The Kingdom and Its Dark Mage

Kynan stepped into the room, biting his tongue. He was pretty sure the princess had been picking on him, but she was a princess - calling her on it would be a disaster.

And then he realized just how many books were in the room.

"I thought we weren't going to the library?" he said, poking at the books on of the shelves. He tried to ignore the burning in his ears and the stutter in his voice.

His face grew warm underneath his scales.

"It's not the library," he corrected, ducking his head down in embarrassment as he hurried further inside. A quick spell or two later, and most of the mess had cleaned itself up. "I, uh, collect a lot of books on magic and magical theories. Some of it is to help with my condition, but I also just want to keep my studies going even though I'm not in Caelum anymore..."

"Oh, okay," said Kynan. To stop him from wringing his hands, he snatched one of the books from off of the shelf, flipped it open to a random page, and tried to read through it.

Except it wasn't in any script that he could recognize.

But he didn't want to look stupid, so he nodded his head and skimmed through the gibberish scrawled across the pages.

Calfuray stepped into the room, and her eyes lit up immediately. She ran over to the caldron and gripped the sides, leaning down into it precariously and nearly tipping herself over. With an excited glanced toward Orpheus, she beamed.

"You're a Dappler!" She gasped. "Oh, wonderful! Good for you."

"A...Dappler?" he asked, trying to ignore his suspicions that Kynan was only pretending to read and didn't actually understand what was written on the pages of the book - he was nodding head while he was reading up on how to cast incredibly basic spells.

"Oh, you know..." Calfuray's voice lowered and she leaned forward, estatic. "The sorcerer revolutionaries. Though I guess magic hasn't been outlawed in your kingdom, since... oh, Lyse would kill to be here, I'll have to tell him all about..." she stopped her eager ramblings and turned back around, clapping her hands.

"Oh, oh! Orpheus! I know! Teach me something. Just a liiiitle spell, please! So that I can show Lyse when I get back home and-"

She stopped once more, only this time it was because her excitement left her all at once. Right. She couldn't return home. How could she have forgotten?

Her life as she had known it was on course to be ruined by a marriage she never wanted.

He furrowed his brow. Magic was outlawed? But then how did their kingdom run? They needed magic for nearly everything; it lit their homes, brought them their drinking water, and grew their food. And in the case of Telorum, it also was the reason for why they had so few fatal injuries - it was never hard to find a healer.

But before he could question her on how her kingdom worked, she came to a sudden stop and looked incredibly downcast. He guessed it was because she was feeling homesick; he remembered feeling like that when he first fell.

"We'll figure out how to get you back home," Orpheus said. "I promise."

Peeking just over the top of the book he was reading, while also still flipping the pages to keep up the ruse, Kynan narrowed his eyes. What on Fayne were the Dapplers? Revolutionaries? Banning magic? How was that even possible? Anyone could learn magic with enough time and patience. Nobody could control or get rid of something that belonged to everyone - that was the whole point.

Oop, he'd been looking up too long; they had to have spotted him by now. Kynan coughed and looked back down at the book. "This is a good book," Kynan said, voice just a little shaky, nodding his head just a little too eagerly. "Do you have any others like it?"

Orpheus wasn't prepared to address his guess that Kynan wasn't actually reading the book, so he walked over to the nearest bookcase and grabbed one on a similarly basic topic. "If you like that one, you should like this one," he said, placing it beside Kynan.

Calfuray knew that she had been misunderstood by Orpheus, but she didn't bother to correct him. She just needed time to think- that's all. And maybe, when the time came, she would just decide to stay.

"Thank you." She said simply, giving a half-smile.

"Thanks," said Kynan. He got onto the ground, set down both books in front of him, and alternated flipping pages between them. As long as he looked serious enough, he figured, he'd look like a very good reader. Orpheus had to be impressed.

Calfuray started to snicker, but quickly masked it with a cough. She eyed Kynan and sat in front of him, smiling in amusement.

"How are you reading two books at once?" She murmured in faux awe. "That's amazing."

Kynan didn't even bother looking up at her; he knew she wasn't being serious. It was in her voice and it was in her laugh. Good thing she wasn't the person he was trying to impress.

"That's just what I do," he said, continuing to flip through the books.

Orpheus was glad he was wearing his cloak. If he didn't have the hood up to cover his face, he was sure his expression when he saw Kynan trying to read two books at once would have given away the fact that he was very much onto what he was trying to do.

"It's...cool that you can read two books at once," he hesitantly said, not quite sure how else he was supposed to respond to what Kynan was attempting. He sat down in a nearby seat. "I usually just read one at a time because it helps me focus more on the material."

"Y-yeah," Kynan said. He glanced up at Orpheus, shut one of the books, and flipped through the pages of the other. "I do the same thing."