LRAB Chapter 5 Flame in the Palm
Chapter 5 Flame in the Palm
The library was filled with the smell of old paper and leather. Daenerys squatted on the bottom shelf, struggling to drag a thick book, taller than her upper body, out of the wooden shelf.
Viserys sat at the long table by the window, opening Damon's notebook. He read the chapter on mana depletion over and over again, rereading the same passage three times before looking away.
Daenerys turned to the page with the dragon illustration, pointed her little finger at the dragon's wing, tilted her head back, and her purple eyes sparkled.
"Brother, this dragon is different from the one in the book."
"Which book?" Viserys immediately put down his notes and leaned over.
"Bravos's book, *The Best of the Wild in Westeros*." She turned the book around. On the page was a green Welsh dragon, its wings as thin as a dragonfly's wing membrane, completely unlike the dragons of Westeros they remembered.
"These are the dragons of this world." Viserys' fingertips lightly brushed across the pages of the book. "They are different from our dragons."
Daenerys turned the book back and stared at the green dragon for a long time, her little brows furrowed slightly.
"Its wings are too thin," she concluded. "It can't fly fast."
Viserys didn't argue, and continued flipping through Damon's notes. The later the chapters went, the more scattered the writing became, and the more illegible it was. He suddenly stopped on the third-to-last page.
The title, written in High Valyrian, reads: "Record of the Resurrection Experiment, Seventh Time."
The handwriting was more illegible than in any of the previous chapters.
"Experimental subject: A hare (dead for approximately half an hour). Method: A combination of Valyrian Dragon King's Resurrection Spell (Blood Magic Variant 17) and Assassin's Light Lord Priest's Resurrection Spell (Flame Summoning). Procedure: Blood magic was first applied to the corpse, stopping decay and restoring body temperature. The Light Lord's flame was then injected, fueled by the caster's life force, allowing the soul to reconnect with the body. Result: The hare opened its eyes, resumed spontaneous breathing, and exhibited pupillary response to external light stimuli. Its heartbeats lasted for over forty beats before rapidly failing, leading to its death again. No abnormalities were found during the autopsy."
Viserys pressed his fingers firmly on the line that read "fueled by the caster's life force." Below that was a line of very small text.
"Note: The resurrected hare shows no fear of fire, which is inconsistent with its behavior in life. It is speculated that some of its memories or nature were lost during the resurrection process. This defect is consistent with the ancient Valyrian 'Second Death' record. The problem is not with the spell itself, but with the inability to sustain the re-anchoring of the soul and body. The Valyrian resurrection spell's anchor point is blood, while the Light Lord's resurrection spell's anchor point is fire. The two can overlap briefly, but cannot be stable."
The last line of ink left a long, slanted line, and the pen stopped abruptly on the paper.
Viserys had seen such drag marks before. There was a lost ancient book in his father's study with the exact same marks, not from finishing writing but from being interrupted by something unexpected.
Click, click, click.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Viserys immediately closed his notebook and looked warily toward the door. Croft, carrying a stack of parchment, walked past him from the far end of the bookshelf, nodded as he passed, and disappeared down the hallway without stopping.
Viserys breathed a sigh of relief and flipped back to the chapter on fire absorption in his notebook. Damon had numbered each type of absorbed fire with neat and clear handwriting, a stark contrast to the sloppy handwriting of the later resurrection experiment—that was when he still believed the experiment would succeed.
Number 37, Fiendfyre. Origin: Dark wizard from the magical world. Characteristics: Destructive with a will, it will pursue living things until its fuel is exhausted. Absorption result: Successful. Gained ability: Its flames deal additional damage to soul-like beings.
Number 42, Hungarian Tree Bee Dragon Flame. Source: Carpathian Dragon Sanctuary. Absorption Result: Successful. Gained Ability: Significantly increased flame range.
Number 61, Fire of the Priest of the King of Light. Origin: An encounter in the ruins. Characteristics: Can burn in water; effective against the undead. Absorption result: Partially successful.
Viserys's gaze lingered on this line. Damon had encountered a priest of the Lord of Light in the ruins; whether he was friend or foe was not recorded in the notes.
He continued flipping through the pages. A line of hastily written small characters appeared at the edge of the notebook, even more casual than the main text.
"Korakshyu's Dragonfire, number seventy-three. I tried three times. The first time, the dragon wouldn't let me touch the flame. The second time, it let me touch it, but the flame refused to be absorbed and exploded in my palm. The third time, it lowered its head and willingly offered the flame to my hand. I don't know why it agreed. Ability: The flame has a calming effect on dragons and instills fear and oppression in other creatures."
Viserys placed his hand on that page. Koracchus's dragonfire wasn't tamed; the dragon itself chose to give it to him.
