Chapter 37 - The Library

Characters – 

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Christopher Mau: The black cat. 3rd year Dragon student. Possibly has nine lives. Unusually lucky and dexterous.

Beatrix Brynwyll: 3rd year dragon student. A little uptight. 

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 In the quiet of morning,
With no audience and no blade in sight,
Bjorn walked the castle’s rose garden -
A new one, planted with his own coin and hands.
There, beneath a white marble slab,
He fulfilled the promise made to his mother,
Rose of the Thrall-Blood,
Laid to rest not in exile,
But in sovereign soil.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 38

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“Library next?” Beatrix asked as they finished lunch. None of Felix’s friends had been there, and he could see other cliques rapidly forming. The minor downside of Dragon house - everyone would have their groups already by the time orientation was done. 

Damn. Hopefully they’d be flexible enough and he could find some buddies once classes started. Who needed a whole week for orientation anyway?

“We should.” Chris agreed with a grimace. 

“Something wrong with studying?” Felix teased.

Chris shuddered.

“You’ll understand when we get there.”

With those ominous words, and a change into the proper Dragon house uniform, the three of them went to the library. Down, down the stairs they went.

“The first thing to help you orient yourself to Camelot are the wings.” Beatrix said. “North wing is the administrative wing. Duke Thalorien is in charge of Camelot, Corwin, and all of Avalon. There’s a lot of work needed to make that all happen, and Camelot’s a large castle. All of that happens up there, and it’s mostly off limits to students. You can go to a few places for administrative stuff relating to schooling, like for Dame Evenwood, but that’s it. West wing is for adepts, the 5th through 8th year classes. South wing is for us initiates, and almost all our classes are there. East wing holds a little bit of everything. Central area is for meeting and ‘everyone’ rooms. You’ll be spending a lot of time in the dining hall, and everyone meets in the forum every school morning for basic announcements and attendance. The rules aren’t set in stone. Electives can be anywhere, some classes cross, etc, but it’s a solid rule of thumb to start with.”

“The library is in the dungeons.” Chris explained as the walls grew damp and the shadows seemed to persist, even in the face of the magelights. “It doesn’t move, thank Merlin.”

The three of them ended their trip at a grand door that was at least three times the size of the hallway they were in. It started to hurt as Felix tried to trace it with his eyes to figure out how that worked, so he stopped.

“Welcome to the library!” Chris said with an unnecessary flourish as he opened the doors. The three of them walked in.

The first thing Felix thought about the place was it didn’t have a ceiling. At the same time, it wasn’t open air. 

The entire place was circular, forming the shape of a gigantic cylinder. Nevermind that right above the library were rooms, the library spiraled up and up and up.

Books were lined up in neat rows on ancient shelves made out of wood, stacked twice as tall as Felix was. Ladders were regularly spaced on rollers, and a few determined lower year students were climbing them. The upper years simply pointed their wand at a book and summoned it directly to them.

The three walked around. A number of tables were laid out, along with more private chairs and cushions for studying. All classic signs in a library.

It got unusual in three places.

The first was a section of books in heavy chains. They were flying around, snapping viciously at anyone who came near. Four more spellbooks were out and open, literally staked through in multiple spots to keep them from moving.

“Okay, I have to ask. What’s going on with that?” Felix asked, pointing to the book ‘bleeding’ ink. Beatrix pulled a face.

“Probably the most barbaric practice Camelot has.” She said. “They’re the book-finding divination spells. Left alone, students don’t treasure the books well enough for them to stay. Without being able to divine where the book you’re looking for is, nothing can be found. Hence, the ‘chained books’. Learn the spells well, learn them quickly, and make sure you cleanse yourself before you go back to your own books. They’ll sense it on you otherwise, and vanish before you can explain.”

If books were alive, it’d be like sticking a stake through a person so they wouldn’t run away and could be interrogated. Felix was glad he was too much of a noonie to consider books people… but with how he was already starting to think of his spellbooks as friends… yeah, he could see why Beatrix was calling the practice barbaric.

“You think that’s creepy?” Chris said.

“Barbaric, not creepy.” Beatrix stiffly corrected him. Chris snorted.

“Yeah, whatever. Come here.”

Chris grabbed their hands and pulled them to the center of the library. The very middle was clear of any shelves or books, and had a velvet rope surrounding a glass floor. Chris pointed to a pile of neatly arranged bones that the glass floor was displaying.

“That is the creepiest part of the library.” He said.

Felix was looking up though. The library just went on and on and on, eventually vanishing into darkness an uncountable number of floors up.

“How tall is this place?” He asked. A ramp went around the edge of the library, going up to the next floor where shelves lined the wall.

“Mau, you’re explaining all of this in the wrong order.” Beatrix huffed. Then she tilted her head up, and her voice was filled with wonder and awe. In that moment, Felix believed was another kindred soul. One who saw magic, and found it full of wonder. A person who believed magic was magic.

