“There are many strange folk in the world with many strange ideas.” Lysa put her hands together and leaned forwards on them. “Some of these folk will flock together and become larger groups. Some of those groups become so large that they gain notoriety until they become large enough to have a real impact on the world. One such group is an organization – a cult – called the Jasmine Order. They have banded together in their shared belief that their idol, Shifeth, is rightfully a deity and should be treated as such. They see the fact that the world does not treat Shifeth as a deity as an insult to their order.”
“And who exactly is this Shifeth then?” Cobal asked. “If they’re not one of the gods of this world, they have to be something else, right?”
“That’s complicated,” Lysa replied. “Shifeth was a powerful arcanist known to live a long time ago, centuries or even millenia back. They ruled over this entire continent long before any of the currently existing countries were founded. Eventually they died of a deadly disease.” Lysa had been staring at her desk and now looked up at the trio sitting across from her. “That would have been the end of the story, if not for the fact that a powerful mage managed to resurrect Shifeth several hundred years later.” The atmosphere in the room had gotten quite tense, alongside being a librarian it seemed that Lysa had a talent for telling a compelling story as well. What made it more intriguing was the fact that it was also seemingly a true story. “To this day, resurrection magic is considered to be impossible. It never happened before Shifeth and it never happened after Shifeth. Even the circumstances surrounding Shifeth’s resurrection are questionable at best. Regardless, it’s undeniable that a very powerful person that was thought to be dead turned out to suddenly be alive and this created a devout group of followers that believed this must mean they were no mortal. Mortals cannot be resurrected, so the only explanation for Shifeth being resurrected is that they’re one of the gods.” Lysa took a sip from her tea and let out a sigh. “That’s the broad story.”
“What happened to Shifeth after they were resurrected.” Mana asked.
“That is unsure. Most scholars seem to agree that they died in solitude, not being able to handle the toll of being resurrected into a world they once left behind all that well. Some of Shifeth’s followers believe that Shifeth is still alive somewhere on this continent, planning a glorious return.”
“And that is where this Jasmine order comes in?” Eliana asked.
Lysa nodded. “They’re what remains of a different group that tried to resurrect Shifeth a second time. That group was dealt with when they started to become a nuisance and those that went into hiding after that ended up forming what we now call the Jasmine order.”
“Why was the previous group dealt with?”
“A lot of their rituals were rather sinister and involved sacrificing innocent people to build a connection with the afterlife. It’s all unproven magic that we don’t really have to get into, but basically they ended up becoming a danger to the nearby villages which caused the army to step in and swiftly take care of them.
“I see,” Mana said. “So in summary, it’s a cult that wants to sacrifice innocent people to revive an old ruler that they believe to be a god. And how is this related to the magic circles we’ve encountered?”
Lysa stood up and picked up a book from one of the shelves. “That’s the worrying part. The type of magic that these cultists have been using is eerily similar to the magic you describe having found in your travels. It’s an old form of magic that was somewhat common in the age that Shifeth was once resurrected in, but it has since more or less disappeared.”
“And do you know why this magic mostly disappeared?”
“That was by design. The magic, although potent, was easy to strengthen by sacrificing something. You could sacrifice some blood, a limb, a live animal or even people. At the height of this problem, people had started figuring out how to sacrifice entire villages to amplify a magical effect tremendously. So every mage was forbidden from teaching the magic and those who disobeyed were executed.” A dark expression appeared on Lysa’s face. “It’s hard to fully rid the world of knowledge once it exists, but they did a very good job in turning it into a much more obscure type of magic until eventually it was mostly forgotten by the world. But nothing is ever truly forgotten.” She opened up the book that she picked up from the shelf and thumbed through it for a bit before handing it to Mana. As she was about to hand it over, Mana asked her. “How many people do you know of that have been summoned to this world?”
Lysa paused, holding the book in her hand still. “We try our best to keep records of every known instance of someone from another world, but it’s hard to know for sure. I know of at least seven. Two of those people died not long after coming to this world, so there isn’t much known about where they came from. One of the people summoned here didn’t seem capable of any language at all and was summarily executed for attacking a noble. Then there was Thomas, who lived in a village deep in the Feral Wildlands for several decades before dying of old age. We only know of him due to travelers bringing stories of him out of the wildlands. He was actually responsible for introducing coffee to our world. Besides that, it doesn’t seem that there was much to him, no offense meant to him of course.” She continued. “Finally there’s rumors of a man being summoned to Owlana’s temple only to then kill everyone there and flee the scene. This happened almost a thousand years ago, and out of all of those I think Thomas is the most recent one, happening four hundred years back.”
