One of my players was initiated to the Hermetic Numerologist Virtue, and he now wishes to enchant his new-made Numerologist's Book so that the book fly to his hand at will.
Basically, this would be like the spell "A Simple Charm for the Recovery of Misfiled Books" (Covenant, p100).
But i'm having an issue: in this spell, the magic comes from the magus, and conduct to the target book through the Arcane Connection.
But in the enchantment we're thinking about, the magic would come from the book itself, not the magus. So, if the magus carry the proper Arcane Connection, and say the proper command word, how the effect resolve?
What if the book is 500 meters away, definitely out of range for the enchanted book to perceive it? Can the command be carried by the Arcane Connection? Or should the magus enchant the said Arcane Connection itself?
I'm not sure how to do it without the book haiving an arcane connection from the magus integrated into it's construction or without it being the magus's talisman (thus being an arcane connection to him/her).
Look under the talisman/enchantment section of the core rules an look into mental commands. I'm at work so i can't look up the details, but I seem to recall a need for an intelligo mentem requirement to constantly read the thoughts of the magus, and then a linked trigger to the "fly to the hands of the magus" effect.
Don't enchant the book. Enchant a small item that has an arcane connection to the book. The item calls the book to itself. The book remains unenchanted.
Couple of advantages: 1.) You're not carrying a friggin book everywhere; 2.) more subtle, less likely to be stolen (especially if its worthless in itself); 3.) Easy recovery of the book if lost or stolen.
It's a little tricky. We have seen this effect, it is under the "Casting Tools" Mystery from the Mystery Cults book, under the Verditius section. So it doesn't seem to be vanilla Hermetic Magic, but It doesn't seem to be too hard either, one part of a minor virtue. So either pay a Verditius to make the book come to your hand at will, not quite cannon, some you might have to search for a flake, or research a breakthrough yourself and set the threshold low, maybe three to five points. After all, you aren't doing anything new, and the only "Non Hermetic" thing you are learning is to make an item that comes to you despite not reading your mind (and needing to get past your Magic Resistance!) all the time.
Yes, having the book be his talisman would have been the easiest solution.
But the magus is still a newbie, and his numerologist's book is a minor one. He prefers to wait few years until he can enchant a major numerologist book and make it its talisman.
Meanwhile, he's just looking for a cool effect to instigate
As i feared, it seems the easiest vanilla solution would be to enchant another item that has arcane connection to the book.
Heck, if all he cares about is the book, all he needs is a casting tool, and to make the roll to get a inspiration. Working on a breakthrough products effects that break Hermetic limits. Just make the book as your first project and stop. You might be able to do it all in a year.
