Later in the day, she went to the Temple of Records. They let her in without asking any questions, with the librarian stating: “The High Grafter has made arras in your stead. You have access to Ses Ohrough Sixteen, as well as special access to Se Thirty-eight. Temporary supernormal access may be requested, though it may not be granted. Our public title archive includes a prehensive iory of all dots within the first thirty ses.”

  Uhe tral Temple’s receptionist, the librarian was a grizzled-looking human man, with burnial spheres in pce of eyeballs and thick cables ing out the back of his head to eto spots on his back. He was friehan the tral Temple receptionist.

  Krahe had an easy time finding the dots she was looking for, or at least the general category. Everything was sorted by general topic, then by subtopid then alphabetically. Books on the basics of harnessing eidolons, known by other terms as demonology, occultism, theurgy, or spiritualism, were found far from aricted se. In fact, they were so far in the open that Krahe felt the o take them and scurry into a secluded er to read.

  There, she learned, first of all, that Eidolons could be bound in a vast variety of ways, not necessarily requiring a pre-empowered vessel as she had been made to believe by Thaumshot. It was, rather, one of the easiest methods of harnessing Eidolons, because the user didn’t o actually work with the eidolon; the vessel itself taihe instrus for the spirit alongside everythira” o make it achieve a specific result.

  “Throughout history, such objects of power have ever found their pce among the most on and most well-established of duits for eidolons, and food reason. Sacrificial effigies, talismans and scrolls, arrows and more retly bullets. There is, however, good reason why the mighty wizards of olden times were so famous for memorizing their mightiest magicks and wielding wands and staves...”

  She split her attention to a notably thinner and trashier-looking book, with a ghostly yellow snake winding its way around the Banishment Wheel with a representation of Zastreon in the ter. Blocky, yellow lettering across the cover read:

  SECRETS

  OF

  THE ATROPAL

  Despite the sensationalist cover and foreword, g to have been written by a renegade from the group that first developed the Atropal line of Thaumshot, the book itself was very factual and well put-together. It went over the whole history of modern Thaumshot manufacture, pg great emphasis on how the majority of haumshot was refined and empowered by a vanishingly tiny number of highly skilled craftsmen. It also openly admitted that their work was targeted at those who ck the skill, the patiehe uanding, or all of the above to make their own eidolon duits and put together the instrus for the spirit.

  “Imagine my shock, then, when I heard of well-respected wizards throwing around Citriropals because they were, in their own words, good enough to get the job done.”

  The history of Atropals and their rivalry with Reapers apparently went back over two thousand years, with the two eidolonmancies having been embedded in every ceivable form of duit throughout the millennia. One particurly iihod that stood out was the usage of scrolls ed all around a particurly high-grade casting catalyst, such as a staff, allowing the user to be from the flexibility of scrolls while emp the effects with a casting catalyst. The book went on to ment that Thaumshot still fell short of more traditional methods in this regard, uhe firearm was explicitly desigo amplify a particur Thaumshot type, in which case it would be inpatible with others. Dregshot apparently outperformed Thaumshot in terms of output and was easier to manuafcture, but had its own fws, including ck of focus and no reusability.

  When she reached the se that meticulously broke down how an Atropal worked, Krahe realized what this book really was: A craftsman’s effort to procreate in the memetise, to pass his own disciplio the geion.

  That same se also ended up swallowing her for several hours, with Krahe pulsively correting everything with her own uanding of ons systems. It was altogether occult and mind-bending, but by the time she tore her eyes away from the book, she felt like she had gained enough uanding to experiment with theurgy for her own. She had also learhat “Theurgy” was the most only used word for specifically referring to the pattern by which the power of an eidolon was eled int the likes of Reapers and Atropals.

  Before any experimentation, however, she o figure out how to get herself an eidolon. She read and read and read, finding numerous differehods and rituals, but, eventually, she became frustrated and queried obog’s Mystic Wisdarding the Snare-sign of Bckest Pitch, and how she might most easily catch herself an eidolon. It pointed her towards Se Thirty Eight. So, she checked out a hefty stack of books, some scrolls, and a memste, and made her way there.

  Se Thirty Eight was well underground, in a cold, dry-aired chamber with heavy stone doors that used three keys, all of which the librarian had given to her. It was also a very small room, more of a rge closet tucked away in the er.

  There, she found scrolls on Astro Diving and immediately knew why she had been given special access. Among them were texts penned by Barzai himself, signifitly more readable than anythiaining to the Liminal Coil.

  Not only did she find instrus on how she might carry out a Full Dive, she found a whole rite for doing so safely and with precautions, the so-called Rite of Dho-Hna. The prerequisites were only that one o be capable of perf a Partial Dive unassisted, leading Krahe to believe she could make use of this rite even without a Gulf Key. The many treasures of Se Thirty Eight numbered far more than merely four volumes. However, Krahe found that, for the time being, most everything beyond the fourth volume was inprehensible to her or simply covered the same topics from a different perspective. So, she took with her the first four volumes of Barzai’s work.

  DREAM-QUESTS INTO THE ASTRAL GULF VOL. 1

  OF YE US AND ANGLE-WEBS MOST SUBLIME

  DREAM-QUESTS INTO THE ASTRAL GULF VOL. 2

  OF YE INVOCATIONS AND WORDS OF POWER

  DREAM-QUESTS INTO THE ASTRAL GULF VOL. 3

  OF PASSING THROUGH THE VEIL WITHOUT RENDING IT

  DREAM-QUESTS INTO THE ASTRAL GULF VOL. 4

  OF YE RITE OF DHO-HNA

  Akaso