Today was a good day. In fact today was a great day.
Why, you ask?
Today, I get to go to the library. Super lame you might think. Books. Research Papers. Articles. Newspapers.
Why would any of that be interesting?
Well, for one, this world has animals with superpowers. It has people with superpowers. That already means that any piece of history will be infinitely more interesting than the one I was used to. And the thing is, I love learning about history. Not the shitty boring stuff they teach in school, the dark deep shit that shows human kind's true nature. The brilliant tactics of every war, every battle, where people were tasked with the sole purpose of outsmarting the enemy. Whether it be for a battle, a supply chain, even basic information communication, we found really clever ways to trip up our enemies, every single step of the way. And then, we had to come up with counters to those obstacles.
Plays on plays. War is a true tragedy, and one of the acts of mankind that is truly evil. That being said, it's one of the few times when human intelligence is pitted up against itself. Where the stakes are high enough that new levels of brilliance are forced to shine through.
And that's only the tactics side of history. The science side of history is just as interesting. I can't imagine trying to figure out electromagnetic waves from scratch. Finding the properties of the atom. Charting the seas. Charting the night sky. An entire universe to explore.
The deeper the quest for knowledge, the more interesting things we ran into.
I could dedicate my entire life to studies of that sort of shit. Now, I could do the same thing, except utilizing superpowers.
Oak already mentioned how he had utilized psychic powers to make carbon fucking nanotubes. That shit was incredibly complex, and ridiculously hard to make. Psychic powers could be a cheat code to solving so many problems, to finding so many answers.
The library would help me get a grip on the foundation I was working with.
Library of Taif
Named after Champion Taimu's late brother. His brother had sought knowledge, wisdom, in a time where Taimu sought only power and strength. After his passing, Taimu made many changes, one of which was the construction of this massive library.
Plus, with the shiny field researcher tag attached to my license, I might be able to access some of the classified stuff.
Here are my big goals for the day.
History time.
I needed to get at least an elementary understanding of the timeline here. I don't think I want people to know that I'm a dimension hopper. Even if it wasn't my fault or intention. I don't know if I'll get probed or something by scientists. Besides, history is fun.
Aura
I had my own ideas how aura worked. Now that I did, I would let myself research it. The thing is, if you research before you come up with your own opinions, you're far more likely to just absorb the first things you find as your own die hard beliefs. It's a nasty part of how the brain operates. Great for building culture. Terrible for actually being right. And I like being right. So making my own ideas and beliefs, and then being able to compare them to the established ones, hopefully I can find things I haven't thought of, and then come out with a mesh of knowledge that brings me closer to the truth.
Legendaries
I don't think I need to explain this one. Legendaries are cool. Plus, I get to compare the lore and history of legendaries to my own knowledge of them. If there are any patterns there, I might get a better understanding of how the anime and games relate to this world.
Technology
This one is also pretty self explanatory. They have tech like pokeballs, and simu-link. That's far more advanced than I thought possible. Yet things like planes and drones don't seem to exist. That honestly might be because they never saw the need. Or maybe they do exist, but only for international travel between regions. So obviously they wouldn't be here in Starfall, which only really has one established city. Everything else are towns, I've heard, so they wouldn't have airports. So maybe there are some serious gaps in their science, since they really focused on the pokemon and aura side of it, and I might be able to make some seriously lucrative business ventures from building basic things.
Everything else
I need to keep the list short. Otherwise I'm accidentally going to spend the next fourteen years in the library. This essentially includes basic things like, biology, chemistry, physics, culture, media, and basically anything else that I want to compare my own understanding too. Again, looking for patterns and/or discrepancies that might lead to bigger world stuff.
The Library of Taif was a large pod-like structure. Its exterior was a shiny white ceramic like material, looking more like an alien spaceship than an egg. Before the front door was a statue of two men, shoulder to shoulder, with a legion of pokemon behind them. In front of the statue was an inscription.
To my late brother, who I failed. I dedicate this library in your name, and I'll reshape the city to your beliefs. I'm sorry Taif.
I definitely wanted to learn the story there. Apparently the Champion, Taimu, had a brother. Supposedly many of the new open minded policies of Champion's Hold were adopted after Taif died. That's all I'd been told by a passerby when I asked, so I'd try to look more into it once inside.
I walked inside, noting the modern structure of the front lobby.
