"Ibis... no so many colours..." Resting against my shoulder a certain high noble was taking a restless nap, talking to herself. "ጎ ሠጎረረ ረቹልዪክ ነየቹረረ... ነፕ፱የጎጋ ⶴ፱ቹጮልክነ ርⶴቹልፕጎክፏ..."
The girl with boundless gifts caused her two fellow nobles to pause as her voice tugged on something deep inside us.
"In what language did her Ladyship speak right now?" Aoife was the first one to break her petrification, carefully examining the Blackworm.
"I think that Lady Siri might be bad at controlling her power while sleeping." I answered feeling the pressure loosen before reaching over and closing Siri's slightly open mouth before stroking her sleek velvety hair.
What is she using to keep her hair looking like that?
"Even after using so much mana her Ladyship can cast such powerful spells." I watched as an awed spark filled the two purple eyes belonging to the red head which then pulled the corners of her mouth into an awed smile. I wasn't sure how to feel about the entire situation, as the Blackworm's close confidant I felt oddly proud to have another member join our cabal. Yet the way Aoife looked up at the sleeping Gift like a literal angel felt odd.
It felt wrong as a frontier noble to see the high noble completely enrapture this girl with only the kindest of gestures a noble could offer, saving her face and extending a helpful hand when needed. All this is a result of Siri's quick thinking at Aoife's clumsiness. Possibly the scariest part was that I wasn't quite convinced that the cryomancer hadn't somehow orchestrated the windmage's fall.
As expected of the dar Blackworm.
This dark eminence sleeping peacefully on my shoulder had seemed to burn through her sugar-induced enthusiasm, causing the cold stoic mask to return to her pale face even in her slumber, leaving her two subjects with a small notebook filled with what felt like some sort of Oriri heresy.
After muscling her way to helping Aoife with her homework she pulled a notebook and began to speak while burning letters onto the pages. The Academy might had a few rules but the few that it had were like ancient metals, unbendable and unrustable. But you do not say no to a high noble who you had seen almost kill a fully armoured knight.
"This feels like it shouldn't work but at the same time it makes too much sense." The redhead holding a book with an obsidian black cover scratched at her hair trying to read the contents of it.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
To Siri's credit, she hadn't created a simple cheatsheet but something possibly worse. If it had been a cheatsheet I wouldn't have wanted to be a part of this strange confectionary extortion racket but the ice doll had written something which invoked the dangerous feelings of curiosity from me.
Unlike what we were taught, the girl wrote about the modularity of spells. Rather than slamming our heads against the wall like a book containing each enchantment and trying to learn off as many of them as we could, the girl drew out a few elaborate shapes which felt somewhat familiar as I had drawn them hundreds of times inside the larger rune of enchantment.
Certainly, there were mages who had thought of the same idea. I had even read a book on a kindred topic. Unfortunately magic wasn't a simple tool one could waggle around like a hammer but an entity in it itself. The magical glyphs which are seen when casting a spell or enchanting were a form of language. We can't converse with the literal gift of the Aspects but just like with Common or any other mortal language certain phrases do something even if we can't understand each individual word in the phrase. Yet the girl had wrote with utter confidance what each sign meant.
I wanted to shake Siri awake as I struggled to understand how she could be so confident about the meanings of these age-old glyphs used before the current races of Niuran walked on its surface.
"I don't understand how it meant to be easier, I feel like my brain is melting." My fellow conspirator complained as she scribbled words onto a tissue rather than the book in her hands.
The worst part of it all was that even if the girl had somehow cracked the proverbial code, it escaped me how we were meant to use this knowledge. I can open a door using a Unlock Lock spell but I struggle to see how Multiply Power, Capacitor or a Fuse strung into a certain order could do it.
Fuse? Does she want to set a timer on a spell?
"I-I can't understand this." She said before flipping the book around, looking sad. "Her Ladyship's expectations of me are far too generous."
"I can't figure it out too. I think that she simply forgets that we are not soo... learned." I said trying to put the strange knowledge she wrote in the nicest way possible.
"She is far too intelligent for us." She responded with wander-struck eyes watching the sleeping girl while I tried to not make a comment about the many questionable things the high noble asked me about.
"So will the other half be useful to you?" I asked.
"Ohh, of course having a summary of all of our compulsory reading material will be very helpful," Aoife said pressing the notebook to her chest before stopping and double-checking the book's cover. "D-do you really think I can keep this? It looks really expensive."
"She said you can keep it."
"I know but all of this, the notebook, the summary and even this modular theory it all feels like I should be paying with actual coinage and not food."
"Lady Siri might be a little too rich for her own good. Isn't that right?" I scratched the girl behind her ear causing the talking statue to emit a deep defensive snarl. "How is the tea?" I asked as quickly pulling my hand away and noticing that Annette had returned with hot water.
"The tea? Oh, sorry I didn't pay attention to its taste. I was thinking," The redhead stopped twirling her long hair. "The conclave has ended and it doesn't sound good."
"You know what happened during it?" I asked. Even other Oriri didn't know what the Geni'i were discussing behind closed doors nor what prophesy the Door gave.
"Not me... I live next to the Kuprum quarters and I sometimes, occasionally talk to them." Aoife hurriedly said as if wanting me to gloss over the information. From what I cared she could speak to anyone she wanted and Lady Siri seemed like a person who also didn't care or knew to care about the status of the people she spoke to.
I'm sure she will get less anxious over time.
"Could you tell me what happened during the conclave?"
"S-shouldn't I speak when Lady Siri wakes up?" The woman explained.
Does she not trust me with the information or she doesn't want me to take credit for her connections?
"You're not going to tell me?"
"...No, no you are right I will tell." The adopted noble clutch her fists and opened her mouth only for the door behind us to be thrown open.