Page 38

Forbidden Magic

“ B y the gods…” Sky muttered beside me, his head rotating around the room. “The rumors are true. I… I can’t believe it.” He turned back to me, his eyes wide. “The skill books are really here!” He took a deep breath, barely able to contain his excitment. “How is this possible?”

I walked over to the shelf, holding my hand out but not touching the books. After my experience with the orb, I wasn’t keen to touch anything just yet no matter how innocent it looked. My senses reached out, feeling the deep magical pulse from each of them as I walked by.

“How much do you think these are worth?” I asked, looking around the room. There must have been at least two hundred of them.

“Even the most basic of skills are worth a gold apiece,” Sky muttered, stepping fully into the room.

“More advanced skills can be worth ten, fifty, a hundred even.” He paused in front of one shelf that looked particularly grim and covered in spiderwebs.

“But if they’re illegal… well… that could cause trouble. ”

“How would we know?”

“We’d have to open them.”

I stopped, glancing back at him. “Do you think it’s safe to do that?”

“Probably not,” he muttered. “But I don’t want to send the RSB to claim them all before I find out what kind of books are in here.”

“I wonder if there are some cleric spells in here…”

“I thought the god of the Twilight already gave you everything?” Sky said, shooting me a teasing grin. “Since you’re so special now and everything.”

“Ha-ha,” I mocked. “He gave me a boost, but I didn’t suddenly learn any new spells.” I paused for a moment, my hand on my chin. “At least… I don’t think I did. And whatever happened against the Guardian, I don’t know how to do that again or if it’s even possible.”

“Considering how messed up you were after, that’s probably for the best.”

I lifted an eyebrow in his direction playfully. “You think I can’t handle it?”

Sky’s wolf ears twitched, his blue eyes narrowing as he turned back to the shelves.

“I think you can handle more than most, but that doesn’t mean you go running headfirst into battle without thinking.

” His tail swished playfully behind him, betraying his agitation.

“We don’t know enough about what happened to you or what being the champion of the Twilight means yet. ”

I sighed, knowing he was right but feeling a twinge of frustration all the same. My fingers itched to open one of the skill books, to delve into unknown magic and learn something new. But Sky’s caution wasn’t unfounded, especially after everything we’d been through in the Whispering Woods.

“Alright, so what’s our next move?” I asked, stepping away from the tempting shelves. “We can’t just leave all this here, but we can’t exactly haul it back to the city either.”

Sky ran a hand through his dark hair, his brow furrowed in thought. “We need to be smart about this,” he said, his voice low. “The RSB will want to claim everything, but we can’t let that happen. Not before we know what we’re dealing with.”

I nodded, understanding his hesitation. The Royal Scouting Brigade hadn’t shown us any willingness to share valuable finds or help until we’d proven our aptitude for making coin.

Captain Boromia had made it more than clear that they intended to claim the hoard for the king and no one else.

Our job was to find it and report back, nothing more.

Sure, we might get promoted and earn their trust, but that paled in comparison to the treasure trove of knowledge we’d stumbled upon.

“What if we catalogue them?” I suggested.

“We could make a list of the titles and any obvious markings. That way, we’d have an idea of what’s here without actually opening them.

And if there’s something of interest, we can pull it and take it back to Selas as evidence of our finding.

” I shot him a mischievous glance. “Nothing says we can’t learn some skills on the way back to town. ”

Sky’s ears perked up, his tail swishing with renewed interest. “That’s... not a bad idea,” he admitted grudgingly. “But we’d need to be quick. Who knows how long before some other creature stumbles upon this place and tries to kill us both.”

I glanced around, looking for something we could write on. To my surprise, there was a desk tucked into one corner of the room, covered in dust but otherwise intact. I made my way over, careful not to disturb any of the skill books as I passed.

“There’s an old writing desk over here,” I called to Sky. “Maybe we can find some parchment and ink.”

Sky nodded, his attention still fixed on the shelves. “Good. You start looking for writing materials. I’ll begin examining the spines of these books.”

I rummaged through the desk drawers, coughing as plumes of dust rose with each movement. Finally, in the bottom drawer, I found a stack of yellowed parchment and a few dried-out inkwells.

“Found some!” I exclaimed, holding up my prizes. “The ink might be useless though.”

