Chương 23: Saving Memories

The Dean watched the book in Chadwick's hands get gradually brighter, glowing cracks of energy starting to shine through the cover. Right when the book looked like it would fall apart, Chadwick opened his eyes. The Dean sighed with relief, "that was quite worrying lad, I think we might need to skip the last few books. Not sure these older ones can handle it."

"I am going to skip them, not because they are old. They are actually fine for others to use. Tell me Dean, do you claim the title of Chief Mage?" Said Chadwick, looking very seriously at the Dean.

"Well, I'm not sure if there should be a vote from the council or…," began the Dean, but was cut off by Chadwick raising his hand.

"Yes or no, Dean. It's very important. And if it's not going to be you. I need to know who it is," said Chadwick.

"Fine. There is no one else here at the tower who it could possibly be. So I will have to claim the job," said the Dean, sounding slightly exasperated.

"Good. We have a lot to do and very little time. We need to go to your new office," stated Chadwick, stepping off the cart and striding away. The Dean rushed after him, "why are we in such a rush? What did you learn in that last book?"

"The short answer is, the wraiths will be coming. And not just appearing around the kingdom as before, but specifically coming for me. There are some items in a hidden space that only the Chief Mage can access, we will need one of them," said Chadwick. The Dean tried, unsuccessfully, to get more information out of Chadwick as he practically raced through the halls and stairways of the tower, headed for the Chief Mages office.

When he tried to talk, Chadwick just told him that if he had breath for talking, he wasn't moving fast enough. The Dean didn't consider himself unfit, but he was feeling thoroughly inadequate when he found that Chadwick, who was still quite a short child in his physical form, kept having to slow down for the Dean to catch up. Not far from the Chief Mage's office they ran into Clarice, the king's personal assassin.

"Whatever you two are up to, I hope it's good. There were at least a dozen wraiths scattered around the tower, last I looked. The king has sent me to solve that. However I see fit," said Clarice. Making her plans clear, while making it obvious she wasn't seriously considering just killing Chadwick as a first solution. Or she wouldn't have been so up front. Chadwick was fairly sure that Clarice had been allowed to decide what to do with the previous Chief Mage when he lost control of the necklace system.

Perhaps the king had even been waiting for an excuse to remove the man who had been following the letter of the rules, but not the spirit.

"The wraiths are here because of me. As you obviously already suspect. I am collecting a few things from the Chief Mages office and then I will immediately be leaving for the Siyene border," Chadwick reassured her.

"Good. I will tag along for now," said Clarice and joined them in running down the hallway. The group burst into the Chief Mage's office and Chadwick rattled off some instructions for the Dean.

"Over there by that wall, you need to say 'I state my right to the position of Chief Mage' and really mean it," said Chadwick. The Dean complied and nothing happened. Chadwick raised an eyebrow, "you didn't sound like you really meant it. Do you really think there is someone who would be better suited to being the Chief Mage?" The Dean sighed, "I cannot predict the future lad. I haven't even been able to convince the king to allow children to go without obedience collars. And you think I deserve this job?"

Chadwick's eyes softened, "tell me Dean. Who else would care as much as you do about finding a solution to the collars?" The Dean seemed to consider this and gave a noncommittal shrug, clearly not fully committed to taking the job.

"Who else would have hidden me from the Chief Mage, putting his own life on the line?" Demanded Chadwick. It clearly wasn't getting through to the Dean.

"Who else would remember all 342 names?" Chadwick asked quietly. The Dean's face fell in grief for a moment before he once again said, "I state my right to the position of Chief Mage." A section of wall opened and a gong sounded somewhere in the tower. Chadwick paused for a moment, one of his eyes spinning around in circles, "huh. Magical gong. Never thought of doing that, but it's quite elegantly enchanted." Then he stepped into the section the Dean had opened. It was a bit like a walk-in pantry.

Shelves lined with miscellaneous objects and quite a number of books.

"I spoke to the man who created this room. Anything missing from the library is likely in here, if a past Chief Mage chose to hide it. Additionally, anything a past Chief Mage considered dangerous is likely in here. We are looking for blank memory books and good raw enchanting materials," said Chadwick. The room ended up being bigger than it looked and there was a whole section around a corner that was full of unusual objects. Everything from bones to enchanted swords.

Chadwick selected a specific large bone from the pile and a half-dozen large gold chunks. Leaving the rest. Clarice ended up finding the blank memory books on their own shelf at the very back. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"We really don't have long. I'm going to try and leave you with every bit of knowledge I was able to get from past Chief Mages that should explain what you will need to know to do this job. Since our previous Chief Mage failed in his duty to pass on key knowledge," said Chadwick.

"Ok," said the Dean, "do you want me to write things down?"

"Not enough time for that, I'm going to make a memory book before I leave, be sure to enter it before letting anyone else use any other memory books," said Chadwick, pulling out one of the gold ingots and beginning to carve channels in it with his affinity. Chadwick was absorbed in his enchanting work and the Dean didn't want to interrupt him. He looked over at Clarice who just shrugged.

"Ok, here goes," said Chadwick. Placing the book on top of the carved gold ingot on a desk and then placing his forehead down on the book. A thump of displaced air rattled the room, knocking out one of the windows. Followed by the faint sound of glass falling down the side of the tower. Chadwick smiled down at the book, "there. Now nothing will be lost." He handed the book off to the Dean.

