“So,” Anna began as we plopped ourselves down into the chairs. “This is the library. It's connected directly to Etherius, though nobody is entirely sure where. You can find any book in the endless planes, as near as we can tell.”
“That’s amazing,” I said, and Anna made a so-so gesture.
“You don’t exactly get to choose what it shows you. If there’s a book it wants to show you, it will appear on the table – don’t try to move the table by the way, it’s a really, really bad idea. But it usually only shows people a book for free when they’re on their first visit or two. Otherwise you’ve got to earn it.”
“Okay,” I said, not even really questioning it at this point.
“If you’re looking for a book any other way, you’ve got three options: do something big, make a sacrifice, or delve into the shelves.”
“Do something big?”
“Sure, and that’s the most nebulous one. Sometimes it means big stuff for everyone. Like, after the Erudite slew a kraken that was raging up and down the coast, he supposedly walked in and found a spell guide for a new ninth circle spell sitting on the table. Other times…”
Anna screwed up her face.
“Well, I got one after standing up to someone I really had… issues… with. Long story short, and keeping details sparse, I finally kicked a terrible person to the curb, and I immediately found a guide with an ether shaping excercise that helped me with a spell I’d been struggling with for ages, on the second shelf I checked. By the way, you should pay attention to the books on the shelf – most of them will be seemingly a bunch of gibberish that isn’t Ceyish or Hua-Long or any language at all, but the library likes to hide useful and relevant books in with the nonsense.”
Was that the reason it tended to give a free book to first time visitors? Joining the college would likely be a big moment for many people, after all.
“I’m glad you did that,” I said with a small smile. “How about the other methods?”
She gave me a grateful look, happy to move on.
“Sacrifice is simple. If you have something valuable, like a rare spell component, ether candies, or something you cherish dearly, and leave it on the table, the library will take it and reward you with making it easier to find useful stuff. Oddly enough, it seems more to focus on the last bit – your personal connections. Rich kids have gotten pretty mad when throwing silver at it just doesn’t work.
I arched an eyebrow, but couldn’t stop myself from laughing a bit.
“And I assume that delving the shelves is what it sounds like? Wandering, looking through the nonsense, until you find a book that’s actually readable?”
“Pretty much! Just be on alert. Living shadows, insect monsters, demons, and monsters from Etherius will often pop out and try to kill you. Some of the books have warding glyphs on them, or are covered in a contact poison, or are cursed, or something like that. Ethersight, levitation cantrips, gloves, and being alert will keep you alive in the library.”
“Okay, hold on. I’ve been to other libraries with a spell guide or two, and there have to be others on the citadel,” I said. “This cannot be worth it. Sorting through nonsense in a creepy area is one thing. But fighting demons?!”
A smirk spread across her face.
“Oh, but it is. “Like I said, any book can appear. And I meant it,” Anna grinned, then swept her hands in the direction of the doorway to the library. “A secret spell, discovered after the rain of stars and kept locked away by a hunter’s guild? We can find their records, with enough searching. Books that had every copy burned or lost? Even books from ancient eras… And that’s not to speak of the grimoire benefits.”
“Oh?” I asked, leaning in. “Can it steal other people’s grimoires and let you use their affinity magic?”
“Yes, and no. You can find other people’s grimoires there, but usually only dead people. I’ve found a few. Won’t let you use their affinity magic, but it can shed light on your own. But that’s not what I meant. What I meant was that spells from the library, inscribed into the blank pages of your grimoire, cost about ten percent less ether to cast on average. Numbers are never exact, but most people agree it’s around ten percent or so.”
She paused for a moment and sighed.
“Plus, entry is included with your tuition. Most of the mundane libraries in the citadel are free, by order of the high king, but the ones that contain spells usually charge for access to the spell wing. If you’re rich, that’s not as much of a problem, but I’m here on scholarship, and I need all of my spare coin for spell, wand, and amulet components. It can even be a good way to earn a bit of extra coin – I financed the upgrade of including a runic array for arcane armor into a bracelet by delving into the library for books that other people wanted, but couldn’t find in the city, or trading a book you found that still has time left before it needs to be returned.”
That was good to know…
“I’m on scholarship too, so I can see some appeal for some people,” I said. “But to go back a bit – how does it strengthen spells? How does that work with trading?”
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She spread her hands.
“We’re not sure exactly why, but our best guess is that it’s supplementing your casting with its pre-stars era magic. But we can’t be sure.”
“I get the sense that’s a theme here,” I said dryly.
“Now you’re getting it!” Anna said, then laughed. “As for trading, it drops by half with each extra person who copies it. If you’re the first one, it’s ten percent. Second person is about five percent, third is about two and a half, though that’s basically so small as to be barely noticeable. Alright, what else…?”
“Reading room rules and returns?” I suggested. She snapped and pointed at me.
“Yes. So after you get a book from the library, you can keep it for a week, sometimes more if the book has a different return time stamp on its interior cover. Put it back on a shelf in about the same condition it was in when you got it before a week is over, and no problem! Don’t, and the library gets… angry.”
“Seeing as it’s a terrifying death library, I’d rather not piss it off,” I said.