"Hi, how can I help you?" Came a voice from behind the front desk. The attendant wore a chartreuse cardigan over a white top. Her hair was kept in a messy bun and she had thin brown glasses.
I scratched the back of my head. Where to begin? "I guess I'm looking for the history section."
She laughed. "You'll have to be more specific. There's a section for the history of Starfall. There are different sections for history books written by different regions. You see, there have been different accounts of what actually happened for many events throughout time. We like to avoid any sort of censorship or prejudice in honor of Taimu's brother, so all are accessible. We try our best not to avoid being opinionated in this sort of thing."
Well that's exactly what I want to hear. A snarky voice in the back of my head reminded me that that was exactly what somebody who was opinionated and loved censorship would say.
"There's a history of pokemon section. Basically, if you're looking for where Ludicolo have existed in the wild for the last couple centuries and why, this is where you want to go. If you want to know why they can absorb energy from the sun, there's a different section."
Wow. This lady really knew what I wanted to hear. It was almost uncanny. Plenty of people knew a lot of things. Few knew how to ask the right questions. Granted, it wasn't an easy skill to learn, and you certainly couldn't learn how to do it by accident.
"I guess I'll start with the history of Starfall." I replied, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. A core part of me loves finding out about the world, and I certainly struggle to hold back showing that childish excitement during moments like these.
After getting sent in the right direction, I got the chance to get a real look at the library.
The interior seemed to have a pretty interesting structure. The main floor held wonderful columns that rose in the air, four of them, each coated with tiles the size of napkins. The mosaics painted different stories, with one column showcasing battles and war, with others showing agriculture or architecture.
The main floor also had countless bookshelves that littered the floor, each wing structured around the columns. Around each of the columns was a sitting area, bereft with comfy lounge chairs and tables, some with computers.
There were three floors, with the upper floors acting as outer rings that stretched out more towards the middle the higher you went. The top floor had a ring that almost touched the columns. There were comfy alcoves on each floor, looking down over the main area of the library.
An hour later, I tossed a couple books onto a table I'd claimed on one of the second floor alcoves. I had a nice view of the main floor below, able to see people bustling around the gorgeous library.
Building a Wall To Rival Gods by Jorah Multop, Starfall, a Comprehensive look through Space and Time by Amy Stephens, Taimu and Taif, the Tragic Tale of Starfall by Milly Bolton, The Longest Night by Terrence Tilto, and Trade and Exports, Starfall's Technological Revolution by Nelson Keltir.
That was a start.
I released Z and Circe. Z loved learning things as much as I did, plus he could read a hell of lot faster too. Hopefully, him being able to condense the most important bits of some of these books would let me cover more ground faster.
Circe would probably slow me down a lot, but she loved to hear me talk about the world, and I could never say no to such a cute face.
Z, despite being a Porygon incapable of showing any facial expressions, practically drooled at the expanse of books surrounding us. He did a little flip in the air, his leg like appendages spinning rapidly.
I knelt down and whispered to them. It was a library after all. "Alright team this is Round One of probably at least a dozen. Hunker down. We've got work to do." I was grinning from ear to ear, eager to find out more about the world. Apparently it was contagious, as Circe began glowing a blinding white.
The light I saw was a pale shadow of what I felt. The light was blinding, eclipsing, like a sunrise. But the rush of energy was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. Like a tidal wave crashing into me, yet it wasn't trying to wash me away. It resonated with every atom in my body. There wasn't any emotion linked with the energy. No joy, euphoria, or fear. It was… transcendence. I had never been able to link that word to anything before. But it felt right.
Eventually, the light died down. Rather than a small brown puppy like Eevee was a split tailed purple feline. The Espeon held a regal sort of elegance, and looked up at me in confusion.
Well I guess I finally know what evolution looks like.
I cleared my throat. "Well I like the enthusiasm Circe. Shall we dig in?" I questioned Circe and Z, who enthusiastically nodded and circled in the air respectively in response.
As much as I wanted to start with The Longest Night, as I wanted to hear a historian's account of Tristan's efforts, I figured I needed to start with the comprehensive history of Starfall. It would be a good baseline for everything else.
The book started with an exposé describing the feats of Palkia and Dialga, and the main theories on how Starfall was created. However, it then went into the history of Starfall, from the real world perspective.
