PaulMichaels
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IGIWS: FIRST DRAFT: Ch.296: Entering the Library.
🕑 Added 2024-11-05 04:03:03 +0000 UTCRya, Quin, Fennic, Sir Richard, Sir George, and Balthazar made there way through the Mage's Guild's building to the library in the back. Lady Saffron, Hajdah, Laika, and the four human Mages where dealing with the new mage children and were registering them into the guild.
The doors to the library were massive and looked ancient. There were magical runes carved into the doors, and Rya recognized a few of them as defensive spells. The door handles were made from brass and were shiny, and Rya could see her reflection in them.
"Well, someone is protective of his books," Sir George whispered to Quinus and Rya.
"Indeed," Quinus responded. "Do you think there's a book about courting women in their?" The Prince teased Sir George.
"Oh, ha-ha, you're hilarious," Sir George responded sarcastically. "You know that if there was such a book in their that it's methods must be obsolete... No, My Lord, I will be the one to write the perfect book about women. For my countrymen are in desperate need of its guidance. For I have almost perfected my research for courting non-human females. But once I find the perfect couple that is courting a human female, then I will publish my findings for the world to enjoy." Sir George spoke with conviction.
Rya wanted to burst out laughing at the thought of Sir George becoming a pick-up artist. The Love Sage has failed spectacularly to make any women fall in love with him. Or to be exact, to make unwitting men use his techniques and fail in their romantic pursuits with them. Rya found it amusing but didn't want Sir George to think that she was making fun of him, at this moment. She was going to make fun of him later.
Quinus on the other hand rolled his eyes and ignored Sir George's rambling. Quinus didn't believe that the knight would be able to succeed in writing the perfect book after everything that he has witnessed so far. Quinus was just glad that the Love Sage had slowed down of using test subjects to test out his theories.
Sir Richard's ears perked up but he decided to ask Sir George about his research later as everyone watched as Fennic disabled the security spells and opened the library doors.
The Grand Master was muttering something under his breath and the group could barely make out what he was saying. Rya's Omni Eyes noticed Fennic's mana interacting with the giant brass doors and saw each rune deactivating. Rya was amazed that a Grand Master could learn how to do something like that. Rya didn't know if she would ever be able to figure out how to do something like that. And that was part of the reason why Rya loved knowledge and wanted to learn as much as she could. She might be able to use it for protecting the palace.
*Mumbled, mumbled, mumbled...* "Open!" Fennic roared out as the last rune turned gray. And the giant doors slowly opened inward.
Once the doors were opened everyone was greeted by a vast open room with bookshelves everywhere. This was the library. There were three floors of books, and each floor had a balcony and a spiral staircase leading to the next level. Each shelf was packed with books and scrolls. There was a smell of old paper and parchment and everyone took in the sight of the ancient library.
"Wow," Rya spoke. "It like something out of a movie... I mean a painting."
"This is a magnificent feat of engineering. From the old Great Mage, Hathorn," Fennic said, looking around at the library. "He created this library and made sure that the magic holding the building together would be able to survive anything that could threaten the library. Now come now. The restricted tomes and grimoires are located in the back of the library. We have much to learn about this world and what happened in the past. I can't wait to see what you can find from the writings of forgotten tongues, Princess Rya."
The Dark Elf blushed at the compliment, 'I mean, all I do is look at anything and it becomes legible. It's not like I studied all my life to understand the ancient languages,' she thought, not really believing that she is deserving of the praise.
"Well... I'll see what I can find," she responded, before making her way to the back of the massive library. Quinus, Fennic, and Balthazar followed close behind her while Sir George and Richard stayed behind.
"Sir George," Sir Richard called out, turning around and giving the Knight a serious look.
"Yes, sir?"
"Tell me, what was the research that you were conducting in courting non-human females?"
"Oh...um, well... I could give you my research, but I need a small favor in return," George responded, smiling deviously.
Sir Richard became nervous, but he needed to put that Wolfkin, Dalia, in her place after repeatedly teasing him about failing to get marked by a female.
"L-Let me think about it. And what favor might that be?"
"To let me observe you and your partner if you succeed in finding a woman or to buy me a beer if you fail. My knowledge isn't free you know. And I can make your experience ten times more successful in gaining a mate than any other book or advice."
Sir Richard's eyes widened as the idea of having a woman to call his own. A wife. Someone to love and to take care of him and to stick it to Dalia. But letting George watch him making love his partner have him pause.
"Alright... I need to think about it... I'll get back to you about it on our off hours," Sir Richard said, thinking over his options.
"Of course, my friend. I look forward to your response. Oh, and by the way, what non-human female were you interested in... a Wolfkin perhaps?"
"What? No! I mean, maybe... I mean, yes, but no!"
George smirked at the blushing knight, knowing exactly who he was talking about.
"Don't worry, I'm a professional. Nothing leaves the study. And all my subjects information is discreet and can't be traced back to them."
Sir Richard gulped, as he stood guard at the entrance at the library with Sir George.
***
Rya and Quinus were glancing a all the books and scrolls on the shelves. The books were organized into sections by subject matter and alphabetically. These books weren't as classified as the books that Fennic was taking them too.
"I wonder what makes these books less important or special?" Rya wondered.
"These books are considered to be more public information, or diaries of Mages of the past. They more are a time capsule and not highly valuable in are modern age," Fennic said, as he was walking behind the two.
"And there were this many writings from mages over the centuries?" Quinus asked.
"Yes, this library is massive. There are thousands of years of information and knowledge, and we still haven't cataloged everything. Most of these books speak about the daily lives of Mages' lives. There's not much about incantations or spills in them," Fennic sighed.
"So, the tomes that have information about spells and incantations are in another secure location?" Quinus asked.
"Yes, they're only available for higher ranked members," Fennic said.