Sky’s mouth curled into a smile. “That’s easy to fix.”

He came over, taking one of the inkwells from me and holding it up to the light. Muttering a few words under his breath, he touched his index finger to the lip of the bottle. I couldn’t help a small gasp as water seemed to coalesce around his fingernail, dripping into the bottle until it was full.

“There you go,” he said, handing it back. “Just stir it up really well and it should work.”

“How did you do that?” I asked, taking the inkwell back. “That was amazing.”

He scoffed. “I just pulled water from the air, that’s all. It’s pretty basic.”

“But useful.”

Sky shrugged. “I guess.”

I nodded, impressed despite Sky’s nonchalance. We set to work, Sky carefully examining each book’s spine while I jotted down the titles and any distinguishing features. The task was tedious, but as we progressed, a pattern began to emerge.

“These seem to be grouped by class,” I murmured, squinting at a particularly ornate tome. “Monks, fighters, knights, mages, druids...”

Sky’s ears twitched in agreement. “And by shelf it looks like they’re sorted by difficulty. Beginner at the top and then intermediate and advanced toward the bottom.”

We worked in companionable silence for a while, the only sounds the scratching of my quill and the occasional rustle as Sky moved from shelf to shelf.

As we neared the back of the room, however, the atmosphere seemed to shift.

The air grew colder, and I could have sworn I heard whispers emanating from the darkest corners.

I shivered, glancing uneasily from side to side as Sky continued writing down notes, working his way through the library.

As I turned, my eyes came to rest on a small glass case tucked into a dark corner behind a shelf.

The glass was caked with dust, making it impossible to see what was inside.

But even so, I could feel a strange swirling energy emanating from within it, something powerful.

For a moment, I thought of mentioning it to Sky.

But then I decided not to. He was right of course, touching things had caused me a lot of trouble recently.

However, if I hadn’t, then I never would’ve become a champion of the Twilight.

Maybe I was just feeling reckless or prideful, but I knew I wanted whatever was in that case.

If we were going to give up this entire book hoard to the RSB, I at least wanted to get something out of this entire adventure.

Getting a blessing from a god was nice and all, but I needed the power to protect my friends.

Whatever was in the case might be just what I was looking for.

I glanced over my shoulder, making sure Sky was still engrossed in his cataloging. His back was turned, ears twitching as he muttered titles under his breath. Taking a deep breath, I crept towards the glass case, my heart pounding in my chest.

As I drew closer, the whispering grew louder, though I still couldn’t make out any words. The swirling energy intensified, and I felt a familiar tingle in my fingertips - the same sensation I’d experienced when I first touched the orb that marked me as the Twilight’s champion.

With trembling hands, I reached out and wiped away the dust from the glass.

Inside, nestled on a faded velvet cushion, lay a single black marble.

It was similar to the orb I’d touched before, but less than half the size.

However, the magic flowing off of it was powerful.

I got the distinct impression that I was supposed to take it.

The whispers grew louder and more familiar, almost like the god of the Twilight was whispering to me himself, telling me that this little marble belonged to me. That I was meant to have it.

I hesitated, my hand hovering over the case. Sky’s warnings echoed in my mind, but the pull of the marble was undeniable. Before I could second-guess myself, I flipped open the latch and reached inside.

The moment my fingers touched the cool surface of the marble, a jolt of energy surged through me.

The whispering suddenly boomed, becoming a cacophony of voices that threatened to overwhelm my senses.

I gasped, nearly dropping the marble as images flashed before my eyes.

Magic runes, complicated arcane symbols, and a swirling darkness that seemed to seep into my very brain.

“What are you doing?!” Sky’s voice cut through the chaos, snapping me back to reality. I turned to see him rushing towards me, his eyes wide with alarm.

I shook my head, the voices suddenly gone. “I… I think I just learned a new spell,” I stammered. I lifted my hand to show him what I’d found. However, as my fingers pulled back, the marble crumbled to ashes and slipped through my fingers. “Uh… I think that was actually a skill stone this time.”

Sky eyed me suspiciously, his gaze working me up and down. “Are you still you?”

I nodded. “I think so.”

“No talking to gods this time?”

I shook my head. “Not this time.”