Chatter about the upcoming duel and the potential return of New Chicago’s strongest continued for a while. The group of friends had a fun afternoon together, appreciating that the stress of assignments, practice, and Mana Body design was finally over. Plans for the future were put aside for a few hours, as they just enjoyed each other’s company.
Alex wished that the coming days before graduation would all be like this, but he knew that the drive that had taken them all to the top of their class would kick in sooner rather than later.
His suspicions were confirmed when Becca changed the topic away from Alex’s inaccuracy-riddled retelling of Muhammad’s 7th-year history presentation, “By the way, I asked Instructor O’Connell about getting access to the third floor earlier.”
If there was one thing that could distract Alex from ahistorical history, it was access to the graduate levels of the library. Putting aside the thousands of Tier 1 runes available on the third floor, there were several illusions of memories from the early days of the Arrival and a few epic battles from The Fall. “And…?” He prompted.
Seeing that she had the rest of the group on the edge of their seats, Becca delayed for a second before the excitement overwhelmed her as well, “We have permission for early access once Instructor O’Connell can confirm that Muhammad’s Mana Body is complete.”
“And we’ve just been sitting here talking?” Jess asked, scandalized.
“Well, we were having a good time and I didn’t know how interested you all would be and…”
“No point wasting more time,” Anthony was on his feet as he spoke. Alex and Jess were already clearing the table. Muhammad had only not joined them because he was playing up how upset he was over the wasted time. Seeing that the group would not be distracted, Becca grabbed one of the textbooks they needed to return and the group left the soundproofed zone together.
Students returning books straight to the shelves where they found them was a librarian’s nightmare, but Becca had worked as one of Instructor O’Connell’s assistants ever since she turned fourteen. She easily directed them to the right spots and made sure that the books were correctly placed.
“Couldn’t we leave the books on the to-be-returned shelves just the one time?” Alex asked.
“We all know the answer to that question,” Muhammad replied, the two laughing quietly as Becca frowned disapprovingly at them.
“There are students studying for exams.” she hissed at them.
“And they’re all in silenced alcoves or study rooms.” Anthony reminded her, “As long as we keep our voices down we aren’t distracting anyone.”
Muhammad looked ready to add something but Alex silenced him with a hand gesture. Four years as an assistant librarian helping to maintain a quiet environment for students wouldn’t be overruled by a quick joke. Luckily, his friend got the hint, and the group returned their books in relative silence.
“I didn’t see Instructor O’Connell when I walked in.” Anthony noted as the group descended the stairs, “Is he in his office today?”
“He was upfront when I came in earlier. I’ll just ask the student checking people in.” Becca replied.
The first floor of the library was more open than the second, with a decent amount of space where students could review the organizational method that Instructor O’Connell had created to sort the library’s vast collection. Reference cards could be collected from a pillar at the center of the open area for students who weren’t interested in memorizing the system. Becca was better than any reference cards normally, but on the third floor they might actually need the help. Alex grabbed one, just in case. He didn’t plan on reading today, but the illusion chamber for viewing memories might be occupied.
Becca’s geas on noise was loosened on the first floor, but the group was single-minded in their goal at this point. They were led over to the front desk, where Becca greeted the student working as a receptionist, “Jasmine, do you know where Instructor O’Connell is?”
“He’s in his office,” Jasmine replied, “Shouldn’t be too busy, probably just grading.”
Instructor O’Connell taught one of the Academy’s history classes, on top of his duties as the Head Librarian. He rather famously hated grading essays, and was never afraid to tell his students about his vitriol for essays as he gave them the assignment. Alex hadn’t taken the class personally, but Becca considered his hatred of mistake-ridden papers reasonable.
Alex didn’t understand why the man still taught a class if he felt that way. Maybe the decades really did get to your mind eventually.
Becca confidently led the group to the Instructor’s office, which was behind the front desk. Everyone else followed, happy to let Becca take the lead. It wasn’t that Alex disliked Instructor O’Connell, he was just pretty sure that the instructor disliked him. He definitely didn’t like Muhammad, who sadly wouldn’t be able to sink into the background alongside Alex.
