FMH ~ 8!

Master Don seemed to be alternating between fury and… something else. “You let it read you! It now knows absolutely everything about you, and will record everything that happens from here on! Think of this as the most intrusive diary ever. Should this book ever leave you and partner with another, they will be able to read your entire life. All your strengths, all your weaknesses. All emotional high or low points. Everything.”

“What?” she spat in horror. She looked at the book, now cradled in her arms. Sleeping? “What is this?”

“This is your spell book.” Don replied with a sigh, letting his anger go. There was no help for it now. “Here is where you keep all of your spells, and how you will cast magic. If it helps you feel better, you got to start with a Grimoire of exceptional quality. If a book from a low shelf had read you, I would have simply destroyed it and made you start again, but then you would have lost your starter bonus.”

“What do you mean?” Taylor pulled in the book protectively, even before she realized what she was doing.

“Well, the quality of books is fairly easy to explain. Basically, the amount of spells you can learn is based in part on how many spells the book can hold. Here in the Library, books are like birds, and they follow a hierarchy. The overpopulated first few rows are pigeons, plentiful but stupid. They eat and eat, but only give you scat in return. You can learn tier one spells at best. As you go up the shelves, the books become smarter, eating less, but requiring a certain,” he waved his hands, “something. They want a specific diet.”

She nodded, easily following this description. Don continued, “Also, they are made from better material. The low levels are made from papyrus, a weak material. As they go higher, the durability increases. Paper, vellum, hard leather, and finally, whatever the top predator is for the shelf. In your case, it appears that yours is made from the hide of a cockatrice, which should make it nearly invulnerable to physical harm. Again, an excellent start for you.”

She looked at the book in wonder, surprised by how interesting it was. The book was surprisingly light, and had no markings of any kind on it. This was to become her book of spells? It seemed too… alive. She voiced this concern to her mentor.

“Of course! To be magic is to be alive, and to be alive is to be magic. Even humans, whether or not they become Ascenders, have some mana in them. That is what allows healers to cure injuries, and necromancers to animate corpses. Earth mages don’t actually move the earth, they move the mana that flows through it like rivers, the ley lines. Everything is interconnected, and mana even has physical properties if enough of it is released; as you just observed for yourself. In the right conditions, it acts like water before evaporating.”

“Oh!” Taylor exclaimed as she remembered something, “What did my book mean by ‘no disease or I leave’? That had to be part of its ‘diet’ right?”

“Correct. There are spells that you can cast that cause disease or other specific illness, and to some books they ‘taste’ foul. Every book seems to have particular palates, as I mentioned.” Master Don shook himself and started looking around.

“What did you mean about the starting bonus?”

“Oh, that.” Master Don pursed his lips, then decided to answer the question. There was no point in hiding this information. “The tier of spell you can learn is determined by an aspect of your Mind characteristic called ‘talent’. The very first spell you learn, or in our case Grimoire you bind to yourself, is not beholden to your natural talent. It can be practically any tier, so we as trainers watch very closely at the start. That’s why I brought you directly to one of the most dangerous areas you could survive in right away. That grimoire is tier four, and I know that means nothing to you right now.”

“Can you explain more, so I do understand?” Taylor pressed him.

“All in due time. Too much information all at once is like filling a glass with water. If it overflows, you lose whatever is on the ground.” Don turned to his pack and pulled out some rations for them to munch on. They sat quietly for a while as Taylor looked at the wonderous world around her, ate her food, and stroked her practically purring grimoire.

“This is all so amazing.” Taylor took a deep breath, “Master, can I try casting a spell now?”

“You don’t have any, do you? How could you cast one?” Don smirked at her stricken face, and coyly offered, “Would you like to go get one?” 

“Abyss yeah.”

“We’d better get moving, then. Nowhere around here to sleep anyway.” They began walking, and Taylor made it nearly a half mile before she fell flat on her face.

“Ow.”

“I did tell you not to let out so much mana, didn’t I?” Taylor’s suddenly-hated mentor chuckled. “I suppose a break is in order… can you sit up? Good. Eat this.”

“I obviously didn’t give you enough to eat.” Handing her some dried meat, he started going through his pack as she voraciously gnawed upon the salty beef. “Drink some water, and eat some of this honey. You used far too much energy in one go. With the amount of mana you pumped into the air, I could have burned a small village to the ground. I have, in fact. While we are here, why not read what your book has to say about you?”