Tunem was re-arranging the schedules of the student-teachers when he was interrupted by a knock at his front door. As he walked to answer it, he began mentally running down the list of people who might be coming to see him. It was a favorite pastime of his, and he prided himself on being right over 75% of the time. This time, he was anticipating Vithi or Judy, here to talk about Lilith. So, he was surprised when Lilith herself was waiting outside. Well, someone who looked like Lilith, anyway. Her body language was all wrong; it was too relaxed, too confident for it to be the woman he was coming to know. His gaze hardened. “Alright, who are you?” He asked, mentally preparing a defensive spell should the woman turn out to be hostile.

The woman laughed. “Good eyes. I’m one of Lilith’s alternate personalities, we’re calling me Carmen for now. If you recall when you were scanning my abilities earlier this morning, there was one called “My Other Self”. I’m one of the Avatars made using that skill, instilled with Lilith’s fae personality. I have a request for you, but I understand that, given today’s events and the nature of this skill, you probably don’t trust me. I’m more than happy to wait while you get Kali or Lilith to verify me.”

Tunem frowned. What Carmen suggested was a reasonable course of action, and now that he was thinking about it, she was acting similarly to Lilith’s fae personality had, at least in the brief moment he had talked to her. “I suppose I can call Kali over.” He struggled internally for a moment, wondering whether it would be more dangerous to have her in his foyer, where she could potentially do something to his house, or to leave her out front where anyone could stumble upon her, and decided. “Come inside, you can wait there.”

“Yeah, her story checks out. She should be who she says she is.” Kali said, nodding to herself as she finished examining Carmen.

Carmen smiled deviously. “I believe you mentioned something about good girls getting a kiss…?”

Kali started, and then smiled back. “I like you. Alright, I’ll give you that kiss, but not until after you settle your business with Tunem.”

“I’ll keep you to it!” Carmen winked at Kali before turning to face Tunem. “Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business. I’ve been thinking about what Alex said this morning, about preparing for the Society’s inevitable attack on me. To that end, as Lilith’s Avatar, I’d like to devote my time to studying grimoires, books of magic, lists of formations, everything written. Due to the “Decipher” portion of my “Innate Spellcaster” skill, I should be able to get most of that kind of stuff pretty fast.”

Tunem nodded. “Sensible. Did you have anything in mind to begin with?”

“If you have a copy of the Necronomicon lying around, I’d love to start with that.”

“You realize you’re asking for a forbidden book, right?”

“I’m well aware. I’m also aware that you wouldn’t take Vithi out of your vault or let me read The King in Yellow without a reason. You’re desperate. Desperate enough to break the rules. So, what’s one more? Of all the people in the world, I’m uniquely able to understand it, and I doubt it could do any harm to my sanity, what with the Elder God Mask and what happened when I read The King in Yellow. Besides, from what little I know of the book, which I’ll admit is only from what I’ve seen in media, it shouldn’t be nearly as bad on my sanity as The King in Yellow.”

Tunem grimaced. “It’s not forbidden for the same reason as The King in Yellow is forbidden. It’s forbidden because the contents are too dangerous for use in the general public.”

“I’m not the general public. You determined that I was trustworthy enough to use whatever forbidden knowledge might be in The King in Yellow, so why not the Necronomicon? I’m sure Kali can vouch that I have no ill intentions, only the desire to survive and be free.”

Tunem looked over to Kali, who tapped her chin. “Well…She’s right on that front. From what I saw, she doesn’t have any ill intentions, and I don’t think the power would be able to tempt her unnaturally. But…you know, the reason we did all this in the first place was because you said disaster was coming, and this was the only way to stop it without unreasonable loss of life. I think we should try and aid her in whatever way we can. The Society is moving, and right now Lilith only has potential. If she falls into their hands that potential becomes theirs. In my opinion, that’s far worse than giving her a few things that could theoretically be misused.”

Tunem grit his teeth. “Fine. You have my approval, I guess. I’ll retrieve the book after we’re done here.”

Carmen tilted her head. “Don’t you need to consult with the Council first?”

