This is something I cannot abide. A librarian can have no tolerance for a disturbance in her library. I hate to do it. I hate to unleash such fearsome power, but I must.
I make the appropriate gestures, give the required glare, then raise my finger up before my lips and utter the incantation: Shhhhhhhh!!!
The Great Hero’s voice is silenced. He is still shouting but no one can hear him. His eyes widen in shock and fear. I gesture and his eyes fall on me, his face twists in fury.
I gesture again, performing my second spell, ending with a flick of the wrist toward the door. His body goes rigid and turns as his feet march him out of the library against his will. The door closes quietly behind him.
The Great Saint’s eyes are as big as dinner plates. I turn back to my work.
Wow. Just, WOW! The secret powers of librarians in this world are beyond belief. You better believe I’m never gonna get out of line in this library. Makes me wonder what the fines are like if you don’t bring a book back on time.
But back to training. I am once again in the outdoor training courtyard. I’ve fallen behind and need to do some extra work to catch up.
My Sigil allows me to do three things. First, I can imbue my arrows with extra attack power; either fire or kinetic energy. Done properly I can even make my arrows explode. Second, I can boost the magic I add to my arrows. The longer I hold my full draw, the more energy flows into them. Finally, after I shoot I can move very quickly for a short time.
What I’m working on right now is the second one. I have found through trial and error (mostly error) that a single arrow can only take so much magic energy before it explodes. In other words, hold my draw too long and I’ll get a face full of fiery splinters.
Not. Fun. Requires a lot of healing. Especially if they’re driven into my eyes. Again, NOT FUN. Hard to emphasize that enough.
So today’s session is to try to find that edge. That moment in time where the arrow has exactly as much as it can hold and no more. I nock an arrow to my bow and line up on my target. Slowly I draw back and let the magic flow, feeling for that moment. That single perfect moment.
That bitch! That slut! That …… rrrrrgghhhh …… that librarian!
I want to vow to get her. To teach her a lesson.
But let’s face it. Even I know I went too far today. What’s wrong with me? I’ve changed since I came here. Is it the magic? Is it the power? The responsibility?
What’s made me into such a loose cannon?
I stalk into the magic training salle. Maybe…maybe if I can learn to better control my magic I’ll be able to better control myself.
I set my gear aside and take a deep breath. Line up on the target down range. Summon my magic and let fly.
I’m in my little clinic healing people when my assistant for the day, a boy named Samlen, starts acting strange. I’d just finished healing a broken arm and have been waiting for him to bring me the next patient.
I can hear him stammering and stuttering out in the waiting room, so I get up and go to the door. “Samlen, is there a problem?” I ask.
“N-n-no sir,” he replies. I feel like giving him a little snark back because obviously something abnormal is going on, but before I can draw a breath I hear the voice.
The voice of an angel. “My pardon, healer. I’m afraid I’ve discomfited the poor boy.”
I’m a little bit discomfited myself. The voice is sweet and soft beyond anything I had previously imagined. I try to stay professional, though. “Are you next in line? Please come in.”
“Thank you, healer.” I turn back into my room and she follows, closing the door and leaving Samlen in the hallway. At least, I hope she’s a she. Because I’m in love. Which is to say even more in love than I’m normally in love when I hear a woman with an attractive voice. Or smell. Or anything really.
“Please sit down. What’s the problem?”
“I’m a Harvester passing through on my way to the sea. My companions and I were taken unawares by a Spirit beast in a nearby Hex. I was bitten and thought I was healing fine, but I fear the wound has become infected.”
“I understand. May I examine you?”
“Please do.” I extend my senses and cast Scan and Diagnose spells. I quickly find the wound on her arm and concur with what she has said. An infection. Plus, I definitely know she’s a girl now. Suck it Superman!
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I smile, “You’re correct. I’m going to Cleanse the wound. You might want to take off your garment and cover the wound with this cloth to catch any fluids which escape. Let me know when you’re ready.”
She takes the cloth and I hear her take off her shirt. “Okay. I’m ready.”
I cast Cleanse on the wound, followed by Cure 1. I feel the wound seal up and start to heal properly. “You can throw the dirty cloth in this bucket.” I indicate the bucket in the corner near the door.
“You’re blind. Is it hard to heal when you can’t see?” she asks.
“Not for me. I have a strong Spirit sense and can sense what I need to know in other ways. I am only hampered doing related things, like physically cleaning wounds or trying to set bones prior to healing.”
“I see. Well, this healing was perfect. I’ll be sure to cleanse the wound again thoroughly when I get back to my room. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I hesitate for a moment. “I have a question for you, if you don’t mind. I’m new to this world and I hesitate because I don’t want to offend you.”
“Please ask, healer. I don’t mind.”
“You’re not human, are you?”
She laughs. A merry sound like tinkling bells. “No, I’m not. I’m of the elven race. Have you not met any non-humans?”
“No. No, I haven’t. Well, maybe?”
“That was a very ambiguous response, Healer.”
