Spirit Lore

At the top of the stairs, Justinian threw aside the door to his personal library and led the way inside. It wasn't too big of a room, only fitting six small bookshelves and a desk, but those shelves packed a considerable quantity of tomes considering how small and quiet their village was.

Rory had been in here plenty of times to clean and study, so he was familiar with how the books were organized. The young sorcerer followed his teacher to where the texts on magical creatures were stored. He held out his arms to accept each book Justinian pulled off the shelf one after the other. They gathered up every text that might contain valuable information on spirits and brought them to the desk to browse through, splitting the workload.

"Here," Justinian pointed one pale, wrinkly finger at a passage he'd uncovered.

"The spirit of this forest is named Jahreszeiten, meaning 'seasons'. It was sealed away by a nameless ancient sorcerer long before this village was even founded. Before that, there are legends about it spontaneously growing orchards of trees bearing fruits or nuts, guiding lost travelers to fresh water, unleashing packs of wolves and other beasts upon its enemies, and…" the old man furrowed his brow, "changing the very seasons. That must be where it got its name."

It was common knowledge and common sense that the ancient spirits were powerful. According to some theories, it was they who taught humans sorcery in the first place. The feats these formless beings could perform with magic boggled the mind.

Aurelius pointed to a passage from his own book as well. "According to this, ancient sorcerers in service to the spirits were called Druids. To be honest, Jahreszeiten is able to communicate with me through this gift he calls the Autumn Ring," Rory gestured up at his horns. "He's referred to me as his Druid before. And…" Rory turned the page, showing his teacher an illustration of one such ancient Druid, who sported branch-like horns growing from his head.

The boy's teacher winced and shook his head. "Sounds like you're in bed with this spirit now, Rory. Perhaps we can find out what that means for you and the rest of us."

The both of them buried their noses in their texts again, sifting through history and hearsay for hidden wisdom. Sharing each piece that seemed important, they eventually worked through all the materials they had. Justinian groaned and popped his back as he stood up.

"Shall I briefly summarize what we learned?" he asked. Of course Rory nodded. "Well then, The spirits are ancient, formless beings. Most of them are sedentary, tied to a discrete portion of land, and their power within their territory is formidable. At a certain point in history, they started to raise sorcerers as Druids in service to them. As technology advanced, however, tensions between mankind and the spirits rose. After several ancient cities were annihilated, we sealed all the spirits away."

Rory nodded. "Jahreszeiten didn't seem antagonistic like some of those other spirits, but if he's awoken then more might as well."

"And the ancient spell used to seal the spirits has long been lost," Justinian nodded solemnly.

"Perhaps you should consult the forest spirit directly. If it's indeed compassionate toward our plight, perhaps it will help protect us from the wrath of the other spirits."

Well… it wasn't like they had an alternative on the table. Rory nodded stiffly and opened his mouth.

"No need to repeat yourself, Aurelius. I heard it all."

The young man went stock still, feeling a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck. "J-Jahreszeiten, humans have an important concept called privacy."

"I think I had the right to listen, since my name came up."

So the spirit was going to tune into whatever Rory was doing whenever it involved him? If that was the end of it, he could come to terms with it, but somehow Rory doubted that.

"Could you at least let me know when you come and go?"

"I can do that. But it's saddening to know that my own Druid is wary of my presence."

"But I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I became your Druid. Honestly, I'm still not really sure."

"It is invariably a good thing, so don't worry about it so much. I for one don't expect much of my Druids. As long as you remain the type of person I judged you to be, you have no responsibilities that you would not naturally perform on your own. But we can discuss this at length later. You seek guidance on how to deal with other waking spirits, isn't that right?"

"That's right," Rory nodded.

"As long as you live here in my forest, you have nothing to worry about. I will protect you from other, hostile spirits."

Rory breathed a sigh of relief and relayed the information to Justinian. "What about humans who live outside of your forest? Is there anything we can do to help them if an angry spirit attacks? Do you know the spell used to seal spirits in the first place?"

"No, I don't. That was the creation of a Druid beholden to the spirit of the valley. I believe she was named Phantasieren. As for the creatures living beyond my territory, they can either come here for refuge or my Druid can go do them as an emmisary."

Aurelius blinked and pointed up at himself. "That would mean… me, wouldn't it?"

"The burden of travel would fall to you, yes."