Midnight Study Pt. 2

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 16, Post Number 378

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, 10:00 P.M.-

After a busy day of administrative tasks Leona arrived in her personal room to change into less formal clothing before attempting to finish reading Ancient Desierto while she was taking a break from combat-oriented jobs. The last job she had taken was a little more challenging than she had anticipated, but it was nothing that the Wizard Saint of Courage could not handle. It was a return to the Abandoned Cabin for the first time in almost two full years to deal with a necromancer cult that had taken over the tunnels under the Abandoned Cabin.

It had been a few days since Leona had helped the Order of Lightbringers stop a necromancer plot to bring an army of spirits into Earthland to take over the Abandoned Cabin area and beyond. Leona had also fought a Death Spirit, a special kind of spirit that could only be summoned at the cost of one's own life, but in exchange it would hunt the summoner's target until either it or the target was dead. The spirit was a tough opponent because five people had given their lives to summon it and Leona had never fought one before and thus did not know its capabilities. It had an unnerving scream and could fire a spectral skull that numbed a victim with an overpowering chill, but it could also shift to an incorporeal form to avoid retaliation if the target had allies or if the target dodged or survived the first cut from its scythe. That ability plus her shoulder wound made it a tough fight, but Order Knight Diana and Order Cleric Amanda helped her by making the Death Spirit stay corporeal with their Holy Magic, thus giving the Wizard Saint the opportunity to slash it with Shoki. After five hits the Death Spirit was banished from the physical plane and the portal the necromancers had built was sealed for good.

She was taking a break from combat-oriented jobs because the Order of Lightbringers had given her a complete physical examination after Cleric Amanda had told Father Morris about Leona's fall from the ladder and her miraculous lack of injury. The Order's leader insisted that Leona take a physical examination from the Order's medical staff and Leona obliged. When it was complete the Wizard Saint learned that she had no injuries from the fall, but it was recommended that she avoid any further combat for a week or two because of her left shoulder. It had almost healed from the gunshot wound delivered by Captain Hector Espada, but using it to climb and descend a ladder and cast spells did not help, so it was strongly suggested that she stay out of combat for a week or two if it could be helped.

That was not what Leona wanted to hear, but if staying out of fights kept her from aggravating an existing injury, she would do it... reluctantly. Now that she had a surfeit of time on her hands, the blonde had decided to finish reading Ancient Desierto so that she could finally complete the intellectual goal she had set for herself. A few weeks ago she had plowed through roughly 900 pages before stopping due to simply being unable to focus any longer, but now she had gotten some of that focus back and was determined to finish the 1,200-page tome. Leona should be able to get through 300 or so pages in a few nights if she read at least 100 pages a night.

Leona approached her closet and opened it. She grabbed her white athletic shirt and her desert camouflage shorts off of their respective hangars. She strode back to her bed and set them down, then took off her blue, white, and gold outfit while PG-13 turned his head to let her change with some semblance of privacy. Two minutes later she had changed and sat down at her desk to begin reading the doorstopper sitting in the center of the desk. Off to the right of Ancient Desierto was the notebook she had used to make notes on the book.

Leona had not cleaned off her desk when she had stopped reading the book, which was good for her since she did not have to waste time searching for the notebook or a pencil. She needed to start reading while she was still focused on the task, so Leona sat down without further delay. She reached for the top of the book and her fingers soon located the bookmark that she had left to mark her progress. She gently pried the book open and opened her notebook, then began to read the last 300 or so pages of Ancient Desierto.

She could do this.

[Post Word Count: 793]
[Total Word Count: 793/2,500]

-One hour and 100 pages later-

Leona had read through a good portion of the section devoted to the formation of the Tri-Council Cities and learned a bit about the conditions under which they were formed. According to Professor Rosetta, the cities were formed when the sultans saw a need for some semblance of order in the desert country that was infamous for its many varieties of bandits and raiders even in those days. Establishing their cities at three of the "safest" oases and building walls to facilitate defense of the new cities, the three sultans ruled their holdings through a council that worked to ensure a fair distribution and exercise of power so that no one sultan gained an overwhelming advantage over his fellows. Leona lost focus for a few moments after reading that segment. It seemed like a whitewash of the sultan's many questionable deeds by the professor, but she set aside her personal beliefs and read on to learn more about the council and the cities.

