TRACK 3
Your secrets keep you sick, your lies keep you alive
Snake eyes every single time you roll with crooked dice
I felt the darkness as it tried to pull me down
The kind of dark that haunts a hundred year old house
I wrestle with my thoughts, I shook the hand of doubt
Running from my past, I'm praying feet don't fail me now
(The Drug in Me Is You -Falling in Reverse)
********
The rest of the night was heavy and slow for Douxie. There had been the division of guard shifts, but despite these, which authorized him to let fatigue grip him, he could not close his eyes. He had tried, but being surrounded by people prevented him from doing so. He felt alert even though he did not want to be. Unfortunately, the need to be defensive was die-hard, so much so that it seemed an insurmountable obstacle.
He had even tried to lie down, closing his eyes, but every single noise kept activating a side of his brain that he thought he had long since abandoned. All it took was a rustle, a light snore, someone's cadenced breathing, a swallow, and... And he could feel the danger building up and trapping his breath in his throat as his heartbeat proceeded at an abnormal pace. It too was making far too much noise.
Archie was silent against his belly. A solid, reassuring presence for him. The only one he wanted near while feeling so helpless. The only one who allowed him to let his guard down. Even so, even with his fingers running repeatedly through his fur gently, it still was not enough.
There was too much of everything . Really. The overstimulation running through him was devastating, so much so that it was unbearable.
Too many people he didn't know so well that he had grown accustomed to them in his living space -and their age, to his mind, was unimportant. It was not important, that these people would not hurt a fly if they could. It was a chance that had thrown them into battle. The Amulet had made his choice. If he had not chosen Jim Lake Junior, neither he, Toby, Claire, nor Steve would have been there at the moment.
Too much noise . It made his ears ring. He could have tried to cover it up with loud music, attaching headphones to his cell phone, but he feared missing something important. He feared not hearing a suspicious noise. Or the castle alarm bell. His mind didn't even suggest the possibility of putting on only one of the two headphones.
Too much oppression . Oppression that sent his mind spinning through a spiral of past images, none of them pleasant. Which then made him feel every millimeter of clothes on him and the choker tighten much more than the norm. They led him to remember fingers touching his bare back before aggressively planting the blade in his flesh, dragging it slowly. Just the sensation made his eyes burn, but he started pulling strands of his hair back and forth. He refused to fall into an emotional breakdown at any moment in a situation like that. It would have been pathetic, shameful, and inappropriate.
Too much need to get up and change the air before it began to seem poisonous in his lungs, making him feel as if he were dying. As if his internal organs were rapidly wearing out.
Everything was too much. A too much that was out of tune, that put his essence in such disarray that his magic was restless. He felt unstable, to say the least. Archibald was the main reason why his upper limbs had not yet begun to tremble intermittently, dragging other parts of his body along.
When it arrived, he felt the Jump in its entirety -maybe because of his exaggerated state of alertness- exactly after the four hours that Master Merlin had estimated, a fact witnessed on the screen of his phone.
His stomach turned over like a sack of potatoes as if it was doing somersaults. He managed not to vomit only because of his self-control and his insistence on staring at the ceiling as if this were a lifeline.
But he was not the only one who sensed the movement of the castle. Those who had managed to fall asleep had woken up startled. Some more, some less green in their face. Steve had even fallen out of his chair, making a thud so loud that Archie jerked up.
His Familiar, who had not previously awakened, but was brought back to the present by the very sudden noise, hissed at him with an irritated expression. He calmed down thanks to the gentle caresses left by his Wizard -aimed mainly between his shoulder blades- and to the blond boy's murmured, partly plaintive and sleepy "... Sorry,".
But after the Jump, it had taken most of them a really short time to collapse back into dreamland, allowing themselves to be lulled into stillness. Douxie had been almost envious of them.
Except for Aaarrrgh, who had been on watch, and Hisirdoux himself, only Jim had lost his sleep, ending up sitting in a slightly less messy position than before, near the window, peeking past the curtains.
The shifting of the fabric then caused lazy, faint rays of moonlight to cross the room, stretching out like white fingers, illuminating the outlines of objects and of the group itself with something extremely ghostly.
Ten minutes later, not quite able to fall asleep anymore, Jim ended up asking the Troll for an exchange of shifts. Aaarrrgh had agreed, albeit tentatively for unclear reasons. And so it was just the two of them left, both of them silent to avoid returning to wake their companions.
