27. Research

I was bored out of my mind. As it turns out magic class is ninety-nine percent theory and one percent actual casting. Or rather ‘weaving class’ apparently nobody thinks what we're doing is actually magic. Scarlet though is having the time of her life, she basically loves every class except the normal ones. Every few minutes she makes this giddy noise as if she's invented some new secret weaving technique, then she flips through the book and finds out it already exists.

“Scarlet dear, would you mind calibrating your enthusiasm? As much as I love your interest in my class it is quite a disturbance.” Mrs. Aplina politely requested for Scarlet to quiet down in her old lady voice. 

She was the stereotypical teacher archetype. Greying hair, round glasses, and a disposition that she had been doing this for most of her life by now. She wasn't a bad teacher but I never really cared for science except whenever mechanics was involved, and weaving was most definitely not mechanics.

“Sorry Mrs. Aplina.” Scarlet apologized before resuming her giggling at a much more reasonable tone. There was a pause before Mrs. Aplina began her spiel again.

“As I was saying. The four gem types relate to four naturally occurring elements within our world. Clear gems represent air, red gems flame, blue gems water, and green gems earth. Of course it isn't that simple either. From ancient wayfarers we have gleaned that these gems also correspond to more metaphysical elements. Fluids, plasma, liquids, and of course solids. The discovery of this has led to many spells thought impossible by weavers.” God she began to ramble on about chemistry again and this stupid plasma I was never taught about.

It was a bit much for me so I never took any notes. Instead I always leeched on Scarlet and Lily for theirs. Lily for her part looked just as bored as me but for a different reason. It was like she was relearning stuff she already knew like remedial classes I had to take in middle school. It annoyed the hell out of me that I was the worst graded student out of the entire class. I should be better, if not for my sake than Diantha's, she got me here and I didn't want to disappoint her. Especially not after she baked those cookies for me.

Mrs. Aplina kept going on about lineages and how inherent weaving can be passed down. That it was so important to master a gem so that you could make threads without a gem. None of it mattered to me and I nearly yawned out loud but I was able to stifle it into more of a quiet squeak. Looking around I was able to tell nobody heard me, or maybe they all heard me but didn't want to be awkward and stare. The anxious feeling of being judged stayed with me until Mrs. Aplina said something that caught my ear.

“And most of all Steilae have the greatest inherent potential in matters of lineage. There hasn't been a single account of one not being able to utilize a gem's power on their own. Of course the mastery of such abilities vary from account to account.” I propped my head at that and actually wrote something down into my journal.

It was full of what little I've learned about Steilae and Wyrms. Whatever I was, I wasn't a normal Steilae, these urges around meat weren't normal. God even thinking about that made me want to puke. I'd been on a vegetarian diet since, the risk was too much to eat anything else. Nothing I've read about Steilae helped and the books I found on Wyrms were more like bibles than actual history. I wanted to ask my teachers, Diantha, maybe even Kael, but I knew they'd get uncomfortable. Who wanted to listen to me panic about eating people?

Instead of asking others I just filled my journal with whatever I could scrounge about Wyrms and Steilae. The entire thing was only a hundred pages long and only a tenth of twentieth of it had been filled. I knew that Steilae were the kids of Wyrms, that Wyrms were rare but Steilae weren't as rare. Steilae came in these weird types and colors that I didn't really understand yet. And of course that there hasn't been a single account of a Steilae not being able to weave, we always have sparks. Yet in all my research I found nothing about cannibalism or eating people.

“And now for your partners, please pay attention to your name as I will only be saying these once.” Suddenly I realized Mrs. Aplina was giving out a group assignment and I couldn't help but listen, I needed to if I wanted to impress Diantha. She went on for several minutes before she finally reached my name.

“Mikayla, Scarlet, and Lily will work together. That concludes the groups and today's lecture, make sure to meet up with your workmates after class.” Mrs. Aplina finished with an exhausted sigh after doing this for decades.

I had no idea what the hell the assignment even was but my partners were people I knew and I hoped that was intentional. Her assignments were always simple and actually pretty fun, this one wouldn't be any different.

—

“We're supposed to make our own spell?” I exclaimed as Lily and Scarlet explained the assignment to me.

“No, we're supposed to just recreate a weave we didn't learn in class, we can use books and other resources. And it has to be one that needs three people to cast at once.” Lily snarked at me as if I wasn't paying attention.

“That's what I said.” I stated, trying my best to convince the other two though it was obvious they weren't buying it.

“Well it's only due in a few weeks so we don't have to start working on it right away.” Lily said obviously wanting to procrastinate until the final moment.

“As much as I want to disagree, it isn't the most important thing right now. I've got six assignments due this week.” Scarlet added with the absurd amount of work she'd been given.

“Well if neither of you are gonna start working I've got places to be.” I said wanting to get to the library as soon as possible.

“I'll see you two later. I've got another class soon.” Scarlet said as she hurried off towards whatever she'd signed up for.

“If you need me I'll be in our dorm, see ya.” Lily told me as she lazily walked away towards our room.

