Exalted Warlock - 32 Chapter 21

“I am such a fool, and I guess I am also pretty dense as a brick,” Magnus said out loud, as he walked the streets, keeping a wary eye out for any trouble even as he got on to opening a conversation up with Codex.

“Yeah,” Codex said in a dull monotone voice, saying the exact opposite of what he expected her to say. Right now, she would have been there for him, acting as moral support and lifting his spirits up. Not agreeing with him in the slightest, she never does that, whether it is for good reason or awfully bad.

“What is going on with you, Codex?” Magnus asked in a faintly perturbed voice. If her flat, expressionless response isn’t any indicator that something is wrong, then her upbeat attitude sure as hell ain’t.

“Nothing,” Codex said with a deep, long sigh.

Magnus snorted, “If I had an iron shim for every time somebody says they are fine, and they are just simply lying right through their teeth, I would be richer than all the Guild Masters combined.”

“Just leave me be, Magnus,” Codex said, acting like a teenage girl. “I want to be left alone.”

“Not happening,” Magnus said, for once being the adult in their conversations. “So spill the beans or else…”

“Or else, what?” Codex said, challenging him.

“Or else,” Magnus said quickly, trying to think of a suitable response to make her talk. “Ah… Yes! I will make a scene!”

“You will what?” Codex asked, confound, and apprehensive.

“You hear me. I will make a spectacle of myself!” Magnus said, feeling quite proud of his quick thinking and his acting abilities as well. Even though he just boastfully announced he would go ahead and behave in a ridiculous fashion in public, there was no way he wanted to jump right into it.

“I do not believe you,” Codex said, more to herself, really than Magnus.

“Really now,” Magnus said, feigning surprise. “Don’t you know me better than that, Codex? Sometimes even I scare myself with the bat shit crazy stuff that I do!”

“Well then,” Codex said, trying to steel herself but spectacularly failing. “Let’s see you try!”

“Come on, Codex,” Magnus said, playing up his confidence. “We both knew only you, alone, would be feeling the pain and sting. You are the one how cares about all these proper and pleasant stuff. I, on the other hand, couldn’t give a rat’s ass.”

“Do you think I care as well,” Codex said with a quiver in her voice. “I Don’t! Go ahead and do whatever you want. I won’t stop you or try to talk you out of it.”

“Come on now, Codex, ” Magnus said in a bored tone. “You are acting like a little girl and giving me, sas.”

“How Dare You,” Codex shouted, indignant.

Magnus saw that this line of quarreling was getting him nowhere, so he tried a different tactic, emotional sentiment.

“Codex, please make this easy for both of us, and just tell me what’s wrong. All I want to do is to set things right and give you a helping hand, if needs be, like you did for me, so many times. Except I can not do that if I do not know what is wrong, and I am left in the dark.”

This method seemed to have some effect as Codex ceased all activities and completely silenced herself. “Codex,” Magnus said prodding at her so as to get any if at not just one response at all.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Codex replied, breaking her long silence.

“Try me,” Magnus insisted.

“It’s stupid, and all, plus I know that. But the results of my perception check plague me.”

“Why?” Magnus asked, utterly confused why her if not mysterious, but nevertheless amazing intellect trouble her. He would have taken it as marvelous and happy news, not a troubling one.

It seems like Magnus’s innocent question set him back all the way to base one. “See, I told you, you won’t understand! So let’s forget it all,” Codex said, shutting herself off once again.

But Magnus did not give up, “NO! You are going to tell me what is going on and you will be clear about it. Or I am going for it out of you.”

“You know, you are insufferable at times,” Codex pronounced, and for a moment there, she was back to her old self.

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“Well, I strive to please,” Magnus stated with a bold assertion.

“Fine,” Codex mouthed, giving in to Magnus’s insistent demand. “You will think me silly, I know.”

“I won’t Codex,” Magnus declared, “this is my being totally serious and earnest, today.”

“The thing that bothers me is my stats. Remember how I told you this morning about how you make advances in your mental stats?”

“Yes,” Magnus replied, thinking back to the discovery she made. Unlike the breathing technique, which uses food, which is basically energy to transform it, then use it boosts your body the mental exercise technique is the opposite.

It uses something that is already there, and there is none of the enhancing that goes on since the mental exercise technique only unlocks part of your brain that fell into disuse.

Yes, your brain! Once Codex made the discovery thanks to her picking it up on her scans of his body, it made perfect sense. The human has only 10% of their brain unlocked, the mental exercise technique goes against nature, which all these techniques do in a sense, and opens up the parts that have been long unutilized.

Now, Magnus has 10.07% of his brain unsealed!

Magnus quickly turned away from his remembrance and got back to focusing on Codex, who was still at it, “I have one, ONLY JUST THE ONE! Do you understand what that means?”

Magnus remained silent; he didn’t want to ruin things or offset Codex, so he let her have free rein and continue on with her rant.

“I am one merely stat, just one dimension. I guess that is all I will ever be, not human,” Codex said in a whisper.