The same was true of the fire that ignited in the woman's palm when she grabbed his neck in the alley; it wasn't something he actively summoned, but rather something forced forth by desperation. If flames could truly choose, what he wanted was the power of Kolachu—not to be drawn from, not to be forced, but to be actively grasped.
Damon's notes contain the basic incantation for summoning fire, three lines in High Valyrian, completely different from the incantation for restoring mana. Restoring mana involves drawing it inward, while summoning fire involves pushing it outward.
He uttered the first syllable. His palm remained motionless.
The second syllable fell. My palm felt warm for a moment, then cooled down again; no flame appeared.
He took a deep breath and uttered the third syllable. A golden-red flame slowly rose from his palm, a small ball of flame obediently nestled in his hand, like a newly opened-eyed cub, incredibly docile.
Daenerys closed the book, tilted her head to look at the fire, and then slowly stretched out her little finger toward the edge of the flame.
"Dani".
The flame bent slightly on its own, veering toward her fingertips as if blown askew by the wind, even though there was no wind in the library.
Daenerys smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.
Viserys looked at the angle of the flame's curve and suddenly remembered a sentence in Damon's notes that he hadn't looked at closely when he flipped through it earlier, but which was now clearly floating in his mind—Dragonfire chooses to obey the Targaryens.
He withdrew the flames from his palm, reopened his notebook, and flipped to the end of the chapter on flame absorption, where he found the absorption incantation. It was longer and denser in syllables than the summoning incantation.
He tried reciting the first two lines. The flames suddenly contracted, then began to absorb inwards, drawing his own magic into the flames.
He stopped talking immediately.
Damon wrote a line of small, blurry words on the edge of his notebook: "Don't finish reciting the third sentence the first time you practice, or it will drain your magic. I tried it, and I lay in bed for three days."
Couldn't you have written it bigger? Viserys closed the notebook and then opened it again. Or was it that he couldn't be the only one suffering this loss?
He carefully practiced the fire summoning a dozen times in a row, slowly getting the rhythm right, but the little bit of magic power he had just recovered was depleted again. He extinguished the fire, rested his hands on his knees, and his breathing became heavy.
Daenerys looked up from her book and asked softly, "Brother, what's wrong?" She slid off the chair and placed her small hand on his right palm, right over the rune.
She didn't understand any magic, nor did she know that her brother's magic was about to run out. She simply reached out her little hand and gently placed it on his hot palm.
The moment their skin touched, the runes on his palm subtly warmed, and a gentle power flowed into his body through the point of contact. The magic power he had exhausted during the spellcasting was rapidly recovering and slowly replenishing.
Viserys was stunned and looked down at his sister.
Daenerys was completely unaware of anything amiss. She withdrew her little hand and obediently squatted back in front of the bookshelf to continue flipping through the magic encyclopedia. Her little face remained serious and bewildered, completely unaware that she had just unintentionally replenished his depleted magic power.
Viserys opened his right hand. Could it be that the Targaryen bloodline could replenish each other's magic? He looked through the notes again carefully; there was no record of it.
The afternoon sun had already slanted down to the third shelf of the bookshelf.
Boom, boom, boom.
Footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. Viserys immediately flipped back to the chapter on the summoning of fire in his notebook. The footsteps stopped at the library entrance.
Mrs. Pince stood at the door, holding a long broom, her sharp eyes sweeping over everyone in the library.
"Mr. Targaryen, open flames are prohibited in the library."
The flame in Viserys's palm had long since died down, leaving only an open Damon's Notebook in his hand. Daenerys was squatting beside the bookshelf, clutching the "Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures."
"The burning smell in the air behind the bookshelf was brought by you, wasn't it?" Mrs. Pince interrupted him, her gaze falling on his right palm.
Viserys didn't argue further and silently nodded.
Daenerys stood up, holding the book, and looked up at Mrs. Pince. Her little face showed a hint of timidity, but she still bravely spoke.
"Can we come again tomorrow?"
Mrs. Pince looked down at her. The three-year-old child had silver hair that shone like sunlight and blinked purple eyes. Her lips moved, and her stern gaze softened slightly.
"...Okay. But no fire allowed."
Daenerys nodded seriously, a smile spreading across her face.
Viserys closed Damon's notebook and put it in the document case. As they left the library, Daenerys took his hand.
Dumbledore said Damon stayed here for thirty years and then found a way back. The notebook recorded resurrection spells, fire absorption, and mana overdraft, but not the rift, nor the way back. Damon wrote the most important parts elsewhere.
Viserys turned towards the end of the third-floor corridor, in the direction of the principal's office.
Daenerys tugged at his hand. "Brother, are you coming to the library again tomorrow?"
"Come," he said, "but go somewhere else first."