Chapter 12: ancient magic

  While the sisters were discussing, Corantin was observing a wall located deep within the manor basement. On it was a magic circle that had frustrated his family for generations. The legend was that the mansion had been built on top of ancient ruins and this magic circle sealed them off. His family, since even before the foundation of Vicrdie, had tried to break the seal and explore whatever it protected with no success. Like many before him, he was analyzing the various interwoven lines, hoping to find the detail that had escape his ancestors’ scrutiny.

  He moved away from the seal and peer through the many documents created through the years seeking differences that could open new possibilities. His ancestors had long ago determined that rather than a single rge magic circle, the seal was actually multiple smaller circles combined. Therefore, they had started insoting each individual circles. As Corantin constantly moved his eyes from the paper to the wall, the endless tangle of magical ink became almost hypnotic. At the slightest slip up, Corantin would lose his marks and find mistakes where there was none.

  Eventually, he had to concede that no mistake had been made or it had long been corrected by someone. Leaving the sheets containing parts of the complex magic circle, he took the notes written on the part he was observing. Unfortunately, he found no discrepancy. He thought most research on the seal had been about studying and understand it, this is why Corantin had focused his energy trying to find errors in the manuscripts. But he now had to admit that this method led nowhere. If something was incorrect, he cked the knowledge to find it.

  Dejected he left the basement and headed toward the library. If his first approach had failed, he had no choice but going back to basics and scour for more knowledge about ancient magic. His family library was probably one of preeminent collection of books on ancient magic. No surprise when for generation they had tried to crack an ancient seal.

  Once he got there, he took out a catalog of all documents and started to cssify them and rank what he had to read in the coming days. When his gargantuan task was done, the day was almost over. As he was leaving, Emily followed him.

  “Is it time?” she asked, thrilled to finally train her sister in earnest.

  “Yes, we can’t let our trainee feel lonely isn’t it,” replied Corantin, training Vallerie would provide the perfect distraction from the boring clerical work he loathed.

  As for why he did not appoint somebody else to the task? Once again it was the ck of mage under his employ, and he could not entrust this to a non-initiated.

  ***

  The next morning, Corantin woke up with Emily’s special morning greeting. He stood energic ready for to repeat yesterday’s routine. With administrative work done for this year taxation, he could enjoy a freer life, while his trusted clerks managed the daily administration. His only remaining mandatory responsibility was to receive petitioners every morning. Aiming to expedite this, he quickly went to the audience chambers hoping for only a handful of visitors today.

  Upon entering the chamber, he rejoices to see only three visitors. The first two were easy to handle, one of them had got drunk and caused some damage yesterday, the other one was the owner of the property that had been damage. Corantin quickly mediated the reparations. The st man was more interesting. He was an itinerant merchant and was requesting authorisation to set up shop in town for a few days. As per tradition, he was offering Corantin a first look at his ware. He was a bit te, most of his counterparts had already left the region, but Corantin had no reason to refuse the request. He was about to grant his demand and dismiss him. His offer did not appeal to him, yet a hunch took him. So, he decided to accept the offer and browse his wares.

  Corantin was surprised, he expected another merchant dealing in agricultural necessities, but this merchant mostly dealt in luxurious goods: silks and other expansive fabric; magical weapons of all sorts; and many books of varying origins.

  He only gave a gnce at the fabrics and the magical weapons he had no uses for. His attention focused on the selection of books after ordering Emily to go fetch the library’s catalog. He sought any new document pertaining to ancient magic, any insight on the matter could be the key to crack open the seal downstairs, so he noted any book about the subject to cross reference with the catalog he requested. As he was reaching the end of the trader’s inventory, a book that should have been unassuming caught Corantin’s eyes. It was an old book, damaged and yellowed by time, but it had one defining characteristic that made it more notable than any of the other books he looked at. It was written in a dead nguage, one Corantin was lucky enough to understand.

  While he was cautiously examining the tome, Emily, finally came back with the library’s catalog. He scanned the list but when he reached the end without finding the old tome title, he knew he had found a gem. He turned toward the trader and pointed a few books mentioning the tome in the end aiming to cover his enthusiasm. The merchant quickly calcuted the prices of all the books until he got to the st one to which he had no recollection of possessing. He simply gave the book a token price unable to envision getting another opportunity to get rid of such a niche product and told the total to Corantin. The young lord engaged in a bit of haggling. He managed to convince the merchant to give him a small discount without having to use force. Once the merchant received his gold both parties part ways satisfied.

  He immediately delved into the book the tome. While Corantin was expecting a challenge to try to understand the ancient nguage, but the difficulty of the material was beyond his wildest expectations. The spells contained within the book were magnitudes more complex than what he expected. Yet, the man did not despair. He saw this as an opportunity. For him, the more complex it was, the more likely it was to lead to a solution that would unlock the seal. And should this prove fruitless in his endeavors, he knew understanding such a complex spell would be an amazing discovery in itself.

  ***

  Corantin pced the tome that had occupied his days down on the table. He massaged his temples to calm the headache the effort had brought him. Noticing, her master, Emily immediately joined his side awaiting the instructions for today training. For the st week, once Corantin was unable to continue studying the ancient spells he would go down in the basement and py with Vallerie until his mental fatigue subsided. While choosing how to train Vallerie, he started to look back on the previous week training and the progress she had made.

  masterOfWritersBlock