60th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era
“Huh?” It wasn’t Magmin?
“What happened with the terrowing’s core?” Still obsessed with money, Newt hardly considered the embarrassing question as it escaped lips. Luckily, Lady Woodhopper misunderstood his concern.
“Both the Cloud Monarch’s and the emperor’s are presud to have exploded, wiping out all life in a huge area. It was a catastrophic calamity of ice and tal. Even those who escaped the imdiate combat zone lost their lives.”
Newt shuddered. He had seen the damage third realm cores did when exploding inside creature’s bodies, and their power grew exponentially with each realm. Two tenth realm dualcores exploding would start a cataclysm with elental mana invading everything.
As he ford the ntal image, Lady Woodhopper pushed the giant gate. Instead of the whole thing moving, a small side door opened. Newt blinked before realizing the entrance had been seamlessly hidden as a part of the colossal gate.
He followed her in, and as soon as he passed an invisible line, the stench of manure wafted into his nose. All around, beasts in large enclosures slept, ate, or played without a sound.
Newt gazed at the surreal sight, unable to identify half the saurians he saw. The tiny ones, barely reaching up to his knees, had enclosures just as big as the hundred-foot-long longneck two pens away.
“So, you said snakes alone, right?” Lady Woodhopper brought Newt before a titanic creature, coiled and basking in the sun, its size easily matching the fifth realm frostworm. “Try taming this one. The sound can pass through now.”
Newt stared at the snake’s head, which was big enough to gobble him up in a single bite.
“Greetings,” he hissed, and the serpent opened its eyes, locking its cruel gaze on him. Before Newt could co up with what he would tell the serpent, it uncoiled, raising its head, staring death at him.
“How do you ssspeak?” it asked, the tip of its forked tail rapidly slapping the ground, raising tiny puffs of dust.
“A friend taught —”
“Liessss!” The colossal snake pounced, and Newt jumped back just as its head smashed into an invisible wall two yards ahead of him.
The snake stared death at him. “Graverobber! Thief! Treacherousss egg-eater!”
It kept hissing weird insults at Newt, and the Lady Woodhopper nodded before tapping the white stone she had in her hand, and the snake’s curses disappeared while it kept slamming its bulk at the barrier without making a sound.
“Follow .” Lady Woodhopper led Newt to another invisible cage, this one hosting a rainbow-colored winged serpent. Newt admired the shimring pattern of glistening scales on the creature’s wings when Lady Woodhopper tapped on her stone and motioned him with her head.
“Greetings,” Newt hissed again, and once more caught the serpent’s attention.
The twenty-foot-long slender reptile raised its head, looking at him with interest and without a hint of the mindless hatred, which had overflowed from the titanic twintail serpent.
“Good day,” the snake greeted, but asked no questions and settled for observing Newt.
“I am Newstar. What is your na?”
“Rainbow cloud snake. Are you here to give an offering of food? Luxurious oils to rub on my wings? What kind of present did you bring ?”
Newt gazed at the snake. “I beg your pardon?”
“Oh, are you the present the slave has brought for this ti? It is an interesting gimmick, teaching one of your kind to speak, but why would I want to speak with an inferior species? Are you my new toy?”
Newt looked at Lady Woodhopper. “Why does this entitled snake think I’m its new chew toy?”
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The sun-kissed woman nodded, her brow furrowed.
“So, you have a serpent’s tongue? I guess the myths are true sotis.” Whatever the chaplain was talking about had nothing to do with Newt’s question, and she kept ignoring it. “You can understand all serpents, and serpents understand you. There’s sothing I’ve wanted to confirm for years, follow .”
Lady Woodhopper brought Newt back towards the entrance and stopped when they reached the longneck’s pen.
If Newt was pressed to guess its exact species, he would have gone with marshgrazer because of its webbed feet, but with the evolutions making it bulkier, it was difficult to tell.
Lady Woodhopper tapped the stone again, and the grayish-green longneck focused on the sudden flood of sound, slowly shifting its head towards them, still chewing on succulent greenish-purple horsetail leaves.
