"Everything's set." Elyas said as he floated in the void. Sadly he didn't get the chance or had the money to buy a watch today. But he had more important things to worry about. "Ryu… she's going to be difficult to deal with."
Based on what Elyas observed, Ryu had at least sensed that something was amiss. But if she had a hunch, why didn't she act on it? Indeed, the head of the investigation team turned out to be a passive player. Elyas was both surprised and jubilant because of it.
"Well, that just means less work for me on that front! Now let's check today's boon…" Elyas wasn't mistaking to call today's gains a "boon"
It was a hard day, yes. A day of playing cat and mouse with people two steps away from him. A day full of misfortune, deceit and no lies.
But it had just as many benefits.
Glancing to his right, Elyas saw several objects floating about. One was a dirty shovel, a brown suit, and finally, several thin clay and stone tablets held together by a strange coil.
Elyas willed himself towards it, finally getting to open it for the first time. Untying the coil holding the bundle of tablets together, he expected them to start floating away immediately, requiring him to manipulate the gravity to stabilize them. But that didn't happen. Instead, the tablets started moving on their own. Elyas created some distance between himself and them.
He watched as they moved around and… rearranged themselves? The clay tablets floated all around him with faint reasoning and direction, as if re-enacting a motion engraved deep within. Only a few seconds passed, but now, Elyas was confronted with a half-circle consisting of the borrowed book.
What the… He shouldn't have been this surprised. After all he was living in a world where people could just wish to change the color of the sky. Magic shouldn't be that hard to expect comparatively. Elyas' mind raced as he looked at the "book"
The thought of all the things he could do with the knowledge carved into these stones…It was exhilarating!
"Okay I can't wait, let's start." He began hurriedly reading the first tablet. He chose to start with the clay ones. The first showed a combination of weird lines at the edges, and a half finished circle where an upright triangle was drawn. Beneath the symbol was a set of instructions and explanations for the rune.
Elyas read the description, "Okay… so the triangle represents the element the rune deals with and the weird lines are to guide it the way the Sorcerer wants. And the circle… it doesn't say anything about the circle…strange." He glanced to the side. All the other tablets, despite looking completely different in every regard, shared one shape. The incomplete circle. Elyas found it odd that a manual for runic magic would lack explanation on one of its most basic shapes.
"Well, I guess I did pose as a great Sorcerer… I think they just figured I didn't need the basics." He wasn't really bothered by that, he could try to understand them later. But for now, all he needed to do was to just copy everything down onto his own notebook. That way, he would have access to every rune without needing to give another poem to extend the lend time.
While Elyas was transcribing the first tablet down into his yellow calendar, he connected the two halves of the circle of the rune. As soon as he did, the rune started to glow softly and almost immediately, the paper ignited.
"Shit!" Elyas quickly tore the paper, burning his fingers slightly in the process. The smell of burnt paper lingered even after he crumbled and tossed the paper away.
"Of course it would do that, why did I even finish it?" It was a mistake, and an easy one to avoid if he just paid more attention. He should have already guessed why the tablet didn't complete the circle.
"So it acts as the switch… interesting." Indeed, that gave runic magic much more utility than he had initially thought. Elyas grabbed his pencil, his now burnt fingers hurting badly as he rewrote the rune. Looking over the half finished copy, he nodded. "This should do." Now he had to write the description.
"A basic rune of fire. It can create or increase heat in a small radius. For multiple uses, utilize a gemstone as the foundation, amber and ruby are suggested for improving the effects." He looked it over and nodded with satisfaction.
Looking over his shoulder at the next clay tablet, he tried to find similarities. Besides the triangle and circle, he could see nothing similar between the two. All he could do for now was just copying, he was far from understanding the reason and logic behind the runes. For now. But despite this, the basics weren't so hard to understand. Elyas could already see that the rune dealt with fire based on the upright triangle.
He glanced at the description to gleam more information, that was when he came to a curious realization. The "foundation" was mentioned again, along with it seemingly improving the rune's effects.
Unlike the previous one which could be used to boil water at best, this one made actual flames. The suggested gemstones remained the same too, which made it easy for him to understand what was going on.
"The "foundation" is the gemstone and can improve the rune's effects based on its elemental alignment…now that I said that out loud, I noticed just how much I sound like a lunatic." Elyas let out a chuckle. He wasn't wrong, if any modern civilized human heard him now, they would think him crazy.
"Well they better watch out. The last madman I saw turned out to be playing everybody." He didn't have time to process it well, but Defender Erin's undercover persona, Sandl's murder his Cost and the need to join the Protocol…all of it happened so fast. He got himself into a lot of trouble recently, but he was also getting closer to his goal. Ever so slightly.
As Elyas wrote down the third rune, he couldn't help but think about where he got these tablets from. That library… I need to visit more often. I can use the two week lend time to my best advantage, then when I'm turning the tablets in, I can ask to borrow another book… but I need a poem or a story as the bargain.
He figured if Noah, someone whose name was known to nearly everyone in the city, had a hard time getting him a visit with the Librarians, then getting in touch with them on his own would be nigh impossible. And he needed to visit the library. Both to understand how it was constructed, and to actually borrow books.
These simple runes he was writing already had great utility. Thinking about all the other treasures inside that place only made his eagerness to visit more often stronger. But there was still a long way to go. He needed materials to construct his palace, or to even begin to craft basic runes, and more importantly…
I have a lot of problems. First I need to get ready for the Protocol's test. Secondly, I need to come up with either the second half of the diptych, or make something up before the two weeks run out. On top of it all, there's Sandl's murderer and Ryu…
Finishing the final clay tablet, he sighed. "I think it's enough for today. I have two weeks to write everything down, there's no rush." He was really tired. The last time he felt this exhausted was the day his second Wish was granted.
Speaking of… Elyas flipped the calendar to its middle. There was a list of questions and facts written on the paper, most of the questions had been crossed off, and there was one more passage added to the facts on the next page.
Facts learned:
"My Cost is that my life span is tied to how long I spend in the void. If I run out of time, instead of immediately killing me, it makes a parasite eat me from inside."
Elyas involuntarily shivered as he read that. He still had the piece of steel in his back as a reminder of the tumor's first, and hopefully last visit. But something about the metallic piece was strange. It didn't weigh much. In fact, he didn't feel stiff or encumbered when he put strain on his back. There was no discomfort at all.
Who knows, if I keep this up I might turn into Iron Man one day. he joked inwardly as he read through the rest of the facts. There wasn't much to add, he only wrote a few lines regarding the library, after which, he glanced at the questions. Most had been crossed off, but there were still a few that remained. Today he was going to add a few new ones as well.
Questions to be answered:
"What did the Whisperer mean by be thankful to your fathers and kin?"
"Why did I get a second Wish?"
"Is Michael alive?" he lingered on that last question, Elyas wanted to cross it off since he had gotten confirmation from josh… but he didn't.
As much as he had hope, he also had doubt. So, he decided to move the pen down and write new lines instead.
"Why do I only have one Wishing Star?"
"Who killed Sandl, and why?"
"What is the second part of the diptych?"
As strange as that sounded, all of those questions were equally important. He needed the poem to get more books and learn how to make his palace. Sandl's murderer was a potential threat to his own life, and the first question… that was something he needed the library for the most.
Elyas couldn't discuss something like that with other people, even Julius or Noah. He considered them friends, yes, close ones even. But He trusted the worst of humanity more.
Elyas didn't know much of anything about the history of the last four hundred years. That could potentially explain his reality shattering second Wish as just a rare occurrence.
After he was finished writing the questions, he tried to memorize the two fire runes he had written down. As he did, he found himself giving way to sleep.