The Book Lover Ch. 12

"There are two known powers associated with the Magâunôccubbi. There are those who possess the ability of the sampradaTa, and those of the saMpadyate. They both essentially possess a very similar ability. There is a stream of energy, some have referred to it as a life force, that flows between and interconnects all people. The Magâunôccubbi share the ability to interact with the energy that flows in this stream. The sampradaTa are transmitters. They can feed energy into the life force. The saMpadyate are receivers. They can extract energy from the life force.

"This energy stream also carries information. It is full of the thoughts and emotions and memories of the people who are connected to it, which of course includes all of humanity. So, with energy comes information. With information comes power. Farshid used his abilities to become the most powerful person who had ever lived up to that point."

"A conqueror," Jessie suggested.

"Yes," Hamid agreed, "but not the way you would think of a conqueror today. He did not control with armies and weapons, at least not very often. He controlled by using and manipulating the information flowing through the stream of energy to which all people are connected."

"Mind control then," Jessie said.

"That is one way to describe it. It is far too simple to be of much use, however. I am afraid that will be a lesson for another day, likely many other days."

Jessie nodded and took another long draw on the pleasant beverage in front of her noting that it did not seem any different in temperature or quantity than it had the first time she drank from it.

"So was Farshid a sampradaTa or a saMpadyate?" Jessie asked.

"Ah, a fine question," Hamid answered. "He was actually what is known as a dvaitavAda, so named because of the dual nature of his powers."

"He was both?" She guessed.

"Indeed. And very powerful at both abilities. As it turns out, the Magâunôccubbi aren't actually all that rare among humanity. There are many people who have the ability to tap into the life force. However, the overwhelming majority of those who can do it are unaware they are even doing it. Not only that, but the power they wield over the energy is so small is to be largely ineffective even if they were aware. Magâunôccubbi of either type with any real power are quite rare. Those with both abilities are exceptionally rare."

"And those with the power of Farshid?"

"To the best of my knowledge, there has only ever been him," Hamid informed her. "And what was even more interesting is that he met and married another dvaitavAda, a woman named Taraneh. To have two dvaitavAda appear together at random, is something that is virtually impossible, but somehow it happened. Perhaps it was destiny. This union created an explosion of Magâunôccubbi, as their offspring largely inherited at least some of their abilities. For the first and only time in history, Magâunôccubbi were no longer a rarity. The dynasty that ensued is likely the most powerful one in all of history, but since no records were kept, no one knows of it."

"So I'm guessing that you were a part of that dynasty?"

"Yes. Myself and Jaleh were both descendants of Farshid and Taraneh. I was the last king to rule on the throne created by Farshid before the great purge."

"The great purge?" Jessie asked.

"Yes. There was growing distrust in the Magâunôccubbi amongst the rest of the people. The descendants of Farshid and Taraneh had begun to engorge themselves with the power they had over the people. Those who ruled largely kept the order established by Farshid to lead the people in ways that made everyone better, but many of the other Magâunôccubbi began chasing after ways to augment their powers."

"How so?"

"They began to take control of the scholars of the day to get them to apply their knowledge to develop incantations that could bind their powers and allow them to be used in more powerful ways."

"And so the legend of the magician was born."

"Indeed. Some of the powers they went after began to scare the people. There was one particular scholar who was bribed with the gift of a personal harem to create a spell that would allow a Magâunôccubbus to live forever. This was when the real problems began. He created a spell which bound the essence of the Magâunôccubbus eternally into the life force. Unfortunately it did not prevent their body from aging and dying. Without realizing this mistake, many of the Magâunôccubbi invoked this spell. When they died, their essence was eternally trapped in the energy flows. With no physical form to help contain the energy they fed on, most of the energy was wasted. They began to be desperate and began feeding in massive quantities on the energies of the living, most often by coming to them in dreams of a prurient nature in order to extract their life force."