“Oh, please call me Nix. I’ve met some gorgons. But I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t a dream.”
“Gorgons? That’s something few people can say. I hate to say something like, ‘you’re lucky you’re blind,’ but you’re lucky you’re blind. And my name is Alnenia.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Alnenia. One last question: in the world I came from, elves were thought to be mythical immortal creatures. The one common theme in the legends is that elves are beautiful beyond compare. Is that true?”
“I’d like to think I’m reasonably attractive, Nix. But I think you’re cute, too. I must be going now, there are others waiting.”
I blush at her compliment, then stand to see her out. Just before she opens the door she turns and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Take care, Healer Nix.”
“Take care, Alnenia,” I respond, raising my hand to touch my cheek as she moves out the door and down the hallway.
Rio is going to crap himself when I tell him this story. For the first time in my life I’ve gotten the jump on him in the lists of love! Kissed by a hot elf!! I’m gonna tell everybody!!!!
[Sword: good condition]
[Hat: Blue, faded, average condition]
[Duck: Mallard, 13 months old, hungry]
[Mindy Jones: Female, human, Saint {Life, Soul}, Resurrection Sigil, slightly horny, ....]
Ooooh! TMI. I'm sittin' in the garden, testing out some new magic: Appraisal. I know that this is a standard spell/skill for fantasy anime, but it's pretty rare here. Only a Seeker like me can cast it. Seeker's are super-rare because they need a combination of three affinities. And since people only cast magic with Sigils these days, even if they have the right affinities they probably won't be able to find a rare high-level Sigil with Seeker magic to work with.
Anyway, what was I thinkin' about? Oh yeah! Appraisal. Took me a lot of time and study to figure out how to cast this spell. Not that it's a difficult one, but there's a lot to learn about casting magic and it's new to all of us.
Thank the Gods for Penny! She's been such a great help. Don't know what her back story is yet, but I know she was denied a Sigil for her affinities. Their loss, our gain. Her gain too. That's what forced her to learn magic the old-fashioned way. Takes more work but you can do a lot more this way. Sigils limit you. Big time.
Back on topic. Penny has been happy to share her knowledge with us. Don't think she does that with many people. We're special! Leastways us girls. Nix and Rio are dorks!
Appraisal gives varying amounts of information about things and people. When I cast it, it's like I hear someone whispering in my ear. Tellin' me stuff. Different voices, different tones, different volumes, different timbres, depending. Don't know what that means; I think there's information included in the voicing that I don't know how to interpret yet.
What the hell’s timbre anyway? And why’s it pronounced tam-ber when it's spelled like tim-ber? Dunno. At least I got to use it in a sentence once anyways. Vocab Skill +1!
Sometimes the data dump is short, like with the duck. Sometimes it's long, like with that bitch Mindy. Oooh! did I just say that? Oh, snap! That wasn't actually included in the info but I know Mindy. She is. Prolly shoulda made it a capital B.
Looks like she needs to drag Rio into a closet. It's happened before.... Rio is kinda like a handy community service provider in some ways. Damn horndork!
Okay. Guess Appraisal is working for me. Now I need to figure out how to fine tune it. Too much information is going to be as bad as not enough information with this thing. Time to hit the books again, maybe. Or talk to Penny and Saki. Saki's workin' on fine control also. Maybe she can give me some pointers.
Leading this group of free spirits is a challenge. I can see why they stiffed me with the job.
Well, a challenge and not a challenge. We study more and better than all others. No one can hold a candle to us in learning. Nor does anyone have to tell us to do it. It's as natural as breathing to us.
Provided we have books. And we have all the books we can handle right now. We're each reading at least eight hours a day. (No braille here, so Jane reads to Nix. Poor girl is starting to go hoarse.) All the rest of our time is given over to practicing what we learn.
Which is the headache really. What we're learning now are not purely academic subjects.
On this particular morning, Saki's practicing Mana manipulation - channeling a ball of Mana into her hand, then phasing it through the different aspects: Earth, air, fire, water, electricity, kinetic.
Nix is making origami golems. He has a squad of little frogs hopping around in formation on the table top and a flock of little cranes flying in formation above us.
Rio's sitting on the couch, meditating on Fate. Kari's doing some kind of martial arts kata in the corner, working on Body Enhancement. I'm trying to make sense of a text about Holistic magic.
One of the paper cranes flies too close to Saki's ball of Mana energy just as it cycles to fire.
"It's burning!" I shout out.
Now a flaming fireball, the crane crash lands on the table right in the middle of the frog squad. Now imagine, if you can, frantic flaming frogs fearfully flailing about on a table full of books and papers.
"I got it!" Kari leaps into action, slapping at the fireballs on the table. Having forgotten that she's magically enhanced her strength and speed. The table collapses in an explosion of splinters.
Tara and Jane, who've been rolling on the floor laughing up to this point, produce buckets of water and douse everything and everybody.
Where'd they get the buckets? Did they see this one coming?
Who can possibly claim that learning isn't fun?