Now that everyone was gone it was time I started looking into what the hell Steilae and Wyrms were.

—

As it turns out Wyrms and Steilae weren't a highly studied subject. Out of everything I found with my limited Selukan I could only find two books that had anything to do with Wyrms and Steilae in the academy library. One of which was significantly easier to read and was half as thick as the other book. From what I could tell it was something about tales of Wyrms, stories, myths, and despite it being at least a hundred pages long it had easy enough words for me to read. It was like the book was made for children. 

When I started reading it in my dorm Lily made this snickering noise every now and then as if she was mocking me. It didn't help that the fancy illustration on the front made it look like a kids book. If I didn't know better the fox on her lap seemingly laughed at me too with those annoyingly adorable noises she made. I could have just gone back into my room whenever I wanted but I didn't want to let Lily win that easily. Backing down now meant showing her I cared about her opinion. I just went back to reading my books instead.

The storybook was written in this weird format that made it hard for me to tell what was happening. Rhymes and alliteration that with my terrible reading made me double back despite how simple the words being used were. By the time I finished reading the entire thing the sun had begun to set and the moons were starting to rise. There wouldn't be much time to finish the other book and I doubted I could even finish reading that giant thing in a day. I hadn't even opened it yet.

In totality the hundred or so pages in the book hadn't taught me much, in fact most of what I learned were just stories. It was like the book was fiction, but this world was weird enough that I believed everything it told. The stories in the book were all separate from one another without anything from one story going into the other. Most of it was about how people interacted with Wyrms and their children. One story talked about how Wyrms began to love the people of this world and decided to settle down here. Another told me how people began to hunt Wyrms due to their frightening weaving capabilities.

But there was just one that caught my eye more than the rest. This story was about a lost little Steilae searching for her family. She doesn't know who they are or even what they look like and she can only go by the colour of her scales. But eventually she does find her family. Although it's weirdly ambiguous if it's actually the girl's family. Can't the book just tell me?

Well there were a bunch of stories after that one but all of them followed the same format as one of the previous stories. Nothing in here sounded factual and more like they were made up on the spot. I felt like I wasted my time by reading these stories instead of going straight to the larger book. But ending the day with nothing felt worse than trying so begrudgingly I opened the second book.

As soon as I opened it I realized that I should've started with this one. It was a compendium of Wyrm species with descriptions that filled out hundreds of pages. Sifting through it I found dozens of different Wyrm species and some of them even had listed Steilae appearances too. It took me a few minutes before I was able to find a Wyrm that had green and black scales with green eyes. I flipped through the book peering at the illustrations and name of each species I passed. Lunar Wyrms, Plasma, Fire, Water, Crystal, dozens until I finally found the page I was looking for. In the entire book there was only a single entry fitting my description, the Venom Wyrm.

Gracing my eyes was an illustration of a snake with green and black scales. At a glance it looked like a normal snake. But reading the description quickly informed me that it was on the smaller end of Wyrms being only seventy-five meters long and ten meters wide. I had no idea how big that actually was, a hundred meters was hard to visualize in my head. Trying not to give myself a headache I kept reading.

Venom Wyrms are solitary creatures not venturing too far from their hoards. The book didn't elaborate on what a hoard was as if it expected me to just know. I continued on despite not knowing everything. Lily was in her room and I could ask her but she was probably asleep and wouldn't like answering my question if I woke her up. There have been no known reports of Venom Steilae due to the nature of their predecessors. Venom Wyrms eat and kill other Wyrms… That caught me off guard, every time I heard people talk about Wyrms it was always like they were people and not monsters. 

Due to this they only breed within themselves causing the general population of Venom Wyrms to decrease slowly throughout the centuries. They are by far the most violent species of Wyrm unable to restrain themselves once the scent of raw meat reaches them… As much as I wanted to deny it, those urges existed and even though I was a vegetarian now that didn't mean that I wasn't affected. Sometimes during lunch I felt myself getting pulled towards the cafeteria and common rooms but I always made sure to stay away. Maybe it wasn't as bad if I was full, I only… I only became a monster when I was starved.

I closed the book. Why had I even looked for it in the first place? It told me everything I already knew. When I got transported to Ennath I got turned into a Venom Steilae and now I'm a monster. Did I think it would tell me how to stop eating people? No that's stupid, everything I was doing was stupid. It wasn't like learning anything would change what I am, in fact it only told me the truth. This world wanted me to be a monster, it made me this way and there's nothing I can do about it. What was the point of even trying in the first place?

I stood up and put down the book where I had sat. It didn't have anything of worth inside of it and I'd wasted my time. Heading towards my room I lazily opened my door and closed it far too powerfully causing a slam to emanate through the room. I flinched at the noise before faceplanting onto my bed. Quickly wrapping the sheets around me I held onto my plushie. Despite my real age, holding onto Maisie made me feel safe and calm, something I needed after reading that stupid book.

Diantha made Maisie for me, she was practically a second Diantha. It was like I wasn't alone when I was holding Maisie. I know she's just a plushie but I couldn't help but hold her close to me as I fell asleep.