Chương 12: Chapter 11: Restricted access

Mana Sensitivity changed the way Elizabeth read. Before acquiring it, diagrams of mana circulation had been abstract illustrations accompanied by measurements she could not verify. Now faint colour clung to enchanted ink, protective bindings and the metal threads sewn into the spines of several textbooks. The differences were subtle.

A book on healing carried pale green traces around its preservation enchantment, while the introductory alchemy text emitted a weak mixture of blue and amber from symbols stamped into its cover. Her mathematics book contained almost no visible mana at all. Elizabeth spent the remainder of the evening comparing them. She recorded colour, intensity and movement, then moved each book to a different position on the desk to determine whether the surrounding light affected her perception.

The colours remained visible in darkness and did not cast light onto nearby surfaces. Closing one eye made no difference. Pressing a hand between herself and the books obscured them normally, suggesting the System had incorporated the sensation into her vision rather than placing the information directly into her thoughts. She turned the skill off. The results were useful, but they did not bring her any closer to Mechanistic Replication. She opened her personal interface and focused on the skill.

Mechanistic Replication — Level 1 Observe, analyse and reproduce the underlying mechanism of a System-granted skill. A skill may be registered once the user has acquired sufficient understanding of its structure, activation conditions and produced effect. Incomplete understanding may permit a weaker, unstable or inefficient reproduction. Current registered experimental skills: 0 The wording was clear enough to be frustrating. She had observed several skills since arriving at Crownspire.

Professor Lorne had channelled mana from a crystal. Alexander had allowed lightning to move beneath his skin. A student in the alchemy laboratory had maintained a spherical flame above her palm. Elizabeth understood none of them. She knew the visible inputs and outputs. Mana entered through channels, the System activated a skill, and an effect appeared. Everything important occurred between those stages.

It was equivalent to being shown glucose and carbon dioxide, then being asked to reconstruct cellular respiration without knowing that glycolysis, the Krebs cycle or oxidative phosphorylation existed. Observing the overall reaction did not reveal the intermediate steps, enzymes or regulatory mechanisms that made it possible. Mechanistic Replication demanded the intermediates. Elizabeth began with the books already in her room. She read until after midnight.

The first-year text for Mana Control and Safety explained the recognised types of mana channels, common symptoms of overuse and the correct method for interrupting an unsafe draw. Its diagrams showed where mana travelled through the body, but not how a skill redirected it after activation. The Class Development text described how experience influenced skill acquisition and advancement.

It explained that repeated behaviour could cause the System to offer related abilities, but treated the process of skill construction as inaccessible. Applied Alchemy provided reaction tables, ingredient properties and accepted procedures for introducing elemental mana into chemical mixtures. It was more detailed than the others, yet whenever a System skill influenced a reaction, the text simply listed the skill as a condition. Apply Catalytic Infusion for eight seconds.

Maintain Thermal Regulation until precipitation begins. Use Purification upon completion. The skills were treated like instruments supplied by nature. The author described when to use them, how much mana they consumed and what result to expect, but not what they actually did. By sunrise, Elizabeth had finished four books and developed a headache. She slept for two hours, attended breakfast and continued reading between lessons.

Over the following six days, she completed every first-year text required by her timetable. The mathematics material took the least time. It began with arithmetic, ratios, unit conversions and basic geometry so students without private tutors could follow the later lessons. Elizabeth worked through the exercises only long enough to familiarise herself with the kingdom's notation. The scientific texts were more useful.

Mana Biology introduced mana-active organelles, channel cells and the metabolic demands created by skill use. Applied Alchemy described hundreds of measurable interactions between mana and matter. Spatial Phenomena explained coordinate anchoring, dimensional storage and the consequences of failed displacement. The academy possessed substantial knowledge. Its researchers understood that mana could transfer energy, alter molecular arrangements and influence biological signalling.

They had measured absorption rates, mana density and the resistance of different materials. They used controlled trials, comparative samples and statistical methods more advanced than Elizabeth had expected. None of them could describe what happened inside a skill. Elizabeth added a new heading to her Research Log.

