A deeper sense of guilt washed over me. I hadn’t intended to horrify them. I hadn’t even intended to do anything at all. It all just came out of me, all of that mana and emotion. I tried cracking a smile, but I could feel my lip muscles trying way too hard, telling me I was giving off a fake smile. It was just a mistake. It’s not like I wanted to lose control. I looked back-and-forth at Don and Donna, then I spoke softly, “I am truly sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

Don closed his mouth and coughed a little. He seemingly had worked up the courage to say, “No, you did nothing wrong. It is we who have offended you. Goddess, I am sorry for having displayed such a poor view of myself and my kingdom. My daughter is a little shaken by your presence. None of us have seen magic like that.”

“I am not your goddess. Please, just call me Astrid. Will you please give me shelter for the night?” I asked, feeling worn out both physically and socially.

He seemed shocked at first statement for a moment, but he returned to his normal reserved look. He spoke calmer, “Yes Astrid, I shall clean things up here. I already arranged for a bedroom for you. We can discuss remuneration in the morning.”

Remuneration! I am not paying anything! I thought, not even knowing what currency was being used.

He waved his hand, signaling a guard to come over. He whispered something into the guard’s ear.

Looking at Donna, I could see she was still petrified. A whiff of something hit my nose, I realized she had soiled herself. Even more guilt piled up. I hoped hadn’t broken her. I knew I would need to do something nice for her in the morning. Maybe I could upgrade her gear.

The guard came over to me and stood straight up, arms locked to his side. He turned his head to me, though I couldn’t see his face because it was covered by a mask like all the others. I wondered what the reason for the secrecy was. He spoke up formally, “I shall show you to your room.”

I got up out of the chair and followed behind. As soon as the double doors shut behind me, I tried to probe the guard for some answers. 

“Could you tell me how you feel about the kingdom? Also, why do you wear those masks?” I questioned him, wanting answers instead of just more things that were left unknown.

“I love the kingdom. It is the fairest that I have heard of. I am cursed. My appearance triggers others. So I and the other guards wear masks.”

“That’s not right; you should not cover your face,” I said, wondering why he called the country fair and yet he has to cover his face.

“It’s a small price to pay to have a safe living. It also stops the people from staring, so most of us like wearing the masks.” 

I wasn’t sure how to reply, so I stayed quiet, not wanting to pry too deeply into something that seemed personal. I had already caused enough emotional damage for the day and couldn’t stand getting any more guilt. We traveled further and stopped in front of a red oak door with ornate curved carvings across its contour. The smell of dinner still lingered in the air even way down here.

“Just wave your hand over the door and think about it opening. You can lock it on the other side with the emerald gem closest to the door. This isn’t a traditional guest room but the king’s study. It has a bed and books. There is also a bathroom inside of the other door.”

Books! Now this king sure knows how to win me over.

“May I just say that I am sorry for what Irresponsible did. He has been a good leader. Please consider it as only a mistake and don’t punish his loved ones as well.”

“I don’t plan on asking for punishment. There was no harm done, but I must take my leave now and get some rest!” I said, far too excited to go read books. Turning to the door with my hand over the gem, it swung open, revealing a large room filled with several bookshelves and a reading couch in front of a large window that looked out into the yard. I shut the door behind me and waved my hand over the lock, even though I didn’t really trust it. So I checked for wards or traps but couldn’t find any. I secured the door with my barrier in front of it, making it so the door wouldn’t be able to be pushed open.

The bookshelves had so many titles to choose from, ranging from what looked to be histories to biographies to magic information. These books would take me at least a week to read. I wanted to grab a book and read right away, but I could feel my body weighing heavily on me.

I opened up a doorway to the library and strolled to my bedroom. The king was unlikely to do anything since I suspected he still worshiped me, but it didn't hurt to be safe. Sleeping in my bed was comfier, especially since I enchanted it to be so. Other patrons of the library were tired of seeing me walk around like an undead with no sleep. So they showed me how to make the magical sleep-inducing bed. Besides, I needed to research how to get my mana under control. I set an alarm spell for six hours.

