The first thing I needed was an empty book. I had no empty books, and didn’t want to ask Galad or any of the monk-priests for one, so I decided to use one of the older books that Kai had already read.

The book was thick enough to fit all the information the Restoring Deities book would contain, at least from what I could see of its size from the outside of the glass walls. I cast a 64-word spell and cleared the book of everything it had written in it and flipped through the pages to check whether the spell was entirely successful.

Name : Clean Slate

School of Magic : Transmutation

Verbal Components : 64 words

Somatic Components : None

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 1,300

Range : Touch

Casting Time : Instant

Precondition : None.

Description : Voids a book of all its content, mundane or magical.

As expected, the pages of the book were now completely devoid of any text or images.

The second step of my plan was to cast a spell which would allow for the transfer of text from one book to the other. This was not a very complicated spell either but rather one we had learned while we were still manaless. It was very useful if you wanted to replicate your entire spell repertoire to a backup Carta Magica.

Name : Written Knowledge Transfer

School of Magic : Transmutation

Verbal Components : 32 words

Somatic Components : None

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 76,000

Range : Touch

Casting Time : Instant

Precondition : None.

Description : Copies the content of one book to another. Should the content of the original book be too large for the copy, the process will only go as far as the secondary book can fit.

Once the enchantment was placed on the empty book, all I needed to do was make it touch the one I wanted the text to be transferred from, and it would happen almost instantly. I cast the 32-word enchantment and the book briefly glowed purple before settling back to its original appearance.

I was now ready to execute my plan. All I would need to do was teleport the book in, levitate it to the height of the Restoring Deities book, make the two touch, and then teleport my book out again.

My plan was perfect. I went through all of my notes to make sure I had considered everything, took all of the material components I would need, and with heavy heart, and a little pride in my plan, I walked up the stairs of the chest and out of our room. I headed down to the library where Kai was still studying, or at least pretending to be doing so, and sat next to him.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Nothing yet,” I replied. “But we will have the book by the end of the night. This I promise.”

“How are you going to do that?” he said.

“I have my plan,” I reassured him, “but I’m going to need your help, Kai.”

“Sure, whatever you need,” he offered.

“When the bell rings for dinner,” I started, “I want you to ask me loudly if I want to join you for dinner and I will refuse. Then you will ask if you can join Galad and you will try to occupy him for as long as possible.”

“What do you mean occupy him?” he asked, looking puzzled.

“Come on, Kai,” I said. “You have had so many long conversations over the tales you two love to read. Start a conversation about one of them and keep him busy until I notify you that I’m done.”

“I suppose I can do it,” Kai replied. “But how will you notify me? More importantly, how will I notify you if he cuts the conversation short and wants to visit the library?”

“Take this stone with you,” I said, and passed him one of the two rocks that would instantly grow warm when squeezed with three fingers. “You know what this is, don’t you?”

“I do,” he answered. “So if something goes wrong on my end, I squeeze the rock and let you know. And when you’re done, you squeeze the rock and I know I can relax.”

“Exactly,” I said with a smile.

“But you haven’t told me your plan yet!” he protested.

“There’s no need,” I explained, “and we’d better not be seen talking like this by Galad. He may be oblivious to our plan but he is very clever.”

“Okay. So you’re telling me I should get back to my story?” Kai asked.

“Yes,” I replied, “and I’ll get back to my daily practice of spells.”

***

The hours passed and we studied like any other day. The bell rung thrice and we had lunch like any other day. We continued studying and asking various questions to the monk-priests like any other day. Everything was identical to our daily routine until the bell rang five times.

“Myriam, let’s go for dinner,” Kai said, loud enough for Galad, who was only a few steps away, to hear. “I’m starving.”

“I’m kind of in the middle of something,” I replied as naturally as possible, not taking my eyes off of the book I had in front of me. “Go, and I will join you in a few minutes.”

“Okay,” Kai responded, and I thought I saw Galad prepare to leave the library out of the corner of my eye. “Galad, do you want to eat together? I have a very interesting theory on who Magaer really was…”

I didn’t manage to hear Galad’s response as many of the monk-priests were now walking by me to exit the library and head toward the hall to dine before they retreated to their rooms for the day. But I did manage to glimpse Kai and Galad leaving the library together, which meant my plan was already in motion.

It took no more than two minutes for the library to become completely empty, so I didn’t have to wait too long before I retrieved the empty enchanted book from a bag I had brought with me. I took one last look around and then started mumbling the incantation of the teleportation spell.

Name : Minor Inanimate Object Teleportation

School of Magic : Conjuration

Verbal Components : 32 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : 1x quartz

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 120/lb.

Range : 700 inches

Casting Time : Instant

Precondition : None.

Description : This spell instantly teleports an inanimate object of the caster’s choosing to a point in space they have visual of. The amount of divine mana expended is proportional to the weight of the item being teleported.

It was not a particularly long one, but it did require a small quartz, so I reached to my pocket and touched one of the precious stones I had brought with me. Once the incantation was reaching its end, I touched the quartz on the book and focused my eyes on the exact spot I wanted it to teleport to, which was on the leather armchair in the glass chamber.

The quartz evaporated and the book disappeared from in front of me without a sound. It reappeared inside the chamber and exactly where I wanted it. There was no turning back now. I started casting a minor levitation spell and carefully moved my hands around in order to get used to controlling the weight of the book from such a distance. Once I was sure I was doing a good job of manipulating it, I made it move toward the bookcase I had seen the Restoring Deities book in.

I had to make sure my enchanted book only touched the one I wanted to transfer information from, otherwise it would simply copy something I did not need. The empty book was now hovering in front of the bookcase, at the same height as the shelf I wanted. I made a tiny movement with my little finger and the book slowly moved levitated toward its target.

Steady. Steady.

And they touched. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw the two books make contact and a brief purple light flash at the point of contact. A second wave of relief rushed through me as I realized that the stone that would notify me of Kai failing to hold Galad, was still cold in a pocket touching my ribs. I levitated the book back to the armchair and let it lay there.

Now all I had to do was retrieve my book and act like nothing had happened as I went for dinner. I started casting the teleportation spell once more but this time I was touching the quartz on the table before me and focused my eyes on the book. Once the spell was completed, I felt the surface of the crystal be replaced by the book’s. And the alarm stone was still cold.

I did it! I got the book!

I quickly opened it and skimmed through the pages to make sure the spell had taken effect.

To my astonishment, the pages were unaltered. All of them were still empty. The enchantment didn’t work. But I was sure the books had touched. I even saw the brief flash of magic light when they made contact.

Then I realized how naive I was.