“Matters to do with you have been given over to the direct supervision of Kali and myself. The others just don’t have the knowledge to make informed decisions and so have left it to us. Besides, the Council felt that there would be a lot of these sort of matters brought up to them about you, and to save their time this was the best option.”

Carmen nodded. “Kali, mind if I stick around you as I study? I don’t want to distract Lilith while she works more than I need to.”

Kali smiled. “Fine by me! I’ll show you the way to where Judy and I are staying while Tunem fetches the book.”

“And the kiss?”

“We can do it on the way, don’t worry!”

Tunem sighed and made sure the two left before leaving himself to go get the book.

Lilith woke up to Kali gently shaking her. “Rise and shine, Lilith!”

Yawning, Lilith sat up. “Kali? Why are you here?”

Kali giggled. “Someone had to get the amended schedule to you, and I volunteered. I’m going to be sitting in on most of the private lessons you’ll be taking, and one of those is first thing in the morning, so I figured since we were heading to the same place we could go together!”

“Sounds fine to me, let me get changed and eat some breakfast, then I’ll be ready.”

“Judy had me bring some food over for you. I’ll leave while you get changed,” Kali paused, smirking and giving Lilith a wink, “unless you don’t want me to.”

Lilith went beet red. “No, that’ll be fine.”

Kali laughed and left the room. Roughly 30 minutes and a hearty breakfast later, Kali and Lilith arrived at their destination, a classroom on the first floor of one of the school buildings. Inside, they found a tall, lanky man sitting on the teacher’s desk, letting his feet dangle over the edge.

“Ah, you’re finally here. Good thing, too. I was getting bored. Name’s Geb, I’m one of Tunem’s senior apprentices.” He jumped off the table, walking over to Lilith. “You’re Lilith, right? Pleased to meet ‘ya.” He stuck out his hand, and Lilith shook. “I must say, you’re quite a bit more approachable than 2.0 over there. What’s she doing, anyway?”

Lilith looked over, and sure enough, Carmen was sitting with her feet propped up on a desk, reading out of a musty-looking tome. She lazily raised a hand in greeting before lowering it to turn a page. In the desk next to her, Judy was looking vaguely uncomfortable, but gave a weak smile to Lilith anyway.

“She’s studying for me. She’s doing book work while I work on practical things.”

“Really? Man, wish I could be in two places at once like that. Would make everything so much easier. Anyway, come over here. I’m going to do some baseline tests on your mana.” He pulled out an orb and placed it on the desk. “Funnel all of your mana into this. It’ll give us a good idea of what your current magical capacity is.”

Lilith approached the orb and began funneling her energy into it. Soon, the orb was glowing slightly, and her energy was depleted. Geb walked over, picking up the orb and muttering a few words.

“Well, looks like you’re well below average. I suppose it’s not really a surprise, considering you were Veiled, but I must admit I was hoping for something more.”

Lilith frowned. “What do you mean, considering I was Veiled?”

Geb scratched his chin. “Well, think of magical reserves like physical stamina. If you’re not ever using it, you’re not ever gonna get more of it. You’ve gone nearly your whole life without using even the slightest bit of magical power. Expecting you to have any significant reserves at all would be like expecting someone who only recently started walking to be able to run a 5k. Not really something that would normally be possible. ‘Course, you’re the exception to end all exceptions, so I was hopeful. Good news is that, as that exception, you probably have a higher potential capacity than anyone currently living, so it’s not hopeless.”

“Well…how do I work on raising that capacity?”

Geb shrugged. “Honestly, just emptying out your reserves and letting them refill. I’ve heard that you can suppress all your magic at will, and it empties out your reserves when you stop, right?” Seeing Lilith’s nod, he continued. “Perfect. Any time you think your magic has gotten full, just toggle that real quick. You’re in a pretty unique situation in that you can use other’s mana, so I would abuse that and just have your power constantly emptied and refilling. When we finish up here, I’ll have you fill up another orb and that should help us get a feel for how fast you regenerate your magic. That’ll probably be below average too but give it some time to get used to working and you should be up to speed for both of those faster than you have any right to be.

“Go ahead and sit down, I’ve prepared some beginner magical texts for you to read while I perform some more tests on my end. Unfortunately, these books are more on beginner magical theory and are not actual spellbooks, so your Decipher won’t help you much here, but I think that even with that skill you’d be better off knowing the basics before diving into anything serious.”