Realization struck him like a truck, how couldn’t he have perceived it or foreseen it, he finally understood where she was coming from. “Codex, what makes you think you are not human?” Magnus asked in a tender voice.

“My stat,” Codex replied as if that was answer enough.

“So what about your stat,” Magnus confronted her.

“I-it… it,” Codex said with a stammer, not having a good enough reply.

“What!? Does it stand for something?” Magnus asked, or more like demanded a response. There comes a time in life where whispering comforting words would not do. You got to hit somebody with cold hard facts to get them out of a slump. You gotta get them moving, thinking, acting not soothing them, and their ego.

“YES!” Codex shouted in an addled state.

“Come on, Codex. I thought you were smarter than that. Don’t you love waving your superiority around like a flag over everyone? You can do better than this, do you truly believe that you are one dimension, that you are subpar, that you are NOT human?!”

“But, but, but…” Codex whined, overloaded with too much all at once.

“Codex, listen,” Magnus said, drawing her in. “I do not know why you are thinking so little of yourself, but you are perfect the way you are.”

“That is not true,” Codex uttered with waning conviction. “I.. I know that you joke about how useless I am, and you mean nothing with it, but still the point stands. I know I have been hopeless and a lost cause, I have been ever since we came to this world. Now heap on that my perception check results which proves it.”

“Oh, Codex,” Magnus mouthed, feeling guilty and ashamed that his jap unknowingly cut so deep. Still, though, he could feel condemned later, now he needs to keep up his barrages until he turns her around to his viewpoint.

“Codex, ignore what the norm is and especially ignore what I have to say. If there was ever somebody hopeless, it would be ME! Now answer me this, do you Codex, who the best A.I. there ever was, feel insecure, feel lesser than flesh bags, feel like you amount to nothing?”

“I.. well..” Codex stammered, not having a proper answer.

“Come on Codex, this is not you. This is not the high and lofty A.I. I knew.” Magnus professed.

“No,” Codex shouted, finally delivering the answer Magnus was looking for.

“So, what is there to feel troubled about?” Magnus implored with finesse.

“Nothing, I guess,” Codex mumbled.

“Codex,” Magnus said with finality. “You have gone above and beyond for me many times. Done the work of numerous A.I. and stuck with me, which I have no idea why you would do so. Since you would have saved yourself the trouble and ditched me long ago.”

That statement and admittance got a good laugh out of Codex, which was a good sign. Laughter is always a good sign, which means they are in a pleasant mood to chat up with.

“You may have one stat, but it goes beyond whatever measuring range we have. That could only mean one thing. You are beyond extraordinary! I would admit even I feel envious, and I am literally out of this world.”

“I have to hand it to you, Magnus,” Codex said in an amused voice, much better than the mess she was. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

“Please, I am not interested in 2d girls,” Magnus said, feigning pious detachment.

“Ha, and do you think I am interested in little boys?” Codex asked, picking up her dueling sabers.

“Why you…”

——————————————–

“Come in,” a hoarse voice said from the other side.

Magnus turned the doorknob and entered the room, there in the center of the room sat the Matron with an ancient heavy tome in her lap.

“Close the door behind you,” the Matron said, not looking up from the book she was skimming over.

Magnus did as he was told with any compliant then sat himself on the only comfortable place where you can rest your rear. “So, what will we be covering today?”

“Here,” the Matron answered back with as she tossed him the tome she just held.

Magnus caught it deftly and looked it over, under large bold letters in the Common Tongue it read;

‘Arretic for Halfwits by Ahmed Greybrow’

“Ahh, what is this?” Magnus asked, already disliking the book and starting to form thoughts of throwing it out of the window. Except what held him back was the author’s name, only guild members have surnames, which is basically the Guild’s title.

Thus this book must be costly if some guilder took the time to write it and have it copied.

“Well, I would have guessed it was answer enough!” the Matron said with a chuckle, trying to get a rise out of Magnus.

Magnus did not give in to it and asked plainly, “What is this Ara-tic?”

“It is not Aratic or whatever you said, but Arretic. The Magical Tongue of this land!” the Matron said with a shake of her head, appalled with the way he butchered the revered language.

“A magical language?” Magnus asked, mystified and now closely scrutinizing the book, expecting it to do anything or waiting for it to give him all the answers he needs.

“Yes,” the Matron answered, with a deep, long exhalation. This is going to be a long process for sure, “We will be following Ahmed Greybrow’s work. The first Guild Master of the Greybrow; Scholars of Volhelm– the capital of the Starry Mountains!”

“Should I get you some water, Matron? That looked like a mouth full.” Magnus jokes.

“Listen up closely, boy, or we will be cutting our lessons short right here, right now,” the Matron said in a deadly grave tone.

Magnus immediately shut up then, taking the Matron’s threat seriously and not daring to utter a pep.

“Although Greybrow was a total pretentious ass,” Magnus only had to look at the book’s title to agree with that statement of the Matron’s. Who in their right mind would title their book in this fashion?

