The evening had settled into a quiet hum, the manor slowly recovering its usual dignified rhythm after the morning's unexpected drama. Elias, having endured another grueling session of meditation under Aina's unyielding gaze, felt the familiar ache of mental exhaustion. Aina' herself seemed, colder than usual and her training was more intensive leaving him frustrated and drained at the end of the day. He had retreated to his room for a brief respite, but the lure of knowledge, a far more comforting pursuit than physical agony, soon called him. His usual evening ritual involved a visit to the manor's extensive library before bed.
Tonight, however, there was a subtle shift in the manor's atmosphere. Aina, typically a constant, almost omnipresent force, had been unusually absent since dinner. She had appeared at the dining table as composed and unreadable as ever, partaken of the meal with her usual quiet efficiency, and then, without a word, had retreated to her room. Elias hadn't seen her since. It was a peculiar deviation from her relentless schedule, and it left a faint, unsettling void in the manor's otherwise predictable hum.
As Elias made his way through the hushed corridors, his bare feet silent on the plush carpets, he occasionally caught faint, muffled sounds emanating from Aina's room. They were indistinct, a series of bumps and scrapes, punctuated by what sounded like soft, frustrated grumbles. He became a bit curious. He usually ignored Aina's private moments, knowing that any intrusion would be met with a cold, unyielding and most likely unpleasant repercussions.
He reached his own room, pushing open the heavy oak door. His primary objective was to retrieve the 'Velvet Archive', the enigmatic gift from his Uncle Ortis as well as his old journal. the velvet book had become his most prized possession, a silent confidant for his thoughts and discoveries. He picked it up and left once again passing by Aina's, room. As he did, he could have sworn he heard her say "Elias…" followed by a string of rapid, unintelligible gibberish then followed by a distinct thud, the sound of something heavy falling on her bed.
Elias froze, his heart giving a sudden, uncomfortable lurch.
His name?
What in the world was she doing in there? A thousand questions instantly flared in his mind but almost as quickly as the curiosity arose, he suppressed it.
'Aina is a complicated person,' he reminded himself, a mantra he often repeated when faced with her inscrutable nature.
'What she does is up to her. It is not my concern.'
He took a single, deliberate step away from her door, the Velvet Journal clutched tightly in his hand. He had barely shifted his weight when the faint click of a lock disengaging echoed from Aina's door. His instincts, sharpened by the constant pressure of Aina's training, flared. He didn't think; he reacted. A subtle pulse of Flow rippled outwards from him, not a burst of power, but a gentle, almost imperceptible wave of Flow Suppression. His presence instantly faded into near nothingness. He ran as fast as he could, making himself scarce before the heavy oak door began to swing open.
He safely arrived at the library and allowed himself some time to take his breath. He opened it and placed his old journal next to it, making sure that the pages were touching. The pages of the Velvet Book , though seemingly endless, felt impossibly thin. As he watched, a faint, golden shimmer appeared on the blank page. Words began to form, coalescing from nothingness, flowing across the page like liquid light. While a corresponding page from his old book turned to ash.
He remembered earlier that afternoon, after he had been given a break from meditating with Aina. He had come up with a new theory for his Flow programing technique and had been been sketching a complex Flow diagram as a translation of his thought process. Once he was done, he placed the finished sketch on his bedside table but the moment the crumpled diagram touched the velvet book, it had instantly turned to ash, dissolving into fine grey dust. Startled, he had tried to stop whatever was happening from happening and in his haste, the Velvet Journal had slipped from the table, falling open as it hit the floor. And there, on the very first page, was a perfect, pristine replica of the diagram he had just drawn. Not a sketch, but a flawless, intricate rendering, as if it had been printed by a master artist..
After that, he had spent hours in secret experimentation. He'd placed other books on its pages, pressed diagrams against its cover. Each time, the original would vanish, and a perfect copy would appear within the journal's seemingly endless pages. He had even taken it into his Spirit-Domain to inspect its Flow signature. it was there that he found out that the book was an Exietential Class artifact and had an incredibly complex 'Array' engraved into its Flow.
But despite his discovery, Elias still didn't fully understand how it worked. He knew what it did, somewhat, but the intricate workings of the Array itself remained a mystery. This lack of comprehension gnawed at him. It was part of the reason he was heading to the library tonight. He needed to learn more about Arrays.
He knew the basics, of course. Arrays were intricate Flow-based constructs, patterns of energy that were programmed to perform specific functions. They were the fundamental building blocks of many advanced Flow technologies and enchantments, acting as a kind of "language" or "code" that Flow could follow to achieve a desired effect. To put it simply, if Flow were magic, Arrays would be akin to enchantments, incantations, or spells, providing a structured way to achieve specific effects. But the Velvet Archive's Array was beyond anything he had ever read about. It was a masterpiece. That was one of the reasons he decided to call the book and Archive. The name Velvet Archive was cringe but that was the only name he felt would best describe its purpose.