Chapter Two: Diary Problems

There are moments in life when you have to take a step back and ask yourself a few questions, like what specific life choices were the ones that ultimately culminated in you finding yourself in whatever situation you happen to find yourself in.

Moments like now for instance. Janis, and I had spent the past three quarters of an hour chasing a flying, magical book written by one of the greatest trickster mages alive through a labyrinth of bookcases, and my continued access to the only place that kept me from dropping out of one of the more prestigious magical academies in the country potentially depended on my ability to catch said flying, magical trickster book.

Our forty-five minute chase had culminated in both Janis and I standing at the base of the tallest bookshelf I had ever seen. Looming some thirty feet high, it dwarfed the surrounding shelves and stretched almost all the way to the ceiling of the library. It was made of wood so dark as to seem black, and the shadow it cast seemed to stretch much farther than its impressive height would indicate. Even standing well back I couldn't help feeling a little intimidated.

By a shelf.

"That's the Restricted Shelf", whispered Janis. "Only full Arcanists and Professors are allowed access to it." He sounded almost awed.

"Why am I a little scared of it?" I whispered back.

"It's an enchantment, I think. It's supposed to stop students from getting too close. Those books are restricted for a reason. It's said that only books containing great power and wisdom can even be placed on its shelves."

I looked at the glowing device Janis held in his hand. A Divining Rod. It looked similar to a regular wand, except it was crafted for the specific purpose of casting divination spells. A single yellowish pinpoint of light shone from the tip of the rod, and a little trail about three fingers long tapered off in the direction of the Restricted Shelves.

"Well, I dunno about that." I said, finally seeing where the Diary had come to rest this time. "Because the Diary seems to be enjoying that top shelf pretty nicely." 

We both gazed silently up at the very top shelf where the Diary was currently, what, nesting? Somehow I just knew that the damn thing was mocking us. Logically my mind knew it was just a book, and was thus incapable of conveying complex emotion, but I still couldn't help but get a certain feeling of smug satisfaction coming off of it when I saw it. The Diary shuffled around on its perch for a few moments before falling still. 'Come catch me if you can!' it seemed to taunt, 'I can wait.'

We waited in silence for it to move. If there's one thing that we had over the Diary, it was patience. It was in the Wandering Diary's nature to roam, hence the name, it would be incapable of sitting still for long. All we had to do was bide our time and eventually it would get bored...

...

"Screw this! I'm going to go get it." I said as I got back to my feet and began marching towards the shelves.

"Seriously?! It has only been five minutes! We're not even allowed near that thing, let alone up it! How are you even going to get all the way to the top?"

That was an excellent question. I looked up at the shelf from right at its base and gulped. It was definitely more intimidating this close up, and I swear that it grew taller as I walked over. In a moment of clarity I realized just how stupid this whole thing was. Who even cared about this dumb book anyways? Let it rest on these shelves of death if it damn well wants to. 

Nobody will really be surprised if the Wandering Diary goes missing. I could just say that I returned it and that's the last I saw of it.

I caught myself halfway through turning around to walk back the way I'd come. Slowly, excitedly, I turned myself back to face the shelves. I might only be in my third year of studies, but all mages practised self evaluation skills and mindfulness as a rule of thumb, not least on the reasons why was to be able to detect when your mind was being altered. Right now, something was messing with my head.

A Doubt Enchantment! Of course! I'd read about these. Doubt Enchantments were auras that could be embedded into the very soul of a being or object, causing anybody perceiving that object to doubt themselves in some specific way. They were made famous for making people less willing to steal something, although they weren’t restricted to simply turning people away and had other more obscure and creative uses. Powerful ones used to be commonplace to protect high value artifacts.

"I think it's a Doubt Enchantment, Janis!" I called back to him.

"What?! I doubt it. Aren't those illegal?!" He called back.

Indeed they were. There's a reason why they were used to protect high value artifacts. Ever since soul manipulation was banned during the first of the Necromancer Wars almost a hundred years ago, Doubt Enchantments ceased to be put into use. Officially I think there's no law against having one, but they are quite illegal to cast, meaning that this particular enchantment must be at the very least a hundred years old! Possibly older!

Now that I'd become conscious of the effect the enchantment was having on my mind, it was a relatively simple task to negate its effects. The enchantment must have been very powerful for it to have even lasted this long, but its potency had faded over time, as all spells will, and so now it was barely functioning, as evidenced by a mediocre third year mage such as myself being able to counter its effects. 

"Actually they’re not quite illegal! This one must date back to before the Necromancer Wars! Technically it's not the spell that's banned, just the school it comes from!"

Janis just shook his head, "How do you even know that? There isn't a book on Necromancy in the entire library."

"I have my sources." I responded mysteriously. I didn't really want to admit that Necromancy was something of a guilty fascination of mine, to the point that I had requested access to a few personal libraries of some of the professors in order to find whatever information I could about it, under the pretense of extra-curricular studies. Well, I guess I wasn't pretending, it was extra-curricular.

