Chương 18: Mister Abraham's library
I have been training for more than 5 weeks with dad and 4 weeks with mister Chrestos. Tomorrow we would be doing our usual weekend meeting and I am planning to show him Solomon's ring.
Today I was thinking of possible ways to improve the use of gate. But I couldn't think of anything.
Creating 2 or more exits for gate may seem cool, but the idea is also a bit obscure.
How can I link two exits to one entry? And how would I be able to travel to either exit?
I decided to put that on hold for the time being.
Today, I took permission from my father to skip training and go visit mister Abraham in the library. It's been a long time since I've been there and I kind of missed the place.
I got out from house and went to see if Philip would like to join me in the library.
I knocked on his door and Madame Martha came out.
"Hi Madame Martha, it's been a while since I've last seen you, how have you been?" "Young Edward, hi, Thank you for asking about me. I have been doing well.
Stella told me that you've been training non-stop this past month, good luck" "Thank you Madame Martha" "Is Philip here? I was on my way to the library and I wanted to know if he'd like to go with me." "Philip left early this morning, he has been training since he awakened his affinity, but I think he'd be at the library in the evening." "oh, ok, then thank you, I'll be there" I said as I left off.
I was making my way while I was lost in thoughts.
(I should've asked what his affinities were; I hope he got what he wanted) I enter the library and Mister Abraham was at his usual place cleaning books from the accumulated dirt.
He noticed me immediately when I stepped foot inside. He raised his head and smiled at me:
"Little Eddy, long time no see, I thought you forgot me" "Mister Abraham, how have you been, sorry I wasn't able to drop by. I was busy all month with training. I took permission today to come and see you" "Ho, thank you Eddy, I appreciate you coming here, otherwise, this place feels so lonely" I went towards the counter and stood by talking with Mister Abraham "Mister Abraham, can I ask you a personal question?" "Eddy, you have to drop that extra politeness, we know each other for many years now, and you are not a stranger anymore but family" When I heard Mister Abraham, I felt warmth in my heart. He was one of the people that I really respected. He treated me just like his grandson.
The question that was on my mind was why he still kept the library open even though he barely gets one customer in a whole week.
There was no profit whatsoever.
"Thank you mister Abraham" "So, what did you want to ask?" "I actually wanted to know why are you still keeping the library open even when there are not much customers coming in." I asked him while trying my best not to offend him in any way.
"hmm, Eddy, money is not everything in the world. I am not in need of money now, I have enough. But the reason is because it reminds me of my late wife." "Sorry" "You don't have to be. I was working as a noble's librarian in the empire; my wife was working there too. That was how we knew each other, it was 40 years ago. When we got married we were both still at our youth, I was 25 years, she was 20 year old. We wanted to save some money and then head back to the Alexandria…" Mister Abraham paused for a bit and his voice had a hint of sadness, regret and anger, I didn't know what happened to him:
"There was an incident and my wife lost her life. I left the empire and returned to Alexandria and opened this library. It makes me remember the good times I spent with my wife." I understood the reason why he still keeps the library open, but I didn't know what happened to his wife.
I remember when he was teaching me Aristarchii, I would ask him the meaning of some words, and when I mention certain words, he would act like there is something wrong with him.
But I was certain of something, the incident that happened to his wife was still bothering him.
We talked for a bit more and Mister Abraham told me to go and read something. He was feeling down, so I decided to leave him.
I wasn't sure what to read I moved a bit and looked at the signs hanging on the shelf holder ahead of me.
There were signs on it that would direct you towards the category of books you want to read.
Books related to history were grouped together; the ones about geography were at a different place etc… I decided to take a look and see if I could find any book that spoke about Space Affinity, I wanted to know if there was any Space mage who might have wrote about it.
Some mages would write something about their research and different spells that they came up with in books and publish those.
But most mages would like to keep their research a secret. It would be stupid if you went out and published a new spell that was very powerful and then every mage would be able to do it.
A mage's power, not only lies in his strength and affinities but also his uniqueness.
I take a step forward towards the area that holds books about magic studies and then I pause.
An idea came to me.
This point in the library looks like a crossroad. You come from the front door but when you get here, the path in front of you separates into multiple paths;
each path leads you to a certain area inside.
That's when I realized.
That's what I need: a crossroad.
If I can create a gate where it leads me to a crossroad that detaches into multiple exit points then I would be able to make two exits appear from a single entry point.
I was really excited; I couldn't wait to experiment with this theory.
I turn towards the door and dash forward.
Mister Abraham looked at me dumbfounded and said:
"What's wrong Edward, where're you going?" "Don't worry Mister Abraham, I'm fine. Thank you" I said that as I left the library and headed straight home, running like a maniac. I haven't passed even an hour in the library, so when I got back my parents asked me what's wrong.
I told them that it was nothing and I was just here to try something new.
I went into the backyard.
But when I got there, I face palmed. I didn't know what to picture to make it work.
I felt really stupid. I rushed here without having a plan of what to do.
I kept pondering for a while and I thought of something.
The way I picture the gate now is by linking two points by a black tunnel. If I wanted the gate to lead to two exits, I just need to split the tunnel and have it link the entry, the two exits with a crossroad in between.
I started picturing a gate just in front of me. A black tunnel extending from it towards an intersection of two tunnels heading left and right.
The two tunnels each leads to an exit gate.
Two gates formed one at my right and the other was on my left.
Well, the first step is done. Now, I need to test it.
I had no idea how.
I decided to stick with the basics.
I took some rocks from the ground and threw them at the gate.
I threw a rock at a part of the gate nearing the edge of the gate spell.
The rock went in and got out from the gate at my left.
I threw another rock but this time at the opposite side of the gate, near the other edge.
This time the rock got out from the gate at my right.
It was a success.
The preliminary test was successful. Now, on to the live experiments. It's time to use the rats.
I placed some food for the rats at the two exits of the spell. I took two rats in my hands and placed them in front of the entry point.
I pushed them at the two opposite edges of the gate.
I pushed the big rat at the point where the rock left from the left side and the small rat at the point from which the rock left from the right side.
Surprisingly, it took the rats some time to get out.
But unexpectedly, the rats got out from different places than I firstly expected.
The big rat got out from the right side, whereas the small rat got out from the left side.
I didn't know what exactly happened but I knew one thing.
It was another success. The rats are still both live and well.
Now, it was time for the final step of the experiment. I would be the one going inside now.
I have to if I wanted to use the spell one day.
As I took a step inside, darkness greeted me…
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