"Interesting, what are all the different elements that a mage can use?" Rya asked, curiously.
"There are four basic elements. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. Then there are three advanced elements. Lightning, Ice, and Vegetation. And then the rare elements. Light, Shadow, Illusion, Space, and Time. But we have no books of the rarer magics. Light, Shadow, Illusion, Space, and Time is magic that alludes the human race, unfortunately," Fennic explained.
Rya glanced at Quin with a surprised expression, 'Really? But Johan is an Illusion mage and he's human... I feel like it shouldn't be impossible for a human to be born—Ohhh? I think I know what the problem is.'
Rya glanced over it at Fennic and asked, "Grand Master... Did you have a way to test if a humans has an affinity to any of the rare magic types?"
Fennic and Balthazar both had exasperated looks on their faces. "Well, since we humans don't have those veins in us there reason to test that, My Lady," Balthazar said, sadly.
"Ahem!... It's more like we can't. If we didn't have a mage with an affinity to one of those types we wouldn't know if the human had an affinity for it or not... Anyways, it's fun to dream that someone in the human race can have those affinities. We humans aren't like your people, Rya. Dark elves, Demons, Vampires, High Elves, Angels, Wood Elves... They have some way they know that their kin will have certain affinities. I wish I knew how they do that, but it alludes us..." Fennic said, with a depressed look.
'Huh?... That's weird... I wonder how the first Mages came to be?' Rya thought, as her curiosity was piqued.
"So, you believe that humans are incapable of having an affinity for rare magic?" Rya asked, with a frown.
"Yes," Balthazar said.
"Well... You're wrong," Rya said.
Fennic and Balthazar both looked at Rya with a puzzled expression.
"What?" Fennic and Balthazar said in unison.
Rya smiled, "On our journey to the Capital, we've ran into someone who has a rare vision of a Illusionist mage," she answered.
"I-Impossible... Who is this mage?" Balthazar said, astonished.
"I promise them to keep it a secret. They will show themselves when the time is right," Rya said.
Fennic didn't know what else to say at first, "Does this person need to learn some incantations? I worry that we don't have any books on Illusion magic..."
"I found a couple in the Ironside library and taught them a couple of spells... I found it in an old Time that was written in old Dwarven," Rya answered.
"Dwarves wrote about Illusion Magic?" Fennic asked, stunned.
"Yes, but the book was ancient. The pages were falling apart and the text was faded and it was written in a old dialect," Rya explained.
"So, it was an old dwarven book," Fennic concluded.
"Correct," Rya said.
"So, I think this new mage is the first human Illusionist in history... Why do you think they are hiding?... I would like to meet this person..." Balthazar said.
"Don't worry... I'm sure they'll reveal themselves soon enough," Rya replied, cryptically.
"Okay, okay... Enough of this. We need to get the princess to our collections of books in the library," Balthazar said.
"Yes... I wonder if our library has other hidden incantations that were lost to time..." Fennic replied.
"We shall see," Rya said.
"Let us go," Fennic said.
"Right," Rya replied, as the four headed off to back of the library in the restricted section.
They made it to a door the had the number 5 on the door and Balthazar took out a key and unlocked the door and entered the room.
"Wow... There's so many books," Princess Rya said with wide eyes. This room was smaller than the rest of the library, but it was five times bigger than Ironside's library.
"Yes. Well... You have free reign to look through the books, and we will be out in the main area if you need anything," Fennic said.
"Thanks," Princess Rya said, as the two mages left leaving Quinus alone with her.
"Are you sure you want to stay here? You could go home," Rya told Quinus.
"I'm fine... I don't want to be dragged in on Kingdom business again. Besides, I haven't spent much time with you and I would like to spend time with my future wife," Quinus said, kissing Rya's forehead.
"Oh? So romantic," Rya replied, as Quinus blushed a bit and Rya giggled at him.
"Why don't I go around to grab books and you can sit there and look pretty," Quin told Rya, making her smile and nod.
"So you want to be my assistant?" Rya joked, as Quin nodded.
"I'll help you find all the books and you can start reading them," Quin said, as Rya kissed him.
"My Hero," Rya said, as they separated and she sat down and began looking at the first book.
Quin then went to the bookcases and he grabbed a few books and went back and handed them to her.
"Thanks," Rya said.
"You're welcome. I'll be right back," Quin said, as he continued and did the same thing a few more times.
This went on for a hour as Rya scanned through the books one by one separating out the ones that weren't useful. And eventually after an hour Quin came back and handed Rya the last stack of books.
"There's still a ton more. But this will do," Rya said, as she looked through the last books and placed them into their own separate piles. Is was when she grabbed a big old black leather-bound book, did she get surprised.
Her Omni Eyes ability allowed her to read dead texts and this book of interest was written in an old Elven dialect. It read, "Diary of the Great Time Sage, Rohas."
'There's a book on Time Space magic!?... Oh that would be so cool if I could use Time magic... Too bad I don't have that Mage Vein... Well, it should be good knowledge to know if I ever run into a Time mage... I wonder if there's any spells in here for my other magics.' Rya thought to herself as she began reading the tome.
Comments
PaulMichaels
I should have put my notes in front of this chapter. I didn't like how forced the comedy was in the last chapter so this is a rewrite. I'm leaving the old chapter up for reference when Richard and George have this conversation again in the future. Sorry for the confusion
Marek Gwalt
TFTC
Micheal Kennedy
I The last two chapters have the same chapter number, I do believe. Just wanted to mention that.
PaulMichaels
So, one of my members brought up the point that the banter between George and Richard didn't feel right and I had to agree with them. I thought it would be go to have a comedic moment with George and it came at the expense of the story at this time and placed. So Richard and George will have that conversation letting in the future. Anyway hope you enjoy the rewrite. 😊