It was fascinating. People were going missing, which wasn't completely uncommon, especially since it was in some of the most dangerous areas of the world. The weird part though, was that it was very experienced trainers and rangers that were going missing. Again, since it was in the wild, it was ignored for a few decades. In fact, it was the start of many local legends. People disappearing without a trace due to pesky ghosts, Absol, esoteric Ninetails or Zoroark, there were dozens of folktales.
Finally, about two centuries ago, a geologist properly recorded how the rock structures couldn't exist in a certain location, taking samples, and then went back to his lab. When he went back to the same location the next day, the rock structures didn't exist anymore. Everything was back in order. He would have thought he was going crazy, but he had the rock sample. He had gone halfway through a warp gate, taken a sample, and returned without even noticing it. That was the scary part of warp gates. They bent space. No wormholes or anything. Just melding two pieces of space together seamlessly. The geologist only noticed because he had studied rocks meticulously his entire life.
This had later created an uproar in the scientific community, as it had proven the existence of the warp gates. Dozens of similar discoveries happened in the next decade, solidifying it.
The world knew that there were odd pockets of space that lead somewhere, but anybody that went through never came back, no matter how powerful or capable.
They dubbed the hidden world Exodus.
Communication was attempted to be established between Exodus and the real world for decades. However, one bottle with a message in it ended up being discovered in Cerulean Cave.
It had come from Professor Juniper, one of the people who had gone missing in a warp gate years before.
Hello everyone.
I hope this reaches you. Michael, Jess, if you read this, I am so terribly sorry. You never deserved to be deserted, and I need you to know that I didn't leave you on purpose. You deserved a Mom, and I'm sorry that I couldn't hold true to my promise. Molly, I'm sorry to have left you with the responsibility to raise my kids. I know you took it in an instant, with your heart of gold. I was never as good as you. Maybe they'll be better with you than me anyway. Take care. Love you now and always.
To my old colleagues. Piper, I hope your pregnancy went well and you and Nick can be happy together. Mason, I hope your fiance bounced back from her sickness. Bailey, Price, Delmon, I hope you're doing well.
This is the four hundred and fifty fourth time I've written this. My hand grows weary. My face is wrinkled. I used to write these to be so much longer. I'm so terribly tired. But I need the world to know.
We're not dead. There's a whole world here. A new region, if you will.
They call it Starfall.
It's wonderful. They have a sky made of warped energy. Their city is surrounded by walls hundreds of feet high. Or at least it will be, when it's finished. Not born out of war with man. But with pokemon. They are far more aggressive here. There are pokemon old and new. Some pokemon not seen since Hisuann times are alive and dangerous here.
We need your help. Mankind is fighting, but it's a zero sum game. Humanity struggles to progress here, since we're too busy fighting off the wild pokemon. Everyone is taught how to fight. There's no time for science. No point. They're too focused on survival.
The warp gates are concentrated in the most dangerous places of the world, which I think you've already put together.
Put your best psychics on it.
Please.
I beg you.
Tell my family I love them.
Dr. Maise Juniper
And so, the world spent the next two decades working together to try and help. Not even two decades after the War for Indigo, and the world was working together. It was still a competition, kind of like the Space Race, but with the goal of establishing contact with an entire civilization.
It was an odd feeling. To know that your civilization had established contact, yet they were stranded among the estranged population now.
Two decades later, the first man to travel to Starfall and back became a legend. Michael Kilstok. A Unovan psychic specialist, he had been studying warp gates for years, before being confident enough in locating them that he walked through one. He was sure he would be able to make it back through the same method. Or at least that's what he said in his interviews.
The entire world was ridiculously curious as to what the region trapped outside of space and time was like.
His books were some of the bestselling in existence. His interviews some of the most streamed.
There were more travelers that followed, but none were quite as famous. Many more were able to find their way to a warp gate, but not their way back.
Back then, they still didn't know that warp gates could sometimes also send you through time.
Then came the Great Migrations. Some of the bravest people, or most curious, taking up the challenge to try and build their lives in the hidden region. Scientists, botanists, geologists, engineers, you name it. Anyone that wanted to help a civilization grow.
There were five migrations. There were supposed to be ten. However, when word came back that the fourth and fifth group had both failed to reach Starfall the rest were scrapped.
And so, Starfall became stranded once again. This time, though, some of humanity's greatest minds were at its side.
