The long swim down the river of knowledge

by **Yisanareysin** on June 10th, 2014, 3:44 am

2nd of Summer, 514 AV

A wall of trees, roads that looped back on themselves, and purple spiders. This was turning out to be quite a day. The city seemed to have calmed down though, and if you ignored the fact that people were diverting around what appeared to be a patch of empty street, but which he was fairly certain was the invisible temple, you could almost pretend it was a normal, non batshyke insane city. Almost. Not that Rey had any particular desire to close his eyes to the wonders of the city. It could easily have been his imagination, but he almost felt like the city was giving him a tour, as a sort of welcome back. He'd passed a number of rather fascinating places, including what appeared to be a building made out of cubes, a statue that had called him a worthless dumbshyke drifter, and a beautiful hedge maze that someone had flopped out of, crying in what may have been relief or possibly distress.

One building in particular, though, had caught his eye. It was a plain enough building, nothing too special looking, with a sign that proclaimed it to be called "The Sunken Conundrum", whatever a conundrum was. But the building made his ears hum with magic, and he'd passed it twice already. Reysin came to a stop before the building, considering it, assessing dangers (because gods knew he wouldn't be thinking about danger if there was something exciting inside). As a general rule, anything following him, especially anything magical, was considered dangerous until proven otherwise. But this was a building, and besides, he reasoned, if the city killed or seriously injured everyone who came to visit, no one would ever come here. His self preservation satisfied, Rey approached the door.

When he opened them, he froze in terror, fully expecting to be swept back into the street by a wave of what he prayed was water. A moment passed, and the water stayed stubbornly still. Narrowing his eyes, Rey stepped to the side of the door and gently prodded the water. His hand went through with little resistance, and it still did not fall. Well, that would certainly explain the magical aura. Stepping back in front of the door, Rey laughed to see a "please remember to breath" sign on the inside of it. Well, he thought, might as well. Holding his breath, he stepped into the building, only to find it unnecessary as slits opened up along his ribs. Taking an experimental breath, he was delighted to find he could breath, as long as he ignored just how terrifying it was to be breathing in water. If it really was water... was it an illusion? If it was did it matter? And just what was...

Oh

OH

Rey's face broke out into a huge grin as he realized just what he had stumbled upon. Why had he never seen this place before? There were shelves packed with books, desks and chairs on the ground, and people were swimming around pulling books from shelves. His grin faded slightly as he realized these books were probably in common, and he didn't have his parents to help translate. It faded even more when he realized he would have to swim to reach the top shelves. Or, did he? He began to walk experimentally. It was like moving with his legs in sand, so that was not going to work. Pushing off, he managed to sort of half bounce over to one of the shelves. From there it was easier. Climbing was a lot better than swimming, and much easier than it would have been out of the water, which was a blessing.

by **Yisanareysin** on June 15th, 2014, 8:09 am

Reaching the top of the shelf, Rey paused to look at the books. Pulling one out at random, he opened it, then immediately closed it again. The jumble of what appeared to be twenty syllable words made his brain hurt just looking at it. Setting it back on the shelf, he briefly inspected the shelf, and realized they were all books on the human body and medicine, mostly from Zeltiva, apparently. Wonderful. So he was going to have to move, somehow.

Letting go of the shelf, Rey began to study the other library goers as he floated to the floor. Most of them seemed to be making sideways motions with their hands, while kicking their legs, but there were those who were alternating spreading and closing their legs and arms. There was one gracefully swooping around, but from the greenish skin and the fishy smell he was getting from her aura he was fairly certain she was some sort of water creature. After a few chimes of watching, he tried it for himself. The results were... less than stellar, but worked. Sort of.

He awkwardly flailed his way to another shelf, narrowly avoiding smacking his nose on the spine of a large book. Glaring at the book grumpily, Rey pulled it off the shelf, and glanced at the cover. "Magic and I". Flipping it open and skimming through it, he was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't the stuffy, long winded textbook he had half expected it to be.

Instead, it seemed like a fairly easy, if slightly disturbing read. Floating back to the floor (flailswimming down seemed like a bad idea), he settled in on a comfy chair, and began reading.

by **Yisanareysin** on July 14th, 2014, 9:42 pm

Several bells later, Rey remembered why he didn't normally read, especially not in common. His eyes were aching, and he'd only gotten a third of the way through the book. Rubbing his temples, Rey studied the tome thoughtfully. The nuances of the common language were somewhat difficult to grasp, but the wizard, Shaik, had seemed almost bitter. Like his magic had been a curse more than anything else. To Rey, the idea seemed ludicrous. His sense (auristics, they had called it) had never been anything but a blessing, and the things Shaik had described....

Rey grinned gleefully, staring down at the book. He had never realized, never even imagined such power could exist. To bend a creature's mind to your will, to be able to command the elements themselves, that seemed worth almost any amount of risk. He wanted to learn.

It sounded wonderful
It sounded amazing
It sounded dangerous, and that was the most thrilling thing of all.

If he could find someone to teach him, who knew what wonders he would find? With such power at his fingertips, what could possibly touch him? He would be untouchable, could do anything he wanted, could...

His brief daydream of wonders and power beyond imagination was interrupted by the librarian loudly coughing that SIR IT'S GETTING DARK PERHAPS YOU SHOULD LEAVE HMMM? Grinning apologetically at the glaring librarian, Rey swam over to the exit, and stepped back into the world of solid ground and not having petching gills. After taking a moment to reacquaint himself with the feeling of walking, he began heading back to the Wolf's Cave, his mind still whirling.

by **Yisanareysin** on July 14th, 2014, 10:15 pm

Now that his fit of gleeful excitement over his new discovery was over, he could think a little more clearly now.

Assuming that Shaik spoke truthfully, all the magic he'd described, including Rey's own sense, was dangerous. That seemed logical. After all, if something so powerful had no drawbacks, everyone would be using it. But why was it dangerous? Shaik had mentioned something called Overgiving, which usually seemed to involve blood gushing out of eyes and noses, and limbs loosing all feeling and motion, and occasionally madness or death. So, something to avoid then.

How did one avoid overgiving? Shaik recommended avoiding magic of any sort. But what was the point of power if you were too scared to use it?

On the other hand, what was the point of power if you were completely insane or permanently on fire? Rey sighed. It seemed this, as with so many things in his life, would have to be a balancing act. On one hand, Rey wanted to learn all of it. Everything Shaik had described, Rey wanted. On the other hand, he had also learned long ago that pursuing everything he wanted would get him killed.

Magic, Rey decided, was like a muscle. Which made overgiving the equivalent of the time he had pulled something in his shoulder and it had hurt petch for days. And his father had demonstrated on several captive humans just how easy it was to permanently damage something. But if he never strained himself too much, he should be safe.
Right?

This was complicated stuff, and he let the thought slip to the back of his mind as he approached the Wolf's cave. He could think about magic later. For now? Sleep.