Draith
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Chapter 6 - Satisfying Spellwork
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 19:38:46 +0000 UTCWith so much to learn, my next priority was a spell that would help with retaining knowledge. Unfortunately, there weren't any spells in the first order that would work. Which meant I’d decided to take a risk.
While it wasn’t possible for me to cast a second order spell, scribing it was technically within my means.
Normally, second order spells required partial embodyment of the Astral-souled mage’s mana to scribe.
However, I was hardly the first mage-soul to want to prepare for the future. There were ways around the limitation.
Like having a helpful Pegasus-souled prodigy supply me with mana I filtered through my own soul before pouring it into my scribing efforts.
Thus, with Nexxa sitting beside me while munching on the lunch Calbern had prepared for us, I started scribing my first spell of the second order, Memory Palace. I hadn’t found anything that helped with learning directly, but on Lady Guniveer’s advice, I’d checked some of the less centrally placed spellbooks. Buried deep in a book of mnemonic techniques, it promised to serve as an advanced spell version of the same technique. Had the book not been located in the restricted section of the library, I likely never would have believed it could retain such an useful spell.
Clearly I hadn't been the only one to think that way, since it'd sat at the bottom of a pile of other books in the back corner, the only books not given pride of place. The early spells in the book had been so useless, that if not for Lady Guniveer’s advice, I'd have given up on the book entirely. That, and the techniques themselves had seemed useful, so I'd started practicing them as I read further. Then I stumbled across Memory Palace, the spell.
Even with Nexxa’s assistance with the scribing, I wouldn't be able to cast it without a powerful external mana source or a lot of time spent charging it. At least, not until I ascended to Astral-soul. But since it promised to allow me to recall anything I'd studied in the past, including my Earth knowledge, I considered it a forward thinking solution.
However, the complexity of even a basic second order spell was ten times the simplest first order. And this wasn't basic. In honesty, it was stretching the limits of fitting within a single second order slot. Not to the point of leaping up to the third order, but enough that I couldn't justify working on it to the exclusion of everything else. Especially since Nexxa had more to do than sit in the library literally holding my hand. Since each page had to be complete before I started on a new one, I added one first order spell for each two pages of Memory Palace I finished.
Another week slipped by, and at the end of it I was only adding two spells per day, between studying other subjects and working on Memory Palace. I say studying, but I was intent on abusing the properties of Memory Palace, using a supporting tier one spell. Review Scroll was meant for error checking spells bound to paper, but it had the effect of quickly scanning through words at a high speed.
I'd found it in another of those discarded books lying to the side. There'd even been a rather colorful note on the spell.
Do not use Review Scroll in combination with Memory Palace.
I entered my Memory Palace after using Godfried's damnable Review Scroll spell. It turned out that comparing all seven thousand versions of the Father's Song against each other meant I'd also stored them in my Palace. And like a besotted idiot, I had to check they'd been copied successfully.
And by the crimson goddess' beard, did it give me the mother of all migraines when I did. Not that I noticed, at first. Memory Palace may be powerful, but it has the same flaw as most low order memory spells, and leaves you completely unaware of your surroundings.
I actually consider the limitation an upside, in the right scenario. That said, I recruited Nexxa to test it first.
Which took a great deal more convincing than I'd expected.
"Perry, no," Nexxa said, forming a cross with her arms as sparks danced along her fingertips.
"Why not?" I asked, leaning back from the desk where I'd spent most of the last week, pulling the spellbook away from those sparking fingers.
"Did you even read this note? It gave a Pegasus-souled a migraine. Besides, it'd take me days to scribe it. I can't waste that much time on a maybe. I’ve already spent too long helping you with it."
"Okay… but think about how much Memory Palace will help even if Review Scroll doesn't work. We're going to be flung out to the middle of nowhere. We're not going to be able to come back to father's library whenever we want. Isn’t that why you agreed to help me in the first place?"
"I…" Nexxa sat down on the bench across from me, her eyes fixed on my face. "When did you go and grow up on me, Perry?"
Blinking, I looked away, uncomfortable with her scrutiny. As I tried to think of a response, she huffed out a laugh.
"There he is. Good to know you haven't completely changed on me," Nexxa said, bumping my shoulder as she looked down at my grimoire. "This is a good idea, Perry, really. The Memory Palace, at least. I'm not going to make any promises about Recall Scroll, though. Not until after I've experimented with Memory Palace on its own. Who knows, we might not even need your little work around."
"Hmm. Fair 'nuff," I replied, looking down at my grimoire. It was a little late for me to make that choice, as I'd already scanned a dozen books with Review Scroll. Every one was a book Calbern had picked out as critical. Still, I'd hold off scanning any more until Nexxa had either tried the combination or I ran out of time to read the rest the old fashioned way.
