Riley gets frustrated by magic that works on not knowing.
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Riley reviewed the file for her next field assignment.

Unexplored World f811114382355000.

Local name: No local consensus

Population: Approximately 500 million.

Note: Based on Soul Seeker and linguistic analysis high likelihood of an Earth variant.

Warnings:

Unidentified magical effects are present.

Priority objectives:

Analyze local magic.

Assess risk level.

Secondary Objectives:

Standard precepts

Open diplomatic relations

She took a deep breath and rechecked her equipment, four dodecs, her mage staff, a tent, two changes of clothes, an auxiliary generator, and an auxiliary processing core.

"Once more onto the breech."

She smiled to herself, ran one last internal diagnostic, uploaded one last incremental backup, and activated the transposer.

And then she was somewhere else.

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That place happens to be at the curb of a cobble road, cutting through...forest might not be the exact right word. The trees are all growing in neat rows and columns, with the ground between them covered in an unnaturally uniform mat of leaf-litter. No one is immediately present, but not far away down the road, it passes through a gate in a tall stone wall. It's quiet, but the bustle of civilization can be heard coming from that direction as well.

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Finally the locator teams picked a good entry point. She tightens her grip on her staff for just a moment the  nods to herself and walks towards the gate.

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Even without any activating any magic sensors, there's a fairly obvious magical effect as she walks down the road. It's a strange mix of both subtle and heavy-handed, as the road seems to bend space-time to straighten and hasten the short journey to the gate, but at the same time avoids any harsh gradients or notable distortions in gravity.

Soon, she arrives at the gate, currently closed. There's a fairly large brass bell hanging from a simple rig next to the gate, with a crank attached to the ringing mechanism and a sign with a message written on it in several local languages. 'If you do not have a schedule or keyword and there is no guard present to help you, please ring the bell.'

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Well this is probably the second most blatantly magical place she's been. She considers the bell for a few moments looking around for a guard then rings it.

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Oddly enough, despite the ringer certainly working and the bell visibly vibrating, it's dead silent except for the creaking of the wooden gears and axle.

Nonetheless, a few minutes later she can hear a guard comes hustling down the path atop the wall. They're mostly obscured by the crenelations, but they're tall enough that she can still see their head and shoulders from below. They're wearing a sun-visor that casts a shadow over their face, though the hints of a mustache are visible at the edges of their face, as well as a white jerkin and blouse. "Greetings newcomer! What brings you to Glass Hill today?" The guard inquires in a distinctly cheerful tone.

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"I'm a traveler following the road to see where it leads."

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"Well, welcome to Glass Hill! I'd guess you cut onto this straightway somewhere in the country if you didn't know where you were headed. I can provide you a map, if you just want to know where you are, but if you want to enter the city proper I'll need to take a formal statement of business and duration."

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"I could definitely use a map. As for formal business, I'd like to see your market assuming you have one. I don't expect to spend more than a week unless something catches my eye."

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The guards nods and retrieves a notepad and pen from under their jerkin. "Trade browsing, one week, plus an extensible duration clause." They speak as they write. "Name, alias, or title?" 

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"I'm Riley Clearsky." The name isn't translated.

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"Ri-ley Clear-sky..." The guard repeats as they do their best to transcribe the name into the local script. They snap the slip of paper cleanly from the notepad, rummage under their jerkin again for two more sheets of paper, before dropping all three unceremoniously off the parapets. In yet another display of oddly banal magic, all three papers follow neat, quick arcs through the air, smoothly bending towards Riley's nearer hand. "There's your schedule, as well as maps of the city and kingdom. Will you need anything else?"

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"I don't think so. Thank you for your help." While she said market she's more interested in a library if there is one. What does the map say?

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There are two libraries, in fact! Though one of them seems to contained in the city's central keep, which may be a bit inaccessible compared to the one present in the city's outer ring, which on the map is labeled Glass Hill Public Library. Assuming the map is to scale, it seems like a rather small building, unfortunately.

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Public library will do to start with. She starts of in that direction. She tucks the papers and the map into her backpack having already memorized them. Memory implants are great.

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The city is almost painfully organized, much like the 'forest' outside. No twisting alleys or switchbacks, just pure and simple concentric ring and radial streets stretching out from the central keep. The streets in the city have a similar sort of warping effect as the road outside, so it only takes a moment for Riley to find her way to the library. Sure enough, it seems no larger than any other building at the corner of two streets. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, however, when she steps inside, she finds the space within is as much as an order of magnitude larger than its outward appearance implies.

"Hello!" A tall, black-haired woman, presumably a librarian, greets her from behind a desk near the entrance. "If you're looking for information on commerce, you can find current business news in aisle E1, business history in aisle A3, and financial records in aisle A12. Otherwise, how may I help you today?"

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"I'd like to see books on magic if you have any, though books on general history would also be nice."

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"Histories of the kingdom can be found in aisle A1, histories of magical practice in A2, international history in A5, magic preparation records in A11, and just about all of the B aisles have something to do with magic, whether it's theory in B1, common formulae in B2, sevice directories in B3, analytical and critical works in B4, records of foreign magical works in B5, and miscellany in B10."

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"Thank you." She heads to B1. Is there more space warping inside the library?

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There is indeed more space warping! These people evidently can't get enough of it. Aisle B1 is fairly close to the entrance, so Riley doesn't have to go far, but even the relatively small distance she travels causes the aisles to squeeze and distort, Aisle A1 initially widening as she approached, but quickly narrowing as she passed it before B1 widens in turn.

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"Alrighty then." She mutters to herself. The space warping is getting a bit ridiculous. She looks for a primer on magic in general if she can find one.

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Ritual for the Unfamiliar, by one Parco Rhegemedos, is quick to find and seems promising.

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That does seem promising. She takes it off the shelf and starts to read.

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Ritual is, apparently, the process of accumulating Knowledge (sometimes alternatively referred to as Intent or Purpose) in the subjects of the ritual. As more Knowledge is accumulated, Natures are created, with certain combinations of Knowledge creating certain Natures, with a particular combination being called a formula. All things in the world possess an underlying Nature which is composed unevenly of a mixture of all Knowledge, and it is from this impure state that useful Natures are derived. By way of rituals, we exalt the desired knowledge, and synthesize from those exalted things the intended Nature. Rituals do this by drawing on the unique Nature of the human, language, to name the Knowledge of a thing, and to move the Knowledge through the name.

Through out the text, a number of basic examples are given, with two models being apparent. One involves simply making true statements about the subject of the ritual, referring to the subject only using the desired ritual name for it, until the relevant facts have been 'established' (the demands of which vary depending on what facts are being used and what they will be used for). The other involves first separating a ritual space from the outside world with an established barrier, before using one of any number of potential ritual tools (all which must themselves be established, if not outright magical, of course) to move the established traits of one subject to another.

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That is a fascinating start to a magic system. Does this book have a table of contents or examples she can try?

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