--- Kat ---
"So... what’s the verdict?" asked Kat. Morning had co, Lily was awake... Hedera was still sleeping but that was fine. Their elf friend would be up soon. Kat had gotten a few more orbs and notably not encountered anything else weird before the morning.
"It’s not paper," said Lily with a frown.
"What?" asked Kat.
"It’s not paper," confird Lily.
"So... what does that an? Can you fix it or not?" asked Kat sowhat confused. If Lily couldn’t she would’ve said so...
"Well... there’s multiple book repairs spells in paper magic and surprisingly we can even manage to fix covers a lot of the ti because books are tied to paper quite tightly on a conceptual level. The issue is that I didn’t realise what the point of them were. I assud that I’d only need the one spell, and even if I did get a lot of practice with it touching up the books at my house...
"None of that will work here because, as I said, it’s not paper. I... vaguely recall the instructions for the non-paper repair spell but I’m not sure I can cast it. I’ve had no practice, I barely rember the sigil for it and if I screw it up, best case I can’t cast it on this book again worst case I render it unreadable... though you are right about it being too fragile," explained Lily.
Kat nodded slowly with a frown on her face. "Alright, so... hmm... ok, how can you be sure it’s too fragile and what are you thinking is the best plan?"
"Well, there’s a much simpler spell to test the structural integrity of a book that I used first, then there’s the second spell I used to make sure I can cast the book repair spell on it. Though, it’s more of a follow up to the first spell where it tells you how much of that damage can be repaired... and it told ’none’, which ant there was an issue with the spell.
"And then I needed another spell I barely rembered, but is at least just Rank 1 to tell if a thing is paper or not... and I can conclusively say this?" Lily jabbed her finger at the book on the kitchen table. "This is not paper. Which... makes really unsure what to do with it. Fixing it would be ideal and I’m quite sure it’s going to fall apart at least a bit so having the whole thing would be great... but surely any puzzles involving it won’t require the full, perfectly in-tact version?"
Kat nodded, "I get what you’re saying, but I really hit that we’re burning through more ti then I thought we would. I’d have expected to be closer to the other fog wall at this point so... if we can’t fix it up I’m thinking we just forget about it. We’re already on a ’major quest chain’ with Weaver and after my night on the town we’re doing really well on orbs. It might be NICE to know what’s going on with the book but it isn’t necessary."
"Hmm..." mumbled Lily. "I don’t really like that line of thinking but you’re probably right. Though... do you think Weaver could fix the book?"
Kat frowned and looked at the book, taking it in as much as possible without touching it. "Technically yes, but probably no? Thy definitely could fix this up with... well their TI powers. I imagine Thy also has half a dozen other ways. Heck, you could easily slip in so silk to reinforce the pages and Weaver’s skilled enough for that... but I suspect we’re already pushing the limits of what Weaver can do for us as it is,"
Lily grimaced but nodded, conceding Kat’s point. "Yeah, I get that. Though... that doesn’t necessarily an that nobody can fix it?"
Kat shrugged, "It’s a matter of ti though isn’t it? If we’re spending too long on it then even if we get a key for that one chest, or another chest to hold onto... it’s still going to be a waste of ti. The problem with orbs being everywhere is that going out of your way for better rewards is a hard sell. Maybe it’ll be different as the days go on... but these orbs regenerate so even then,"
"Yeah you make a good point. I wish at the very least that there was so way to practice the spell," grumbled Lily.
"Isn’t there?" asked Kat.
"Not without another book made of the sa material and I don’t even know what that material is. I could try casting it and... I guess if I got it super obviously wrong sothing bad would happen? No way to know if it’s ’right enough’ though," answered Lily.
"Alright," said Kat with a nod. "I guess the next question is if we wait for Hedera and get her opinion or if we just go ahead and try it. I’ve covered basically every house here so no sense sticking around longer than we have to... unless of course the book has sothing we need to investigate."
"It’s possible the book is just going to lead us to the secret ice primordial thing," offered Lily.
"If that’s the case then surely it would also tell us how to get the rewards... and it really did seem like there wasn’t anything else in that room," countered Kat.
Lily shrugged and the two of them glanced over at the bedroom Hedera was currently using to sleep. There didn’t appear to be any movent causing Kat to sigh. "Do you want to head outside and try testing the spell?"
Lily shrugged, "Might as well." The pair walked into the backyard and Lily spun up the spell. A white light past over the grass in front of her and changed a large patch of it into white, origami grass. "Um... what? That... I didn’t even know that was possible? And it didn’t feel like it took too much mana either..."
Kat glanced at the paper grass. "Want to try casting it again? The sa way? Because while I’m not certain how that could be useful I AM sure that it can be,"
"Oh I can already think of multiple uses for it. Just... hang on let ..." Lily moved over the side as she was getting the spell ready to cast. Lily copied the sigils she’d used before exactly and once again, a wave of white flowed over the grass. With knowledge of what was happening, Lily could direct it a bit more extending the range and nodded. "Ok no idea if that’s how the spell is ant to work on a book... but this is neat."
Kat nodded, "I can see how it might work that way... but surely the cover wouldn’t be transford into paper? Wouldn’t that just cause more issues long term?"
"It’s got to be temporary," said Lily. "It doesn’t cost anywhere near enough mana for it to be permanent and I doubt it’d work against anything with a good deal of mana... and probably never against people or even normal animals. Not sure what the limit is either... but changing the grass was easy so maybe a decently sized tree?"
"Perhaps... what uses were you thinking for it?" asked Kat.
"Well, I was thinking it gives so great battlefield control. The paper in the grass is saturated with my mana and I can control it pretty easily. I can also probably cast so spells on it to make it grow or sharpen or maybe even fire off that paper storm attack I like to use. If I wasn’t a shadow mage it’d be a massive upgrade, but as it is... it’s just sowhat neat," explained Lily.
"Can you repair the book with it?" asked Kat.
"Ummm... maybe? I don’t think this is quite what the spell is ant to do. Or, if it IS ant to do this, it’s ant to be very temporary. Like, change to paper, repair, change back. The fact this is still going a few minutes later is already longer than I thought it would last," explained Lily.
"Well what’s the worry?" asked Kat. "If it works on grass it should work on the book... right?"
"Maybe... my main worry is if the pages are made out of leather of so kind," explained Lily.
"You think Thy would skin an animal for a book?" asked Kat, not entirely sure of the answer herself.
"Well, maybe not FOR it, but if there’s already leather around? Certainly. Though if it’s not-paper then I think Velum is the correct term for it. If it was just papyrus then the spell would work fine because that counts as paper due to the fact its mostly plant based," explained Lily.
"So... we’re waiting for Hedera and then probably taking the risk?" asked Kat, just for confirmation.
"I think so. I’m willing to play around with the spell a bit more to see what changes happen but it’s still a risk. Not one that’s worth wasting ti on... but if we’re already waiting for Hedera to wake up I suppose we can use that for sothing semi-productive like this," agreed Lily.
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