Of course, after Melisande’s incredible reveal, Emika had tried to get some more info out of her regarding the topic. Through some back and forth, Melisande had confirmed that it indeed was not a joke, she was in fact what was commonly referred to as a ‘monster’. At the same time, though, she apparently wasn’t allowed to go into much detail about her situation or her identity due to some circumstances she was dealing with.

Eventually, Melisande wrote: uh.. this isn’t gonna change anything btw us tho right..?

Emika couldn’t possibly imagine how it would. In fact, it just made her all the more excited to get to know Melisande better. Of course, she’d have loved a clearer explanation of all of this, but… At least she’s sharing as much as she can with me, she thought, and smiled.

When Emika woke up the next day, she had to suppress the urge to just chat up Melisande again with all her might. It’s because she had planned to actually be productive today, and by now, she understood her affection for Melisande quite well enough to know that once she started talking to her, a few hours would pass in an instant.

Instead, Emika had set her sights today on another thing; the search engine called ‘Barnacle’ that she had found on Lester’s phone. And thus, planning to reward herself afterwards with a few hours of socialising with her new monster friend, she opened the page and pressed the link that said “How to use.”

It brought her to a short instruction manual that said:

“Welcome to Barnacle!

Barnacle is a spell machine that will help you channel magical or immagical information from anywhere in the world, be it contained in books, tomes, scrolls, the minds of scholars or other sources. In order to use Barnacle, you must first infuse it with magic energy. That energy will then be expended to gather relevant information to your query, and to convert and present this information in a way that is easily understandable for you (for example by means of translation or rewording).

Small amounts of magic may sometimes be sufficient, but consider that a higher amount of magic could be necessary based on the nature of your query. The amount of magic provided will impact the quality of the result in many ways.

The following outlines a typical standard procedure to provide Barnacle with magic, but as always, feel free to adjust any steps based on your personal magical aptitude and customs.

1. The Conduit: First, you will need to find a solid item with as many deep holes in it as possible. The bigger, darker and deeper the holes and the larger their number, the more efficient the spell’s magical conversion rate will be.

2. The Value: Then, find a material that is ideally dry and brittle. This is the item whose destruction will set free the magic provided to Barnacle, so be prepared to lose it (be aware that the more valuable the item is to you, the stronger the spell will be). Suitable materials can be dried flowers and plants, small works of art made out of thin crystals, or sandstone. Small pieces of dried grains, seeds, or marbles can also work.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

3. To proceed with the spell, imagine your query as detailed as possible, or write it into the Barnacle search field if random thoughts easily distract your mind. While doing so or after, crush the Value over the Conduit, for example in your fist, so that the remains of the Value fall into the holes of the Conduit.

4. Wait for the search result! It will usually take anywhere between a few seconds to a few weeks, depending on the amount of magic provided and complexity of the query.”

After reading through these instructions several times, Emika put the phone on the table and got up, strolling up and down her living room despite her sore legs.

Once she made up her mind on how to do it, she started working right away. First, she found a big chunk of wood in one of her sheds and decided to make the conduit out of that. She could have just used an electrical drill to make the holes, but decided to do it by hand, using some old tools from her father.

It would take much longer, but it would look much more aesthetic, and if she was going to use the thing regularly, she didn’t want to have just a makeshift solution. She also didn’t want all the holes to look completely uniform and technical. By slightly varying the shape of each cavity, and arranging them neatly in an interesting formation, she slowly inched towards something that looked like a lotus seed pod.

It was a big undertaking, spanning over a few hours, and she also started thinking about the value part of the spell. If it was to be something that she could crush in her fist or spill from it, then what would be a good thing to use?

Of course, she had rice and other types of grains at home, but the instructions did say that the spell would be stronger if she used something that was valuable to her… And all of these grains she could just order online for cheap.

Something valuable to her… there really was only one thing that came to her mind: her bonsai trees. Of course, these weren’t just valuable to her. In fact, they were her life. Sometimes, she called them her babies… even though a significant portion of her trees were older than herself. Thinking of her collection, there really wasn’t a single plant she was ready to just crush up. That said, for exactly that reason, they were probably very good ingredients for a spell that required something of value to her.

In the end, after many hours, she was finally done. She had a large, dark, rounded chunk of wood with countless pores in it, each of them just big enough to barely fit some of her smaller fingers. In the meantime, she had also prepared the tree. After putting the conduit on her desk, she went to the kitchen to take a plate out of the oven — with a now completely dried-out freshly baked bonsai tree of hers on it.

It was a red maple; one of her first self-made trees, and one of her oldest memories of her father, who had helped her shape it.

She carefully clipped off all the twigs with leaves from it, being very prudent to not accidentally break them before casting the spell.

Finally, her preparations were complete. It was already in the middle of the night. She felt extremely exhausted, but at the same time, wide-awake. She had positioned herself in the garden, in her favourite spot under her favourite tree, sitting in seiza.

The conduit stood before her on a small wooden tea tablet, and next to her, she had another tablet with a garnished piece of cloth over it. On it, she had neatly arranged all the twigs that had once belonged to her late red maple tree.

Lester’s phone in hand, she looked at the Barnacle display, and read through the instructions one last time, to make sure she had it all right.

Now, it was time for her first question.