Douxie, still lying down, had been partly tempted by the idea of getting up and going to check out the scenery outside just like Jim had done, to see how different it was from the one before. But Archie, still leaning on his ribcage, prevented him from doing so. And in his heart, Douxie did not want to move him. He couldn't. His momentary sanity hung entirely on his Familiar; to take it away would have been stupid.
Instead, Jim continued to sit, casting glances at his surroundings and outside. Hisirdoux felt his gaze settle on him twice. The first was ignored: he pretended not to feel it, knowing that his interest would shift shortly.
But then the second had come, and he had not been able to refrain from turning his head, meeting the boy's blue eyes. Eyes that flinched a bit as a result of that encounter, but that remained on him, staring at him with a furrowed brow for several seconds.
That expression confused him somewhat, but it distracted him from the chaos churning in the recesses of his brain. When the silent exchange stopped, Hisirdoux's attention returned to the wall above his head, almost mechanically.
There was nothing special about it, but he had missed those high ceilings.
His apartment in Arcadia Oaks, those in the other cities he had been in -and in which he had always felt like a passing ghost, sensing weight on him. Weight from not existing for anyone seriously. To the idea that everyone would grow old inexorably before fading away like stars in the sky, while he would continue to exist, to remain the same. Always the same little boy, frightened by the feeling of futility and emptiness, observing a world that on specific days seemed devoid of color. The routine was an addition to the torture that was the cauldron of filth he sensed under his skin in those hours of cosmic nothingness- and the containment rooms had always been airless rooms, with roofs so excruciatingly low that he felt unwieldy as if he was taking up too much space.
And yes, he was tall, but he wasn't that tall. While on physical structure, he was not surprised by the fact that he could see his ribs. Still, the idea of being too much, of having to make himself smaller, had always crossed his mind during transfers.
Whether they arrived in the early days or the middle of his stay did not change much. It was like a flea in his ear that persisted in making its presence known, a bit like the strong nostalgia that gripped him at times, reminding him of faces, places, and events he might not have thought about in years.
But with such high roofs, his perception of space was distorted enough to allow him to feel right-sized. Of course, as if closing a door necessarily opened the bigger one, it was replaced by the feeling of alertness, always lurking. Always there, making sleep an impossible goal for him.
He started to fiddle with his skeleton necklace, sliding it around his neck and counting each back-and-forth in his head, trying to keep himself busy, while his second hand was back in Archibald's fur, drawn by its softness and the warmth it gave off, without moving it. It was enough to hold it there, to feel the calm beat of his Familiar's heart under his fingers. He compared it with his own, which, on the other hand, was beating with a rhythm similar to the running of a crazy horse, but that was, fortunately, slowing down gradually.
********
Morning came, and with it came Merlin and Nari. The Trollhunter did not see them enter the room, but he heard Merlin shaking him awake before he started to walk away -not by much, but still showing his back to him and preparing to leave, waiting for him to follow- making him realize that he had dozed off on guard duty, though he had no idea when exactly.
Just the thought made him blush, embarrassed, but he stopped thinking about it rather quickly upon seeing a hand, covered by a glove, extended in his direction to help him to his feet. He accepted it without a second thought, feeling his legs particularly cold. If they had been his human legs, he was sure they would have been numb and tingling at that moment, not even being run through by hundreds of insects climbing up and down.
"Thank you," he said, a bit rigidly. He held back a yawn and again met the golden gaze of Merlin's Apprentice, just as he had the night before. Noticing, however, a green tinge in the iris near the pupil, just then.
"You're welcome," he replied. Then after he was probably sure he was holding himself up and not in danger of slipping, he hurried to stand beside his Master. Jim frowned and forced himself to do the same, noticing, however, that the others in the group were still asleep. For a moment he wondered if it would be okay to wake them up, but the hours on his cell phone put him off. It was barely dawn. Forcing them to get up so early seemed improper.
Once he slipped out of the room, he found himself standing in front of the same hallway he had walked down the previous day. It looked different with all the windows present covered by Prussian blue curtains and with blue flames as light sources.
Jim could not help but cast another glance at the raven-haired boy as he advanced, following the trio. He did not have the dragon on his shoulder this time. He wasn't there at all, not around them.