“We don’t know how tall the library is.” She explained. “The first few floors are completely safe. People will bicker and argue if it’s the first seven, or the first thirteen. The library doesn’t end there though. It keeps going. The popular belief is the rarer, more powerful spellbooks are higher up. After all, if you’re on the 14th floor, and only a dozen people have been there this year, the books will be less picked over. Go to the 20th floor, there’s only been one coven in the last two years, and powerful spells could be just lying around. Anything from the 15th floor up is considered free game. If you find it, it’s yours. You do need to check it out and report it to the librarian, but you’re allowed to keep it.”

Felix stared up and could easily imagine it.

He was also silently cursing Paracelsus in the silence of his mind.

‘Perfectly able to get an education in the safe areas’ his ass. Yeah, it sounded completely reasonable, but he seemed to neglect that the strong magic was in the dangerous areas!

Wait, was it dangerous? How dangerous could it be?

Dumb question. Magic was involved. This would require significant investigation, and quite a few classes. Could he turn water into gold with just the ‘regular’ education, or would he need to delve higher and deeper?

One thing had to be true. More rare, more powerful had to equal more valuable. More valuable meant more money. Walk up some stairs, nab a spellbook, sprint back down? Could he pay for his supplies in a single run?

The idea planted itself in Felix’s head like a weed, and Chris’s next explanation did nothing to uproot it.

“A few decades ago, the headmaster got together a professional team of wizards. All of the 7th circle or higher, all experts at this sort of thing. Purifiers with decades of experience, the most paranoid Praetorians you’ve ever seen. They brought everything with them. Camping supplies, months of food and water, protective wards and amulets, everything. They even enchanted the floor so they could simply jump off the edge of the library if they needed to, and could land safely.”

His Adam's apple bobbled as he swallowed.

“Thirty five of them went up.” He said, staring at the endless abyss above them. “Regular reports were sent down every floor, detailing what they found and the hazards they fought through and books they’d encountered. The last report came from the 49th floor.”

Chris trailed off, staring up. Beatrix took up the thread.

“Five weeks later, their bones were spat over the edge. They landed right there, and spell out ‘More, please’ in ancient Sumerian.”

Felix was going to visit great violence on Paracelsus.

“Let me guess, the wards don’t work after a certain level.” He said.

“First seven are warded.” Chris confirmed. “But the greatest hazard on those floors are the other students.”

“We’ve never encountered anything on the first thirteen levels.” Beatrix said. “There’s been talks of doing a Dragon house expedition to the 20th floor at some point.”

“I hope not.” Chris shuddered. “I’m perfectly content with the spells lower down. It’s not about having the most powerful spell ever, it’s about mastering the ones you do have.”

“To each their own.” Beatrix said.

“Besides the endless pit of horrors above us, anything I need to know?” Felix asked. He slowly started moving back towards the regular shelves, where the false ceiling of the 2nd floor above them felt like shelter and safety. Chris power-walked in that direction, rapidly overtaking Felix. Beatrix rolled her eyes, muttered ‘boys’ under her breath, but followed them.

“Spellbooks can be checked out for three days, and there’s a significant fine if you cause it to wander while you have it.” Chris started ticking the points off his fingers. “The fine is the same if you cause the book to bind to you, instead of being bound to the library. There’s something of a trick to figuring out if a book’s unhappy with the library and looking to move on. Same deal if you’re just reading it in the library. Normal textbooks can be checked out for a week, and renewed if there’s nobody on the waiting list. The librarian is omniscient, and is always just around the corner. If you’re fooling around, goofing, off, or defacing books, she’s there a second later to deduct points and throw you out of the library. Did I miss anything?” He asked Beatrix.

“Study rooms around the library are excellent for homework. Can hold casual conversations and the like with friends while studying without her coming down on you.”

“Right! Yeah.” Chris said. “Study rooms are good, if a bit gloomy and dungeony. Want to take a look around?”

Beatrix shook her head.

“Orientation week, we’ve got a million things to cover and teach him everything he needs to know. Plus, we need to get our own stuff sorted at some point. Sutter can explore on his own time.”

Felix nodded.

“Yeah, I can do that.” He quickly agreed.

“To the vaults!” Chris said.

“Vaults.” Beatrix agreed.

“More endless danger?” Felix sarcastically guessed. “Monsters lurking deep down?”

The two 3rd years traded a look.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Chris asked.

Felix just groaned.

“Just… point me where they’re at, and give me the skinny.” He said.

The vaults were only a corridor and a staircase away from the library, and they were busy. It seemed like half the school was going up and down the grand staircase that made up the vaults.

“Vaults!” Chris sounded exactly like a salesman. Well, any salesman except Old Man Henderson. 