-One hour and 100 pages later-

Leona read through another one hundred pages and managed to learn a few things that she did not already know. For one thing, she learned that mages were uncommon in Desierto. Only one in four inhabitants of the desert country were able to use magic. Sophia was able to use magic; her offspring Leonidas and Leona were fortunate to inherit that ability since their father Samuel was not able to use magic. She was not exactly sure how the math worked out, but she understood that the odds of two children born to one parent from Desierto who was a mage and a mundane parent from outside Desierto being able to use magic was something that was not very common.

Another fact she learned was that most of the country's population were suspicious of mages, even mages who were natives of Desierto. Leona had been to the Tri-Council City a few times and had not encountered very much prejudice save for some disdain from a few of the sultan's officials, but she was not sure that all of that disdain could be chalked up to her being a mage. Some of it was likely due to her being a woman in a patriarchal society. However, it was not the kind of prejudice that could lead to unemployment or worse because the sultan continued to employ Leona despite her being a woman and a mage. However, she suspected that the special treatment she had gotten to date was due to the good publicity the patriarchal sultans could get by working with a Wizard Saint who was a female mage.

Despite Leona's misgivings about the reasons behind her continued employment it was not all bad news. While she had met with some disdain, she had also met with a lot of acceptance from the younger generation of Tri-Council City citizens, suggesting that maybe the old attitudes were softening just a little bit. Still, she was interested to learn of the old prejudice against mages and would have to keep that in mind for all future visits to the Tri-Council City.

Leona flipped the next page to find a brief farewell from Professor Rosetta and shuddered to think what his idea of "brief" was. To her surprise the farewell ran to only twenty-five pages. Once she had read through that she flipped the page and found the Works Cited pages. Since she already had a lot of good books that had come recommended from both a modern scholar and one of the scholar's students, Leona decided to thumb through it out of idle curiosity rather than any real need to do so. She also decided to do it just to say that she had completely read Ancient Desierto.

-One hour and seventy-five pages later-

It was an hour past midnight and Leona had finally managed to slog through the Works Cited pages of the book. When the last page was read Leona gently closed the book and stood up to stretch her legs. They were threatening to go numb from all the sitting she had been doing, so the Wizard Saint calmly stretched them and looked at the closed book. She was glad that she had mustered the effort necessary to finally get through the doorstopper written fifty years ago by Professor Henry Rosetta. It was tough reading, but she had learned a lot from reading Ancient Desierto, especially about the Kingdom of Museria and the Kurran Empire.

Leona finished stretching her legs and decided to go to the cafe to get a cup of coffee or two before she decided to either pick another book to read or just call it a night and start reading another one tomorrow night. It might not be the healthiest and most reasonable choice to make at roughly 1:00 A.M., but Leona wanted coffee. If she wanted coffee the Wizard Saint was going to get coffee... besides, she had just finished a 1,200-page behemoth of a history book and wanted a modest reward for her trouble.

[Post Word Count: 845]
[Total Word Count: 1,638/2,500]

-In the guild cafe-

Clad in her white athletic shirt and desert camouflage shorts, Leona did not realize that she had gone barefoot until she was already sitting in the guild cafe and sipping on a cup of coffee. The casual outfit was a different look for the Guild Mistress, who ordinarily wore one of her two more formal-looking outfits just to go to the guild library. That fact was not lost on the cafe staff, who took occasional glances to make sure that they were really seeing what they thought they were seeing. Leona could not help but to be amused by their surprise. She had spent many months cultivating an image of formality befitting her station as Guild Mistress and now she was going barefoot in a t-shirt and shorts like she was at home.

