Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 54 Let Me Know If It’s Any Good.

Lenna sat her empty bowl beside her and looked over towards the bathtub. Her mana reserves were only around half full after her spar with the Guild Master, Edward. ‘I hope that’s enough.’ She thought while contemplating how much mana it would take to heat an entire tub’s worth of water.

“I can practice with my mana if you want to take a bath. I’d say that I would just go find something to do but with the magistrate out to get us…” Isaac let the implications hang.

“That’ll be fine.” Lenna replied. “Do you want to use the bath first?”

Isaac thought for a moment before shrugging. “It doesn’t really matter to me.”

She nodded. “Ground rules pertaining to the bath.” Lenna began. “Back to the bath.” She said and spun her finger to show that she meant that his back was to be facing the tub. “No peeking. No dirty thoughts.”

Isaac was curious at first but that quickly turned to amusement. “I’m not that boy in Ben’s End, Lenna. I won’t try to peek.” He said with a smirk. “I think the back to the bath thing is a bit much though. There is that wall thing separating it from the rest of the room. Can’t I just lean against the wall over there?” He asked and gestured to the opposite wall to where the bath was.

She thought for a moment. “You shouldn’t be in here at all. It’s indecent.” She replied.

“Listen, Lenna, we are going to be basically joined at the hip for who knows how long. At the very least until the Gio problem is taken care of. I trust you not to peek or have a vision ability that can see through walls so I think you should trust me that far too.” Isaac told her.

“You arguing this is not helping your case.” Lenna replied.

Isaac raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Fine. But I’m at least taking the chair.”

“Deal.” She affirmed.

Isaac shook his head with his amused smirk still on his face. ‘She can be so peculiar about the strangest things sometimes.’ Isaac thought to himself.

—

During Lenna’s hour-long soak Isaac had taken to trying to perfect his ability to conjure weapons made of shadows. He hadn’t even realized that she was done until she had said his name. Isaac had then also taken a bath and then the two of them, now no longer covered in sweat and grime, were sitting in the room together wondering what they were going to do with the rest of their day.

“Playing with my mana is fun and all but I feel like we should be out doing something.” Isaac had told her while resting his head on his hand.

“Humans really can’t just sit still.” Lenna commented. They only had to wait until the next day to be able to take an adventuring job.

“How long do elves live?” Isaac asked her incredulously

“No longer than a thousand years.” She replied.

Isaac nodded his head. “If you spent a tenth of your life sitting still that would be equivalent to my entire lifetime.” He told her.

Lenna thought about that for a moment. “What do you want to do?” She eventually asked.

Isaac laid back on the floor. “I don’t know. Something.” He complained.

Lenna thought for a moment. “We could spar.” She told him.

Isaac shook his head. “I’m finally not sweaty and caked in grime. It’s too soon to lose this boon.” He replied.

She thought for another moment. “Maybe there is a library.” She offered.

Isaac sat upright quickly with a sparkle in his eyes. “We should ask. If not…” He had an idea. A presumptuous idea, but an idea nonetheless. “…maybe we could ask Sera to use hers. She has to have one right?”

Lenna blinked at him and his audacity. “We haven’t even joined her for tea yet.” She told him.

“It’s a backup plan at least.” Isaac countered. “The backup is the backup for a reason. If it was the better plan then the other plan would be the backup.”

Lenna could only shake her head. She rose to her feet and he joined her.

—

Isaac and Lenna stopped in front of the town library. They had gotten directions from Celeste on their way out while they were dropping off their dishes. It was a large stone brick building with no windows and only one set of large wooden double doors as the only entrance. The gray stone stood out against the red bricks of the surrounding buildings.

“Why use gray instead of red?” Isaac asked.

Lenna looked over the building’s walls. “I would say conjured walls. This is quarried stone however.” She walked up and put her hand on the stone. “It would have needed to be carted here.” She commented. She knocked her knuckles against it. “I think it is sturdier. Denser rock.”

“That seems like a lot of extra work.” Isaac commented. “Why not just conjure it like they did with the walls?”

Lenna thought for a moment before remembering something she had heard a long time ago. “I think conjured stone doesn’t handle enchantments very well.” She told him.

“You think the whole building is enchanted?” He asked and then closed his eyes. He tried to feel the mana around him. Lenna let him find out for himself, He felt some of the mana moving in weird ways around the building. It felt like some of the ambient mana was coating the stone on the inside. “Does it suppress sound?” He asked.

Lenna nodded and moved to open the door so they could head inside. “I believe so.” She replied. Only an expert mage could know for sure from only sensing it but it was good practice to feel an enchantment and then learn its function.

—

There was no one in the library but there was a sign. It told them that the books were not to be taken out of the library under any circumstance save for a fire. Isaac had wandered around for a while with Lenna in tow until he had found a section that was full of books about magic.

The library had three floors and each floor was packed with bookshelves. Each floor also had an area cleared out with tables and chairs set up to read at. There were glowing stone lights placed in the ceiling of each floor that shed just enough light for most people to be able to read. Isaac and Lenna didn’t need the light but it was a library in a human city after all.

“I hope these help.” Isaac said while placing a stack of six books on a small reading table.

Lenna sat down next to him with a story book that had a knight fighting a dragon on the cover. “A wizard would be helpful.” She told him.

“Yeah… I know. I just don’t want to tell anyone anything just in case some of it could be used against me.” He explained.

“You told me. Have you even tried to not tell me?” She asked.

Isaac thought about it for a second. “Not really.” He conceded. “But that’s different. You are my guard. You should know my strengths, weaknesses, and limitations.”

“Fair enough.” She replied and opened her book.

“Let me know if it’s any good.” Isaac said offhandedly as he opened a book on magic theory.

Lenna nodded and replied. “Alright.”