Magic Show

"So..." Rivera frowned as she looked over Roko's report, "Holy doesn't get stronger the less you know."

 "Yes." Roko sighed, "Though this is only a theory."

 "Well I don't see any problems with it so far." Rivera said, "Now next is your magic research correct?"

 "Right. The report should be on the right side of the-"

 "Why read when I have you here to tell me?" Rivera closed the folder and looked down at Roko from atop her throne, "Go on then. Tell me what you discovered through your research on magic."

 Roko sighed, "I've been trying to think of a good analogy for this..."

 "Is it that complex? Try me. I'm an experienced mage myself so I should understand it." Rivera nodded.

 "Well to start...do you know what your own brain looks like?"

 Rivera blinked, "...Excuse me?"

 "Do you know what your own brain looks like?"

 "N-No."

 "Why?"

 "What do you mean why? It's inside me, I have no way of looking at it."

 "Exactly. Now we can start talking about magic seals."

 "Magic seals?" Rivera frowned, "I think I remember you making things like that with mana. What about them?"

 "Well let me ask you; what about my research was causing you concern?"

 "I was receiving reports of your...seals making a few of my elves uncomfortable."

 "Right. And the reason for that is because these seals are the manifestations of their own spells."

 "Manifestations?" Rivera repeated, "I'm pretty sure seals have never come into our knowledge of magic."

 "But it has for humans. It was explained to me that magic is a reaction that we trained to respond to specific stimuli. For example, in intentional casting training we repeat the spell in our head to build the image of a seal that we memorize and tie to the spell. Without imagining the seal, the magic will no longer trigger off saying the spell name anymore."

 "I've never heard of this." Rivera frowned.

 "That's because elves are so magically attuned that things like these seals never occurred to you." Roko continued, "You've maybe brushed against it, you probably build something similar to the seals in order to place enchantments on things but something like this has never occurred to you because casting magic is so natural to you. These seals are incredibly personal. It was explained to me that one person casting a fire spell has a different mental seal than another casting the same spell. But my spell, scan, can show me those seals that people use, that most people never see. Now imagine an elf that has no such understanding of magic seals witnessing me recreate them nearly perfectly. An aspect of yourself that you've never known about, never considered and is incredibly personal. Even if they don't understand what it is, even if they don't recognize it as their own magic, they can recognize it as something familiar. That mix of confusion and familiarity is what's causing those feelings of discomfort in other elves. It's as if I pulled out a replica of their brain without ever even talking to them."

 "..." River sat there, frozen as she considered Roko's explanation.

 Roko stood there, hoping his explanation was clear enough until Rivera spoke up,

 "Recreate my magic seal."

 "Alright. Let's see if I remember it." Roko muttered as he brought his hands close together and began to draw upon the mana around him. He had drawn rough sketches of the few seals he knew in his notebook but he felt pretty confident in his memory of the design. When he was satisfied with his work, he looked up at Rivera who looked visibly uncomfortable.

 "Truly..." Rivera grimaced, "It's certainly an unnerving design."

 "That gives some credence to my theory at least."

 "So what now? Can you use that circle to cast my magic?"

 "Not at all." Roko sighed, "This is the seal for your water spell and as you can see, I haven't created any water to speak of. The replication doesn't allow me to cast any spells. Though it was enough to fool the protective enhancements in the Hero's Trial."

 "That sounds concerning."

 "You shouldn't be." Roko said as he dismissed the seal, "This is as far as my research has gotten me."

 "So...you still can't cast any magic?"

 "Nope."

 "Well what about the arrows you shot at Waur? Those certainly seemed to exhibit magic."

 "That was kind of a spur of the moment thing." Roko sighed, "I'm not sure how I even accomplished that. But at that point, I wasn't mimicking just the spell but also the enchantment. It was two layers less complex than yours but I simply copied the enchantments. The magic came from that."

 "Still, being able to create enchantments that cast magic is just as good as casting a spell yourself isn't it?"

 "Need I remind you how weak the enchantment was?" Roko sighed again, "That was a copy of your magic and it was significantly weaker. What's more, I don't know the enchantment process well, I'm not sure I could even place the same enchantment on a sword."

 "That's true. Enchantments do tend to be a tad finicky." Rivera nodded.

 "Not to mention that the enchantment disappears after one use which I'm pretty sure is not supposed to happen. And lastly, the only examples of enchantments I have are of yours so the only spells I could 'cast' are earth, wind and water so it's not exactly a full spread of spread of options."

 "Surely you can develop this into a useable technique."

