Thirtieth Day of July, In the Year of the Empire 6777

No one seemed to want to bother me just yet, so I got started on another task that was both worrying and exciting to me. It was time to write another letter to my parents.

Before I started to write the letter, I used a bit of magic to make a few pages of paper extra white and perfectly cut. Then at the top third and center of the first page, I raised a full-color copy of my heraldry symbol. Below that, I raised print saying, 'Willingness to Listen. Eternally Learning. Industrious Intellect. Magnanimity of Mind.'

Once it was complete, I used a second sheet to make a copy of my "letterhead" for myself.

Then I began to write a letter. I simply told my parents that I had become a landowner with the rank of Baron. I left out that it came about in ignorance. I told them about the Manor, the hamlet, the farmers, all the repairs to do, and even the bandits. I spoke of my new steward and four knights. Plus, getting more soldiers that would soon be patrolling my lands with them to make it safe for all. Finally, I invited them both, our extended family, and Father's employees and friends to move to the Barony of Perrin. I'd build Father a new shop however he wanted. He would have direct access to the capital for better materials and prices. I asked if Mother and Jean if they would like to be midwives and caregivers to a whole community. If so, it was theirs. I even offered to build a clinic in the hamlet if they would want one. Lastly, I included a basic map that would get them to the Manor from the main road and the most direct route to the city.

Finally, I signed it, "College of Magic Instructor, Honored Mage, Hartson Perrin, Baron of Perrin." I did not have a signet ring yet, but it was easy enough to paint such a small image beneath my signature magically.

Folding the two pages of my letter carefully, I put them into an envelope I fashioned. Sealing it shut with a stamp of my 'signet ring.'

On the front, I placed another copy of the letterhead symbol and motto I had just created. Then I added both parent's full names and their address. I used another spell that sealed the letter and would only allow my parents to open it.

Looking at some older boys who did not seem to be studying all that hard, I asked, "Anyone want to run a letter to the post for me?"

One jumped up faster than the rest, leaving them gripping. I handed the letter over with instructions to have it sent by all possible speed to my parents. I discreetly handed him two gold coins as well. "You may only say that you mailed a letter to my parents, nothing more. Do this quickly and share the change with the post girl."

Running was not allowed in the school, but he was walking quite fast when he left the library.

Thirtieth Day of July, In the Year of the Empire 6777 Continued

After finishing the letter to my parents, I began going through the books on the cart. Many of them were books that I had been through before. I quickly left notes in those and piled them to one side of the desk. Then I sorted through the remaining books for short entries that may be repeating things I already knew, or I could note the information quickly. Finishing up those, also piled on the side of the desk. I claimed the last fourteen books and set them on the desk. I loaded the completed books onto the cart. Placing a note on the cart, I offered a copper for every book put away correctly. I pushed the cart over in front of the pinboard and left it there.

I was just getting into making notes from a book containing new information on rituals when two boys checked out the sign on the cart. They pulled the sign off and started pushing the cart around the library to put the books away.

It was then that I noticed an unfamiliar instructor had arrived. He was in his thirties and looked rather average, with brown hair and eyes. Was his face that gaunt because he never remembered to eat? He sighed, "I'm here to do my shift."

With a smile, I offered him a way out. "Thank you, but if there is something else you wish to do, go ahead, I don't mind."

He looked confused, "You want to do this?"

"Yes. I am the one who set this up because I thought it would help the students. I am sorry that the Dean decided all instructors should help. I had hoped for a few volunteers, but while I was away recently, no one else stepped forward, and the Dean got involved. So again, if you are busy with something else, I can handle it."

The instructor looked around curiously, "Just what are you doing here?"

"Well, I spend a lot of time in the library. I answered some questions one day, and the next thing I knew, other students were also asking questions. It only slowed down my research for a few minutes, but I enjoyed helping them. That is when I decided to formalize things with this desk, and then I took it a step further when I remember seeing that pinboard unused in a back room. Now anyone that wants help with something can come here to ask an instructor when one is available. Or they can post requests for help or offers to help each other on that pinboard."

"Okay, that sounds like it should help." He walked over to the pinboard and looked at the requests and offers.

On his way back, he grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat down at the end of the desk. "So, your Instructor Hartson? The one with the runes, rituals, mana collecting, and mana storage, um, I don't know, quests?"

I nodded, "I am indeed Instructor Hartson. I don't think we have met before, what is your name, please?"

He smiled, "Jim. Well, it's Jeremiah Lionel in truth, but I go by Jim."

"Nice to meet you, Instructor Jim. When you're not teaching, what is it that you like to do?"

Jim grinned. "Potions. Well, magical plants are what I prefer to work with, but I use them to make potions."

Hum, an instructor that is, nice? "Oh? What plants do you like working with the most?"

He scratched his head before he answered. "I've never really thought about a favorite before. The one I must work with and use the most is Dragon's Tongue. It's challenging to grow, and I am always trying new ways to make them grow faster. They're challenging and frustrating at the same time. If you know what I mean?" Jim had a hopeful look on his face.