"When did you make these?" He asked, pointing at the curtains, being close enough to the other to be heard without having to raise his voice too much. "And where is your Familiar?"
Douxie blinked a few times, the dark circles under his eyes somewhat accentuated by the slight movement "Archie's out scouting... And all the blinds around, well, I made them yesterday."
"Yesterday?" Jim paused, suddenly connecting everything and widening his eyes. "Wait... I thought you just made one. "
He shrugged, opening his mouth to say something, but being interrupted by Merlin as soon as he tried.
"A bit too amateurish, Hisirdoux," said the old man dryly. "Doing one at a time would have made your spell more polished and efficient."
The raven-haired boy frowned and gave a frustrated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "The important thing was that the windows were covered, or am I wrong...? I thought speeding up the process, preferring quantity over quality was a good choice, especially in this situation." To Jim, he wasn't wrong. They were curtains. They covered what had to be covered. Wasn't that enough? By the old Sorcerer's expression, it looked like a 'no'.
Merlin huffed, ready to retort. But it was Nari's turn to intervene, blocking the long sour criticism that the man would surely have spat out all too easily.
"I don't think they're bad," she said matter-of-factly in a squeaky silver voice. The little demigoddess appeared almost like a child beside the Sorcerer.
More because of her height than anything else, for there was something that set her apart, something that Jim would not have been able to describe even if he wanted to...and it was not her appearance -although having a body composed of leaves, flowers, branches, and small roots certainly made its impact. It wasn't something you saw every day. Maybe it was the singular light that shone in her gaze. Perhaps it was that bizarre bearing of hers. Perhaps, again, it was just her in her entirety that gave him a feeling of the ancient and primal.
"Their essence is pure and fresh. The intentions, right," she concluded with a soft gentle smile.
The compliment caught Douxie off guard, bringing him then -to Jim's utter surprise. Not that he hadn't already had several surprises in the past twenty-four hours- to blush even at the tips of his ears. That was before he smiled in turn and brought his hand to his neck. "I..." he coughed "... Thank you."
'Huh. Didn't seem the type to get embarrassed over a compliment.'
The Sorcerer made no comment this time. And the silence fell back, though not for long. In fact, they reached Merlin's study, the table of which was covered with various scrolls, books that had already been opened, and gemstones, connected by thin pieces of metal. These at times seemed to pulsate faintly, for reasons totally unknown to Jim.
One of the scrolls on the table, the largest, was occupied by a map. There were Continents, marked by cities he had never read before on the map, a disturbing fact -Den... Denprop... Dnepropetrovsk? Did it exist? Really?- Some of them, anyway, were larger in size than others. And not by a small amount. Jim would have expected the inscription 'Russia' to be larger than 'Petersburg,' but it wasn't.
Another scroll showed instead a drawing of an unknown flower. Not that Jim had been particularly knowledgeable about plants, but that didn't mean anything, not in this case. The sketch depicted a specific specimen with an odd shape. It was reminiscent of an Orchid, but at the same time, the petals were far too detached from each other, almost square. As if it were a butterfly, but much more geometric than those that already appeared in the children's drawings.
Next to it, there was an unreadable inscription, to say the least. Kind of like the ones he had seen in Claire's Shadowmancy book -Oh, Claire. She had appeared so depressed while flipping through the pages of that volume... He wished he could have helped her, but he knew as much as she did, if not less...and staring at the illustrations was not enough to understand, nor to give her suggestions- they were just signs in his eyes. Not letters. He wondered for a moment if for all the people who spoke different languages, which were not written in alphabet letters but perhaps in pictographic language, English appeared in the same way.
"That's a Phalaenopsis aphrodite," Nari said suddenly, probably noticing his confusion. She said it as if just the name alone made everything clear, which was not true, but it was still better than nothing. "She is in her Purification state."
"Purification state?" He asked, confused, looking into her eyes.
"Magic, for Asian people, is essentially divided into two strands." Said Merlin "Just like what we have. Only it has different Names. Bái mófǎ is pure magic and Wugu, dark magic. By Purification state, Nari means that the Phalaenopsis has been enchanted, Trollhunter."
"Oh." Jim stared at the drawing for quite a long time. "Why cast a spell on a flower?"
