I should probably leave out the fact that gem magic works in the library for security reasons. I will have to add another barrier to detect gems. The nobles will probably miss their jewelry, but oh well. The school’s name was similar and still existed, just the kingdom had changed — well, maybe changed a few times by this point.

That reminded me that the mage never gave me my ID card. The Academy of Intellectual Excellence would probably still uphold the deal, though. I could play the memory for them if needed. I think the Stenwren Kingdom should be my next location to visit once things settle down here. The forbidden section was very tempting indeed. I was getting more and more desperate for a vacation.

My mind put together the fact that I had created gem magic for these people. The implications were massive. No wonder they worshiped me. I’m literally their reason for humanity’s continued existence. I’m sure they could have come up with some other way — maybe?

“Ah yes, I remember giving that wizard scholar a copy of a paper I wrote. Was there anything specific you wanted to know about?” I asked, looking outside realizing it had gotten a little dark out, “We can stop for tonight.”

That should’ve been all that needed to be said. I had to process everything that had happened for the day. My anxiety was working its way up, no matter how much I pushed it down. I was making progress, being in front of so many people for such a long time. That was a good self improvement. It’s always good to talk yourself up from time to time.

“No, no. No one wants to leave. Please, in your words, describe making a magical gem with inscription,” said the professor while the students nodded in agreement.

“That will take a few moments. I will have to pull up the original paper first.”

The students and professor were nodding, wanting me to continue on. I didn’t think I would teach today, but this was a good way to practice my speaking skills. I needed to hurry, being so social drained me of my energy. The paper was easy to locate in my memobrary. After locating it, I returned to the present and summarized its contents.

“The process is ancient runic magic in combination with geomancy and advanced mana manipulation. Essentially, when you bathe a gemstone in the correct solution, it makes them more malleable to magic and spell application. Then you add mana channeling circle marks along with runic type spell inscription. Once completed, if done correctly, you have yourself a magic gem of mine. Then it’s just a matter of making different runes for different spells. That is basically where I stopped research after trying a few different schools of magic and a few different skill levels. With the knowledge I have now, I could probably come up with even more.”

“Yes, yes, that is very informative. I have never heard of runic magic or that cut up ancient magic circles. We just took those things for granted. We still wonder how it gets around our curse, but that is fine. This should help if we can find any texts related to runic magic.”

“Well, we abandoned runic magic long ago once we humans figured out how to cast through verbal and somatic manipulations. In practice or especially in battle, who wants to get on their knees and draw a magic circle even if it’s for alchemy? They are all just too easy to destroy or manipulate by an enemy after the fact. That doesn’t even include once you are able to cut out the verbal and somatic components.”

“I see that makes sense.” He turned his head, looking at the students. “I hope you’re been taking notes.” He said then there was an instant scramble in the room with people running to their desk to write what they had just heard.

The real reason they couldn’t cast it probably has something to do with intentionality like the library’s protections. That was a whole other issue of that was the case. Someone or something extremely powerful definitely did this. If it was a group of deities, I didn’t want to touch it even with a long range grand magic war spell.

“Do you have a book I could read on modern gem magic?” I asked the professor, interested in seeing the many applications they had come up with after she came up with the initial concept.

A gleam of excitement came across his face, like a kid about to show off his newest toy. I had a similar look when I found a good book. “Yes, I will go get it immediately.” He turned to the class. “You are dismissed.”

He ran out of the room. The students trickled out, thanking me while trying not to stare at me for too long. I wasn’t going to bite or anything.

Elder Professor Mezzis came in and clapped. “That was a great lesson you just gave. You know you can teach here?”

“Nice try. I just want to read.”

“Speaking of, there is a book club meeting tomorrow afternoon in the courtyard. Some of the noble girls have a weekly meetup to discuss reading. I thought you may be interested. I have heard good things about them.”

I almost squealed in excitement at the idea of girls my age to read with. We could discuss the books we have read and share the ones we hadn’t. I needed to go back to the library and get a new outfit prepared.

“Yes, I am very interested. I will wear some formal attire I have or make something new. Please hold on to Professor Gythens book for me when he returns. I will come back to this spot tomorrow morning.”

