Cuff stands, staring up at the plaque, tapping his wand against his leg. The massive wooden doors stand imposingly in front of him. Chills ran along his back. There was something so mysterious and attractive about architecture like this; almost as if it were built for gods rather than humans. With a deep breath he walked forward, placing his hand firmly on the plate for pushing the door open. With a sharp exhale he heaved against the door quickly and firmly, and almost fell flat on his face when the door swang open with ease, not a sound coming from its hinges as it swung open. A soft whoosh blew through the air as it opened. Cuff looked, wide eyed into library, this blissful moment of almost complete silence, rows and rows of books looking down on him. Ornate pillars reach up to the ceiling of the library, like ancient trees grasping at the sky. The only noise comes from the gentle whooshing of the door as it opens, and then a massive boom when said door smashes into the metal door stopper. The great boom tears through the silence and echoes through the library, wobbling in pitch as it echoes around. The noise is so loud it hurts Cuff's ears and shocks him so much he slams his hands over his ears. After what feels like an age the sound dies down and Cuff drops his hands from his ears, only to find a grey haired man standing in front of him. He peers at Cuff through glasses sitting so far down his nose it must be incredibly uncomfortable.
"The new groundsman, I take it," he looks at Cuff through his low glasses and then straightens.
"Welcome to the library, my name is Fern," he nodded at Cuff, and raised his hand, wisps of blue flowing out and then bursting like fireworks. Although there was no heat, and only the gentlest of humming in the air.
"A magical greeting," he smiled at Cuff, "and judging by your reaction it's the first time you've seen it."
Cuff was staring at the wisps of magic drifting off in the air, wide eyed. He couldn't deny that magic could be intensely beautiful; it had such a curious pulling quality in the depths of his body. It was like his soul was spasming in delight. Realising he was standing, staring at Fern's hand he straightened up.
"Yes," Cuff nodded, astounded, "also my name is Cuff," he continued and raised his hand as if to mimic Fern, but nothing happened.
Snorting in response Fern turned to a desk to his left. It was set like hotel's reception desk. It had two tiers, the higher one on the side Fern and Cuff were at, the lower side on the other side. This would be where the librarians would do work of some kind, Cuff figured. There was an array of stuff on the other side, including a variety of inks and what looked like book stampers to him; which made sense, it was a library after all.
"A groundsman without magic is like a tree without leaves," Fern sighed, picking up a silver bell sitting on the desk and ringing it.
"I'm sorry, what?" Cuff asked, half turning his head.
"You know, it's a simile," Fern replied.
"Yes, but I don't quite understand," Cuff replied confused.
"Bah, never mind," Fern waved his hands, "I'll be back in a few minutes, I thought I had the books ready but maybe not," he frowned and rushed off around a corner, out of sight.
Cuff scratched his head and then glanced around in awe. The library was absolutely huge. It stretched all the way up to the ceiling, which was awfully high. He'd hate to be the person that had to get on the ladder to get any of the books from up there. He hummed to himself as he looked about, the wooden looked old and faded, the gilding about the library looked dim, it all clearly indicated the passage of time. The library had to be incredibly old. Some of the items on the higher shelves looked little more than old pieces of parchment strung together with string. The archaic feeling emanating from the books and tomes gave Cuff the chills. He was so lost in thought he completely failed to notice anybody approach him, until there was a slamming sound on the desk behind him.
"Wha!" He jumped, turning around. In front of him stood another goblin. However, covering his green skin was a full suit, tailored to size. He wore a little black hat and a monocle over his left eye. He had black suit shoes to match, and a chequered black and white bow tie.
"How cute!" Cuff couldn't help exclaim, bending over slightly.
"Please," it drawled, "don't hector me. Yes, how funny, don't hector Hector," Hector said, in a rather nasally voice. "My master's excellent sense of humour displays itself once more," it drawled again, breathing on its monocle and polishing it with a cloth it pulled from a suit pocket.
"Ah, I'm sorry! I meant no offence. So you're Hector?" Cuff asked, hands half raised in apology.
"Clearly," Hector snorted.
Almost running around the corner came Fern.
