Only when every question found its answer could she find a moment of peace.
"You need time to adjust to this talent. Rest for tonight," Ravenclaw advised.
Tom nodded and didn't push himself. The two of them returned to the dining area for a late supper, and then Tom stepped out of the learning space, closed his eyes, and forced himself into sleep. He didn't even use the Advanced Draw he'd been sitting on. The moment he tried to think about it, his mind went careening off in seventeen directions at once.
...
The following morning, Tom returned to the space and brought Tybonny to Ariana.
The small, soft bear captured Ariana's heart the instant she laid eyes on it. She pulled it into her arms and refused to let go, her face bright with delighted surprise. "Tom, is this for me?"
"Of course it's for you." Tom smiled and ruffled her hair. "It's been too quiet in here. Having someone small to talk to will do you good. Tybonny doesn't know much yet though, so you'll need to be patient with her and teach her things."
"Yes, yes!" Ariana nodded eagerly, her eyes lighting up further. "Does that mean I'm a teacher now?"
Tom paused. He supposed, in a genuine sense, that wasn't wrong at all.
"That's exactly right. From now on, you're Tybonny's teacher."
"Tybonny, call her teacher."
"Teacher!"
"Hehehehe!"
Ariana played with Tybonny for a good long while, and at some point announced that she intended to bring Tybonny with her when she was eventually resurrected. Tom shook his head with a regretful smile.
Everything inside this space, aside from the souls of its few members and perhaps the meditation chamber, was fundamentally a projection. None of it could be carried into the real world.
Though Tom suspected that once the learning space had levelled up enough times, it might eventually become something real in its own right, and the possibility of converting its illusions into physical existence wouldn't be entirely out of reach.
Ariana's disappointment lasted only a moment before she rallied. If Tybonny couldn't come out, then that was fine. This place was her home. Even after she was eventually brought back, she would return here often. Nothing really changed.
Seeing that the girl wasn't going to spiral into sadness, Tom finally exhaled. Now he had time to use the draw reward he'd set aside from yesterday.
[Congratulations, Host has obtained: Crown of the Blazing Sun, Magical Circuit Shaping Notes.]
Crown of the Blazing Sun?
Tom's eyebrow lifted. A thick volume materialised in his palm, easily over a hundred pages, and he opened it without waiting another second. Then he inhaled sharply through his teeth.
"So it really is what I thought."
The introduction alone was enough to reveal the identity of the notes' author.
The teacher of Kel'Thuzad. Chairman of the Kirin Tor Council of Six. The greatest mage in the history of Dalaran.
Antonidas.
In the world of Azeroth, setting aside Medivh as an existence that simply didn't belong on the same scale as anyone else, Antonidas was the uncontested pinnacle of human magic. The crowning achievement of the academic tradition. Arcane, Frost, Fire, each of the three schools driven to its absolute limit.
Kel'Thuzad was not what anyone would call a straightforward person, and no straightforward person would ever write a journal, let alone turn their notes into one. But that was precisely what he had done.
The name Antonidas appeared throughout the notes so frequently, and the emotional shifts so clearly visible, that the arc of Kel'Thuzad's inner life almost wrote itself. In the beginning, when he had first become Antonidas's student, every mention carried reverence. Later, when his dangerous necromantic experiments were discovered, the tone shifted entirely into something close to terror. Pure dread, nothing more.
Then came the transformation into a Lich. Kel'Thuzad broke through his own limits. He secretly cooperated with Arthas to bring about Antonidas's death. And yet even afterward, when writing of it, a note of wariness persisted. He admitted, in plain words, that even as a Lich he wasn't certain he could have defeated Antonidas outright.
The notes didn't cover everything though. The records from after Kel'Thuzad's transformation into a Lich were sparse. As his power grew, his attitude likely continued to shift in ways the incomplete notes didn't capture.
The Frost Crown magical circuit that Tom had previously condensed had also come, in origin, from knowledge Antonidas had passed on to Kel'Thuzad. Two branches from the same root.
Tom turned that over in his mind. Was this setting him up to hit his enemies with fire and ice simultaneously someday?
A pity it had only been an Advanced Draw rather than a Complete one. A Complete Draw might have yielded the full set of notes, and that would have been a genuinely spectacular haul. Mages of the academic tradition valued the order and structure of lineage above almost everything else. Every piece of knowledge was recorded and transmitted as part of a coherent whole.
Kel'Thuzad operated the same way, which was precisely why Tom had been able to condense a magical circuit that conformed to the rules of this world in such a short span of time.
The moment the notes were in his hands, Tom gave them his complete attention. The advantage of Torrent of Thought made itself felt immediately. Every concept, every technique, every principle, he could zero in on the key point and the trick of it almost before the page was finished. Combined with the amplifying effect of Transcendence Mode, he was moving through the material dozens of times faster than he had with anything before.
He spent the entire day that way. Whatever the professors taught in class, he couldn't have said. When evening came and Daphne wanted him to come and tell her a story, Tom sent a single look across the room. Astoria understood instantly, took her sister firmly by the arm, and dragged her away without giving him any further trouble.
...
Late that night, Grindelwald surfaced, looking like someone who had been kept busy for quite some time.
"Tom, I've caught a few small fry, but none of them knew anything useful. They seem to have worked out that I'm tracking them. They've gone deeper underground."
Tom was absorbed in his research and replied with only half his attention. "Don't worry about it if you can't find them. I don't have any particular plans right now. Do whatever you like. Just get the Hallows reformed."
Grindelwald nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression settling over his face.
Do whatever he liked?
Well then. He supposed he would exercise a little creative freedom.