Lily was a bit bored. The audience had not been anywhere near as long as she'd feared it would be, and now she was back in her room... alone. It was far too early for her to go to bed, even if she felt tired. Madeline was spending her time visiting with her father. Lily was not able to do the same, since her father had a last-minute court issue to deal with that had suddenly sprung up, but he'd promised to be there for the tournament.

On that topic, Lily couldn't go to the training grounds, since with Crassus there doing last-minute training, he might see what she's capable of. The academy's library was closed this late, so she couldn't go there to do any reading, even if there was a book she was interested in that she hadn't already gone through.

She'd read all of her textbooks cover-to-cover several times over the last six months to the point that she could recite entire chapters by memory since she was a magic nerd, so going through those wouldn't be enjoyable. She'd also done her cycling training, minus the fat-burning ring as Rine had advised. She'd already had her supper, so that was out as well. What could she do?

She then remembered that amongst the things she had inside of her dimensional storage bag were several books that Rine had told her would be critical to her continued training after the tournament. He'd placed no prohibition upon reading them, so she assumed that it would be okay if she looked through them. It would certainly help her future training if she was already familiar with the material.

Having decided on a course of action, she stood up and walked over to her door, making sure it was locked securely. She did not want any unexpected guests while reading these books. Making sure all was well on that front, she summoned her dimensional storage bag and extracted the volumes in question.

She decided to go with the smallest volume first. Written in Elderscript, Lily was able to translate the title to 'The Basics Of Magic, By Rine Vect Nol Karmaskor'.

She did a double-take when she translated the name of the author. Rine had written this himself? She took a moment to check the other books and saw that none of them were written by her friend and tutor in the magical arts. Had all of them been written by Rine, it might have greatly changed how she viewed her mentor. Instead, she was only filled with intense curiosity as she opened the book and began translating the table of contents, then turning the page to an introduction by the author.

However, before she could start on that, her eye was drawn to a graven image of such incredible realism that her wonder at its detail almost made her overlook that caption underneath: 'The Author, Rine Vect Nol Karmaskor'. As soon as those words were read, her eyes went back to the image to take in the details, as the image showed Rine, before his transformation into a lich.

When Lily was younger, she'd met her great-grandfather, a few days before his death. He had been struggling for years with a terrible illness and was only a few days away from dying. Greatest-gramps had looked like little more than a skeleton wrapped in skin, as his body had completely used up all of its strength in trying and failing to combat the malady that plagued him. Rine, alive and in the flesh, looked like that, minus about sixty years.

Pale, gaunt, perfectly bald, and so emaciated that he looked as if he might collapse at any moment even seated in a chair as he was, he still managed a happy smile as he read a book to a group of children gathered around him, themselves looking to be in poor health, albeit nowhere as bad as her mentor was. Dressed in blue robes that hung loosely on his frame, he looked less like a powerful wizard and more like a man ten seconds from the grave.

Pre-transformation, he managed to give a better impression of a skeleton than he did as a literal skeleton. It was impossible to tell what his age might be, as his illness and the obvious stress it had put on his body had given the man an appearance that could have been anywhere between twenty and fifty. What in the world had happened to him?

Remembering something she'd seen in the table of contents, she flicked back a page and confirmed that there was, in fact, a section about the author. She flicked forward to the end of the book and translated what was written there.

"Rine Vect Nol Karmaskor (39) is an acclaimed wizard, researcher, author, and often called the Scholar of the Celestial Sages. He was born to well-meaning but foolish parents who illegally violated the prohibition against prenatal tampering via biomancy. Hoping to enroll him into the Imperial Knights when he came of age, they attempted to create a perfect physical specimen, but their back alley endeavors instead gave birth to a child with a wealth of health problems, and a body so frail that he could not stand upright under his own power."

"He has spent nearly all of his life in various biomancy clinics, being treated for the numerous maladies that afflict his body. Regrettably, as the old saying goes, 'A fool can toss a stone into a lake that a council of sages cannot retrieve,' and while for much of his life his condition has been stable, in recent years his health has been in decline despite the best efforts of the top biomancers in the world. Thankfully, his mind is perfectly fine, having received none of the tampering that has nearly crippled him."

"He has proven his academic brilliance by becoming an archmage by the age of ten, the foremost expert on all forms of wizardry by twenty, and has singlehandedly revolutionized the arcane arts in his lifetime, all despite his numerous health issues. Much of the wealth he has earned in his lifetime has been donated to charity, since in the author's own words, 'I'm hardly in a position to be able to enjoy it'."

"When not illuminating the path to a brighter tomorrow via the brilliance of his intellect, he can often be found volunteering at biomancy rehabilitation centers throughout the world, working shoulder to shoulder with those who have allowed him to survive his parents' mistakes, and helping those who, like himself, have suffered due to illegal biomantic tampering by their parents, as well as the occasional teenager who tried to give nature a boost while not knowing what they were doing."

"As of the time of this writing, he is preparing to transition to a lich, to be able to continue contributing to the field of arcane study and to the betterment of lives across the globe for centuries to come."