"Plants, like other living beings and a few objects, have Cores." Explained Nari, making a small Daisy appear in her hands. "Some have meanings that humans can interpret. Others remain misunderstood. The more the meaning is understood and embraced, the more their Core accumulates energy." A pause. "Phalaenopsis are from the Orchid family. Orchids are seen as plants of perfection and spiritual closeness. They are symbols of love and hope."
"The ideals that rest on them can be strong enough to create portals to other dimensions. But such results are only mastered whenever the wizard offers something of themselves in return." Concluded Merlin.
Douxie seemed to light up suddenly, looking a tad bit younger. Almost childish. "....Reason why the Keeper of Balance would not be locatable. He ignited the flower fulcrum to isolate himself and not be reached by anyone he does not want to meet."
"Exactly." Replied the old Sorcerer. "Dalai, before he disappeared, left me this drawing, saying that if I wanted to look for him, I should have followed that plant. And with Nari's knowledge, we found its precise location."
'So he didn't know where he was? Is that why he hadn't said anything before? ' Jim found himself thinking in disbelief.
"What did he offer?" Jim asked instead
"That, I wouldn't know."
'Oh, yeah. He wasn't there to know. That was a stupid thing to ask.'
"Where would he be?" questioned Hisirdoux in an intrigued tone, his interest fully painting his gaze.
Merlin's hand went to rest on the map. Both Jim and Douxie leaned out to see where he was pointing.
"Laos." He read. Not a name that told Jim anything. But which other than Shanghai did? Excluding even Hong Kong and generic famous cities? None.
"So... The exact time to get there...?" Asked Douxie, snapping his head back up. "We're going to pass through an inhabited city, aren't we? We need to fill the storage."
"It's always three days. It's precise, counting today." A pause. "Camelot will have to stop here..." He pointed to the town of Anadyr. "Here." The Shantar Islands. "And here." Shenyang. "Then it will reach Laos. We are currently in Noatak," he pointed to the city on the map "You will have plenty of time to shop if that pressures you."
"It's not a matter of pressure, Master... I mean, it is too, but it's not just that. Twelve food rations divided for seven people...for three days or more of travel?" Jim winced slightly. He saw his point of view on the matter. It didn't look good.
"I can help," asserted Nari, making a tomato plant appear out of nowhere, which immediately left Jim open-mouthed and Douxie with both eyebrows arched.
"Uhh... Okay , I hadn't calculated that detail," muttered the raven-haired boy after a few seconds. "That's much better, then."
"Steve would still be able to moan about it. I don't think he appreciates vegetables," Jim retorted instead by instinct. It didn't seem to him that he had ever seen him eat particularly healthy stuff in the few times he had paid attention to it. But at the same time, he wasn't sure. Steve was someone who cared about his fitness. He was too vain for it.
"Option one, we leave the stuff in the pantry for him." He said, raising one finger while talking, before doing the same with a second one "Option two, he eats the same thing we eat too. If he starts complaining, someone hits him on the head or threatens him. For a few days I think he can manage," Douxie joked, grinning.
He smiled a bit, too. That would have worked for sure. And would have been kind of funny. "Well, then..."
"Back to the main topic," asserted Merlin sternly, blocking both Apprentice and Trollhunter in place, before they could start talking more about it. "Since other than waiting for the Jumps and standing guard to prevent the Arcane Order from attacking to take Nari, our priority, you have no definite commitments, I want to be clear. Do not stay idle. Do not make a fuss. Do not touch anything inside my study or in Morgana Le Fay's room. Don't go in there at all."
Archie appeared from behind the curtain covering the window just then, going to perch on his Wizard's shoulder as if nothing had happened.
'It's too late for that now. And I don't think Claire would have listened to the order anyway... not with the knowledge of the existence of the Shadowmancy volume, at least,' he thought, crossing his gaze with Douxie.
He appeared quite calm, all things considered... but Jim would not have been surprised if it was just a facade, a mask he wore to avoid betraying himself in front of his Master. To avoid letting him know that he had already disobeyed one of the orders on the list.
Honestly, Jim was still pretty confused about what to think about him.
He wasn't convinced one hundred percent by him, but he no longer saw him as some sort of enemy, though .
Yes, it had been jealousy on his part -he understood it the night before, while everyone was sleeping except them, after a long, silent overthinking-, he could admit it, because without the feeling he did not see everything with jade-colored glasses, and he could see that he had justified his insecurity with unwarranted contempt. Which half of him still felt, but was trying to hide. And to remove.
