The thieves quickly found what they’d come for.

They moved through the library’s third level under invisibility magic, silent and experienced, mindful of those studying in desk-alcoves on the bridges, and the golem-knight standing guard below.

They plucked what they needed from various bookcases, slipping their prizes into invisible sacks, reaching for the next treasure on their list. Spell-guide after spell-guide disappeared from Brightfire’s third floor without a single alarm being raised.

The Fool of Thameland waited, and—when he was sure they were in the clear—he tapped Claygon’s arm. ‘Come on, buddy, let’s see what spell-guides Brightfire has for us.’

“I’ll keep watch from here,” Theresa whispered. “Be careful, remember we’re not exactly at the market shopping for breakfast.”

“I’ll…watch out for father…” Claygon promised as he and Alex floated down to the stacks.

“And I’ll watch Claygon,” Alex said, turning his attention to the closest bookshelf.

A thrill pulsed through his veins; here he was, in the middle of a wizard school’s prized library, about to help himself to as many spell-guides as he wanted.

‘Third-tier spells aren’t all that exciting anymore, but maybe Brightfire has some useful ones that Generasi doesn’t,’ he thought.

He inspected titles on the backs of guides lining the shelves and...

…found himself unimpressed.

Brightfire’s library seemed bigger than Generasi’s, and contained a greater number of books.

‘But a lot of these are duplicates,’ he thought, picking up a spell-guide for Fireball, noticing no fewer than twenty copies beside the one he was holding. There was room beside them, meaning other copies must have already been borrowed. ‘Generasi definitely has a better selection of books in their library…this floor is actually pretty disappoint—... Hold on now…’

His grip tightened on the fireball spell-guide. ‘This is a great opportunity to grab some real combat spells; when I change the Fool’s Mark to the General’s, I’ll be able to learn and use them!’

Grinning, he floated from shelf to shelf, filling Claygon’s satchel with spell-guides for combat:

Fireball, created a massive blast of flame, a classic choice for any battlemage.

Acid spray was a caustic and deadly spell that bathed enemies in a stream of corrosive liquid.

Battering Force Blast, a spell that launches dense, concentrated force missiles that explode on impact, shredding whatever they hit.

Alex smiled, imagining the potential power of his arsenal.

‘Father…what’s that section…?’ Claygon’s voice whispered in Alex’s mind. ‘The one to your right…?’

He glanced at the Irtyshenan words; ‘It says Mind magic,’ the young wizard thought, answering Claygon. ‘It’s dangerous stuff, and it’s also illegal in Generasi.’

‘Will…you take some of those guides…?’ Claygon thought.

Alex paused, considering the selection carefully. ‘The trouble with using mind magic to control someone else is that it’s finicky. You wouldn’t believe how many old stories there are about evil wizard-warlords controlling their enemies' minds, turning them into mindless servants.’

‘That…sounds…troubling…’ Claygon said. ‘What happens…at the end of those stories?’

Alex chuckled darkly through their link. ‘Each and every damn time, one of the warlord's mind controlled servants breaks free and stabs them in the back at the last second, usually when they’re on the brink of victory.’

He made a throat clearing sound, putting on his best Baelin impression. ‘A proper wizard never trusts their life to unreliably mind controlled minions, who could break free at any moment. What will you do when the guardian to which you’ve trusted your life suddenly breaks through your spell and decides to drive their sword through your heart? Better to have minions that serve loyally, willingly or—at the least—professionally.’

‘That…sounds smart…father…’

‘Still, though…’ Alex paused, his eyes lingered on a particular mind magic spellbook. ‘Oh…what’s this?’

He floated to a bookcase, picking up the spell-guide.

‘It’s called; Mind-Scrambling Babble,’ he told Claygon, flipping the thin book open, eyes widening as he read the spell's effects. ‘By the traveller!’

‘What is…it…father?’ Claygon thought.

‘It sounds effective, but it’s not for me. It says the spell scrambles the thoughts of an enemy like chicken eggs and makes every coherent thought they have turn into chaos. It also says here that the victim becomes paralysed with nausea and confusion, and that the controlling wizard can make them do pretty much anything they want. If someone’s into mind magic, they’d probably find this useful, but controlling people’s thoughts…isn’t for me, and besides, getting arrested in Generasi isn’t worth it.’

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Alex shuddered, putting the spell-guide back where he’d found it, then checked the time on the wall-mounted timekeeper beside them.

‘Five minutes are nearly up, let’s get back to Theresa,’ Alex thought.

‘This…is going well, father…’ the golem thought.

‘Let’s not talk too soon,’ Alex said.

He floated toward the centre of the room, pausing when Brutus’ rough tongue licked him.

“Agh, Brutus, no,” he whispered. “Everything okay, Theresa?”

“Yes,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of students here, and that guard hasn’t budged.”

“They’re probably not used to being robbed,” Alex whispered, looking at the glyphs on the doors. “Our invisibility spells would be cancelled if we tried to go through the doors, and teleportation spells aren’t an option. There’s glyphs on the walls that’d turn someone to paste if they tried tunnelling through the stone with a spell…their security’s solid.”

“That’s right,” Crow said in the common tongue. “This library’s rarely been robbed; we’re making history right now.”

“Are we done on this floor?” Rat asked.

The thieves conferred with each other, using a secret language that involved code words.

