Mana Mirror: Chapter Fifty-Eight (Patreon)

I washed up and headed to the library – it was closest anyways, and since I needed to turn in my report on the spell soon anyways, I had plenty of reason to head there.

I scooped Dusk off of the stones where she was sitting and picked up my broom from my room. Dusk looked at it and let out a questioning peep.

My head turned to stare at her. That… had sounded like a bird. She let out another series of three peeps, telling me she’d eaten some sparrows.

I didn’t bother to correct her this time, instead contemplating. She had several members of the small folk inside her. Would she learn to speak properly someday, using their voices?

That was… Interesting. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Would she grow to the size of a person? That was even stranger, at least to me.

She let out a questioning peep again, and I walked outside.

“We’re flying to the library,” I answered her question. I held her close to my stomach as I lifted into the air, maneuvering through the aerial traffic. It seemed especially heavy today, but that may have just been my imagination, since I was bringing Dusk with me for the first time.

We entered the library, and I started looking for Alvaro. To my surprise, I spotted him almost immediately, making a beeline for me.

“Hey Alvaro,” I said, waving the research notes that I’d filled out. He took them and tucked them away in his storage ring, then nodded.

“Thanks, but that’s… Unfortunately not what I came here for.”

He pushed his glasses up and bit his lip.

“You’ve… Figured out the library, right?”

“What about it?” I asked. “That y’all are using spatial distortion to expand the space? Or maybe demiplanes, I’m not sure.”

Dusk let out a series of wind and water sounds that confused me. I could understand most of what she said, but complex concepts like this were… difficult.

Alvaro jumped, noticing the tiny spirit I was carrying for the first time. His mana senses swept over her, and there was knowledge mana in the air as he used various sensory spells. After a moment, he stared at me, his eyes wide, and looking even wider behind his large, round glasses.

“Is… Did… Is that a worldspirit of a forming astral plane?”

“Her name is Dusk,” I said. “Say hi, Dusk.”

Dusk cheerfully introduced herself with the rustling of dry autumnal leaves.

“How?!” Alvaro asked in a hushed whisper. “There’s also… Some sort of connection between you two.”

“She started out as the growth item I told you about,” I explained, then gave him a quick run-down of what happened.

“That’s… fascinating,” Alvaro said. “Normally, it’s unwise to try and take on a second growth item, since they put too much strain on your spirit and eat up your mana, but Dusk’s developed her own separate, but linked, mana-garden. It doesn’t seem like your mana is impeded, and I don’t sense any strain on your spirit. The opposite, actually. Your spirit feels far more robust than what a first gate mage would normally be…”

“Does that mean anything?” I asked curiously.

“I have no idea,” Alvaro shrugged. “You could probably bond a second growth item, if you can get your hands on one of them.”

“Huh,” I said. I wondered if the Argos Millia eye was still on the table.

“Oh!” Alvaro said, shaking his head. “I… I got distracted, sorry. I was actually meant to bring you to a place to meet with someone. C’mon, let’s go.”

He wandered towards one of the pillars and held his library worker card up to it. Space contorted, and then… Something opened.

It wasn’t a portal as I knew them. Orykson’s portals had been cleanly defined, with crisp edges, and the portals I could open to Dusk’s astral plane were the same way – they even still somewhat resembled a door in shape. This was messier, the edges crinkled a little bit, more bent and folded space around them.

It led out into a huge void, with stone pathways running through it. Stairs crisscrossed the area, leading up and down, and there were several self-contained rooms that floated in the void.

Books shot across the landscape on spells, and there were at least a dozen librarians within sight, filing books, paperwork, and more.

And perhaps equally impressive to the space, there were wards and spells that crisscrossed the space, keeping track of everything. They focused on me, but I felt a force pull them back.

“Normally, it would take a jade seal to be able to access this part of the library,” Alvaro explained as he began leading me across the path of the void. “Or a ruby seal, with permission. You’re… pretty close to a ruby seal, though, and you were requested, so we can bend the rules a bit. Especially since you already sort of knew about it.”

I glanced down at the void as we walked, Dusk doing the same, seemingly just soaking in the new space with curiosity.

“What happens if someone falls?” I asked, morbidly curious.

“They fall out of the astral plane, and back into the library proper, though admittedly, it’s hard to determine where they’ll end up.”

“Do all libraries have astral planes?”

Alvaro laughed and shook his head.

“No way. Mossford Central has one because we’re so big. It took years of construction and contract workers to get it to this size. A lot of the biggest libraries have something of the sort, but most smaller ones don’t. Just extraspatial pockets, or sometimes even just warded boxes. Depends on the size of the place, really.”

As he explained, we climbed up some stairs to the third level, then headed out to one of the rooms that was simply floating in midair. When we arrived, he gestured at it.

“In there,” he said.

I gulped but opened the door. It was safe – it was the public library after all.

Probably.

The inside of the room looked like an office out of every business complex in the world. I was pretty sure that I’d sat in one identical to it at least a dozen times.

Behind the desk was a tall, shapely person. They smiled at me and gestured to the seat across from them.

