Here Ends Origins (Thank God)

In which Niall discovers some odd things.

"Hello, Dianne," said China. "Who's your friend?"
"I'm Niall." What? I couldn't help it! I did better than most guys. At least I didn't fall to my knees and declare myself unworthy, like some people I know.
Dianne facepalmed at me disobeying her advice so blatantly.
"Niall, come over here."
But get this: I DIDN'T. I didn't even want to.
China looked confused. So did Dianne. I was confused myself. Surely I should be going there, whether I wanted to or not?
"Niall, come here," China said, more insistently. I still didn't want to go.
Dianne was the first to speak for a long while. "Niall, what's the name on your birth certificate?"
I said that it was Niall. Turns out her suspicion was right, and my answer was wrong. My Grandfather is called Jack, but his mail is always adressed to John, and it's on his birth certificate. I thought it was just him. Turns out I'm a John too. So's Dad. Apparently it's a thing. Name your child whatever you want, but he'll be a John.
(OOC: This is awfully convenient, isn't it? =P
Who knew?
Not me. At least not at the time.
"Well," said China, pretending she hadn't just tried to control my mind, and trying to change the subject. "Why are you here, Dianne?"
"Niall here just found out, and we figured this would be the best place to get him to learn more about us."
China smiled at me, and I wanted to die. "Do you want to know about Elemental magic or Adept magic?"
"Both."
"Read the Encyclopedia Magicka, you can find it under "K"."
"Will do. Thank you."
"Thanks, China," said Dianne as we left the clearing.
"No problem!" China half-shouted after us. "Hang on to that one! He's a keeper!"
I felt the blood rush to my face. Apparently "Silence in the Library" doesn't apply if you own the place.
Dianne smacked me in the back of the head the second we were clear of China.
It hurt.

***

I read the Encyclopedia Magicka.
It was awful. I thought that it had a dumb, gimmicky name, and I was right. It was a kids book.
I found the guy that looked like Giles, and asked him where I could find more "in-depth" information, and, to my surprise, he pointed me towards a computer.
The computer had a program open on it called Tome, which looked suspiciously like a wiki. On the front page were several categories, but I hit Random Page, just to see what I'd get.
"Scholarly Magic," read the page, "is a discipline of magic which uses Adept Magic for non-physical purposes. There are three main categories:
Retension
Manipulation
Linguistics"
I clicked retension.
"Retensive Magic is a discipline of Scholarly Magic. Mages who specialise in Retensive Magic can remember details they read or see.
With training of the mind, these Mages can find it very easy to remember details, and can possess a pseudo-photographic memory.
With training of the body, they can gain some Adoptive Muscle Memory, although they cannot exceed the limitations of their own body."
Adoptive Muscle Memory is awesome. I knew about it even before I knew about magic, because I watch Heroes. AMM lets you see somebody do something, and then you can do it too.
Random Page had served me well.
I decided there and then I was going to specialise in Retensive Magic.
Look at me now.