There was silence in the Tourmaline Archives: the lofty, echoing silence of pursuit and concentration; the soft, rustling silence of pages turning and notes being taken; the intimate, liminal silence of detached sighs and exasperated exhalations. It was ideal for studying, for unlocking the secrets of the universe... but it made it difficult to stay awake, when one was on hour nine of an uninterrupted research rabbithole. Stifling a yawn and rubbing his eyes, Mercury stretched upwards, then outwards, from his position on the oversized windowsill, his long neck arching and his tail almost hitting a nearby Fae (who was too engrossed in her tome to notice). He picked up the book he had been reading in his main paws, and in his second set of smaller arms he again grabbed his pen and his notebook. Glancing out of the towering stained glass, his mind wandered a little, his gaze unfocused as he watched the way the leaves rustled on the trees outside. He had to figure out the formula for the particle transfiguration engine that his mage was making, he HAD to.
But, ugh, he did not WANT to. He was tired of poring over arcalgebra textbooks, sick of sifting through applied runicalculus tomes, and he felt like he would lose his mind if he approached even one more discrete magic proof. Maybe he could take a break, just a small one?..
No, no, no, his mage would be livid if he knew. He had specifically said not to come back until the formula was done.
Gotta hit the books again. Gotta figure this out, Mercury thought, picking up
The Complete Study of Logical Runic Method Theory and Relational Aura Physics and bravely reopening it, reading the first line of chapter sixty-five... Only to feel his thoughts once again crawl and sink like his mind was made of alchemical sludge.
No, no, he panicked, flipping a page to
fig. 73 and trying to make sense of the diagram and its caption. His eyes felt like they were crossed.
No, no, no, I have to get this, he thought hysterically, staring harder in forced concentration. His smaller set of arms fidgeted absentmindedly, and before he knew it, a small strip of page 958 had been torn from the tome and was crunching between his teeth. Realizing in horror what he'd done, Mercury closed the book and pushed it to the other side of the windowsill. Defeated, he put his head in his paws, his fingers covering his eyes, and crossed his other arms, slumping forwards and downwards onto the cushioned windowsill until he rested on all four of his elbows. His cold claws pressed against his tired temples and eyelids were a relief, and he inhaled slowly.
After a moment, he peered through his claws out the window. The sun had set, and his angle of vision showed him countless stars and planets twinkling in the sky. A small smile crept over his face. They were so beautiful, and he loved them so much. He loved their colors, their alignments, their orbits and dances. They made sense to him, unlike the proofs and formulae and algorithms he was drowning in right now. Adjusting so that his chin rested in his palms, he lost himself in the cosmos, meandering from planet to star and silently recalling their names, their traits, their elements and significance.
A familiar voice startled him back to earth. "Mercury?" it murmured.
Turning in alarm, Mercury whispered, "Oh stars and stones, sir, I am so sorry, I, I--" He panicked, sputtering quietly and searching for words that simply would not come.
The mage reached out and gently squeezed Mercury's shoulder. "I was worried about you, my boy. You were gone for over thirteen hours, I came to make sure you were okay. Oh, it looks like you have something scribbled in your notebook, did you make progress on the formula?"
Confused, Mercury looked down at his notebook. Something was indeed written there, in his hand... but he had no recollection of writing it.
The cosmos calls my galactic heart,
Its nebulae twist and colorfully turn,
And stars so brightly and boldly burn,
This celestial dance is finest art!
The cosmos calls my galactic heart.
From highest heavens I can discern
All matters of small and great concern.
Such stellar knowledge planets impart --
The cosmos calls my galactic heart.
To live among their light I yearn,
And to infinity return.
Yet, starstruck, I must stay apart.
The cosmos calls my galactic heart.
Shaking, Mercury glanced up at his mentor. From the depths of the midnight blue cowl came... A, a soft smile? Twinkling eyes?
"It seems like you're burned out on formulae for now." the mage said, as he turned to take the tome from the windowsill and place it on one of the auto-sorting crystalline carts. "I'll have one of the other apprentices work on it. In the meantime, there's this one star that I keep meaning to observe, but I just have not had the time to watch it long enough..."
Mercury smiled so broadly he thought his face might split. "Thank you, Sir! Thank you!" The cowled head nodded, lifting an ancient claw to its lips to remind Mercury not to interrupt the silence of the Archives, and the mage turned towards the entrance. Glancing out of the window once more at his beloved night sky, Mercury was not far behind him.
Next person: please pick a named dragon from the first page of any of my lair tabs. Thank you!
@
KyuuBird Thank you so much!
Mattie/Sol
