Warcraft: Stormwind

Year 25, Day 1

A quick tempus spell told me it was roughly six in the evening. I didn’t want to stay out too late––I wasn’t sure how safe this city was, exactly, and didn’t fancy the complications that an attempted mugging would cause––but there was still time left in the day. Especially since I was still rather full from spending several hours in two different inns.

I peered around cautiously, focusing on the rooftops and out of the way corners. There were a handful of birds perched on a nearby streetlight, and I could see what looked like a stray cat lurking in the shadows of an alleyway, but none of them bore any signs of Planeswalker magic. Near as I could tell, they were just ordinary animals.

I considered stunning one or two of them to make Blueprints, but thought better of it. There were simply too many people around, and I didn’t want to accidentally cause an incident. It would be very, very embarrassing to have to flee the city because seagulls were sacred to some local god, or some similar nonsense. I’d have to wait for an opportune moment, or possibly until I returned home. It wasn’t a particularly urgent goal.

I considered what to do next. Ultimately, what I really wanted from this Plane was mana. Preferably at least one Black mana that I could use to summon my various Grimm, particularly the Soul Leech that I was just dying to experiment with, and one Green mana so that I could summon Amber and Professor Peach.

I doubted I’d be able to bond more than two lands. Each bond was exponentially harder to form than the last. Thus, if I just bound some random patch of this city, I’d only be able to get either a Black land or a Green land on this plane. Which would be suboptimal.

I wanted access to Peach as soon as possible so that I could have a healer available to monitor Zatanna. She wasn’t perfect––her semblance wasn’t directly healing-related and she mostly had experience healing other people who also had access to aura––but she did actually have a medical degree and was the closest thing to a fully trained healer that I had access to. The grimm were a secondary, and slightly more selfish, goal, but I already had two White lands and didn’t have a pressing need for a third.

As much as it pained me, learning the local magic and acquiring some of the fascinating enchanted goods I’d seen just walking around was a secondary priority. Something I certainly wanted to do, but could potentially save for later or even come back for in the future. It would be irritating, but I would even settle on simply acquiring the Blueprint of some local wizard who’d both be able to teach me their skills and should be summoned wearing whatever enchanted gear they typically used. Glynda and Raven had certainly come with their equipment, even Raven whose sword blade was made from Dust, that odd material that I really needed to experiment with further when I had time.

I hummed thoughtfully. Optimally, I’d be able to combine all three, or at least two, of those tasks together. Looking around, I had no idea where I’d find a source of Black or Green mana within this city. Perhaps a park or a graveyard, but both sounded…suboptimal. Even then, I had no idea where to find a park or a graveyard. I needed more information, and this time it wasn’t the sort of thing that I could gather just from listening in on conversations.

Even though the only person I was ‘getting one over’ was myself, I couldn’t help but smile. And where exactly did one go when they needed information? To a library, of course! And I’d so far only heard of one library within the city’s walls.

I wouldn’t stay long, even if I really, really wanted to. Perhaps I’d take the time to skim a few books of magic, just to learn the general theory so I could blend in better. I needed to focus on maps, books about nearby locations, and the like. Not magic books. No matter how much I wanted to look at magic books.

Maybe just a couple magic books.

Just a few.

Just…wet my feet, so to speak. It wouldn’t do to accidently cast some basic charm and discover it goes against the local equivalent of Gamp’s Law.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my face with my hand. Who exactly was I trying to fool? Ugh.

“Hydrys?” Glynda asked softly, a note of concern in her voice.

I groaned. “It's nothing, Just…arguing with myself. Let’s get going, I want to visit the Academy of Arcane Arts and Sciences before it closes. I heard one of the wizards complaining that it doesn’t stay open nearly late enough, so we should hurry.”

“Understood.”

Thankfully, it seemed as though the wizard in question was just a particular night owl, and the library itself was not too far away. It was a rather prominent two-story building on the northern edge of the district and was open until rather late into the night.

Stepping inside, it was like coming home. Rows and rows of bookshelves extended in all directions and the smell of old books and the rustle of pages filled the air. Robed wizards sat bent over at large wooden tables laden with stacks of thick, leather bound tomes. A harried looking young man was walking down an aisle, mumbling to himself as his eyes roamed up and down the shelves, clearly looking for something specific and not succeeding,

I took a deep breath, some of the stress I’d been carrying since I’d first seen that blasted bird falling away. The library I was working on was still far too small, and the one at the Conservatory just didn’t feel the same. Both the Tower of Fate and Shadowcrest had fine libraries as well, but they were empty and lifeless, browsed only by a tiny handful of individuals.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

This place on the other hand felt like the Hogwarts library, or even in some ways like my family’s collection back home. The Black family was rather large when it came to wizarding families, and we often occasionally allowed some of our lesser retainers access to our stacks. Not the ‘good stuff’, of course, but just to the various general references we’d accumulated over the centuries.

Someone laughed softly nearby and I turned to find an older man with graying hair and a large bald spot on the crown of his head standing by a nearby bookshelf. He was dressed in purple and green robes, wore a monocle over his right eye, and was cradling a stack of books in his arms.

