You can strengthen spells and techniques in innumerable ways, but there’s a limit to the strength of mind.

- Andanian Chronicles

“Um… Teacher Lily?” Naomi questioned nervously.

“Ahh…” Lily jerked up with an absent dreamy expression, “Oh it’s just you, dearest apprentice. Did you need something else?”

“You were teaching me about the different types of talismans when you drifted off into silence. And it’s already been two hours… Is something wrong teacher Lily?”

Lily stretched out and yawned, “Sorry, I must have drifted off again, my elder sister constantly complains that I do that far too often. But studying really bores me and learning about the other types of talismans is rather pointless when the Anything Talisman is all you’ll ever need. More importantly, did you feel that large surge of power? Someone used a really extravagant spell just now, I was just about to identify the source when it vanished into thin air. If they are really that good, I must invite them to my hide and seek party!”

Naomi wisely omitted the fact that she had failed to sense even the slightest shift in magic, “Did it have something to do with your sister?”

“Elder sister? Without me? Bah, not in her wildest dreams. It was more like if idiot Xerxes suddenly acquired the brains of an Archmage…” Lily blinked with surprise at the sudden revelation, “More brains, a merge! Why didn’t I think of THAT sooner! That would probably be an immense improvement. Gosh, don’t you agree that Xerxes would be just so excited to try that out?”

“You mean Immortal Emperor Xerxes, Ruler of Saadian and of the Southern Realms…” Naomi’s voice trembled.

“Yes yes… I already know that he has a long musty list of titles.” Lily rolled her eyes dismissively as she leapt to her feet and strode determinedly towards the corridor, “Hey, maybe he’ll agree to let you practice your surgical skills on him, I’m sure that you have already mastered the basics.”

“I have mastered what?” Naomi mumbled in bewilderment as her horrified mind began piecing the witch’s ludicrous suggestion together. Then blood drained from her already pale face, “You want to do what to Emperor Xerxes!?” she squeaked.

“Oh com’on, surely you didn’t already forget about the upgrades… I mean the magic lessons? After all that tedious firsthand demonstration while I was carving up your body?” Lily frowned as she twisted about to cup Naomi’s ghostly white cheeks between her warm rosy hands, “My bad. I must have missed out a part or two while I was putting you back together. Hmm, let me see… or maybe I should have reinforced the connections in your temporal lobe a little more? Any spells of sudden dizziness perhaps? Misfiring nerves? We must conduct an emergency dissection… I mean treatment!”

“I REMEMBER! I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!” Naomi literally shrieked as Lily began flipping through her stack of talismans, “Nothing is wrong with me!”

“Are you really, really sure?” The witch frowned doubtfully, “Aren’t you just being stubborn like my elder sister? I keep reminding her that Mother messed around with some of her childhood memories you know, but she refuses to ever let me fix them…”

“Yes, I’m really, really, really sure. Nothing is wrong with me. Everything is perfectly fine!” Naomi nodded as vigorously as she could.

“That’s just peachy, I guess…” After another long and concerned stare, Lily finally concluded with a somewhat disappointed expression. “I wanted to start with Xerxes anyway, so let’s get going already!”

“I can’t… I mean… um what if Emperor Xerxes refuses?” Naomi shuddered.

“Why would anyone refuse such an obvious upgrade?” Lily dismissed her apprehensive apprentice’s concerns with a nonchalant wave, “Just look at how nicely Legion turned out. When we are done with Xerxes, he’ll be even better!”

“Wait! But you haven’t even finished your lecture on the talismans!” Naomi spluttered in a final desperate attempt to delay the impending confrontation.

“Oh, that? Here, you can have this.” Lily rummaged through her dress and retrieved an intricately decorated golden key.

“Huh? What does this key have to do with talismans?” Naomi stared at Lily in befuddlement.

Lily sighed impatiently as she snatched at Naomi’s hand, “Can’t you even feel how this simple artifact functions? You must be just as magically dense as elder sister. Here, just prick your finger like this. Stick a drop of your blood on the ruby here, press on that emerald there, and stretch the key before you and twist. No books or studying required!” The air before them shimmered as a magical rift materialized before them, “Tada. The Andanian imperial library. All ten million, three hundred and fifty-three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight tomes on talismans, along with the complete collection of their accompanying appendices, supplements, and addendums. Absorb all of that and you’ll learn more about talismans than you’ll ever want to know. I can wait, will five whole minutes be enough? You might even have the time for a short snooze in between…” She monotoned absently with a barely stifled yawn.