 "Evolving this skillset requires several factors to be improved. First, I have to improve my archeomancy. And that's not just in making seals but also in enchantment techniques in particular. Second, if I'm borrowing someone's spell, I'd need to find particularly power spells to replicate which is out of my control. And even if those aren't enough, there will only be so much enchantments I can layer on top of one another meaning I'll have to prepare a selection of enchanted items which is more a limiting factor than it is compared to openly casting spells."

 "It certainly is demanding but it just requires a bit of investment."

 "This is a little bit more than just a 'bit of investment." Roko frowned, "Regardless, I have my own ideas on how to make practical use of my research."

 "Really? What do you have planned?"

 "I'll tell you when I make it feasible."

 "You and your secrets." Rivera sighed, "You know we have experts in magic right? I'm a pretty powerful mage myself. We could help."

 "No offense but this magic seal stuff is completely new to your entire race so I don't see how you can help."

 "There has to be some peripheral stuff we could help with. What was the point of coming here if you won't even learn from us?"

 "I am learning from you."

 "From our books."

 "You think I want to sit around reading books? All I've got to work with are theories that no one's come up with. I wish there was an easier method to get stronger but I have to work smarter, not harder."

 "Well...there's always the Mystics Transcriber."

 "...I'll think about it."

 "Bark!"

 "Hey Klaus." Roko found the blink dog waiting for him outside the throne room when he left, "Have you been doing good?"

 Klaus barked again as Roko patted his head.

 "I can play with you for a bit but I'm probably going back to the library today."

 Klaus looked disappointed.

 "Sorry but I have to get stronger so I can protect everyone better. I couldn't defeat Waur so I really need to step up my training. And this is how I train."

 Roko began walking towards the library with Klaus walking by his side. Roko continued to spill his problems to the dog, grateful for the opportunity for a much need outlet for his frustrations. As they neared the library, Klaus suddenly stopped and stood up straight, ears and tails perked.

 "What's wrong boy?" Roko asked, "You sense something?"

 Klaus barked and began sniffing the ground, following a trail only he could sense down a hallway that Roko wasn't familiar with. Intrigued, Roko followed the blink dog as he continued to track something through the castle halls. Eventually Klaus stood up again and barked once, running ahead and into a room with an open door. Following close behind, Roko entered the doorway to find an elf cloaked in long sleeved clothing and large mantles and hood that further concealed their body. In their gloved hands was a book that they were reading intently. So intently that they hadn't noticed Roko nor Klaus who was standing right in front of them.

 "So the ring was made by elves but from a foreign land." The elf said in a feminine voice, "That's good but can I really trace back its history then? We haven't had a lot of communications with this village and it'll take a while to set up a correspondence. Maybe if I-"

 "Bark!"

 The elf jumped back, throwing her arms and the book into the air and she spun around to find the friendly Klaus looking at her.

 "A blink dog?!" The elf looked confused but approached Klaus with hands ready to pet the pet, "Are there dark elves in the city? No, you probably escaped from those mean old dark elves didn't you? You're such a good boy."

 The elf began to pet Klaus with a great fervor. Klaus looked unimpressed but panted contently.

 "Aw, you're so well behaved. You don't see blink dogs around here all that often. ...Maybe I can keep you as a pet?"

 "Ahem."

 The elf yelled out in complete surprise and horror as she realized Roko was standing there and scrambled back to the table, picking up a mask from it and hastily putting it on her face.

 "H-Hello..." The elf said in a slightly lower tone, "I didn't see you there."

 "I..." Roko said, unsure of where to begin.

 "I-I'm just reading some books here, don't mind me… In fact, I think I'll take my leave if you don't-"

 "Are you the princess?"

 The elf froze, her expression hidden behind her mask.

 "W-Whatttttt~?" The elf said, her voice becoming high pitched now as it shook with nervousness, "Nooooo~… I-I'm just...just a normal...normal everyday elf so if you don't mind I'll just...scooch on past you-"

 "You're a dark elf though."

 The elf froze again, but this time tremors broke out across her body as she continued to hold the mask to her face.

 "Wh-wh-wh-Whattttt~?" The elf said, her pitch growing ever higher in nervousness, "That's ridiculousssss~"

 "I saw your face. You're a dark elf."

 A still silence took over the room.

 "Aha...ha...bwahahahaha! So you caught me! I'm an evil dark elf that infiltrated the castle to...never you mind! Now that you know my secret, you'll never leave!"

 "Do you know Romer?"