It's not like I was planning on resurrecting some ancient lich, or manipulating the souls of people around me. I suppose I can understand why people have such a negative reaction to the school that practices "death magic", especially after the Necromancer Wars almost a century ago, but I did always think it was a little bit hypocritical of the Church to persecute a practice that had so much in common with what they've been doing for millennia.

Oh well, at least the Church didn't use their power to try and take over the world and enslave the masses, so they get points for that I suppose.

"How are you planning on even climbing that, Lissanda?" Janis called from behind me.

In all honesty, when I had marched up to the shelves, I had been planning on just climbing up the shelves like a ladder, but now that I was at its base, it suddenly struck me that I was firstly a terrible climber, and not inclined towards athletics in the slightest, and secondly this was a library, and they had to have a way to fetch down books from the higher shelves.

The ladder off to my left would probably do.

After a few moments of heaving, ladders are apparently heavier than they look, I managed to get the sturdy wooden ladder leaning up against the tall shelf. I hesitated for just a moment on the bottom rung, before turning to look at Janis.

"Any chance you'd be interested in doing your job, rather than having me do it for you?"

He simply laughed, "In your dreams! You volunteered to help, that makes this your job too. Plus this was your idea. Go for it! Don't worry I'll catch you if you fall!" he joked.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Shrugging, I turned back and started to climb. It was worth a shot. It did enter my mind briefly that I could literally order him to do it, but as always, that just was not something I think I could ever be fully comfortable doing to a human being.

As I made my ascent, it was impossible not to glance at the variety of dusty old tomes lying on the shelves, and oh boy, what an impressive variety there was! It was easy to tell that these books were ancient. They were all positively coated in dust, up to a finger-width deep on most of them, and many of them were written in strange languages that I didn't even recognize! Some of the books were so old that they weren't even books, just thick scrolls wrapped in presumably enchanted ribbons.

One book in particular caught my eye, a relatively thin volume that stood all on its own just an arm's length to my left as I climbed. It was interesting in that it did not appear to be as ancient as the other tomes near it on the shelves. Instead, it was completely void of any dust, as if somebody had placed it there not an hour ago. For all I knew, someone had. Even more amazing though, was that as I examined the book, the letters making up its cover seemed to shift and warp in place, some merging and others splitting to form recognizable words from the jumbled hieroglyphs that they had assumed before. Curious, I read the front cover, and my heart froze.

Not literally, thankfully. There were stories of cursed books of forbidden knowledge that could drive a reader insane, or kill them instantly. Fortunately, in reality the amount of magic you actually required to kill somebody, and the complexity of storing that magic in a stable form, meant that such a book was not practically possible. I mean, you could make it, but you'd need a book that weighed about as much as three people.

No, the reason my heart seemed to freeze was because of what the book said. In hand-written writing so plain and ordinary as to almost be suspicious, it revealed itself to be a diary.

The Diary of Marasha deGrave - Necromancer. If found please return to the Girl's Common Room, East Tower.

...

‘WHAT?! Marasha deGrave?! Who was she?! She was a Necromancer?! Is it just a coincidence that she had the same last name as me, or…’ I was completely stunned for a moment, before my rational brain finally caught up with the rest of me.

Don't be silly, it's probably just an enchanted book that shows you something weird or something. Those glyphs could've arranged themselves to say anything! Though I couldn't escape the feeling that I was trying to justify this, it was a reasonable explanation for what I was seeing, this was magic after all.

"Everything alright up there, Lissanda? You're not afraid of heights are you?" My thoughts were interrupted by Janis' voice coming from below.

"Yeah! There's a book up here with my name on it! Can you believe that?!" I called back.

Janis' response was surprisingly serious, "Do not touch anything on that shelf Lissanda! I mean it! There's some seriously dangerous books in the library! I don't even want to think about some of the stuff that'll be in the restricted area!"

I wanted to crack some sort of a joke, but on second thought he was absolutely right. Although I knew it was impossible to hide a super powerful curse in a book, there were plenty of very unpleasant hexes and jinxes that could very easily be woven in the space between pages, and I certainly wasn't interested in finding out exactly which ones were contained in the books held on these shelves. Giving the mysterious Diary one last cursory glance, I continued my way up the ladder.

Only to pass it again.

There it was. Another copy of the Diary of Marasha deGrave, close enough to be easily within arm's reach now, I eyed it carefully as I climbed past it.

When I encountered it again on the very next shelf, I paused. "I think this book is following me Janis!"

"What do you mean 'following you'?"

"I mean the damned thing is following me! I meant what I said! It appears on every shelf I visit!" I called down.

"Look Lissanda maybe this isn't the best idea!" Janis finally called back up. "The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of messing with the Restricted Shelf! I'll just tell Mrs. Serikutt that the Diary was returned, but was lost again!"