"Remember, no other memory book usage by anyone until you have a chance to enter this one."

"I had no idea we had a way to create new memory books," said the Dean with wonder.

"Technically, we don't. Whatever is left in that room is it. All we can do is fill those few that are left when it is important enough to do so. When to use them will be your decision as Chief Mage," said Chadwick, already distracted with carving channels into the large bone he was holding.

"What will you do next?" Asked the new Chief Mage, former Dean.

"If you take a look out the window," said Chadwick, indicating the hole where the glass had been blown away, "you will see that I only have a few minutes before people's lives are at risk." Even in the daylight, the blue glow of the wraiths was visible all across the lake. The Dean went a little pale, "there must be thirty of them out there by now. I just saw another pop into existence as I was watching." Clarice fingered her knives and looked Chadwick up and down.

Then her hands dropped and she sighed, "not sure I could, even if I should. Look too much like a kid."

"Still is a kid, technically," added the Dean, looking away from the window, "even if he is likely mentally older than both of us put together at this point."

"To actually answer your earlier question. I'll be headed for the border as soon as I can finish creating a flight enchantment. Those wraiths should all disappear, or at least follow me. There's a small chance one of them was from the curse, instead of being here for me specifically, but those randomly appear around the kingdom. So it's unlikely," said Chadwick.

"What will you do when you reach the border?" Asked the former Dean.

"Out of the list of possible ways I can solve the curse. The most likely one involves the Siyene forts on the border. So, I'll be heading there," answered Chadwick. The new Chief Mage nodded. Then asked, "what should I tell the king?"

"That I believe I can solve the curse, but you won't have an easy way to know if I succeeded. Since I won't be coming back," said Chadwick.

"You won't be returning to the kingdom?" He asked sadly. Chadwick shook his head, still carving runes into the bone.

"Is there anything you would like me to tell your parents?" He asked. Chadwick pointed at the newly made memory book, "ask me when you enter the book." Chadwick held up the bone and rotated it around, looking at all the sides, "this should do nicely."

"What sort of bone is that anyway?" Asked Clarice.

"It's from a very large flying creature. Making it ideal to power a flight enchantment," answered Chadwick. He made a small hop into the air and then he started floating in the center of the room.

"Good, seems stable so far." The former Dean looked like he was about to say something, but Chadwick cut him off.

"Don't worry about a goodbye. You will get plenty of time with me. You might even be sick of me by the time you are done."

"Fine. I'll at least say good luck," he said, then looked out the window again as several new wraiths appeared and began moving towards the tower, "I think I understand the rush."

"Thank you," said Chadwick then floated out the window, "remember, memory book." The former Dean picked it up and patted it, "It won't leave my sight until I get a chance. Anything I should bring with me?"

"Fishing gear and cookies," said Chadwick with a smile. Then he sped away, all of the translucent glowing blue wraiths following him like a comet trail dragging along the countryside. The newly minted Chief Mage and the King's head assassin watched the wraiths trail away across the lake, following the boy that had just sped out of sight.

"Shame the king wouldn't let me recruit him," said Clarice.

"Oh? How would that have worked?" Asked John.

"I was betting on him being able to solve the curse and then come stay in the capital to be trained up. It would've been nice to train someone so young, get a lot of good years of service that way. If he couldn't solve the curse, I was going to train him on the road. There is always someone outside the kingdom that needs removing," answered Clarice.

"And why did the king say no? Just out of curiosity," queried John.

"He said," Clarice cleared her throat and did her best imitation of the king, "you want to take the most dangerous person in my kingdom and teach him to be better at killing people?" John and Clarice both sat in silence for a moment.

"Little hard to argue with that," said John.

"Yeah. I didn't even try to," said Clarice. Then she asked, "so, going to see what he has in store for you in that memory book?"

"I need to close up this room and then get all the other memory books back into the library. Now that we have identified them all, the whole library will need rearranging to give them their own section," said John. Clarice frowned slightly, "he did seem quite insistent, and it's not like it takes you any real time to go see what he has for you." John shrugged, "he only seemed insistent that I do so before using other memory books.

I know it won't take any actual time, but I'm worried about forgetting about the various things I need to do."

"Hmm, fine," said Clarice. Then she looked out the window again, "how long will it take him to reach the border?"

"It took us 9 hours to fly here under my power, with some enchants aiding us. I don't even understand how that enchant he just made works, since it obviously wasn't manipulating wind. I would've been able to see it happen. Nevertheless, I'd be surprised if he could do the trip any quicker," said John.

"So we might be waiting until tomorrow to see any results, assuming there is even something to see," mused Clarice.

"Likely, yes," said John as he closed up the hidden room. Then he continued, "I'm going to go direct the students and pack up this library, unless the king wants something further from me at the moment?" Clarice waved him away, "I will let him know what we just learned, but I suspect you are fine to play librarian for a while." An hour later the new Chief Mage had finished directing the rearranging of the library space and was back with the memory books in the courtyard.

Overseeing the careful carrying of them back inside.

"Thankfully, no sign of rain," he said, looking up at the sky. A blue flash lit up the sky and was followed shortly by a shockwave that pushed the air along. Most normal people probably didn't see the wave of force, but for an air mage it was like being shouted at.

"Surely that wasn't Chadwick already? It's only been an hour…" the Dean said to himself. After staring at the sky for a while he swore quietly and then ran for the kitchen to get some fresh cookies. He had a memory book to enter.