Lilith nodded, grabbing the books off of the teacher’s desk. She sat down at one of the student’s desks and began to read. She had to admit that the books were rather dull. Lots of breakdowns of simple spells, why certain sections cause certain effects, that sort of a thing. The most important thing she gleaned from her study sections was that for the most part, magic used in combat (or other time-sensitive) situations is distinct in style from magic used outside those situations. Most magic used in combat had to be cast chantless; being able to cast a spell chantlessly allows the user a greater degree of control over the spell than using a chant, is faster, and doesn’t give any unnecessary information to the opponent.

The requirements to cast a spell chantless are relatively simple. First, the user needs to have cast the spell before, often many times. The exact number of times needed to cast a spell chantless differs based on the individual, but it’s generally accepted that the more times the user has cast the spell, chantless or otherwise, the easier it is to cast it chantlessly. The second requirement, well, more of a guideline, is that the user understands each individual part of the spell. If the user does not understand a part of the spell, they are not able to easily alter that portion of the spell when chantlessly casting. If a spell would hurl a fireball, casting the spell with a chant would always result in the fireball going the same distance in the same direction at the same speed. By chantlessly casting the same spell, the “fields” for distance, direction, and speed are not constant, and can be altered by the user at will. This, effect, however, is contingent on the user understanding those portions of the spell. If the user doesn’t understand those portions, the user can’t alter them.

The last requirement is simply to have enough magical energy to cast the spell. Casting a spell chantlessly almost always takes more mana than casting it with a chant, due to the user changing parts of the spell on the fly. The exact amount of mana needed to cast a spell chantlessly depends on the extent to which the user is modifying the base spell. Each individual change in a value has a flat “cost” associated with simply changing the value, and the actual changes may also require more – or less – magical power than the base spell as well. Sending a fireball that is twice as large the same distance as the regular fireball may cost twice as much magic. Sending it half the distance may cost the same amount or sending it three times as far might cost six times as much as the base spell.

Lilith’s reverie was interrupted by the door opening, and Nashra walking in. Looking over at Lilith and Carmen, she groaned. “There’s two of you now?! Fan-TASTIC. I really needed a doubled workload right now, so thanks for that.”

“Actually, still just one person. Technically. We can share memories, so a conversation with one of us will eventually end up known by the other.” Lilith motioned over to Carmen. “We’re calling her Carmen for now, and you won’t really have to work with her. She’s going to be busy reading most of the time, so don’t worry about it too much.”

“Whatever, man, as long as I don’t have to deal with it.” She walked over to Carmen and peered at the book. “What are you-” She froze upon catching sight of the title and turned towards Kali, who was talking with Judy.

“She’s got the express permission of Tunem and I. Don’t worry about it.” Kali said.

Lilith frowned. “What is she reading?”

“The Necronomicon. Again, don’t worry about it, she got permission first. It’s all under control.”

Lilith gaped. “Why?!”

Carmen shrugged. “I knew you wouldn’t have the guts to read it, and I thought it would be a big help to us, so I took it upon myself to read it.”

“For what it’s worth, I think she’s right to do so.” Kali said, turning towards Lilith. “Right now, you’re in a position where being safe isn’t necessarily…safe. Tunem may be wary of these types of things, but in my opinion, you’ve already read the worst of these things. What’s in there is just knowledge, well, at least for you, and it’s up to you how you’re going to use it.”

At this, Kali looked towards Geb. “As for you, Geb, take this as a lesson. Tunem’s become too reliant on his magic. Anything he can’t foresee with it, he can’t bring himself to trust, and that leads to not using all the resources at his disposal, even in desperate times.” She paused, thinking. “That’s not to say he’s wrong to be wary of these things. They are, for the most part, hard to fully trust. There do exist, however, situations in which they can, under careful watch, be used. In the Protectorate, his wariness is balanced by the rest of us, and can be a great asset at times. But you must make sure not to shy away from learning about or dealing with this stuff simply because you can’t predict it with magic.”

Geb nodded shakily, clearly nervous after being addressed by one of the Council. “Y-yes, mam. Understood.”

