Chapter 196: Empyrean, Following Dreams (1/2)
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Dolion and the luxuriously dressed middle-aged man sat in a room in a remote corner of Palazzo Abate. Nursing a glass of wine each in hand.
”Quinn West is more of a problem than I thought,” said Dolion in Italian.
”Why?” asked his companion.
”When I first laid my eyes on him, it was evident that he was a practiced Legilimens, but the time he spent with the family made it clear that my initial impression of him was terribly lacking.”
”I wasn't there. You'll have to see elaborate.”
”He spent the entire meal reading minds of people who talked to him. He spread his senses to all those with the weaker minds — those who could scan without getting detected.”
”Did he.. .”
”No, he didn't attempt to read mine and few others.. .. and in doing so has revealed the limits of what he can do without being detected.”
”Will I be able to.. . ?”
”No, you don't meet the requirements.”
”A pity,” sighed the middle-aged man, but internally he was relieved. He didn't need to interact with the target, which he preferred as Dolion refused to tell him much. ”Can you enter his mind?” he asked.
”I can,” said Dolion with confidence, ”but not without him knowing that I'm doing it. His Occlumency, if I detected correctly, is around the same level as his Legilimency. There are good chances that he will get a whiff of me if I try to get inside.”
”He's that good?”
”No, not really. I have seen better,” scoffed Dolion, then turned a bit severe, ”but his detection is unusually perceptive. It's complicated.. . I would have a way to pass through it if I spent enough time with him.”
”What's your next move?” he asked.
Dolion swirled the glass in hand and sighed deeply. ”The next move, the next move.. .. I'll have to think about to proceed. I need something to ease the process along. I have thought of a few options; the question is which one to employ.”
”Then you should hurry. Quinn West isn't here for long.”
Dolion hummed in thought before his eyes lit up. ”I know what will help me how to get through his mind.”
”Really, how?”
”He's a tourist.” The smile on Dolion's face indicated he had a plan.
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”I must say, it's quite exciting to be standing right in the middle of so much history,” said Quinn as he stood upon the Roman bridge, Ponte Sant'Angelo crafted from travertine marble, arching over the lifeline of Ancient Rome, the river Tiber.
His eyes were gazing upon the magnificence of towering Castel Sant'Angelo — a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family. The sight of the tomb with the angel statues standing on either side was a scenic sight to behold.
”I'm not that much of a history buff, but this is just great,” he said without turning back to Aksel Thorn, the bodyguard standing just behind him, ”I'm at the place where Latin turned into a magical force of nature and became what is it today, empowering so many magical cultures throughout the world.”
Ancient Rome wasn't only important to non-magical history; it also held importance in the magical history with so much cultural antiquity that it made Quinn fill with excitement and enthusiasm for exploration.
The legend of the early establishment of Rome started with the legend of two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. It was an ongoing debate among non-magical historians whether the twins' myth was an original part of Roman myth or later development, but the non-magical records provided a more apparent record of their existence.
Romulus and Remus were, without doubt, a pair of magicals who came from a long and rich line of magicals, being the descendants of the Trojan Aeneas and sons of the god Mars and princess Rhea Silvia. Aeneas was from the illustrious Troy clan and a descendant of Aphrodite, while Mars was, according to the historical records, just like Aphrodite, was a magical-turned-divinity.
But in the genealogy of the founding twins, Quinn was most fascinated by Rhea Silvia, the pitful princess who was raped by Mars. She was a vestal virgin, a priestess of magical-turned-divinity Vesta. The thing that interested Quinn was the magical significance of being a Vestal, as they were regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. As the name suggested, Vestals were virgins, which Quinn was sure had to do with the sacred fire they collectively cultivated. Looking through the records, he was able to form a conjecture that the sacred fire was some sort of lost magic of the ritual branch, with the virginity of the priestesses being an essential aspect of it.
'There must have been some benefits to Romulus and Remus when the virginity tied up in a ritual was broken by Mars,' thought Quinn in tangential hypothesis.
It was a practice that, in most parts of the magical world, had become a thing of the past, but in ancient times, magical parents (usually mothers) would undergo treatments of various forms of magic to promote the chances of the baby being magical with a strong talent for magic. And while Rhea Silvia never went through such things because of her Vow of Chastity, her role as part of a state-wide ritual might have had similar effects.
”Mr. Thorn, did you know that Romulus and Remus' uncle had ordered the twins to be drowned after he usurped power from their grandfather. But the twins were secretly spared and drifted in the Tiber river in a basket where they were later discovered by a she-wolf who nursed the twins back to health.. .. Interestingly, I know someone named Remus, who also has an affinity for wolves.”
