BookWyrm Secrets

“So, uh, you managed to train all twelve of those little guys overnight?” John asked as the two climbed the steep staircase up to the stables.

Ellie shook her head, causing a light glow from the back of her neck. “Not exactly, but like I said, let’s save explanations until we’re all together, cos I’ll only end up having to repeat everything. Aaaaanyway, what’s up with these super easy quest things? I didn’t even get a reward for doing mine, not that I was expecting much with how easy it was, but I dunno, I kinda thought I might at least get a ‘you did it’ screen or something”

“Yeah, I’m not sure… I expected it to be harder to find or reach you, I was thinking that there’d be some obstacle or something that made it harder to complete the quest. We should maybe be on guard for finding Robin? Maybe the easy part was me finding you, and to get to Robin it’ll be harder?” John speculated.

“Maybe?” Ellie said as the two reached the top of the staircase and began walking through the stable. John’s feet audibly slapped against the stone floor causing Ellie to halt and look down. “Uh, what happened to your shoes?”

John let out an annoyed grunt and the two continued walking. “Well, when I spawned in someone decided to put me directly in the centre of a water fountain thing, so my shoes and socks were soaked through. I took them off and obviously haven’t had time to dry them yet.”

Ellie nodded. “Uh huh, didn’t you tell me you have a backpack in your inventory with spare clothes?”

John stopped and his palm collided with his forehead. “Yep, god damn. It’s hard to keep track of everything when it’s not physically there, I know I can just look at my inventory but I’ve had these powers for a week now and still haven’t gotten used to it.”

The two reached the shallow pool of the Silverwood and John decided to walk around it this time, opening his inventory and pulling out the shoes and socks which were soaked, only to find they were dry. Letting out a sigh he stored and equipped the now-dry shoes.

“I forgot about that too, magic clothes…” John muttered as the two walked around the giant Silverwood stump.

“So, there’s a Silverwood here? That because we’ve been around one a few times or something? Or aren’t they as rare as they seem? What’s the red one?” Ellie asked, nodding in the direction of the other tree.

“Not sure yet, I was going to Observe it, but…” John paused for a moment. “Well, with the scenery and stuff, I kinda got distracted and then remembered that you and Robin should be with me, so instead of finding out more info on the tree, I went looking for you.”

Ellie smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Easily distracted, forgetful and lacking common sense… Are you sure that intelligence score is high?” Ellie let out a giggle.

John gave her a look. “High intelligence doesn’t mean I’m able to do everything. Heck, it doesn’t even mean I’m any smarter than I was before I got powers. Also, I’m not even sure if it is actually officially high. Do I think I’m pretty smart? Yeah, but I know I’m not a genius. I get decent grades but I’m not a wonder child.”

“Hey, calm down. It was only poking fun. I know you’re smart and you aren’t expected to be a super genius who can never make mistakes or have flaws. And hey, at least half of the smart people I’ve known in my life have been a little ditsy when it comes to common sense, I think it’s kinda cute,” Ellie reassured him. “Anyway, do you wanna Observe the tree?”

“Well… I do, but we can do that after we’ve found Robin. And it’d probably make the most sense for you to Observe it? Since you get extra info and all,” John reasoned.

Ellie nodded in agreement. “You’re more than just a pretty face after all, and yeah, I can be the one to do it if you’d like, would be interesting to see what its parts could be used for.”

John smiled and led Ellie around the other tree. As John had assumed, the light he could see coming from the opening was indeed a tunnel that connected the front and back of the building through both towers.

The two walked up a few steps and began to go through the tunnel entrance. The tunnel itself was quite wide, easily allowing John and Ellie to walk hand in hand next to each other with a comfortable amount of room on either side of them.

As they continued, the two walked past two pairs of double doors at the centre of the tunnel which faced each other. John stopped and tried the handle to a door on the right of them which didn’t open before the two continued on.

“So do you think it’ll be easy to find him like it was with me?” Ellie asked.

John thought for a second before speaking, “I’d like to say that we might have some kind of challenge, but this barrier isn’t making any sense. First off, you had a super easy and seemingly pointless quest. Up to now it seems like my quest is the same, and the barrier said that it’s not complete which I’m a little uneasy about.”

Ellie nodded. “Yeah, it’s kinda strange, it’s not like the last time. We got our quest, a side quest, and it told us what reward we’d get for completing it, and we’ve basically had none of that this time.”

The two reached the end of the tunnel which opened up to a large training ground. Immediately in front of them was equipment and training dummies. Walking past those, the two came to a lowered area with two large sand pits and a path between them.

Ahead of them, they heard a loud grunt. They looked at each other and sped up walking through and around the corner to an archery range where they saw Robin, walking on air, plucking arrows from targets seven metres up the wall.

“I… Uh, Robin?” John called inquisitively.

Though Robin seemed to be just standing and walking on thin air, John’s distraction caused him to misstep and he began falling. John began to run in his direction but was much too far away. However, instead of thudding against the ground, Robin softly bounced about a metre away from the floor. John wasn’t entirely sure but he thought he saw a purple shimmer right before Robin connected with whatever saved him.