 "Ro-who?"

 "So you're not part of the dark elf party in the city."

 "THERE ARE DARK ELVES IN THE CITY?!"

 "So you are the princess!"

 "Dammit, fine, I admit it!" The elf princess threw her mask to the ground in frustration, "But how'd you know?!"

 "First of all, a dark elf wouldn't consider themselves to be evil. The fact that you identified yourself as evil proves you have a prejudice against dark elves which wouldn't be the case if you were naturally born a dark elf."

 "Damn, that's a good point. But you said I was a princess before I even said that though!"

 "That's because you were talking about correspondence between another elf village."

 "Dammit, you heard that?!"

 "Even if you hadn't said that, your clothes are clearly elven in origin. Dark elves have a different fashion style and you're clearly dressed more elaborately than common folk. There's also the fact that your clothing is very obviously made to conceal as much of your body as possible, including your hands and face which means you're trying to hide your identity to the point of concealing your skin color which is a bridge farther than normal people would bother with.

 "Khhhh… You just had to be a smart one."

 "Also if you were a dark elf you wouldn't be surprised to see a blink dog or at least wouldn't speculate that it ran away from some dark elves. You also don't seem to know who Romer is nor even the fact that Granreveria has been hosting a party of dark elves since the raid meaning you're not a normal dark elf nor are you a normal elf since you would already know about the dark elves that you've been harboring. That means the fact that dark elves are here has been hidden from you for some reason and the only reason I can think of for doing something like that is if someone didn't want you to know about them, keeping you from learning about them for some reason. All proof pointing to you being an elf turned into dark elf once again echoing the story of the elf princess."

 "Okay, now you're just showing off."

 "The only problem is that I was under the impression that the elf princess hadn't turned into a dark elf yet. The story went that you would fall in love with a human and become a dark elf not that you've already become one. I thought that story was the reason Rivera didn't want humans in her city."

 "Wait, are you a human? Oh My God, you are!" The elf princess ran over and grabbed Roko by the shoulders, "Gareth! Do you know Gareth?!"

 "Who?!"

 After sitting down and calming down, Roko began to recount what he had just learned.

 "Okay so let me get this straight." Roko sighed, "Your name is Brook."

 "Yes!"

 "And you're the daughter of Rivera and princess of this land."

 "Yes!"

 "And you fell in love with a human man by the name of Gareth years ago and became a dark elf."

 "Yes!"

 "And now you live completely secluded from others so other elves don't find out."

 "That's the gist of it."

 Roko sighed again.

 "So...you don't know Gareth?" Brook asked.

 "No idea who that is."

 "He was a prince of a pretty big city a few years ago though."

 "How long ago?"

 "Nearly 400 years now?"

 "...Brook, a normal human would've died naturally already in less than a fourth of that time."

 "Oh no! He's dead?!"

 "Most likely."

 "Oooohhhh..." Brook looked disappointed, "I should've known..."

 "Elven lifespans is one hell of a concept." Roko sighed.

 "You said that there were dark elves in the city?"

 "Yeah, they're my friends. They're helping rebuild the city."

 "Are you sure they're tame?"

 "They were never wild to begin with."

 "Ahahaha...I see."

 "More importantly." Roko sighed, "What were you researching?"

 "Hmmmm..." Brook sighed, "I know you're a guest and all but this is official secret elven business."

 "I just came back from giving your mom a report on spell composition. We can go right back to the throne room if you want proof."

 "No please, anything but my mom." Brooke winced, "Okay fine. I'm researching Waur's magic items."

 "Waur? The leader of the orc attack?" Roko blinked, "He had magic items?"

 "Well obviously." Brook scoffed, "No way an orc could get as strong as my mom without some serious help."

 "What kind of magic items did he have?"

 "Well the big one we knew about was his circlet that increased his intelligence."

 "So his intelligence was being augmented?" Roko mused, "That makes sense."

 "There's a few more including a ring and I've been trying to research their history and abilities on behalf of my mom."

 "I see." Roko nodded, "Can I see them?"

 "I dunno if I trust you THAT much..."

 "No, I have a series of spells that can show me an item's properties in more detail. Magical or otherwise. I can figure out what those items do with just a look."

 "Are you serious?" Brook frowned, "I've never heard of magic like that."

 "How do you think I finished the Hero's Trial?"

 "You beat the Hero's Trial?" Brook raised an eyebrow, "Well alright. If it'll get this work done faster."

 "Great. Where are they?"

 "They're being kept in a hidden part of the armory. Follow me."