“Please, sit,” they said. Their voice was strange, reminding me some of my dad’s and of Ed’s.

I did as they said, though, and glanced at them.

“I’ll try to keep this brief,” they said. “You’ve your own reasons for coming here, and I don’t want to interrupt them. But as I’m sure you’ve been informed, Orykson’s rivals have been each given an option to poach you.”

“I… Yeah. I knew that. Is he a rival with the libraries?”

“No, but yes as well,” they said. “He has worked with us quite a bit, and is a big fan of education, no doubt due to growing up without one. However, that’s where our agreements end.”

“I see,” I said. Dusk let out another complex sound that was hard for me to parse.

“Indeed,” they said. “I’ll be honest – you don’t have any reason to trust my offer, and frankly, I have my hands full. I can’t take on another apprentice at this moment. Nor do I especially think I’d be good to guide you.”

“You’re… Not making your offer sound very appealing,” I said.

“Correct,” they said. “That’s not my goal.”

They removed several sheets of paper from their desk and pushed them to me. They were blank.

“These are three spells that I’ve picked out for you,” they said. “If I understand you correctly, your main goal with Orykson was to reach power, but moreso, to transition.”

“It is,” I said, shifting self-consciously in my seat. “The –”

“Your current master was planning to use this spell,” they said, tapping one of the sheets of paper. “LM-FSG-16-5-18-6-5-3-20-00-2-15-4-25. He doesn’t know that one of our Notoria Librarians actually stole it from one of his spell research company three years ago, so please don’t tell him.”

“Uh,” I said, but they kept talking again.

“I have also identified another option which you may find very useful,” they said. “It’s called the Magister’s Body. I personally think it’s the best body for you by far, though some of the ones that Meadow has in mind do provide some interesting alternatives, and there’s no denying that the LM-FSG-16-5-18-6-5-3-20-00-2-15-4-25 is excellent as well.”

“But –”

“Finally, the last few spells are actually not intended for your life magic. They’re intended for Dusk. Her magic may be instinctive, but that doesn’t mean that she’s unable to learn things. Since her magic is primarily related to her plane, this spell will teach her to alter the composition of the earth, heat, humidity, and other factors within herself. I admit, I’d initially intended to just hand you the two full-gate spells and raise your card a rank, but she’s worthy of special attention.”

“The paper is blank!” I finally blurted out.

“Well, of course it is,” they said. “You’re still working for Orykson. That is the crux of this deal. Quit his employ, and the spells will reveal themselves to you. Until then, you’re unable to see them. The cost for all of this is that you’d need to take on part time work as a contract Goetíea Librarian, much like you are a contract worker for the Spiritwatch or Wyldwatch. I'll note this does not legally interfere with any apprenticeship contracts you may have arranged otherwise”

As they spoke, the papers began to pile up, and a thread removed itself from the desk and tied the papers together.

“I’m sorry I had to rush,” they said. “Blocking this conversation and the contents of the paper entirely from your mentor and his spirit has been… Taxing. But before I leave, you should know to look into magical cauldrons, if you want to make use of more of your gardening and alchemy.”

They rose and stretched, then plucked one of their necklaces and vanished, leaving me alone in the room with a pile of blank paper.

Dusk let out a soft wind sound, and I laughed.

“They were quite abrupt indeed. I wonder if they really managed to hide the papers entirely from Orykson? I mean, they’re presumably a knowledge mage, so maybe they could?”

I sat there for a few moments, digesting, and practicing the Depths of Starry Night mana technique to help me focus.

Would I leave Orykson?

Why was I with him? Money? Power?

Those reasons rang hollow to me.

Out of everything I’d accomplished, I hadn’t felt the best when I was getting a reward from Orykson. That had been fun, and I’d had a massive sense of anticipation and reward, but it wasn’t true happiness, it was greed and megalomania.

I’d truly felt the most rewarded when I’d been helping people. When I’d helped the small folk in the forest, or when I’d helped Ivy hide the terragon’s existence. When I’d saved the slipshark, I’d been so dedicated that I’d rived a spell.

What was the point of power?

I didn’t know.

For now, I focused on breaking into my second gate, so that I could use the LEFG or whatever in the primes name the librarian had called it. Or the Magister’s body. Or whatever Meadow had cooked up.

I handed the papers to Dusk.

“Mind eating these?” I asked. “Just put them away from the water, so they don’t get wet or anything like that.”

Dusk burbled like a brook and slapped the papers, causing them to vanish. I eyed her suspiciously, hoping that they wouldn’t be wet when I went in, then left to meet Alvaro.

“What’s a Goetíea Librarian?” I asked once I saw him. He was reading a book from one of the bookshelves nearby. Idly, I wondered how it was that this place was lit enough to read without any visible light source.

“Hmm? Oh, welcome back! The Goetíea is one of the five types of Librarian. They’re the… Adventure librarians, you could call them? Like, hey, the experimental spell my mom retrieved? She’s a Goetíea librarian. They go out and retrieve spells. Sometimes it means tracking down ancient tombs to find their spells. Sometimes it means dealing with an old man who just died.”