”An interesting story Quinn,” said the man, not sounding interested at all.
Quinn smiled but didn't point it out. Instead, he wondered about the she-wolf mentioned in the legends.
'Could she be the same species of wolf that I saw in the Forbidden Forest,' he thought about the wolves who were descendants of two werewolves conceiving on a full-moon night. It was a theory Quinn had no way of proving, but he liked it very much.
”Quiz time, Mr. Thorn,” said Quinn with a beaming smile. ”When Romulus and Remus founded their city, how do you think they decided which twin was going to be king? If you answer correctly, you'll get chocolate.”
”.. .. I don't know,” said the voice lacking any enthusiasm.
”The records say the topic of king quickly became a matter of debate.. .. the debate that Romulus won by killing Remus. I must say, a move I wasn't expecting to see in a debate. Then Romulus went ahead to form the small city of Rome, which would eventually turn into the dominating empire of unparalleled power.” In those days, there were no Secrecy Laws; as such, the magicals roamed in the open.
And while he enjoyed the story of the creation of Rome, he wasn't interested in Romulus and Remus. Throughout history, conflict has been a great motivator of growth and innovation — to improve in the harsh times, the human mind had shown itself and had come up with pretty fascinating stuff. On the other side of the coin, the times of peace and prosperity promoted elegance and intricacy.
”This country has a rich history, Mr. Thorn. They have seen glorious ups and disastrous downs. Let's see what that history can do for me,” he said before turning to Aksel, ”where's our guide?”
”This is Italy,” was all Aksel said.
Quinn blinked a couple of times before it hit him, ”Ah, Chronemics — the study of the use of time and the way that time is perceived and valued by individuals and cultures. Yes, I came across it during one of the short uneventful stints with the study of the larger subject — interestingly, chronemics means much more in the magical world than it does in the non-magical.”
Italy was a Polychronic culture. Polychronic cultures have a less formal perception of time and are not ruled by specific calendars and schedules. Meaning in Italy, if the time to meet was decided to be at eleven, it wasn't strange to see the person arrive half an hour late.
”You guys are early.” Quinn and Aksel turned to see the speaker. And speaking of the devil, it was their guide.
”Dolion, thank you for taking the time to show us around,” said Quinn smiling, ”I'm excited to know more about your homeland and am looking forward to using the Abate gateways. They are quite fascinating.”
Dolion smiled as he fished out a blood-red skeletal key. It was different from the gold key that Aksel had with him. From what Quinn could speculate, the blood-red key was some sort of master-key only available to Abate family members, while the gold key was a guest key of types.
”Let's go then,” smiled Dolion.
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Dolion leaned against a pillar with bookshelves on both sides, watching Quinn running his finger through the spines of the rows upon rows of Latin magical books. They had already been through three different book stores in Rome, and from what Dolion knew, Quinn had plans to visit tons of bookstores all around the country.
He looked to the other side to see Aksel Thorn keeping an eye on everyone passing by. Dolion pushed himself on the pillar and walked towards the bodyguard.
”Is he really like this?” he asked, jutting his chin to Quinn.
Thorn watched a guy pass through before finally answering, ”As you already know, I guided him through Denmark. In all that time, he went through any book shop I could take him to and others he somehow found on his own.. .. I will suggest that you be ready to translate for him; Quinn will make you talk to any person he finds interesting, and those he founds interesting can be a strange bunch.”
Dolion looked back at Quinn to find that he had taken out a strange book with a protruding screaming face sticking out of the cover. The look on Quinn's book was of extreme fascination.
”So, he's bookish, studious.”
”He's clever, cunning, quick.. . skilled,” said Aksel in reply.
Dolion continued to stare at Quinn. Various thoughts went through his mind; he turned to Aksel and said, ”Tell me more about him,” he said.
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Quinn made his way through the book store, his eyes reading the rich collections of Latin works. The Roman empire was the distributor of Latin through a wide area of European content, and after that, the British spread the magical language once again through the aggressive colonialism of the various colonies worldwide.
He had only browsed through some of the books here, but he already knew the works here were one of the most exquisitely written pieces of Latin he had seen in a while.
As he was perusing the titles on the spines of books, he found one that made him stop in his tracks. It was a non-suspecting brown tan book without any unique features, but its title interested him.
「The Theory Behind The Magic Of Constructs」