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For a witch, spells were jealously guarded treasures.
They weren’t Warlock and Clerics that where blessed or made contracts for magic.
Nor were they Sorcerers that were born with such powers
No hers was the reward of long slow hours of study, determination, and more then just a pinch of spite.
For a witch, to learn a new spell, they required one of two things;
A scroll that was studiously copied and enchanted to preform whatever spell it held, or by another witch’s book of spells.
As a child, Holly thought it was silly to keep such secrets, remembering the speed of which her teacher closed their book when she took a peek.
At the time, she simply thought him rude and selfish to keep such secrets to himself.
Now as a woman with a bit more experience in life, she now perfectly understood his guarded nature.
Her spellbook, a small black leather bound book that had costed her grandfather a fair bit of gold, was nothing short of her life’s work
All her secrets, the spells she carefully transcribed and what felt like her heart, could be found here.
The idea of leaving it behind was as unspeakable as if Falkon gave away his amulet or her father giving up sweets.
A library felt different after she had mastered the first level of knowledge and truly became a witch
At first she would grab any book that hinted at magic, books on its history, roles of notable witches and wizards as well as accounts on more infamous ones in the hopes of uncovering any hidden spell the author may have hidden for a like minded soul to find.
They were fruitless and frustrating, of course she realized that she was thinking like an average person. No magi would be foolish enough to hide spells in such obvious books
Instead see had ended up cross referencing anyone from the kingdom’s list of registered magi to any authors in the libraries glossary.
That time she was rewarded with a small treasure trove of valuable information
From a small cookbook she had found a strange pattern of using carrots in every third recipe, which was doubly suspicious after seeing a tonic that had referenced the ingredient twice, as if to make a point in its inclusion.
Now finding a secret and solving it was two very different things
She had checked out that book for weeks, reading and rereading it to the point where if she had ever seen a carrot again, it would be far too soon.
Her irritation turned out to be exactly what she needed, her repeated aggressive flipping of the pages was enough for its old binding to give out and flooding her room with all the lose pages
It was then that she realized that the book’s decorated margins made a pattern when lined up. With key pages collected and organized, she found the proper pattern that soon made up the words of a spell after layering the pages over one another in just the right way.
With that she uncovered the Spell Mending, which came at a great help to fixing that book and promising her a guaranteed card renewed now that her borrowed books were promised to being returned in better condition then they left.
That granted her access to the libraries restricted section, a place full of valuable and rare books that were far to old to lend to the common reader
In one beautifully colorful book she had found the spell Color splash as with the help of small smooth chunks of colored glass she was able to find the spell hidden in the strange multi colored text
Magic missile soon followed in a first edition copy of The five branching wand, a common place book for the novice witch, but was hidden in ink that only responded to rhythmic taps on the pages as if the book anticipated her boredom of rereading a book and gifted her something new to study
Her remaining spells, Mage armor, Iight, Shield, and Cloud of daggers, were all gifts from her teacher. The latter only given if she swore to treat it with caution
Now back in her father’s house, she remembered something important
Her father despite his strong reputation of being a powerful if not volatile druid had reportedly had some brief studies as a wizard.
If that was true, then she could only imagine what secrets he had found during his studies, now one only question remains… where would he had hidden it?