something to do with Toku's disappearance. Well, this girl seems to think Toku is up on the surface. So if the King gets the Stone...that's just fine. It will make it all the easier for Toku to come back home. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to find a way to bring Toku home!”

Sakura's face was flushed with anger. Something had broken inside of her. She felt caught in the middle of a political game that she did not understand and did not care about.

“Come on, Theodora! I need you to show me how you got down here!” Sakura said, as she grabbed Theodora by the arm and began pulling her towards her tunnel. As soon as Theodora reached the edge of the wall, however, her faint glowing suddenly erupted into a fiery blaze. Sakura screamed as she felt the tunnel begin to close in on itself, and it was only because Theodora jerked her back away from the hole that Sakura was saved from being sealed into the wall.

“Wha...what just happened?” Sakura asked, breathless.

“I'm guessing that hole was made with alchemy,” Theodora said, almost nonchalantly. “You see, I have this thing with alchemy...where I kind of...undo it.”

“Remarkable,” Aleric said from across the room.

Sakura said nothing. She was still too busy collecting her thoughts after such a close brush with death.

Because I didn't want to leave you thinking Sakura is just moody and angry:

“Master Aleric, I'm sorry for blowing up at you before,” she began.

“That's quite all right. To be truthful, I understand your feelings. I am worried about my apprentice as well. Only understand that I am bound by higher powers to try to protect the Philosopher's Stone from those who might use it for harm. And, I have my own reasons for distrusting the King with a thing of such immense power. The King and I have a history that began long before you were born.”

Sakura wondered if she should ask what the wizened alchemist meant, but her desire for action outweighed her curiosity.

“Don't worry. You can still trust me,” Sakura replied. “Only, I need to take Theodora with me. I want her to lead me to the Upper Kingdom, and after all...the guards will find her missing soon. It would be best if we got away while they still don't know she's gone.”

Sakura then turned to Theodora, and with a smile asked, “Do you think you can take me back to the Upper Kingdom? I'm just worried about Toku. I know you're friends with him, too. Together we can help him.”

Theodora, who had endured being spoken about with remarkable passivity took Sakura's hands in hers. “I don't know if I can show you the way back or not. But I will try. I feel this may be my job, after all—to lead you from the darkness into the light.”

Sakura tried not to make a face at Theodora's reply. She's kinda weird, she thought to herself. Still, she's willing to help, and that's what matters the most.

“One thing, though...” Theodora said, breaking into Sakura's thoughts. “If I can't go through your tunnel, how am I supposed to get out?”

Another snippet for you. This is probably the last one you will get before I release the new chapter.

Toku awoke in the morning to find Theodora missing from her room. He was not immediately worried, but when lunch had come and gone without any sign of the young girl, he began to become concerned.

“Perhaps she decided to return to Nathaniel,” Aliezar had suggested when she did not arrive for the evening meal. “In truth, I have suspected that she might have been an Upper Kingdom spy. After all, you don't actually know where she is from, now do you?”

“Well, no...” Toku had replied. But even now, as Toku gathered his thoughts about where his companion could have gone, he refused to accept any notion of her being a spy sent by the Upper Kingdom to find out the location of the Alchemist's hideout. Really, the more he thought about it, the more absurd the idea seemed to him. First of all, she had appeared to him out of a door that materialized out of nowhere. Secondly, if she was a spy, there certainly should have been a more efficient manner of finding the Alchemist than by traveling with a lost boy from the Lower Kingdom.

“No. She was not a spy,” Toku said to himself that evening as he lay in bed. “But that does not help me in knowing where she went.”

The next morning, Toku once again expressed his concern for Theodora to his new master.

“I am sure she is fine. But, if you're really so concerned about her, the best thing to do would be to find the Philosopher's Stone. If you find that, you can use it to sense her whereabouts anywhere in the universe.”

“Really?” Toku asked. “I've never heard that the Stone could do something like that.”

“The Stone provides infinite connectivity to the universe. You could use it to find anything you want, in the same way that you can find your own finger or toe on your body. It is the same theory that we are now using with the Elixir to locate the Philosopher's Stone, only to an infinite degree. So, stop worrying about Theodora, and continue your work. We still have a lot of training to go through before you will be ready to find the Stone!”

Toku felt rather shocked and hurt by Aliezar's attitude towards the disappearance of his friend. But, he diligently dove into his studies just the same. After all, Toku thought, It's the best option I have right now. Even if I took off after Theodora right now, I wouldn't know where to look. The Philosopher's Stone is my best be—for finding her, and for finding home.