Status: Read me!
The Princess
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter 21
Aster
As I ran through the castle, I replayed the image that I saw in a book. The map of the castle. I started muttering to myself.
“Left here. Right there. Go straight. Make another left. Bear right. Here we are!” I stood at the entrance to the library.
When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was how big the shelves were. Floor to ceiling. The second thing I noticed was how high the ceiling was. Very high. The last thing I noticed was how big the room was. Very big. There were at least millions of books in there. How will I ever find the right one? I went to the closest shelf and looked at the title of one of the books. ‘Nyager Cats: Fiction or Fact?’ I went down a couple of shelves. ‘Pencils: Do they help or hurt?’ They were alphabetized! I went back about 15 shelves. ‘Illenial: Was He Really a Good King?’ Too far. Here it is. ‘Magic: The Practice and Use Of’ Weird title, but hey, it works.
I took the book off the shelf and opened it up to the index. I ‘scrolled’ through the columns until I found what I was looking for. ‘How to use your magic......pg. 363’ I turned to the page and looked for the section. There it is. It said:
If you have just discovered that you have magic and there is no other
magic user around, then you’ve come to the right place. There are
two kinds of magic. The King’s Kind (which the royal family has),
and the common kind. If you have the common kind, you have to
learn a certain kind of language called Lycen, which is the language of
common magic users. There is a book for it. It’s called ‘Lycen: The Practice
of Magic’
Sarasi doesn’t have that kind. She has royal blood in her. I kept reading.
If you have the King’s Kind, you have the most simple and strongest magic. There
is no language for it. To use it, you just say the word(s) you want it to do. For
example, you need to build a home for someone before it snows and you only have a
few hours. You say, ‘build me a home now’. As long as you have an image of the
home in your mind, then the home will look like you want it to. If there is a
rockslide coming toward you and you have no way of moving out of the way,
then you say ‘protect’ or something like that and you will be saved. It is the
strongest and most simplest of magic.
Caution: There is one other type of magic. It is obtained by selling your
soul. The person who practices it will eventually be dead, if used continually.
This magic, when you use it, uses up your life force. It is very strong, almost
equal to the King’s Kind. You can recognize users of this magic by a black snake
tattooed on their face. But it wasn’t tattooed. It was burned onto their face. How
long you use it depends on how long you have left to live.
I shuddered after reading that. That is creepy. We’ll find out what kind of magic the boss has when we see him. If he has the Cautious one, he doesn’t have long to live. He has been in power for fourteen years. I wonder how long he has to live.... Hopefully, not long. Just as I put the book back, I heard footsteps coming rapidly toward the library. Crap! I looked around furtively for a hiding place. Just as the door opened, I dove behind a chair.
A man with something black on his face walked in. He was tall, with jet-black hair, and black eyes. I almost gasped out loud when I recognized what the black thing on his face was. It was a black snake that looked tattooed there. But from what I just read, it’s actually burned on. i knew for a fact that this guy was the boss. His picture is in the square. He was muttering to himself.
“Where did I put it? Where oh where did I put it?” he said. Then he came toward me.
“I swear I set it right here- ah! Here it is!” he picked up a black leather bound book off of the table beside the chair that I was hiding behind. Then he sat in the chair. When he sat down, the chair moved back a little. I now had about a foot of room back there. At least I’m not fat.
He started muttering again. I tried to hear and understand what he was saying, but I couldn’t even begin to understand what he was saying. I think he was talking gibberish.
“Lpsopn. Qurnol. Snaqk. Pnols. Fspaol.” he was saying. At least, that’s what it sounded like. When he said Lpsopn, the chair that he was sitting in disappeared. But it looked like he was still sitting on it. I could still feel the chair too. He had made it turn invisible.
Then I froze. If I could see him, then he could see me. Only if he turned around. Then I made the most common mistake for when you’re trying to be quiet. I sneezed. That made him stop muttering to himself. My heartbeat was so loud, I’m surprised he didn’t hear it.
He slowly turned around and his eyes met mine. I didn’t move. His eyes kept searching mine while like he was looking for something. Then he spoke.
“Boy, you come here to watch, eh?” he asked. Perfect escape.
“Y-Yes. I’m your number one fan.” I told him.
“Really? I thought Billy was.” he mused.
“Has he ever come to see you personally?” I asked with a wry smile, crawling out from behind the chair.
“Well, no. I guess you are. How old are you?”
“I’m... sixteen. I’ll be seventeen soon.”
“What’s your name?” he asked. Time for lying.
“My name? Well, my name is Chaet.” I told him, copying how Dan said it.
“Well Chaet. What do you think so far?”
