Chương 21: New Memories

"Here's the first book, lad. I picked you an easy one. My very own air magic teacher, Mage Sanderson. Lovely old fellow who had a real fascination with controlling scents with air currents," said the Dean, handing over a lavender-colored book. Chadwick handled the book with reverence, "anything you would like me to say?"

"Just give him this," said the Dean, pulling out a large bouquet of different colored flowers from his robes, "hopefully there is something in there he never got to smell." Chadwick carefully placed the flowers onto the wagon's front seat, "very well. Let's begin." The Dean already had the next book in hand and ready to go. Several lines of students led back into the stacks of books, all were poised with a book in hand. Ready to pass them along like a chain of men passing sandbags to block a flood.

As soon as Chadwick opened the lavender book, the process began. Chadwick was frozen for several seconds and then breathed deeply, "he really was a lovely fellow. The flowers were very well received. Apparently some of those breeds of flower didn't even exist in his time." Chadwick jotted down a few notes and took the next book from the Dean's hands. From the outside perspective, Chadwick would pause for anywhere from a second, to half a minute. The chain of books flowed smoothly into his hands.

The pages of the notebook barely had time to dry before Chadwick was flipping to the next one, his stream of notes quickly becoming a list of book titles.

"It's tricky to remember every book I read while I was in there, but at least by taking the updated list in with me each time, of those ones I do remember, I can save a little time. Much easier to hand this list to the memories and ask them for everything not on the list," explained Chadwick, talking while he rapidly added title after title to his notebook. As soon as he was done, he took the next book from the Dean and then repeated the process. More titles filled the notebook.

More completed memory books were moved into the pile on the opposite side of the courtyard. Chadwick's perspective of all this was far different. Chadwick walked slowly around the Siyene fort, "how long ago was this?" Mage Alego was a surprisingly young woman who had been a bone mage. She was bright and bubbly with blonde hair and had taken on her role as tour guide of her memories with great enthusiasm.

"You know I can't answer that, Cookie," she answered, her nickname for Chadwick, after the only bribe she would accept was as many cookies as she could eat. Cookies that had come into the memory space still warm from the oven. Chawick paused and considered her response, "who is the Chief Mage?"

"Snart," she answered. Suddenly realizing what she had said, a worried look came over her face and she rapidly spun around, looking into the sky for something. When she didn't see anything, she relaxed, "very clever, Cookie. Technically, I didn't tell you anything that violates the rules. And now you know, at least roughly, when I was alive and saw this." She waved a hand at the fortress in front of her. Chadwick had long ago established a timeline of who ran the tower and when.

Since most Chief Mages only served for 5 to 10 years, being forced to leave as their power grew, it made for a reasonable method of finding out when a memory book was created. The mages in the memory books seemed very careful about not effecting the outside world. He still didn't have his head fully around what the rules of the memory books were, since the mages seemingly couldn't tell him too many details. But he had heard enough to make some educated guesses.

"And you never saw any of the inside, so not much point me trying to get a look in there," mused Chadwick. Mage Alego nodded enthusiastically, "never did make it that far. Those shamans are awfully feisty about keeping us out. Wasn't really worth my time to try anyway, as the Siyene only really use bones as ornaments. No magical bones as such."

"This was very helpful, thank you. I didn't even know you could make enchanted structures in this manner — this will definitely be going high on my list to check. How did you even find out building walls could be treated as rune channels anyway?" Asked Chadwick.

"Oh, I learned from the Vakresh tribes. They do some very interesting things with carved bones — using the shape of the bone itself as a rune channel was what gave me the idea. I just scaled it up. I used those methods to build my Pink Palace," she said brightly, chewing a cookie. Chadwick raised an eyebrow, "I've never heard of it and I'm certain I would remember the name." She looked stricken, "that's what I called it, because of the lovely pink tint to the bones I used. But it never caught on.

The locals all insisted on calling it the Blood Spire, very evocative, but not at all the theme I was going for." Chadwick tried very hard to keep his expression neutral, "the same Blood Spire in the center of the dead zone that takes up most of the Varus lands?"

"I don't understand why people come up with these names. Honestly, the dead zone? It sounds awful. Just because there is nothing left alive in it any more. The boring zone would be just as accurate. You don't see a field with no livestock in it and immediately call it the 'bovine free zone', do you? The cows might just be in the next field and be back by the next day. So dramatic," she finally finished ranting with a huff. Chadwick was backing away slowly, trying not to make any sudden moves.

