Summoned A Hundred Years Too Late

Willow came back empty-handed. She couldn’t take a book from the Silver floor down to the Bronze floor, and anyway, there wasn’t anything on the topic of enchantment without mana. However, she returned with an idea.

“You should ask for help. I can contact my ancestor on your behalf.”

Alexandra frowned. Truthfully, she and Kam hadn’t found a clue as to how to proceed. While she wasn’t too fond of indebting herself further to Goodpeak, the idea of losing her streak made her consider the possibility.

“Do you think he’d have a solution?” she asked.

Willow shrugged. “If anyone does, it’s him. But I can’t guarantee it. To be honest, I’m not sure enchanting without mana is even possible.”

Kam looked at them with his large, unblinking eyes. “Ask your teacher first.”

Alexandra narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t considered that. She’d been skipping classes since Louis’ demise, and had let Bird slip out of her mind. “That would be a start. I’m not sure how to find her, though.”

Willow and Kam looked at her.

“Did you attend any class at all?” Willow asked. “All our teachers have an office for students to reach out to them.”

“Ah?” Alexandra looked away. “Maybe I wasn’t listening.”

Kam didn’t react.

“You should talk to your classmates sometimes,” Willow said. “It’d be good for you.”

“I talk to them all the time!”

“When’s the last time you did?” Willow asked.

Alexandra frowned. She did talk to Zamar when she evolved her skill. Not more than a sentence or two, but it counted. Then…

“Can you even name one classmate per class?” Willow pressed.

Alexandra winced. “Just... show me the way to Bird’s office. Please.”

Willow rolled her eyes, but didn’t continue. They returned their books and left the library. The teachers’ offices were located in the academy half of the Iron Library, near the classrooms. There were several courtyards with walls filled with locked doors. They crossed two before stopping before Bird’s office.

Alexandra knocked. No answer.

“She’s not there,” Willow said.

Alexandra considered her options. She could ask Alfred Dumries for help and hope that it would lead to something. What about asking Raymond? She tilted her head. Was it really such a bad idea?

Between the two, she had just secured a working relationship with Alfred. But she was still far from actually trusting him. Indebting herself further was dangerous. On the other hand, she was already planning to sever ties with Raymond, so it didn’t matter as much.

She was loath to ask him for help after his involvement in Louis’ death. But her streak…

“It’s not easy,” Alexandra said.

“She probably has a class,” Willow said. “It’s still morning. Should we wait?”

“We don’t have time to waste. Willow, could you see if your ancestor would meet me?”

Willow nodded.

Alexandra turned to Kam. “Thank you for your help. I don’t want to take more of your time.”

“Okay.”

Thus Alexandra found herself alone. She summoned her journal.

The quest hadn’t progressed a bit. As expected. She hadn’t even tried to enchant anything. She dispelled it and walked to Raymond’s office. Giving up her streak was out of the question.

Nobody stopped her from crossing to the Keeper side of the Iron Library. She made her way through the corridors and soon reached Raymond’s door. It was closed. She knocked.

No answer.

“Don’t tell me he’s not there.”

“I’m afraid he’s not,” Raymond said, appearing behind her with a smile.

She flinched and turned to look at him.

“At the very least, he wasn’t there,” Raymond continued. “But he can always make time for you, his dear friend.”

With a flick of his wrist, he unlocked the door and pushed it open. Then, with an exaggerated gesture, he invited her in. “Please.”

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Alexandra didn’t say anything and entered the office.

Raymond walked in behind her and closed the door. “So, what do I owe the pleasure to? Once again, I’m very sorry for what happened to your friend. My reaction was inappropriate. The failings of living for too long, I suppose.”

“I’m not here for that,” Alexandra said, not looking at him. “Do you know a way to enchant without mana?”

Raymond raised an eyebrow. “Enchant without mana? A quest, I suppose.” He frowned. “Hmm. I see. Your mana is gone. The result of a potion, I assume. I believe curing your curses by yourself would have been more beneficial. But I’m not the one suffering from them. I understand why you did it.”

“Get to the point.”

“Well, it’s a complicated subject.” He sat at his desk. “Enchanting without mana is impossible on the basis that enchanting is the process of influencing the flow of ambient mana.”

“But?” Alexandra asked, standing before him.

“There’s no but,” Raymond said. “Enchanting without mana is impossible.”

Alexandra’s face fell.

Raymond smiled. “There are ways to produce similar results to enchantments without using mana. But those are technically not enchantments. Would that work for you?”

She frowned. “My quest specifically asks for an enchantment.”

“Then no.” He leaned back in his chair.

“Is there really no solution?” Alexandra asked.

