Hal held the glowing book in his hand, astonished by the words that suddenly appeared on its pages. He flipped the page and witnessed words write themselves upon the new page.
Hal carefully observed the words as they appeared slowly on the page, reading one by one, his mind seemed to fall into a trance.
"First thing you will need to know is that I will not explain anything about the scholars since I believe you have already read all the books of the scholars that came before me; if you haven't, then I will not let you proceed any further"
The words in the book shimmered as they wrote, "So tell me what does it mean to hunger for knowledge?"
Hal found himself unable to answer; not only did he not know the answer to the question, but he also did not know how to reply to the question.
A thought came to his mind as he found himself asking, "How do I get the other books of the scholars, if I lack access?"
The book glowed once again as new words became imprinted in the pages of the book.
"A Scholar can never lack access to the books of his predecessors. It is the mundane who lack access to our knowledge, just like this book. Any book that contains the knowledge of the scholars will appear to glow in your presence, and no one apart from you will be able to see it"
Hal stroked his chin as the words of the book came to a close. He shut the book and placed it back down on the table. How was he going to find these books?
They glowed, yes, but that didn't mean he lived near a library. Hal's eyes widened as he realised that he was wrong. He did live next to a library, one that he had just got access to"
Hal felt excitement take his soul, but he knew that his excitement had to wait until the break of dawn, when he would be awakened by Joset. He let out a quiet sigh as a smile twisted his lips.
"Not so far away", he turned to stare at the book, a greedy burning in his eyes "Is this what Lady Roxanne meant by the craving of knowledge?"
He felt his desire to know gnaw away at his mind as if he were a wielder of a trait succumbing to madness, but it was more than that, for some reason, he felt like something was reading his life like a book.
"Your novel, huh, we'll see about that, My Lord of the Stars" Hal found himself soon taken by sleep, as always, Joset came to awake him from his sleep.
She had not been as rude as she was on ordinary days, but she wasn't soft either. She grabbed Hal with her strings and dragged the poor boy away for their usual training.
Hal still felt irritated by them not allowing him to use his ability like he wished, but he felt his understanding of his gift grow stronger with each session, and today he had something else on his mind.
Hal made his way to Lady Roxanne's office, where shelves full of books lined the walls, and as soon as he laid eyes on them, he grinned.
Multiple books glowed as if calling out to him to come and obtain the knowledge held within. Hal moved forward to the closest book he could find and began to read.
The book was about the Dresen continent, which was the smallest continent in the world, with only three kingdoms occupying its land mass.
He quickly flipped past those pages and began to read the information that appeared with the glowing words.
The Scholar talked about there being three types of Scholars of Fernis, which included the members of the congregation who were not actual scholars, but people hoping to be recognised by the tree of knowledge or the great dragon Fernis.
The other two types were true scholars, but different in the fact that one was blessed by the tree of knowledge, while the other was blessed by the great dragon Fernis, which made it possible for them to comprehend forbidden knowledge.
The book talked about multiple things that acted as the basics for being a scholar, but most of it was pretty useless to Hal, who did not care about style or conduct, though he had found out that only two scholars can exist at a time.
One blessed by the tree and the other by the dragon, but Hal had seen both, which was the kind of criteria to be considered blessed in this world.
'Could it mean that I was blessed by both, and if so, then could the other scholar exist, and if so, where are they?'
He shut the book soon after and let out a sigh as he went on to read most of the books he travelled from shelf to shelf, reading book by book.
He felt a thrill like never before. The more he read and the more he read, the deeper his understanding of his ability got., He found out about the abilities he had just for being a scholar.
The responsibilities that naturally fell on his shoulders and privileges one achieved as a reward at some point, the night had fallen, but he still had a pile of books left, worse of all, he had skipped his training with Tai.
He scratched the back of his head as he decided to carry the remaining books with him to his room. He quickly made his way there and placed the pile of books onto his desk.
He opened his window wide as he again became fully taken up by reading book after book, page after page; the knowledge seemed endless, and he did not want it to end.
