After that it is easy to catch her hands and pin them to stop her from tickling me. Then once I have her hands pinned, she is defenseless and I return the favor. However, when I start tickling her, she cheats and calls for the kids to help her.

Surprisingly, all four kids respond and run over to tackle me off of her. If I was the one to call for help, all four of them would have probably ignored me. The four of them pin me down and start licking me, so I play along with them.

Lin rolls clear of the action, then just sits and watches me play with the kids. The play wrestling goes on until Lin calls out that it is time for lunch. When we are done eating lunch, the kids immediately go back to playing on the cat trees.

Since the kids are occupied, Lin goes upstairs to take a look at her tower. I still feel hungry, so I stay and have seconds while watching the kids play. I am done eating and was just about to join the kids when Lin returns and sits down.

"How's the tower?"

Lin says "It's perfect. Although, while I appreciate all the room for books, it seems kind of a waste. After all, the books we stole are all meant for the tower library."

"That's easy, just make a copy of the ones you want. You have a spell to copy books, don't you?"

Lin says "I do, but it doesn't work on magic books."

"Have you tried it with pure mana? Go get a book you want a copy of and teach me the spell. I will figure out how to make it work."

Lin says "Alright, give me a minute."

While Lin gates to the ship to fetch a book, I study the spell she taught me. The spell is pretty simple, the problem is that it doesn't use any physical component. That means that the new book is created completely from mana and creating mass takes a lot of power.

That is just for a normal book, copying a magical book would take even more. No wonder the spell won't work, most normal mages would never have enough mana. Lin might just barely have enough mana to copy a single magic book each day.

Using pure mana will reduce the cost by a lot, but it still won't be very efficient. To reduce the cost of the spell enough to make it worthwhile, it needs a physical component. In this case, a chunk of wood should be more than enough, since paper is made from wood.

Without the need for massive energy to create the materials, what is needed to copy the rest is easy. Since Lin isn't back yet, I head outside to rip up a tree and cut it into chunks. When I re-enter the castle Lin is back and there is a pile of books on the table.

Taking one of the books and a chunk of wood I cast the spell to see if it works. The chunk of wood turns into a new book and when I open it, it is an exact copy. Lin claps, takes the new book from me, and hugs it, she is obviously happy.

Lin says "You figured out how to make it work! Even the enchantments protecting the book were duplicated."

"With enough mana, it would have worked as it is. All I really did is add a material to greatly reduce the mana cost."

Lin says "That's great. Quick, teach me the spell! I've got tons of books I want to copy!"

Seeing the look in Lin's eyes, I am wise enough not to argue and quickly teach her the spell. Then I take out the remaining chunks of wood from my pouch and she starts copying books. As she concentrates on the spell, her face scrunches up and it is absolutely adorable.

It is a struggle not to laugh, at least until Lin orders me to go get her some more wood. When I ask why she needs more wood when she has already copied all the books, she takes out another stack of books. Shaking my head, I get up, go back outside, and cut up another tree for her.

When I walk back inside, Lin is sitting there hugging one of her new books. She has a happy smile on her face, she really does love books, not that I blame her. From what she has told me of how she grew up, books were probably her only friends.

Luckily, the kids are thoroughly entertaining themselves and don't miss the two of us. From the looks of it, Lin isn't going to stop until she runs out of books or mana. In the end, she runs out of mana first, but then she makes me finish the stack of books.

Once I am done, she puts the originals into her pouch and then takes the copies to the tower. It is barely enough to fill a single shelf, but it makes her extremely happy. Those are now her books, in her own space and that makes all the difference.

She is gone for a while, so I return to my normal form, shrink, and go play with the kids. Lin comes back about an hour later, still looking as happy as can be. I disentangle myself from the kid's game and go over to sit down with her.

??? yells "Hello?! Hello the castle?! Please, I need help?!"

Lin and I look at each other, then we get up and head outside to see who is shouting. On the way out, I return to my normal size and fall in behind Lin. Just before she opens the gate, I tell her to do the talking and I will pretend to be her mount again.

She gives me a nod and then opens the gate, on the other side is a human. He looks to be in his forties, is dressed in leather, and has a bow and arrows. He has scruffy hair with a full beard, he looks exactly like I would expect a hunter to look.

Lin says "You said you need help?"

Hunter says "Yes, great lady! My oldest son has been missing for three days. We have had search parties out but haven't found any sign of him."

Lin says "What makes you think I can help?"

Hunter says "A castle that appears out of nowhere, magic has to be involved. At this point, my only hope of finding my son is magic. Please, great lady, please help me find my son."

Lin says "Well, yes, I am a mage. I can try to help, but I will need something of his, something that carries his scent."

Hunter says "Thank you! Thank you so much! Here, I have one of his shirts."

Lin says "I am going to call my mount out, please try not to freak out. He is quite big, but he won't hurt you."

Hunter says "A mount? Why would I be....AHHHHH!! MONSTER!!"

Lin says "Please, calm down! I already told you, he won't hurt you."

Hunter says "Wait, that's your mount?! Just what kind of a mage are you?"

Lin says " Yes, he is my mount. He won't hurt you. In fact, he is the one who has the best chance of finding your son."