“Go ahead, say sothing.”
“Um, greetings?”
The longneck didn’t respond to Newt’s words, nor did its gaze flicker at Newt’s hiss.
“I guess longnecks really aren’t related to snakes.” Lady Woodhopper tapped the command stone once more, restoring the sound barrier. While Newt thought it was obvious that the two were not related, all the legs and the massive torso made it apparent in his mind, Lady Woodhopper seed disappointed.
“So, you have the mythical snake tongue, which allows you to understand snakes and speak with them.” Lady Woodhopper went towards the exit, and Newt guessed his test was done and that he had probably failed. “The fact in itself is an interesting quirk, and may help you if you decide to dedicate your ti to taming, but you have more important matters to take care of.”
They left through the tiny hatch on the giant gate, and the air once more turned fresh and flowery.
“You are young and naturally have huge gaps in your knowledge. My advice for you is to spend most of your next two-three years in the library. Don’t even try to work on your realm, it’s high enough as it is for your age. I’m fairly certain Lady Alabaster will tell you the exact sa thing, and you should take her words to heart.”
Newt nodded.
“What about my team’s missions?” Based on what Obsidian said, Newt did not have the luxury of reading books for several years. Not that he had the patience for it, either.
“All their deadlines are extended by three moons until they incorporate a new mber, so you have three moons, then two mandatory missions per year, which will probably eat away so two moons every year. Your master will explain in greater detail. She’s got five-six disciples, and she is a very dedicated master.”
“Honored Chaplain,” Newt did his best Dandelion imitation so far, “could you tell which elent is the most suited for taming beasts?”
Lady Woodhopper shrugged. “Any elent is fine, as long as it matches or complents your companion. For instance, my realm is of earth, warm and life-nurturing, healing oriented, while my little Bronze is refined earth, cold and hard, tal oriented. We make a great team, and our bond allows us to coordinate better than most mageknights of our realm.”
Do I want a giant serpent companion? Do I need one? Newt decided those were questions for later, much, much later.
Newt thanked Lady Woodhopper and headed back, thinking about what he should imdiately focus on and dispelling her beautiful face from mory. He had plenty of things to do, check how much it would cost to arm himself properly, how to communicate with Lady Frostgrave, whether he could independently search for his parents, see a soother and talk to that amazing individual about how he could work better with his team or at least motivate them to accompany him on a mission. The thing was, his master and ntor could probably direct him regarding all those topics.
And until he t Lady Alabaster, Newt had two hours of daylight and a whole night. He stopped before the building to which everyone had pointed him and looked at its sign.
Chamber of Tos. A waste of ti? All the answers Newt sought? The first encounter with a library and a librarian weighed heavily on Newt’s mind. How many resources will they ask per book? One way to find out.
Newt pushed entered the dark void, forgetting to check the runes. Instead, he focused all his attention on an elderly lady behind the counter. She was observing him too, a book half lowered, leaning on the counter.
The first thing Newt noticed about her was that she had the heavy aura of one void of mana.
“Greetings, Honored Mageknight,” Newt bowed, and the woman smiled lightly.
“Are libraries so frightening you need to steel yourself before entering?”
Newt swallowed a lump and stood straight.
“I have—” Newt hesitated. What kind of experience did he have with the imperial library? He ca and lacked the resources to read anything. Recalling the situation yet again, he found the perfect word. “—a poor experience with libraries.”
“Well, we mustn’t have that. Reading and writing are fundantal skills. Being able to understand and apply the experiences of others promotes your insight; being able to articulate and commit your thoughts to paper advances your own comprehension and sotis gives unexpected enlightennt.”
The elderly woman smiled, light dimples forming on her wrinkle-free face, yet Newt hardly noticed her friendly expression. He focused on the whole of her, the wisdom in her eyes, the platinum-white hair, and her bearing told him this woman was probably the oldest human he had seen in his life.
“I’m—” Dammit, why am I so nervous in here? “—looking for answers and guidance.”
The librarian’s smile never left her face.
“Well, in that case, you have co to the right place.”
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