Without another word, I flipped open an entrance to the library. Highthorn went in first while I waved goodbye to the Professor as she stared inside, almost drooling in excitement at all of the lost knowledge. 

Once in, I pulled Highthorn aside to have a conversation with him about moving into Astraville. “So discuss this with your family, but I want you and your family to move into Astraville.”

“Are we displeasing you? If so, I apologize. We will leave immediately, we wil—” He started rambling off while tensing up.

My arms were outstretched as I waved my hand for him to stop. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just that I realized your family is stuck here alone most of the time. The kids are probably not getting the best upbringing. I mean, the books are great and all, but they can’t socialize with anyone their age while they are here. Even I struggled to socialize with people my age while I was here.”

“Oh, that is a good idea. We had been wondering what to do about that but didn’t know how to ask. My children do like it here, but they could make friends with their own age in Astraville.” He seemed more relaxed after I had told him why.

“Yep, and now there are going to be lessons from an elder professor. I am going to grab a bite to eat before dinner. Let me know what you think in the morning. Your wife can also join me if she wants. I am sure you want to play with your kids for a bit.”

He nodded and headed off to see his children while I went and ate. Tonight’s meal was going to be that soup I didn’t get to eat earlier because of the poison. I was very frustrated about missing out.

When I arrived at the cafe, I pulled out a portion of it for the bearista to analyze — dissect — replicate. It was one of its niftier features, though I had to tell it to dis-include the poison. Some people enjoyed eating poison like overly spicy food. The soup was quickly recreated and smelled delicious. The herbal aroma alone was mouth watering. I quickly took it and a fizzy drink over to my favorite spot.

The food was warming to the bone with the chunks of vegetables giving you something to munch down on preventing you from guzzling it down too fast. I devoured spoonful after spoonful but forced myself to slow down, realizing that I may have to eat in front of others tomorrow and didn’t want to look improper. There is always a trade in life: Eat with people = Have to eat slowly. 

Sighing, I stared at the ceiling, reviewing the past day’s events. I didn’t have to wait long for Liz to come in. So it was good that I didn’t continue eating the food like a starving hog. She seemed to still be ordering the first drink I had shown her. “You know, we have other drinks that are also pretty tasty.”

She sat down across from me while taking a sip. “I have tried others. This one just has the best flavor and sort of cleanses the palate after some of the weirder stuff like that spicy sour tomato juice mix.”

I giggled a moment before drinking some more of my fizzy drink. “That one is there to wake people up or for hazing purposes. Tricking people into getting it is always funny. It had a niche following that actually drank it all the time. They called it an acquired taste.”

“That makes sense. I was wide awake after one sip. I forced myself through it, thinking it would get better.”

I felt myself grinning at her mistake. “I’m glad that you are enjoying your meals here. So about being here, I’m sure your husband already talked to you about moving into my domain. Any thoughts?” I asked honestly, wanting her opinion. She seemed to be one of the few people that were comfortable around me, which I really appreciated. Even though her husband had given me head pats, he still was on edge around me when I spoke with him directly.

“I think it would be best for the children and for me. I was wondering if we could come back and visit, though. Maybe we could check out books? The children really love books here.”

That was a problem, and I still needed someone to get books for the people to copy. The simplest solution was that I could just make bunches of copies myself, but I didn’t want to do everything alone. I wanted people to learn skills and gain knowledge so they could write their own books like Fienna is. I could set up a permanent entrance that had a barrier that only Liz’s family and I could go through.

“So that shouldn’t be a problem. I can set up a permanent portal that you and your family could go through. I would also like to offer you a job to bring out history books for people to start copying. It is one product I have said we are going to produce in my domain. I need someone I can trust to handle this for me, and you seem pretty comfortable around me.”

Her face lit up. “That will be great! In case of an emergency, we could hide out there. I would love to work for you. Giving my fellow otherkin a chance to have actual jobs is great!”

“I plan on giving you all protection amulets before we go there, so don’t worry about your safety. I have already seen some of the weaponry here and these amulets should stop mostly anything the people in my domain can muster up.”

