L [o/i] ve is a journey

Sleep, Eat Study, Repeat (The Third Day) | Books Before Practice

The grand libary of Khalaria was an extraordinary one.

Build on and into one of the larger rocks of the city, overlooking the flat sandy land of the surrounding desert and the bordering green, lush areas of the oasis it contained a a marvelous collection of books. A lot of them could only be found in this hoard of wisdom, and they were, in lack of a better word, antiques of a lost eon.

On the upper levels of the solid rock it was build into, large stained glass windows, reaching from the top to bottom of up to six floors and flooded the building with light. Together with the shelves, books and desks to study it gave the inside a sense of grandeur from of an old, long passed time.

When then sun shone into the colourful windows, the delicate staining of the window reached the floor, giving the flooring the most magificient carpet made of light the world has ever seen.

Lunaris and Nerivie stood in the grand hall, stunned by the scenery.

How could they not? The smell of old books, the calm atmosphere, that was still filled with a busy focus on gathering wisdom, the light, the glass. And, most remarkable of all: not only was the inside carved in a way nobody would suspect they stood inside a rock instead of a building, a cool air greeted them with great hospitality.

So, so pleasantly cool.

Nerivie soaked the chilling and of the promise of knowledge smelling air through her nose: „I missed that." She murmured and Lunaris watched her relax instantly.

He remembered, how they talked about learning magic together, and Nerivie being his teacher in the practical part. But, appearently, a lot of it has to be learnt before even thinking of bringing fourth just a small ball of light. She had, in great lenght, explained the principles of focus, mana, the process of taking your emotions as a catalyst and forming the elements with the help of one's imagination into a shape the caster wanted, called crafting. But the explainations were complex and not easy to follow, and so, since Nervie wanted to learn new spells, they ended up here.

„I am going to look for books for you, just take that desk there. We are going to spend a lot of time here." She said, in a strange glee of excitement.

„How much time?" he wrote on his notes.

„three months, at least. It's really important to absorb the knowledge of it, and to understand the basics, before I can move onto the next step. I took a year or two to actually being able to hit a immobile target up veeery close." She answered.

He looked at her in shock, before he put: „A year or two?" onto the paper.

„Yes. But my master also teached me a lot of other things, so that might have contributed to it. Don't worry, we will not move on before you can't bring forth a simple form of light. From there on, we will train your healing. Just as your spell book you got from the temple suggested."

Lunaris looked around, unsure.

It wasn't an unpleasant place, but the memories he had of libaries were... rather unpleasant.

Still, that was in the past, at least it should. And he had, against his apprehension, an actual use, an affiliation. He already decided to see where it was taking him. And if he would become of any use.

With this little trail of thoughts that went through his head to help him gather his determination again, he looked around.

The pupil pointed torwards the table she had told him to sit, telling her he would wait there.

„It's gonna take a bit, I am doing my best to find something useful!" Nerivie said, with an apologetic face.

Lunaris smiled and nodded. He would wait. 

**

The books she gathered were old, but taken good care of, despite of the pages that clearly shown signs of regular use.

Lunaris read about focus: the state of mind the magician has to be in. It wasn't easy to get into that, if the silent method of bringing forth a spell was preferred, so a lot of magicians used words and chanted the words out loud. The perk was, of course, it was easy to do, as enchanted words would lead to a routine, that would automatically set the caster's mind into the right level of needed focus.

The disadvantage, however, was clear: an opponent would know you are preparing to cast a spell, and it took longer than just to apply the principal at ones.

So, if I get that right, Lunaris thought, it is better to learn the more difficult method, because it's quicker?

Lunaris pondered the subject.

As he understood while she explained his affiliation, he would be healing, and using blessings to give others an advantage, and curses to negativly effect their opponents. It would make sense to use a fast method. He grabbed the note, and wrote something on the paper, before gently pulling Nerivie's sleeve to get her attention.

„Shall I use spells or not?" Neri read. She lowered her book: „What do you feel comfortable with?" she asked.

Lunaris set the note back and wrote: „I am not sure, I think no spells is quicker."

„It is, but it's easier to know the words. You need them anyway. You say them out in your head. And then, when you really get used to it, you just call upon the feeling before you fire it. It's experience."

That made sense. He thought, It's like learning a new receipe, you need to look into the book everytime you cook it, and make the list to buy ingredients everytime anew. Until you have done it so often, you don't need to. So, maybe I must approach it like cooking. But I have to learn about the process of cooking first, because I never done it before.

„So spells first!" he wrote and smiled.

„Yes. I think that's the best approach."

„How did you learn magic?" he looked at her curiously while she read that sentence he set onto the paper note.

Nerivie sunk into her thoughts for a moment: „My master teached me in Farun. I lived with her. She was a kind, open-minded and joyful person. She loved magic so much. She had an affiliation for earth, and loved to use it to grow things. As long she had a seed and earth to grow in, she would grow it. She also could grow a tree out of a table, but the tree would die as soon as she stopped the flow of mana. Well," Nerivie cleared her thoughts, when she caught herself talking about something else he had asked, „she gave me the books during winter season. And had them read me over, and over, and over again. It was only three books, for nearly 5 months. Horrible!"

„So, you teach me like she did teach you?" Lunaris asked silently on the piece of paper.

„Yes. But I will not terrorize you with the same books! I promise!" she chuckled silently.

Lunaris smiled gently and then responded by writing: „I will give my best! I hope I will not take two years! I want to see the world, too!"

Nerivie giggled soft: „Don't worry! As soon as you have the basics and can heal, we can move on."

„Promise?" he wrote.

„I promise. I would be happy to have you as my travel companion!" she smiled.

A feeling of excitement and happiness settle in Lunaris' heart.