A temporary migraine would be a price worth paying to forever have all that knowledge at my fingertips.
Especially since every book we had to bring physically would take up space in our transport cube. At least we didn't have to share our cube with Nexxa. Althon had arranged for each of us to have our own.
The limitation on storage had also made me realize what I wanted to use my boon for. Given the restrictions we’d face, and how far we’d have to travel with only what we could carry, I'd decided to use my boon for something a little more tangible. Something that even the scions of a djinn-souled house would treasure.
Spatial storage.
I'd been working through my spells, and the only first order spell for worlds in the family library was Spatial Access, which allowed the caster to access Spatial storage items. If you had the access key. There were higher order versions that existed for cracking said access keys, but the lowest was in the fourth order. And Perth’s family didn't even have a copy of it, it had just been noted down as existing.
My only other second order spell I intended to scribe was also a worlds spell. Specifically, Dimension Step. It was the only other option in the family library, so the choice was fairly simple. One of the downsides of a rare affinity. If I wanted more spells, I was either going to have to apprentice myself to a higher-order worlds mage, find a mage who was actually willing to sell their knowledge, or, most likely, I would have to develop my own spells.
Considering my calling as a Magus Dominus, the first wasn't really on the table. Even if I ran away and joined another kingdom and hoped they'd offer me amnesty, the oath would weigh on my soul until I couldn’t use magic anymore. Not a chance. Besides, even if the oath could be circumvented, it'd be more likely they'd lock me in a dungeon and use me as a mana conversion method for their own gate spells.
Maybe I was just being paranoid, but Perth's history lessons had included lots of examples of mages defecting from their home country only to be used as magic batteries.
Wasn't worth the risk. Especially since I was looking forward to the experimentation anyway. The most satisfying part of being a mechanic was when you built something for yourself, something no one had built before, using parts right off the shelf with a little welding to fill in the gaps. I didn't see magic too different.
Sure, instead of engines and gas, I was working with runes and mana, but similar principles applied. You fed in fuel, you used machines to shape the result, and you got something useful. And runes were a form of machine, of that I had no doubt. Not in the traditional sense, but much like a lever or pulley, they allowed us to do something that'd be impossible without them.
Like lift a five ton truck out of six feet of mud.
Which meant, between Storage Access and Dimension Step, I figured I'd have most of the important bits to cobble together my own Gate spell, eventually.
By the end of the third week, I'd added both to my grimoire alongside the last of the tier one spells I'd deemed worthy, Assess Self. It was key to my future as an archmage for two reasons. First, it was pretty unlikely I’d have an assessment orb wherever I ended up. Which would make it challenging to ensure my affinities were balanced before I ascended to Astral soul. The other was that since it replicated the process of using the assessment orb, not only could it stress all the common affinities, it was designed to select which ones were being stressed. Combined with the right essence materials, that meant that casting it would let me build up my affinities. However, it was barely a first order spell. The complexity meant that it used up all five first order spell impression slots. And that meant it'd be a long time until I could cast it.
Nexxa had just come by to tell me of her own success with Memory Palace when Lady Guniveer let us know Calbern was waiting for us downstairs.
When we descended, Calbern gave me his usual inclination of his head. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Lady Nexxa, Master Perth, but your father has requested your presence."
Glancing over at Nexxa, she just offered me a shrug before walking past Calbern towards the exit. I slung my grimoire over my shoulder, setting to follow her, Calbern falling in at my side.
"I'm glad you have been spending time together. It bodes well for your future alliance," Calbern said right as we started down the front steps, denying me a chance to respond.
Despite my earlier commitment to exercising, I'd let it fall by the wayside as I worked to expand my grimoire. I was feeling even less fit than Perth had been when I first took over his body.
Nexxa had no such hardships. "It's honestly been a relief, seeing Perry working so hard. Thought he'd be needing me hovering over him like a momma dragon."
"Yes, master Perth has truly come into his own since his Awakening," Calbern agreed, a note of pride in his voice.
The way I was huffing down the stairs somewhat undermined the satisfaction I otherwise felt, but it was still there as we emerged from the library.
I just hoped that Perth's father was summoning us for our boons. There was no other reason I could see for it. At least, none that were good.
That thought was cut off as Perth’s brother Sosa stepped out of a hidden nook, a grin Perth was far too familiar with fixed on his face. That grin had accompanied many of Perth’s worse memories of his brother. Behind Sosa stood several Green Goons, Perth’s nickname for his father’s golem-like plant guards that he’d given all his first wife’s children.
“Hey brother,” Sosa said, cracking his knuckles as he stepped closer, several more of the Green Goons shuffling into place behind us. “I heard you had a boon coming your way. Let’s talk about repaying that debt you owe me.”
