While Hal directed Malakai to perform a series of physical exercises and drills, Quinn looked down at the pile of books Tim had elegantly deposited next to her. The Library had very helpfully provided her with a desk and a seat. She sighed as she examined the books. The first one was titled Nikom’s Kill It with Fire When You Have To. The second one, K’Mara’s Theories of Fire Manipulation and Healing Properties, sparked her interest. Fire, in her mind, was extremely destructive. However, she could see that the heat involved with the flame might be best used for certain aspects of healing.
This brought her to the next book, Visifan’s Heat as an Energy Replenishment Alternative, followed by Darkrai’s Effect of Heat on Various Sympathetic Species. The last book was Sir Kadion’s Fire as Defense Magic. Quinn groaned.
“Stop the groaning, little egg,” Hal said.
“Why do you call me that?” She pouted, still irritated that she couldn’t nap, even if her interest was piqued by the books.
“Because you’re young and it helps remind me that I shouldn’t expect everything of you that I would normally demand from a Librarian. You are still, in terms of your species, an infant.”
Quinn glared at him. “I’m not an infant. I wasn’t raised as this species. I’m an adult human.”
“Yes, you are, in fact, an infant.” Hal shook his head. “You’re an egg. You’re barely hatched.”
While Quinn wanted to protest, he did have a point. She’d begun looking into the dragon species and all of them had millennia lifespans. She was barely a blink in the corner of one of their eyes. “Fine, I get it. I just don’t have to like it.”
“No, you don’t have to like it and that’s perfectly okay. What you do have to like is that I picked these very specific books for you to focus on so that harnessing your power doesn’t damage you as much as I fear it might otherwise.” The concern in his tone seemed genuine.
“Okay, so what do I do?”
“Read them, Quinn. Absorb them like you would any other time you get a book,” He paused, frowning ever so slightly. “Well, you get a Library book from here, I mean.”
Quinn laughed. “Fine.”
And so she proceeded to pick up each book to absorb it.
The first one, Nikom’s Kill It With Fire When you Have to covered more complex variations of killing something with fire. There were spells like Shifting Fire Sands and Dancing Fire Falls that she could summon and cast. Not to mention advanced fireballs, and flame walls and so many other variations, but its main focus was on the control needed to wield these abilities.
She absorbed it slowly, leafing through the book as she did so. It wasn’t exactly a skill up, but now that she realized reading the books as well as absorbing them meant getting the most out of each book, it helped. She learned three very specific abilities from that book: Firestarter’s Grasp, Oxygen Deprivation, and Tylenor’s Demise. The first and the last were excellent attack skills that she would need to practice in order to harness their power properly. Oxygen Deprivation was a very simple way to extract Oxygen out of the flames and extinguish them. It was the perfect ability to snuff out flames that might be out of control or otherwise misguided.
When she moved on to K’Mara’s Theories of Fire Manipulation and Healing Properties, the book had many strange combinations that she would never have put two and two together for. At least she understood the concept of cauterization. However, the rest were out of her initial scope of expectations. Some involved the heat centers and the normal temperature of people’s bodies and how to manipulate, ignite, or wither those areas. There was a whole listing of different species that went on and on for pages. Numbers and percentages and calculations that needed to be done before she attempted to use fire as a healing magic. It was a good thing that she had other healing magic because she didn’t like the idea of healing through fire. It gave her far too large a margin for error.
An oopsie that could leave a pile of ash.
She paused and looked up, watching Malakai train under Hal’s gaze. The sound of him hitting the wooden dummy was rhythmically soothing. Hal guided the elf in ways she’d never seen Mal move. Perhaps he was teaching him to rely on physical attributes rather than his magical ones.
“Quinn,” Hal said without stopping to look around at her, “you don’t seem to be doing your work.”
“I’m taking a rest. I’ve absorbed two books. Give me a break.” She said as she popped one of the energy regeneration cupcakes into her mouth. She’d already expended just over a thousand energy.
“Oh, speaking of which, I sent for actual food. Not sweets...” He paused and then continued as if he’d read her mind. “No, not even energy sweets.”
Hal still hadn’t turned around, but she knew he was smiling. Typical. He was probably enjoying torturing them both. But with the promise of food, Quinn dove back into her books.
Visifan’s Heat as an Energy Replenishment Alternative sounded exactly like something she needed. If this book was correct, she could use heat to regenerate her energy and thus always have her energy topped off. There was a bit of finagling needed in order to apply her natural heat generation to energy regeneration. But it was perfectly logical in the way it progressed. And, if she read it correctly, mana was the next step. With enough practice and subtle direction, she’d be able to regenerate her mana quickly, or at least quicker. However, that appeared to be advanced level techniques, and she’d probably have to wait at least a few weeks for that. But the pure overpowering sense that she got from the ability, once she managed to perfect it, meant she’d almost be unstoppable. She’d be able to cast without ever having to worry about running out of energy. Imagine being her opponent? Quinn grinned to herself with glee.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The energy replenishment book was one she would revisit time and again in her spare time. She tucked it into her dimensional storage to keep it with her, making a note in the Library database that she had it. If anybody else needed it, they’d have to contact the Librarian in person. She wasn’t about to let it out of her sight, well, out of her possession anyway. In fact, she’d probably make a copy of all of these. It seemed intrinsically important to her species, to her ability to do this job. Perhaps it was just because it wasn’t a time of peace for her or the Library that she was required to use her powers as much as she had. Still, it was better to be prepared.
