Control Weather.

Magic Alex had always imagined, the true wonder of wizardry he always saw himself casting from the time he was small; images filling his mind of an ancient, powerful, bearded wizard wearing flowing robes and a wide-brimmed hat, holding his mighty staff aloft, raising it toward the heavens.

The spell Noarc was most famous for had captivated him when they’d visited the wizard’s magical tower to celebrate Selina’s eleventh birthday. With that one spell, he could call down rain, conjure storms, and even summon the sun from behind cloud cover. A true, legendary magical spell-guide was in reach of Alex’s fingertips; all he had to do was take it. With a shaking hand, he picked up the book, running his fingers over the cover.

‘Using this spell is a big responsibility,’ he thought. ‘If you change the weather in one place, it’ll cause ripple effects for hundreds or thousands of miles. I’d have to be careful with it…hell, I might never have any reason to use it, but, by the Traveller, I want to try it.’

He thought about the war back home. ‘Maybe I could use it against the church or the Ravener-spawn. Yeah, maybe I could conjure waves of thick fog that’ll cut visibility, or maybe summon a lightning storm and strike a whole bunch of monsters at once…no, no!’

A grin spread across his face. ‘I got it…maybe I could conjure a rainstorm to flood a dungeon! And when all the Ravener-spawn drown—I summon greater water elementals, they swim through the tunnels and get the core! That’s it, now I have an excuse to use—I-I mean, a proper and valid reason to use the spell. Yep, proper and valid.’

He quickly stuffed the guide into Claygon’s pack then went in search of more magic.

The next spell to catch his eye was a powerful form of blood magic known as Curse Wound. He flipped the pages, speed-reading; with a pulse of mana, a wizard could disrupt the life force of an opponent’s body. This would cause their flesh to erupt anywhere the spellcaster chose—the chest, eyes, the ears, a limb and so on—quickly turning foul with rot. The wound becomes infected with an aggressive blood magic curse that resists all forms of healing.

‘That’d be perfect to use on the First and Third Apostles,’ Alex thought. ‘Or any member of the hidden church, for that matter; they’re able to heal their wounds, but this could slow them down—or better yet—finish them off. It says it takes a lot of mana and skill, so…it’d be hard to use in combat if you’re new to it. Something to experiment with when I finally find Kelda’s sanctum and try to change the Mark.’

He dropped the spell-guide for Curse Wound into Claygon’s bag. Another book caught his eye.

‘What in all hells is Conjure Objects?’ he wondered, picking up the thin guide and quickly flipping to the spell description.

Alex’s heart began pounding. ‘Does this conjure any object by using pure magic? Does such a miraculous spell really exist…ah, of course it doesn’t. You can only make an object that you already own come to you from anywhere in the world. Too bad, that’s disappoint—wait. Waaaaaaiiiit. That’s still awesome! I could leave my staff in Generasi and call it to myself from anywhere, even here in the Empire. Holy hells! That’s going to work fantastically with the Traveller’s power. Okay, this spell is a definite must.’

He glanced at a timekeeper. Two minutes before it was time to meet up with the others.

The eighth floor door tempted him.

Greed burned in his chest

‘What do you think, should we head up to the next level?’ Alex asked Claygon. ‘Those four aren’t interested in going, so, I’m thinking we could look through some of the shelves up there, snag a few spellbooks, and be back down before they even know we were gone.’

‘That sounds…risky…father…’ Claygon thought. ‘Who knows…what’s up there…but then again…I will be there to protect you…’ The golem paused for a moment. ‘If teleporting up there…will get us more power…and more ways for you…to protect yourself…then I am for it…’

‘You’re the best, buddy,’ Alex thought, touching his golem’s side. ‘Let’s go.’

They teleported through the crystal door and up to level eight.

Security was no less impressive than on the seventh, with some additions. Three teleportation circles were positioned around the centre of the floor. Eight golem knights were present on this floor, with four guarding the door to the seventh and four guarding the door to the ninth. They seemed even less engaged.

On the seventh floor, students had been few and far between, but, on the eight, there were none. The only sign of mortal life were the guards.

Here, the bookshelves stood like grapevines, ripe with fruit that was waiting to be plucked. The atmosphere was quite lively for a library; the two intruders could hear guards snoring, while others were telling jokes, laughing and teasing each other.

‘Jeez,’ Alex thought. ‘I get that thieves have probably never made it this far, but don’t stand and look around, do something!…actually never mind, that’d be bad. Don’t take your jobs seriously, just relax. Yeah, relax so I can help myself to what I want.’

He directed the Traveller’s power at the three teleportation circles, finding three staging areas with sleeping iron-watchers snuggled comfortably in their cots, right beside their dozing mounts.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

‘It…seems we’re safe…father…’ Claygon thought. ‘There’s no one here…you can…keep stealing…’

‘Shopping, Claygon. I’m shopping,’ Alex thought.

‘Shopping involves the exchange…of coin…and goods…for other goods…’ the golem replied. ‘What…are you exchanging for these…books you are taking…?’

‘Uh…’ Alex paused. ‘Well, I’m…’

‘Then you are stealing…father…’

The young wizard glared in Claygon’s direction, though he couldn’t see him. Deciding to concede the point, he went to back to his steali—

Shopping.

He went back to his shopping.

The first spell he found was at the end of an aisle.

‘What the hells is Summon Construct?’ Alex quietly took the book off the shelf, looking through its contents. ‘Teleport any construct to your side that you have created, even across planar boundaries…oh! Oh! That’s amazing, you hear that, Claygon?’

‘Yes…father…’ Claygon said, sounding excited. ‘You can call me from home to anywhere!’

