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EC Book 4, Chapter 20 - Semerit Demerit
🕑 Added 2024-03-18 16:40:31 +0000 UTCAn hour later found them with a small pile of books about semerits. If there was anything Helg was good at, it was organization—all the books about semerits were sorted together, and it hadn't actually taken a lot of time for them to find the section and then drag every last one of those books over to their shared table.
The 'small pile' probably had over a hundred books in it. It was only small relative to the size of the library.
"A lot of these books are just fiction," Vex said with a slight frown. He stared at the book he was holding. It was, as best as he could tell, a children's book about a so-called 'chosen one' who wielded a semerit of courage. "And they're basically just using the word semerit to describe any random artifact of power. Or any item the plot has to revolve around, even."
"I don't think Helg was being very discerning when she sorted the books here," Novice said dryly. "Any mention of it was enough."
"It shows," Vex said with a sigh. He put the book he was looking at to the side into a growing pile of 'books that were unlikely to have any worthwhile information', and picked up the next one.
He stopped.
This book had mana in it. It hadn't been obvious from a distance, not even to someone with [Advanced Mana Sight] constantly active like he did—almost like there was a protective layer of some sort shielding the book. But the moment his scales made contact with the tome, he could feel it, surging within the pages. Almost... trapped.
Sure enough, trying to open the book did nothing; it remained stuck stubbornly closed.
Good thing he had a spell for that.
"This one's enchanted," Vex said. "And locked with an enchantment, too. You know anything about that?"
"What?" Novice looked up, frowning. "No. The forbidden section itself is already locked; none of the books inside it are supposed to have any extra enchantments on them. Are you sure the pages aren't just... stuck together or something? Maybe someone spilled some juice on it."
Vex gave Novice a deadpan look, and the other lizardkin laughed sheepishly. "Or maybe not."
"It is slightly Shifted," Derivan commented, glancing over to the tome. "You are able to unlock it?"
"Yeah, I got this," Vex said. He held a hand out over the book, channeling a basic [Dispel] on the outermost enchantment. "Just wanted to see if there was anything I needed to be aware of. [Dispel]ling an unknown enchantment isn't always a good idea."
"I can help if something goes wrong," Novice offered.
"As can I," Derivan said. He placed the book he was looking through down and turned in his chair to fully face Vex.
"It's probably not anything that serious," Vex said, chuckling awkwardly—mostly to hide the fact that he was actually nervous. This felt a little too much like a trap. "I'm going to [Dispel] it now."
It had been a while since he'd done this. Vex pulled out his dagger, cutting the system rune for [Dispel] into the air and targeting the book; he felt mana gather into the rigid structure of the rune, and gently modified it into something a little closer to its glyphic form so the spell wouldn't fight with the ambient mana in Teque. There was a brief pause as the mana recognized the spell he was casting, followed by a flash of light—
—and then an enormous wave of mana poured out of the book. Vex almost flinched; the power was strong enough that he could feel it, and it would have physically pushed him back if he hadn't been sat in his chair. As it was, it was strong enough to slightly make his chair tilt. Novice nearly did fall over.
Derivan didn't budge at all, of course.
"Jeez," Vex muttered, opening the book. "That was a lot of mana stored in this thing. Why put so much mana into a book?"
Novice stared at him. "I'm almost certain you just used a basic [Dispel] on a platinum-level enchantment."
"What?" Vex looked up at Novice, blinking. "Oh, uh. Probably, I guess?"
Novice just shook his head in astonishment. Vex, who didn't quite get it, went back to the book, stopping at the first page.
This wasn't written like a traditional book. This was a diary.
—
Day 1.
I've acquired access to the Far Libraries. It's a momentous day! They don't usually let anyone visit—hard enough to get a qualified Navigator these days, and half of the Libraries are down for maintenance or something. Think it's related to what's happening all across Obreve, but I can't be sure. Going to keep a record of everything I find and discover, just in case I become part of the Forgotten. Hopefully the enchantment on this book will keep it safe. Powerful enough magic should repel the Void... in theory.
The hope is that the Far Libraries will have something that can help us. They're supposed to be a record of everything that's ever happened and everything that will ever happen—if there's any solution to this crisis at all, it'll be written in a book somewhere. Normally they don't let outsiders come in and search for the future like this, but I guess they must be desperate too, huh?
...In retrospect, that's actually probably not a good sign. Hm.
—
Day 2.
The journey took a lot longer than I expected. I feel like we passed a lot of Libraries on the way to this one, but for whatever reason my Navigator wouldn't stop at any of the other ones—maybe I'm only authorized to visit this one, or something. I don't really know how the Librarians work as an organization. I'm not complaining; getting access at all is a privilege.
