Chapter 214: An Obsessive Mage
"Problem? A huge problem!" The man, whose name was Kael, was now waving his notebook, his own voice now a loud and accusatory sound. "What right do you have to speak of Lord Rhodes in such a casual tone? Do you even understand the Codex of Origin? Do you know how much of his own heart and soul he poured into this book? Your attitude... it is a blasphemy!"
"I don't think he would have minded," Rhodes said with a sigh. "And if he has a problem, he can come and tell me himself."
"Hah!?" Kael's own eyes were wide with a disbelieving rage. "What is that supposed to mean? And what's with that look on your face? Are you even a proper human mage?"
Seeing his growing agitation, Akaf stepped between them. "Kael! That is enough! Apologize at once!" he said, his own voice a stern and commanding sound.
"Apologize? Did you not hear him, my lord? He said the Codex was obsolete! This is the very book that Lord Rhodes himself helped to write! What right does he—"
"Enough!" Akaf's own voice was now imbued with a magical pressure, and Kael was silenced, his face now a deep and angry red. "The pressure of your own research has clearly affected your mind. Go and cool your head."
He glared at him, a look of a pure and unadulterated defiance in his eyes.
Rhodes, for his part, found the whole situation a little amusing. "It's alright, Lord Akaf," he said, and his gaze fell on the man's notebook, at the dense and intricate magical formulas within. Some of them... they felt familiar. "It seems... this Mr. Kael has a very deep and abiding interest in the Codex."
"He is one of our most devoted scholars of the Codex and of Lord Rhodes's early works," Akaf said with a sigh, "but he can be a little... obsessive."
Hearing him mention his own research, the anger in his own eyes was now replaced by a flicker of pride. "I have studied every record, every commentary on Lord Rhodes's early magical theories. I am convinced that his own creations are not limited to the Codex. There must be something more, something deeper."
He flipped open his notebook and pointed to a page with a complex and intricate magical diagram. "Look! I have reconstructed this from an ancient manuscript. It is just a fragment, but it shares the same core structure as the formulas in the Codex. It must be one of Lord Rhodes's own early drafts. And more importantly... the formula on this page, at a critical juncture, introduces a completely different formula. It points to a whole new kind of magic!"
His own gaze sharpened. That diagram... that formula... it was so familiar. It had to have been one of his own, a spell he had abandoned, a spell that had been too unstable, too volatile. To think that a fragment of it had survived, had been found and partially reconstructed...
Serie, too, had noticed the change in his own aura, and with a gentle tug on his sleeve, she asked a silent question. He just shook his head. He couldn't tell what the spell was from just a fragment. And he didn't think this man could have possibly reconstructed it.
"Absurd!" Akaf said, his own voice a dismissive and disapproving sound. "Kael, you are wasting your time with these unfounded theories. The very origin of that manuscript is questionable. And the formula on it is not even a hundredth of a complete spell. Lord Rhodes was a great man, yes. But his greatness lies in the clear and transmissible magic he created, not in these... vague and unsubstantiated things."
He turned to them, an apologetic look on his face. "My apologies. He is obsessed with uncovering some... lost and forbidden magic of Lord Rhodes. But it is all just baseless speculation. A mage should not be chasing after unprovable legends."
Kael's face was pale, but the obsessive fire in his eyes had not been extinguished. "Lord Akaf! History is a complex thing. Lord Rhodes's legacy... it cannot be limited to just the Codex. This formula... it must be a part of some other, lost magic, a magic that points to a path..."
"...a path that perhaps even he himself had abandoned."
His own voice, a calm and quiet sound, cut through the argument. He looked at Kael. "To be obsessed with the past, especially a part of it that is so dangerous... it can become a hindrance. The development of magic... it is a constant progression, not a matter of a slavish reconstruction of the past. Sometimes... older is not better."
His words... they were a critique of his research, and at the same time, a commentary on the thousand years of a human magical development.
Kael was stunned. He had not expected to hear such words from a seemingly ordinary mage. He opened his mouth to retort, but he could not find the words.
"But," his own gaze now on the man's face, his own voice a little softer, "your dedication is admirable. You just need to... learn to accept the imperfections. He... he was never so perfect."
And with that, he gave Akaf a slight nod and, taking Serie's hand, he turned and walked away.
Akaf watched him go, a thoughtful look on his face. The man's own words... they had held a strange and ancient wisdom. And his own attitude towards the Codex... it was very strange.
Kael just stood there, and looked at his own, precious notebook, and his own words, "He was never so perfect", echoed in his mind. But then, a new wave of an even stronger and more determined resolve washed over him.
"What right does he have to say that?" he murmured, and his own eyes were now filled with a new and burning fire. "I will prove it! I will prove his perfection! I will prove that this magic was real! Even if it takes my entire life!"
The small incident at the library was a pebble tossed into a still pond, and was quickly forgotten by them both.
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