Anyway, there was more to the real world side. Some regions government's still tried to discover use of the warp gates. How to locate them. Probably to try and find a way to use that power.
However, that's basically everything the book touched on.
Then, there was the Starfall side of it. The first people charting the region. The first real civilization formed. How the brothers rallied everyone they could find to work together. How Champion's Hold was founded. How the Great Migrations changed everything.
I peeked up from the book, stomach grumbling. Z was whirring about, two books in front of him, pages flipping madly as he processed the information. Circe did the same, albeit at a much slower rate, and with only one book. She was still getting used to processing written language.
One ordered meal later, I continued.
The sun had gone down, but I didn't care. The library stayed open all hours of the day.
"You're still here?" I asked the front desk lady.
"Why not? I like reading." She replied, shooting me a sly grin, three different books on her desk.
"Fair enough, have you got time for more questions?" At her nod, I continued. "Real world history now. I know you said you try to stay objective, but I only have so much time. Which histories do you think are the most reliable?"
She tapped her chin in thought. "Sinnoh likes to keep it real. There's more fanatical stuff about Legendaries in their histories than others, but they're pretty good at keepings things accurate. I'd recommended anything written by a Shirona."
Wasn't that Cynthia's last name?
"Sure thing. Thanks!" I replied, heading off in the direction she pointed me towards.
Another round of books came and went.
I learnt of the Draconid Empire, Baldred the Dread, the War for Indigo, the War of Time, and a dozen more wars, battles, and more. I learned of the border disputes between Hoenn and Johto. I learned how international fish trade ended up being the cause for three more wars than I would have expected.
The War of Time was the most interesting. Apparently there had been a city, similar to Altomare with Latios and Latias, but called Bilutana. It was in Johto. Basically, Celebi lived among the people of Bilutana. Some people even got close enough to train some. However, time traveling hijinks ended up in an absolute mess of paradoxes. Foiling enemy plans with knowledge of the future worked once. Then the enemy sent plans of your plans of their plans to the past to beat you before you beat them. It was a small contained war. It was more that the people telling those factions what to do represented the government of Johto and Kanto, as a remnant of the War for Indigo, which happened less than a decade earlier, where Kanto had overwhelmed Johto and created Indigo.
Basically, Bilutana was wiped off the map by some unknown force, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in the ground. Nobody knows where they went.
One of the leading theories for Starfall had been that they had finally found Bilutana, but that had been proven wrong once contact was established, and none of the personal records matched up.
Since then, no Celebi have worked with any humans. No Celebi have been seen again, for that matter.
Having had enough for now, I packed up and left.
I went about the next day normally, getting good training sessions in. Niel dropped in for an hour for joint training. I had lunch with T. Had a random philosophical discussion with Oak. The usual.
Then, the day after that, I returned to the library with renewed energy.
Today, Aura.
"Back again so soon?" The front desk lady asked, smiling slyly behind a book.
My Yamper is Trying to Kill Me.
"You know it. How's the book?" I asked, referring to the absolute abomination of a concept.
"Real page turner. You'd be surprised. What can I help you with today?" She replied, putting down the book.
"Aura. Origins. Theories. Observations. What've you got?"
She scrunched her nose, looking up at the ceiling. "Well that's a tough one. Aura is touched on in a lot of pokemon history, especially when it involves humankind. There's a lot of speculation when historians talk about the Aura Guardians of old. There's also some theories in the specific interactions between energies in the science sections that go over Thermodynamics and all that. The physics section also goes over it."
"Thermodynamics and Physics are in different sections?" I asked. The study of energy… oh. In my world, energy usually came in the form of heat. So Thermodynamics tended to study heat exchange and transfer. But in this world, energy came in a hell of a lot more forms than heat.
So yeah, there would definitely be enough material to make a new section.
In my world, thermodynamics tended to have two different explanations that were equivalent, in the form of chemistry and physics. I wonder what it would be like here?
Z looked at me almost hungrily as I brought the next round of books. Circe jumped up and down as I set a book in front of her. I chose her books for her, while Z I let pick his own. It's how she preferred it.
How and why Eevee evolve by Piper Lockes. I think she'd definitely like it.
Z, on the other hand, was now up to reading three books at a time.