Closing the book, Lily needed a moment to take that all in. Rine had mentioned that he'd assisted biomancers in fixing the mistakes of others, but he'd not mentioned anything about how this related to himself. She paused, remembering how the lich had told her that the 'Helping Hands' spell was the first he'd ever learned. Opening the book back to the image of the soon-to-be lich, she could understand that.

The detail of the image allowed her to see that he was having difficulty holding even the relatively light tome in his hands. It was no wonder his first spell was one that allowed him to do things without relying on the strength of his failing body.

Opening the book, she began reading the introduction.

"Anyone can be a wizard. By that, I don't mean that everyone can. Not everyone has the focus, the drive, or the desire to explore the mysteries and wonders of the arcane. What I mean is that, regardless of where you come from, who your parents are, or what social class you were born in, the path of the wizard is open to any who wish to pursue it. In magic, we find true equality. Only in myth, legend, and elitist propaganda do we hear of magic favoring specific clans or bloodlines. In truth, your bloodline matters as little to magic as your eye color, or whether you are left- or right-handed."

"In the vastness of the cosmos, all have the potential to succeed. While a precious few may be born with qualities or talents that allow them to more easily perform spells that would be challenging to others, I am proof that if you are willing to put in the hard work and dedication, then no matter what hardships you face, you can still stand side by side with those who were blessed with all the gifts. As such, allow me to be the first to welcome you as you begin your journey into mastery of the art of magic."

The book itself, as she made her way through its text, was very clearly meant for younger children, given its rather simplistic explanations and the caricature-ish nature of the drawings that accompanied many of the chapters. Anthropomorphic animals explained in captions basic principles behind how magic worked, and how it could be applied. Lily would almost have been insulted by the simplicity of the text if it did not contain so much knowledge that was unknown to the modern arcane community.

Mystic principles that many archmages would confess were barely half-understood were explained in plain, easy to understand language by a bunny wearing a dress and bonnet on page twelve. On page fifteen, a mystical phenomenon, considered an unsolvable riddle that had puzzled wizards for centuries, was not only solved but in such an easy manner that Lily had little doubt she could have comprehended the answer when she was four years old, had someone explained it to her.

In a short, fifty-page primer to magic, this book held more knowledge than Lily could have expected to find, even if she'd apprenticed herself to the king's court mage. It would almost be insulting, were it not so humbling.

When Rine had told her he'd created labyrinths just to win a bet, she got an idea of just how powerful he was. Reading this book, she came to realize just how far ahead his civilization was, magically, compared to her own. The young apprentice had heard of small islands that had a small population of people, who had been on their own for centuries, using only stone tools and no comprehension of magic beyond the most basic of basic spells. Many of them lacked even a written language or a concept of basic arithmetic. 'From Rine's perspective,' she realized, 'there's very little difference between that and us.' Civilization, so far as he was concerned, was barely crossing the starting line...

Finishing the book, she carefully put it back into her dimensional storage bag. She checked the time and found bedtime was still a long time away. She pulled out another, much thicker volume, and carefully read the title.

'Variables And Formulae: A Systematic Approach To Magic.'

Three pages in, she knew she was completely out of her depth. What she could glean was that when brought down to its most basic terms, magic could be organized in such a way that one could easily create spells that would serve specific functions. For example, using this system, knowledge of how to cast a fireball also meant that, by changing a single variable, you also knew how to cast an ice ball, lightning ball, etc.

As opposed to the current system, where each spell was an island, this system made the learning of new spells and variables something that could exponentially increase a wizard's capabilities with every piece of new knowledge that they gained. It was incredibly illuminating stuff, but she could barely follow any of it. Clearly, there was a lot of ground to cover between the basics and this.

One interesting thing she learned, however, was that by the system used by Rine's civilization, healing was considered its own element. That meant, potentially, that any spell that Lily learned could be infused with healing magic, including Helping Hands and her barriers. As she put the book away, she pondered what applications that might have. A barrier that could protect someone and heal injuries at the same time could be incredibly useful, but then again, it could also heal whatever was attacking you, so really, what good was that?

Ruminating on that, she pulled out another tome. This one was titled simply "Applied Magic". As she cracked the book open, she came to understand Rine's intent with these tomes. He intended to start her with basic comprehension, and then begin schooling her with both theory and application. The previous tome taught her 'how' to use magic, but this one taught her how to 'use' magic.

Simply put, it taught the many ways by which spells could be used. Easier to follow than the previous tome, this magic detailed numerous means by which spells could be used, many of them ways Lily would not likely have thought of one her own... including how 'healing barriers' could be used. As she stared in astonishment at the diagram which detailed what Rine's era had called a 'healing chamber', she fought the urge to crawl under her bed and hide.

In plain, simple language, this section explained how, with spells that even a novice like Lily could learn, someone could heal people from anything but an immediately fatal injury. It even radically redefined what a 'fatal injury' was, stating that so long as the brain was mostly intact, the injury wasn't fatal.

Modern healing magic was currently restricted to being able to mend injuries that a person could heal from naturally. Anything like a severed limb could only be helped by the strongest of healing potions found within the labyrinth, and even that only if used quickly. With this knowledge, nothing short of decapitation or destruction of the brain would be fatal, so long as Lily was on hand to treat the victim.

