I let that thought drift to the back of my mind and took out the rough scroll containing the iconic warrior of sunlight lightning spear miracle. Miracles in the Dark souls world were rather interesting as they were each stories or the excerpts of stories. The lightning spear miracle told the tale of Gwyn and his knights wielding lightning to strike down the everlasting dragons. By reciting the miracle with faith one could gain a portion of power akin to an echo of those in the tale. I wasn't reading this scrolls story to gain that power but to try and understand WHY this was.-
Why did reading a tale give you an effect? What exactly determined what counted as a miracle and what was just a normal story? There had to be some form of mechanic to it that the gods of that world likely forbid the research of. After all miracles were supposed to be divine. If you could explain in clear terms why they worked without actual divine interference then you lessen the gods. and so I was studying this tale, it's prose, pacing, the inflection of the coal strokes, everything.-
At some point Luna had put away her potions book and sidled up next to me to read the story as well.
"Did you write this? It's rather good. Makes you feel almost antsy just reading it." she said in a wispy tone.
"No, I am not the author of this particular tale. I received it from a friend. Believe it or not it's actually a spell of sorts. Just not quite like the sort we are used to." I said as I rolled the scroll up to put it away.
"Really? Can I see it?" she asked with wide eyes.
I looked out the window at the rolling hills thoughtfully.
"Alright but if anyone asks you have no idea what happened." I say with a small smile as I pushed the train window open and drew my spear out and made it grow to the size of a wand.
Miracles took different casting media in that world so I'd need something that counted as a divine catalyst. My spear being the weapon of a "god" should count. With that covered I began to channel the faith into the divine seed as I recited the tale rapidly.-
Unlike the game where it appeared all at once in reality it started with golden sparks appearing and then expanding into a yellow blazing spear of hot electricity. I flicked my wrist and the spear shot out of the widow with a loud scream before impacting a hill and exploding like an artillery strike. This made me wince for a few reasons. The chief among them being how powerful the miracle was. I was expecting it to work like normal electricity not a damned bomb. No wonder those dragons were weak to lightning. Most things had trouble surviving literal explosives raining down on them.-
"Goodness, that's a rather loud spell isn't it?" Luna said unbothered by the display of destruction.
"I suppose it is." I agreed.
"Do you have other spells like that?" she asked curiously.
"I do indeed. Precisely two more in fact. There's no point in attempting them here however. One is a healing spell and the other creates an explosion around the caster." I replied honestly.
"I understand. Can I read their stories at least? They are different than most i've read." she asked hopefully.
"I see no harm in that." I agreed and took out the two scrolls containing the heal excerpt and force miracle.
We sat like that for the rest of the train ride save a single instance where Solaire contacted me with the very unhappy crystal lizard in hand.
"Uh, you alright mate? You seem to be missing a hand." I asked the chipper knight.
"Oh this? A temporary inconvenience at most. This little fellow has a bite quite fierce indeed. Bit right through my bracer and arm when I first tried to grab it. Hohoho!" he said with a cheerful laugh.
"Really? I knew the things were pretty tough because of their metal skin and crystal carapace but I thought they only ran away, not attacked?" I said genuinely surprised by this information.
"I too was right flabbergasted by the move as well! One instant I was reaching to grab the beast and the next I was missing a hand." he said sounding almost happy about it.
"Beyond that I trust the little monster didn't give you much trouble?" I asked choosing to let that go.
"A slight chase as it attempted to flee but nothing beyond my ability." he said proudly.
After that he transferred it to me for a few more astral souls before ending the contact. I briefly considered adding it directly to my realm but chose to hold off on that until I could personally verify it wouldn't cause trouble there. As far as I knew the thing could be a herbivore and eat all the plants I only just had settled into the realm after transferring them. If it was a carnivore that would be even worse as there was literally nothing in the realm it could eat. Knowing dark souls though it was probably something weird like a geovore that ate metal and minerals which while viable for my realm is a gamble I wasn't willing to make.-
Straight to the inventory for now it was.