Chương 36: The Shape of Divination

With the book of divination in hand, Lira rushed down to her alcove. She sat and began reading without delay. To her surprise, this was the most comprehensive primer she had ever encountered. Instead of unintelligible rumbling or zealot prayer chanting, this primer read more like a manual. A scouting manual, to be precise, something to be handed over to a soldier in training, or maybe an explorer or a cartographer. The book started by explaining how one would locate oneself in the wild.

It gave instructions on studying the sun as it rose in the east and set in the west, how to follow the flow of rivers, and where settlements were most likely to be found. It explained concepts like star navigation, highlighting important constellations one might use to determine their position. Lira read slowly at first, then faster as she realized how grounded the information was. There was no mysticism for its own sake, and no attempt to obscure meaning behind ritual or reverence.

It treated knowledge as something to be shared. It reminded her of her father's style of writing. His translation work, or how he sometimes got paid to sanitize a noble's memoirs. The next section talked about divination as a discipline, how it reached through objective reality and gathered information. How truth, as it happened or would happen, was objective even if the observer's interpretation of said truth could be subjective.

"Being near the ocean is a fact. A person could get confused and think the lake is the ocean. That false belief doesn't make a body of water 1000 times its size. And divination could help cut the facts from fiction." By the time she reached the final pages, she had already begun to piece together how magic and knowledge intertwined within this discipline. Divination was not about pulling answers from nothing. It was about narrowing uncertainty, using what was known to find the truth.

Then, at the very end, almost as an afterthought, four spells were listed back to back.

"even if knowledge fails you, you can always divine your location using; Ladar. Oshkan. Nimbra. This spell is to divine north. Ladar. Oshkan. Pika. A more general but less reliable spell to divine any location you think of. Ladar. Oshkan. Maha. This spell divines the closest source of drinkable water. And finally, Paldina. Ladar. Pristana. Turat. Oshkan. A passive spell that activates whenever danger is nearby." Click. Click. Click. Click. Lira blinked as four spells settled into place at once.

Three were cantrips, and the last was tier one, yet somehow, she felt no backlash. She exhaled slowly. This primer was efficient. More than that, it was refined. The knowledge it contained aligned itself with her memory, settling in a way that felt similar to her book absorption spell, but even smoother. She turned the primer in her hands and read the spine. Guide to the Noble Scout Mage, by Archmage Lorant. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She shook her head slightly. That could wait. More importantly, she had learned four new spells, which meant she now had more magical words to decode. All four spells shared Ladar and Oshkan in common. She already knew that Oshkan meant location.

"That left Ladar… that has to mean divination," she muttered, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. With the word for divination, her options expanded considerably. An entire new branch of magic was now within reach. But she forced herself to slow down. Understanding came first. She could craft more spells once she was ready. She already knew Maha was water, Pika was mind, and Paldina represented passive activation from her previous spells. That left the remaining words.

Using her father's ledger, she was able to match one more. Turat. was Future. That left Pristana and Nimbra as the only words she did not have matching meanings for in her native language. Through the process of elimination, Nimbra appeared as a directional reference. So it probably meant North. Pristana appeared in a danger detection spell. And since none of the other words in the incantation referred to or even alluded to danger, the word could only mean one thing.

She leaned back slightly, letting the structure settle in her mind. Ladar. Divination. Nimbra. North. Pristana. Danger. Turat. Future. Four more words were added to her vocabulary, three of which were not part of her father's lexicon. The next step was testing them, starting from the simplest to the more complex.

"Ladar. Oshkan. Nimbra." The effect was immediate. A faint pull settled in her awareness, consistent and unwavering. It did not shift or adapt. It pointed in a single direction. North. The spell effect felt similar to her book detection spell, a similar nudge at the edge of her awareness, like an extra sense, but for direction. The lack of complexity was probably its strongest point, reducing the chances of failure. The spell simply existed as a constant reference. She nodded slightly, then moved to the next one.

"Ladar. Oshkan. Maha." This time, she expected the spell to highlight the water within the library, objects like her waterskin, the wash basin, or even the residual moisture in the air. It did not. Instead, the pull pointed southwest. Lira frowned for a moment before recognition set in. The well in the outer bailey. The nearest source of drinkable water. The spell was not detecting water itself, but viable sources of it. Once again, the limitation increased reliability.

She began to see a pattern in these divination spells.

"Ladar. Oshkan. Pika." At first, nothing happened. Then she focused on a location. The kitchen. A nudge to the left. Her dorm room. A different nudge, slightly shifted in angle. She tested further. The closest bathhouse. She had no idea where one was. She only used the servant baths, and she didn't live in this rich neighborhood to be familiar with such establishments. That was reflected in the divination pull.

It was weaker and less defined, but still present, guiding her somewhere beyond the castle grounds, a general area rather than a sharp point. She tried to look for a book with the spell, but nothing happened. She had expected as much. This was a spell for places only. She let the spell fade, her thoughts already moving ahead. This could be useful. If she ever found the confidence to use magic outside the library, navigation, both within the castle and beyond it, would become trivial.

This spell alone would make getting lost nearly impossible. Finally, she turned to the last spell, the tier one spell.

"Paldina. Ladar. Pristana. Turat. Oshkan." Nothing happened. Lira frowned slightly, considering the structure. Paldina. That made it a passive spell, similar to the warm pocket spell, something she had no active control over. She reviewed the other components again. Divination. Location. Danger. Future. It was not meant to be used actively. It would only activate when conditions were met. When danger was in the near future, she thought. She exhaled slowly and let the spell settle into place.

If her understanding was correct, it would warn her seconds, or maybe minutes, before she stumbled into something she could not handle. That alone made it an invaluable spell. But testing it was out of the question. She wasn't going to endanger herself for any reason. She allowed it to remain active as she sat in the quiet of the alcove.

Now that she understood more about divination, she concluded that knowledge went hand in hand with the discipline, and rather than rushing to create a new spell, she decided to first read the collection of books she had gathered. It always paid to be prepared.