“They’re split into years. First year, second year, etc. They’re the premier useful time waster here at Camelot. People can make their own ‘vault’, warding a safe to the best of their ability. The safe can be nearly anything, and the place can be stretched and customized. People put up wards and protections, then put their points into the vault. Challengers need to pay points to try and break in. If they succeed, they get all the points in the vault. If they fail, they lose the points they put up. Points in vaults gain more points passively over time, like interest. Good way to grow points, get points, but more importantly, put the skills you’re learning to a practical use.”

“How’s that?” Felix asked.

“Most witchcraft and wizardry is in the preparation and protection.” Beatrix explained. “Straight duels are relatively rare, although still common enough that there’s multiple dueling teams and events. Far more effort is put into passive protections, and by the same token, there’s a lot more in breaking down old protections and wards. Think of it as training for the Fields of Camlann. This is safe practice where we can learn how to make and break wards and other protective schemes.”

“Wait, I thought it was endless bottomless danger?” Felix asked. 

“Yes.” Beatrix said. “Avalon can be reached by anyone. From land, people arrive in the Hollow Forest, and the wolves take of any problems. From sea, there’s a good distance between manifestation and the port, and the water tends to protect itself. Underground, however? They get dumped out at the very bottom of the Vaults. Like, several hundred levels down. That’s not the issue. The issue is how many things have settled in down there, and things coming from the underground feed them. The ecosystem is mostly stable, but once in a while something big shows up, the entire food web shuffles around, and the weakest monsters start coming up.”

That wasn’t pants-shittingly terrifying at all.

Chris snorted.

“It’s a once in a decade experience, and that’s if the monster gets up. The ‘it’s dark and full of horrors’ is, in my opinion, pure rumor. What’s going to burrow for seven hours to make it to Avalon? The logistics of it don’t check out. Nah, what comes out is a guardian some foolish student used for their vault who got loose. Anyway, leave that to the adepts, it’s not something we have to worry about.” Chris said.

“That basically never comes up.” Beatrix said. “More practically. After the first eight levels are some much, much older vaults. We’ve got no idea what’s inside of them, but generations of students have bashed their heads against them and gotten nowhere.”

“Leona broke into one of them last year.” Chris said.

Beatrix rolled her eyes.

“Yes, yes, occasionally a particularly clever student gets in. The one before her was what, 30 years ago?”

“If you say so. I don’t keep track of the trivia.” Chris said. “Better techniques and knowledge over time make it easier to break ancient wards. They do go down almost endlessly. Rumors are, the founders set something up way, way down there to train ambitious students.” 

“It’s more than rumors.” Beatrix said. “Thalia’s mother went down there.”

“Wait, what? Are you serious?” Chris asked.

“That’s what the rumor mill says.” Beatrix said.

“The founders are still alive down there?” Chris peered down the stairs.

“Mau! Brynwyll! If you’ve got time to stare, you’ve got time to teach Sutter! Sutter, excellent job on the uniform, you’re wearing it well. Shirt’s starting to get untucked in the back, you should fix that.” Leona strode right past them, not even pausing as she talked. A dozen Dragons followed behind her, arguing fiercely about a warding scheme.

Chris snapped to attention while Beatrix just smirked.

“I suppose that’s as good of a lead into the house portion of the challenge as any.” Beatrix said. “As a first year, you’re not going to know enough about warding and cursebreaking to really try the vaults. You can try to set something up, but almost any other first year will be able to break it. The houses all grab a hallway on the first floor and set up the ‘house vaults’, where all the house points are in. It’s mostly us showing off what insane protections we can set up, they’re unbreakable. Let’s all of us gain ‘interest’ on the points for the house cup part of the competition.”

“Why does the floor matter?” Felix asked.

“First floor, only first years can challenge. Second floor, only first and second years can challenge, etc.” Chris said. “Practically speaking, you can only challenge your floor. If someone’s wards are so weak that you can punch up to them, someone else will beat you to it.”

“Not to say the vaults are useless for a first year.” Beatrix said. “Do well in your mind magic class, then come down to the house vaults and study the protections we use. The upper years are showing off what they can do as much as possible. Or in other words, that’s seven, eight years of magical education and reading books right there. You can study the design, learn it, and it’s practically a free ritual or ward. Active spells like that don’t wander the way spellbooks do, and it’s one of the ways we can pass knowledge along without needing to host lectures, or write down spells.”

“Notice how we’re not on the team making the wards.” Chris said. “If you’d like, in a few weeks when you’ve got enough education to start making sense of what you’re seeing, we can all come down with our respective covens, and study the designs together.”

Beatrix tilted her head a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah, I’d like that.” She said.

“Sure.” Felix said. If other people thought it was a good idea, who was he to deny them?

“Excellent! Alright, so, don’t take this the wrong way, but as a castoff, you’ve probably never gotten all the potions needed to protect you against diseases and such, yeah?” Chris asked.

“I’ve gotten my immunizations.” Felix said.

“Arcadia, and by extension, Avalon, has an entirely different set of issues.” Beatrix said. “I agree with Chris, we should stop by the hospital wing and get you checked out.”

Felix shrugged.

“Sure, let’s go.”