"Ah excellent, you've sorted it out Hector?" He asked and then turned to Cuff without waiting for an answer, "I had a gander for the other librarians and anything useful I could find, but there wasn't really anything," he shrugged, smiling, "I see you've met Hector."
"Yes Master, you brought the wrong edition for 'Controlling Magic'. You had the second edition instead of the third; I've fixed this horrid mistake. Although perhaps this one might benefit more from the magic for imbeciles book," Hector snorted, nodding at Cuff.
Cuff's jaw dropped. He thought this little guy was cute; what an ass.
"Now, now, Hector, be nice. This is our new groundsman," Fern frowned at Hector, although his rebuke was rather half-hearted. "Now!" he clapped his hands, turning to face Cuff, "we can begin your magic tuition. The hope is to get you to a point in which you can self-study, at which point you should be able to take care of more or less all your groundsman duties and work on magic, if you wish to improve past that point. And by that point I mean the point at which you will be after we finish learning. At any case, we'll be working on control, and I ask you to not try any magic unless you're supervised, until we've finished magic control training! Any questions?" He smiled at Cuff expectantly, rubbing his hands together as he does.
Cuff scratches his chin while he thinks, eyes floating towards the ceiling. Learn magic control, can't really do anything before that. Work on magic alone after if I want, I guess I don't have any questions do I.
"I suppose I don't have any," Cuff shrugged.
"Excellent. Ah, I'm excited. I suppose this is what it's like to give a dog a bone," he half opened his mouth expectantly at Cuff, who opened his, raising his hand slightly.
"That's not even a simile, you realise that?" He says, his mouth still open in confusion.
"Yes, well, I wouldn't really expect you'd understand it," Fern shook his head and turned to the books. "Now we have two books here, the first is what we'll be using until we're about half way through. At that point we'll begin the other book and do them together," Fern said, his hand pointing at the books in order. Cuff peered at the titles, the first one they'd be using was 'Controlling Magic' and the second was 'Forming Magic'.
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"Today what I want you to do is read the first chapter of this," Fern said, pointing at Controlling Magic, "and we'll work through that. The books are laid out in a pretty self explanatory way. Each chapter has an exercise to master, you're not to move on to the next chapter until you're extremely comfortable with the previous. Spellbooks are different, where you can decide what you want to work on when, but for now you need to obey this rule carefully. Magic isn't a toy," Fern looked at Cuff, sternly. "Now off you go," he smiled, dropping the books into Cuff's arms and shooing him toward the tables on the other side of the hall. There was a group of six tables, large enough to seat about ten people, five on each side.
The library narrows slightly into a corridor, where it disappears around a corner. Cuff glanced down, wondering what exactly was around the corner, before plonking down on one of the benches at a table, slamming the books down onto the table slightly harder than intended, creating an echoing boom around the library. He placed his wand on the table by the books, only realising he'd been carrying it this whole time just there.
He turns around only to find Hector is standing a short distance away, staring at him; Fern is nowhere to be seen. Hector fishes into his pocket and pulls out a beautiful golden pocket watch.
"That's a beautiful pocket watch," Cuff nods at Hector, who scoffs at him.
"Indeed my timepiece is quite the wonder," he nods repeatedly. "Now hurry and begin. I wish to see how long it'll take your puny brain to comprehend this," he stares down at his pocket watch, ignoring Cuff's reaction. Frowning, Cuff turns to the book and opens it and begins to read.
The foremost few pages simply indicate the changes between the editions. Not overly bothered about that Cuff skips to the preface, which reads as such:
Magic should never be taken lightly, under any circumstance, by any race.
Failure to control magic you seek to manipulate may result in injury and or death.
A dire warning: Your magic will seek to consume you initially, take great care.
A beginning practitioner should always have guidance from a learned practitioner.
Cuff could only think about how real magic felt a lot different to what he'd seen in animated movies growing up. It felt scary, dangerous, and he supposed that actually made it feel real.
