OOM post: The magic library, Monday morning, Jadis, 'Suti and Teja

[asar_suti]

It is gardening season now, but that doesn't mean that Asar-Suti would neglect the library.

He is sitting there now, cataloguing bibles. Not magical? Of course bibles are magical -- to many, many worlds of witch- and vampire hunters.

And these are all very special, in that regard.

Comments

[whitest_witch]

"Good morning," Jadis says to him, as she closes the door behind them. "I'm glad you're here - we have a new library member."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Hi, Jadis," Asar-Suti says, looking up from a 17th century bible from the American colonies of the British empire. Strange things are scrawled in the margins.

"Oh, you're bringing Teja!" he adds, getting up and grinning. "Welcome -- I heard you read Greek and everything? Finally decided the books are worth falling in with the -- what did you call us? Nithings!"

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings," Teja says, eyeing the book that seems -- Christian, somehow.

[whitest_witch]

"Interesting," Jadis says, leaning over Asar-Sutis shoulder to look at the book. "Annoying, but interesting."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Just feel the power of all that belief collected in that book!" Asar-Suti says. "It's humming with an energy that wants to protect against all that the people who used it thought evil -- demons and witchcraft and vampires and werewolves! Of course, it has nobody to direct that energy, but you can feel the fervour! And look at the notes in the margins -- wow that is some serious magic in there!"

He turns the page with the fascination of a hunter handling a large, serious gun.

[ostro_goth]

"Such fervour," Teja says, interested despite himself, "caught up in holy water, burned half the face of a friend of mine forever -- he is a blood-drinker, and priests who used such" -- he touches the book with one long, disdainful finger -- "thought him evil, and tortured him at will. Woe betide any world where that superstition is indeed true!"

[whitest_witch]

Jadis sighs, and looks away from the book. "Woe betide any world that believes that there is only right and wrong, and no shades in between - no-one can fit into that sort of confinement - lest they be fanatically insane."

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks at her. Fanatically insane?

"There were many shades of grey, in my world," he says, "but some things are plainly wrong, and catholic priests are among them."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"All of them?" Asar-Suti says. "Down the entire history, on all the worlds that had them?"

He shakes his head. "I'm a Dark God of Awesome Powers, or at least used to be; all the Cheysuli knew with the same certainty that my Ihlini and I were 'plainly wrong'. Let's not go there, shall we? You're here about books."

[whitest_witch]

"Don't paint everyone with the same brush," Jadis tells Teja gantly, "or you will be as bad as some of them are."

She turns her smile on Asar-Suti when he speaks - for an 'evil being', the god is one of the more reasonable people she knows.

"Books - absolutely. Is there any reason Tekja cannot have a key to the library?"

Perhaps Asar-Suti would be good for him - as would some wider reading.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"No, there's no reason," Asar-Suti says. "As long as he doesn't touch the books of magic, as opposed to the books about magic."

He looks at Teja.

"The books of magic are the ones lying over there, chained to their shelves. Do you see the furry one? That's the Monster Book Of Monsters! If you want to not touch only one of those more than all others, it's that one! It bites, tears up other books, and is generally monstrous. Bit Guppy on the leg when it broke loose some years ago, and tore up nine other books of magic beyond recovery. I'm not regenerating your fingers if it bites them off! Other than that, yes, you can have a key and read books as much as you want."

[ostro_goth]

"I need my fingers -- I am a smith!" Teja says. "I will not touch those books."

He looks at the purple one.

"Thank you!"

[whitest_witch]

Jadis nods, and smiles. Job done!

"I can show you around, if you'd like," she offers. 'Suti had looked rather busy, and there's no point encouraging them to argue!

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Asar-Suti says to her. "I'm rather engrossed with this. This is such a fascinating spell to banish demons. I wonder if it would work against me..."

His voice peters out as he broods over the book, dismissing the two others from his thoughts.

[ostro_goth]

"If you read it out and banish yourself, one would assume Jadis is powerful enough to save you," Teja says, but Asar-Suti just nods and grunts.

"Thank you," Teja says to Jadis. "Yes, it would be good i you can show me around so I know which books would be interesting for me to browse through, and which would be useless to me, as I cannot make use of the magic."

[whitest_witch]

"That would be rather amusing," Jadis says. "Although it's entirely possible, depending on the spells definition of a demon, that it could banish me. I am a djinn, after all."

[ostro_goth]

"I have no magic," Teja says, "so I would, most likely, have to call on the aid of Gil Whimple, Yrael or Belar, or another person that lives here and has strong magic, to save both of you, if Asar-Suti banishes both at once."

[whitest_witch]

"I wonder where we would end up?" She muses. She suspects she knows, though, where she would be banished to, and shivers at the thought of that no-place.

[ostro_goth]

"I do not know where demons go when banished," Teja says. "These things were not real in my world!"

"Hell, of course," Asar-Suti says, looking up briefly. "Or at least some underworld. I used to live in one, a purple fiery one."

He turns back to his book.

[whitest_witch]

"Mine was blue, but still had the flames," she says with a shudder. "Now. The library is organised, but nothing is really labelled, so you have to know where to look - or ask. Or just open books at random and hope."

[ostro_goth]

"Hope it doesn't bite off my fingers?" Teja asks; but he is smiling.

[whitest_witch]

"That too," she says. "Or sear your eyes from your sockets, or curse your genitals to wither off - there are some rather inventive curses and defences on some of the books."

[ostro_goth]

"I do need my eyes," Teja says, "and I would rather remain a complete man, although my eyes are much more important."

Pause.

"I will be careful."

[whitest_witch]

"Sensible," she says, nodding to him. "If in doubt - ask."

[ostro_goth]

"Yes," Teja says. "I would protect my eyes and fingers."

He looks around, and points at a shelf. "Are those safe?"

[whitest_witch]

"Yes," she says, nodding. "That section is all theory - nothing in there that would hurt you, so you'll be fine."

[ostro_goth]

Teja takes one at random.

"How To Travel With A Salmon?", he reads the title, incredulously.

[whitest_witch]

"It's a little less ridiculous than it sounds," she says, with a quiet chuckle. "The author has some rather interesting points to make, actually."

[ostro_goth]

"Then perhaps, I should remember to read it, at some stage," Teja says.

[whitest_witch]

"You could do a great deal worse," the witch nods.

"Now. I shall leave you to browse. I'll be in the library for a few hours, and I doubt Asar-Suti will move from that table for the rest of the day, unless Gil comes and gets him."

[ostro_goth]

Asar-Suti looks up briefly at the mention of Gil, then shrugs, and returns to the book.

"Thank you," Teja says to Jadis. "I will do that, then, and see what this place has to offer."

[whitest_witch]

Jadis nods.

"Enjoy yourself," she tells him solemnly, and then makes her way to the table where she has her current reading set out - the other library users know not to go poking about and moving things, or she's liable to snap at them!

Now. Which page was that formula on, again?