Chapter 53 - Explanations

The next new moon wasn't anytime soon, so Lily had ample time to prepare herself. Which was good because this was far different from the last one.

She was faced with a new challenge; memorizing eight smaller mantras instead of a single meditation mantra. Each one was manageable independently, but the combined complexity required her utmost precision.

Each mini mantra also had an arcane shape she had to memorize, which was thankfully relatively simple since they represented the lunar cycle. Lily's biggest fear was accidentally mixing up Waxing with Waning or vice versa.

Arakil had described it as marking her Mana Core with each symbol of the moon, some of which Lily found exciting and relatable since she always imagined the silvery sphere as the moon.

Well, if proper visualization plays any part in this, at least I've got that covered! She thought positively.

What was rather unfun was Camilla hearing the news of the hidden herb grove being seized. The woman had put two and two together and realized the source of her herbs, and she seemed disgruntled that Lily wouldn't be able to gather any herbs in the future.

Lily was a little nervous that Camilla might report her harvests to the mayor, but her fear seemed unfounded. The woman even cackled with laughter at the idea.

"Girl , I'd have to report myself in that case," Camilla responded. "I took your dubious harvests and turned them into potions! We are basically accomplices at this point.

"Hell, you could probably show some waterworks and blame me for putting you up to the task! The cruel and wicked witch forces a cute little orphan bunny to do her evil bidding. So no. I'm just upset that we've lost a good supply of fresh and wild herbs."

"Can't you just buy it from the mayor?" Lily asked.

"Yes, at considerable markup!" Camilla pointed out. "Not to mention, I doubt that bozo will allow it to be so untamed, so I expect some loss in quality. I'd be surprised if he doesn't dig out the entire hole and plant it in his backyard."

"Oh …" Lily mumbled disappointedly.

To Lily's relief, Camilla didn't dwell on the herb issue for too long, diverting her attention to the upcoming major healing potion brew. Lily was grateful for this, as she had other things to focus on, like confirming the order for the Mana potion plants.

I can't wait to see how much a Mana potion will grow my Core!

Progress on the Moonlight spell was painfully slow, and Lily had barely grown it further from its grapelike size. However, she still found it fascinating and had fun directing the tiny moonlight beam around her room in the dark.

[There's an offensive spell remarkably similar to that, so continue to practice directing the moonbeam; it might help your control in the future. Speaking of which, have you considered when you will finally announce your magical aptitude?]

"After my Astral affinity alignment," Lily replied.

It was the furthest date she could think of while still being within reason. While she knew she needed to proceed to catch up, she wanted to hold back on it as much as possible. Partially out of fear of what could happen, and partially because she wanted to be sure she could show her affinity to get into Regarth.

[Very well. It might be for the best, as once you are attuned to the Astral Mana, you might need a day or two to acclimate to it.]

"Acclimate? Is something bad going to happen? Will it hurt?" Lily rapid-fire asked her questions.

[No, nothing bad. If you had been learning other spellforms, there might have been some inconvenience. However, you might need to regain some of your control and reign in the Astral magic a bit.]

"Regain control? I still don't understand…" Lily mumbled. She hated it when Arakil was a bit too wordy with his explanations instead of simple and direct.

[Apologies, let me explain. A big portion of spellcasting is converting the Mana to the correct type. Do you want to cast a fireball? Then you want to use fire Mana to do the job. With glyphs, this conversion is baked into the crest, and that's why it's the crux of any finalized glyph.

[With more freeform spellcasting, this is handled mostly by factors such as the chant or somatic gestures. With your Mana Core aligned to Astral Mana, you can simplify, if not outright skip over this portion.]

"Okay…" Lily mumbled as she pieced it together, nodding as she thought along. "Does that mean I don't need to chant? I can just cast any Astral spell immediately?"

[Yes and no.]

Lily grumbled but didn't say anything, hoping the rest of Arakil's message would be more concrete and positive.

[At first, you will be able to skip portions of it, which is known as shorthand casting. Eventually, you can silentcast it with enough practice and mental fortitude. Additionally, all your Astral spells will receive a boost in efficiency and potency, which might initially shock and astonish you.

[ For an imaginative example, imagine a fire mage who could only light candles with all his effort, suddenly being able to instantly ignite a bonfire. He hasn't lost the ability to still light candles but will have to reign in his now loosened control. It can be a dangerous period for a fledgling mage, but you should be fine if you don't cast Starcluster during this adaptive phase.]

Lily nodded happily. "Thank you, that made a lot more sense! I really enjoyed the example."

[I'll try to be more… Descriptive in the future.]

"Thank you! Although I'll also put more effort into understanding your insights…" Lily added. "Also , I had a question… So if that mage now had an affinity towards fire, he would struggle with water and ice, right?"

[Yes. I mentioned this before. You could think of it as his natural Mana being fire, and fire Mana does not want to turn into water or ice.]

"And Astral doesn't have this issue?" Lily reaffirmed.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Astral is almost entirely neutral. But you would struggle to convert your Mana towards Hexes, Necromancy, and Summoning.]

"Okay. I just wanted to confirm," Lily said with a nod. "I think Rose would be quite upset with me if I couldn't cast a fireball eventually."

[It is considered the quintessential pyromancy spell for a reason… Although you could always resort to glyphs. Most of what we've discussed is handled entirely by the crest.]