I could understand that and nod in agreement, "Yes. Though for me, it is runes and rituals that are my source of hopes and frustrations. I'm curious, what do you use Dragon's Tongue for?"

Jim's smile grew. "It is the base ingredient of most potions. Other potion ingredients only have the barest hint of mana in them. The addition of a distillation of Dragon's Tongue will make other ingredients have stronger effects. Now Dragon's Tongue will sprout just about anywhere. Finding it is always difficult, but it's everywhere. Forests, deserts, mountainsides, marshes, grass planes, underwater, and even underground. It makes no difference if it is shaded or well lit."

Yep, Jim had fallen into lecture mode, but I was a willing audience.

Continuing, he relayed, "It's called Dragon's Tongue because, like a dragon, it can show up anywhere. It also looks like a common fern. That's where the tongue part of the name came from as far as I know. Dragon's Tongue is known to live for decades without getting bigger than a tiny sprout just out of the ground. Those are never worth harvesting. In a very few special places, they grow fast enough to be harvested every twenty to forty years. It's the main reason potions are so rare and expensive."

"I did not know of Dragon's Tongue before this. I wonder why we are not taught about it when we are students?"

Jim looked at me with a frown for a moment, and then he checked to see who was nearby, before softly explaining it to me. "That's simple, what mage do you know that admits to any weakness or no control over everything?"

With that being the attitude of most of the instructors here, I sighed. "What other important things do we not know because it's 'inconvenient,' I wonder?"

"Right," Jim whispered.

Looking at him, I wondered. "How do you ever get enough Dragon's Tongue to make potions at all?"

He smirked. "That's why the city is here. There's a large lake deep below us where it grows well. The Dragon's Tongue there can be harvested every thirty to forty years, so by carefully only taking a little each day, so there is a constant supply. The castle stands over the only entrance. I've never seen it, but that is where most of what we use. Some of it comes from people who find it in some wilderness, or maybe they have a small private area where they harvest one-hundred years or more. Just three centimeters can bring over ten gold. It can take fifteen to thirty centimeters per potion depending on how strong a potion is."

Sitting back in my chair, I take a moment to digest that information. "And no one knows what determines how fast it grows?"

Jim frowns and nods, "Sadly, that is the problem." With a rueful smile, he adds, "But if anyone figures it out though…"

"Wealth, unbelievable wealth."

With a laugh, Jim agrees, "Indeed. Thus, my eternal frustration growing the blasted plant."

Pondering Jim's words, I must wonder if the difficulty everyone has with rituals is related to the growth of Dragon's Tongue. The Collection Rune I found in that old book is the only reason I've been successful. That book is the only place I have found that rune, never once have I seen it in the library.

After both of us sit there in silence for a time, I must ask, "Jim, does Dragon's Tongue collect mana or create mana?"

Shrugging Jim answers, "No one knows. Is there something in the ground where the successful growing plants grow, or is there more mana in that spot to collect? The answer is in constant debate as the question has never been answered satisfactorily."

Thirtieth Day of July, In the Year of the Empire 6777 Continued

After my conversation with Jim, I dove back into my research just to focus on something other than what I'd learned. By late that night, I had gone through all fourteen books that had been ready for me. I gleaned a few more bits of information on runes, but nothing significant on mana. Anyway, as I looked at it, rituals needed far more mana than anyone could quickly provide. Especially rituals that did substantial things. In the past, only a group of mages could complete slightly moderate rituals. More exceptional rituals required large numbers of mages to work together.

It was only due to the Collection Rune that I had any success by myself. With it, any number of mages could add their mana to a ritual because the ritual would quickly grab any offering. If no mage offered mana, then the Collection Rune would reach out further and further to find it. My rituals had not failed due to mages not having enough mana as would be reasonable. I had not suffered any backlash when I did run out of mana as I should have. How did I miss the incredible importance of this rune?

The answer was, it was in a book, and I had assumed it was known to others.

Because of the lack of that one rune, no one was interested in pursuing runes or rituals. No one wanted to bother reading about them, researching them, nor getting the backlash from them.

Expect for a foolish mage like me.

It hit me then. The research approval board did not expect me to succeed at all. The school would get my money, and I would have nothing to show for it. I would not become a High Mage. The uppity mages would sit back and laugh at me. No, they were already laughing at me.

What else had I foolishly missed? More importantly, what would I do now?

Sitting at the instructor's desk in the middle of an empty library extremely late at night, I was mad at myself, the school, and all the other mages. I needed to get out of the library for a while. On that thought, I packed up my things and left, leaving the fourteen library books on the main library desk. The librarians can put them away. To hell with the other students too.

Getting back to my basement home, I was facing sleeping on the floor after not having gotten myself a bed. Or any other furniture for that matter. Hell, I still did not even know where to find furniture. Just salt in the wound at this point.

I laid on the hard-stone floor, thinking for a long time before I was finally able to sleep.