At this point I was just over halfway up the ladder to where the Wandering Diary was perched. As much as I didn't want to take the cowardly option, I had to concede that Janis, as a junior librarian, had far more experience handling magical books than I did, and had a far better idea of the risks involved. If he was concerned, then there was probably reason to be concerned, and it would be foolish not to heed his advice.

"Alright. I'm coming down!" I called, and began making my way down the ladder. As I descended, I noticed that the Diary of Marasha deGrave did not appear on the shelves. In fact, I could not see it anywhere on any of the shelves, not even in places I knew I'd encountered it previously. That was vaguely unsettling, but probably ultimately a good thing. It likely meant that it had given up chasing me for whatever reason.

When I reached the bottom of the ladder and stepped off, the moment my foot hit the carpeted floor of the library, a loud gong echoed through the building, resonating inside my chest and startling me. I definitely didn't cry out in alarm. Don't listen to what Janis tells you, he's lying.

GONG, GONG, GONG.

The three bells rang out signalling the end of the study day, and that meals would soon begin to be brought to various rooms. For me, I'd arranged with the school staff to have my meals delivered directly to my room today, given that I didn't have any plans to socialize with anybody tonight. Or most nights really.

"Oh well. That was a fun adventure, I guess." I said, brushing off some of the dust that had collected on my robes, and ensuring my satchel was still slung comfortably over my shoulder.

Janis, chuckled. "Yeah. I have to go fill out a form for the missing book, unfortunately. You should probably head to the mess hall for supper. Thanks for helping me out here, by the way. I do appreciate it."

I couldn't stop the glare I aimed at him for that one. The rotten bastard had forced me to help him! He just chuckled at my expression though, and I couldn't help but laugh. I admit that I had been quite uncomfortable up that ladder, and it was a relief to now be down on solid ground, and far away from that evil bookshelf.

Personally, I hadn't really realised just how late it was getting. The day had really flown by, and my stomach was reminding me that it had been quite a while since I'd had my light lunch. After saying my farewells to Janis the librarian, I made my way through the stone halls of the school to the South East Tower, which was the current location of the Third Year Girl's dormitory.

By the time I made it to my chambers, the serving maids were already delivering food. I followed one of the maids who was carrying a small tray with a steaming bowl of soup and a few slices of buttered bread all the way to my room, which she promptly knocked to announce her arrival.

"Oh, that would be for me then! Here, let me take that for you!" I said from behind her. She gave a small bow, but insisted I let her carry it inside. Sighing, I unlocked the door and led her into my chambers.

Our student chambers were, in all honesty, lavish. They generally consisted of a single bedchamber, a bathroom with installed plumbing and piped water, and a walk-in wardrobe. In my case, however, I had converted my walk-in wardrobe into a study, as it was far too big to fit all of my possessions that I'd brought with me. Instead, I had a smaller dresser installed at the end of the double-sized bed, which suited me much better.

It did, however, mean that I tended to just discard used laundry in a heap next to the dresser though. I wouldn't call the room messy, but it certainly wasn't immaculate like I knew many other girl's rooms were. I generally didn't invite anyone into my rooms, so usually it wasn't an issue, but the dirty look that the maid was failing to hide from me did make me feel a little 

bad for them.

Thank heavens she didn't see my study. She might have a stroke!

I began to offer to help the maid collect my things to be washed, only to realise she was almost finished. Awkwardly, I thanked her as she left, before taking my meal into the study to eat while I read.

Oh yes! I hadn't just helped the librarian track down an errant copy of the Wandering Diary. I had also arrived with the intention to check out a book that I'd been looking forward to for a while now. Giggling to myself softly, I jumped into my chair, fishing inside my satchel for the book I had checked out.

Granny Gertrude's Guide to Home Baking Volume III. Or better known to the more astute reader as... the third installment of the Heavenly Tales series. I read it for the plot I swear. 

Obviously, checking out such books from the library can lead to... rumors. Therefore, Granny Gertrude always gives her books a more mundane title. I'm sure that it doesn't fool anybody, really, but it allows the reader to pretend, which is good enough.

However, I paused when I realised that there were two books contained in my satchel. Odd, I had definitely only checked out a single book. Perhaps I had grabbed another by mistake? I didn't think so, but I hadn't really been paying attention at the... time...

I stared down in horror at the copy of the Diary of Marasha deGrave that I was currently holding in my shaking hands.

‘Nonononono! Oh shit oh fuck oh shit! This freakin diary! What is it with diaries?! Why can't I ever get a break from diaries?! Oh god I'm cursed now aren't I? Oh damn it I told Janis it was a bad idea to climb the shelves! Oh shit!’

Figuring that the situation was already about as bad as it could be, I gingerly put my thumb underneath the cover of the book, and turned to the first page.

At first, the page was completely blank, but ink quickly appeared on the blank page, swirling just like the title had done, forming words, sentences.

Hello, Lissanda. Let's make a deal.

Shiiiiiiit.