The city did, in fact, possess a sizeable library. The building was three stories tall, and was almost the largest in the province, second only to the duchess's mansion. The facade was painted an immaculate white, with giant golden letters proclaiming "Tiamarr Public Library".
[Impressive architecture.] Trader said.
[Yep. A point of pride for the Tiamarr family line. They actually renovated it last year. The duchess commissioned a bunch of conservatory enchantments from me. For the older tomes, the private collection. It was an interesting project. I had to find a way for the enchantment to harmonize with the innate magic of the grimoires.] Karrel reminisced. [Anyway, what are we looking for?]
----------------------------------------
"Hello, Gerrard." Karrel said, walking up to the main desk.
The librarian, a young man with red scales on his cheeks, smiled. "Karrel, good to see you. I heard what happened with Tiamarr. I hope it didn't hit you too hard? They said you came home blackout drunk for the last couple of days."
"It's actually why I'm here. I'm branching out a bit. I need something on the basics of firmamental magic. Also, an intermediate level material on body magic. I'm gonna borrow a study for a few hours." Karrel explained. He wasn't necessarily lying; he did want to broaden his horizons.
"A new project, huh? It will do you good. Five silver per hour for the study room, as usual."
Gerrard stood up from his chair, and walked up to a board behind him. It had a row of hangers with keys on them. He took one and handed it to Karrel.
"Room eight. An assistant will be with you shortly."
"Thank you." Karrel took the key, laid forty silver coins on the desk, and went into a corridor. He knew the way to the study rooms by heart after all these years.
He sat down by the table once inside. There was a stack of paper and several pencils for him to take notes. Gerrard knew him well.
After a few minutes the door opened, and a young human man pushed a cart full of books in.
"Hello, mister Damorny. I've brought the materials you asked for. A book for each of the firmamental disciplines, except time, and an introduction to the theory behind it by the same author. Unfortunately, this is all we have on genuine firmamental magic. It's not often someone shows talent for it, and rarer still for them to become knowledgeable enough to write on the topic without making stuff up. I can bring the less reputable books, if you'd like, but I assumed you wanted this for practical purposes." The assistant presented the tomes.
"Alright, it will have to be enough. What about body magic?" Karrel asked.
"We've got a few for each discipline here, I've brought the ones most often consulted by healers. There's magical and anatomical knowledge there. Except of course for vampiric magic. We are a lawful establishment after all." The young man explained. "Though are you sure you have the time to study both topics at once? Both are already broad on their own."
"I have met a new business partner. She'll come in at some point."
"Very well. Don't hesitate to call for me if you need anything."
The assistant closed the door on his way out, leaving Karrel alone with the tomes.
Well, not exactly alone.
"I love reading." Trader said, picking up one of the books.
"How do you know? Didn't you lose your memories?"
"It's just… I'm holding this book, and it feels right. Like picking up an old habit after a long time." She explained.
She opened the book, titled Muscles, Joints, Tendons: anatomy and magical enhancement.
"I can read it." She observed immediately. "I know the local language in both spoken and written form. I don't think it was an accident that I landed here. Maybe not your house specifically, but I was meant to start out in this area. Otherwise they would have implanted every language on the planet, or none at all. Still no idea why, though." She trailed off, and started reading in earnest. Karrel followed suit, picking up A Sorceress' treaties on the Firmament: introduction.
For a few hours they sat at the table, reading in silence. From time to time one of them made a note. Trader would occasionally shapeshift to use her innate knowledge of her own body to better understand how a technique worked, while Karrel learned how to draw firmamental mana. He found the process took much more concentration than other types of mana, even those he only used for a single spell. It wasn't the matter of practice; the school was simply more difficult than others.
A knock on the door took them out of the flow. Before the assistant could come in, Trader shaped her ears to mimic the pointiness of elven ears. She figured their adaptive nature would explain her strange coloration.
"Oh, greetings." The young man said when he saw her. "You must be mister Damorny's business partner."
"Indeed, I am. My name is Trader, nice to meet you." She smiled at him.
She smiled wider when she noticed he was trying to keep his eyes from wandering around her body, and failing miserably.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"Um… I am- I'm here to inform you that you have half an hour left to use the study. I know how engrossed in research you get, mister Damorny, so I thought I'd remind you."
"Thank you, Matthew. We're going to wrap up here, then." Karrel nodded at the assistant. The man nodded back and began to turn around, when Trader spoke up.
"Actually, I think I might have something I will need your help with."
"O-of course, what is it?" Matthew asked.
"Let's talk outside." She stood up and quickly approached him. They left the room, the symbiote closing the door behind them.
Twenty minutes later, when Karrel was just about done with sorting their notes and tidying everything up, she came back inside, with an unmistakable bounce in her step, reserved for those who just experienced satisfaction of a very specific kind.
"Alright, let's go." She said, slithering behind him to bond.
"I hope you cleaned yourself up after… you were done."
"Of course I did! Who do you take me for?"
"Someone who-" he paused with a groan as their nervous systems connected -"who fucks with a guy after barely meeting him." He finished.
[He obviously wanted me, and I have a big libido. Don't be a gardener's guard dog.] She responded telepathically.
[Gardener's- what does that even mean?]