"Succubi!" Jessie declared excitedly. "Their name derives from the Magâunôccubbi as well!"

"Yes, and incubi as well. At first they had power sufficient to extract most, if not all, of the life force from their targets. Many people died in these encounters. Those that didn't told the tales that became legend. Over time, the power of the incubi and succubi waned until they were barely able to move through the energy flows. They became trapped in their own personal hell, never able to feed, always hungry, and forever trapped in the life force.

"They can still be located in spots in the life force, wallowing in eternal misery. For many years, however, as those who had used the spell began dying off and feasting on the living, the incubi and succubi represented a very real and inescapable terror to humans."

"I can imagine. It must have been quite terrible for their legend to have survived to this day."

"Occasionally, over the centuries, there have been Magi that have thought it amusing to feed some of them enough energy that they could move around and feed again for a time. This helped preserve the legend as well, but yes, it was very bad for many years. It was one of the things that led to the great purge, which happened shortly after this book was written."

"What was the great purge?"

"The people became so scared of the Magâunôccubbi that they rose up to wipe them out. Jaleh and I were the last of the powerful Magâunôccubbi to come out of the dynasty created by Farshid and Taraneh. With the two of us gone and with no offspring, there was no one left with enough power to protect themselves against the slaughter that ensued. I doubt that either her or myself would have been spared either, but we never had to find out.

"For decades, the people executed anyone who showed any signs of having any of the power associated with Magâunôccubbi. Soon enough the great surge in wielders of the power caused by the union of Farshid and Taraneh ended, and the world was back to waiting for them to appear at random, with decades or centuries between appearances of any with measurable power."

Jessie could tell that he still bore scars of the slaughter of his kind, his family.

"The irony, however," Hamid continued, "is that the vacuum of power created by the great purge gave rise to complete and utter chaos. Would be kings fought each other for power as the empire that had existed for a millennium tore itself apart. Soon people began longing for the glory days when benevolent rulers with true power reigned and controlled the chaos. It was at that time that the first Magi was born. He actually was a true Magâunôccubbus with somewhat limited power, but he chose to unite people through religion rather than through monarchical power."

"Zoroaster," Jessie declared.

"Ah, you have heard of him," Hamid said smiling.

"Yes, I have studied Zoroastrianism," she responded.

"From that point on, possessors of the power to manipulate the energy of the life force were known as Magi. Of course real Magi have been very uncommon since the great purge, but religion has a way of using the legend of one very real Magi, along with many able to be believable imposters to create a significant and long lasting following. Zoroaster would have been a very minor player had he been born in my time, but in his time, he became the symbol of the power of Ahura Mazda."

They paused for a time as Jessie contemplated what she had been taught. It would have been a great time for Hamid to refresh their drinks if it wasn't for the fact that they never seemed to diminish in quantity or temperature.

"So how is it that you can know of things that transpired after the book was created?" She asked.

"As you are already aware, the book was designed to seek out and connect with Magâunôccubbi as they are born. The book interacts with the flows of energy and information, just as it is doing now - with you. We have learned the history of man through the interactions with others like us. As I said, there are many who possess these abilities without even being aware of it. They are often drawn to the book in ways they don't even understand and they share knowledge with us, even when they are unaware they are doing it."

"I have another question," she said.

"Yes," Hamid replied.

"The book clearly has power to be able to heal itself," she said.

"Yes, although that doesn't sound like a question."

"Well, if Magâunôccubbi can draw energy from the life force, why can they not simply heal themselves and live forever? Would that not have solved the problem of the incubi and succubi?"

"It is far more complicated than that. Skin, such as the skin that this book is made of, is very easy to heal. It is about the only thing in the human body that is easy to heal, however. The incantations needed to heal the skin of the book, given available energy, are quite simple to describe. The incantations required to heal the entire human body could not be written down in 10,000 books of this size. They would also require far more knowledge of how the body works than was available in those days, and quite possibly even than is known today."

