The Black Mage: Candidate (39 page)

“Well, if you’re going to tell a story, then I suppose you’d best begin with it,” James says, folding his arms and leaning back in the chair.

The old elf, however, simply smiles a bit more before opening the book and sliding it gently over to James. “It’s a story that must be read from this grimoire. It’s all in your human language, so you should have no problem reading it, unlike me.”

James raises a brow in wonder, looking at the book before him. He then turns the book around before he flips open the first page. He is urged to ask, “What’s a grimoire?”

“A grimoire,” the elf says, before sipping a bit of his own glass of wine, “is a forgotten way of storing one’s memories in book format. It was often the rich and powerful that had access to grimoires. In the old days there were entire libraries devoted to a family’s collected memories.” He smiles at James and gestures for him to begin reading.

With the crisp feeling of the page in hand James turns the page.