People would kill for this knowledge. People have, in fact, killed one another over rumors of magic that could accomplish half of what this one page claimed. As she flicked through the various pages, getting a feel for the full extent of what this book detailed, that prior urge to hide only intensified.

There were descriptions of how magic could be used to cause a man to simply drop dead by crushing blood vessels in his brain. There were descriptions of how to transmute any substance into any other substance, including the classic lead into gold. There were descriptions of how a wizard could, with a bit of time, effort, and transmutation, create an explosion capable of turning a city into a fiery holocaust of annihilation. There were descriptions of how to reform flesh like clay to make someone as beautiful or hideous as one pleased. There were descriptions of how you could subtly shift a person's anatomy or body chemistry to inflict on them a slow, agonizing death that no amount of healing magic could remedy. Another section told how to instead alter the body to prevent one from aging, or even turn back the hands of time to one's physical prime.

This wasn't simply incredible or world-shattering, this innocent-looking tome contained information that could radically change the world in ways beyond what most people could dream possible. Put plainly, this book made clear something that Rine had largely inferred throughout his conversations with Lily: Magic, once utilized to its utmost potential, made mortal men into things like unto gods.

In the right hands, someone could do incredible, wondrous things with the knowledge within this tome. In the wrong hands, well, you could still do incredible things. Things that would go in the history books, but largely in sections that ended with the words '...and that's why that kingdom doesn't exist anymore'.

While Lily could not help by be amazed by how far Rine's civilization had advanced, she wondered how they'd managed to keep from destroying themselves, given that this kind of power was available to any wizard who advanced far enough. A world with dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of godlike beings going around doing as they pleased was a recipe for disaster.

Existential dread crept in as she continued looking at the possibilities of the power she might one day hold. Many modern religions spoke of various miracles that the gods had done. This book made it clear that any and all of those miracles could not only be duplicated but also exceeded by a sufficiently powerful wizard. Perhaps all the great miracles of the gods in the past were simply the works of those who had gotten their hands on a sliver of such knowledge. She was not certain which idea was more frightening, that the gods were only mortals with a fragment of the knowledge of the past, or that the gods were real, and magic allowed mortals to exceed even the power of the divine.

What was certain was that with this tome, anyone who dedicated the time and effort could become all-powerful by modern standards.

Freeing Rine would require Lily to become something akin to such an all-powerful being. But, what would Rine do, once that freedom was gained? More worrying, perhaps, was the thought of what might Lily become, once she advanced far enough in her training.

Once she progressed far enough in her studies, she could easily use what Rine taught her to take over the world. In fact, by the terms of their familiar contract, he'd be obligated to help her if she decided to do just that. Worse, so far as she knew, no one else on the planet had the slightest inkling of the knowledge contained in these three books. Her civilization was at a 'stone-age' level of understanding, compared to Rine's civilization.

If she kept this knowledge to herself, then no one but Rine could ever have the ability to challenge her. Barring perhaps the most ancient and powerful beings on the planet, nothing existed that could stand before a wizard with this kind of power, and most of those beings did not intervene in mortal affairs.

Mastering this knowledge meant she could heal anything but death itself, live for millennia without aging past her physical prime, become so beautiful that no man or woman could resist her charms, reduce cities to rubble within minutes and kingdoms to ash within hours, reshape continents according to her whims, level mountains just because she didn't like how they looked, cross thousands of miles in an eyeblink, fly in the sky, and far, far more.

With the information in these three books, a wizard could become a power beyond anything her civilization could comprehend. If she completed her training and decided to play goddess of the entire world, not only could no one stop her, but anyone who saw what she was capable of would wholeheartedly believe that she could be nothing but a deity given flesh.

Kings and emperors would beg her for the right to grovel at her feet, armies would scatter at the rumor of her approach, and all who lived would only do so because she decided they were more useful alive than dead. And after not only the last six months of suffering but also a life lived as a commoner where the aristocracy largely considered the commonfolk somewhere between dirt and manure, the idea of taking that power to become an avenging goddess of justice to 'balance things out' was almost painfully tempting...

And Rine's civilization had ended because two people with that kind of power got into a fight while his back was turned. What would happen if, once Rine was freed, he and Lily fought one another? Or would that even be necessary? Once she completed her training, couldn't Lily cause the level of wanton destruction if she got angry?

Her hands shaking, she very carefully put the book back into the dimensional storage bag and started getting ready for bed. The implications of all of this were too... big, she guessed was close to the right word for it. It was too big, too grand, too vast for her to contemplate right now.

She needed to prioritize, and right now, her priority was getting through tomorrow and making sure everything went as planned. She could ponder what to do with this knowledge and power in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. It was a long road between where she was now and the point where she could save and/or destroy civilizations at a whim. For now, she just needed to go to sleep so she'd be ready for a brand new day. She could process all of this later.

"We are all unspeakably lucky it was you, young Lily, and no one else," Headmaster de Ironford had said. As she closed her eyes and went to sleep, she wasn't sure now if he was right or wrong.