Of Dust and Parchment [Closed]

Cassima would hear Theo chuckle as she cast a fire spell at the ghostly woman. This time, her clothes would catch fire, burning up her figure like a piece of paper. As she scrambled towards Cassima, she began to fall bit by bit until she was fully ashes.

The remains would show a glowing stone in the middle of a pile of black soot.

Cassima would hear someone land behind her. It was Theo again after he had presumably jumped down from the bookshelf. He grinned at her playfully.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" he teased.

Cassima closed her eyes as she expected the woman to reach her and attack her if the fire spell failed...Only, she didn't. Because Cassima had managed to successfully kill the woman with her spell, much to her relief. She slightly jumped when Theo landed from behind her and turned towards him in anger.

"I say, you could have gotten me killed." Cassima scolded Theo for summoning the woman.

"You should of warned me about you summoning a deranged woman to try and kill me. I would of been prepared, or at the very least, give me an expected challenge that won't put my life on the line." Cassima thought she was getting along with Theo too and eyed him suspiciously, waiting to see if he will pull a similar trick on her again in the future.

Theo couldn't help but continue to smile, even as Cassima scolded him.

"You know, you're pretty cute when you're mad," he remarked before raising his arms in defeat. "And alright, I'm sorry. I could have handled that better. But dropping people into unexpected situations is just so much more, hmm, fun!"

Using a mark, he pulled the stone from the ash.

"That wasn't so much of a summoning as it was an illusion," he said. "'Puppeteer' magic, as I like to call it. Since even if it's an illusion, I have to utilize physical material to give it some semblance of structure. It's less costly for illusions and trick people into thinking it's physical. The reason fire worked was because I was using wood. Anyways, I just wanted a gauge of your combat skills since you never know when you have to deal with the lower levels of the library. I take it you've heard about the threats they have?"

Cassima slightly blushed at Theo's comment but hid it as she put away her dagger and watched as Theo explained that the woman was an illusion and how fun it was to put people in unexpected situations.

"So, that woman couldn't have hurt me either way huh?" Cassima guessed as she played with her hair.

"Lower parts of the library. I mean yeah. I sort of know." She crossed her arms.

"Well, if you know, then there's no harm in me showing you, right?" Theo said playfully as he placed his hands behind his back. "Follow me."

Theo began to walk but paused.

"I forgot it's dark here," he said. He then turned to Cassima. "If you're a librarian, it's important you know Cartic marks for illumination. Since your source is limited and you can't concentrate on multiple marks yet at a time, I'll teach you this one."

Holding his blue turquoise stone, he cast a mark of illumination with several strokes.

"This one is a combination of two marks and together makes 'starlight'," he said.

As he wrote the mark, a bright blue light appeared in his palm, almost like a miniature blue star floating atop his palm. He'd give it a small push before it hovered to the ceiling, giving the room a faint glow.

"You try it," he said.

Cassima soon began to follow Theo in silence and stopped when he decided that he was going to teach Cassima a cartic mark to make the room glow...Even if it is faintly. Well Cassima does have to start with the weaker marks if she wants to get the stronger ones and watched in silence as Theo taught her how to do the starlight mark.

She then tried to do the same by writing the mark and waited for a faint glow to appear on her palm. "Come blue star, appear for me." Cassima thought as she waited for any glowing shapes to appear from her palm.

Cassima would successfully create her own little blue light, to which Theo gave a soft applaud.

"Well done, Miss Addington," he said. He'd slowly push the blue light above them, making the room even brighter. "You have a lot of marks to learn, but with me as your co-assistant librarian, you'll be drilled through the basics in no time! Now, let's go deeper down."

Theo would lead Cassima to another door, one which had a red pattern on it, indicating it needed a red stone mark.

"I know Yoshi said you're to stick to the green levels, but...where's the fun in that, right?"

Theo would raise up his bracelet, once again causing his red stone to glow. The large door would click before creaking open. Ahead was a spiraling staircase headed down below in darkness.

Theo offered his hand to Cassima.

"Shall we?"

"Why thank you, I am getting quite skilled with the cartic arts." Cassima boasted as she proceeded to follow Theo further down to the library, where they were met with a spiralling staircase leading into darkness, which Cassima was weary about.

"Are you sure were even allowed to go further in the library?" Cassima asked as she ignored Theo's hand and followed him down the staircase anyway.

Who knows what might happen, but hopefully nothing that will get the both of them killed.

"Well, I'm allowed," Theo said. "So since you're with me, you'll probably be fine, right?"

Theo showed a little disappointment that Cassima didn't take his hand, but he shrugged it off. Theo would create another glyph for lighting and hover it over his head which followed them as they went downstairs. The way downstairs wound and wound, and their steps would echo in the hallow pathway. A few steps down, there would be a second door with a red stone mark. The tiniest slit of gold light spilled from the cracks of the door underneath.

When Theo opened it, Cassima would find herself in another place filled with books albeit in circular bookshelves that acted like pillars. Tables and desks existed as well but there seemed to be no people around.

"This is where we keep some of our more private records," he said. "Usually the people who come down here are either strict professionals authorized to learn or, in many cases, Expiate officers. Can you take a gander as to what is usually down here?"

Cassima smirked when she saw how disappointed Theo was in when she didn't grab his hand. Maybe she should do this more often as she followed him down the stairs, eventually reaching to the bottom of the stairs as she looked around in the library that she was now in. "Wow." Cassima was amazed as she walked forward in the library.

"Hmm, let me see." Cassima looked around before looking back at Theo.

"Probably some top private things like the truth about certain kinds of creatures that wander around the regions, or secrets regarding well known political figures...Like Princess Eala?" Cassima tried to guess what was stored down at this part of the library.