His mind was frantically pulling up the details of the little bit of history that he had read about the Blood Spire. Mage Alego wasn't even looking at Chadwick anymore and was muttering to herself, "honestly, you build one palace out of some bones that were just lying around and suddenly they try and invade? Then they attack the palace, which is made of the bones they are mad about you taking? It just doesn't make sense. You turn the attacker's bones into a guest wing and they send even more people?

It's like, they say they want to burn down my Pink Palace, but then send me construction materials. Totally contradictory. Hey, where'd he go?" Mage Alego looked around, but Chadwick was nowhere to be seen. She sighed, "I didn't even get a chance to invite him into my pink palace. Haven't got to make that joke in years." Chadwick was sitting on the cart, the Dean waiting to hand him the next book. He stared down at the book in his hands. It was bright yellow with a rainbow pattern on the spine.

"Dean," said Chadwick quietly, "what has pink bones?"

"The only pink bones I have ever heard of were from the Vakresh people. Something about their tribal bone arts they performed on themselves turned them pink. But they were wiped out hundreds of years ago," answered the Dean.

"What happened to them?" Asked Chadwick.

"Their tribes lived within what is now the dead zone. We don't know exactly how, but the Bone Witch extracted the bones of everything within that zone. The armies sent to stop her, the tribes living nearby, the animals, everything within an enormous radius of the Blood Spire," answered the Dean.

"If that was hundreds of years ago, why is it still called the dead zone?" Asked Chadwick.

"Because, even to this day, stepping into that zone is to die. Your bones are removed and used to fuel the expansion of the zone. The larger the bones, the greater the zone expands out. Thankfully the animals have now learned to fear the zone and avoid it, so it isn't getting any bigger. At least not from animals.

The Varus kingdom gives the death penalty for anyone involved in sending others into the zone, obviously they can't kill those who are foolish enough to try and enter on their own accord, they are already dead," answered the Dean. Chadwick nodded at the answer, "this book needs to be destroyed." The Dean raised an eyebrow, looking at the book that had no title on it. They had known it was a memory book, but it was one of the few with no name or affinity type written on it.

"Those books represent the entire wealth of knowledge and history of the tower. The only legacy of the great mages that came before us. With the purging of our library by various Chief Mages, there is information in these books that is not available anywhere else. Destroying one would be a crime against knowledge itself."

"Not available anywhere else? I certainly hope so in the case of this book. This is another case of needing to trust me. Destroy it immediately please," said Chadwick. The Dean gave Chadwick a searching look and then sighed, "I'm trusting you with our entire future. I suppose I can let a little bit of the past go." He turned back to the line of students and searched the faces, "ah, student Anderson, come up here please." Student Anderson put down the book he was holding and jogged up, "yes, Dean?"

"Has Mage Taverish taught you how to create ghostfire yet?" Asked the Dean.

"He has, Dean, need something magical burned?" Asked Student Anderson. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I do. But I'd like you to do so over on the empty side of the courtyard there. Away from the other books, just being cautious," answered the Dean. Chadwick looked at Student Anderson, "I'm going to place this book for you. Do not attempt to touch it. Point out where you think it will be safe to destroy." Student Anderson went pale, "I'm destroying a memory book? Right in the corner there will be perfect. The stone walls will contain any stray embers. Are you sure this is a smart idea?"

"Possibly the smartest idea I've ever had," said Chadwick and then flicked the book in the direction indicated, using a few hundred slow-moving particles to nudge it where he wanted. It neatly dropped into the corner. Student Andersoon looked back at the Dean and Chadwick, who both nodded and indicated for him to continue. Student Anderson still looked worried, but he shrugged and then summoned up a pale blue fire around his hands. It grew in size until he had a large ball. Then he flung it at the book.

It drifted slowly, like a lazy blue cloud that unerringly closed in on the brightly colored book. It surrounded the book, which started to smolder quickly. As soon as the fire burned through the cover, the book exploded. Spears of bone grew out in all directions. The fire got dispersed by the sudden motion and there was suddenly silence in the courtyard. Everyone was staring at the carriage-sized ball of bone spikes that now took up a third of the courtyard.

The bones became hazy and then drifted away like grey fog. Nothing was left in the corner except the gaping holes that had been punched into the stone walls and floor of the courtyard. Perfect holes, straight through stone. Student Anderson still had his jaw still hanging a little bit open as he turned slowly back to Chadwick, "I agree. Smart idea." A student came rushing into the courtyard, "Dean! We have a situation. There are reports of wraiths appearing near the tower."

