A Proper Grimoire

“Huh!? What…What do you mean help him? Help him how!?” A different kind of fear overtook me. It was almost as if I had regained a stomach and that stomach had a stone the size of a milk bottle in it. The boy was very short. His clothes, though they looked very fine, were tattered and torn. It was as if he'd been crawling through bushes for hours. I didn't know much about this world, but I could hazard a guess that children that wore those kinds of clothes didn't make adventures in the woods part of their daily playtime.

“Grandpa? Who is this?”

“Ferdinand! Ferdinand! Can you hear me!?” Grandpa was using the wind tendrils in an attempt to wake him, but even with some force, he barely moved an inch. Rolling him over we could see that, coupled with the scratches and the torn clothes, a purple ooze slowly made its way out of some of the wounds. I could feel the library rumble and shake. Grandpa couldn’t help him from inside his walls. He was cursing his very existence.

“It’s poison, isn’t it? Tell me what to do! I can help!”

“No, ya can’t! Ya stupid- Sorry kid, but that’s Umbra poisoning, he's stuck there now! You can’t…Oh Ferdi, I can’t believe you did this again. I told you! I told you if you kept pushing it you’d…Gods danm it! Seven hells take Meyer and all his descendents?

I wanted to help, but I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was obvious this boy was important. Maybe if I could figure out how, I'd be able to help him. Grandpa said that magic was part visualisation, after all. Could it be as simple as just visualising helping him? It was something that was something, at least.

I sat with him, using my flame to patiently stroke his cold, sweaty hand. Seeing the poison was awful. If I had a body, I would definitely be sick. Now that I could see him up close, I spotted a little golden pin attached to his coat. An elegantly crafted bird sat perched on a twig. Underneath it, and connected to the branch, was the letter M.

M? Meyer? Okay, now I'm getting somewhere.

“Umbra? Shadow? What the heck is Shadow poisoning? Like a ghost or something?” Grandpa paid me no mind. I suppose that was my own fault for asking such a stupid question at such an urgent time. I watched as one of the wind tendrils stretched across most of the length of the library, pulled out a book from the back shelves, and threw it at me. I instinctively closed my eyes again and moved out of the way. When I opened them after a few seconds, the book was at my feet. It was old, black, with a worn golden trim and a few cobwebs hanging out the side. The title of the book, also in gold, read:

Umbra - Notes, Westerburg, T - 1150 -1154. Trust the library to give me exactly what I needed when I needed it. It seemed spell books weren't the only form of magic in the world.

I didn't know what I was looking at, but I definitely wasn't stupid enough not to pick up on what the library was trying to tell me. I opened the book and began to read carefully.

Umbra, the Umbra. Let magic beware.

With magic, you open. The veil you tear.

The foolish, the greedy, selfish and unwise.

Force open the curtain and face your demise.

I…There are lots of detailed notes here, my love. Most of them are far beyond Maxi’s understanding. I tried to master it, complete teleportation. We could've gone anywhere, never mind your illness… Never mind… Oh God, what have I done? You're not going to be able to come after me, but I know Maxi will. He's still young. I want you to teach him that rhyme. Promise me you will… Teach it to him and make sure he doesn't try to come after me. If he does, he will lose his life, just as I will.

Stay out of the shadows.

Try to be strong, my love.

Kisses,

Theodore.

So the Umbra is somewhere where you can go, but most people don't want to? Working on my logic from before, I closed my eyes and tried to visualise a world of shadows. Dark, cold, unnerving.

Frightening. Without grandpa's protection, I thought the darkness was going to rip me apart from the inside. Was this Aure’s version of hell?

The visualisation came easy. Not only could I picture it, I could feel it. The enveloping darkness wrapping itself around me, the tall structures in the distance, the static nothingness of my footsteps.

Wait…

Structures? Footsteps? A wave of confusion came over me so strongly that I could feel the words on my pages move and jumble around. It created a scratching sensation. I hope they couldn't bleed because the pages were going to be a mess if they could. I felt every dig, a raw sensation that told me to focus hard.

But it didn't hurt.

“I’ve…Seen this place before.” I whispered. I wasn't sure why, though. Grandpa could hear everything.

“Whatcha blabberin’ about, child!” I expected a telling off, but his demeanour changed when he noticed the book sat next to me. “Where did you get that!? Did you read it!? Did you!?” his voice was neither the delicately soothing accent from my time in the void, no was it the eighteen hundreds jovial American prospector that I had been training with. This voice sounded like the stone itself. Hard, brutal and uncompromising.