Ordinarily Leona did not dress so casually, but right now she did not care too much about appearances. It was nighttime and no one important was expected to pay a visit. She was also coming off of a time of intense study and was more than a little tired. In between those two factors she did not feel like bothering to dress up just to get a cup of coffee. Leona was sure that no one in the guild hall would be terribly upset by the casual look she was sporting just as long as it did not get too casual.

Leona had just finished her first cup of coffee when she gave some thought about what she wanted to do from here. She set the empty cup down and went over her options. She could either call it a night and go to sleep or she could pick another book from the small collection she had built up from two trips to Capital Crocus.

Part of Leona wanted to go back to her room and go to sleep for the night because reading through 300 pages was taxing, but the other part of her wanted to pick another book to read so that she could keep her momentum going. She was oddly proud of herself for the modest accomplishment of reading a scholarly book that was 1,200 pages long, even if reading said book took a few nights and a lengthy hiatus between readings to finish. Leona was glad that she had bought Ancient Desierto because reading it had helped her learn a little more about the country she was born in and how things got to the way they were. Even the section on the Tri-Council Cities was helpful because as a citizen of a desert village she had never known how the cities came to be, only that they existed. Her mind then turned to the issue of what kind of book she wanted to read.

Leona had three options to choose from and all of them were interesting to her. First, she could learn more about Museria and the Palace of Knowledge. Second, she could learn more about King Saarghon. Third, she could learn more about Sand-Splitter, the famous sword of King Saarghon that was rumored to give its wielder complete control over sand. Which would be a good subject for the Wizard Saint to study first?

Leona gave it some thought and opted to read more about King Saarghon, that farmer turned monarch who had united all of Desierto under his rule and had set an example of kingship for centuries to come. She recalled the incident about the town with the limestone quarry that had been massacred for supposedly withholding limestone for a monument to the king. Most scholars asserted that the massacre was an example of King Saarghon's unchecked ego and abuse of royal power. A few scholars like Dr. Harold Regan asserted that the people of the town were dissidents who seized the chance to extort higher wages from the king and that they were made an example of not for the sake of capricious cruelty, but for a valid reason. Leona was not sure which side was right, but she had two highly recommended books to read that might give her enough information to form her own opinion.

The first was Professor Edgar Thomas' King Saarghon: From Farmer To Monarch. It had come highly recommended by Dr. Anna for its clear and concise writing that was backed by solid research into the subject. The second was Dr. Charles Steinburg's A Balanced View Of King Saarghon. It came recommended by Dr. Anna's student and assistant Melanie, someone Leona had worked with in the exploration of the Lestreki temple some months back. Leona was sure that neither people would lead her astray by suggesting those books, so she felt confident enough to read them and know that she was getting solid information.

Her mind was just about made up when she thought about a couple of other things that she wanted to do.

Leona had wanted to get a computer so that she could work on learning how to use modern technology. She had also wanted to get some bike shorts to wear under her skirt because that part of her wardrobe tended to get damaged one way or another. Both would be safe activities for the Wizard Saint to do while her left shoulder finished mending from the gunshot wound. Obtaining both items could also be accomplished with a trip to Capital Crocus Mall. Lately it felt like she was going to the mall more often than she should, but doing something other than fighting was always appealing to her.

Deciding to postpone reading a book to instead go to the mall tomorrow and pick up a couple of items she needed, Leona paid for her cup of coffee and went to her room to try and go to sleep for the night. Maybe she should have not had coffee before trying to go to sleep, but that oversight was not something she was terribly worried about. If she could not sleep no matter how hard she tried she would just pick a book to read and do something productive with her time. That way Leona would get a start on reading another book to further her efforts to study Desierto and its history.

With that course of action decided upon, Leona left the cafe and started back for her room to try and sleep before planning to go to Capital Crocus mall tomorrow.

[Post Word Count: 1,069]
[Total Word Count: 2,707/2,500]