The Dean looked around at the operation that was running fairly smoothly around him, they were a third of the way through the books and Chadwick could be handed the next book by anyone, "Mage Stash, take over for me while I go take a look." The girl who had been right behind the Dean nodded and moved up closer to Chadwick. Holding the next book ready for Chadwick to take, once he finished adding to his notes. The Dean launched himself into the air to get a good look around.

Once he was clear of the walls he could see two wraiths waist-deep on the far shore. Both wraiths were attacking the water of the lake around the tower. Right now they were just causing harmless splashes. That could change without notice. After flying to the top of the tower and looking in all directions, those appeared to be the only wraiths in sight. He plunged back towards the courtyard. Chadwick looked up as the Dean returned, "so?"

"Nothing we can do about it right now, we just need to finish what you are doing here and hope…," the Dean trailed off.

"Hope that I find an answer. I have some very promising things I can try. And we still have the oldest of the books we are leaving to the very end. In case any of them have thorough memories of wraiths that I can get a look at and test my theories on them. I won't be able to use my full range of senses on them though, unless that memory happens to come from a mage that could also see raw magic like I do. Shame I can't visit Vander again, he might have had just that. Regardless, every book gives me something new.

There is hope," said Chadwick.

"I'll stop distracting you then, here's your next book, Gareth the Cylinder Mage — not sure how you can have magical affinity for a specific shape, but here you go," said the Dean, handing over the book and taking his spot back at the front of the line.

"You know, for someone who is trying to save the world, you seem to be taking your time," said Mage Gunders. Chadwick was sitting on a grassy hill, a book on the uses of astral magic open next to him. His fishing rod was in his hand and he was lazily casting his rod out and then reading the book while his fly floated down the stream in front of him.

"You would be amazed at how few mages have accurate memories of how fish behave, or even have memories of streams that have fish in them," said Chadwick.

"Too many mages grew up in cities and never left, a shame in my opinion," responded the mage.

"I find myself in a tricky position. I have been researching non-stop for far too many years, yet when I step back out of this book, the cookies will still be warm. The world is quite literally waiting for me. It puts a strain on the mind. I sort of knew it would be like this when I proposed this idea, but I find myself needing more breaks than I anticipated. This memory is one of my favorites so far, so I intend to take my time and get myself nice and centered before I move on," said Chadwick.

"I'm glad you enjoy it, this was a village I found up in the mountains of the Darnell kingdom — it was where I chose to be exiled to after I became too strong to stay at the tower. I raised a family here and I suspect this is where I died. Hopefully at a ripe old age, surrounded by grandchildren," said the mage.

"Are you able to tell me how the memory book got created if you were already gone from the tower?" Asked Chadwick, lazily flicking his rod again to re-cast his fly.

"That's skirting around dangerous territory, but suffice to say that there was a way they could be prepared in advance, I took one with me and the tower has couriers who come to fetch them," answered the mage.

"That technology has been lost. No new memory book has been created for at least a hundred years. But that's a depressing topic for conversation, would you tell me about your time in this village? I would love to hear the story of how you found these fish," said Chadwick.

"Ah yes. I was tracking a very clever wolf that had been getting into the livestock, at the behest of the father of the woman I wanted to marry. I couldn't get his permission until I caught the wolf. It had eluded me every time I hunted for it. Needless to say I was inspired to catch the wolf fast, so I decided I was going about it all wrong. I needed the wolf to come to me. I needed bait. And what could be more tempting than the fattest fish I had ever laid eyes on?

Fish that I discovered after falling out of a tree and into a very cold stream," said the mage, beginning his story. The Dean breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Chadwick come out of the latest book with a smile on his face. He had been looking increasingly haggard between books. Something seemed to have changed though and for the last three books, he had been looking better and better. This was the first time he looked like a regular kid again, not someone with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Chadwick had been very firm when they first planned this, that no matter what concerns the Dean might have, he was to keep the books coming until they finished. The Dean still found that it was tough to subject someone so young to this though. He only had a few indications of how long Chadwick was in each book. The amount of notes he would have to take after each — including how many book titles he added to his ever-growing list was one of the few.

