With the event finally ended, (even if said ending was unsatisfying for all) Azura’s friends were all sitting around the giant hidden space where the otherworldly tree rested. He on the other hand was walking around the tree casting several examination spells, and running some other tests on the tree itself. After they had all finished their exotic meal, they had convened here, as he had some things he wanted to check about the tree before he ran some ideas past its guardian.
Normally Roran would be up here with him for researching rather than relaxing with the rest of the group, but unfortunately Roran didn’t have many spells to contribute, and he already had Elismera as a sound board, so Roran had decided to stay with the others to avoid being in the way. He personally didn’t think his friend would be in the way, but was more focused on the tree than consoling his friend at the moment.
So far the results were promising. The bark was strong, but with proper care it could be shaped. On top of that with its weight and size more than enough material could be harvested without risking any lasting harm to the tree itself. He had found one of the soft golden fruits that Elismera had given him earlier, and quickly handed it to her. She took it without a word. Far more interesting (to him at least) than the life-giving fruit were the blue lights that began in the tree and dropped to the ground before amassing into clumps to form bigger and brighter lights.
If his guess was right, those blue lights were full of spatial energy. The world tree was known for being the link between many worlds, and Elismera had already confirmed his knowledge about being able to use it to teleport, or to teleport something else. Though admittedly he had a far more interesting idea on the use of the tree, and so far his examinations were giving him high hopes.
“So what is it exactly you’re looking for?” Elismera asked from her spot near the base of the tree. She had been surprisingly ok with the idea of him examining the tree, and had walked up to it with him, but she had quickly stopped trying to follow him when he began flitting around the tree like a deranged mockingbird.
He didn’t stop, but he diverted enough of his focus to answer her question. “A couple things really. For one thing, the reason I was so sleep deprived going into that event. I have never actually used wood of any kind to craft something before, so I had to do some research on how to go about that, but I’m thinking I could make you an amazing sword with the wood of yggdrasil, and perhaps some other weapons and tools, if that proves to be successful.”
Elismera’s eyebrows raised in curiosity. “An interesting idea, and I can certainly see the merit of having tools that are both even tougher than metal, and even better at channeling magic than crystals. Alright, that one meets approval, what of your other reasons?”
He sighed, the other reason was where things got a bit hypothetical. “Well the tree is a link between worlds right? So I’m thinking I could use it as a permanent tether for a moving subspace. If I can pull that off, making a tether for each of us to reach that subspace should be possible. In other words, a personal world we can enter at any time. Safe to say we wouldn’t have to worry about our valuables being stolen, and we wouldn’t have to pay for hotels anymore. Or risk being attacked in our sleep.” That was the hope anyway. The spatial energy in the lumps of blue light at the tree's base were proving very promising so far.
“Could the tree itself be placed in the subspace?” He raised an eyebrow. Needless to say he hadn’t been expecting that question. Though in hindsight he probably should have. He was the one who had warned her that it being here wasn’t safe, he supposed he had assumed the headmistress would have a solution in mind.
“Possibly, The tree's roots go down fairly far, but any spatial magic cast at the tree should be enhanced by the tree itself.” Hmm he wasn’t sure though. Putting things in the same space objects already sat could typically cause some pretty disastrous consequences, but the fact the tree was what it was, those consequences might be subdued or even negated entirely.
“The tree being in a space managed and created by a human would be enough to ease some tensions with the rest of your kind.” It might, but he didn’t really intend for other people to know about his subspace, but he supposed no one had to know they could access the subspace from anywhere thanks to the tree's properties. In fact having the tree inside the subspace meant that rather than anchoring it solidly to this reality they could probably access other realities if they truly wanted.
“Maybe a little, but mostly I think it would just make that tension take a different form. The Silver’s would receive an influx of requests if it was known it was me who had control over the tree so to speak.” Still before he made any decisions about the tree itself he had a few questions. “What did the headmistress say about it?” He didn’t love that he had asked Elismera to involve the old women, but he didn’t have the resources to handle something like this alone.
“She said the school still owes you one for the event of the true dragon appearing as an enemy in one of your trials. As such she has offered the schools aid within reason, of whatever it is you intend to do regarding it.” He laughed.What a demented old lady, foisting the responsibility of something that could easily cause a war onto his shoulders under the guise of helping him. Still at least with the school's aid he should be able to gather the resources necessary to accomplish both of his current goals with the tree.