Aura Guardians and the Savior of Rota, Particles and Psychic Energy, Nonmaterial Interactions. He'd fallen into a pattern. He liked reading one history book and one science book. Now that he'd gotten up to three, it seemed he liked reading two science books at once.
I, on the other hand, would start with Elemental and Cosmic Energy, what's the difference? by Dr Cameron Rowan.
I took a deep breath, opening to the first page. This was going to be a thick read, but I couldn't wait to find out what it had to tell me. I had a backup book in case I needed a rest for my brain every once in a while.
My Hydreigon Secretly Taught Itself How To Garden. It was by the same author as the book the front desk lady was reading, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I had to give it to her. She certainly knew how to come up with attention grabbing titles. I'm excited to see if her writing follows through.
The first chapter went into fundamentals. Fire beats grass. Grass beats water. Yada yada yada. Give me the real juice.
There!
Aura is the fundamental force of the Universe. Not of pokemon. Not of humans. The Universe. It doesn't bind things together. It is what the Universe is made of. However, none of the "aura" that pokemon use is this aura that I speak of.
What they use are different "flavors" of aura. Now, this is simple for things like water or grass. They are basic elemental flavors. Basically, they are simply that same kind of aura that makes up the Universe, but they can only access or control the elements and aura of that flavor. Once aura has been converted to a certain flavor, it cannot return to its base state.
Mass conservation has been one of the greatest questions known to man. This natural ability to change the fundamental building blocks, harnessing aura, and changing it into their own elemental flavor is how pokemon can create matter.
Well, they aren't creating matter, per say. They are merely transferring those subatomic particles to something that can interact with our perception of life. Basically, imagine the atom. The electron's location is merely theoretical, but the cloud of possibility can be charted. It's a similar concept.
Let me break things down all the way. There are four fundamental particles. Let's call them the R, S, M, and H neutrinos. Now the basic two particles that make up everything as we know it are the R and S neutrino.
The R neutrino is the map. The grid of particles that make up the very Universe. The S neutrino, on the other hand, is energy. All of the energy to ever exist is a "flavor" of the S neutrino.
The S neutrino is naturally attracted to the R neutrino. This is where things get interesting. When the S neutrino and R neutrino bind, and are in equal proportions, it becomes matter. Everything that we see and observe happens to exist in that happy little balance.
These two forces are always wanting to be in balance you see. When there are too many S neutrinos, too much energy, the system will try to burn off that energy. You witness this reaction in the stars.
How does this explain everything else? Well, the R neutrinos start out as a grid, equally spaced apart. Then, when they are bound by the S neutrinos, they don't actually move. Instead, space itself pinches so that they can be closer together.
Imagine a tablecloth flat on the table. There are plates all around the circular tablecloth. Then, grab the tablecloth at the middle of the table, pinch it, and twist. Everything gets pulled to the center, evenly, no matter where it is.
That's essentially how gravity works. It's all based on R neutrinos.
Now, you may be wondering, what then are M and H neutrinos, and how do they fit in? This is the most important bit. It's how everything works.
I'll start with the elementals. The elemental energies are simply the S neutrino, converted into the "flavor" that a pokemon can use. They are all the same interaction, but just based in different elements. How do the pokemon control the energy neutrino, and how are they not all as powerful as the sun? Well, they don't actually control the S neutrino. They can control the M neutrino. The M neutrino is the messenger neutrino that tells the S neutrino how to act. Effectively, it is the instructor that lets the S neutrino bind itself to R neutrinos, among other things.
The cosmic energies are where things get even more interesting. The M neutrino tells the S neutrino how to act. The H neutrino, similarly, tells the R neutrino how to act, by being the binding force between different R neutrinos, among other things. Even more powerful than controlling energy, is to control space-time. It's part of the reason that the cosmic energies are so much more reactive than elemental energy. Even electricity, the most destructive element, hardly holds a candle to chaos energy. Few pokemon ever gain a high enough control over their M neutrinos to replicate the same plasma in lightning, the same plasma of the stars. After all, that relies on S neutrinos highly outbalancing the R neutrinos. That is no small feat, to harness that much energy.
The elementals all simply use the M neutrino.
The cosmic energies, on the other hand, use all neutrinos. Fairy and void are the flip sides of a coin, same as psychic and chaos. Fairy and void both utilize energy. The S neutrino. And the M neutrino to control it. However, they are opposite in regards to what they have control over.