Becca knocked on the door, softly at first. When that soft knock didn’t elicit any reaction, she sighed, “he’s grading.” Then she knocked again, significantly firmer this time.
“Come in.” Came the instructor’s voice from the other side of the door. Alex privately wondered how distracted an Attuned would have to be to not notice the first knock.
Becca opened the door and entered, the rest of them followed with varying degrees of trepidation. Instructor O’Connell wasn’t the type to go back on his word after promising early access to the graduate levels, but Alex didn’t want to give him a reason.
Jess and Anthony were nearly as confident as Becca, while Muhammad wore a carefully expressionless face. He was probably thinking about the time he’d semi-accidentally torn several pages in one of the city’s old world books and received a nearly ten minute long lecture about respecting their history and just how few copies they had left. The librarian had repaired the copy with a wave of his hand, but Muhammad had learned the importance of respecting books over the course of a month-long community service sentence.
It had been five years since that happened, but the librarian had a long memory. He never forgot the face of a student who damaged a book.
“Ah, Becca, hello. I assume if you’re here your friend has finished his blueprint for Instructor Martinez?” Instructor O’Connell greeted his favorite student first, “She seemed quite confident that he would figure it out last time I spoke to her. I don’t remember how long ago it was that we had a class with four graduates receiving approval for Rare Mana Bodies.”
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The instructor tended to drone on, especially when he was talking about previous years at the Academy. Becca adeptly cut in before he could get going, “Are you free to review the design, now? I know that it’s not officially approved until he meets with Martinez later this week, but we’re rather excited to get access to the third floor…”
Instructor O’Connell nodded, serious now, “I tend to give a few students early access during the last weeks of every year. I imagine your group is among the most excited about it. Muhammad, bring the blueprint to me.”
Muhammad walked forward gingerly, and the Instructor sighed, “I’m not gonna bite your head off, young man. You’re soon to be an adult, and you’ve done well to respect my books since the one incident years ago.”
Muhammad paused at that but decided to just open the notebook he’d been holding under his arm. He showed the instructor his diagram, and began to explain his thought process, “my problem was with the Heart Rune placement, which I was able to resolve by moving it to my neck…” He walked the instructor through his decision-making, including the conversation that had led to his eureka moment.
The Instructor nodded, “A large amount of what we do for students here is teaching you the beginnings magic. Show you the few constants and form the foundation you’ll need to succeed in the future. I believe it’s a common flaw of our teaching methods that students tend to fall into the same mistakes and patterns, as they’re all taught the same logic. If there is one rule that remains constant while expanding our understanding of magic, it is that mana is only too happy to break its own rules. I hope you will remember this as you embark on the Path in the weeks to come. Progression is adaptation, and power will come only if you can adjust your perception and look for unconventional solutions.”
“This design is far from the most convoluted, although for emplacement rituals it certainly comes close. You struggled because you had an idea stuck in your head. An image of what your Mana Body should be, which held you back from finding what it needed to be. It’s an important lesson to learn, and I trust you’ll do well with inscribing this blueprint from what I’ve heard of your talents in that area. Well done.”
“I’m sorry, you’ve heard about my talents?” Muhammad asked, a bit taken aback by the instructor’s warm response to his work.
“Of course I have,” the instructor scoffed, “Do you think that just because I am strict with students who have damaged my books, I am blind to their strengths? I’ve heard plenty of stories about your love for archery and talent for imprinting. The Defense Forces liaisons are quite annoyed by your decision to follow Becca and Alex into adventuring. They can always use warriors able to bombard a growing horde from a distance.”
The instructor looked across their team as he said this, “You all have permission to enter the third floor, but not the fourth or fifth. I will update the wards to accept you. Hopefully, the advanced knowledge will prove useful as you embark on your path in the weeks to come.”
He was a long-winded guy, but Alex could appreciate dramatic flair. Probably kept things interesting as you got old. “Thank you, instructor,” Alex stated, alongside the others.
“Now, go away. I’m hoping to finish grading these essays by the end of the day. I’m sure you’ve suffered through the wait to learn your grades enough that you wouldn’t force your juniors to wait any longer than necessary.” The instructor grinned at them. Actually grinned. Alex didn’t even know what to think about that, so he just left the office as requested.
