Pear opened his eyes and groaned quietly at the piercing beam of the morning sun that glared through the crack in the shuttered window to fall directly into his eye. Rolling away from the too bright light, he pushed himself up and groaned again at the stiffness in his back as Savantha’s snoring reached him from her spot on the bed above him.
“Right, be a gentleman, give up the bed, and take the floor,” Pear muttered to himself grouchily as he stood up and stretched before cracking his neck and moving to the empty bowl with a pitcher of water beside it.
After washing his face, Pear set his clothes in better order and attempted to smooth out the wrinkles on them before exiting the room and heading toward the inn’s common room for breakfast.
“Sleep alright?” the Innkeeper, a large, balding, Human man with an easy gap-toothed smile, asked with a waggle of his bushy unibrow.
“Fine enough,” Pear said, taking an empty seat at the bar. “Your floor wasn’t that comfortable, but it worked for last night.”
“Oh,” the Innkeeper said, his playful interest waning. “What can I get you for breakfast? We’ve got fresh bread, eggs, sausages, bacon, and the fixings for omelets.”
“Can I get an omelet with peppers, onions, mushrooms, bacon, and cheese in it, a slice of bread, and some milk?” Pear asked after a moment of thought.
“Coming right up,” the Innkeeper grinned. “Breakfast was included in the cost last night if you didn’t remember.”
“Oh thanks,” Pear said with a grateful smile as his hand fell away from his coin pouch.
As he waited for his breakfast, Pear turned his attention to the people that filled the inn’s common room and studied the people around him, trying to pick out the other players from the NPCs. Just as he convinced himself that the man with off-white hair and pitch black eyes was another player, his breakfast arrived on a platter that the Innkeeper set in front of him with a slight thump.
“Enjoy,” the large man said happily before moving to clear a table that had just been emptied.
Calling his thanks at the man’s back, Pear dug into his breakfast and turned his thoughts to his plans for the day as Ripspell sat beside him.
“Morning Apprentice,” Ripspell greeted him.
“Morning Master,” Pear said after swallowing the bite he’d been working on. “What brings you here this morning?”
“You,” Ripspell said as though it were obvious. “I wanted to discuss with you your plans for today and offer my own recommendations if you’d be open to them.”
“That’s great,” Pear said gratefully. “I was just thinking about what I was going to do, and I decided that I wanted to spend some time looking through the college’s library to try and learn more about spells. I know that I can draw shapes and get new spells out of it all, but I don’t know what sorts of shapes I should try. I also thought about bonding with that grimoire you gave me and having it start recording anything I learn about magical knowledge. After that, if there was time, I’d like to try and find some new clothes. Everyone’s been nice enough to me so far, but I know that what I’m wearing is probably pretty ripe and dirty.”
“I would recommend the clothing shopping comes first then,” Ripspell said sagely. “If you plan to search through the library for magical knowledge, I would actually recommend that you make use of the college’s foremost function and seek out a class. I will help you choose something. As for your grimoire, and I would advise that you not speak so openly of such an item, all magical knowledge you learn is a fine idea in theory, but it is also very ambitious. Grimoires are living magical items; that means that they will do all they can to seek out the knowledge you wish them to record. Powerful magical masters and excessively rich magical novices will often use a grimoire as a means of recording their spells, in doing so, the first spell they teach it or learn will often cause the grimoire to seek that sort of spell and eventually it will alter the spells it knows to be more in line with the first spell.”
“So, what are you saying?” Pear asked as he swallowed another bite. “If I tell the book to record all magical knowledge, will it start trying to eat other books or alter spells to be more efficient or weird somehow?”
“It will,” Ripspell nodded. “There have been multiple examples of both things and worse happening. One such grimoire became sentient and overtook the mind of a child that it came in contact with. Using the child’s body, the grimoire opened a tear into the Abyss, the home of Demons, and it attempted to subjugate the Demons that came through for a time before it was destroyed by a raging Demon Lord. That was several centuries ago and it was one of the few known times that all three Pantheons joined together to repel the Demon Lord and its forces.”
“No matter what you choose for your grimoire, I advise caution and care above everything else,” Ripspell said seriously. “Do not allow yourself to look so far to the future that you cannot see the stones that will cause you to stumble.”
“I’ll do my best, Master,” Pear said seriously. “Thank you for the warnings.”
“I can only hope that you heed them,” Ripspell said, suddenly sounding weary and much older than he looked. “Now if you will excuse me, I will return to the College and prepare materials for you to look through before you make a decision about which class you would like to take.”
“Thank you,” Pear said. “I’ll be there around lunch I think. Maybe we can get something to eat while we go over what you have for me.”
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“I think I would like that very much, actually,” Ripspell said, his voice becoming lighter and happier at the thought. “Until then, Apprentice Pear.”
“Until then, Master Ripspell,” Pear said, bowing his head toward the man as he slid off the stool he’d sat on and disappeared out the inn’s door.
“Pear,” Savantha groaned from his other side as she sat heavily beside him. “What the hell?”
“Morning,” he grinned at the Lioness woman. “Sleep well?”