“He was still able to rest control of the Starry Mountain after the passing of his teacher, the Great Sage. Furthermore, he was a master linguistic of the highest far surpassing his peers, apprentices, and successors.”

“Thus, we will be learning from him, even if it pains us,” Magnus finished for the Matron, already seeing where she was going with this.

“Yes,” the Matron affirmed. “This is the first volume, so we will be starting off with it.”

“The first volume?” Magnus asked, looking over the book once more. It was hundreds if not thousands of pages thick, to and fro his fingertips and his elbow in length, then weighing a few kilograms.

“Yes,” the Matron once more affirmed his question. “There are a total of six volumes,” then the Matron reached under her desk and took out five more books each with only a small variation in length with the book he held.

The Matron handed him all the books which formed an unbalanced, heavy stack while he stood staring dumbfounded at each in tow. Who knew that learning a new language would be nearly impossible! The only two languages he knew were ones he was a native of, and another he picked up from his mother.

Magnus, there was no point in sitting there like an idiot and crying inside about how unfair it is. Thus he picked up each book and looked it over, might as well get a good picture what he would be learning.

The second volume was titled; ‘Arretic for Morons by Ahmed Greybrow’

The third volume was titled; ‘Arretic for Idiots by Ahmed Greybrow’

The fourth volume was titled; ‘Arretic for Imbeciles by Ahmed Greybrow’

The fifth volume was titled; ‘Arretic for Twits by Ahmed Greybrow’

The sixth volume was titled; ‘Arretic for Goats by Ahmed Greybrow’

‘Wow,’ Magnus thought, just reading the titles made him want to travel in time to give that Guild Master a good sucker punch. He actually wondered if there was much to learn from somebody like this.

“Don’t worry. Many people have the same thought as you when they see the titles of the book. However, there is a reason these books are transcribed for thousands of years after his death. Moreover, use to teach guilders’ children to pick up and master the tongue.

There is none out there that teaches as thoroughly and completely the magical tongue of Arretic as these books. It encompasses the tongue from top to bottom!” the Matron said. Clearly reading his thoughts and hinted at either of them or just both of them.

“If you say so,” Magnus mumbled. Yet, he was curious and just couldn’t wholly heartedly believe that these well-respected books that many rely upon would be titles this. Therefore he had to ask, “These books aren’t really called this, right?”

“No, they have more respectable titles.” the Matron answered back, holding back her mirth. “The first volume is better known as Arretic for Lower Beginner, followed by Arretic for Upper Beginner, then Arretic for Lower Intermediate, after that is Arretic for Upper Intermediate, then next in line we have Arretic for Advanced, and finally Arretic for Mastery.”

“Well, aren’t those more respectable titles! Why aren’t they transcribed like that? The man who published it is long dead, so he won’t be complaining about the change of topic.”

“That is the exact question that plagues the Scholars which they argue about from their towers to their lofty Library! Should we alter the title for propriety’s sake or keep it for historical value!”

Magnus shook his head to himself. People can be truly amazing at times.

Seeing no point sticking to this topic anymore, Magnus decided to change the topic and move on. “So, how long do you think it would take me to learn and master this language?” Magnus posed to the Matron, getting right to the meat of the subject.

The Matron rubbed her chin, thinking it over, then replied, “If you are slow, it will take anywhere from eight to ten years.”

“And if I am fast?” Magnus urged, already fearing the answer that would come forth.

“Well, if you are a quick learner, which I think you are. Then we can do it within four to five years,” the Matron replied.

“WHAT!” Magnus shouted as the blood drained from his face; it would take years to learn a stupid damn language!?

The Matron looked down at him like he was dimwitted, “What do you think, boy, that we would breeze through it in a couple of days? Ha! This is a magical language I am teaching you, not some ordinary tongue! Plus, even those mundane things take a year or two to learn!”

Magnus was still off in his little hell, screaming and shouting about injustices. If what the Matron said was true, he would not be learning a lick about magic from her, because by the time they finish or get halfway into it, he would be out of the orphanage.

Then it struck him, and he exclaimed in a half accusation and question, “You never wanted me to ever learn about magic, eight? Forget even teaching it to me.” Why hadn’t he realized it much more earlier?

The Matron was so adamant against the very idea about bringing up magic from the very start. She didn’t want to teach him anything about magic nor even let him learn anything about it. So why should she start now!

The Matron snorted in derision, “Even if that was true, so what! Before you move on to anything; whether it be casting spells, producing any sort of magical commodity, or even coming to understand magic– you need to learn how to speak and write the magical tongue of Arretic.”

If there ever was a well put together confession, that would be it, but Magnus could see the point that the Matron was making. If he wanted to move on from base one and set aside the mist blocking his sight towards magic, then he had to take the first step, which was learning the magical tongue of Arretic.

Even though it pained him greatly that he wouldn’t be learning any of the awesome, captivating stuff, there would come a time and place for it. Right now, he would take whatever is offered to him with gratitude and grace.

“Well then, Matron, if you think this would be the proper first step to take into the world of magic, then I am at your command!”