Kali smiled. “Just call me Kali. No need to be formal, we’re going to be seeing each other a lot in the future.”

Geb cleared his throat. “A-anyway, while we’re on the subject, Lilith and Carmen, could you both please suppress your Unknowable Entity skill for a while? I’m trying to figure out what exactly is causing divination magic to fail when it involves you. I was told it was working just fine until yesterday, but I can’t get it to work now and I’m trying to figure out why.”

After they did, he went back to casting a spell, and them to studying. The rest of the hour passed uneventfully (save for Alex coming in and sitting down next to Kali and Judy), and soon enough Lilith was filling another orb with the mana she’d gained in that time.

“Hmm. Looks like you’ve recovered about 5% of your maximum energy. Given how much maximum energy you have, that’s a pretty pitiful recovery rate. For reals, though, don’t feel too bad. You wouldn’t expect a baby who just learned to walk to be able to walk for long, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be outstanding in this department. Just give it time, and, if my hunch is correct, you’ll have more energy than any one person should reasonably have.” He shrugged. “Come to think of it, you have that Help Yourself thing, right? Can you see how much energy you have with that?”

Lilith tried it out and was rewarded with a two small bars in the corner of her vision. The first bar was empty, with a small 0/10 next to it. Below that was a full green bar, with a 200/200 next to it. In addition, a more detailed pop up appeared, which she began to read off.

Geb raised an eyebrow. “Man, you’re really trying to make me jealous, aren’t you? That ability keeps getting better and better. Anyway, try not to be too discouraged by your next class. I’ve heard it’s the beginner’s combat training, and from my understanding you have no prior experience, right?”

Fighterman481

First things first, yes, the chapter ends in a really awkward way. To my surprise, I found the source chapter was almost 8000 words long, and there wasn't really a great place to split it. I've made a note and will be fixing it up in the rewrite.

With that out of the way, actual commentary. So, mana and mana capacity. Lilith's got basically nothing. I'll be adjusting her values and the values of others in the rewrite to better fit what I have in mind, but for now I realized that the scale was off and adjusted her capacity to 10. It was previously 100, as I think that's a good number for base, and so had her "current" capacity set to 100 in the Help Yourself system, but I think that threw my sense of scale off when making other mana numbers. So, I realized that due to the nature of King's Knowledge, I could actually just plug her number into the scale I want and it'll work out fine. I might have to mess around with a couple of numbers pre-rewrite to provide for this change, but I think this fits what I wanted better. And yes, a "normal person's" mana would average out to 100 on the scale I'm using.

A few other things. First, Nashra's place in all this. I didn't think it would be realistic to just have a million empty rooms lying around in the dorms, and so I wanted there to be a roommate. Then...well, I had nothing much for her to do, but I did like the concept of the character, and so I stuck her on as a sort of tutor for Lilith...and she didn't end up doing anything on-screen. Some stuff probably happened off-screen, but nothing much was major. I'm tempted to cut the bit about tutoring off in the rewrite, as it doesn't really add much, but I'll hold back and see what you all think.

Second, the Necronomicon. I would like to point out that Tunem would normally fight tooth and nail to stop anybody, Lilith included, from reading it. So, something is keeping him from doing that. I'll leave it at that, and keep it open for speculation until it actually gets revealed later.

Last, Carmen. This is kind of why I prefer Carmen to Lilith. She's simply more active in going and getting what she wants. Lilith is basically going to go along with whatever anyone says, so it's nice to have someone who's actually proactive doing things on her behalf. She's also more willing to get her hands a lot dirtier than Lilith who, again, has basically no spine for this sort of thing. At this point, Carmen's basically decided that Lilith is too much of a pansy to make the "right" decisions, so she's taken matters into her own hands.

That being said, at her core, she is still Lilith. While her sense of right and wrong is quite a bit looser than Lilith's, it's far more rigid than a normal fae's. If I were to boil it down to a really simplistic way of looking at it, she wouldn't do anything that would break the law (provided she thinks the law is just), but that's only the letter of the law, not the spirit. If she can reasonably expect to be able to weasel her way out of punishment with an excuse, she's totally fine with doing it.