We Die by the Book

William Hughes had a pretty good life, he thought. He had every material possession he could ever want, he had gotten top marks in all his classes, maintained good friendships, and spent the majority of his time being happy. He was even able to play video games in his spare time. More recently he'd gotten into Cambridge University for theology, and in the past week he'd been given a scholarship and accepted into the Gentleman's Order of the Coffee-Stained Page. Sure, there were times he broke down and said to himself that he had no future, that he was the worst man he'd ever heard of, but everyone had those moments, right?

The Order was a group of scholars who ran the university's library, and received generous grants for their research. Historically they were known as the mystical Scholar's Guild, who were able to find books no-one had ever heard of, and were even believed to have been demon-slayers of some kind. It was a huge honour to be accepted into their hallowed ranks.

It had been a difficult choice for Will to start a theology class in the Divinity Faculty on account of his existing faith being in Wicca, but his thirst for knowledge had led him to the area he knew least about, and he'd been to Cambridge before and found a good amount of occult believers, as well as one great occult shop.

He certainly didn't regret his decision once he received the gargantuan sum from his scholarship and the Order, and having the keys to the library together with a vote for their purchases was a great boon also. Today he was perusing the shelves for a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum. He wished it wasn't included on the syllabus - it was a truly vile and ignorant depiction of witchcraft from a medieval Christian perspective - he had a mind to show his lecturers the Grimoire of Turiel just to set them straight on the true Christian thoughts on magic.

He picked up the Maleficarum, but another book on the same shelf caught his eye. 'Magic and Sorcery for the Novice Guild Member'. The binding looked ancient, yet still sturdy. The title was embossed in gold lettering and when he picked it out, the cover was hand-painted with a variety of symbols - many of which Will knew, but some were a mystery. He decided to take the book out, if only to research the book itself. The "Guild" it was referring to seemed likely to be the Scholar's Guild that was the foundation of the Order.

He resolved to question the president later. Meanwhile he took the two books to the counter and signed them out.

"Hey, watcha got there, Will?" Will's closest friend in the Order had just entered the library.

"Something rather interesting, James. I had to get the Maleficarum for my class, but I found this thing on the same shelf. I believe it's been here since before the Order."

"That's not so special. Let me take a look." He walked over to where will was standing and suddenly rushed into action, flipping through pages frantically, totally absorbed.

"This is incredible. From the theories detailed in here, it actually looks like magic might be possible. Like Harry Potter style magic. It says you need a Grimoire though. Some kind of decorated tool, by the looks of it. Or maybe a book, it does mention pages."

"You don't know what a Grimoire is? It is a book, specifically a book that details all of its owner's spells. What, does it have instructions for making one?"

"Yeah, it's really in-depth. This is complicated. There's a lot of uhhhh... Ingredients?"

"Oh? Like what?"

"Apart from the obvious, seems like a load of spices and herbs. They're supposed to stimulate the brain in different ways to help you focus on different aspects of a spell."

"I've never heard of using them in a Grimoire, but herbs and spices are used in similar ways in Wiccan magic too. I'd be interested to see what could turn that into 'Harry Potter magic' as you called it." They said their goodbyes and Will carried the books back to his dorm. He still had some daylight left, so he made a note of everything he would need for the Grimoire and set out buying them. By the time he got to the occult shop, he already had everything he would need for the book itself: wood, resin, papyrus and string. He'd wanted to get velum as mentioned in the instructions, but it was hard to source and frowned upon in the modern day, so he settled for a high quality Egyptian papyrus instead of cheap paper. He knew that ingredients of spells in Wicca were often interchangeable so long as they had the same properties, so he hoped it would be as acceptable with this type of magic. He found the rest of what he needed very quickly, but he could never leave this shop without buying more than he'd intended, so he picked up a deck of tarot cards and a crystal pendulum too. Thanking the owner, he returned to his dorm and began work on his Grimoire.

"Okay, so we have sage, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and mugwort. That's a pretty basic formula for beginners, and besides the sage, they all have strong and distinct smells. I won't change the recipe for the moment, but it's worth noting that I might be able to expand my repertoire by adding more properties in scent-based ingredients." He had some old leather lying around, so once he'd applied the resin design to the ash wood cover and bound the pages to it, he carefully chased the leather onto the cover. Following this, he copied the symbols and spells meticulously from the book. The final step in the instructions was to cast a spell using symbols on the cover of the book, to bind it to the owner.

He hurriedly grabbed his paints and brushes, knocking over his coffee table on the way. Once he'd finished inscribing the symbols, he recited the suggested incantation. The book glowed with a soft white light. The light gradually spread across Will's vision, and when it faded he realised his eyes had closed. Opening them, he jumped and slammed into his back wall. A creature was floating above the Grimoire with jagged wings and a sharp, toothy grin. Will stood up and flattened himself against the wall in fear.

"What are you?" He cried.

"Hahaha. My name is Angelo. I am a fairy demon bound to you by this book. If I'm honest, I've been following you for a while because your soul looks tasty. If I had known you would be building a Grimoire today I would have taken it already." He had an untrustworthy glint in his eyes.

"Well, I'm grateful you didn't, but what's stopping you from taking it now?"

"Is it not obvious? The Grimoire. When you completed it, you bound me to you. If you get hurt, the book gets damaged, and if the book gets damaged, we both get hurt. I cannot take your soul because it would kill me. I have no choice but to protect you now."

"Okay, so what do I do now? Can I just cast spells now, do I need to sleep on it, is there a vow I need to take?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. Turn the page, it should be there." Will obeyed, and found that the page was largely empty, aside from one short paragraph. The demon chanted with him.

"I vow to protect the people in all my power. I vow to improve myself so that my enemies may never best me. I vow to learn and to teach so that I may have a strong force to defend my city and my country. Lastly, as we live by the Book now, so do we die by the Book. This is the Scholar's Pledge belonging to the Magus Guilds."