Laying down, I shut my eyes and moved myself into a lucid dream state. It was an extremely useful magic I had learned from “How to Get More Done While You Sleep with Dream Walking By Usif Traverson”. As my body entered the rem cycle, I entered my memobrary. I peered through the dream realm to see my resting body was safe.

I realized I would need to pick up something new to wear. I didn’t want to have the same clothes on every day even if I could clean them in an instant. First, I had to figure out how to control my mana better and second, what to wear. Then if there was enough time when I got back, I would read!

I wandered through the library’s hallways in my memobrary, looking through all the books. There was endless use to having a memobrary. The ability to access it while I slept was one of the nicer abilities. 

Making my way to the magical theory section of the library, I perused through the many shelves until I came across a book in the parenting section titled “How to Deal With a Child That Has Too Much Mana by Amandis”. Browsing through the book, it described how you need to teach your child to keep themselves calm because mana overflow is linked to emotional states. This made sense to me, but I still felt like there should be more. Going through more of the book, it said to check your child’s mana flow to make sure that there was nothing entering your child’s mana stream. It described other creatures that try to corrupt children’s mana. Sometimes there are wonderful creatures like fairies who are only trying to help. It also described how there are situations where children are able to passively draw mana from other creatures and/or nature.

Eureka! I went back to my body and tweaked my perception to analyze mana flow. I could see that the library was pushing raw mana into me. This was highly dangerous. It could break me. Quickly, I had begun devising a plan to control the flow. The book said that normally you could block mana sources off. All I could do was build a dam that only allowed little bits through. It warned about tapping into that mana though, because it could all burst out.

I focused on building a mental dam around my body to prevent the mana flow. The mana of the library was trying to push through. I reinforced the barrier with the mana coming into my body. It slowed to a small, manageable stream of mana. When finished, I could feel that my body was more relaxed with the flow of mana. If I could add more passive spells around me that actively consumed mana, I could raise the amount of mana flowing in. If someone were to look at the mana flow around me, the bright light might blind them.

With that issue solved for now, I went to look through various fashion books in the cultural section. I couldn’t find anything that matched the style Donna wore, but it seemed to be very similar to knight armor. My feet glided around the aisle ways. I made mental notes on battle gear as I flipped through the books. The more I thought about it, the more I decided on making a set of travelers leathers. I didn’t want to wear dresses everywhere. Thinking some more, I decided it would be good to make a copy of the guards’ clothes as well. I would just keep them in storage, but they may help me stay hidden in the future.

The fun thing about traveling in the dream plane was that while you had limited capabilities to interact with the material plane, you could move faster than your body normally could handle. There were problems when trying to enter other dreams when invited, let alone uninvited but I remembered there was a book for that. I would have to read up on that later.

The only thing that was really lacking was that there were none of the five senses. From what I read, you could feel damage if someone attacked your dream form or your physical body. If your body was attacked, you would be yanked back forcibly and get a headache. Unless, of course, you were mortally wounded, then you would just cease to exist. Physically, at least. 

I felt the alarm I had set buzzing my body, so I made my way back. Opening my eyes, I felt rejuvenated. I went to work collecting the materials I needed to craft the clothes I had designed.

Using alchemy, I could convert fabrics from the storage room into what I needed. Making the outfits after that point wouldn’t be too hard. There was a set of magical sewing items that included needles and sheers. They moved on their own like the magical gloves of a certain mouse wizard. I wouldn’t let mine do the cleaning after his incident.

After collecting all the supplies, I went to the craft room. Pouring mana in to the magical sewing items, they went off to work making my design become real. They went at an incredible pace, cutting and trimming the fabric while the needles threaded the pieces together. I could never hope to achieve this with my hands, but luckily I had magic to solve it for me. When the clothes were finished, I tried them on to make sure that they were sized correctly. They fit perfectly.

I threw the guard gear inside of my storage. The travelers’ leathers would be the easiest to move around in. I tossed yesterday’s dress into storage as well. I used a spell on my body to get any grime I had built up off of me. Then I headed back to the entrance of the library. 

Entering back into the normal world, I checked to see if anybody had tried to enter while they thought I slept. There were no signs of any intrusion. I waited for someone to collect me for the new day. I didn’t want to be caught wandering the halls and have any more incidents like last night.