“I think it’s pretty weak.”
“What? Can you do that?” he demanded.
“Well..... no. It’s weaker than the previous king’s magic. Now, his was sweet! Say, what kind is yours?” I asked, wanting to affirm the type of magic he has.
“The one that will be stronger than that peasant king’s! I have the best magic!” He’s not going to tell me?!?
“Whoa! The rumors are true then?” I was playing the wide-eyed brat.
“What rumors?” the boss demanded.
“The rumors about your magic.” I paused. His eyes told me to go on. So I did, “That your magic is the strongest magic that anyone could ever have. But you could easily lose your magic at any given time.”
“The first part is true and the second part is false. In fact, I will never lose any magic that I have. Also, I’m getting stronger.” I could tell by his looks that he was lying. He looked like he was getting weaker and frailer. Well, he also looked older than the picture in the square. Much older. Weird.
“Thanks for the clarification. Now I can go tell my buddies the truth. I’ll also tell them that you are going to be much stronger than the old king.” I told him, ending the conversation.
“Bye. I don’t have to show you the way out since you came here all on your own. No idea how you got past the guards though. I’ll have to talk to them about it....” he started muttering to himself again.
I got out of there as fast as I could. I was supposed to be in the practice room already! I consulted the map in my head again.
“Left here. Go down the stairs. Take a right. Uh-oh. There’s a fork here. Which way? Right. Down the last set of stairs and turn left.” I told myself. I could hear the voices of Dan, Sarasi, Simon, and Niya.
“He should’ve been here by now!” Simon said, worried. I could see him pacing. Simon seems wiser than his years.
“He’ll get here in his time.” Dan said. At least he believed that I would get there in time.
“If he’s not here in thirty seconds, I’m giving up!” Sarasi exclaimed. If only she didn’t say that! Right there, it slipped my mind about meeting the boss.
“Hey! I found the information.” I told them as I walked in. Then I clammed up because I had never seen a room so vast before. It was longer than six king sized rooms in my house put side-by-side. One king-sized room is about 60-70 feet from wall to wall. There was every kind of weapon in there from bow and arrows to catapults and maces. There were targets set up at various lengths away from where we were standing. One of the closer targets had at least nine knives all centered on the bull’s eye. Then there were more targets hanging from the ceiling. I kept blinking in astonishment.
“Yeah, we did the exact same thing the first time we saw it. We’re used to it now.” Simon said.
“Well? What’s the information you found?” Sarasi was getting down to business.
“Well, there are three types of magic. Cautious, Common, and King’s Kind. The cautious uses your life force and you can tell if someone has it by a black snake burned onto their face.” I paused, letting that sink in. Something stirred in the back of my mind.
“That is disgusting.” Niya said.
“Well put. Well put.” Dan agreed. I continued.
“Common uses a long forgotten language called Lycen. You don’t have that. Since you are of the royal family, you have the King’s Kind.” I explained.
“How do you use that?” she asked
“I was getting there. I can’t explain it that well. I’ll use the book’s example. If there was a rockslide coming toward you and you had no way of getting out of the way, you yell ‘Protect!’ or something like that and you will be saved. Basically, you say the word or sentence you want your magic to do.” I explained.
“It’s a simple one!” she exclaimed.
“It also said in the book that the King’s Kind is the simplest and strongest kind of magic.” I told them.
“That’s great! Then I can beat Dan’s father!” Sarasi said enthusiastically.
“I don’t know. The book also said that if you have Cautious, then your magic will gradually get stronger. We still don’t know what kind of magic Dan’s father has. But it depends on how long he has left to live. If he has it. If he has the Common magic, he is easily beaten. But I doubt that he has that kind. But you never know...” I let the sentence hang.
“Well then, let’s get practicing!” Dan said, then paused.
“What?” I asked.
“My father has a black snake on the side of his face.” Dan said, a thinking look on his face. My eyes widened. Things clicked into place right there.
“Your dad. Does he have jet black hair and black eyes? Is he tall?” I asked, dreading the answer I already knew.
“Yes. Why?”
“I met him.”
“What?” Sarasi said, “When?”
“When I was in the library. He looks older than the picture in the square. He made the chair that he was sitting in and I was hiding behind invisible.” I explained.
“The picture was taken, made, painted, however he did it last month. How old does he look? ‘Cause he’s only 45.” Dan said.
“He looks like he was in his 50s. That was done last month?” I was incredulous.
“I need to practice.” Sarasi said, interrupting us.
“What word did he use to make it invisible?” Dan asked.
“Lpsopn. Or something like that.” I tried my best to pronounce that word.
