Tale of Four

Knocking on the door to Elder Maxwell’s office, Tristan patiently waited. After five minutes, he finally heard a sound as numerous items were knocked around and a pair of footsteps approached. The door flew open, and the old Magi looked down at Tristan with a strange smile, pulling his hood down, revealing his thinning set of grey hair.

"Young princeling. This is rather surprising. I had heard from Lord Fox that you did not agree to assist in his plans. Have you come to discuss this, or is there another matter?" Even in his old age, his voice was clear, carrying a deep wisdom inside of it.

Tristan shook his head. "If you are not busy, Elder, may we talk?" Elder Maxwell looked behind him for a moment before shaking his head and lettign tristan in. Stepping into the man’s room, it felt more like a lab rather than a study. It was an organised mess to anyone who saw it; numerous animal parts and herbs littered around, carefully stored to make sure they weren’t damaged. Sheets of paper littered the floor, each one detailing different alchemy recipes, runecraft, theories and random knowlegde. A bookshelf filled with books sat in the back corner, all of them heavily worn from how much they had been read.

"Forgive me for the mess. I have tried to clean this place many times, but when I do, I can never find what I need." Quickly freeing a second seat for Tristan, the old Magi took a seat back at his desk, the one place that was clean of the clutter that filled the room. "What is it you wish to discuss?"

"The arcnae truthfull." Tristan saw the Mgais’ mood perk up. Whereas he was entertaining him before now, his attention was caught.

"The arcane. A rather strange request from a Cosmaton."

"Is it. Wasn’t my ancestor Wolfram known to be a Magi?"

"One in hundreds, Princeling. Although I assume you do not wish to become a Magi; rather, I do not wish to invite you."

Tristan smirked, "What do they say? Only those invited, the lucky or Magi, can enter the Mad House." The leader nodded, "I take no offence, but I am curious as to why you wouldn’t invite me."

"Becuase to invite a person in means you will take them as a student. Whilst many take multiple students, I am not like that. I have mine, and he is the only one I shall ever have." Tristan nodded in understanding.

"I am not asking you to take me as a student; rather, I wish to make a deal with you." Interlocking his fingers, Tristan leaned back and rested them on his lap. "Even if no one shall say it aloud, it is well known that the Magi are heavily interested in my family’s blood as well as the other Great Lords." Tristan looked around near him. Seeing soemthing sharp, he quickly picked it up and poked his finger to draw a drop of blood. "The arcnae, in return for providing me material and teaching on it, I will give you my blood to use for your experiments."

Elder Maxwell expertly hid his desire and cleared his throat. "A rather strange offer, Princeling. After all, I am a loyal..." Tristan rolled his eyes, and Elder Maxwell realised there was no point in keeping up the farce, his eyes staring at the drop of blood. "It is an interesting offer." Reaching into a drawer, he pulled out an empty glass vial and lifted it for Tristan. Noting to him, the old man threw it over, and Tristan caught it. Dropping the blood in, Tristan looked up and saw the desire for more in the man’s eyes. Knowing his first payment had to be slightly bigger, he took the sharp object and cut his finger a little more, squeezing a few extra drops of blood in.

Throwing it back, refusing to offer anymore, Elder Maxwell stared at the blood in delight, suppressing his desire to kick Tristan out and begin studying it. "The Great lord and Cosmatons have always been brilliant to observe." Elder Maxwell said, holding the vial up, "It shames me to say this, but there have been cases of bastard children sold to us to be studied alongside tombs robbed for their bodies."

"And of course those who did it were severely punished." Tristan made sure to ask, making Elder Maxwell smile.

"Knowledge is an abyss. One must be careful delving in, or they risk never being able to climb out. Whilst those who studied living humans were banished, their work was rather unethical; grave robbers never were, unless caught." The old man sighed and finally lowered the vial. "Despite this, I won’t deny that anything they discovered was shared with the Mad House and kept. After all, there is so much more to learn from the living than the dead."

"Does me giving you blood risk this?" Elder Maxwell shook his head.

"There is a difference between a person offering drops of his blood and a person dissecting a living person they bought. Treat it like herb picking. Taking a few is fine, but destroying the forest and taking everything is too far." Tristan’s eyes widened in surprise.

The Magi were people who wished to learn the truths of the world and have knowledge of all. Following that logic, he would have thought they would have had no limits to what they considered acceptable, and was shocked to find that even they had boundaries. If it was built on ethics of fear, he couldn’t be certain, but it made him at least a little happy to know they existed.