Void has an overabundance of M neutrinos to their S neutrinos. They have more control than power. It also means that any other energy that they interact with tends to be overridden. Fairy, on the other hand, has an overabundance of S neutrinos to M neutrinos. They have more raw power and energy than they can control. It is one of the most destructive flavors of energy.
Again, these types also have their own flavors on top of their control over the fundamental energies. Anything that can use M neutrinos will have their own flavor of energy. The instructor neutrino, tasked with binding space-time to energy, is very versatile, you see.
Then, psychic and chaos are not based in energy at all, but in space-time. They utilize the very building blocks of the Universe. Psychic is when the H neutrino is greater in proportion to the R neutrino. They control matter itself. They can also use that matter to harness energy. It's a beautiful thing. Chaos, on the other hand, is an aberration. The H neutrino is the instructional messenger for the R neutrino. It seeks to be in balance, just like all things.
Every single one of these neutrinos has to be in balance for matter to exist in a steady state.
Chaos, utilize R neutrinos more than H neutrinos. Yet R neutrinos need H neutrinos. So, their energies react violently anytime it meets matter. They collide, erasing both from existence. Chaos is essentially harnessed antimatter. Now this is somewhat of a contradiction to observed interactions with the Chaos. After all, the Normal type, the purest form of the M neutrino, does not react at all with Chaos. This is due to the fact that the Normal type is in balance.
Balance is the final state. The steady state. Once something has achieved balance, it has no need to interact with other energies anymore. Chaos preys on that imbalance, shredding things apart in hope of balance rather than building up. It destroys matter. It destroys energy.
It still is in hopes of achieving the same balance, but in a completely different way.
Finally, just as the Normal type was a little different than the other elementals, so too is the martial type. This is a unique type in itself. There are no others like it.
Many consider it one of the most destructive types. Yet it can also be a very defensive type as well. This is because martial energy is the H neutrino. Plain and simple. It uses the very base of the Universe. The purest form of space-time.
The R neutrino is the hardest neutrino to conceptualize. The S neutrino is heat. Light. Radiation. Any form of energy. The R neutrino is its counterpart. When bound to the S neutrino, in equal proportions, it becomes matter. Before that, however, it merely exists. It IS the Universe, in a sense.
Martial aura instructs it. Without being bound to the S neutrino, it cannot become matter. But it isn't an energy, or at least not an "energy" in the same way the elementals are. Or even an "energy" in the same way the cosmic energies are.
Just as "normal" type is the M neutrino at its most pure form, "martial" type is the H neutrino at its most pure form. Balanced. The M and H neutrinos don't have charges, after all. The two are the only balanced types to exist. It's quite beautiful really.
Dragon energy is beholden to somewhat different rules(see chapter four), and I will avoid touching on it until later.
Woah.
Well that's a lot to wrap my head around. I had to take out a notebook, drawing arrows between the fundamental neutrinos, how they interact, and whether it lined up with everything I had observed. The book seemed to use neutrinos in a different way than I was used to, but I was able to make the conceptual switch of "neutrino" effectively substituting "subatomic particle".
My main takeaway was that elemental energies were flavored energy. So a water type could "conjure" water out of existence, as well as control water, but the conjured water was actually just water flavored energy. It would dissipate once the pokemon stopped pouring energy into it. Not evaporate. Dissipate. This was confounded by a water type's ability to control water using that same energy. So while the water made of energy acted the same as water controlled by water types, and I wouldn't be able to notice a difference with the naked eye, there was a fundamental difference in its structure.
Other elemental energies followed the same concept. I was still trying to wrap my head around the cosmic energies though.
I'd still want to read other takes on aura to see if they said anything that contradicted this one, but for now I'd try and see this one through.
Another hour and three coffees later, I sat slumped in the library chair, eyes burnt out. Mind reduced to slush. A husk of a man. Someone that would struggle to remember the difference between up and down at this point.
I shuffled my way out of the library, waving to the front desk lady. I really should get her name at some point. Her nose was stuffed in a different book than before, but I couldn't read the title from afar.
She grinned, noticing the pile of books balanced on Z's head as he hovered behind me, as well as the three books Circe was telekinetically rotating around her head. She gave an enthusiastic wave back.
I still needed to research tech. I needed to find other research on aura, and see if they had differing opinions to the one I just read.
First though, maybe a hot bath and a three day nap.