[Well, dogs only eat meat. A guard dog's duty is to make sure no one tresspasses. So, a gardener's guard dog will keep anyone from taking the gardener's plants, even though it won't eat them itself. Basically, the idiom means «don't keep others from enjoying something you won't.»] she explained.
"Fucking bogus alien sayings…" the host grumbled. He picked up their notes and left the room.
"I'll be back in a day or two, using the same books." The smith informed the librarian and gave him back the key to the study room. Gerrard smiled and nodded.
When the pair left, it was already dark outside. The next night would be a full moon, Karrel observed.
[So, what did you learn?] He asked on the way home.
[It was weird. It's like I was reading a book I've read a few years before, and returning to it. A basic concept here, an explanation there, and I «remembered» the whole thing.] She said. [I went through muscles, ligaments, bones, joints, tendons, and skin. The books were based on human anatomy, but I can extrapolate to other species, including myself.]
[When you say you «went through» them, what do you mean?]
[I can heal the tissues a lot faster now, and I know how to enhance them. I'm estimating I can make bones and skin about 20% as durable as normal, and muscles twice as strong. I couldn't exactly dislocate a joint, since I don't have those, so I don't know how effective that is.]
[You don't have joints?] Karrel sounded confused.
[The only bones in my body are my teeth and claws. No bones, no joints to connect them. I could grow some, but it would take lots of calcium, and I can't have any if I'm to bond with you, so I don't bother. I mostly consist of very precise muscles that I can rearrange easily into any limbs I need. My species trades durability and raw power for flexibility. Our hosts provide the skeletal structure, so I don't need one.] She explained. [Back to the topic, I could run some tests on your body, if you're up for it. I'll cut off the pain receptors, so don't worry about that. And I'll fix the resulting damage afterwards, of course.]
[Maybe tomorrow.] He didn't look forward to the experience.
[What about you? Found a discipline you like?] Trader changed the topic.
[Not really. Amelia Isalthen, the author, was a sorceress. Born with understanding how to draw firmamental mana. Every book starts with a huge disclaimer that her methods can't be fully translated to wizardry. Her spell charts are filled with unofficial symbols she made up to denote concepts she can't convey in language. Sometimes a definition consists of doodles made with different colors of ink, which besides being unhelpful damaged the paper, so even whatever it is she meant is no longer there in full. Utterly confusing. Of course, this isn't my first run-in with sorcerers, so I know how to approach this.]
[Deciphering this mess,] he continued, [hinges on making a psychological profile of the author. For example, the book was written by hand. She didn't use a typewriter, despite the fact she would certainly have enough money to have one. Mages of her caliber always make a fortune. She chose to write it by hand, because she thought the standardization that printing requires would get rid of the minute details. Despite this, there are no errors in the three books I've looked into so far. She is a very meticulous person. And despite the instinctual nature of sorcery, she did a pretty decent job of translating her experiences into words and spell arrays. I believe one could even say that Isalthen qualifies as a wizard in addition to being a sorceress.]
[So difficult, but promising.] Trader summed up.
[Very promising. I did actually manage to learn to draw firmamental mana, and I've cobbled together a spell that makes an object ignore gravity for, like, half a second. Which sounds almost useful, but I also learned what gravity actually is. See, every object that has mass attracts every other object in the universe. The strength of the pull depends on mass and distance between the objects, which is why we aren't all squished together. Things like people have negligible gravitational force, but a planet… well, you know you can't just jump away into space. Back to the spell, the affected object effectively loses its mass for a flash. But the velocity it had doesn't just disappear. If it was falling, it would keep falling out of inertia. On the other hand, if I extend the effect, a person on the ground could jump up and fly off without falling until the spell ends.]
[So your chosen field is gravity?]
[That's what was easiest to make a proof of concept. I'm more partial to creation magic.]
[Ooh, yeah, that's more in line with your profession. Though not many combat applications.]
[Okay, this is something we need to talk about. You seem oddly focused on fighting. I can get behind personal safety and self defense, but you're starting to sound paranoid. Most folks aren't even that religious, and the scuffle we had earlier was the first time I've ever encountered bandits around these parts.]
She sighed mentally. [I just have this feeling that someone is out to get me. Like… like I have something someone wants. I'm not sure who's that or what they're after, but I think it has something to do with how I got here. We need to find a mind mage. The fact that I'm locked out of my memories is getting to me.]
[We will figure it out.] Karrel promised, just as they entered his house. [Now, though, I'm gonna go to sleep. We've had quite a day. Do you sleep, or how does that work?]
[I do, but I let parts of my body rest throughout the day, so I only need four hours of full unconsciousness.]
[I'm honestly getting jealous of all of your «superior body» nonsense.] The smith grumbled.
[Everything has its upsides and downsides. I would be severely crippled if I didn't have a host for an extended period of time. My stomach is very inefficient, so without piggybacking on your calories I'd have to eat tons of food. And I've already mentioned the lack of a skeleton.]
[Good thing you found a desperate man to take advantage of, huh?] Karrel joked.
[If I wanted to take advantage of you, I would have taken over your body permanently. I hate the idea of that, though. Maybe in a life-or-death situation, but otherwise I don't want to bond with someone against their will.] She knew he wasn't serious, but decided to speak on the subject anyway.
[Let's hope it doesn't come to that, then.] He responded, laying down on the bed. [Goodnight, Trader.]
[Goodnight, Karrel.]