He saw my look and smiled back at me. “Been a while, huh?” he asked rhetorically. “We get that a lot with adventurers. You never realize how good you have it in the big city before suddenly you’re trying to solve a basic problem and realize the closest place to find whatever reference you need is half a continent away.”

Now that was something I could absolutely relate to. There were a number of spells I wanted to learn now that my planeswalker abilities made learning complex magics easier, but I just hadn’t bothered memorizing the needed instructions. After all, what was the point when I could always find that information once I was actually ready to learn the spell? No amount of occlumency or good memory could help you recall something you’ve never actually read.

“I’ve definitely been there,” I mumbled.

“I can imagine, but don’t you worry, you’re here now. It's not Dalaran of course, nowhere is, but we’ve got the biggest collection of magical works left on the continent, and one of the biggest collections in general if you’re looking for something a bit further afield.”

I looked around, taking in the long rows of shelves. “It’s certainly an impressive collection. Do you work here, or are you just a fan?”

He laughed again, throwing his head back in amusement. “A bit of both, I’d say! I was a fan long before I became a librarian.” He tucked his pile of books under his arm and extended a hand out towards me. “Master Mazen Mac'Nadir, library caretaker. It's my responsibility to ensure all the magical tomes and scrolls are accounted for at all times. Who knows what folly would unfold if some of these enchanted texts were to fall into the wrong hands?”

I shook his hand. “That sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

“It certainly is, though I make do! It helps that most of the books and scrolls are enchanted to come back by themselves if they’re taken from the library. Not all of them, unfortunately. Sometimes that kind of magic interferes with other enchantments. But I usually have plenty of time to sneak away and get some reading done for myself.” He winked conspiratorially and patted the books he was holding.

“Convenient. Though, if you don’t allow for books to be borrowed, what is the library’s policy on copying books?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, you’re free to copy down whatever excerpts you want. We’ve even got some blank scrolls and writing supplies for sale if you need them. All the proceeds go towards supporting and expanding the library.

Well, that was wonderful. It sounded as though this plane didn’t have the same sort of copying magic that my own possessed, which meant that books probably wouldn’t be warded against duplication. Copies created that way wouldn’t last forever, but I’d have more than enough time to come back home and then cast the spells needed to permanently transfer the text over into real blank books. I’d already finished doing so for all the duplicated texts I’d brought back from Remnant and it really didn’t take very long. I obviously wouldn’t be able to bring this whole library with me––I only had so much room in my expanded bag––but a few choice texts would be easy enough.

“Glad to hear it.”

“Of course, of course. We’re a place of learning, not a bookstore. It would be silly to insist our students cite their sources and then forbid copying quotations! But I digress, is there something I can help you with? Are you looking for anything in particular? The library can be a bit confusing for new visitors, but I know it like the back of my hand and I’m always happy to point a curious young mage in the right direction.”

Well, that was certainly kind of him to offer. Getting to know a new library with its own sorting system and peculiarities was always exciting, but could take a while. This could save me quite a bit of time, even if I still planned to explore the library myself later. “That would be greatly appreciated, thank you. Do you think you could point me towards some general theory books? It's been a while and I’ve been meaning to refresh myself on the basics.” Damn it, that wasn’t right. “Oh, and I’m rather new to Stormwind. Are there any books you’d recommend about the city and the surrounding regions?”

Thankfully, the man didn’t seem to find either request in any way strange. “Of course, of course! It's always good to remember the fundamentals, no matter how many advanced spells you learn! It's always a surprise to see how much better you can understand things when you go through them again after you’ve gotten some experience under your belt. And I think we’ve got a few history books and atlases tucked away upstairs. That's more Adair’s area of expertise––one of the other librarians––but I’ve read my fair share of those books myself and I’m sure we can find you what you’re looking for.”

He cheerfully led Glynda and I through the library, giving us a running commentary about the various sections we were passing through. There were books on the history of magic, frost magic, fire magic, arcane magic, and more. From time to time, he’d grab a book seemingly at random and shove it into my arms, usually, but not always, accompanied by a brief explanation of what it was about.

By the time we’d finished a full loop around both the first and second floor of the building, my arms were starting to get tired from the eleven books I was carrying, and Glynda also had a number of scrolls held carefully in her hands. The librarian stopped and turned to look at the two of us, regarding the books we were holding with a hint of awkwardness. “Ah, I seem to have gotten slightly carried away. My apologies.”

I tried to wave him off, which was hard with both my hands occupied. “Not a problem at all, I appreciate the assistance. I’m sure you’ve saved me a great deal of time with your recommendations.”

He perked up. “I hope so! Enjoy the books. Please remember to return whatever you’re done with to one of the shelving carts––the spells won’t trigger if you just leave them on a table and it creates loads of extra work for me and the other librarians.”

I nodded. “We’ll do that. Thank you again for your time.”

The man smiled and walked away, leaving Glynda and I alone with our books. I found the nearest table and set the entire stack down with a soft sigh of relief. I regarded the stack with barely suppressed excitement. This was going to be amazing.

Glynda took one look at me, pulled an atlas from near the bottom of the stack, and set it on the very top. Then she unrolled one of the scrolls she was holding, revealing a hand-drawn map of the surrounding region.

I sighed heavily. I wasn’t happy about it, but she was right. “Thank’s Glynda,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Always happy to be of service, Hydrys.”