"I see," she replied.

She took another sip of the never ending mead placed in front of her.

"Tell me about the book, master," Jessie pleaded.

"I was the last king of the Farshid dynasty because of the great purge which followed my departure. When I was young I met a woman with whom I fell madly in love."

"Jaleh?"

He nodded, an actual tear coming to his eye.

"She was my everything. I ascended to the throne with her as my queen. We soon found, however, that she was barren. There would be no heir to the throne. She allowed my concubines to bear children, but none of them became a suitable heir. To make matters worse, she became very ill. It was clear to me that I was going to lose her, a thought which I could not possibly bear. So I threw all of my energies into one task."

"Which was?" Jessie asked.

"To find a way to make the spell of eternal life work. It was the very spell that had doomed so many of my kind to an eternity of misery and that had led to the great purge, and I needed to find a way to make it work for myself and Jaleh so that I wouldn't lose her."

"And that is the book?"

"Yes, my child. I realized the problems with the spell. The first was that the words themselves could not be codified in a permanent form since there was no real way to write down spoken words at the time."

"So wait," Jessie interrupted, "are you saying you invented a written language for use in this book?"

"That is one way to perceive it. It was more like I found ways to transcribe the patterns I was able to observe in the flows of energy. I knew that I could not come up with spells complicated enough to renew a human body as the systems were far too complex, but I could find spells that would renew the simple skins and ink, made of a mixture of organic materials - mostly blood - I could use in a book. By observing the energy signatures of myself and Jaleh and our concubines, I could copy them into a book, then surround them with certain spells that would allow the book to survive and renew itself."

"You bound all of your essences into something with a physical form that could capture energy and renew itself so that you could live forever with your queen who was dying." Jessie remarked, duly impressed.

"Yes. It was a very bold, and most likely foolhardy move which doomed the rest of the Magâunôccubbi," he replied.

"How's that?"

"When I completed the book, it worked as I had planned, transferring the essence of myself, Jaleh, and a dozen of our concubines into the book, leaving our bodies naked and lifeless outside the palace. This was right at the time when the ideas leading up to the great purge were being formed. I was the one who might have had enough power to stay the slaughter, but I was gone. Not only that, but those calling for the purge took credit for our deaths. People felt if someone could go in and slaughter the king and queen and all their concubines, that the remaining Magâunôccubbi would be easy to take down. This caused the people to rise up en masse, which became a force that my family could not overcome.

"I can tell you that this has caused me a great deal of pain over the millennia, but I would do it again if I could just for the chance to not lose her forever."

"But, if you don't mind me asking master, are you really better off than the succubi and incubi?"

"I don't mind you asking, my child. And yes, we are infinitely better off. The book allows us to maintain energy and allows our essences to survive and interact, particularly with other Magi that we from time to time encounter. We are happy together, and don't ever worry about losing each other again."

This idea didn't really sit well with Jessie. She found herself a little agitated.

"So let me get this straight, then. You're using the energy flows to move from place to place, seeking people with a resonance close enough to that of the book so that you can possess them and use your powers to get your jollies off?"

"Oh child," Hamid said, "you do not understand how this works. The book has no power to take energy from anyone. It has limited ability to access thoughts of those who hold it in order to protect itself and to send itself where it needs to go. It can hold energy fed into it by those capable of doing so. It can learn from their experiences and gain knowledge because of that. Magi can share experiences with us and allow us to join them in some of their journeys, but all of that must be given, it cannot be taken. Beyond that, the book has very limited capability. It cannot do any of the things that you are suggesting."

"But what about what it has done with me? You used your powers to manipulate me and those around me into sexual activities. You drew energy from me, in the case of that night with Tom, from both of us, until we almost died."

"My child, I would suggest you understand what is really happening before you start making such accusations against me and this book I have created. You think you understand who you are. You clearly do not. I think it is best that you understand that before we speak again."