I was terrified, but I wasn't going to resort to blabbering and crying like I did before. That me was gone now. There was a little boy fighting for life. I didn't care what I was like before, what I wanted to be like in the future, or what my goals were. None of that would matter if I let this child die.

“I know how to help Ferdinand! That thing you were trying to protect me from when we first met, the other world in the distance. That was the Umbra, wasn’t it? If he is trapped there, and I know what, if not where it might be, I might be able to help him!”

“No!” The booming voice continued. “You are not strong enough yet. You must undergo further training. I command it.”

“You command it? A child will die! Someone you apparently love. I know you're angry at me for reading the book, but you gave it to me! I thought you were trying to help me!”

“Such books are forbidden. I would not have given this to you. A law of the library has been broken, therefore Xilber is gone.”

“Gone? What did you do with grandpa!?”

“I did nothing. Xilber is too kind. He created me to deal with infractions that threaten the integrity of the library. You have gained access to a forbidden book, for which you must be punished.

“But I didn't know it was forbidden! You can see what grandpa sees. You know I've only just got here!”

“Circumstances are irrelevant. For the great library at Xilber, the world's foremost compendium of knowledge, to stand, all rules related to its protection must be sacrosanct. For what it's worth, your grandfather tells me he is sorry.”

“That isn’t worth shit!” The words came out of me as the library rumbled. I need to apologise to myself for not controlling my emotions later, but right now came trying to survive. I moved swiftly around the room, just off the floor, as spikes began to eject from the walls and fly towards me. I saw why grandpa was so insistent on me being a proactive participant in the training. I wouldn't be complaining again, that was for sure.

Oh shit.

What about Ferdinand? Is he all right?

Thankfully, the spikes were hovering just above him while trying to get to me. Some of them that dropped though were catching him and piercing his skin.

I couldn't pick him up, but I couldn't just leave him there. I had to think…

Think.

Think!

What do I know? I know this world is very magical. I know that a place called the Umbra exists, and it's not a very desirable place to be. I know that Ferdinand is trapped there, so he must've got there somehow, but doesn't have a grimoire. Or at least not one that I can see.

Grandpa told him he was upset with him for overdoing it. Did he mean magic? Does Ferdinand want to become a wizard? Has he been practicing spells without the right tools.

Hold on, tools!

Grandpa said that the library was special and that most magic is derrived from a book’s user. If Ferdinand can use magic, that means I can know the spells he could use, and if he could use them, I could use them too!

I know grandpa said he wanted to wait for me to go out into the world. I assume that was because he wanted to find the right user for me. I didn't mean to second-guess him, but necessity dictated that I had found the right user in Ferdinand. I hoped he felt the same when he was better.

I unfurled his fingers and placed myself into his hand. The familiar sensation of being scribbled in rattled me internally. It went on for longer this time, and just like last time, when I was done, I opened myself up again.

Teleport - (Inherited) Instantly transport yourself to a location you are familiar with, anywhere on the same plane of existence. The accuracy of your arrival depends on your knowledge of the destination. Limited by mana consumption. Spatial Movement Spell.

Soothe - (Inherited) - instantly puts the target into a calm state of mind. Heals small wounds including cuts, bruises and rashes. Cannot heal internal injuries. Divine Healing Spell.

I did it! I had my three spells. More importantly, I was connected to Ferdinand’s mana flow. The good news was it didn't seem disrupted in any way. The bad news was it didn't seem fully connected to this world, either. I was pretty sure that he was in the Umbra.

“Stop what you are doing!” Not grandpa yelled. Strangely, he had stopped attacking, and he looked furious about it. I laughed loudly.

“Get lost! I may have listened to people like you in my previous life, but I know what I am now. I am Ferdinand’s grimoire, and I don't take orders from you! I came into this world to help people and Gods be damned that's what I'm going to do! Tell grandpa thanks! You've got an anger problem by the way, you might want to get that looked at. Negative emotions are bad for your health.”

I focused on Ferdinand’s mana and and tried to create the clearest imagined picture of the Umbra that I could. I thought about activating the teleport spell and the ink glowed a bright silver blue.

As I disappeared from the great library of Xilber. A freezing wave hit me like a punch to the gut.