After they were a bit away from the office, Muhammad spoke up, “So… are we sure that’s the same librarian?”
“I’ve been telling you all for years that he’s a good boss and a great teacher.” Becca huffed, “Just because you were too busy avoiding him to ever find out doesn’t mean he’s a different person.”
Alex decided not to add his own thoughts, they finally had access to the third floor. He was sure they all knew exactly what they would do first once they got up there, so he enthusiastically took the lead as the group made their way to the stairs.
As they passed the second floor, he could feel the identification ward washing over him. That was odd since his lack of sensitivity to mana normally made such things impossible to sense. “Did you all feel that?” He asked.
“It’s an intentional trait of the ward,“ Becca replied, “Don’t know why.”
Alex shrugged, it wasn’t like it was a bad thing. The sensation of the ward washing over him had been odd, but not uncomfortable.
The group quickly reached the third floor and was confronted with a layout nearly identical to the second. There were bookshelves to either side, with several desks positioned for individual study. Silenced alcoves would undoubtedly be found in the corners. There were a few labeled arrows to direct them and Becca immediately headed to the left.
Alex grabbed her arm before she could make much progress, “Hold on, where are you going?”
“There’s a book I’ve been interested in over there. It goes over some tier 1 mage blueprints and the commonalities. I’ve been looking forward to getting access to read it literally for years.” Becca tugged her arm out of his grasp, giving him an annoyed look.
“Yeah, we’re definitely not doing that.” Alex replied, “We’re going to the illusion chamber and watching David’s first trial clear.”
The story was famous in New Chicago, but the specifics were kept from students. Only those who had started tiering up or received specific permission were allowed to watch the actual projection of the memory.
“We have weeks to do that,” Becca replied, stubborn in her desire to find her book.
“And we have over a month until any of us reach Tier 1,” Jess said in a soothing tone, “That memory is an important part of our history that we’ve never seen before.”
Becca looked around and saw that Muhammad and Anthony were both standing further to the right, indicating that they had been ready to move in the direction of the illusion chamber as soon as they reached the third floor.
“So all of you want to just go watch the memory of a story we all know by heart?” She sounded a bit defeated.
“Listen, Becca,” Alex started, “It’s not that we don’t want to study. I’ll agree that there’s some fascinating stuff up here, but we’ve all been waiting to watch this memory for years. It’s the main reason we’re all safe in the city.”
Becca acquiesced after seeing that she was alone in wanting to explore the books when there was that specific memory to be watched. Alex felt confident that she was excited to watch the memory as well, she just had another conflicting priority. “I can understand why you want to go read, you’ve spent years hearing about higher-tier books while working in the library. We’ll get to that later today or tomorrow.” He added.
“We’ll have to go eat after the memory.” Becca sighed, “It’s apparently trimmed down, but it’s still going to be around an hour long.”
“Well, I’ll actually wake up on time tomorrow and come study with you then, if you want.” Alex offered.
She raised an eyebrow at him, “Sure you will.”
“Alright, now that we’ve talked it out let’s go,” Muhammad said.
With their goal agreed upon, Anthony and Muhammad led the way over to the illusion chamber. It was unoccupied, but that wasn’t a surprise as the third floor was nearly empty. The graduate floors would likely be filled with adults hoping to reach Tier 2 in the evening, but few came by during the afternoon.
The inside of the illusion chamber was a standard square room, with comfortable, but not luxurious, seating for those watching a memory. There was a list of potential memories to watch which projected itself on the wall when they entered.
Becca walked over and scrolled through the options with a gesture. The illusion chamber didn’t require any injection of mana to run, instead operating off of its own mana storage. It was able to do so because the memories they would watch weren’t interactive, so they were relatively easy to project.
Becca had to narrow down her selection through a few categories and subcategories before she finally found their intended memory. It was titled “Arrival Day 1: David Alvarez’s Lucky Day.”
It seemed that the Dean or whoever titled these videos had a sense of humor. From the stories that were told there had been a decent amount of luck involved in his triumph over a trial he entered just as the Trialbringer arrived. Alex looked forward to finding out just what had happened. There had to be a good reason it was kept from students, at least.