“I woke up in the recovery position with my head hanging over a bucket,” she moaned. “How do you think I slept?”
“You’re welcome,” Pear said.
“How are you not dead?” she asked as she massaged her head and stole his glass of milk.
“Always been able to hold my alcohol,” Pear said with a shrug as he finished clearing his food from his plate. “Remind me to tell you about my frat brothers from college sometime. If you want to stay here for a minute and get some food, the cost was already covered so you’re good to order. I’m going looking for new clothes and somewhere to take a bath. Assuming they don’t have showers.”
“You should really get to that,” Savantha said, wrinkling her nose before discreetly sniffing herself. “And I should too. Can you wait for me?”
“I guess so,” Pear shrugged. “But I’m going back to the room for that. I’ve got some private stuff to take care of.”
“Thank you,” she said with a grateful sigh as the Innkeeper walked up and took Pear’s plate before giving her a sympathetic look. “Can I get some water? Or coffee if you have it?”
Leaving his companion to recover from her hangover, Pear climbed the stairs to the room they’d rented for the night and after securely shutting the door, pulled out his Blank Grimoire and pushed some mana into it.
You have found a Grimoire. Would you like to bond with this Grimoire?
Y/N
Selecting yes, Pear watched as the simple, leather-bound, thin book began to shift and the buckled strap on the front came undone and the grimoire opened to the blank first page as script began to fade into view with black ink.
Seek a Bond?
“I do,” Pear said.
Bind in Blood our Destinies. Tell me your Name and I’ll give you mine.
“I’m Pear,” he said, pricking his thumb with his skinning knife. As the first red droplet soaked into the page, his name began to ink itself across the top of the page before being followed by his title as Ripspell’s apprentice.
I am Blank. I have no Name. Will you give me one?
“How about, Ink?” Pear asked after a minute of thinking. “It’s how you’re talking to me right now, so let’s make it your name.”
Acceptable. Pear, Theobald’s Apprentice, I am Ink. What Knowledge do you seek?
“I want to learn all I can about magic,” Pear said. “Right now, I’m trying to learn more about Elemental Magic than anything else, but I might branch into the other types later.”
I am Blank. I have no Knowledge to offer to you. Will you allow me to accompany you and learn more so that I can acquire Knowledge?
“Sure,” Pear said. “Happy to have you with me, Ink.”
I am happy that I will be able to fill my pages with Knowledge.
You have successfully bound the Grimoire, Ink, to you. Per your bond with Ink, you will be required to seek out new Knowledge of Magic. The more Knowledge you learn and share with Ink at one time, the longer you can go without Seeking more Knowledge. If you make a discovery of Magical Knowledge that is Unknown, you will be able to select a Magical Perk that Ink will give to you for the duration of your bond. If Ink makes a discovery of Magical Knowledge that is Unknown, Ink will be able to select a Magical Perk that Ink will give you for the duration of your bond.
“Oh joy,” Pear said as Ink snapped closed and the buckle closed with a smooth motion. “That sounds like you can give me something I really won’t want.”
Offering nothing else, Ink sank into Pear’s hands and remained inert as Pear pulled out the strange harness that Ripspell had included for him to carry the Grimoire on his belt. Once the Grimoire was securely attached to him, Pear moved to leave the inn and grabbed a still hung-over and groaning Savantha on his way out.
“This is a pretty fancy place,” Savantha said as she looked up at the towering monuments to magic that made up the Mage’s College. “I like the towers. If you’re gonna be a wizard, you gotta have a tower.”
“It is pretty cool,” Pear agreed, glad that he could turn her attention away from him after his clothes shopping and bath.
“So are you gonna go in or are you gonna stay out here looking at it all with me?” Savantha asked.
“I thought you’d want to go inside, so I was going to wait,” Pear said quietly.
“Aw, you big sweetie, you,” Savantha teased him with a hug. “What are we waiting for then? If the outside looks this cool, then the inside is probably even better.”
Releasing the blushing Elf, Savantha made her way up the steps to the door under the watchful eyes of the guards on either side. Waving to the two guards, she reached out to the door before looking back at Pear.
“Come on! We don’t want to keep that Ripspell guy waiting do we?” she called to him. Breaking from his attempt at becoming a statue, Pear forced himself to climb the steps and ignored the sudden knowing smirks one of the guards began to shoot his way as he approached the door.
Leading the way with a grin, Savantha stepped through the door and into the marbled lobby floor that was being overseen by a Gremlin woman at a circular desk in the center of the room.
“Can I help you?” she asked with a pointed look at the tribal-inspired outfit that Savantha wore. “Perhaps directions to the Mercenary’s Guild?”
“I’m Pear,” Pear introduced himself. “Theobald Ripspell’s Apprentice. I’m supposed to meet him.”
“Three floors up,” the Gremlin said after a moment of studying him. “He’s expecting you in his office.”
Thanking the secretary, Pear pulled Savantha toward the door the Gremlin had indicated and they began to climb the stairs that circled the tower’s outside with windows offering higher and higher views of the city outside.