“Good,” said Fox, “We’re ahead of schedule. Next floor?”

“The seventh,” Alex said. “Grab my cloak and stay close.”

He teleported through the door and up to the fourth floor.

Two golem knights stood guard, both seemed more occupied with a game of cards—played usinghuge iron cards—than the few students occupying level four.

The crystal door to the fifth floor was etched with far more aggressive glyphs than the lower floors. Alex read the symbols carefully, wondering what kind of mind would be capable of thinking up some of the glyphs’ effects.

‘That one will literally turn you inside out,’ he thought to Claygon. ‘The one at the top of the door.’

‘Will it affect…us…?’ Claygon asked.

‘No,’ Alex thought. ‘Because we’re not going anywhere near it.’

Concentrating, the young wizard quickly teleported the party to the sixth, then seventh level of the tower.

Defences here were stronger…yet, in another way, more relaxed.

A group of four golem knights were stationed at the bottom and top entrances to the chamber, situated where they had a clear view of the students moving around, and the floors above and below the seventh level through the glass doors.

In the centre of the room was a teleportation circle, blazing with potent magics. Alex gently reached out to it with the Traveller’s power, concentrating on where it led.

An image flashed in his mind of an armoury and a guard station where iron-watchers and their deadly mounts waited.

Yet, despite having so many powerful deterrents in place, security was surprisingly slack compared to the lower levels of the tower. The golem-knights knights had shed their armour, seated comfortably in plush armchairs around a card table, sipping spirits.

Some had nodded off, as had the iron-watchers ‘on duty’ through the teleportation circle.

“Really?” Mouse whispered in common. “The higher we go, the more relaxed those guards seem to be. The ones on the lower floors were alert, but these…I’ve seen more dedicated tavern bouncers.”

“You said it yourselves,” Theresa said. “This library’s almost never been broken into, and since each floor is harder to reach than the last one, chances of a thief getting in here are pretty low, unless they can do what we’re doing. I have a feeling guarding these higher floors would be considered light duty.”

“Well, let them keep enjoying their “light duty.” It’s nice for them, but even better for us,” Rat said. “Spread out. Don’t let them see stuff moving off the shelves, like it’s moving on its own. They’ll likely start screaming and hollering about ghosts. We have five minutes.”

Alex and Claygon split from the others.

The young wizard glanced at the door leading down to the sixth floor. ‘There’s spells down there I want to take before we search the seventh level.’

He and Claygon teleported one level down, beginning a quick search of the sixth-tier level of the library, as Alex looked for specific spells.

The first spell-guide he took was True Seeing.

He thought back on Baelin’s explanation of the spell when he’d led them and the Heroes through the Crymlyn Swamp.

“A very handy sixth-tier spell. It cuts through most invisibility magic, illusions, and even shapeshifting to reveal the world as it actually is,” Baelin had said. “It can be defeated by mundane disguises and more powerful magics, but nonetheless, it is a spell I would recommend that no wizard of sufficient power be without. Keep in mind, it isn’t infallible, but it will save your life time and time again.”

‘Now, I finally have it,’ Alex thought, glancing at the golem knights. ‘I thought they’d have wizards who could cast true seeing guarding their library…but since no one tries to rob the place, they probably don’t consider it since their traps make invisibility useless…for most people. Time for the other sixth-tier spell I wanted…’

He picked up the spell-guide for Disintegration, a spell that would fire a beam of energy and completely disrupt a physical object or creature down to the very smallest parts of its being. In an instant, almost anything would be reduced to fine dust.

He remembered the Deleo who’d helped them in the woods near Greymoor; she'd been able to locate and disintegrate those petrifiers’ self-destruction organs with precision.

‘This spell’ll be good for crafting and combat,’ Alex thought. ‘Definitely wouldn’t want to leave here without grabbing it.’

He looked up at the ceiling.

‘Okay buddy, now we go back to the next floor.’

On the seventh floor, Alex helped himself to a handful of other spell-guides, some deadly and some not, but all very useful.

From one shelf, he took the spell-guide for Phantom Blast, which fired a cone of hungry, spiritual, ectoplasmic echoes that tore into enemies, peeling away their flesh and organs. The late Watcher Shaw had used the spell against Ravener-spawn that attacked the Research Castle last winter.

Alex stole Cage of Force next, it wrapped an enemy in a near-impenetrable cage of force magic.

From a shelf of battlemagic spell-guides, he took Timed Fireball, a more powerful version of the third-tier fireball spell. This one would launch a huge ball of flame that could be timed to explode a minute after the spell was cast. It was perfect for traps.

Next, he grabbed Mass Invisibility, a spell that could veil an entire force of allies in invisibility magic.

He then took a blood magic spell called Waves of Weariness, it was meant to siphon the fortitude and vitality from a group of foes in a wave, exhausting them, draining them of all energy.

‘You…feel happy…father…’ There was a happy note in the golem’s thought.

‘I’m ecstatic!’ Alex replied, I’m finding spells that I get to keep, and one day use! By the Traveller, I’ll actually get to cast them! It’s awesome, it’s what I’ve…dreamed…about…’

He paused, his eyes widening, landing on a spell he’d nearly overlooked, a spell that had captured his imagination from the time he’d first visited a tower in Generasi.

A spell that was—in his mind—one of the truest symbols of being a great wizard.