The length of time that passed outside was only somewhat reliable — since, often, it would be almost instant. The difference between a day and several months was impossible to tell from the outside. Chadwick's demeanor was his only other indicator. Chadwick wasted no time, rapidly scribing out book titles at a fairly alarming rate. The boy had been a good scribe before, but now he was writing faster than the Dean could even read.

"Was that book really called 'Quasi-Dimensional Phase-Shifting Necromancy for Dummies'?" Asked the Dean. Unable to restrain his curiosity. Chadwick nodded, "Chief Mage Tully had an affinity for books. It was unique even in his time. At the peak of his power he was able to summon books directly from what he suspected were other universes. For some reason they all ended in 'for Dummies' and were insanely difficult to understand.

He had hundreds of them and could have shown me more, but I was getting so sick of trying to read books that were so complicated that he stopped bothering to summon more."

"Amazing. I've never even heard of a book affinity," said the Dean, scanning through the other titles. He paused at one, "really?

'Writing Books for Dummies, for Dummies', what on earth was in that one?"

"That's the one book that really made me regret my resolve to read every book, just in case they had something useful in them. Because it most certainly did not. It was instructions on how to make a book more complicated. Instructions that were themselves more complicated than any of the other books. I'm fairly certain I got slightly dumber for having read that book, that might be what the 'dummies' part is about," said Chadwick. Chadwick finished his writing and held out his hand.

The Dean dropped the next book into his hands. Chadwick sat and watched as the extremely rotund mage whizzed through the air, laughing like a child. This mage had been one the toughest to try and convince to help him. On discovering that Chadwick was not a spatial mage, the man had begun loudly demanding that the 'lesser mage' leave his domain. Flatly refusing to cooperate, or even talk to Chadwick for quite some time. The mage's entire demeanor was different now.

It had taken Chadwick a few weeks of careful testing to create a true flight enchantment. It chewed through the base material at an alarming rate, but it had complete intent control. He wasn't even sure this would be the thing that got the mage to cooperate when he was making it. The man had just insisted that none of Chadwicks 'trinkets' that he had brought with him were of any interest.

And that his range of foods 'shouldn't be allowed within the same city as real food, in case it gave the other food bad ideas about how bland they should taste'. He only cared about the truly unique. Whatever that meant. The fat man zoomed down to Chadwick just in time for the solid silver belt buckle to disintegrate — finally chewing through the last of the material used to power the enchantment.

"Well, boy. I had doubted you. But you created something that no mage has ever managed as far as I know. Some truly unique magic. I suppose I can lower myself to teaching a mere particle mage," said the fat mage.

"Will you provide me with the books you have read?" Asked Chadwick. The man waved his hands and an enormous pile of books fell to the ground with a crash, "you may read those in your free time. I have something much more important to teach you. How to live, boy." Chadwick sighed and handed the book off to be put into the completed pile, "what a thoroughly uncompromising man. He did have a point about a few of those deserts though," he said mostly to himself. The Dean raised an eyebrow, "deserts?

Doesn't sound like you got a very academically inclined one there."

"He had actually read an astonishing range of books that no other mage I've talked to had even heard of. Which is amazing for a man who didn't seem to care for anything that wasn't related to unique magics or foods. He's possibly the only man in the world to have read a 300-page treatise on the use of bacteria mages in farming just because it had a good recipe for custard tarts written in the margins," Chadwick said, smiling a little at the last bit.

The man had been truly hard to deal with, but kept his end of the bargain that Chadwick could read every book the man had ever seen in exchange for giving him the 'education' he decided Chadwick had needed. Chadwick was now fairly certain he had tasted every 'local specialty' dish that was offered on this half of the continent. He was amused to see that the honey from his own village had featured.

He regretted telling the mage he was from that same village, when it led to an hour-long lecture on the importance of having a range of local flowers when keeping bees. With those distractions, it had taken several years to make it through the sheer volume of books that man had read.

"I certainly can't think of any other cases of someone reading for that specific reason," said the Dean.

"This list will take me a while to write down, how many do we have left?" Asked Chadwick.

"A little over 800 to go. We are getting into very old books now. Should be some that were around for the first wraiths," answered the Dean. They only had a rough estimate of the age of the books, mostly based on appearances and which section of the library they came from. The hope was that the older books were more likely to provide Chadwick answers. And that he was more likely to know the right questions to ask by then.

The whole courtyard of students simply waited, the tension in the air was palpable as the only sound was Chadwick's rapidly scratching quill. He placed the final line in his notes and then took the next book from the Dean.