“I see, an unusually laissez faire approach, but not without merit for us. Alright, I think that’s all the tests I need done at the moment. With your and the headmistress’s permission I’m ready to start working on the special projects.” He pulled out a piece of paper and used his magic to etch a list of materials on it. He handed it to Elismera, and she gently took it. “Can you take this to the headmistress? This should be the list of everything I need from the school to accomplish my tasks.” And a few unrelated things, but he’d keep that bit to himself.
“Official possession of the space the tree currently rests? Permission to take books out of the library? Access to any books that aren’t in the library? How exactly are those required?” He sped up his mind as if he was in a fight. A single moment's hesitation would give him away, but unless they noticed him speed up, and sped up in turn they wouldn’t know he took time to think about it.
“Mostly as a precaution. If this area is mine I won’t be charged for any damage, and I’m going to need to read up on a lot of different types of magic if I want an endeavor like this to go smoothly.” Of course that was all kind of true, but not really why he requested those things, thankfully she didn’t notice the more esoteric things he slipped in there. If he requested some components that didn’t end up being used on this particular project who would know.
Elismera stared at him intensely as if searching for lies. “Wow you are a good liar, if it wasn’t for that slight release of mana I’d have no idea.” he grimaced, he had forgotten how sensitive to magic Elismera was. To think she had sensed it even though the mana had never left his body. He was glad she was more or less on his side now, because she was truly a terrifying opponent.
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“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” He smiled innocently. It fooled no one, but none of them gained anything for calling him out either.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’ll take this to the headmistress, don’t blame me if she catches you for asking for unnecessary things.” He wasn’t worried. The headmistress would almost assuredly catch on to the extra things on the list, but he was just as certain she wouldn’t say anything about them. All told the list was more than reasonable considering the cost he had indebted himself to pay because of that dragon. The only reason he hadn’t called in that favor yet is because he hadn’t had anything of near equal value to ask for before, but now he might.
“Thanks, and I dare say you out of everyone will be the most pleased with the results.” She had given him permission to take as much wood as he wanted from the tree so long as he didn’t cause it any real damage, so he intended to make some equipment for everyone, but it was only with Elismera that the equipment would really shine. For the rest it would be equipment of the highest quality, but for her it would be equivalent in value to something like his grimoire. Perhaps even more valuable as there is no limit to its use.
“That much is a given. It’s the same for you and that book you’ve been hiding right?” His eyes widened in genuine panic before quickly shifting back to calm, but it was too late. Elismera’s eyes were sharp, she at the very least caught it. Worse, the rest of his friends had no doubt heard her proclamation, and that gave him a very bad feeling.
“You mean this?” He pulled out his grimoire. He had told his friends about the grimoire, but had yet to tell Elismera, and it wouldn’t be odd for her to be suspicious of it. He hadn’t had to open it, but he had drawn some of its power for the gravity spell he used in that subspace. Hopefully she agreed, because if she knew about the other book he had a feeling things would get messy soon.
Elsimera just smirked slightly. “If that’s the book you put in that overly secure safe of yours then yeah.” He sighed, she had given him an out, but he knew better than to think she really believed that was a possibility. How she had seen that he didn’t know. When would she have been able to see him place the book in the vault? He almost never even took it out anymore.
“When would you have seen the book in the vault by the way? I know you weren’t nearby anytime I’ve opened that vault.” At this point he had nothing to hold over her head to force her to answer since they both could easily release info to destroy the other.
“Well you never did ask what my familiar was.” He stared at her in surprise for a few seconds before laughing. Truly what an oversight, he hadn’t even considered the possibility. He’d have to up his security for spy type familiars. He had prepped against Katy’s since it was the only one in his friend group that had that kind of capability, but he hadn’t thought about other types of familiars.
“Your familiar must have a really good memory though. I may not have specifically prepared against all kinds of familiars, but I did make it so the familiar bond was cut off in its area, and there are strong mind alteration spells around the safe as well. It would have to leave to share images, and the fact it could even remember it, let alone recall the event specifically, is quite impressive.” To think even his preparations that most would call overkill hadn’t been enough, in a way he almost felt glad. He was vindicated, and would use this as an example whenever someone complained of his security being unnecessarily tight.
