Prying up the floorboard excitement rose as Lleu removed the book and the handful of replica totems Lania had supplied him with earlier that day. Spreading them out before him he finally had a good chance to look at what they were. The book seemed plain enough although the frayed edges and damaged spine spoke of a lengthy history of use. Far more interesting were the replicas of which there were four in total, each entirely different from the rest. The collection included a bead of glass, a feather that seemed to be entirely made of metal, a well polished blue pebble, and a dull black rock carved with spirals.

Wondering what exactly he was supposed to do with them Lleu picked up the book hoping it contained the needed instructions and began to read.

Pages flew by as Lleu increasingly became more certain that the book contained nothing much of use, simply covering everything any normal person living in the city would consider common knowledge. An extensive introduction spoke of the importance of totems to those wielding magic. Totems were a required tool needed to be able to wield magic as far north as they, magic used without them became suppressed in power the closer one got to the mountains. Also, as they were the cities only real export that pulled high demand as the nations far to the south used the artifacts to power the magical devices they built, the cities economy was dependent on their procurement. Magical devices such as the ones produced in the south also existed in the city, one example was the massive array of air totems that formed the net keeping the mist outside the walls.

Because of all these things the city sent out yearly expeditions in which they fought through the monstrous denizens lurking in the mountains. Without the Totems the city would die so every attempt was made to try and procure as many, especially powerful ones, as possible.

Later on, the book finally began having some information of value as it began giving some details on totem classification. There were three different classes of totems excluding the replicas, each containing a large range of tiers that determined available power along with affinity requirement. They were known as totems, master totems, and origin totems. The first of these class contained all the tiers of the standard magic boosting totem which allowed users to wield their magic. The second, in use, were mainly just more powerful versions of the first although they were often the symbols of a society as it was possible to make copies of them that functioned as normal totems. Doing those same processes to normal totems would result in the imperfect replicas which each only lasted a few days before losing power and becoming useless. This sort of creation was apparently fairly easy to produce and therefore considered cheap and so was what new recruits in the societies were often given to practice with. Origin totems, being the rarest of the bunch, were not necessarily the most powerful but had unique abilities which could not be reproduced otherwise. Also, creating replicas of them had been attempted countless times throughout the years but had never seen success.

Next, the book began listing the different societies along with important members therein. Instantly the book declared itself ancient and outdated as half of the societies listed no longer existed and the other half had names written below them that were all known to have died or retired years ago. Passing over that the section Lleu was disappointed when he reached the last page. The book had not contained any information of how to actually use the artifacts or replicas, possibly it was so obvious the author had not thought it worth adding in?

Carefully putting the book down Lleu reached for the closest of the replicas, the bead of glass. Looking at it closely Lleu concluded it looked... entirely like an ordinary glass bead, there were no special features, nothing that screamed of it being magical. For just a moment Lleu could have sworn there was a slight glow coming from the center of the bead but then the entire thing began falling apart and turning to dust.

Unsure if that was what Lania had meant with "make them do something" Lleu watched the small pile of dust hoping it something else would happen. Nothing did so Lleu could do nothing but shrug and move on to the replica. As his second trial, he chose the polished blue pebble as he really liked the look of it. Picking it up Lleu was met with a surprise; instead of feeling the perfect smoothness he was expecting the stone had the texture of oily slime. The pebble, just like the bead, fell apart and turned to dust leaving Lleu to stare at his hand which although looking perfectly clean felt as if it had been trawled through the filthiest alleyway in all of the lower district. Just what exactly the purpose of making something like that was, possibly a prank, he could not say. Whatever it was Lleu began to doubt that the replicas were meant to break mere moments after contact as they would make very poor practice tools if that was the case. Again he could do nothing but move on to the next replica.

A coin flip determined that the metallic feather would be the next probably victim so Lleu picked it up and waited for the self-destruction. The feather did not disappoint him as after a brief bit of quivering it popped, exploding into a cloud of dust.

'At least it broke a little differently than the others' thought Lleu feeling a little bit cursed. He thought he might have a special talent for breaking things he touched, what had happened to that testing device definitely supported that idea and would explain why the boomer had looked as excited as she had, they were known to appreciate explosions. After briefly deciding whether or not to try out the final replica totem Lleu decided he might as well finish the bunch and very slowly reached out and poked the black rock.

Instantly a fountain of roiling black smoke gushed from the stone and quickly filled up the entire room. Immersed in the cloud Lleu could not see anything and was left fumbling in the darkness. A few moments later the cloud began dispersing and it vanished entirely only a few seconds later. On the ground where the totem had just been lay the expected dust pile.

All in all, Lleu was fairly satisfied as with the final replica there had been a proper display of magic. What purpose the others had he probably would never know unless he asked Lani but at least he knew one. Making sure to remember exactly what had happened so he could give an accurate recount Lleu finally collapsed on his bed and fell asleep.