For breakfast they serve us a sort of rice porridge along with some fruits and sweet breads. While we eat, we continue to brainstorm topics we think we need to know more about.
Addie is especially interested in the economic system. Which makes sense because she is interested in going into trade. Plus we all need to know enough to make a living once we leave the Palace.
Saki is especially interested in magic, and all of us have displayed some sort of magical affinity.
Kari is interested in exploring her physical abilities. She has already begun to research the meaning of our Curses.
"Listen guys," I say. "I spent some time soaking in the bath house last night and had some interesting conversations with our classmates."
"Interesting how?" Asks Addie.
"It was mostly about how Magic and Blessings interact. Apparently most types of abilities and magics are documented. With the right resources, we can figure out what ours are and learn to make use of them."
“I know that a lot of the Heroes were taken down and fitted with Sigils yesterday. They’re some kind of shortcut to learning Magic,” interjects Nix.
"I’m beginning to think there was a purpose to the Trial I went through in my dream,” says Kari. “And according to what I read, Curses aren’t just prejudice here. There is something real about them which impacts our abilities. We're definitely the only ones with Curses in our group."
"Yeah, but it seems like a Curse has positive benefits to go with the negatives," says Nix, who has refused to speak about his Trial. "I think my ESP is meant to counterbalance my Curse. It's a bit of a mixed bag."
"The Great Heroes and Saints each have unique abilities," contributes Addie. "Seems like the people here have some methods for figuring the abilities out. Or maybe enough documented Hero abilities that they can test for them."
Saki adds, Like Nix said. Some of our classmates with magic affinities have already been fitted with something called a Sigil. It's supposed to make casting Magic easy.
We had all finished eating and the maids cleared our plates away. Addie asks Jane to request Sir Aldo to meet with her while Tara pours us tea.
We talk for a little longer about nothing in particular and then break up when Sir Aldo arrives.
Excerpt from Saki's Journal
Nix and I spent the afternoon in the library with Penny. She’s an absolute maniac when it comes to finding information in books. We invested a couple of hours working out how to test our magical affinities. We’ll need to find some physical items somewhere but the procedures are mostly worked out.
That kind of stuff is almost all done through Sigils now. Apparently Sigils will be drawn toward people who can use them. I guess testing for affinities is as simple as walking up to a rack of Sigils and seeing which ones move. Working out how to do it in other ways took quite a lot of digging in historical references.
I also found some books on magic and magic systems that I was hoping would jump start my magic training. This library has a phenomenal breadth and depth!
Then I just browsed around. I found whole shelves of books written in different languages, different scripts. My hobby has always been languages and writing systems so this made me very excited.
Did I mention I can understand and read all of the modern languages here? Don't know why. None of the others have the same language ability. Well, except for the native language of Grado that is; all the summoned can speak that. The ancient languages are beyond me, though.
I took an example of each language I found and brought them to a study table. Penny was kind enough to sit down with me and tell me about each language, what the scripts are called, where the languages were spoken (or if they are extinct), etc. She was very thorough. An incredible mind and generous heart.
Penny herself reads quite a few different languages. For most languages, the library has different learning resources like dictionaries and phrasebooks. There are some outliers, though. Some languages are only found in one or two books which no one can read anymore.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I felt like I'd been summoned into heaven! So many languages to learn! I chose one language which is especially linked to magic in the history of this world - ancient Herminian - and Penny found me a collection of examples and learning resources for me to take back to my room.
After that, I spent some time teaching more ASL to Penny. And just communicating, really. It was nice to have someone new to share with. I really like her.
Nix thinks she smells nice.
We now have books to read. That in itself is awesome. We're all big readers and getting books into our hands after four days without them is like hitting at least four numbers in the lottery.
I’m reading about this world’s economic system. They have a guild system which manages most of the trades. Guild rankings work as a sort of quality indicator and members of Guilds are entitled to training and other things. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works in actual practice.
I hunker down and start taking notes. I'm glad they have paper readily available. Wonder if it's common everywhere or just in the Palace? It'll take some time to get used to quill pens though.
We have a limited time to get ourselves prepared. I'm not going to waste a minute of it.