“Wise policy,” Anna agreed. “Hmm, let’s see. Don’t damage the books or tip over the bookshelves. If you fall asleep anywhere in the library, you’re liable to vanish the moment someone’s not looking for you, and wake up deeper in, possibly with a monster standing over you. Sleeping in the reading room won’t do that, but it’s liable for whatever book you were reading to be reshelved instead.”
“I don’t think I’ll be sleeping in the library,” I said, “What about the other reading room’s rules?”
“When it comes to the reading room, it’s pretty much the only place monsters, traps, or poisons won’t appear, unless you lure them in here. Other than that, someone has to be in the reading room, always.”
“Why?”
“Because, if the room doesn’t have someone in it, the reading room will vanish.”
Anna winced.
“I wasn’t here for it, obviously, but apparently a decade or so ago, someone left the reading room empty, and it vanished. The Erudite had to delve into the library for three months straight in order to bring it back, and he was quite angry. He fixed this room here somehow to try and keep us safe – I think he fought the library until it agreed to keep it.”
“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “Noted.”
“It’s general policy to grab someone else if you’re the second to last person in the room, so you don’t run into a situation where one person is trapped here, but yeah,” Anna said. “I think that’s most of it. Any other questions?”
“Do classes require us to delve into the library to get the spells for it?” I asked warily.
“Oh gods no,” Anna said with a laugh. “You’ll have normal spell guides for those. Though, if you do cast the spell a lot, it might be worth seeking out a copy of it for yourself down here.”
I nodded my reluctant agreement. Though there was obviously no such thing as perfect measurement when it came to ether, being able to fire off an extra arcane missile might be a literal lifesaver.
“Well then, I think that’s all I can remember,” Anna said.
“Wait! How do we get out?” I asked.
“Oh, that one’s easy. There’s a basic blood spell cantrip, unique to every student’s blood and ether signature, that allows you to get out. Yours was probably with your papers, in big red ink. Just cast that.”
Panic rushed through me, and Anna stared at me.
“You do have it, right?” she asked.
“I, uh…”
“It had huge, bright red letters!”
“Uh.”
Then Anna broke into laughter.
“Nah, I’m just messing with you. To get out, turn left into the door frame of the reading room, or right if you want to get to the mess hall.”
I let out a sigh of relief, then glared at her.
“That wasn’t funny.”
“Oh, it was,” Anna cackled. “The panic on your face? It was priceless.”
I let out a slow sigh, then looked down at the guide to the blood price spell.
“Would translating this let you copy it and get its effects?” I asked.
“No, but that reminds me,” she said, then pointed to the end of the room, where a board had been put up, and was covered in slips of paper.
“Once you get it cast and copied into your grimoire, put a notice on here with the book’s info, your room, when you got the book, as well as what sort of things you’ll take in trade. People will seek you out for trades. You can also check and see if anyone is asking for a copy of blood price and speaks Hua-Long.”
I nodded, then gave her a smile.
“I really can’t thank you enough,” I said. “I know I’m only a first year, but if there’s anything I can do to help you, just say the word.”
She nodded seriously, then glanced around and picked up a book on a table.
“Thanks, Emmy,”
I flinched.
“Please, call me Emrys,” I said.
“Thanks, Emrys,” she said. “I’ve got to get back to finishing my work now, but it was nice to meet you.”
“You too, Anna,” I said with a smile, cracking open the book the library had given me and taking a peek.
The spell guide was well written, moreso than many of the ones I’d seen shoved in libraries back home. It described the ether flows, a couple of basic techniques to help shape the exact flow, the words of power and their caedence, and the proper hand motions, complete with specific sketches for each of the hand motions.
When I skimmed the spell’s reported effects, I understood why the library had chosen this to be my spell.
Blood price was a first circle spell that allowed the caster to use fresh blood in the place of material components, like the diamond dust I used in the enshroud spell.
There were limits – it had to be my blood, collected less than a minute ago, and the more expensive the component that it needed to replace was, the more blood the spell drained. Furthermore, the false components that the blood formed lasted only a short time, so I couldn’t stock up before hand.
It was the kind of spell that, on a human, might have been a dangerous risk. The amount demanded for the blood price of casting enshroud three times a day would slowly sap a human dry of the vitality within blood, killing them in a few days or weeks as they couldn’t replenish that vital essence quite as fast as the spell drained it. I wasn’t a doctor, but I had to imagine it would be a month at most.
But I wasn’t human. Even keeping my bloodline enshrouded, disjointed, and compressed, I was still going to heal much faster than a human would.
I might need a burst of Jackson’s divine healing boon every once in a while, but I certainly wouldn’t die from keeping up my enshroud.
I suddenly wondered if it might have been a good idea to take the blood magic class, then disregarded it. Enshroud was already eating up a huge chunk of my ether pool each day, and now it would come at a literal blood price. Having more spells that also taxed my body would be rough, even with my bloodline.
I spent most of the rest of the time leading up to the grimoire summoning practicing the blood price spell in between the thrice daily bowls of oatmeal and salted pork at the cafeteria – I couldn’t wait for classes to start, if for no other reason than but to have a chance to improve my food – and occasionally speaking to Jackson and Yushin.
I did offer to let Yushin copy the blood price spell, but she said her relative could handle it.
And before I knew it, the day arrived.
It was time for a grimoire.