When Trillia woke the next day, she pulled out Meridia's journal and read the last passage again. A faint little smile appeared on her face as she pulled the journal back into her storage ring. "I sure hope you can haunt me. Even knowing your realm is ok."

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the hallway to join the others for class and training.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The two deities seemed to grow increasingly more distracted as time went on and grew distant from Trillia. Nearly six months after Meridia's fall, Trillia now sat at a desk eating some stew and reading a book. It was on the subject of enchanting, she had been reading all sorts of books that her friends would like to know information about. Jotting down the things she figured were most important.

Even if she didn't fully understand it, hopefully they did.

"Wait. I wonder if I'm even allowed to take this knowledge back. I know the Professor said something about not being able to tell people certain things."

As she finished her statement, the edge of her book lifted slightly. DuMont appeared as it did and took a peak at the spine. To Trillia's own surprise, she didn't jump or get startled. All of the training with the Eldritch had greatly hardened her resolve and will.

"You're a second axle occupant, yes?"

"That's correct. I hope you are doing well, Mister DuMont."

"I am. Thank you for asking Lady Fairtrade. I know I'm very late in this, but I am sorry to hear about your friend Meridia. When I lose someone close, I tend not to want people to remind me immediately after it happens. I spoke to her on a couple of occassions, she was a truly talented young mind."

Trillia paused and pondered his words. "You know, I think I agree with you, Lord DuMont. A couple of months ago, I probably would have had to hold back tears. Now? Now I just want to burn every eldritch to ash for the sake of all the realms at risk."

That made the mysterious entity in front of her pause, a grin twisted at his lips. "You know, I think that's the best outlook to have. Dirty bastards deserve the eternal fires of the forge, as far as I am concerned. Do you have a vested interest in enchanting?"

Trillia looked back to the book she had been reading. "Sort of? I like learning. When I was a kid, I liked hearing the system talk to me and give me new stuff. But mostly, this is for my friend Malor. I guess on my realm he's a prodigy of enchantments. I don't know how much of this will be useful to him, but I want my friends to have the best chance of surviving our upcoming trials."

DuMont stepped away from her desk and moved to a bookshelf nearby. Trillia's gaze followed him.

Something about the man was deeply unsettling at times. "I realize the answer is probably no. But may I ask what exactly you are? At this point, I've met quite a few gods, and none of them make my brain itch quite as badly as you do. I don't mean to be rude." Tacking that last bit on after realizing just how rude that might have sounded.

"It's quite alright. The reason I...make your brain itch, as you so eloquently put it, is because one of my portfolios is deception. Please don't consider this me being rude, but frankly, you are a mortal staring at a Greater Deity of Deception. Your brain can't even come up with a disguise. I'm not sure what exactly you see, but it's probably very non-descript."

"Thank you for explaining it to me. I didn't think someone as powerful as you would be here."

DuMont paused and glanced back at her response, after a brief moment he shook his head and went back to scanning the bookshelf. "Everyone can learn indefinitely. That's one of the important things you learn as a young immortal or deity. I am trying to create my very own cradle world so that I might learn from the mortals that evolve and spring up upon its surface."

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"You can even learn from mortals? But if you create them, how does that work?"

DuMont finally found the book he was after and pulled it from the shelves, stepping over to her desk and sitting it in front of her. "Well, because you think differently. You are a pact-bound on your realm, yes?"

As Trillia nodded, he continued. "Your deity probably thinks of things in a way that is so foreign to you that your brain would turn to sludge if you tried to understand it. Likewise, for most deities, slowing down our own thought process to that of a mortal feels as if we are drowning in an ocean of honey. That's not an insult, mind you, it is why we can learn so much from each other. Immortals and deities fear almost nothing in our day-to-day lives. We can go for centuries and never see a conflict that threatens our personal well-being."

DuMont walked back to the shelves again. "You mortals, on the other hand, face life and death situations every waking moment. Starvation, dehydration, sickness, disease, even some mindless beast getting hungry and seeing you as food. A deity only really ever has to worry about the Eldritch and other deities. The Eldritch are often kept at bay by the warrior caste, like your friend Titan and his mighty parents. Other deities rarely kill one another. Doing so leaves us vulnerable to counterattacks, and you never quite know who someone's allies are."

That all made sense at least. Trillia looked down at the book in front of her, it had an old well-worn leather cover. What sort of hide it was made from was anyone's guess. It was a deep crimson red with a faintly glowing green gem on the front. Though curiousity tugged at her mind, she didn't reach out to it.

"Our systems are also fundamentally different. What attributes and statuses we see, how we level and gain power. All of that will vary, not only from realm to realm, axle to axle, but also from mortal to immortal to deity. That book is one that I wrote when I was still a very young immortal. It deals with a technique I learned from a dragon about hardening enchantments. Now, to clarify, I do not mean an enchantment that hardens whatever it is cast upon. I mean making your actual enchantment significantly more durable against counter spelling, disenchanting, and breaking pieces off. It is absolutely the most vital knowledge about enchantments I could ever hope to get someone to learn."

Trillia turned her eyes from him back to the book. "And I'm allowed to read it?"

DuMont, for the first time since they met, laughed. It didn't sound non-descript, it sounded...melodic? Like someone was singing to her. "You can keep that copy in its entirety. I can just create another for the library, assuming the Professor doesn't already have a thousand copies hidden away. I also hail from the second axle. So, nothing I teach you in that book will be against the rules. Tell your friend Malor not to squander such an opportunity and if he really feels the need to pay you back. When he becomes some legendary enchanter. Ask him to send a little prayer my way with some of the knowledge he's learned."

Trillia smiled wide at that and reached out to the book. "Thank you very much, Lord Dumont. If I find any interesting discoveries, I'll also send you a prayer or two...and Lord DuMont?"

The deity paused his scanning to look at her. "Thanks for the chat. I appreciate you spending the time on me."

DuMont offered her a little nod. "I need to get back to my own studies, you take care of yourself, Lady Fairtrade. I look forward to hearing of your exploits." As he finished his statement he vanished from sight as he let the magic of this place conceal him from her.

Picking DuMont's book up, she ran her fingers along the cover. It was times like this that she wished she could scan things in this place. It felt like an artifact.

"I suppose I can just scan it when I get home." With that, she leaned back and opened the cover.

~A Theory on Aetherian Enchantment, By Monfrey Alec DuMont~

"Greetings, dear reader. I have no doubt you are reading this masterpiece of information because you are deeply invested in learning about my genius."

Trillia had to immediately pause and laugh. "Oh, you weren't full of yourself at all, were you, Lord DuMont?" As she grinned, she wondered what path his life took so that he didn't seem quite so arrogant anymore.

"I had the great fortune of surviving a battle with a Plasma dragon recently. Upon agreeing to a draw, we were quite curious about the other's magic. As any reader of my book must know, I am no lazy slob when the topic of enchanting rises, and yet... this dragon's enchantments were most resilient to all the normal forms of breaking that I am accustomed to. It was as if they were self-repairing from some stable memory of what they were supposed to be."

"To my credit, despite her immensely powerful enchantments, she couldn't break my enchantments faster than I could summon them back in place. So we exchanged notes, and the beneficiary of that glorious battle and exchange of wisdom. Is you, dear reader. For I have replicated her mighty efforts and married them to my own rapid enchantments. Take a deep breath, for you are going to have your mind positively blown by this discovery!"

Trillia's smile deepened a little more, she closed the book and decided to go to her room, where it was more comfortable to read.