What Jem wanted to do and what Jem felt he needed to do were two different things. He wanted to amble down the long hall looking at everything along the way like an 11 year old at their friend’s birthday party who had just ended up in a room that was supposed to be off-limits and poke everything. What Jem felt he needed to do was go to the library and get researching immediately.
What Jem settled on was scarfing down his food while looking around at all the curious things Nessa had dragged them all past too fast to get a proper look at on the way to the ballroom. Part of Jem might have felt bad for looking around at everything while Karim was hurt, but if he felt sure about anything in this new world, it would be that Karim had already been healed and was going back out again, to fulfil whatever plan it was that Nessa had conjured up.
So instead of worrying, Jem finished his food and strode along, actually forcing himself to do the responsible thing. Once he found a surface that wasn’t the floor and didn’t look like it was super important he put the plate down.
Jem entered the library and was met by the calming scent of ink and old paper as well as a nervous deputy librarian who appeared to know exactly who he was.
“Your Highness, we hadn’t anticipated seeing you at such an hour, has the ball ended?”
“Yes, there was an issue that led to it finishing early. Do you think you could get some books for me?”
“O-of course, I can retrieve the books you were reading right away.” The deputy turned and quickly started to move away, but paused as Jem began to speak once more.
“I was hoping you could get me some different books,”
They turned back to face Jem. He saw their throat bob a swallow before they spoke again. “Yes, your Highness. What are you looking for?”
I would like some books on bloodlines and unlocking them, especially those that deal with the fae. I would also like some books that deal with the black spot, historical accounts are good but I would be especially interested in any journals or the like. If there’s anything on Duchess Blackthorn’s son Sebastian I’d like that, failing that general information on their house historically or otherwise would be appreciated. And also some introductory books on magic in general.”
“I will return momentarily, please wait here.”
Jem wasn’t sure but it seemed a little like the deputy looked relieved. Maybe they weren’t worried about me? Jem supposed it wasn’t a crazy assumption that if Jem was coming to ask for books at a weird time of day he might have been looking for some properly weird books, or ones that he didn’t want other people to know he was reading. Or maybe there was just the worry that Jem was going to send them on a wild goose chase looking for some really annoyingly specific book that had been taken out 4 years before and not returned by a young member of the court who had immediately forgotten it after taking it out.
Or of course, maybe there weren’t topics Jem was really supposed to look up. When the librarian returned Jem tacked on another request. “Could you also fetch some information on the current state of the empire, any wars, any large edicts and the like?”
That brooked no special reaction other than a faint look of displeasure that seemed to say, ‘you couldn’t have asked when I first went to get the books?’
The deputy placed the books down on a nearby shelf and strode off once more.
Jem picked up the first thing from the pile, it wasn’t a book so much as a few sheets of parchment twined together, on the front was an in-colour picture of Sebastian that looked totally out of place on parchment. Jem did his absolute best to tell himself that there was nothing wrong with looking at a dossier on the guy he just met. It’s just like looking someone up on facebook. Wait is that creepy? He reassured himself that it was of course a good idea to know a little about a person before you met up with them, especially if they gave weirdly mixed messages.
Jem looked at the page, half expecting the words serial killer to pop out. But no, Jem split the pile, somewhere near the bottom and put the dossier on Sebastian Blackthorn at the bottom. He had more pressing things to worry about. Like the cardio I totally haven’t been putting off. Yeah.
The librarian returned with another few sheaves of parchment covered in still-wet ink. “There’s a description of the major things that have happened, that I think probably fit your request in the last few years. There’s not really a neatly set out book for things that recent, but I hope that helps?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Jem grabbed the parchment, in one hand and picked up the book pile in the other. He might have been able to get away with staining the books with ink, but he didn’t want Haywood to have an excuse to do something. Whether that was a prank, or a hair-brained scheme.
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Jem hauled the books back to his room and laid them down on his bed. He changed out his winestained clothes for a tshirt and shorts and sat down on the bed wrapping a soft thick blanket up over his shoulders. Blankets truly are more betterer than dressing gowns.
