D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Lily —

“So what’s your plan for the rest of the day?” asked Kat. “Unless you want to do something together I’m probably going to keep practicing. I think I’ll head out into the ocean a bit and see what happens if I just let my demonic energy free a bit. See how much stuff I can freeze,”

“Um… hmm… well I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do but if you want to go and practice that I guess I can spend my time going around and asking people what they think is the better prize. I’ll probably start with Nixilei and Asteodia and then just see who I run into around the place.

I don’t know that I’d ask everyone I see, but I’ve got a few people I’ll definitely be looking for,” answered Lily.

“Oh? Who are those?” asked Kat.

“Well, the top of the list and also the person I’m not sure is worth asking is Marigold. Her experience with the royal library should be very useful… but she also might use the chance to tease me for hours on end. I can see her just… tagging along for the rest of the day if I find her too early.

“Next, I think Nixilei? Asteodia will probably be with her, but I trust Nixilei to know what sort of knowledge is valuable because of her job… and I trust her to tell me the truth of the matter, or well, at least as much as she can anyway. If Asteodia is around I’ll ask her too but it’s not a major concern.

“After that, Blue is the last person I really, really, want to find. I have a few others in mind like Vanya, or Willow but if I don’t find them I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Though I’m not sure how much time I should spend searching for the right answer… the earlier I get those books the sooner I can get started on my own practice…” explained Lily.

“Sounds like you’ve got a plan. If you need any help with it, let me know and I’ll be happy to help… but this doesn’t really seem like something I can assist with too much,” added Kat.

Lily nodded and the pair made their way to the door. When it opened to reveal Marigold grinning at them both Lily felt like the universe was playing a joke on her. “Ok HOW did you get here? Sure I was talking about finding you, but I’m pretty sure these rooms are soundproof,” asked Lily.

“Ah, they ARE soundproof but I was bored after chatting with Thyme and they told me to wait here for a minute and something funny would happen… and man is the look on your face amusing. So… what sort of things were you saying about me? Were you discussing the potential for a threesome? Because if so I’m completely down,” said Marigold.

Lily slapped a hand into her face while Kat just laughed. Laughed! “How can you laugh at my misery!” hissed Lily.

“Uh… because it’s funny?” offered Kat. “Sorry but Sue has made me immune to this sort of teasing. I guess it’s your turn to get inoculated… or something,”

With that Kat just waved and walked away. Lily was tempted to pounce on her and drag her back… but that would just be Kat humouring her. So with a sigh she turned back to Marigold who just raised an eyebrow at Lily. “Fine whatever. Here’s the situation.

I wanted Shadow Magic books from Thyme but because people don’t know the difference between Shadow magic and Darkness magic the spell books aren’t that useful. So Thyme gave me two options.

“I can either take a stack of ‘shadow magic’ books that contain a mix of useful and not useful magic and likely a lot of overlap between them… or I can get a collated set of notes from Thyme that JUST have Shadow Magic in them… but only the basic details and not all that many spells.

“I’m struggling to work out which one is better for me. Sure Thyme says they’ll just be the basic notes… but it’s Thyme we’re talking about so they’ll probably go as over the top as they can get away with… but the same for the books. I bet that I’ll end up with the best shadow magic books available and even if they aren’t perfect they’ll likely still be quite good.

“I just don’t know what I’d get more out of. I’m a researcher at heart so the books call to me… but Thyme is just THAT good that honestly? I might get even more out of pouring of Thyme’s notes a few times. So… yeah I’m going around asking people what they think would be better…”

Lily paused to take a breath, and sigh of course. “I wanted your opinion because you probably know better than me what’s in shadow magic books considering you’re royalty… but the worry was that if I ran into you first you’d follow me around all day and make a nuisance of yourself while I ask other people’s opinions,”

“That’s a great idea!” said Marigold with a smile. “Yup, that definitely sounds like an interesting time so you can count me in as your sidekick!”

Lily let out a sigh but decided not to argue, “Right well… let’s go find the others. While we’re walking you can tell me what you think about my options?”

“I’ll need you to repeat exactly what Thyme said, then I’ll give you my thoughts,” answered Marigold.

Lily shrugged and poked Kat for the memory and then repeated Thyme word for word. Before Lily had finished they were already at the lounge and Lily could see Asteodia and Nixilei inside. She was tempted to go over and ask them… but they’d probably be around for lunch and Marigold hadn’t even made her point yet so Lily kept walking, straight out the front door.

With her ears she could easily track people around the island and find them if they were making noise… but she was in no rush just yet. “So what do you think?”

“I think Thyme’s giving you two choices based on how much effort you want to put in. There’s no way Thyme would’ve gone through all the effort to get you a compromise without doing enough research to pick the best books. Heck, I’d be willing to bet most of those notes are written up as well.

“Now, I don’t know that much about Shadow magic. It’s not something that was touched on in my education so I can’t comment too much there but yeah, I think you’re better off going with the books. Just knowing what I know about Thyme? I bet you’d find all the spells in half the number of books.

“The big challenge will of course be finding those spells AND the extra spells, but that’s how I see it. A challenge. Thyme’s notes will give you the basics and nothing more. Solid basics sure. Perhaps some of the strongest foundations for Shadow magic… but nothing more than that. So yeah, I’d go for the books.

Of course, if we’re talking about monetary value you could probably sell the notes, or even a copy of them, for much more… but I doubt you care about that part?” suggested Marigold.

“No not at all. I don’t plan to sell whatever I get. I mean… maybe copies? I’m not sure how frequently people sell that sort of information… or if it would be a good idea to do so…” said Lily.

“Ah… well it really depends. For as many fancy ways people have come up with to avoid people using magic to copy their work… everyone is quite aware that a scribe can just make a new copy of the information and then copy THAT as much as they want. Even still… a lot of people don’t want to share. Knowledge is power after all.

“There’s nothing illegal about selling spellbooks… but what you find is that people who want to share their spells and experiences take on apprentices, and people who want money just copy the spells they know… from other spellbooks and repackage it. So most of the spells you can get with money are the same few spells with minimal variation. Sure sometimes someone will offer a proper new spellbook…

“But it will either come at a massive price that only someone like my family can afford… or if it’s reasonably priced, a few merchant families will buy up all the copies, then hack it up into chunks and resell their own versions. We’ve got laws against the second issue… but frankly it’s just about impossible to get evidence for a conviction.

Merchants that only do it once or twice don’t get accused, and those that do it on the regular know how to cover their tracks well enough,”

“So… don’t sell the info is what you’re saying?” asked Lily.

“Maybe? Look it’s complicated. You’ve got paper magic so maybe you could do something about it… but yeah I don’t really know what to suggest,”