“Five… five minutes? You want me to read all these books in five minutes?” Naomi’s eyes almost popped out of her head as she stared disbelievingly at the endless silent corridors and the rows upon rows of carefully arranged tomes stretching out from floor to ceiling.

Lily frowned, “Of course not, didn’t you hear me? Just focusing on the ten million or so that relate directly to talismans should be sufficient for now. You probably won’t ever need the four hundred and twenty-five thousand volumes on heredity and the six million odd texts on court etiquette are quite a complete waste of time. Hmm… it is your first time, so you might actually need an extra ten seconds to familiarize yourself with the library layout? You don’t really have to flip all those individual pages like my elder sister does, you know. Just step in, sense for all the appropriate tomes simultaneously, then take a deep breath, and voila! Knowledge acquired.”

“I can’t read…” Naomi stammered apprehensively.

“Yeah that might be a problem… some of the languages in the older talisman specific tomes are pretty ancient. Elder sister encountered some trouble too. Um… But no worries, we have other books dedicated to language. If you take a sniff at section five hundred and twenty-two on this floor, you will instantly acquire the knowledge required to translate all the tomes written in the most recent two millenniums. Then hop down three levels and absorb sections three hundred and thirteen through six hundred and forty-three… Oh and don’t forget that reference book my elder sister left out on the desk in the corner over there. Then skip down four more levels and…”

“I mean, I can’t read. Not at all. They never taught us slaves any of those letters…” Naomi muttered as she took several doubtful breaths, “And Teacher Lily? I don’t think this breathing method of yours is going to work for me.”

“Oh, I can fix even that! Here, with the handy mind connecting talisman!” Lily beamed with opportunistic excitement as she tagged Naomi on the forehead with the dreaded charm before she could dart away. A white scorching agony seared into Naomi’s consciousness as pure suffering overflowed from every pore of her being and every muscle in her body twitched convulsively with anguished torture. In the next instant, an utterly overwhelming tsunami of knowledge surged into her pain maddened mind. Naomi did not even have the opportunity to scream. For the briefest of moments, the girl swayed unsteadily as she managed to remain upright, then blood and gore gushed from every orifice in her body and every pore on her skin, and the bloody girl plunged soundlessly forward into Lily’s ready embrace.

“Ves ican liakz murr...” It was late in the afternoon when Naomi finally managed to croak out a single phase.

“Here’s the water, drink up. Ready for another round? We only managed to skim over the first thousand or so tomes before you collapsed.” Lily smiled encouragingly as she stroked her feverish forehead.

“Lisan iten nien!” Naomi moaned in horror as the bloodied child crawled desperately away from the witch.

“Are you okay? Did you forget how to speak in Common? We must fix that. Luckily, there are three hundred…” Lily locked her arms deftly around Naomi’s shoulders before affixing a fresh talisman on her forehead.

“Aieee!” Like a crazed beast, the child snapped her head backwards into the witch’s face before she could activate the charm and there was a loud crunching of cartilage as Lily’s nose was crushed by the violent blow. As blood splayed from the staggering witch, Naomi stomped down violently and shattered her kneecap. Then she swung her wildly by the arm and flung her into the nearest shelf of books with such force that the solid marble racks were shattered by the impact.

Lily groaned loudly as she was buried beneath a massive mountain of ancient tomes.

“Teacher Lily. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I just couldn’t control my reflexes…” Naomi’s body shuddered uncontrollably as she continued to back away from the witch.

Lily pouted apprehensively as she rose to her feet, “Hey, treat the library with a little more care! I don’t really mind, but elder sister isn’t going to be pleased when she finds out that we bloodied a bunch of tomes that she hasn’t read yet. The last time that happened, I lost my head! Do you know how hard is it to walk around for days without a head?”

“How? You aren’t injured. But after all I did….” Naomi gasped in bewilderment, “Wait… what? Your own sister? She beheaded you just because of a few books? But how are you still alive?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Lily giggled mischievously, “how would I ever survive elder sister’s tantrums if I was hurt so easily? Well the beheading was the least of my problems, elder sister is just too evil whenever she loses her temper. I still remember the last time when she ambushed me, stole my head, and hid it in another dimension! It took me two whole days to actually find my body!” The witch shuddered as she recalled the memory, “It was dark, boring, but worst of all… there was no pudding!”

“Head in another dimension, no pudding… uh-huh, and it wasn’t a big deal…” Naomi mumbled in disbelief.

“Yes, and that was exactly what elder sister said when I complained to Mother!” Lily stomped her feet in protest, “Wait a minute, are you saying that you actually agree with elder sister?”

