Xiao made her way into the library in the main tower, right in the middle of the Monastery grounds. Yin is stumbling after her younger cousin, but she wasn't calling out to her since that would warrant her a warning from the librarian and a punishment of copying the library rule twenty times.
"Hey." Yin whispered when she caught up to the young witch in between two bookshelves which went up to the ceiling.
The bookshelves were one of the older ones at the back of the library, and the books themselves were bound by thicker leather, meaning it's at least a hundred years old. Beady black eyes looked up at Yin from underneath overgrown bangs. Xiao should get a haircut soon... Then, Yin looked puzzlingly at her cousin when she saw a book of spell crafting in the younger witch's hands. The content was weird, to say the least, but that's normal for books that's written years ago. Time and people change, so does trends.
"Those are outdated, you know." The older witch sat down next to Xiao on the ground.
"I know. I didn't come here for the spells." Xiao smiled lightly and opened the book to the first page.
The author's name was covered, but when the older witch looked closer, she realized that instead of using a piece of paper or ink to cover the name, the name was physically scratched out carefully by a knife.
"Huh, that's weird." Yin hummed and picked out a random book from the shelf. Just like the one her cousin is holding, the author's name was scratched off too.
"It's written by the last shadow wielder who was born in the royal family." Xiao traced her hand over where the name was erased. "Prince Alexander's ancestors, going back ten generations, so his direct eight times great uncle."
"The assignment is over, Xiao." Yin carefully placed the book back on the shelf, and she eyed her cousin.
It's no secret that the young witch put a lot of effort into her work, and it's also no secret that Xiao can be very obsessive with a topic or a spell for a long period of time, usually two to three weeks after she learned it, and then she moved on the next obsession. Last time it was teleportation spells, and this time it's the Silverin Temple assignment.
Well, an old temple is less dangerous and less noticable than teleportation spells at least. Uncle David wrote to her father last time that Xiao managed to teleport herself from her dorm directly to her Professor's Rubicon's classroom, which is across the main Monastery grounds.
It's very impressive, but the Abbot scolded Xiao for wasting her magic power since teleportation cost four times more mana than flying on a broom. But it's also no secret that the young witch has a huge mana capacity for someone her age, and that means she can keep going while her peers collapsed from exhaustion.
Teleporting across the Monastery isn't very impressive, but it is very impressive when it's done by a second year, since they haven't reached or found their maximum mana capacity yet.
"Yeah, but whoever this guy was, he's hilarious." Xiao opened a few pages forward, and she pointed at some notes written at the bottom of the page.
It's the author's footnote, the young witch is holding a first edition book. Since the author's name was scratched out, Yin understood why the book was never copied.
The foot note read:
_________________
note to self: learn to use right hand
silver carps sucks
_________________
Yin let out a giggle, and Xiao's smile widened. "It's funnier with context."
"There's context?" The older witch asked with genuine interest in her voice. "And what's wrong with silver carps? They're delicious."
"He had silver carps as experients, not as food." The young witch clicked her tongue as she opened a handful of pages. "This isn't the first complaint about silver carps, but he kept using them."
Beady black eyes landed on another footnote, and Yin wondered if the silver carp were more plentiful back then.
_________________
note to self: children are spawn of hell
subject 10&12 jumped and died
stupid shits can't stay still
_________________
As shown in the diagram above the footnote, the "subjects" were drawn as fishes, silver carps to be specific. And from what Yin could gathered from the paragraphs, the author was trying to transport fish through hydrokinesis and teleportation at the same time.
What kind of experiment is that? What point did the author tried to prove? It's less complicated to carry fish and teleport yourself than to put fish in a floating blop of water and teleport that floating blop of water.
"This is ridiculous." Yin shook her head, and a smile remained on her face.
"He did stupid things so we don't have to." Xiao turned the pages over, and in the conclusion, a highlighted paragraph stated that a spell can be teleported.
"Pray tell, why would anyone need to teleport a spell?" Yin sighed as her cousin shrugged.
Then, the younger witch got off the floor. "Let me see if I can borrow this book."
That earned another giggle from her cousin, and Xiao patiently waited for Yin to stand up.
"What are you gonna do with it?"
"Read it, of course." The young witch gave her older cousin a look. "Don't give me the 'you should get a real hobby' lecture. Reading counts as mine."
"This book is really old." Yin changed the subject as she began walking out the aisle. "I don't think the librarian would let it out, but good luck. I'm going to the music floor."
"Bye." Xiao held the book firmly in her arms as she watched her cousin walked out the library. With a sigh, she went to the librarian.
The librarian is a nice woman with dark skin and brilliant blue eyes, twenty three years of age and having an obvious crush on Uncle David. Because of that reason, Xiao doesn't know if the librarian genuinely likes her or she's just being good to her because she's related to Uncle David. Either way, the young witch doesn't care because the brunette didn't give the book a second glance when she saw it's Xiao who's borrowing.
"Studying hard as always." Librarian Arya Oyekan chuckled as she noted down Xiao's name in the list.
"Oh, I read it for fun." The honest answer made the librarian grin, and Xiao can only stand in front of her desk with a polite smile. "I'm half way through, I'll return it in three days."
"What a prodigy, even your 'fun' is studying." Perfect manicured hands reached out to pitch Xiao's cheeks hard enough for it to hurt a little, but not hard enough for her to complain.
After Arya's fingers left her face, the young witch took the book off the desk and quickly deposited it in her messenger bag.
"Goodnight, Ms. Oyekan!" Xiao waved at her as she began walking to the exit.
"Goodnight, cutie!" The librarian smiled back.
Later that night when Yin returned to her room, she found a note on her desk. Oh, Xiao won't be coming back tonight, she's finishing that weird spell crafting book since it's not allowed out the library. With a shrug, Yin threw the note into the trashcan.
Meanwhile, not far from their dorm, a pair of female guards were playing the meta-tic-tac-toe. The guards themselves once lived in these same dorms, and after they graduated from their 5 years of education, they enlisted to become guards. They were in the middle of their match when they saw Xiao appeared at the fifth floor lobby balcony, where the door was opened because none of the girls bothered to close it since curfew is two hours away. The guards know that Xiao is just a second year, and second years don't normally use teleportation spells since it takes a toll on their mana. But Xiao is one of the top ten in the Monastery's overall rank, so the guards just shrugged and went back to their game as the young witch walked inside.
The real Xiao, however, had her eyes on the guards. As soon as their attention left her illusion, she began chanting another teleportation spell under her breath. She just teleported an illusion of herself walking, and illusion spells were one of the first things that's taught in year one. The illusion took just a little mana, and it surprised the young witch even more when the teleportation took less mana than the spell she's teleporting.
The book's right, spells can be teleported, and the demon did experiments on stupid things so Xiao doesn't have to, such as what kind of spells can be teleported and how many silver carps can be teleported in a spell.
The teleportation spell was activated, and Xiao found herself in front of the bridge. Her chest rose up and down as she's breathing hard, and she looked up at the night sky where the stars were looking back at her.
"Little diamonds in the sky," Her voice echoed through the walls, and the runes glowed red, welcoming her back. "Can you see me through those eyes?"