A garden naturally had more than flowers. Without these little blades of grass, even the flowers would lose some of their splendor.
As he strolled, he was still thinking about Xingor's law, but this tuft of grass caught his attention nonetheless.
Pale green leaves, winding white patterns.
He slowly crouched, reached out to stroke it, lifted its drooping leaves, and began touching it with his mental power.
This, too, was a book. Its leaves drooped to either side, like a book laid on the ground, its pages parted down the middle and spread out on both sides.
Ruger sat cross-legged right beside the path, rested his elbows on his knees, and began to read.
This little grass book discussed the Four-Language Spell and Four-Language Wizards.
Ruger also learned why his Word of Flame had been able to deal with both the vast numbers of Emberfolk and the stronger Emberfolk formed after they regrouped with a single utterance. The main reason was an absolutely perfect match. He had used the Word of Flame together with the incomplete world rune. This world rune, which involved fire, did enhance the Word of Flame's power, but only to a fairly limited extent. What truly maximized its power was how closely the peculiar nature of this incomplete world rune matched the characteristics of the Emberfolk.
He had obtained this world rune in the first place because an Emberfolk had descended into this world and, in its uncomprehending state, attracted the incomplete world rune. That attraction was the very expression of their perfect compatibility.
In other words, the astonishing power of his softly uttered Word of Flame could only be brought to bear against Emberfolk.
And Ruger had thought he had become incredibly powerful.
He had drawn this conclusion from a section discussing the relationship between