“Hey, that’s the language of Lycen!” Dan exclaimed, “I guess Cautious magic and Common magic use the same thing: Lycen.”
“That’s a cool name for a long forgotten language! Lpasopn, was the word?” Simon asked.
“No, it was Lpsopn.” I told him.
“Lpsopn.” Simon said.
“Simon, where did you go?” Sarasi asked.
“I’m right here.” We heard Simon’s voice, but didn’t see him.
Niya walked over to where Simon was standing. She wrapped her tail around something that we couldn’t see.
“Simon, say that word again.” Niya ordered. Simon obeyed. Who wouldn’t? He became visible. Niya had wrapped her tail around Simon.
“Simon, you are the descendent of Jathak, the greatest wizard in the world. Well, was.” Niya said.
“Wizard? What? Simon has magic?” Sarasi, me, and Dan couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, it’s common magic, but the strongest kind. If the late king was alive and Simon was at his strongest, it would be a little weaker than the king’s. When Jathak was alive, his magic was stronger than the king’s. He was the royal family’s protector.” Niya explained.
“What? I have strong magic? How? There are different kinds of common magic? What are they?” asked Simon.
“There is the Common Common magic, the Average Common magic, the Above Average Common magic, the Strong Common magic, and the Incredible Common magic.” Niya said.
“Jathak had Incredible Common magic, right?” I asked,
“No. He was above that.” Niya said.
“What? How can he be above it?” I was flabbergasted. That has to be impossible!
“He was trained by his father ever since his magic showed itself. He surpassed his father at the age of eighteen. He was trained for only six years. Then, four years later, he surpassed the king. He was chased down by many people who wanted to say that they defeated the most powerful person in the world. So he applied as the king’s bodyguard. He was accepted right away. No one bothered him after that. He had a son, but no one knew who the mother was. He raised that boy, but sadly, the boy had no magic. The boy’s son is you. You have inherited all of Jathak’s magic.” Niya told Simon. He was speechless.
“But Simon never met his parents.” Sarsai said.
“His parents were killed by the Cleansers when he was a baby. They took him and told him some bogus story that obviously isn’t true. They needed an innocent person to use to find ‘Cleanser haters’, so they chose him. His parents wouldn’t give him up, so they killed them.” Niya said flatly.
“What? All that they told me was a lie?” Simon asked.
“Yes.” was all Niya said.
Aster
As I ran through the castle, I replayed the image that I saw in a book. The map of the castle. I started muttering to myself.
“Left here. Right there. Go straight. Make another left. Bear right. Here we are!” I stood at the entrance to the library.
When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was how big the shelves were. Floor to ceiling. The second thing I noticed was how high the ceiling was. Very high. The last thing I noticed was how big the room was. Very big. There were at least millions of books in there. How will I ever find the right one? I went to the closest shelf and looked at the title of one of the books. ‘Nyager Cats: Fiction or Fact?’ I went down a couple of shelves. ‘Pencils: Do they help or hurt?’ They were alphabetized! I went back about 15 shelves. ‘Illenial: Was He Really a Good King?’ Too far. Here it is. ‘Magic: The Practice and Use Of’ Weird title, but hey, it works.
I took the book off the shelf and opened it up to the index. I ‘scrolled’ through the columns until I found what I was looking for. ‘How to use your magic......pg. 363’ I turned to the page and looked for the section. There it is. It said:
If you have just discovered that you have magic and there is no other
magic user around, then you’ve come to the right place. There are
two kinds of magic. The King’s Kind (which the royal family has),
and the common kind. If you have the common kind, you have to
learn a certain kind of language called Lycen, which is the language of
common magic users. There is a book for it. It’s called ‘Lycen: The Practice
of Magic’
Sarasi doesn’t have that kind. She has royal blood in her. I kept reading.
If you have the King’s Kind, you have the most simple and strongest magic. There
is no language for it. To use it, you just say the word(s) you want it to do. For
example, you need to build a home for someone before it snows and you only have a
few hours. You say, ‘build me a home now’. As long as you have an image of the
home in your mind, then the home will look like you want it to. If there is a
rockslide coming toward you and you have no way of moving out of the way,
then you say ‘protect’ or something like that and you will be saved. It is the
strongest and most simplest of magic.
Caution: There is one other type of magic. It is obtained by selling your
soul. The person who practices it will eventually be dead, if used continually.
This magic, when you use it, uses up your life force. It is very strong, almost
equal to the King’s Kind. You can recognize users of this magic by a black snake
tattooed on their face. But it wasn’t tattooed. It was burned onto their face. How
long you use it depends on how long you have left to live.