The more time passed, the more he felt a little guilty for judging him without knowing him, but... really, jealousy was hard to fight. And the fact that he could not fully grasp him didn't help.
He was like a living question mark for some reason. For the time being, he did not know whether the feelings he had about him were correct or not. The only thing he was certain of was that he was weird . But whatever. Not that bad, maybe . So, he was trying to open his mind a little, and to try to give him a chance.
"No approaching the Heart of Avalon. I will keep an eye on Nari, mostly, while I try to see if there are ways to speed up the journey and especially continue my research. And by my beard, don't sleep in chairs, but inside rooms with beds!"
"Uh... We all wanted to be in one room to wake each other up a bit better in case of an alarm?..." Jim couldn't help but wonder if the last complaint was made more out of the Sorcerer's own experiences of back pain than out of genuine concern.
"And you didn't think of getting everyone mattresses in one room, if you cared so much about it?"
'No. We didn't think of that at all... We were a little too wrapped up in the idea of having to be ready in case of a sudden attack to do that.'
Jim laughed nervously and Merlin sighed, rolling his eyes. "Children," he said.
There was a pause, then his gaze went to focus solely on Douxie, who stiffened on the spot like a wooden board. "Hisirdoux..."
"Yes, Master?" He asked, hiding his right hand and leaving it covered beneath the black coat's fur, bringing it closer to the opposite arm.
"...Don't break anything ."
The Apprentice made a funny face. It was between shocked and offended, on the verge of retorting. But then he closed his mouth almost immediately, even grinding his teeth. A choked noise escaped from Archie.
"And no one is to disturb me unless it is for something of extreme urgency. Have I made myself clear?"
"Crystal clear," replied Jim, while Douxie merely nodded and muttered a "Yes, Master."
They started to walk away and were going to leave the study, but suddenly the raven-haired boy froze, turning around.
"Wait a tick... Master."
"Hisirdoux... " Merlin's tone was somewhat annoyed. And shrouded in a kind of silent warning.
"Yes, I know. No one has to disturb you, I get that. I'll be out of your hair very quickly, promise. But first I have one last thing to ask," a pause, as he returned to the table and tapped two fingers on the larger parchment. "Could I make a copy of the map? And borrow some books? You said after all that we shouldn't be lounging around, so I was thinking of..."
"All right." The Sorcerer interrupted him, sighing. Douxie made a little fist pump with one of his two arms, smiling cheekily at the older wizard-who sighed again-and proceeding at once with his work.
When he finished, he had two books in his hands, one of them so large that it was impressive and scary, to say the least. They were overhung by the parchment, neatly rolled up, but in danger of falling on the floor way too easily.
They left the study at once, however, to avoid reducing the Sorcerer's patience.
It was already low on its own, getting it down to zero was not exactly a good idea.
"Want some help?" Asked Jim once they were outside, seeing how he was swinging like a pendulum under the weight. Which was hilarious, really, but oh, well.
Douxie looked at him for a few seconds before smiling something grateful-which made him feel a bit stupid and guilty again, a feeling that churned inside his stomach-and answering. "...If you don't mind, yes. Thank you."
Jim peeked at the books as they were divided, but they too had inscriptions in strange languages. He held the smaller one-though definitely not lightweight-and the parchment, while Hisirdoux kept the giant one, having to use both hands. Archie took flight, perhaps to avoid yet another burden for his Wizard to carry.
"What does the title say?" He asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.
"The Asian Red Revelation and Study of Daoist Magic," read Douxie, pointing to them before speaking, then shrugging. "I would have also liked to have more information about the meanings of some plants, in case, so I was looking for a third book. But I thought that although there is some free time, it would not be enough for another one."
With the size of 'Study of Daoist Magic ,' Jim wondered if he would have been able to finish that one yet, but he did not say it out loud. Partly because he would have kept it to himself anyway, partly because there was an interruption.
"Wait." Nari said suddenly, stepping out of the study in turn, leading them both to look at her vaguely surprised, before realizing.
"...The food."
********
Claire was left speechless. Again.
That morning had been an emotional roller coaster, but it seemed that it would continue on that wavelength, without diminishing in pace.
First Claire had gotten a half-heart attack from missing Jim and from the mild concern she had found on Blinky and Aaarrrgh's faces, which had become even more strong with her agitation.
