D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Lily ---

"Now, while it was fun to go into my hobby, even just a bit, we should get to why you were originally here. I do have other meetings after this… however if you want to chat about my collection after the prizes have handed out? Don't be intimidated, just grab Mint and we can discuss it.

If that feels awkward, know that Mint can participate in the conversation if she wants… but she's heard a lot of this before so perhaps she won't bother," said Thyme.

"I'll make sure to take you up on that," said Lily. *Not only will it make for a good break from my practice but it just seems like such an interesting thing to hear about. I wonder what Thyme would say?* "I was looking for books on shadow magic,"

Thyme frowned at the answer but nodded anyway. After a bit of shuffling around Thyme sighed and said, "Right so… I expected that but I also didn't prepare for it properly. That's because we've got a few options here… but it requires a bit of an explanation. Then again, I'm sure you're just as interested in that,"

Lily nodded eagerly, her tail swishing behind her, brushing against Kat, causing her girlfriend to smile off to the side. Thyme grinned at the enthusiasm and began, "So as I'm sure you've noticed, Shadow magic and Darkness magic are not the same thing. This puts you massively above your pears in this regard.

Shadow magic and darkness magic are quite rare disciplines… no rarer then Paper magic, but of course unlike my old friend, masters of those magic were much less inclined to share their findings.

"This is an issue because a lot of people conflate the two. This happens not just with mages that have the affinity, but also scribes, historians, and librarians that come after the fact. Many people refuse to acknowledge them as the separate disciplines that they are. This is not helped by the fact that they are so closely linked with a host of similar spells.

What's worse, is that Shadow/Darkness is one of the most common duel affinities, and if you take into account the rarity of both it actually comes out at the top as the MOST common affinity, beating out Ice/Water by a considerable margin by percentage if not sheer numbers.

"This means that a lot of people just assume that shadow, or darkness mages are just unskilled at 'a section' of the magic. Worse, some people do know the difference, but find someone with a talent for the other and train them wrong, never noticing because they have sufficient talent to just seem like a mediocre student.

"It's a massive mess and I have tried correcting it but there is sufficient evidence floating around that decries me as wrong on this topic… and admittedly it's not been something I care too much to fix. I don't have an affinity for either, and I've not really gotten to know anyone that has the affinity myself.

Sure I know OF people with it, and I've got my own collection of shadow magic books… but I can't honestly say they're all shadow magic books, if that makes sense?"

"That's… unfortunate," said Lily with a frown. "Is there nothing to be done about it?"

"Ah well… that's where the issue comes in. You've got two choices before you, and I wish I didn't have to force you to make them… but while I didn't get started on shadow books for you, I did do some work in the background to make an offer at all. Of course… I do have a few restrictions on me… not ones I couldn't just overtone if I wanted but well… I find them fair enough in this case.

"Sorry. Let me to down to it. I've managed to argue that I possess no true Shadow Magic books that are up to my standards of being prizes… so if you want I can go through my collection and compile you a book of exclusively shadow spells and some personal notes to help get you started.

Alternatively, I can offer you a few of the better books labelled 'shadow magic' but will still contain some darkness magic… and likely not make a point to pick out the difference,"

"Um… I get this is the obvious question… but why wouldn't I ask for personal notes from you? I know that time isn't something you'll ever have an issue with and I trust your expertise on magic…" said Lily slowly, trying to work out what piece of the puzzle she was missing.

The fact that politics were coming into it meant there was something here clearly… but how that would effect Lily she wasn't sure.

Thyme nodded and said, "Indeed, really it shouldn't matter. I'm just collating some Shadow Magic and providing notes that would accompany the spell anyway… but even just doing that could get them classified as 'personal spellbooks' of mine. Which are much tougher to justify giving away. Now, technically I could fight them on that… but they're not wrong enough for me to easily win that fight you know?

Especially when my notes aren't going to be all that good. I've not really looked into the magic too much.

"So here is the deal I was able to finagle. I can give you a good collection of books that contain Shadow and Darkness magic with zero personal input. They'll likely have quite a lot of overlap, especially at the beginning, but they'll branch out into unique places and hopefully give you ideas… but it'll be up to you to work out which spells are which, same with runes as well.

You'll be responsible for everything all on your own… but I can probably balance it out so that you'll get more out of it… but only probably.

"I can't have too much input remember? So I can only offer you a number of the better books, perhaps up to twenty but certainly no more, and likely a bit less… or I could compile it all myself. If I'm doing the work I can promise you exclusively shadow magic spells that cover a wide range of Rank 1 and Rank 2 spells, and one or two Rank 3 spells… but nothing more than that,"

"Oh… sorry this is putting you in an awkward position," said Lily. Kat glared at Lily for the unnecessary apology… which of course made her feel like she needed to apologise again.

"It's fine," said Thyme waving a hand to dismiss the issue. "Really, I'm lucky this sort of thing hasn't come up more often. I might have to look into the ice/water section and publish a few compendiums of different magics under a pseudonym to get around this in the future but it really isn't much trouble.

I'm a touch annoyed I'm not able to give you a proper book… but well not everyone is invested in spreading the knowledge of their own magic, or uniquely capable of it like the Paper Mage.

"It's why I was able to give you such a potentially valuable book so early in the tournament. The mage made countless copies of the thing. Despite how well it's made, you can find them just about everywhere you look and a bunch of people, such as myself, have plenty of copies. I think I've got something like five hundred?

I know he handed the royals at least a thousand each, and then more for their libraries.

"So… yeah, take your time to figure out what you'd prefer. It's not a major rush… but if you can't decide before you leave the dimension there's not much I can do to deliver it to you once you do decide.

Feel free to let me know whenever, just via a note dropped off a Minto or come for that discussion on clothes… but I do have other meetings and I've already extended this one with my magic for a bit. Shouldn't go overboard,"

"Ah sorry," said Lily. Kat lightly bopped Lily on the top of her head and Lily blushed in response. "Um… right well… I DO want to ask about why you can't abuse your time magic, or perhaps why you shouldn't but we can do that later I guess. See you?"

"No, no. I am the one who should be apologising. This conversation has been interesting and I am sorry I have to cut it short. I hope to see you both during your stay here," said Thyme with a wave as the pair were deposited back into their room at the inn.

"Well… that's a thing I suppose," said Kat. "Which option are you leaning towards?"

"I don't know. I think Thyme's notes would probably be a lot better then Thyme is willing to admit… but up to twenty books? That's a lot of books Kat. I might be able to squeeze more info about shadow magic out of those. That sort of research is sort of my specialty so it's very tempting.

Of course, the other thing to consider is that Thyme will probably ensure I still get the best books with minimal overlap… so it probably depends more on the restrictions in the end. I think… I want to go with the research option but that might just be my bias showing.

"Though… now I think about it shouldn't I be asking how the paper book still works? Dammit… I didn't even think about that and now it's going to bug me," grumbled Lily. Kat, the ever helping girlfriend she was… just burst into laughter.