“That’s only five,” Eliana remarked.
“Well, the remaining two are Might and Mana.”
“You’re right, that makes sense.”
Lysa smiled at Mana. “You’re the first person from another world that I’ve personally met, and I’d love to spend as much time as we can talking about that.”
Mana nodded. “Once we’ve finished our urgent business I’ll make all the time in the world, although I’m sure we can find some moments to chat now and then.”
“I’m looking forward to it. But like you said, you’re here for a reason. What exactly do you want from us?”
Cobal answered the question for the group. “Well, we originally came to Rilodar to try and figure out where my brother had disappeared to. The official stance is that this kingdom is responsible for his kidnapping but upon investigating the magic circle that we found in his chambers we’re not convinced. What we think happened instead was that either my brother is working with someone and left of his own accord or he was kidnapped by someone incredibly powerful that managed to take him without even a scuffle. And if Mana’s understanding of this magic is anything to go by, it’s unfortunately more likely that my brother chose to leave.”
“And what caused you to come to this conclusion?” Lysa asked.
“Well,” Mana spoke up, taking her notes out of her bag, “I’ve tried to parse the magic circle as if it were a language. I was a language teacher in my old world, after all. I couldn’t quite get it to fit a structure with verbs and nouns and all that, but I could find a seemingly consistent structure in the circles.” She showed her notes to Lysa. “As you can see, this is the circle we encountered when those strange beasts attacked us. It has two layers and what I believe those to be are a core spell layer as well as a direction layer. The circle in Sapher’s room had a third layer which I think was written by a different person. This leads me to suspect that Sapher drew the inner two layers of this spell, using it to summon someone to his location. This person then drew the final circle, disappearing them both to another place.”
Lysa stared intently at the notes as she listened to Mana talk. “That sounds plausible at least. So you’re here to see if you can learn more about the magic circles?”
Mana nodded. “We want to learn more about the magic circles, we want to figure out a way to turn our paralyzed friend back to normal and finally we want to look into the manor north of town. We believe that some of these cultists are holed up in that place and we want to help out a friend who has been dealing with them.”
“Are you talking about Solin Manor?”Mana nodded.
“I see, I didn’t realize it might be in use by someone.” She stood up and walked to a small box that was sitting on a pedestal in the corner of the room. She produced a key from inside of her sleeve and opened it. From it she removed three pins, each with a ruby as well as the initials L.D. engraved into them. “These pins are proof that you’re my personal guests. This gives you access to the first three floors of this library as well as the first two floors of both other libraries. If you need materials from elsewhere, you’d have to get special permission from either myself or another of my station.” She smiled at them. “Consider it a gift.”
Cobal understood that this gift probably meant Mana was expected to share some knowledge with Lysa, but that was still a really good deal for them.
“As for where to start your search, I do have a few suggestions, actually. I recommend that you study the magic circles and the cult primarily in the Ruby Observatory, and you’re welcome to knock on my door and ask for my input. There’s a reason I had a book on the cult in my room. I’ve been tangentially interested in their existence for quite some time now. As for your friend who has been paralyzed, I recommend you ask for one of the scribes that specialize in herbalism and medicine. Go downstairs and ask at the front desk for either Melchir or Salandra. Either of them could probably help you out with that. And what was the third thing again?”
“Solar manor.”
“Right, Solar manor. History of the region is probably most easily found in the Topaz Slumber. These pins should give you entry there as well, so feel free to check out each library.”
“What about the third library?” Mana asked.
“Oh, you mean the Sapphire Respite? The Respite is where we keep art, musical collections and fictional stories.”
Mana’s eyes lit up. “Fiction?”
“Yes, made up stories. Some myths and legends that are considered true by some and made up by others are in there too, whereas the more believable myths are in the respite. The people who study myths have complained for years now that there has to be a better system, but you know how slow these things change.”
Cobal chuckled when he saw Mana’s pleading eyes. “I’m sure you can find some time to look through those books while we’re here.”
Opal Kaharis 