“Yes! I mean no, of course… losing your head is definitely a big deal!” Naomi stammered.

The witch was so swift that Naomi had barely registered the faintest flicker of movement before Lily’s nails were planted against the nape of her throat. The witch’s aura shimmered with an alien darkness and her normally whimsical attitude had been supplanted by a terrifyingly savage menace that chilled the blood in her victim’s veins, “Not the head, silly child. What about the unforgiveable fact that elder sister conveniently forgot about my pudding?” Lily hissed venomously.

A tense moment of incomplete silence, as the floors of the library shook ever so slightly, and as countless tomes were rattled within their marble shelves. Naomi gulped nervously as she ran her tongue across her suddenly parched lips and considered her next words with utmost care, “It was truly evil to forget about your pudding, Teacher Lily! Haha, I mean, isn’t that just too obvious? So obvious that I didn’t see the need to mention it.”

“Oh,” The threatening aura vanished just as swiftly as it had appeared, “as long as we are all on the same page about my pudding.” Lily declared with a ditzy grin on her face. “You know, we can easily screw a head or two back on. But a pudding gone stale? Why that’s completely irrecoverable!” She grumbled.

“Doesn’t the Anything Talisman grant any wish? Why can’t you simply make the pudding fresh again?” Naomi questioned.

“Is that a trick question, dearest apprentice? I might be a little dreamy sometimes, but I still haven’t forgotten about the three fundamental tenets of magic. It’s obvious that I can’t simply return to a time when the pudding was still fresh. And since the ingredients are dead, so I can’t heal them back to freshness either.” Lily pointed at the massive symbols carved above the library’s luxuriously decorated foyer. “First, nothing can ever bring back the past. Second, no spell can revive the dead. And third, never open the Witch’s Seal.”

“What’s that?” Naomi mumbled apprehensively.

“The Witch’s Seal? Oh, it’s just some tattoo that’s inherited by the most senior living witch. It’s supposed to appear on your left palm or something and since there’s still nothing on my hand, I know that elder sister’s doing perfectly fine!”

“No, I mean what’s that black granite sarcophagus doing in the middle of your library foyer?” Naomi pointed hesitantly at the elaborately decorated tomb just beneath the symbols.

“Oh that.” Lily whispered conspiratorially, “Don’t tell elder sister, but that’s my favorite secret nap spot! It’s actually empty inside and it has the fluffiest pillows ever and it helps ever so much with my headaches. I get them a lot, you know…”

“Yes, I see. Yes.” Naomi nodded mechanically as Lily continued to chatter excitedly about the wonders of slumbering within the mausoleum.

“… Oh, and by the way, I’m glad that you seem to be doing just fine.” Lily nodded contentedly, “For a moment, I thought that the mind-merge had hurt you in some manner. I guess a thousand tomes was nothing, let’s try for another ten thousand tomes this time! Or would you prefer the indisputable benefits of a more permanent connection?” Lily fluttered her eyelashes entreatingly, “I don’t mean to boast, but I’ve already memorized most of the…”

“Ye… HELP! NOOO, PLEASE NO MORE!” Naomi screamed as she flung her body to the side and snatched up the nearest fallen tome, “I mean, I’ll read all these books, all by myself! I will, I really will!” The child wept as she held up the musty volume before her as if it were a shield.

“Okie dokie.” Lily shrugged indifferently, “Elder sister did mention that magic is best learnt the old-fashioned way. But if you ever feel the slightest need for any help or advice…” the witch smiled kindly while leafing through her stack of talismans.

“No! I mean, it’s only ten million tomes, right? That’s a piece of cake!” Naomi pleaded desperately as she plopped down on the nearest chair and began flipping fanatically through the tome.

“Exactly! Ten million will be a breeze.” Lily agreed. “Jeez, and I almost forgot about Xerxes. Dearest apprentice Naomi, you must remind me about the most important appointments. My schedule has gotten so hectic, ever since the day I left Andania, that there’s hardly any time for a proper nap.” The witch sighed as she held up two slender fingers before her, “Upgrade idiot Xerxes, then nap. Don’t forget, me! Upgrade that idiot first, before any naps.” She mumbled repeatedly to herself as she strode towards the exit.

As she pretended to be deeply engrossed by the tome before her, Naomi heaved a subtle sigh of relief as the witch retreated into the distance.

“Hurry up, Naomi. If you dally around there any longer, I’ll have to add you back into my list!”

The chair was freshly dampened with moisture as the apprentice scurried after the departing witch as if her life depended on it.