We've been doing some research and I'm starting to understand things better. I lie on my bed contemplating the dots and planes of my new 'vision'. Dots are people and planes represent walls, floors, etc. This is all a result of what I learned in my Trial. How to sense Spirit energy - which is what all living things have. People have a lot of Spirit energy, which is why I was able to sense them before I really learned the proper way.
But it needs to be emphasized - every living thing has Spirit energy. Including those we can’t normally see, such as bacteria. And bacteria are everywhere. So if I tune my senses right, I can faintly see walls and floors and just about anything else that gives bacteria a place to live.
I can get a feeling for people's moods based on the color of their Spirit energy - along with a heaping handful of what I think of as situational intuition. I'm even able to identify individual people based on that intuition. For example, I can tell that the two auras in the closet down the hall are Rio and one of our maids. Big surprise there. I’m happy for him, though. His dot's color has changed from the yellow of pain to a softer green color that I associate with contentment. I'm guessing they're making out. And it's happened twice today. Different maid each time. Respect for the horn-dog!
No, I'm not even a little bit jealous. While I'm contemplating this, Rio leaves the closet and wanders off toward the kitchens. Probably wants a snack to satisfy a different kind of hunger.
A little while later one of the maids, Tara, knocks on my bedroom door and enters. "Excuse me, Sir Nix," she says, "will you be needing anything else before I retire for the night?"
I swing my feet over the edge of the bed and ask her, "Do you have time to take a walk with me? For about fifteen minutes?"
"Certainly. Where would you like to go?"
"Just for a walk around. I'd feel a lot better if you could hold my arm and walk beside me to keep me out of trouble."
Really, what I want is to field test my new ESP powers. This isn’t just me talking a cute girl into spending time with me. Honest! I need her eyes for something. I have a worrying scatter of hostile red dots on my radar and I want to get an idea of who they are.
Tara agrees to my request and we leave the room. I have a silly thought that we must look like a couple of kids out on a date, but I laugh it off. She smells nice though, a hint of apple blossoms from her hair. Her hand is warm where she grasps my arm just above the elbow.
We make a little tour of the areas common to all of us who've been summoned. I'm able to confirm that most of the red dots are classmates who have never liked me for some reason. The only two that aren't classmates are Palace officials. When I query Tara about them, she says she doesn't know who they are. Just some assistants to the officials who are working with all of us. I don’t have the ability to tell if they’re hostile to me specifically or just hostile in general.
Eventually we make it back to the room to find Rio sitting at his little desk. Jane has just brought in a tea service and says good night, taking Tara off with her to get some rest.
I sit down in my desk chair and ask Rio for a couple of pieces of paper. "Rio," I say, "Can you watch me fold this and tell me what happens?"
Origami has been my hobby for ages and my hands move with a swift surety as I fold a frog. I finish and Rio reports to me, "As you made the last few folds, I started to see a soft green light flowing from your hands to the frog. Now the frog is hopping around your desk like it’s alive."
"Weird," I say.
"No doubt," says Rio.
I grab another sheet of paper, fold a crane, and let it go.
"Now there’s a crane flying around. Now it’s trying to catch the frog."
I laugh out loud. "That must look ridiculous, they're both the same size!" Rio laughs too, confirming my belief.
Eventually the two paper animals seem to run out of energy and go still. I touch the frog and will it to come back to life. It starts hopping around again. "What happened, Rio?"
"Same thing pretty much. Your hand glowed green and that energy went into the frog. How are you doing it?"
"This must be a magic ability. Or maybe it just comes as an acknowledgement of all of the hours I've spent folding Origami. When I finish a creation, it just happens."
"You realize that what you just told me is, like, beyond awesome."
"I am aware. There are several things I can do in this world that I couldn't do back home."
"Same here," says Rio. "We each seem to have at least two sets of abilities. Or will have when we get a chance to practice and grow into them."
"What are yours Rio?" I ask.
"Almost all of my abilities are related to my memory skills and my mathematical abilities."
"You said almost all, what's the odd one out?"
"When I make out with a girl, my pain goes away. For a little while, anyway."
"Man, sucks to be you..."
He laughs.