Chapter 67
"Scroll of Water" was like an encyclopedia, containing many stories about the Water Elemental Realm. It briefly explained the horizontal and vertical divisions of the sea, aside from the Endless Water Realm. The Endless Water Realm wasn't always temperate, as the areas near the poles were colder (where Frostchildren lived). The areas closer to the core were said to be a strange "solidification of water," no one knew exactly what it looked like, but no humans had ever been there.
What bothered Sylas was that the Frostchild story was similar to the fantasy in the Endless Water Realm. Did they borrow ideas from each other? This might require the expertise of professionals, like Ms. Catherine from the Rost Family, to study the order of publication. Sylas then wrote a letter to Catherine, who worked at the library, and had Shamodial take both letters away by the afternoon.
Now, all she could do was wait. She flipped through the "Summary of Sentence Structures" boredly and reread the main text. Honestly, she was quite familiar with this book and couldn't find anything she had missed.
She turned to the last page, which was titled "References and Recommendations." It listed many recommended books, as stated by the Rost Family twins. It was important to include this section to avoid copyright issues. Most people would at least write down some designated textbooks. Within this section, there were many enduring theoretical works and guild journals.
The citations in this book were undoubtedly thorough, even including the issue numbers of the journals. Sylas had originally planned to put it down, but she remembered that she had decided earlier to "carefully read every word." So, she glanced at it again and recognized one of the journal issue numbers.
Her notes were spread out beside her. Just below the list of "Journal Articles by Sashara," there it was! They were only two inches apart. "Wand" Guild, Year 536, Issue 6. Her own article?
Following her notes, she easily found the title of the article in that issue, "Intensity and Severity: The Effects of Adverbial Intensity on Spell Intensity." She quickly retrieved the issue from the library's journal collection. It was an old issue that Xerath wouldn't normally have, but luckily, Sylas found the article in a compilation of conference papers called "Intensity and Severity."
It was purely accidental. When she was feeling distressed, a water elemental nearby formed a water ball to comfort her, but she inadvertently blew it everywhere. Some drops landed on the book cover, and when she opened it to check the damage, she unexpectedly discovered it.
In the article, the adverbial intensifiers used in imperative sentences were classified into six levels, ranging from the mildest "no + request" to the highest level, "solemnly + request." The article also provided a comparison of the different destructive effects produced by substituting the adverbial intensifiers with the same spell.
Throughout the article, there was no mention of "Endless Water Realm" or a direct summons to the "water lord," like in the previous article, "Mana, Spell Strength, and Syphon Phenomenon." However, after careful reading, Sylas found a sentence that said otherwise.
"The highest level adverbial intensifiers are typically used in conjuring spells, such as 'at this moment, I solemnly request.'"
Conjuring spells... like the summoning conjuring spell for the water lord? Does this mean that this imperative sentence will definitely appear in the summoning spell? Regardless, this must be a puzzle that can be solved when Hyectra returns. Sylas decided to write her notes on the first page of her notebook. It looked much fuller now, with at least four lines, including two confirmed and one pending. And every sentence had the source and relevant annotations, packed closely together, no more blank spaces.
But nobody knows how many lines this spell has. Maybe next time I should write a letter to the Rost family's twins and ask them, "How long is the longest spell in the world?" That could be a standard to reduce the desired length at least.
The daytime in winter is only a short period of time, and these days the storms keep the sky dark all the time. The library lights have been on, and after finishing her homework, Sylas planned to go to bed. But the room at the very top seemed to be sparkling with golden light, tempting her with a magical allure.
Anyway, she won't come back today...
This thought teased and tempted her, urging her step by step towards the upstairs. She arrived at the exquisite maple door again, grasped the silver handle, and pressed it down slowly.
A familiar scent slowly emerged as she took a step forward, instantly enveloping her. This time, she wasn't in a hurry to climb into bed. Instead, she boldly walked to the window.
Aimekotes is a stone tower in the desert. The majority of the tower is made of thick stone walls, and there are huge triangular supports on the outside. Between the supports are groups of three long and narrow windows, but only a few can be opened because the desert winds are too strong.
There is a writing desk in front of the window. Sylas doesn't have much memory of it. In her memory, there is only the window near the end of the bed where Xerath once carried her and looked outside at the orange core storm (now she knows it was caused by the fire element).
