29: Graysky x Rat

Rat scampered along the corridors, eager to discover more of the wizard's place. He ended up on the threshold of the library of his wildest dreams.

"Ah, mus." A young man in wizard robes calmly stepped toward Rat and knelt down to pat his head with a finger.

The little vermin felt a force keeping him rooted, as he stared up to lock eyes with a man who carried a benevolent aura and looked like a holy man of bald head, and one gold ring earring on his right earlobe.

"Oh." Rat felt lingxi pour into him to replenish his stamina and clear his mind.

"Interesting. You're vermin but not vermin." The wizard rose and nodded, gesturing toward the bookshelves.

"I'm allowed to go inside?" Rat timidly asked.

"Yes, but you need to pass a test first."

Rat let out a squeak filled with fright. "Good wizard, I'm just a vermin."

The wizard laughed. "I'm Graysky, Just a Vermin."

Ray let out another round of squeaks when the wizard scooped him up in one hand and was carried to a pedestal of polished bone material which glowed with starlight. It was before a bookshelf row.

The vermin glanced around, unsure what kind of test he would have to undergo. He let out an eep noise when a warm pressure was applied to his body, but rather cracking his bones, it was flowing through him. As if it was analyzing his anatomy. Rat tensed when he felt the pressure push at his heart.

"Interesting. Vermin generally don't have great intelligence, let alone a spirit of great formation."

The term Spirit of Great Formation sounded oddly familiar to Rat, but he couldn't say why. Either way, it seemed Graysky was merely testing if he was a possessed being, which would be unlikely since mus carried little potential to be soul carriers.

"You are indeed a unique species." Graysky walked to a nearby table and chair where they could talk.

"I've been meaning to ask, but why do the others call you Rat?" He sat down.

Rat hopped onto the table to stare at Graysky face to face. "It's just a name I decided upon on whim, since I wasn't like other mus."

Graysky nodded. "It's true that the ratiss race of your species carry higher intelligence. But yours is far above even men."

Rat nodded, feeling this statement was a compliment. "Indeed, it's why I was able to survive."

"It must be rough being so small yet capable of commanding creatures fifty times taller than you."

A fleeting memory flashed through Rat's mind, which didn't make sense. He saw human and alfaren faces suffering under magical fire, which became muddle and then completely blank.

"Is it possible that you're more than a mus?" Graysky tempted Rat with the question.

Rat shook his head so his mind was clear of odd thoughts. Yet, Graysky wasn't asking a question he didn't ask himself. It was true that gray mice weren't known for high intelligence. Their ratiss cousins did carry higher levels to rival a child, but nothing that could allow sophisticated communications with high carbon based creatures.

"I don't know." Rat's heart began to slow to uneven beats; the library's warmth was turning cold. "I've always wondered, but never really thought to be sure."

"Why?"

Rat answered, which resumed his steady heartbeats. "Because I had others accept me for who I am."

Graysky nodded. His mind lapsed into a nostalgic mood. "We wizards live for millennia, reincarnating into our own bodies that we refine for the next lifecycle."

Rat frowned. "What happens if your body is destroyed within a lifetime?"

Graysky smiled. Rat detected a hint of sadness and wondered if there had been more wizards to roam these halls at one time.

"We used to be one hundred strong. Since the Hu's invasion, our sakratu has been reduced to eight."

Rat's heart raced with uneasiness again, his body temperature dropping. "What happened during the Hu invasion to have caused such devastation?"

"We were severed from our libraries in the South, East and West." Graysky sighed with sadness. "A wizard is as powerful as the knowledge they wield. We saved what we could to bring them here, but our scholar brothers were reduced to mindless husks or somehow destroyed or..."

Mindless husks? Rat gasped, horrified. Were the Hu of those times so evil they carried a power to match the wizards?

"But the Hu of this time carry the same magic and blood code abilities like everyone else?"

Graysky nodded. "That's because of the sacrifice our Southern brothers made to temper their blood codes with taboo magic."

Taboo magic? Rat's mind began to hurt with excruciating pain as he felt many pin-like sensations stab into his brain.

Graysky shook his head and placed a glowing hand over Rat's head to soothe his pain. "Forget it. I shouldn't be talking about such dark times."

Rat panted for breath as he felt his body recovering, but his mind was churning with strange thoughts and visions of another time. Every time he tried to lock on to a feature or face, they were a blur and vanished from sight.

"Some of my memories are sealed?"

"Does that bother you?"

Rat frowned, his heart slowing.

"Let me ask in another way. Does it make a difference to who and what you are this sunturn?"

What I am... sunturn? Rat's mind raced backward to the moment he met Annoying Imp then fast forward to his time with his new friends: meeting the kijen sisters, a serious-face human knight and a weird alfaren bard who just stubbornly refused to let others suffer with her. Not one of them ever thought he should've been more or less than he was. They saw him as Rat, the intelligent mus who they could rely on.

Rat smiled, feeling his heart beat increase into a steady rhythm and his body feel warm. "No."

Graysky nodded. "Then I'll ask you to take the Trial of Understanding. However, there is something from this library you need to find on your own and take with you."

Graysky's eyes glowed with silver power as he bestowed a spatial gem upon Rat's forehead. It became a painted mark of a dark gray diamond, to resemble a scar.

Somehow Rat knew what this was. "Is this a spatial dimension like the bard's pocket?"

The wizard nodded. "You'll be able to store things you come in physical contact with. Just touch and think about it going into your spatial diamond."

Rat nodded with clear understanding. "Got it. So I just need to find something that's for me here?"

Graysky gestured to the library.

Ray took a flying leap for the nearby shelf and ran to capture all the knowledge treasures he could soak up. As he was going about, absorbing information, Graystein appeared next to Graysky.

"Haven't you told him too much?" Graystein shook his head.

"They are going to need to have some awareness of that time, only this Rat can give this."

"That is true. The Alchemist has evolved to rival our power, and is now about to enter another lifecycle."

"That is why she needs all the help she can get."

"Very well. The library isn't complaining about this little pest, so let him have his way." Graystein vanished from view.

Rat eventually returned to Graysky and showed him a green book he found. It wasn't a grimoire or anything else magical. Yet, it held specific knowledge of a subject long dormant within the world.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I felt pulled to this book. I'm taking it."

"Very well, follow me."

Rat stored the book in his spatial diamond and followed Graysky to the square hall. Like the others he faced his four trials and gained power from each. But his most impressive one was the ability to use any mirror as a mental attack, by warping reflections of those who stared into it.

"This mirror blood code causes the target to see their fears amplified. But it also has an indication of evolution." Rat told Graysky when he returned to the hall.

"And what is the name for this blood code?

"This is the strangest thing, it's a divine blood code, but casting only mental attacks doesn't make sense unless the code can evolve into something else."

"Divine code?" Graysky let out a hearty laugh. "Oh, Rat, you do be a fascinating creature." He knelt down to tenderly pat Rat's head. "I'm sure you'll be able to master this power to its full potential."

"Okay." Rat's eyes swelled with awe.

As he followed the wizard out of the hall, he thought he saw the man shed a tear. But it was gone before he could be sure.