Elismera winced. “Truth be told, the memory was a bit hazy, and my familiar took a while to completely recover, but she accomplished what I asked of her.” Thankfully she couldn’t get mad at him for affecting her familiar, since it literally happened while she was invading his privacy. Besides his room being trapped to high heaven was common knowledge. Even if only one student who wasn’ in his friend group had even ran into the defenses. He still felt a bit bad about that. The kid had only come to deliver something that had slipped out of his pocket after leaving class.
“I guess we’ll call it lucky that was the only effect she had to deal with. There are far nastier traps and defenses in my room. Although perhaps soon that won’t be necessary. If all my valuables are held in a personal subspace then I can afford to take down most of my room's protections.” He couldn’t wait, especially because space was one of his most limiting factors at the moment.
“Most?” He chuckled at Elismera’s cautious response. He was glad his friends were too comfortable where they sat to walk up and join the conversation, no doubt if they were here said conversation would devolve into him getting made fun of for his ‘over preparedness’ As if there was even such a thing as being too prepared.
“I’ll still be sleeping there, or rather people will assume I still sleep there, I might even sleep in the subspace, too early to tell. Still best to have some traps set up in case anyone tries to break in.” Was he perhaps being a little paranoid, maybe, but it was that very paranoia that had kept him alive to this point.
Elismera rolled her eyes but a slight smile edged it’s way onto her face all the same. “You’re a curious one Azura, I can’t say I’ve ever met your like before. I’ve heard what I wanted from you, I will go deliver your list now. For both our sakes I hope you can accomplish what you set out to.” After that she turned and left swiftly, yet even with her speed her movements still had a grace to them that he didn’t think humans could match.
“So was she really talking about the grimoire.?” Katy appeared from nowhere next to him as the one sitting with the others disappeared. He sighed at least he had confirmed that his luck was in fact not a self fulfilling prophecy, he had let himself be optimistic that she would remain seated with the others and yet here she stood next to him all the same.
“Probably, I’ve put many books in that safe, but my grimoire would certainly stand out the most.” That much was true. Unless he was being watched specifically, the book that had the most magical features, and an energy of its own would without a doubt be the most attention grabbing treasure he had put in his vault.
Katy scoffed. “I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t reveal your grimoire unless it was in defense of something more important. I thought we were done with the misleading truths.” He sighed, Katy was getting harder and harder to throw off, and it wasn’t improving the strain in their relationship from recent events in the slightest.
He almost considered just telling her about the damn book… almost. “It’s not misleading, I simply said maybe, I don’t know which book she meant for sure. I have put many books in that vault, far more than I could easily show you, so I don’t know which book she saw specifically, only that she deemed it was important. As for why I revealed my grimoire, well I’ll be using it very soon, and to pull off what we’re trying to do I’ll have to use it till it’s empty anyway, so revealing it now lacks consequence regardless.”
Katy carefully examined him for any sign of deceit. She wouldn’t find it, it was one thing when he was just passively saying something misleading, and another when he was fully invested into misleading someone. Rorans trick of watching his ears had been aggravating, but better to figure it out earlier rather than later, it hadn’t taken him long to get the new appendages under control.
She sighed. “If you say so.” Just because she couldn’t tell whether he was lying or not didn’t mean she didn’t have her suspicions, but thankfully she agreed to drop them for now. He still hadn’t shaken the odd paranoia associated with the book of origin. It was like someone important had asked him about it, but he couldn’t quite find the memory no matter how hard he looked. It was strange, but inconsequential, at least for now. “So you really think it’s possible to make a moving subspace we can all enter?”
He didn’t let his relief for the change in topic show, and instead thought about the question his friend had asked. “I’ve read some of his notes on the theory! They’re extraordinary, and I had my doubts even with the tree's help, but after the incident in the subspace it should be possible!” He chuckled, apparently Roran had reached the limits of his patience. He let some of his own excitement bleed through. Roran was right after all, it was only thanks to his stint outside of conventional space that something like this became possible.
“Roran is right, now that I know the nature of the space in between creating something like this should be possible so long as I have the right materials, and enough time.” With the headmistresses help and his copies he didn’t see any reason either condition wouldn’t be met.