The table is empty, with only a bottle of ink and a feather pen placed in the holder. She carefully opened the drawer, knowing it was wrong, but still proceeded.
Xerath is a huge puzzle formed by countless little mysteries, and now she is peeping into a small part of it.
It was disappointing that the drawer contained nothing but a stack of old, yellowed pieces of paper, the kind they often used, all blank.
It was clear that this writing desk was not used often. If Xerath wanted to do research, she would choose to go to the library. And rather than getting up in the middle of the night to write, she might prefer to sleep directly on the library's small bed.
With the thought of "checking everything twice," she reached out and pulled out the stack of paper, casually flipping through it. However, on the bottommost sheet, there was half a page of writing.
Sylas pulled out this sheet of paper, and it read...
"Dear Mother: I am deeply disappointed with your decision. I am sorry, but I cannot comply with your request, plea, demand, or whatever it is you consider it to be. Legally, I am not obligated to indulge your whims, and morally, I am not obliged to agree with your decision."
There was another sentence that had just one word written, and it seemed to be "I." However, the letter was not finished, the paper had creases, and even after being pressed for many years, they were still very visible.
During that time, Xerath's handwriting still had a hint of childishness, unlike her current sharp and polished strokes. Sylas gently caressed the words, imagining her assertive demeanor.
In Sylas's memory, the word "mother" was vague yet warm. Her memories of her mother were always accompanied by a pair of green eyes similar to her own, some catchy tunes with forgotten lyrics, and scenes of her playing with various elemental spheres. If she hadn't died, would she have stayed the same in Sylas's memory, or would she have continued interfering in others' lives, leading to irreconcilable conflicts?
Assuming all mothers in this world were the same, Sylas couldn't imagine what drastic changes occurred between the warm image in her memory and being "argued against forcefully by Xerath."
The partly written letter was never sent, and she had no way of knowing whether Xerath was arguing with her mother or if they never saw each other again. However, she suddenly remembered something. If the letter paper was here, maybe the envelope was nearby too. By looking at the address on the envelope, she could find out where Xerath's family lived.
She placed the unfinished letter at the back of a draft paper, carefully arranging it to match the traces on the desk. Then she searched the nearby cabinet, but unfortunately, it only contained some medications - tablets or pills with strange names. They were stored in a box that, judging from the marks on the top, hadn't been opened for some time.
There was another locked cabinet, and Sylas placed her hand on the keyhole, intending to use a small unlocking spell. But at the same time, she sensed some traces of magic on it.
She lowered her hand.
It was a simple magic trap, easily breakable. However, if she did that, Xerath would realize that someone had been here. There was no one else besides Sylas, so it would definitely be known.
Sylas's curiosity was about to burst. She walked to one end of the locked cabinet and lifted it, discovering its weight was heavy.
She lifted the other end of the empty cabinet and keenly felt that the weight on both sides was different. The locked side was much heavier, making it hard to imagine what could be inside.
She circled the writing desk twice and reluctantly returned to the bed. It was cold at night, and her recent actions had left her hands and feet feeling cold. She jumped onto the bed and burrowed into the covers. While sleeping on her side, she noticed several books on the bedside table, all from a series of historical chronicles.
At this point, there were no more clues. Sylas closed her eyes and soon drifted into a dream. After an unknown period of time, in her dream, she "saw" Xerath walk in through the door. At a glance, Xerath noticed she was sleeping on the bed, but "Sylas" remained sound asleep, completely unaware that she was being caught in the act. All she could do was watch helplessly as Xerath approached the bed, took off her robes, and gently lifted the covers to slip her hand inside.
The actions under the blanket were unknown, but Xerath embraced "herself" from behind, making her feel as if there was an extra arm wrapped around her waist. This startled her awake from her dream.
Her heartbeat was racing, and there was no intention of calming down at all.
She quickly got up and looked around, but there was no one, no Xerath. She hadn't come back; today was her second day away.
She got up as usual, had breakfast, finished her morning homework, casually picked up a book from her reading plan, and made some reading notes. She spent the day like this, and in the evening, she couldn't resist spreading out all her belongings again.
Since Sashara was a serious person, maybe all of her references were potential clues. She also copied the quotes from the back of the "Syntax Summary" into her list (she already had five lists, the first two were invalid, and she still had three lists to use). However, this book seemed to have been written particularly early, and there didn't seem to be any remaining journals that Xerath had ever bought.
