Tipping the Scale

The Past that haunts Them (Part 1)

Many a theory exists on the origin of magic. Some hypothesized that the first beings to create it were the dragons. Others propose it to be older than the world itself, and the source from which all races sprouted. We might never know the answer as even the scholars of Hûldral, by far the most devoted to the study of magic, have failed to find any breakthroughs on the matter. Maybe it is a knowledge too old and too divine to be grasped by the human mind.

In contrast, the study of the nature of magic has proven itself to be a more fruitful endeavor. Only a winter before my writings in this book, researchers at the order of Ingemar found a spell to visualize the path taken by energy while bending water to one's will. They found magic users to extract the energy of nature which was then converted within their own bodies. Supporting a theory proposed a century earlier by Sylvean of Dusarrts and sir Lowrac Mirua Octova at the order of Terriath. They stated that all magic users were born with the ability to receive and convert natural energy. Explaining the heritability of the talent and going against the common thought for it to be a gift rewarded to those blessed by the gods.

Repeated studies on different types of magic are needed to help further understand this function of the body, but when achieved, it might lead to the most significant discoveries of our era. It might reveal why the gift is so often found in humans compared to the other humanoid races or even create the possibility for those with magic to change their magical nature while those without could even gain the ability.

Lidea reread the last sentence. Not comprehending what the author had meant by changing one's magical nature. After rereading the section a third time, she gave up and hoped it would be clarified further on in the chapter. Else it would have to be added to the steadily growing list of questions that she had collected throughout this chapter. In her foresight, Crystal had gifted her a little notebook when she had brought her the book.

Lidea had first wanted to refuse the valuable present but Crystal had insisted. Although she was grateful, the easiness with which they gave away such precious items to somebody who was practically a stranger, did make her raise her eyebrows. Where were they getting their money from?

Even as a noble with full access to her late father's treasury, she had struggled to keep up with the costs of running her army. However, this didn't seem to be an issue in the resistance camp.

As she tried to continue reading, the words seemed to grow more blurry and her eyes stung due to the strain. With a sigh, she let the book drop onto her chest and stared at the cracked ceiling above. She felt tired and knew she needed sleep, but she didn't want to return to the darkness yet. Her nightmares would be waiting, preventing her from getting any rest. They would lessen with time, or rather she would get accustomed until she could endure them without waking. Lidea couldn't wait for that time to come, but until then she used her lack of sleep to make considerable progress in the book that the healer had handed her a week prior.

Her reading had started slow. It had been a long time since she had read anything as long and heavy in material, and although Crystal had ensured her that 'The History and Peoples of Magic' was one of the more recent additions to the collection, it was still written more than a century ago. Its prose was old-fashioned, and the author often referred to events of the time or assumed the reader to have a certain level of knowledge of the world around them. Despite its flaws, it quickly turned out to be Lidea's greatest treasure. With every page, the professor revealed more of the world and introduced her to a way of thinking completely alien to her own.

His first chapters focused mostly on the theory of magic itself and the history of its field of study. She had never even considered that people would devote their lives to understanding the thing that they called 'magic'. For her, it just existed similar to how you wouldn't question the being of a tree or lake. Some were able to use it, others did not but she had never stopped to ask why this was the case. It made her look at the world from a completely different perspective. She found herself wondering at things that she would never have before. For instance, why was water wet? It was such a normal occurrence that she had never thought about how she could perceive the feeling of wetness. But she wondered if someone out there had tried to find out why this was the case.