The Five Books of Colors are five volumes — Green, Blue, Red, White and Black — kept together on a pentacular seal in the Palace of the Prism. Four form the chromatic catechism of ordered magic; the fifth subtracts understanding.
| Type | Artifact |
| Houses of the Cycle | ✒ House of the Chronicler · △ House of the Crossing Object |
| Spanish entry | Los Cinco Libros de Colores |
Description
They rest on a stone pentacle: Green left, Blue, Red center, White, and the Black slightly apart; two candles at the sides, a silver death’s-head urn behind. Similar sets in Toledo and Alexandria always lacked one. “Whoever reads the four understands; whoever reads the fifth stops understanding.”
The four, which admit copying and translation, frame Chromatic Magic: Green, waters, roots and oaths; Blue, celestial pacts and the divided sky; Red, fires and burning names; White, what has no color and is most exposed to others’ colors.
The Black, called by some the Necronomicon, is the seal itself rather than content. Arkos claims to have glimpsed it from a gallery, closed and vibrating like a slowly breathing animal. Opened when the five coincide, it makes the colors synonyms and collapses the catechism into one tone; so it is kept turned slightly sideways. A gloss of the Decadian’s book V: the Green admits gardeners, the White saints, the Black no one, “and so everyone reads it”.
History
Before the Hiatus they circulated partially, almost always one missing. Their first documented reunion was in the Palace chambers, where they were seen together after the Hiatus. The Akashic Records always inventory all five.