“Oh, thank you. That was one of our biggest worries. We were rather scared that something would happen to us if we left here. It’s not much to offer after all you have done for us, but I’ve been working on an outfit for you. I’ve only done the sketch so far, but it should fit into the recent fashion trends.”

It was my turn to be excited. I jumped up out of my chair with a smile. EEEE I have something new to wear for the book club tomorrow. “Can I see it? I can use the sewing room to make it and wear it to the book club tomorrow.”

“Ye, yes! I can go get it right now and meet you in that room. I wasn’t sure how to use it.” She said, surprised by my reaction.

“That’s probably because you can’t use magic. I will meet you there. See ya!”

She gulped down her drink and headed to her room while I headed to the sewing room. One benefit of their not being people here was that there was no competition for any of the crafting or experimental rooms. This one was popular with the women I knew. It had a useful ability to automatically tailor things to your size when you stood on a particular platform.

Liz came in holding a piece of paper, looking pensive as her lips slid to the side. “So, here you go.” She said, handing over the drawing to me. 

It was a rough sketch of me with a black-and-white uniform with what looked like a rainbow flower brooch and a split red cape. It’s really neat. I can’t wait to try it on. Oh, I shouldn’t say this aloud? “It’s really pretty. I love the contrasting colors. Do you want to watch me make it so that you can put your input in if I miss the vision of what is supposed to come out looking like?” I asked excitedly, holding the paper in my hands, trying not to rip it.

“Of course, I want to see you cast magic!” She said excitedly, staring at me. 

Fashion made her lose her control slightly, or maybe it was the magic. Either way, I went about starting to make the dress piece by piece. It should only take about an hour and then I would need to head to bed afterward. I didn’t enjoy using magic to skip sleep too often. That’s a real quick way to become an unhealthy workaholic. The only holic I wanted to be was a readaholic.

The boots and design were white with a gold trim that had a decent point on them. I envisioned them and the magic in the room went to work. The materials popped into existence and willed themselves together piece by piece. It was nifty to watch the black leather boots stitch themselves together. If this magic was widespread a lot of craftsmen would lose their jobs. There is a certain control I can exert over the process by stopping it if I needed to tweak things as it went along, but it always did a fantastic job, so there was no need for that.

Next, I made a pair of pants. They were solid black and fit tightly. I made sure you use comfy silk thread in the process since I wanted to wear them a lot. I would go about enchanting the entire outfit later to be even comfier and add a layer of protection. Yet another thing for my to-do list, I guess. 

Liz watched in awe as the magic did its' work with waves of black thread stitching together the clothed black sleeves with the long white cotton shirt where waves of a pleated mini skirt covered the top of the pants Golden buttons and trims took their places on the shirt.as a black leather belt came around the hips. I also made the split red cape from silk so that it would shine. 

Lastly, the room wasn’t capable of making gems, so I crafted the broch myself with geomancy and magic crafting. I dove into my memobrary and collected the magic spells. I needed to do it right. Once I knew more about the inscriptions people used, I would inscribe the gems.

The pieces of the outfit laid themselves out on the table next to the auto-fitting platform. Liz was staring in astonishment, so I got on the platform to try it on before she said anything, wanting to save time. Getting it fitted would be the best way to see how it looks.

A golden light flowed around, covering my body so that I would be unseen as my clothes magically slipped off and the new one floated on. The light faded, showing my new outfit in the mirror next to the platform, and it was simply breathtaking. 

Liz looked entranced but spoke up. “That is so beautiful! Thank you for making my drawing a reality.”

“I really like it also! Thank you! If you come up with any more designs, we can definitely make more.” I said, and Liz immediately nodded.

“You're welcome! I am so glad you like it,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. If she kept that up for too long, she might get crow’s feet.

“It's getting late and I need some rest. If you think of any changes, let me know in the morning,” I said yawning, and headed off to my room, leaving the magic of the room to do the cleanup and store away my old clothes in my room.

Quinn_Voidheart

Did you notice the series name change? I just felt more correct especially since I  haven't mentioned any sort of internal drive for Astrid to be a heroine.