I shuddered after reading that. That is creepy. We’ll find out what kind of magic the boss has when we see him. If he has the Cautious one, he doesn’t have long to live. He has been in power for fourteen years. I wonder how long he has to live.... Hopefully, not long. Just as I put the book back, I heard footsteps coming rapidly toward the library. Crap! I looked around furtively for a hiding place. Just as the door opened, I dove behind a chair.
A man with something black on his face walked in. He was tall, with jet-black hair, and black eyes. I almost gasped out loud when I recognized what the black thing on his face was. It was a black snake that looked tattooed there. But from what I just read, it’s actually burned on. i knew for a fact that this guy was the boss. His picture is in the square. He was muttering to himself.
“Where did I put it? Where oh where did I put it?” he said. Then he came toward me.
“I swear I set it right here- ah! Here it is!” he picked up a black leather bound book off of the table beside the chair that I was hiding behind. Then he sat in the chair. When he sat down, the chair moved back a little. I now had about a foot of room back there. At least I’m not fat.
He started muttering again. I tried to hear and understand what he was saying, but I couldn’t even begin to understand what he was saying. I think he was talking gibberish.
“Lpsopn. Qurnol. Snaqk. Pnols. Fspaol.” he was saying. At least, that’s what it sounded like. When he said Lpsopn, the chair that he was sitting in disappeared. But it looked like he was still sitting on it. I could still feel the chair too. He had made it turn invisible.
Then I froze. If I could see him, then he could see me. Only if he turned around. Then I made the most common mistake for when you’re trying to be quiet. I sneezed. That made him stop muttering to himself. My heartbeat was so loud, I’m surprised he didn’t hear it.
He slowly turned around and his eyes met mine. I didn’t move. His eyes kept searching mine while like he was looking for something. Then he spoke.
“Boy, you come here to watch, eh?” he asked. Perfect escape.
“Y-Yes. I’m your number one fan.” I told him.
“Really? I thought Billy was.” he mused.
“Has he ever come to see you personally?” I asked with a wry smile, crawling out from behind the chair.
“Well, no. I guess you are. How old are you?”
“I’m... sixteen. I’ll be seventeen soon.”
“What’s your name?” he asked. Time for lying.
“My name? Well, my name is Chaet.” I told him, copying how Dan said it.
“Well Chaet. What do you think so far?”
“I think it’s pretty weak.”
“What? Can you do that?” he demanded.
“Well..... no. It’s weaker than the previous king’s magic. Now, his was sweet! Say, what kind is yours?” I asked, wanting to affirm the type of magic he has.
“The one that will be stronger than that peasant king’s! I have the best magic!” He’s not going to tell me?!?
“Whoa! The rumors are true then?” I was playing the wide-eyed brat.
“What rumors?” the boss demanded.
“The rumors about your magic.” I paused. His eyes told me to go on. So I did, “That your magic is the strongest magic that anyone could ever have. But you could easily lose your magic at any given time.”
“The first part is true and the second part is false. In fact, I will never lose any magic that I have. Also, I’m getting stronger.” I could tell by his looks that he was lying. He looked like he was getting weaker and frailer. Well, he also looked older than the picture in the square. Much older. Weird.
“Thanks for the clarification. Now I can go tell my buddies the truth. I’ll also tell them that you are going to be much stronger than the old king.” I told him, ending the conversation.
“Bye. I don’t have to show you the way out since you came here all on your own. No idea how you got past the guards though. I’ll have to talk to them about it....” he started muttering to himself again.
I got out of there as fast as I could. I was supposed to be in the practice room already! I consulted the map in my head again.
“Left here. Go down the stairs. Take a right. Uh-oh. There’s a fork here. Which way? Right. Down the last set of stairs and turn left.” I told myself. I could hear the voices of Dan, Sarasi, Simon, and Niya.
“He should’ve been here by now!” Simon said, worried. I could see him pacing. Simon seems wiser than his years.
“He’ll get here in his time.” Dan said. At least he believed that I would get there in time.
“If he’s not here in thirty seconds, I’m giving up!” Sarasi exclaimed. If only she didn’t say that! Right there, it slipped my mind about meeting the boss.
“Hey! I found the information.” I told them as I walked in. Then I clammed up because I had never seen a room so vast before. It was longer than six king sized rooms in my house put side-by-side. One king-sized room is about 60-70 feet from wall to wall. There was every kind of weapon in there from bow and arrows to catapults and maces. There were targets set up at various lengths away from where we were standing. One of the closer targets had at least nine knives all centered on the bull’s eye. Then there were more targets hanging from the ceiling. I kept blinking in astonishment.