The problem is that there are just... so many books. Library magic doesn't help me sort through them. I mean, it does, but there's so much of it that library magic barely helps. I don't know enough about the book I want to narrow down the search, and looking blindly for 'the future' leads me down rows of empty shelves.
Which is worrying. There shouldn't be empty shelves. Not in the Far Libraries. They're an infinite record. How could there be any empty shelves?
Whatever. I'm... I'm sure I'll find what I need somewhere in here. I've got to.
—
Day 3.
I've heard about semerits before. This is the first time I've seen one in person. It's nothing like I imagined—all glass and bone and twisted roots. I'm not actually sure how to describe it, but it's kind of... ugly. The Librarian says it isn't supposed to look like that, which is probably the most worrying thing I've heard while here, and I've heard a lot of worrying things.
Like new books no longer showing up. It's making me wonder if we don't actually find a solution for this in the end.
But... the future isn't set in stone. The Librarians say this themselves. Sometimes a change happens and sweeps through the Far Libraries. New books show up, old ones disappear. So my hope is that I'll find something here that changes things. The best part is that I'd get to see the results immediately!
So far no changes, though.
I think I'm going to look into this semerit thing. Judging by what the Librarian has said, it's going to be our best bet at beating back the Void, whatever the Void is. So the next few pages are going to be notes on everything I find out about them.
—
Day 4.
Okay, so semerits are... harbingers of change to the mana, or something. It's all kind of technical. The Far Libraries serve as some kind of archive that the magic draws from, like a giant magical database maintained by the Librarians. I still have no idea who or what the Librarians are. People made by mana, I guess? Not sure how to feel about a group of people literally created to maintain a magical database. I need to ask Greg—I should probably mention that the Librarian showing me around this place is named Greg, or at least he says that's what I should call him—if he gets vacation days. It's kind of messed up if he doesn't.
Anyway, back to the semerit thing. They're harbingers of change. They show up when a new bookshelf is about to be filled, or when a new spell is going to be created. Sometimes it's the other way around, too. Sometimes they show up when a set of shelves is about to be destroyed, or a bunch of books are going to disappear, because of some fundamental change to time.
So that's... interesting. It's almost like they're stored potential. Or like... a waste product created when a massive change occurs, to think about it in a nastier way. It's probably not a waste product. The Librarians speak about it like they're almost divine devices, and I can feel an enormous amount of power stored in them.
Maybe it'd be more accurate to think of them as tumors. Like reality can't perfectly adjust to all the changes that magic makes to it, so the mana just stuffs all that extra change into a little ball and calls it a day. Tons of stored potential, not much use. Symbolic in nature, for the most part, but that doesn't mean they can't be used.
I'll have to run that idea by Greg.
—
Day 5.
Greg says he's willing to let me try just about anything, at this point, which is also worrying but kind of gratifying. I think he trusts me!
Well, that, or he's tired of me. I'm going with the more optimistic thought process on that one.
I've tried casting a few diagnostic spells on the semerit, to disappointing results. Mana refuses to acknowledge it. There's probably a way to get it to work, but I think I'm going to switch to more technological means of analysis. Theoretically, someone with a good enough relationship with mana and with a true understanding of its nature might be able to use that stored potential-of-change to impose any kind of change in reality that they want, kind of like a limitless spell... but that's not going to be me. I can barely use magic to tie my shoelaces.
—
Day 6.
Technology is great! I've managed to tap into the semerit, and I was right! It contains records—a whole different branch of reality stored like a tumor. The way things could have been, but trapped within a physical vessel. The Far Libraries feed on these things, almost; some of the older semerit seem to be mostly dead, their power drained. Interesting ecosystem of sorts.
As for whether that's useful... maybe. I think if I can find a semerit where the Void never shows up, I could maybe find a way to force reality to align to that future, instead of the one we're currently in. Wish me luck!
—
Day 6,182.
I've searched them all. There is none.
Comments
Silver Linings
Thank you so much! I'll be uploading a bunch more chapters soon. Just getting through the ending now!
Euan Smith
I'm still here too, and so happy that the story can reach it's conclusion. I was worried for a while that it might stay unfinished, so thank you!
Douglas Miller
I'm still here, and looking forward to the rest of it! Did you just screw up the numbering, or did you actually skip chapter 19 by accident? Or are you getting a bit meta, and chapter 19 got eaten by the Void?
Silver Linings
I'm not sure if anyone is still reading Edge Cases on Patreon. Please let me know if you are! I'll allocate more time to posting chapters if someone's keeping up.