Then she had been reassured when she had seen him return with Douxie at his side. Both of them with a book in their hands-Hell, one of them was so damn big! She didn't think she had ever seen a book that size. Not even The Lord of the Rings came close, and yes, that one wasn't exactly a tiny little book. She had once described it as the largest book she had seen, but at this point, it had lost its title. She hadn't been able to help but wonder if there were others of that kind of size-Both ready to lay them on the table in the corner, showing a scroll.
And there had thus been the explanation, very briefly, of what Merlin had told them. They had especially dwelt on the fact that he had dropped an avalanche of rules to be followed. Which irritated her out of her mind, leading her to roll her eyes and cross her arms.
Claire was quite happy that she had already broken one, albeit unintentionally... But the happiness was short-lived upon remembering how incomprehensible the Book of Shadows was. Because of that step backward in control of her magic, she had had a lump in her throat for most of the previous night, falling asleep from accumulated fatigue. And it came back to her rather quickly on second thoughts.
At that moment, however, she found herself looking at the castle kitchen, totally different from how it had been before, crisscrossed with plants in every inch of it. From them sprouted fruits and vegetables of all kinds, even some unfamiliar types.
That area that was part rock, part wood, and practically half empty had been transformed to look like a real greenhouse, green and lush. Easily comparable to the Public Bathrooms, also created by Nari.
The demigoddess, in the company of Archie, had waited for them there, continuing to sprout roots wherever she found a suitable space for the species she would give birth. Once they had entered, she had turned around and smiled, a peaceful expression that had given Claire a strong sense of calm and tranquility.
"I hope these are enough," she said once after everyone was acclimated, laying her gaze on each of them, then going over to one of her various creations, stroking the leaves gently.
"We are extremely grateful," was the immediate response from Douxie, who even bowed. Instinctively, Claire and the others followed him in the gesture, thanking her in turn.
"You don't need to do that," whispered Nari, coming back to approach them. "You don't need to thank me. It is I who has to. You are protecting me from Skrael and Bellroc by putting your lives on the line. This is the least I can do."
"It is an honor to protect you, Little Plant Lady ," jumped up Steve. "No one will lay a finger on you as long as I'm around!"
Claire shook her head just barely with pure exasperation, before rolling her eyes. "Oh, yes. You will protect her by stunning the enemies with your shrill screams."
Steve became very, very red in the face. "That's not true! I still knocked out a six-foot alien! And my voice is not shrill!"
"That was Aja and Krel," intervened Toby.
"Yes, it is," insisted Claire, smiling teasingly, almost speaking at the same time as her friend.
"Hey!..." the blond stared at her with a blatant pout, then did the same to the brown haired boy. "I still helped!"
Toby ignored him and immediately went back to Nari. "But yes, just like he said. We are all honored to protect you!"
The group nodded in confirmation. Then, after a quick search for socks and items for Blinky, Aaarrrgh, and Jim to eat, they all serenely consumed their breakfast, in part forming a mild background discussion in which the demigoddess, from time to time, asked questions, trying to understand details of which she was unaware. Chatter that then, in a sense, had become answers to Nari's questions.
One of the talks focused on Internet memes, which Nari had no idea what they were at first. And that threw Toby into a long explanation-not exactly understandable-about what exactly they were, how they worked, and how to distinguish a normal situation from a Meme one. It was quite comical as a scene to witness.
He even tried to explain to her how cell phones worked, but the attempt did not work. Probably because something obvious to them was diverting too much into technical information that they were not fully aware of. And venturing to define it, partly tentatively, led the semi-deity's expression to become gradually more confused instead of showing understanding, so much so that at one point she bent her head until she resembled an owl.
"Nevermind," Claire herself had finally said, resting a hand on her shoulder, smiling. "You just need to know that they send messages to people who can be on the other side of the earth in a matter of seconds. Both written and vocal."
"Like a combination of Projections and Sentinels?"
"Uh..."
"That's right," said Douxie, who up to that point had remained silent while listening, occupied with grinding the beans of the coffee plant that Nari had said-between chattering-that she had created. "It's a mixture of the two, with an extra of Localization, Divination, and a portable Library Source, if you want to put it that way." He was almost sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter, the steaming cup between his hands.
"Oh." Nari paused "And it's charged with lightning."
"...In much smaller doses, but... Yes." Said Archie.