“Enchanting without mana is impossible,” Raymond repeated. “So if your quest is to enchant without mana. I don’t have a solution for you. Though the mere notion that the system asks such a thing opens many paths in enchantment research, I think—”

Alexandra stepped forward and put a hand down on his desk. “My quest is not to enchant without mana. I just need to enchant something. Anything.”

“Ah. Then that changes everything. Enchantments are mana, but you don’t technically need to manipulate mana directly to make enchantments. It’s a lot easier to use mana threads to communicate your intent to the ambient mana, but as long as it does what you need it to do, it works.” He paused. “The way I see it, you have two options. Either you learn how to enchant without mana, or you find a way to recover your mana early. Both are possible.”

Alexandra sighed in relief. “What would you recommend?”

“Both. Ideally you’d want to do both. Learning to enchant without mana is good practice. Recovering your mana early, well, I don’t need to explain why you would want that.” Raymond ran a hand through his hair. “But I presume that you want me to tell you how to do that.”

She nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Fine,” Raymond said. “I’ll do it this time. Consider it a token of apology for my reaction to Louis’ fate and the way my subordinates have been found lacking in handling his safety. But let’s not make it a habit. I strongly believe that finding answers yourself will make you stronger in the long run.”

Alexandra tried not to show what she thought of his excuses. There was no benefit in confronting Raymond and his hypocrisy. Not now.

“Regarding getting your mana back, I’m surprised that the alchemist who gave you the potion didn’t mention how to restart your core,” he said. “While it will happen on its own, the method to accelerate your recovery isn’t that complicated. In fact, I believe you’re already familiar with the main component of the solution.”

He produced a flower from his spatial storage.

Alexandra recognized it immediately. “Aetherveil?”

“Indeed. The basis of many alchemical concoctions.”

She knew that Aetherveil was a good way to regenerate mana, though now that she knew more about the topic, she was confused as to how it worked. Absorbing mana from an external source wasn’t supposed to be possible. She conveyed her doubts to Raymond.

“It’s true, you can’t absorb ambient mana,” Raymond answered. “That’s why Aetherveils are so special. You could consider the flowers to be naturally enchanted. Their mana wants to merge with yours. So it does.”

“I don’t get it,” Alexandra said.

Raymond smiled. “A common feeling when it comes to magic. Maybe a few decades of study would enlighten the how and the why. I don’t believe this is quite relevant at the moment.” He set the flower on his desk. “Now, you could consume an Aetherveil concoction to recover some mana, but without your core producing more, it will be very limited. Not enough to cast an enchantment, I fear. However, it will serve as a viable emergency measure were you to need to cast a skill. When your core feels the mana and the skills being cast, it will be stimulated, and in time recover its ability to create mana.”

He produced three vials from his spatial storage. “There, that’s all I have. I don’t carry a lot of low-level potions on me.”

She took them. “Thank you.”

“Let’s move on to enchantments,” Raymond said. “If you want to succeed today…” He paused. “Hmm. You should reach level six today, I believe. All the more reason to take this seriously.”

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “You keep track of my progress?”

Raymond looked at her. “Let’s not beat around the bush. We both know I have Sera following you. You should thank me, as she saved your life and has been very helpful. Here, and in Esmera.”

“I just don’t like being spied on,” she said, biting her lips.

“As is natural,” Raymond answered. “But you have to understand your status. Some people would have you dead, or worse. Like I have agents all over Laika, our enemies have people inside the Iron Library. Demons, Lila, and other organisations would be very happy to see you defenseless.”

She wasn’t sure what to answer. She wanted to tell Raymond he was among the people vying for her, but what good would it do her?

“Enchantments,” she said.

“Right.” Raymond straightened up and pulled an item out of his spatial storage. “Do you know what that is?”

Alexandra looked at the item. It looked like… “A spoon?”

“Exactly, that’s a perfectly normal iron spoon. What are spoons used for?”

“Eating? Scooping things?”

Raymond nodded. “Eating. Yes. For example, eating soup. But what if the soup is too hot? Too cold? Wouldn’t it be convenient if the spoon could adjust the temperature as you brought it to your mouth?”

“I… guess?”

“And how would you do that?” Raymond asked.

Alexandra considered the question carefully. “Iron conducts heat, so we could implement a detection mechanism into the spoon and have the enchantment adjust heat accordingly.”

Raymond shook his head slowly. “Alex. You’re still thinking about enchantment like they’re an engineering problem. We’re not on Earth anymore. Enchantments are magic. All you need to do is make the spoon’s mana want to adjust the temperature of the soup. If the mana is strong enough, it will do so.” He paused. “Let’s simplify the issue. We want to use this spoon to cool down our soup. How can you make it happen without negotiating with mana?”

Alexandra shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.”

Raymond smiled. “Well, when negotiations are not possible, violence is always a solution.”

She blinked. “Putting aside that this is very debatable, what do you want me to do? Beat up the spoon until it complies?”

“Precisely.”