Aradie hooted and Quinn looked up at the owl, who landed gently on her shoulder with a bag in beak. Quinn grinned. “Thanks for that.”
The owl flashed images of Quinn wasting away from hunger and gave her owl self a cape as she swooped in with food. Quinn laughed and almost choked on the sandwich she’d bitten into. At least her owl had a sense of humor.
Fed, Quinn dove into the next book.
Darkrai’s Effect of Heat on Various Sympathetic Species was less informative than Quinn expected. She’d been thinking that it would refer to how much different species could potentially be damaged by fire. While she was right on some level, it was also a book specifically written for those species, of which she was one. There were different ways to utilize, generate, and expend heat energy that would not affect the caster, but also wouldn’t affect several hundred species to varying degrees. It also stood to reason that those same things would have disastrous effects on people who were more susceptible to fire.
Sir Kadion’s Fire as Defense Magic had applications she’d need to test out. Quinn already knew how to build shields that were, well, not impenetrable, but adept at keeping her mostly safe. However, if she’d absorbed this book correctly, she was fairly certain that she could erect a shield and include a wall of fire around it or within it even. If she made the fire portion of the shield dense enough, then it’d actually burn attacks away before they even hit her original shield. It was theoretical, but it was something she couldn’t wait to try.
“Are you done?” Hal asked her. She looked up at him, blinking, half having forgotten that she was in the room with other people.
“Oh, yes, I’ve got all of them.”
“It took you a lot longer than I thought it would.”
“Well, I wanted to make sure I understood what I was absorbing.” She frowned. “The subject matter is relatively complex, and I wanted to make sure I had a proper grasp on it.”
He grinned at her. “That’s a good mindset to have. Not all Librarians have done that, then again, not all Librarians have had to defend their Library being sabotaged. You would, in fact, be the first one I’m aware of.”
Quinn gave a tight smile.
Hal grinned. “We have some things we must go over now.”
Quinn glanced past him to where Malakai lay, spread-eagled, on the ground, looking up at the ceiling, panting and dripping with sweat. She raised an eyebrow in Hal’s direction. “You know he’s just recovered, right?”
Hal shrugged. “He’s recovered his physical state, which is the most important for his specific brand of fighting. There’s nothing wrong with him physically, except for that he is currently too weak because he’s been lying up in bed for three weeks. What he needs to do is exercise and get his stamina back so he can still perform on a battlefield. His magic will come after and he’ll be stronger for it.”
Quinn didn’t agree. She thought he should rest, but she wasn’t about to tell that to Hal, because Hal seemed very set on making sure they were both prepared for whatever was to come.
“Anyway, Quinn,” the satyr commander said, “Your fire control must be instinctive, reflexive, something that you can activate and not lose control of even in your sleep.”
Quinn nodded, listening intently.
“Fire is dangerous. It can incinerate your opponents. If you’re not careful and you don’t learn enough about it, it could even incinerate you. It has a mind of its own. However, with your proclivity for the element being intrinsic to who you are, you shouldn’t have too many problems. What we need to do is make sure that you understand your power.” He crossed his arms and flashed her a smile.
She thought it over for a few seconds. “It’s not a power that necessarily needs mana, correct?”
“Exactly!” He clapped his hands once. “This affinity is baked in with your genetic code would be probably the best way to describe it. That, water, and air manipulation. There are several others...”
“Air manipulation?” Quinn asked.
“Most dragons have air manipulation,” Hal paused, thinking it over... “Actually, all of them have it, otherwise they couldn’t fly the way they do. Still, we need you to understand how to use it as an extension of yourself, not only in combat, but in everyday life. You should always be practicing some of the forms we’re about to go through.”
Quinn nodded and followed Uncle Hal’s lead. He taught her to visualize the fire as a concept before she performed actions with it. It was more difficult than she’d anticipated, forming the flame in her mind before activating it. The first few times she tried it on her palm, she failed.
It flickered and then petered out, leaving an odd smell of sulfur in its wake.
Hal gently encouraged her, “Just keep going. You’ll get it. You’ve almost got it each time.”
When she finally did achieve it, the flame was oddly cartoon-like. It seemed surreal, not like real fire, but more an almost abstract version of it. She could make it grow or shrink, throw it from one hand to another.
Hal beamed. “Excellent. Now, you understand how to conceptualize. You need to practice this until it’s barely more than a thought before it appears. You won’t get it immediately. But if you work at it day in and day out, you’ll have it in no time. It’s a part of you. It just hasn’t been awakened.”
“Okay.” She could feel the heat, but not in a burning way. No burning sensations whatsoever. Not even sweat formed on her when she knew she should be feeling hot. Hours passed as she concentrated, visualizing more difficult things like circles of fire, balls of fire, fire-encased shielding.
And then, all of a sudden, something clicked in her mind.
She stopped short and looked over at Hal.
He was grinning at her, even though Malakai was currently assaulting him with a series of kicks and punches. “Did you feel that, little egg?”
“Yeah,” she replied almost breathlessly. “What was that?”
“You’ve finally accepted the flame that is part of your heritage.”
Even I noticed it. Well done, the Library piped in unexpectedly. And done just in time.
“What do you mean?” Quinn asked, still sort of floating on cloud nine. She was elated that she could manifest fire with a thought. She created a wreath of fire swirling in front of her, tightly controlled. They were just little things. There was so much more she needed to learn. But for now, for now, she understood that it was simply an extension of who she was.
What do I mean? the Library said. Check your updates.
Quinn grinned. The combat branch was ready to open.