"I’m curious, as I’m giving you my blood, I feel it is only fair, but from these past experiments on Cosmaton blood that may or may not have happened, was anything discovered? Why is it different? What allows us to have summons connected to it?" Elder Maxwell carefully thought for a moment.

"Of course, these things never happened to your family." Making sure to protect himself, he carried on, "But willing participants have allowed us to find many things, mainly your ancestor, Wolfram. As a Magi, he was heavily interested in his own family’s power and led the research on Cosmaton power. To this day, any Magi who study the royal Family and Great lords have copies of his records." Elder Maxwell stood up and grabbed one of the worn books from the shelf.

’The blend of Material and Immaterial. A dissection of Cosmoton Power. Wolfram Cosmaton.’

Reading the title, Tristan made it clear with his gaze his wish to take it. Elder Maxwell took no offence and laughed, taking it away and putting it back on the shelf. "Unfortunately, it is my only copy, and many Magi are stingy to give up their own. Besides, during these turbulent times, I fear what such a record would do if it were leaked while it is in my possession. But as a sign of trust, I hope you do not say I own such a thing."

"Of course." Tristan leaned against his hand. "Only if you answer my initial question."

"Deal." Elder Maxwell retook his seat. "First, I need to make one thing clear. The Magi do not refute the existence of Gods." Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Those who delve into that study may debate their nature and what constitutes being declared a God, but we do not doubt beings capable of Godly Power exist; we have plenty of records from Veston and beyond detailing that such beings do." Tristan nodded, "Now with the Cosmaotn blood there is soemthing no Magi has ever been able to decipher. The thing inside of it that allows the connection between the Material and Immaterial."

Elder Maxwell grabbed a knife and cut his hand. The old man didn’t flinch and let the blood pour down his hand. "You look at my blood and your own, and they look identical. But they are not. For normal people, each has a different blood type. We have discovered eight types to be shared amongst the majority of humans, myself included. But then beings such as the Cosmatons and the Great Lord fall outside of this. Inside their blood, there is one thing no one can decipher properly. The connection to the supernatural powers and immaterial in the Cosmaton case. We read it, we can look at it, and some have even tried to replicate it, but it is like reading a book in a language you do not understand. Obviously it makes sense to whoever can understand, but you do not understand the language to piece it together."

"Does the blood not have a connection to the arcane? I would have assumed your blood to be like mine if you wielded arcane power." Elder Maxwell shook his head.

"The soul, in my opinion, is the source of that. Once again it is debated, but anyway. The soul is what holds arcane power. The soul is the only part of a human that connects directly to the immaterial, housed within a material body. As our soul is housed within, we can draw upon it to access arcane arts. This is why some Magi struggle to wield the power, whereas others are geniuses who can do it as naturally as breathing. It is a simple matter of how easy a Magi is able to connect to the Immaterial via their soul and draw power."

Tristan nodded and caught on, "So the Cosmatons bypass this via their blood." Elder Maxwell smiled and nodded.

"From what I understand, the Cosmatons are always connected to the Immaterial, their blood and soul both a connection. As for why, as I said, we do not understand; whatever allowed it can’t be deciphered." Elder Maxwell wiped his hand clean and poured some liquid onto it. The wound slowly closed after a few minutes. "In return for blood, I will tell you this. Your ancestor, Wolfram, was a genius when it came to arcane arts. Now one or two records can be discounted, but the Mad House has no reason to embellish his achievements, and too many records, both from observers and his own, prove that he reached a level of mastery that the human body could afford."

Tristan looked down and thought for a moment. There was obviously a teaching within what he just said, and it was a matter of finding it. Thinking back to everything, the answer was quick to understand: "His blood allowed him to draw on the arcnae far easier than a normal Magi."

Elder Maxwell nodded. "The Cosmatons already have a foot in the door with the immaterial. That means access to the arcane power within their body is far easier. That is not to suppress Wolfram’s teachings; he was a genius in another sense, in that he understood the nature of casting Arcane arts, but simply put, all Cosmatons who learn the arcane will have a far easier time."

"I see." Tristan smiled. "Is there a way to learn it?"

"For a price." Elder Maxwell said with a smile, "But not today; I am busy." Sighing, Tristan stood up.

"I understand. Thank you." Before he could leave, Elder Maxwell went to the bookshelf again and pulled a book.

"Read this. It’s an old book, one that children of the Mad House learn." Taking it, Tristan frowned, seeing no title. "Now remember, Princeling. The arcane is brilliant, and the path to learn the world’s truths, but knowlegde is dangerous. One misstep and you shall never return."

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