Turning to the first chapter he began to read. It informed him how there was magic inside him, and all around him. Magic inside is what they would seek to use and control, for non-native magic is extremely dangerous to all but the most potent of magic users. Using the magic inside him would obviously use it up, it wasn't unlimited. However his body would naturally pull it in from all around him, and through a magical phenomena still being studied, it would make it its own and store it, building up his magic stores again for usage.
The aim of this chapter, it read, is to be able to call forth our magic. We won't do anything with it, merely call it forth and become extremely practiced at that. It's important to only pull the tiniest amounts up through our body initially, take great care and remain aware of yourself.
Cuff finished the final few words and then stared off into space, thinking over what he had just read. Interesting, the first chapter seemed simple enough. He glanced around and saw Hector, still no Fern.
"I finished the first chapter Hector," Cuff said.
"Oh how interesting, Hector thinks you might not be as braindead as you first seemed," the goblin spoke brightly, walking over and peering at the book, nodding after seeing he was on the final page of the first chapter. "We'll see shortly if you took any of it in," the goblin smiled.
"Ah, I was actually wondering when in the book I'll learn to use this?" Cuff asked, waving his wand.
Hector almost burst into laughter, stifling it.
"Learn to use a wand, now?" He snorted, shaking his little green head and saying nothing else. He put his pocket watch away and turned around, just as Fern came barreling around the corner down the hall.
"Finished the first chapter I see," he beamed. "Now let's begin, we don't have all the time in the world. I want you to simply try to pull forth your magic as the book said to," he said, sitting down opposite Cuff, moving the books to the side, leaving his wand in front of him.
"Okay," Cuff nodded, thinking back to what the book said. To close his eyes, hold himself in a natural, neutral position. To focus deep inside himself, to feel for something. There would be something lingering inside him, it would be up to him to find it and drag it up and spread it through his body. He tried to focus, envisioning diving deeper and deeper into "himself" and suddenly he felt it. A spark, a something, deep inside. Like an ancient creature, waiting to burst out, but trapped in chains. He tore at it and tried to imagine grasping around it and wrenching it up and out.
"STOP!" Fern yelled at Cuff. Cuff's eyes opened in an instant and he heaved breaths, he could feel the presence of something in the air, humming all around him. The lightest glint of blue along Fern's fingers indicated he had something to do with it.
"Could you not feel yourself losing control? The magic pulling at you instead of you pulling at it? You almost lost control," Fern said, dead serious. His face was grim.
"No. How could you tell?" Cuff asked, staring at him.
"Just look at yourself," Fern said, pointing at Cuff's hand.
Cuff looked down, gasping when he saw his hand. Where his veins were was glowing a burning bright blue. He could vaguely feel it, tearing through his veins and burning hot. A comfortable hot. The air around his hand hummed ever so slightly. He pulled his sleeve up, seeing his vein running into his arms were also blue. His mouth opened even wider as he saw his arms; the veins there also burning a strong, bright, blue. Suddenly he felt his back go cold, and became a little light-headed. Had he kept pulling at the magic inside him what would've happened. Would he have kept glowing brighter, like a little human torch. Or, more likely considering the warnings from the book and people, could he have died? Just like that?
"Magic requires your absolute, full attention. All the time. Maybe that's a bit more obvious now. This is why we learn to control our magic when it's formless, before anything else at all. Even the weakest form of magic is incredibly potent," Fern nodded at Cuff, and waiting a moment.
"We'll take a short break, because although you might not feel like you need one you certainly do," he said, standing up and motioning Cuff to follow him.
Cuff stood, his vision blurring as he did, his body swaying. Placing his hand onto the table to steady himself he waited until his vision cleared, and took a few unsteady steps.
"After effect of overexerting your body with magic, it'll slowly go over time. Had we continued you might've blacked out," he chuckled at Cuff,"or died," he said, and continued walking down the corridor.
Cuff followed slowly, looking down at his hands, his right sleeve pulled up to his elbow. His veins pulsed bright blue still, his magic running hotly through his body. Or at least that's what he assumed was happening. It was slowly receding, dying down in intensity; although it was very gradual. It was as he stared at his hands, the air around them humming from the magic, that he heard Fern say:
"It's time you met Isaac. The Great Demon that lives in this library."