“Yeah, we did the exact same thing the first time we saw it. We’re used to it now.” Simon said.
“Well? What’s the information you found?” Sarasi was getting down to business.
“Well, there are three types of magic. Cautious, Common, and King’s Kind. The cautious uses your life force and you can tell if someone has it by a black snake burned onto their face.” I paused, letting that sink in. Something stirred in the back of my mind.
“That is disgusting.” Niya said.
“Well put. Well put.” Dan agreed. I continued.
“Common uses a long forgotten language called Lycen. You don’t have that. Since you are of the royal family, you have the King’s Kind.” I explained.
“How do you use that?” she asked
“I was getting there. I can’t explain it that well. I’ll use the book’s example. If there was a rockslide coming toward you and you had no way of getting out of the way, you yell ‘Protect!’ or something like that and you will be saved. Basically, you say the word or sentence you want your magic to do.” I explained.
“It’s a simple one!” she exclaimed.
“It also said in the book that the King’s Kind is the simplest and strongest kind of magic.” I told them.
“That’s great! Then I can beat Dan’s father!” Sarasi said enthusiastically.
“I don’t know. The book also said that if you have Cautious, then your magic will gradually get stronger. We still don’t know what kind of magic Dan’s father has. But it depends on how long he has left to live. If he has it. If he has the Common magic, he is easily beaten. But I doubt that he has that kind. But you never know...” I let the sentence hang.
“Well then, let’s get practicing!” Dan said, then paused.
“What?” I asked.
“My father has a black snake on the side of his face.” Dan said, a thinking look on his face. My eyes widened. Things clicked into place right there.
“Your dad. Does he have jet black hair and black eyes? Is he tall?” I asked, dreading the answer I already knew.
“Yes. Why?”
“I met him.”
“What?” Sarasi said, “When?”
“When I was in the library. He looks older than the picture in the square. He made the chair that he was sitting in and I was hiding behind invisible.” I explained.
“The picture was taken, made, painted, however he did it last month. How old does he look? ‘Cause he’s only 45.” Dan said.
“He looks like he was in his 50s. That was done last month?” I was incredulous.
“I need to practice.” Sarasi said, interrupting us.
“What word did he use to make it invisible?” Dan asked.
“Lpsopn. Or something like that.” I tried my best to pronounce that word.
“Hey, that’s the language of Lycen!” Dan exclaimed, “I guess Cautious magic and Common magic use the same thing: Lycen.”
“That’s a cool name for a long forgotten language! Lpasopn, was the word?” Simon asked.
“No, it was Lpsopn.” I told him.
“Lpsopn.” Simon said.
“Simon, where did you go?” Sarasi asked.
“I’m right here.” We heard Simon’s voice, but didn’t see him.
Niya walked over to where Simon was standing. She wrapped her tail around something that we couldn’t see.
“Simon, say that word again.” Niya ordered. Simon obeyed. Who wouldn’t? He became visible. Niya had wrapped her tail around Simon.
“Simon, you are the descendent of Jathak, the greatest wizard in the world. Well, was.” Niya said.
“Wizard? What? Simon has magic?” Sarasi, me, and Dan couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, it’s common magic, but the strongest kind. If the late king was alive and Simon was at his strongest, it would be a little weaker than the king’s. When Jathak was alive, his magic was stronger than the king’s. He was the royal family’s protector.” Niya explained.
“What? I have strong magic? How? There are different kinds of common magic? What are they?” asked Simon.
“There is the Common Common magic, the Average Common magic, the Above Average Common magic, the Strong Common magic, and the Incredible Common magic.” Niya said.
“Jathak had Incredible Common magic, right?” I asked,
“No. He was above that.” Niya said.
“What? How can he be above it?” I was flabbergasted. That has to be impossible!
“He was trained by his father ever since his magic showed itself. He surpassed his father at the age of eighteen. He was trained for only six years. Then, four years later, he surpassed the king. He was chased down by many people who wanted to say that they defeated the most powerful person in the world. So he applied as the king’s bodyguard. He was accepted right away. No one bothered him after that. He had a son, but no one knew who the mother was. He raised that boy, but sadly, the boy had no magic. The boy’s son is you. You have inherited all of Jathak’s magic.” Niya told Simon. He was speechless.
“But Simon never met his parents.” Sarsai said.
“His parents were killed by the Cleansers when he was a baby. They took him and told him some bogus story that obviously isn’t true. They needed an innocent person to use to find ‘Cleanser haters’, so they chose him. His parents wouldn’t give him up, so they killed them.” Niya said flatly.
“What? All that they told me was a lie?” Simon asked.
“Yes.” was all Niya said.