Chapter Sixteen
The mages and Justin sat in silence for a few more moments, each deep in thought. When Justin spoke, his voice came out hoarse as though it hadn't been used in a while. "So what do we do now?"
Art gave Justin a weak smile. Justin was sure that Art still felt unsettled by all that had transpired. Justin was also a little worse for wear, but did a good job of keeping his features calm.
For all of Art's unease, his words came out steady and strong. "We have just over an hour before the king returns with an update. I am afraid we will need to postpone discussing how the summoning works and why you were summoned until after we come up with a rough plan for how to proceed to give the king." Pausing and looking at Justin, he thought a moment before continuing. "Will that work for you?"
Justin didn't hesitate before he spoke. "Yes, I think first and foremost we need to buy ourselves some time with the king so he does not become suspicious of our lack of progress. The magic training can wait until after we meet with the king. Do you have any ideas that might be viable, especially any that the king is not aware of?
Cora cleared her throat before she spoke, and even that sound had a hint of a musical note to it. "Well, in order to know what ideas could be viable, we need to inform you about the scope of the problem. Since you are not from here, you will not know exactly what we are facing and why a solution is so vital for our survival." Justin knew that she wasn't just referring to the mage's survival, but the people in Aldervaile.
Cora's words held a bit more emotion this time, as though the struggles that the kingdom was facing upset her more than she wanted to show. She allowed only the barest emotions to come through in her melodious voice, but Justin heard it, and in it he realized the kingdom was in more trouble than he had thought.
Justin nodded, agreeing with Cora's statement. "Yes, please explain to me exactly how the magic works and what transpired to put the people in Aldervaile at the mercy of the magical creatures."
Remembering what Maggie had said, he held up his hand to stall the conversation for a moment. "Let me get my parchment so I can take notes.
During the conversation with the mages, Justin had been fiddling with the dice. Before he reached for his parchment, he held the dice up to the mages to remind them that he had it. "Can I be assured that we will be discussing this as well in the near future?"
Art looked at it as though he had forgotten it was there. "Ah, yes, that is an essential piece to the summoning spell and will hopefully help you as we work on solving the problem. We will most definitely be discussing it. For now, it will probably be best to keep it in your pocket. We have no real way to explain it to the king without telling him about the summoning spell."
Justin pushed the dice as deep into his pocket as he could, then brought the parchment, quill, and ink before him and set about removing the stopper from the inkwell.
His hands were still slick with sweat, and he was having some trouble getting the stopper out. Oaklie reached out his hand and flicked his wrist towards the ink well. "Desio." With that one word, the stopper shot out of the ink well and landed in Oaklie's outstretched hand. He smiled at a gawking Justin and then winked at him. "Desio, D.E.S.I.O. It means open. Let that be your first magic lesson." Staring at Justin, who was still too stunned to talk, he said. "Well, aren't you going to write that down on your parchment?"
Shaking himself as though coming out of deep sleep, Justin grabbed his quill and, without even thinking about it, dipped it in the inkwell and wrote out his first spell. When he was done, he looked up at Oaklie and smiled. "Thank you." Oaklie's returning smile was warm and kind. "No young apprentice, thank you. Now that you are here, we may finally have the answer that has eluded us for so long. It will be worth every spell we teach you if we can have it.
Justin felt immediately humbled by his words and his praise. He was ready to dive headfirst into this dilemma and give all that he had to solve it.
"Now." Art stood up as he spoke and directed everyone's gaze to the books behind him on the shelves. "Much of our understanding of how magic works has been figured out over time from many different mages. As more is discovered, we write the information into books much like the one that brought you here, and we add it to the library." Justin was about to interrupt, but Art continued before he could. "The magicians learn from the previous generations of mages and, in turn, teach future mages, so the knowledge is not static. We are constantly discovering new books and resources in the library here that expand our understanding of our world.
Without realizing it, Justin had raised his hand as though he was back in his college class, eager to be called on by the professor. Art chuckled at his eagerness and extended his hand for Justin to speak. "So, are you telling me that you find your information on magic from the stacks?"
All 4 mages looked quizically at Justin. "Oh, sorry. That is a term from my world. What I mean to say is, your knowledge of your magic only comes from the books in this library?"
"What does stacks mean?" Philip spoke softly and seemed genuinely curious about the unfamiliar word. "It is what we call the shelves of a library." Philip nodded in understanding, and Justin was glad that he could answer the quiet mage's question.
Looking once more at Art, Justin spoke. "Well, do you? Find your information about magic from this library?"
Art looked around him at all the books and paused before he spoke. "Much of our knowledge is from this library, but there are other libraries that are throughout Aldervaile that hold important information as well. The king and his forefathers didn't think it wise to keep all the information in one place, in case of thieves or fire.
Justin had to agree that it was probably a wise decision. When he had free time, he would love to spend time here reading. But now, there were more pressing matters. "So, what have you discovered about how the magic works in Aldervaile? Maggie told me that the magic is contingent on the life force of the magical creatures and that only a small amount of magic is returned to the earth when they die."
Oaklie looked at Justin intently as he spoke. "Did the princess tell you that each species of magical creature controls a specific type of magic in our world?"
Justin could only shake his head in response. He had no idea that was the case, or even what that entailed. As he sat there in silence, the clock on the wall chimed the half hour. Art's head whipped around to it, and he grimaced as he registered the time.
"We must hurry, Justin. We have only 45 minutes until the king returns.