Just because he was doing serious research it didn’t mean he couldn’t be comfortable when doing it. It also didn’t mean that he couldn’t start with what he wanted. Jem did not pick up the dossier on Sebastian who had already somehow turned into Seb into his head. He really hoped it was some kind of skill and not him being down bad for a guy who he had just met. It was completely absurd he would never fall for someone who was his age, taller and stronger than him, had introduced himself by lifting his chin up so their eyes could meet. What the fuck was that anyway? Also shit.
“Sebastian you and your dimples can fuck right off you absolute wanker.” Saying it out loud made Jem feel better for all of two seconds, before he flushed and started worrying about whether his walls were thick enough to block people with high levels from hearing through them. Nessa evidently had no issue figuring out where that throuple had been canoodling with pinpoint accuracy.
Aargh books. Its time for books. No more thinking about Sebastian and or canoodling.
Jem picked up the book on magic, it was clearly meant for younger people, maybe not children but not adults either. It was titled, ‘101 Facts Every Wizard Needs to Know.’ Jem was glad that they were still called wizards. Although he wasn’t sure exactly how close to wizard it was, the fae ritual had made him far more eloquent, instead of fumbling around for the right word it was more like it sprung straight to his lips, it often actually inserted a better fitting word from a different language to the one being spoken, but that was apparently familiar enough to the speaker that they understood what it conveyed. Quite frankly it was very weird.
Unsurprisingly the first fact was about Kol. According to the book Kol was the voice of the world, or more accurately reality. When you cast magic what you’re actually doing is speaking with Kol, or using your Kol to speak, it didn’t seem perfectly clear, or maybe it was somewhere in between. You imbued it with structure, meaning, intent and belief and brought something into the world.
The next fact was more like a 1.5 to the first and it said that different kinds of magic casting leant more on certain aspects than others. For example in strict Kol manipulation and runic sigils it was mostly structure and a language, sort of like a method in a scientific paper. If you followed it to the letter you should get the exact same result, you didn’t need belief because certainty was woven into the runic structure itself, reinforced by every single time each part of the interlinking runes had been used themselves.
What Jem saw that was far more interesting was Incantation. It wasn’t something that anyone had mentioned to him before, though admittedly most of his time was actually spent doing a mixture of reading about classes trying to unlock attention skills, and preparing for the ball. Now that that had passed he was definitely going to wrangle back a little free time. And if he just so happened to meet up with someone he– Jem slapped himself in the face. Bad.
MMMM Seb must have cast some truly insidious spell of incalcuable power and epic proportions, no other possible reason. Nope.
The next few facts concerned themselves with ritual magic and divine magic, two types that Jem wasn’t particularly interested in. Divine because he sorta had some prejudice against it not in the sense that he didn’t like religious people, more so in the sense that he didn’t particularly trust allpowerful entities, if that was even what gods were on Dari. He would have to look into it. Yet another thing on the list. Rituals, well, Jem had bad experience with rituals. Again another great but awful thing to happen to him. Strangely he didn’t feel traumatised by the experience, it was probably some kind of fae magic, both tangible or intangible or some such nonsense. Or maybe some kind of healing divine magic who knew. Jem wasn’t that interested in finding out about it.
But once again there was a fact about incantation, apparently it was good for growing your Kol capacity and density. Jem wasn’t sure what the difference between Kol capacity or density was or if they were the same and the author had just included both words to make it easier for kids if they weren’t sure about the words. Because they weren’t actually capacity and density, they were actually some kind of magical jargon that best translated to English as capacity and density.
8 was that the most important things for incatations were meaning intent and belief and also that pronunciation was important for commonly used incantations because they developed similar grooves like runes did and sliding out of the groves could have unintended results. And also that maintaining concentration was important.
9 was that it was best to start simple. It also helpfully offered a suggested incatation to summon a small orb of light.
Let my inner light shine out.
Jem pointed upwards with his index finger and very carefully recited the incatation from the magical phonetic alphabet, with its clearly indicated rhythm structure. He was so very exceptionally glad incantations weren’t tonal, or well, at least the grand sum of one single incantation he’d seen.
A small beautiful orb of light appeared above Jem’s outstretched finger. He felt his Kol drain out of him and into the ball in a steady stream.
Then he felt it gutter, and whease and sputter like the last dregs of petrol rushing into an engine unable to keep it going. The light winked out.
He felt a horrible sense of emptiness, like a hole had opened up underneath him and he could see the ground rushing closer. A deep instinctual terror welled up and his consciousness fled.