"That's amazing! So I could still do summoning with a glyph?" Lily asked excitedly. "I can now understand why you said it was so important to learn…"

[Yes. Although, as I mentioned before, summoning might be extremely tricky in this world. You'd need to possibly supply the creature's Mana entirely yourself. While you won't worry about such things in the future, at present, it is a ruinous flaw.]

"Okay, no summoning for now," Lily nodded. "I'll make sure to work hard! I'm just glad Astral won't have me close any doors entirely."

[Remember, it's a journey, not a race. Also, now that our latest archive search has concluded, we can start discussing repairing some of the book's features.]

"Yes!" Lily immediately agreed. "I'm a little upset you didn't fix something first before doing the search. I mean, I'm grateful… But still…"

[Repairing functions might take longer than expected. It's hard to tell at this stage. The safer option was to focus on your development and securing your place at this magic school. Once there, we should have many more resources available.]

[ Also, as I've said before, I'm curious to see how the world of magic has developed. So much of the old ways relied on a near-infinite supply of ambient Mana. Have they discovered new secrets or adaptations to the old methods? It should be absolutely fascinating .]

Lily giggled. "I'm glad you have something to look forward to. I can't imagine how boring it must be to be trapped inside a book."

[It's not too bad. It gives one plenty of time to meditate and ponder, and perusing the archive is always a treat.]

"Still… Even with infinite books, you must get bored, don't you want to see things? Or talk?"

[Seeing would certainly be useful. Then I could better instruct you on your somatic spellcasting and see where your fingers are fumbling.]

Lily stared at her fingers and blushed. "Don't you want to see the world? Or the sky?"

[Not particularly… Although I would be interested in seeing text from other books.]

Lily was baffled. It seemed Arakil truly didn't care about anything that wasn't related to magic.

[So… For options, we could fix the eye. Its full functionality might be beyond us for now, which means I wouldn't be able to see Mana flows. Telepathy is another option to fix. Another useful feature would be to restore the book-consuming function.]

"Book consuming ?" Lily repeated the words. "You eat books?"

[Books can be permanently added to the archive. The spiral on the back of the book could be utilized to take in any form of text, whether in book or paper form.]

"Woah… So you could contain every single book?" Lily said with surprise.

[Correct. And any book consumed can be recreated temporarily or permanently within the pages or inside the inner world.]

"Wait… Inner world ?" Lily questioned.

[I thought for sure I'd mentioned this before… But inside this grimoire is a miniaturized world. I wanted the archives' caretaker to have a rather pleasant accommodation.]

Lily was baffled by what she had read.

Is Arakil teasing me again?

"Could I see the inside world?" She hesitantly asked.

[Once you've learned a form of mental projection, yes. But we are a bit far away from such feats, and you will need to advance further in your meditation and control your personal inner world.]

Lily nodded but was also taken aback by the sheer scope of Arakil's words. Her own inner world was a world of black with a solitary tiny little silver moon inside, but Arakil said that his was literally an entire world.

And then he put an entire magical library inside it!

Lily hoped she could see it one day and perhaps explore the shelves and arcane knowledge contained within. Maybe even give Arakil a hug, assuming she could meet him there. He certainly seemed like he needed one after being trapped for so long in a book.

"Okay… So what do we need to do to start fixing things?" Lily asked.

[For the moment, you can continue to dump excess Mana before your slumber. Once I've stored enough on this side, we can start transcribing the inscriptions together.]

"You have to promise to actually save it!" Lily sternly declared.

[ Lily … I don't think that is necessary?]

"Yes, it is," Lily replied. "You'll say you're storing it, and then when the time comes, you'll suddenly spend it to look up something for me. You've given me a Mana Core and now a method for Astral affinity. We need to work on you next!"

[Very well… I promise to save your donated Mana to restore some book functionality.]

"Good!" Lily giggled. "Are there any glyphs I should start studying for this?"

[No. When the time comes, I'll give you an inscription to trace. Trying to learn these components at this point would prove a needless distraction, and I'd rather you focus on your Astral magic.]

"Okay …" Lily reluctantly agreed.

[Remember, you want to pass the test and qualify to attend the same school as Rose. Your practiced mastery needs to be on par with the prodigious talent she displayed. Don't let shortsighted gains ruin your long-term goals.]

Lily blushed as her ears drooped. "You're right… Thanks for keeping me grounded."

[It's no issue at all. I admire your enthusiasm, and it's good to want to strive further. Since it seems we've settled on partially restoring the eye first, I'd like your opinion on which function to repair afterward?]

Lily wanted to jump on the telepathy so they could finally talk, although she had grown very fond of their private conversations that nobody else could read. But then she recalled another feature Arakil had offhandedly mentioned.

"Didn't you say your book could change size?" Lily queried. "I think if you could shrink, that would be useful. Then I wouldn't need to keep you locked up in my room and could bring you with me."

[You're correct; that is a function of the book. It's especially convenient if you want smaller, specifically sized pieces of paper.]

Lily frowned. "But… If you wanted smaller pages, couldn't you just cut a bigger one? That's what I've been doing to make smaller talismans… I take one page and cut it into quarters."

[ Yes … But this method is far more convenient! Regardless, I'll start looking into what is damaged or degraded and what is needed to restore it while we wait for enough stored Mana.]

Lily noticed Arakil trying to move away from the topic and sighed. Regardless, she was happy he was finally looking into fixing himself and not only helping her.