Chương 78: Deafening Waves

Lira spent the rest of the morning reading about moths and other metamorphosing insects alongside Prince Lyth and some of the noble youths. To her surprise, the library possessed a remarkably extensive entomology section. Nearly half of the books appeared to have been written by the same scholar, a man who seemed utterly obsessed with insects. Not that Lira could blame him. The man had found his passion; she could tell from the illustrations alone.

Every wing, antenna, and segmented leg had been drawn with astonishing precision. Some of the drawings looked so realistic that they appeared ready to crawl off the page. Lira found herself repeatedly flipping back to admire them. She had to admit that the author was a far better artist than she was, at least when it came to realistic depictions of nature. Lira could sketch adequately when necessary, but her strength had always been calligraphy.

The insect scholar, meanwhile, had somehow managed to combine scientific accuracy with genuine beauty. This gave her an idea. She could practice reproducing his illustrations. She didn't particularly care about drawing insects. No, this would help improve her visualization for her Ink Spell. The more accurately she could picture how something was drawn in her mind, the easier it became to recreate it with magic.

It would be a useful exercise during busy days when the library contained too many visitors for active magical experimentation. After the lunch rush ended, Lira returned the bell to the storage tower before stopping briefly by Master Dalwin's office. The steward was busy checking himself in the mirror while trying on a garish lavender suit, while a valet was helping him with his cufflinks.

"Moths, you say?" gasped the older man.

"How dreadful. Are they bothering the noble guests?"

"No, they are in the upper storage area."

"Ah." The older man relaxed.

"Hardly a matter of pressing concern."

"They are eating through the old papers." Then she reconsidered her approach. Dalwin wouldn't care about that, so she added, "Prince Lyth was with me when I found them."

"You said Prince Lyth saw them? Oh, dearest me!" he gasped.

"That's unacceptable!" He turned to the valet and said, "Tell Ramal and Collin to deal with it." Lira didn't know Ramal, but Collin was an overworked handyman who was good with carpentry. Why was he being sent for pest extermination? Then she remembered the old adage: the reward for good work is more work. She decided to stop openly showing her competence; otherwise, she might end up like that poor man, solving problems left and right throughout the castle.

She wisely decided to escape before any responsibilities could be assigned to her. Out of sight, out of mind. As she was leaving, she briefly considered asking for permission to move one of the spare beds into the library but changed her mind. Celene would be a much better person to ask. The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Lira resumed her duties while Prince Lyth spent most of his time reading as his noble companions drifted in and out of the library.

One by one, they departed until evening approached and the building gradually emptied. Eventually, the final visitor left, and Lira closed the front doors with herself still inside as silence settled over the library. She hurried toward her hidden alcove, at last free to do some spellcrafting. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She settled into her chair and opened her notebook.

Now that she understood the relationship between sound and waves, she could finally begin experimenting with an entirely new branch of magic: Sound Magic, or perhaps Wave Magic would be a more accurate name. Either way, she intended to start small. Her first spell would use her most familiar structure: Pika. Hishar. Farshum. Mind. Wave. Manipulation. A simple wave manipulation spell. She already had six spells that shared the Pika. Farshum. combination, so she figured it would be the easiest spell to imprint.

Lira closed her eyes.

"Pika. Selan. Tureth." As the familiar meditative state settled over her mind, she focused on everything she had learned throughout the day. The amphitheater, the bell, the ripples spreading across the surface of the well, the invisible movement of air, and the vibrations that traveled outward from a source, growing weaker with distance. A wave wasn't water; it was the motion of the water that merely allowed waves to become visible. Sound was the same phenomenon occurring through the air.

She imagined vibrations spreading through space. She imagined the air itself moving in tiny pulses. She imagined those pulses reaching her ears, and somehow those pulses being heard as sound in her mind. Pika. Hishar. Farshum. Click. The sensation was unmistakable as the spell settled into place. Lira opened her eyes, a grin spreading across her face. Success. She extended her index finger and tested it immediately.

"Pika. Hishar. Farshum." A sharp, piercing noise burst into existence directly in front of her.

"OW!" Lira dropped the spell and clapped her hands over her ears. For several moments, she sat there blinking as a slight ringing echoed through her ears.

"... Well, that worked." After recovering, she decided to test the spell more carefully. This time, she pointed toward the washbasin.

"Pika. Hishar. Farshum." A humming tone filled the alcove, weaker this time. She had made sure of it. Unlike before, she directed the spell to a spot directly over the water. Tiny ripples spread across the surface. Lira's eyes widened. The spell was definitely creating a physical vibration. She leaned closer, thinking. If sound were simply a pattern of waves, then changing the shape of those waves should change the sound itself... at least in theory. There was only one way to find out.

She adjusted her mental image, spacing the vibrations farther apart before casting again.

"Pika. Hishar. Farshum." The resulting tone emerged far deeper than before. Instead of a painful screech, the alcove filled with a low humming vibration. Lira smiled. Then she altered the pattern again and again, making it higher, then lower, then higher again. She spent nearly ten minutes experimenting with different wave patterns before finally leaning back in her chair. Unfortunately, she quickly discovered the first limitation. The complexity involved was absurd.

Creating a simple tone was easy enough, but creating multiple tones simultaneously was harder, and creating the countless overlapping vibrations necessary to reproduce actual speech seemed nearly impossible. She doubted she understood wave theory well enough to imitate a person's voice. But that was to be expected from a manipulation cantrip. It was too general and too broad. Still, that didn't mean the spell was useless. Far from it. A sufficiently loud burst of sound could serve as a distraction.

Maybe a concentrated wave might startle an opponent. She even considered potentially deafening someone with a sound attack. No, that last idea was dangerous since she wasn't immune to her own magic. Maybe if she could direct it instead. One thing was for sure: she needed more experimentation and more practice because Wave Magic was proving far more dangerous than she had expected. And this was only her first cantrip.