Examine the books

The numerous books come in all sizes and with all manner of bindings. One in particular catches the prince’s attention, and he pulls it from the shelf.

“Basic Spellbinding,” he reads the embossed title to himself. Intrigued, Duncan returns to his seat and leafs through the old parchment pages.

“This is fascinating,” he says, as he looks through the instructions for performing many wonderous feats. He knows it is forbidden for humans to practice magic — especially royal humans — but he begins to wonder at the wisdom of such a prohibition.

Looking at a spell entitled “Silver Sight,” Duncan realizes with a thrill that he holds the secret of invisibility in his hands. He turns the book sideways and sees a handwritten notation: “Used at the Battle of Scrimsaw to infiltrate enemy lines and gain advance knowledge of battle plans.”

“Curious,” thinks the prince. “So we have used magic before. I don’t know when this Battle of Scrimsaw was, but evidently one of my ancestors decided the use of magic was acceptable. And apparently with good results.”

As Duncan considered this, it occurred to him that he wished he had this book when he was 12. A little invisibility would have gone a long way toward addressing his curiosity about what took place behind the closed doors of the chambermaids’ dressing room.

Turning a page, he read about a different spell: “Corpus Multiplicitus.”

“Now this is really fascinating!” thought Duncan. “With this, I can basically make copies of myself, and those copies can go and do things, and when I reconnect with the copy, I will instantly gain all the memories and experience that duplicate obtained!”

Glancing thoughtfully at the textbook MacTavish assigned him, Duncan stroked his chin. “Why should I spend hours on this book, only to go on to get another? If there were two of me, the work would be done in half the time! Surely that’s a legitimate use for magic, isn’t it? It’s not for my benefit, after all — it’s for the good of the Kingdom. Far better for Mirantia that its prince be well educated while he’s still young.”

Duncan takes one more look around the Library and then makes up his mind.