Mechanistic Replication: Required Information Beneath it, she listed what she needed: Mana flow during skill activation Changes in channel activity Relationship between intention and System response Transformation of neutral mana into elemental mana Targeting and termination conditions System-provided protections Differences between class skills and general skills The first-year books answered almost none of those questions. She visited the main library the following afternoon.

Crownspire's library occupied three connected buildings and extended farther into the mountain than its exterior suggested. The entrance hall alone was larger than the western hall at the White estate, with six floors of balconies rising around a central reading area. Shelves disappeared into adjoining chambers. Bridges crossed between upper levels, while narrow staircases curved around pillars covered in glowing catalogue numbers.

Thousands of small lights drifted beneath the ceiling and followed students between the shelves. The air smelled of paper, leather and preservation chemicals. She had seen university libraries in her previous life, including institutions that stored millions of physical and digital texts. Crownspire could not compete with their total volume, but the visible collection represented knowledge from a world whose physical laws she had only begun to understand.

For several seconds, she forgot the restrictions likely attached to it. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Then a hovering light moved towards her and projected a line of text across the floor. FIRST-YEAR REGISTRATION: EASTERN DESK Elizabeth followed it. The librarian seated behind the eastern desk was a thin elderly woman with bronze spectacles and a Common Archivist badge pinned to her robe.

Books moved around her without visible assistance, sliding from a return trolley and arranging themselves into several neat stacks.

"Name?"

"Elizabeth White." The librarian touched a crystal plate. Pale writing appeared across it.

"North House. Experimentalist. First-year access." She looked over her spectacles.

"What are you searching for?" Elizabeth had considered several ways to phrase the request.

"I need introductory texts on the internal mechanisms of System skills." The librarian waited.

"Skill formation," Elizabeth clarified.

"Mana transformation during activation, System mediation and the structures that convert intention into a repeatable effect." The woman's gaze shifted back to the plate.

"What course requires that?"

"None of my current courses."

"Then why do you need it?"

"My class develops through experimentation. I possess a skill that requires understanding other skills at a mechanistic level." The librarian tapped the plate several times. A list appeared, though it faced away from Elizabeth.

"We have introductory works on skill behaviour, mana expenditure and class compatibility."

"I have already read those."

"All of them?"

"All the first-year texts listed under those subjects." The librarian examined her more carefully.

"When?"

"During the past week."

"You read Comparative Skill Behaviour, all three volumes?"

"All three." The librarian's expression changed by a small but measurable amount. She turned the catalogue plate towards herself and continued searching.

"There are more advanced works on System mediation," she said.

"They are not available under first-year access."

"Which year gains access?"

"Most become available in the third year. Some require instructor approval regardless of year."

"What titles are restricted?" The librarian's mouth tightened.

"Restricted catalogues are also restricted."

"That seems unnecessarily recursive."

"It is intentionally recursive." One of the floating books settled onto the desk beside her. The librarian stamped its return page with slightly more force than necessary.

"You may request access through an instructor. If the material is relevant to your class and you can demonstrate the required foundation, a professor may sponsor you."

"Which professor would be most appropriate?"

"For skill structure, Professor Lorne or Instructor Hale. Professor Saye may sponsor material relating specifically to alchemical skills." Elizabeth thanked her and left the desk. She had expected resistance, but not complete refusal. The academy allowed first-years to handle volatile chemicals, practise combat and activate newly acquired skills, yet considered theoretical knowledge of those skills more dangerous than their use. That suggested the restricted books contained something useful.

Professor Lorne remained in the Mana Control hall after the final lesson, reviewing assessment sheets while two assistants returned training crystals to their cases. Elizabeth waited until the other students had left.

"Professor?" Lorne looked up.

"Lady White."

"I would like permission to access the library's restricted introductory texts on System mediation and skill mechanisms."

"No." The answer arrived too quickly for the professor to have considered her reason. Elizabeth remained beside the desk.

