Yellain Icescars Talisman: The corrupted notebook

The day finally ended. Yellain opened the door to her room, throwing her coat onto the nearby bed before closing and locking the door behind her. The hours had been long and full of work, and while she was traveling the land now, her services as a smith were in high demand throughout the small villages surrounding the mountains she called home. The demon looked around the room, pondering on what she should do with her free time. She still had a lot to do, so she decided to walk over to her desk and set her heavy bag there. The demon opened the satchel and pulled out some of her belongings before pausing for a moment. The last item in there was her notebook, and she looked at in her hands it while thinking. The booklet had changed, just as she did. She was too distracted to notice it right after her transformation, but in the following days, she had a good look at it and found it to be somewhat different than before. And now she had the time for a more thorough investigation of the phenomena which apparently not only corrupted her, but also her belongings. So she decided: Now was the time to check what had happened to the book.

She sat down, her metallic tail coiling around the leg of the chair as she gazed upon the cover and spine of the book. Prior to the changes, the ledger was bound in brown leather, plain and simple. Neither illustrious title nor art were on the cover, not even a little scribble – just a simple notebook she purchased from a merchant. Not much to look at, but enough for her ideas and notes on jobs she had to do. Little reminders and tricks she picked up, designs she wrote down or little stories she thought of - nothing special. She would always carry a book with her, to write down everything interesting that came to mind - the day of her transformation was no exception. And since that day, she had it with her, always, to keep up with noting everythin she deemed worthy of bein written down. But the former looks of the book were a thing of the past now, as it had changed completely:

The spine and the edges of the cover were lined with silver, so filigree it appeared to be part of the leather instead of being hammered upon it. There was yet another oddity: while the transformation appeared to be somewhat chaotic and random at times, coiling and swirling and creating fantastical shapes and interesting patterns, it was perfectly symmetrical. Both horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, the front and back of the book are also mirrored, looking nearly identical. Yellain sighed. It would be tedious to find which side was the front if she wanted to open it. Before she had a little scratch on the corner of the front and some soot stains on the leather where dancing embers of her kiln came to rest, so she would at least know the front of the book. But now both the scratches and the stains were gone. How utterly annoying.

Once again, she turned the book in her hands, her metallic fingertips gently touching the decorations. In her new form, she could feel the metal more dominantly than the leather. It felt warmer and even somehow softer, like a living being rubbing its head against her hand. Though that was impossible, since the book was not alive. Shaking off the weird feeling, Yellain turned her attention towards the spine of the book. It was completely coated in silver, with three red gems being firmly set into the surface. One at the top, one in the middle, one at the bottom. They were bigger than most gems she had discovered along the transformed parts of her body, and it looked like they were glowing. They sparkled, reflecting light which was not there. And the little glow inside of them appeared to be pulsing, like a very low heartbeat. She furrowed her brow. Though those gems looked like the ones on her body, something was different. A feeling she had, like the jewels were important. Though the demon could not tell why. Out of curiosity, she reached out, touching one of gems. A slight warmth immediately crept through her arm, filling her with a feeling of comfort. As if she had just come home after a long journey. Yellain smiled while the light within the gems became stronger, glowing more dominantly and brighter than before. The feeling persisted, putting her mind at ease, and dissolving the worries that plagued her. A welcome feeling. One she would treasure, for sure. If the gems could deliver such a feeling with a mere touch, that book would be her most prized possession.

Even though it pained the woman, she pulled away her fingers after a while and released the warm feeling. She put the book on the desk and opened it. The paper was still very much the same, as was her handwriting on the page she opened. Out of curiosity she skimmed through the pages, stopping at the first. Yellains eyes narrowed. That was her handwriting, she was sure of it – but at the same time, she was also sure she never wrote an index for her book. Furthermore, she was certain that she ripped some pages out – though while checking the table of contents and the page numbers listed, she found them to be extremely precise. Astounded she turned her attention to the first page again. Her little notebook was now magic, was it? Creating its own little index whenever she wrote in it? How useful! Now it served even more purpose then keeping book on how much she spent and earned on each job and other personal notes. A large grin appeared on her face. She thought of the first test for her ‘new’ possession: she would write her notes on the notebook itself in there and see if it would in fact create the entry in the index. Excited she picked up her pen, searched for an empty page and started writing, leaving enough space for future entries and corrections:

“Notes on the nature of the transformed book:

- parts are now metallic. Feels warm and soft to the touch. (Only for me – a later test revealed it to be cold and solid for everyone else. Except elemental beings with an alignment to earth.)

- Red gems socketed in the spine, radiate a comforting feeling. (Note: Gems also existing in the corners of the front/back of the book, very small, no warm feeling on touch) (Again, comforting feeling can only be felt by me and elementals.)

- self-indexing

- apparently infinite number of pages. If you write on the last page, more are added overnight or while the book is closed for an extended period. No indication of the size of the book increasing. Further studies required.

- weighs always the same

- magical aura can be tracked (got asked by a mage what a curious book I had there, because he felt its presence.) (Maybe explains why I always seem to know where the book is at any given time. No need to search for it. Maybe linked to me? Further tests required.)

- self-repairing (minor damage like scratches disappear overnight)”