[Trade] ICQ Scholar - Queen Eudora

ICQ: Scholar

Prompt:- Draw or write your Reosean discovering something new in the world of magic. This could be from a paper source, or another person that has taken them under their wing.


Queen Eudora was having a bad day. She had just discovered a possible bastard, but as she tried to remove the stain from her family, the pup vanished into air.
That put her in a bad mood, and she could tell her attendant knew that. The servants staid hidden, running away as soon as they heard the soft swish of her silk.

The Queen wasn't going to huff or growl in anger, no, that was something only mindless animals would do.

She had to occupy her mind with something better and productive. With her head high and shining with her crown, she made her way to the royal library.
Who knows, maybe she'll find something useful to track the bastard that slipped through her claws.
As always, the library was spotless and very clean: only an idiot would let dust and dirt cover the precious and rare books that contained countless secrets on magic...

Eudora browsed around the wooden shelves, looking at the spine of each book. The leather was in pristine condition, the title of the book burned in it and painted with gold after.

“Potion Mastering, Venomous plants, Poisonous creatures, How to catch a Unicorn- Wait, why is this one here?”

Eudora's left eye twitched. Apparently, she had to find a servant and teach them how to do their job... Later, perhaps. She took the book, and went to place it back on the correct shelf, when she saw something peeking out from the pages.
It looked like a torn piece of paper, maybe the book was damaged... But no. The colour wasn't the same of the book's pages, it was way darker.

“What even..?”

She brought the book to a decorated and sturdy wooden table, setting it on the middle.
She carefully opened the book, hearing the spine of the object creak for all those years of disuse.
The book was a simple literature on Unicorns' biology and how to hypothetically catch them, something that explained how nobody ever read that thing.
But hidden in the middle, there was a page.

'The seven fires..? Is this a spell?'

Eudora wondered, in her mind, as she gently picked up the page. It was delicate, brittle and crumbling at the edges. The colour was quite dark, resembling the bark of a tree. Reading the spell and how to perform it was going to be a difficult task.

“I suppose I'll need some assistance from the court mages... Now, if only those useless servant were here, I could get someone to call him.”

She stopped herself from huffing like an annoyed horse, as it wasn't proper. Eudora then took the page, placing it in the Unicorn-catching book, and left the library to go search for a servant.
She didn't have any luck unfortunately, as servants ran away before she could even step in the room... At the end, she had to walk all the way to the tower of the castle, where the court mage resided.
She knocked on the door, and heard some rustling on the other side.

“Off-Ouch! Alright alright, I'm coming, one mom-ent.”

The mage stood there, eyes as wide as saucers, looking at the queen for a long couple of seconds.
Then he dropped in a bow, mortified.

“Y-Your Majesty, I deeply apologize for my ways-”

“Quiet, now.”

Eudora said, with a stern voice. She saw the mage jump a little, his legs trembling in fear. Good, she needed to beat some respect in those who served her, and maybe some more carefulness for their actions.

“I found a page hidden in a book in the library that needs to be examined. Are you going to let your queen enter the tower or..?”

“Y-YES! Of course your Majesty.”

The mage stepped away from the door, letting Queen Eudora in. She looked around, unimpressed, noticing dust over the higher shelves.

“This place surely has seen better days.”

She said, making the mage freeze on the spot.

“I will call for the servant to clean up this mess... And I will need to hire new ones apparently, as the ones I have here are not able to do their job. No one wants useless personal, am I right?”

It was clear what she was saying between the lines: 'You better be able to do what I ask, or you will need to find another place to go'.
The mage gulped and gestured towards a table. Luckily for him, this piece of furniture was clean, and not cluttered.
Eudora sat down, placing the book on the cold metal table.

“Here.”

She pointed at the darkened page, observing the expression of the mage, looking for any kind of reaction.
The mage looked confused, and slowly started to try to decipher the spells written in the dark sheet of paper.
His eyebrows told the Queen what she needed to know: the mage had never encountered such spell before. Maybe she was in luck, and she had found something useful that day: it certainly wouldn't erase the misstep of that morning with the missing bastard, but it would balance out the day as a normal one and not a bad one.

“So. Anything I should know, mage?”

“Ah-ehm, well... It is an ancient spell, I believe. Something that explains how to summon undead? Err... Not living beings.”

The poor guy was sweating buckets, not daring to take his eyes of the page. The Queen was not going to be happy with that explanation... But instead of hearing a snarl of rage or a 'You are fired!', the mage only heard a hum.

“Very well. I will... Study this spell.”

She got up from the table, took the page and left. On the door, she turned, making a soft swishing noise with her silk.

“I expect you to behave more as a court mage next time.”

The mage only bowed and stood there, quiet, as the queen exited. Yep, he was probably going to be fired.

***

Eudora decided to take the matters in her own paws, and after setting the book and the page in the library, she ordered to not let anyone enter until she had finished translating the spell.

With only a few candles as light source, the Queen started reading and writing on a clean sheet of paper the spell.
There were a few problems, like the stains in the darkened page: it was not water, and Eudora suspected those were bloodstains.
When she finished writing and deciphering the spell, she knew why there was blood on the page.

“A dark ritual...”

She whispered, then starter reading in her head, to avoid triggering the spell by accidentally chanting it.

'The one who speaks, will no more. The one who cries, will no more. The one who runs, will no more. Those who will lose all three, will gain a hundred.'

Then, she understood.
Written on the dark page there was the chant of the spell, and the ingredients. Bones, lots of bones, the hairs of a white horse tail, the eyes of a tiger and the horns of Unicorns.
Apparently, if one sacrificed their eyes, voice and limbs, they would have been able to raise an army of monsters, not alive, but since they weren't ever born as being, they weren't dead neither.

“An interesting spell... But not of use, at least for me.”

She said, and taking the two pages with the spell written in she left the library, bringing the magic weapon to her personal chambers.
There she wouldn't have to worry about fools trying the summoning spell.


***(1261 Words)***