“Ah, shit. Well, guess I’m not gonna be able to showboat my powers now, am I?” Robin half grumbled as he let out a laugh.

“That’s what I said!” Ellie vehemently exclaimed.

“I… what?” Robin raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the two.

“Well, I guess now that both your surprises have been spoiled, how about you both stop beating around the bush and tell or show me everything?” John insisted.

Ellie sighed. “Sure, I guess, but it would have been more impressive to show off,” she complained, with Robin nodding and agreeing with her sentiment.

“Yeah, sure, but it’d be way easier if you just told me. It’s not like I wasn’t upfront with my powers with either of you, at least once you knew about magic. So how about we start with you, Ellie,” John said nudging her.

Ellie moved over to a wooden bench just to the side of the archery range and sat down, motioning for the others to follow her. The bench only seemed to seat two people so John offered the other seat to Robin, who instead of taking a seat on the bench fell back, seemingly sitting in an invisible bean bag. Deciding not to question it, for now, John sat next to Ellie, who shuffled up and leaned against him while he waited for her to start talking.

Ellie donned a thoughtful expression before starting. “Okay, so last night after you left…”

Looking at the bubbling liquids, she realised she’d need to use some quartz in order to stabilise the magical effects. She walked over to the storage cupboard and grabbed a few smaller ones before noticing something alarming.

“I could have sworn I put Quartz and the Luminite in this box… neither of these types of crystals look anything like either of those,” Ellie worried, looking into the container.

The box in question housed crystals that had a darker colour to Luminite and were opaque, while still glowing faintly. The other crystals were the same size as the quartz she had, but instead of the icy aesthetic they should have had, these were black with an almost mirror finish.

Ellie reached forward and began to focus on Observe but fell backwards as several of the orange crystals gained fissures and a loud CRACK echoed in the room.

Quickly she scampered out of the storage cupboard. Once out, she got to her feet and looked around for something to protect herself with. She wasn’t sure what was happening so she tossed her knapsack on and crept back to the storeroom.

As she peered into the room, her right hand entered the knapsack ready for whatever she might face. From where she stood she could see the cracked crystals, seemingly calm once more. Feeling a little braver, Ellie trepidatiously entered the room once again, which felt eerily quiet and still.

Feeling less in danger she inched closer but jumped back once again when one of the Luminite crystals moved, and then a tiny head pushed through. Ellie stopped herself from getting closer. ’Oh, it’s a little baby… something? I wanna squidge it and pet it, but what if it’s dangerous? It could be poisonous or something; it did just come out of a crystal so it’s clearly not natural…’ she thought.

Her hand clenched around a bottle in her knapsack as she took another small step forward, then another. She intently focused on the now visible lizard head and felt a warmth coming from it.

Its eyes slowly opened and it stared back at Ellie, then she noticed another head poking out from the blackened quartz. Soon enough heads poked out of all of the crystals and she had twenty-four tiny eyes looking up at her.

Soon the little lizards had ventured out of the box and Ellie had to wrangle them, managing to get them all to her desk. She set them in front of her and opened up her Observe to find out what they were and saw that the only concerning thing was: “They have imprinted on you and see you as a mother.”

Once she’d got them under control for a second time, Ellie noticed a feeling emanating from them once again. From half she felt a warmth radiating, which she had assumed was just due to the fiery nature, but from the other half she felt a colder, harder feeling, and the more she paid attention to it, the more noticeable it was; not only that but she could also feel something within herself unlike either feeling from the wyrmlings.

“Sooo… long story short, I spent my night and morning chasing these little cutie pies around and testing out my new magic ability which lets me absorb and convert mana,” Ellie said nonchalantly.

John almost gave himself whiplash as he spun his head around to look at Ellie. “WHAT!? No no no, you can’t be all long-winded about how those little things hatched and then just casually drop that you have magic! How? What does it do?”

Ellie giggled. “That’s really all there is to tell about it though. I started feeling the mana from these guys and then somehow managed to pull it into myself and converted it to the type I have, then converted it again to give to one of the other types of wyrmlings. I’m not sure exactly how it works or if it works for more than fire, earth and whatever I have.”

There was a silence then Ellie jumped up excitedly. “Oh, actually that’s another thing, whatever type of magic I have is the same as what you have, though I can feel yours way more, it’s not quite overwhelming but it feels significantly stronger.”

She looked over at Robin. “It feels stronger than Robin’s too, though Robin’s is unique too, it feels… I don't know, empty or heavy if that makes sense? I’m not sure how to describe it.”

Robin laughed. “Well, can’t say this is a regular thing. Converting mana types sounds pretty unique, not only that but you say you can feel John’s mana, which is a feat in itself because I’m still yet to feel even half an ounce of mana from him; in fact, I don’t feel a drop from you either.”

“Aaaanyway, so I’ve told you about my stuff, how about you share now, Robin?” Ellie asked, giving him a smile.

Robin let out another laugh. “Sure, though you might be a little disappointed with me just explaining it, it’s far more flashy when shown.”

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