"You have not asked why."

"You are a first-year student asking for texts whose first chapters include instructions for suppressing System safeguards. Your reason will not improve the request."

"My class requires mechanistic understanding."

"Your class is Experimentalist."

"That is correct."

"Then experiment with material appropriate to your level."

"The available material does not explain what skills do."

"It explains what you need to know to use them safely."

"That is not the same thing." Professor Lorne placed the assessment sheets aside.

"No, it is not." For the first time, her refusal sounded considered rather than automatic. She gestured towards the empty demonstration floor.

"When a student activates a skill, the System performs hundreds or thousands of adjustments. It controls mana pressure, protects surrounding tissue, maintains the intended effect and ends the process when stability fails. First-years barely understand their own channels."

"I am not proposing immediate interference."

"You are requesting books written for people who do." Lorne folded her arms.

"You awakened less than two weeks ago. Your Spirit is not fully stabilised, your class has no documented development path, and you have already been found remaining in laboratories after dismissal." Elizabeth kept her expression neutral. Professor Saye had apparently recorded that.

"I left when instructed."

"That time." So the academy had not discovered her later entry.

"Could I receive access limited to theoretical texts without practical instructions?"

"No. You lack the foundation to distinguish the two."

"I have a doctorate in biochemistry," Elizabeth almost said. The words reached the back of her throat before she stopped them. In this world, she was eleven years old. Claiming qualifications from a university that did not exist would not strengthen her argument. Professor Lorne returned to her assessment sheets.

"Read the second-year public catalogue if you find the first-year work too simple. Ask questions in class. Build the foundation properly." Elizabeth inclined her head.

"Thank you for considering it."

"You may leave." Elizabeth left the hall. She tried Instructor Hale the following morning. His refusal took longer, but the result was the same. He asked her to describe Experimentalist, questioned what she understood by mechanism and listened while she explained that her class progression depended upon reproducible knowledge. He agreed that the standard curriculum might be insufficient. He still declined to sponsor her.

"The restricted section does not contain a convenient explanation of how every skill works," he said.

"It contains competing theories, dangerous procedures and records from people who misunderstood their own results. Without practical experience, you will not know which is which."

"That is true of all scientific literature."

"Which is why scientific training usually comes before unsupervised access." Elizabeth left with a recommended reading list she had largely completed already. She had followed the correct procedure. The librarian had directed her to the instructors. She had explained the relevance of the material and asked for limited access. Both professors had refused, not because the knowledge was unrelated, but because they believed she was too young to use it responsibly. Their conclusion was understandable.

It was also inconvenient. That evening, Elizabeth emptied the academy guides Alexander had sent before her departure. Maps, laboratory rules and instructor notes covered the desk. At the bottom of the bundle, she found the handwritten page she had read during her final days at the White estate. The library's restricted section is easier to enter with permission than without it. I recommend trying permission first. Elizabeth had tried. She opened the full map of the library.

The public levels occupied the three buildings above ground, but several narrow service passages connected them to storage chambers built inside the mountain. One route had been marked in pencil, leading from the second-year archive stairwell to a maintenance corridor behind the restricted stacks. Alexander had drawn a small cross beside the corridor. No explanation accompanied it. Elizabeth compared the mark with the academy's official library map. The maintenance passage was absent.

She then reviewed the opening hours, staff rotations and locations of catalogue plates. The restricted wing remained staffed until midnight, but book-return assistants entered and left through the service corridors throughout the evening. She would need a way past the first locked door, a method of identifying the correct shelves and enough time to read without removing anything. Stealing a book would trigger an investigation. Copying the relevant sections into her Research Log would leave far less evidence.

The plan still required information. She needed to observe how authorised students entered, whether the service doors used badges or skills, and how frequently the librarian patrols moved through the lower levels. Elizabeth folded Alexander's map and placed it inside her uniform. She opened her Research Log and created a new heading. Restricted Library Access: Preliminary Observations Permission had been the easier method. It had failed. Now she would investigate the alternative.