He read a book that got him thinking, "According to this, for all knowledge earned, some must be given to retain the cycle of knowledge, it's the reason why the scholars write"
He looked around his room and found a notebook lying in one of the drawers. He picked up a quill and ink, and with a dip, he began to write.
Of course, this was not the knowledge of the scholars he wrote down, but it was the first step in hiding it; this knowledge was considered forbidden.
"And so it needed to be hidden for the punishment of requiring knowledge that you are not allowed to always led to madness"
The words rolled off his tongue, but they did not affect the words he jotted down. He filled the notebook with information about the Dresen continent and its three kingdoms of Satlavia, Eberlast and Haverfield.
He drew its maps as if he had practised it for decades, and he wrote down the languages of the three kingdoms as if it was second nature to him.
"For all scholars are blessed with the power to speak, write and read any language and their hands are blessed with the ability to draw all maps, whether they be of this world or not; it is their privilege as seekers of knowledge"
Hal finally finished writing down all he had read about and opened a blank page in the notebook before turning to his pen as more words escaped his lips.
"Scholars have the power to conceal knowledge; they are blessed with the ability to shatter not only their mind but also their souls. Whether they wield a trait or a gift, it is another one of their privileges for whatever holds their soul holds hides their knowledge, it is a part of them, and hence they have authority over it"
Hal focused on his pen and called upon his gift, but he did not feel the string tug at his soul this time, as a warm sensation overtook him, and suddenly the quill appeared to have a bright star shining within it.
He felt as if a piece of him had been embedded in the pen. In fact, he could think, feel, see, hear and even smell from the quill; he could share its senses even though it was not a living thing.
He brought down the quill on the notebook book, which opened to reveal extra pages that he could write on, all the knowledge he needed to conceal, and so he did no scholar before him had done this.
There was none that had made a book based on the collected research of other scholars, but he was going to be the first, maybe even make it a chronicle of some kind.
He wrote all the information he had collected from all the books, apart from one he had left a few pages blank just to write down the knowledge concealed in the last book he wanted to read.
He picked up The Mysteries of Higher Beings book and stared at it for a while before proceeding to open the book and read the glowing words that read.
"So tell me what does it mean to hunger for knowledge?" he lifted his pen and thought about these words; he too had finally felt what it feels like to hunger for knowledge, and he too wrote down.
"To hunger for knowledge is to seek the truth of the world to be taken in by its madness, to forsake your life for the thrill of satiating that hunger and to be the unquenchable novel that tells an eternal never never-ending story of the conquest of knowledge"
Hal withdrew his pen as the book glowed more intensely, new words appearing on its pages.
"You are indeed one of us, and for your hard work, I will grant you two secrets that the world hides. In my book, I had written that people and monsters can become laws, but I did not mention the same for the other two.
Hal flipped through the pages as if they brought him into a trance
"This is because this world believes that those higher beings are out of reach, but in my research, I found a way to prove them wrong and discovered it is possible to aim higher"
'What did he mean by this?" Hal stopped reading to think about these words. His thoughts sped up as his eyes soon returned to the pages of the book
"All conceptual beings and embodiments were once human like you and I, but what could be the key to attaining this feat? My research has not yet borne fruit, but I feel like I'm getting close"
The pages gleamed in Hal's words as he flipped to the last page
"If you are reading this book then you must be my successor, I collected all the books belonging to all the scholars and with the help of trait I ensure that the first books you will find will be useful to you and I placed the rest in a much safer location so that you may come seek my knowledge and fulfill my desire where may have failed"
Hal's lips trembled as he read the final sentences of the novel that made his eyes widen with a mixture of terror and amazement
"I will attempt to become a being above the law and learn the actual truth of this world this burden weighs on my shoulders for I know this worlds other secret, that this world's origin is madness and to madness it will soon return I will, no I must save it before the end of everything is upon us, yours truly Donatello Aviscus Fernis"
Hal placed the book back on the table as the words echoed in his mind 'Was that really the fate of this world' he felt his hands tremble as he stared up at the red tower in the distance