‘That’s right,’ Alex thought. ‘It’s perfect. I’m keeping this. And what else do we have here? Wall of Lava, eh?’

The title was self-explanatory. The spell conjured a towering rampart of lava; a moveable wall of boiling stone that could be guided by a wizard’s will.

‘Alright, this is coming with me…and what’s this…Famine? That sounds terrible. Oh, oh by the Traveller!’ he thought, flipping through the book. ‘This sucks the nutrients out of a living being, it wilts plants, withers animals, and monsters…holy hells. No wait, not just a single living being, it can affect entire groups of living things! And the life force is transferred to the wizard who cast it? Damn, what a monstrous spell! I’m definitely taking it.”

He floated past rows of bookshelves.

‘Let’s see, Famine sounds amazing…Wall of Roiling Mana…creates a wall of mana that can disrupt and damage anyone with a mana pool…that’s not bad…I’ll take it…’ He floated to another shelf. ‘Curse of Eternal Night…creates an environment of permanent night in a large area…meh, that sounds kind of niche…’

He continued floating along, moving at speed, eyeing rows of spellbooks.

Then stopped.

‘Wait, what’s Steel Body?’ Alex opened the spell-guide. ‘A powerful transmutation and blood magic spell; it allows a wizard to use the iron present in the bloodstream as the catalyst to transform themselves into a being of pure steel, greatly enhancing physical strength, toughness and power at the cost of a loss of agility and a slowing of mana flow. It is an excellent tool for defensive measures. Okay, yeah this is coming with me. And what else—oops, time’s almost up.’

Alex teleported beside Theresa and Brutus; they were keeping watch on the seventh level.

“Any problems so far?” he whispered.

“Nothing yet,” she said. “I’m starting to get nervous…things never go this well…”

“I hear you,” Alex agreed.

“Everyone here?” Rat suddenly whispered.

“We’re all here,” Mouse said.

“Good, we’re nearly done,” Rat whispered. “I think this job’s giving me a stomach ulcer, I keep expecting alarms to start blaring.”

“Don’t curse us,” Fox hissed. “Now, let's get to the ninth level. That’s our last stop.”

“Everyone hold on, we’re almost finished,” Alex whispered.

He teleported the team through the eighth, then appeared on the ninth level of Brightfire’s library.

The floor was nearly silent, far smaller than the rest.

It was only lit by a few glowing forceballs, with most of the light focused on the guard station at the room’s only entrance; the crystal door leading back down to the eighth level. A dozen golem knights sat at the guard station, most asleep and out of their armour.

Like the floor below, not a single student or professor studied here, and dust coated every surface.

Alex swallowed.

The books here were much thicker than those below. Older, as well; with titles on their spines handwritten in flowing script, and bound in material that looked suspiciously like dried skin.

“Alright, this is the last stop before we’re outta here,” Rat said. “Move and move fast.”

“Five minutes,” Alex said, eager to go through the bookshelves.

He flew to the battle magic section. ‘This is the sort of magic Baelin might use in battle…so let's see what we have here…Shred Magic?’ he thought, opening the guide.

‘Shred Magic…will tear apart any spell or magic effect within a targeted area as long as the magic does not eclipse the caster’s own power. This spell creates disjunction, destroying any spell, magical item, or construct… Hmm, I like the sound of that.’ He carefully placed the thick spell-guide into Claygon’s bag while eyeing a spellbook bound in what looked like crimson dragonscale. ‘Annihilation…’ he translated for Calygon. ‘This spell will cause a mighty hurricane of flame to blaze across a battlefield…the flame is laced with…disintegration magic? Holy shit! This…could level an entire army of Ravener-spawn!’

Alex added it to Claygon’s rapidly filling bag.

‘This one looks interesting, it’s called Meteor Fall…it says it’ll conjure a meteor from the sky, that’ll collide with an area at great speed. It says it also erects a barrier that keeps the destruction contained to that area, preventing continent-wide devastation, while keeping destruction targeted.’ Alex’s jaw dropped. ‘This is amazing! Reminds me a bit of a chaos bomb.’

He searched the shelves, finding…’Tempest. A spell that conjures a concentrated swarm of lightning from even a clear sky, capable of burying vast areas in lightning bolts. Oh my yes! And there’s something here called…White End…’

Alex flipped open another spell bound in dragonscale. ‘This spell will conjure a concentrated blizzard that can freeze an entire army in heartbeats. Now, that’s power.’

He put the book in Claygon’s bag with the others, then found another one that looked interesting.

‘Tidal Wave summons a massive wave from the elemental plane of water, capable of washing away armies and forests. Okay, that should work super well with Tempest or White End…or wait, what if I used all three? Yeah, I’d love to experiment with that…’

The book quickly went into Claygon’s bag, as he eagerly looked for more spells.

In his enthusiastic search, something had escaped him.

As he’d moved from shelf to shelf, carefully collecting spellbooks, he hadn’t noticed what the thieves were doing.

One of them, working invisibly, had quickened the pace at which they were taking the precious bounty they were sent here to steal.

They’d quickly found the books their client was paying for, perhaps moving with too much haste and too little caution. On lower floors, they might have been able to get away with that…but here, on the ninth level, books were rarely used as there were few wizards in Brightfire—or the world—capable of casting such mighty magics.

Dust had lain heavy and undisturbed on most surfaces, growing thicker as time marched on.

Dust that was now whirling through the air as the invisible thief raced back and forth, opening their loot bag, shoving spellbooks in, shedding minute particles as they went.

Dust that was now moving through the library’s ninth level like the beginnings of a snowfall.

And in such dim light, even Theresa hadn’t noticed.