Zeek wiped sweat from his forehead as he rose from bed and stumbled towards the dresser. He was learning the advanced mana manipulation technique but it was slow going. Every time he spun his core too quickly, fatigue built up. An hour-long session felt like he’d been sprinting laps around the academy the whole time. The benefit, he noticed, was it physically improved his body. The small bit of belly fat he had was fading quickly as his muscles were becoming firmer.

He was relieved he noticed so quickly; he’d been practicing only in his arms at first. He had no interest in looking like a misshapen top-heavy meathead, so now he used a more balanced approach. The other techniques he needed to learn were more advanced and built on mana manipulation. He had no choice but to perfect his control before moving on to those tasks.

That didn’t mean he completely ignored them. He’d try to slowly form a mana ball when he was practicing, and occasionally he’d succeed in making a small wisp of mana that slinked around his body, responding to his will. He couldn’t hold either of the shapes long enough to accomplish anything, but he wanted to stay ahead of the curve.

The book was, despite its stubbornness, an excellent teacher. It told him learning the current techniques should take a month at his current pace, which was much faster than normal according to the chapter on mana tiers. The book explained journeyman usually took a month or so to reach, and full mage around four to five months. He figured expert mage would take a few years, and archmage even longer.

He couldn’t even imagine the power a true archmage would have. Spell models only required journeyman level control to mimic. In a matter of months, he could reach the capability of a modern-day archmage. But he didn’t delude himself into thinking the transition would be instant. The amount of spell models each of the archmages wore was humbling.

They had to know dozens of spells each, and they’d been practicing with them for years. Hopefully there was some trick the book could teach him to equalize a fight if he ever came into conflict with the kingdom. But no sense in thinking about it now, he thought.

Zeek needed a break, and today was a perfect day to visit the library. Penny was off trying to make friends with two girl mages in their class, so she was going to come see him later. Sirius wanted to spar more, in private at home, but Zeek promised him he’d come visit over the weekend. The archmages would want to see him in combat again anyhow, and Sirius was a simple excuse.

Zeek pulled the rust-colored robes over his head. He was wearing the standard issue ones. They were just looser and more comfortable, the right clothing for casual exploration. He stopped by the dining hall on his way out and shoved food in his mouth before moving on to the library.

As soon as he entered, a crystal floated down to follow him and he slipped into the maze-like stacks. He found a secluded corner, out of view from the central desks, and opened the book.

Mage Library detected. Scanning mode activated.

He whispered to the book, “What’s a mage library?”

Mage Library: A library for mages

Zeek frowned. The book was copping an attitude with him today. He patted it reassuringly. “Don’t be like that. I want to see if this place has any secrets. Show me something good and I’ll scan a few books for you.” He felt it vibrate in his hand, and he smiled and opened the cover again.

Mage Library Modes:

Scanning

Search

Map

Zeek rubbed his hands together. “Good girl.” He felt a tingle of lightning run through his arm. “Good boy?” he tried instead. The book vibrated. He motioned for it to float in front of him. “Search for books on the Orthan family.” The book spun in circles in front of him for a moment, as if looking around the library. Then it frozem with the pages open.

No books detected on Orthan family

“Well, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?” he said. The book slammed shut and showed him the smirking face on the front, and he nodded as if understanding what it was trying to say. He tapped his chin, what else would he like to see? If there were no books on the Orthan family, it was unlikely there were any other books on Lost Age mages, fantasy stories aside. Maybe there was something to do with true magic?

“How about books on journeyman tier techniques?”

The book spun again and stopped, nothing detected. He started using terms he’d seen mentioned in the Book of Spite: Mana Ball, Mana Therapy, mana tier, and everything else he’d read about pure magic. But every time he asked, the book would spin and say none detected. After a few minutes of trying, he became frustrated and asked as broad a question as possible.

“Books related to true magic?”

The book spun for longer this time, and Zeek almost stopped it when the book froze, then started floating away through the stacks. He followed along, looking for signs to see which sections he passed. The book was moving too quickly for him to stop and read the titles of the leatherbound tomes. He had no idea where they were now, as the book turned suddenly at junctures between stacks. The only consistencies were silence and the smell of aged paper as he walked.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He suddenly found himself standing in a section detailing historical cities in the kingdom. The book floated to the top of a shelf and opened up, displaying a message.

One Book Detected: Treatise on Lem’s Waste Disposal Infrastructure

Zeek tilted his head while reading the spine, the words were faded from years of sitting in this spot. But they were fully visible; it didn’t appear anyone ever read this work. A library card tucked into the interior confirmed this; it had no date and no one had ever checked the book out. Honestly, who would want to read this? It’s a book about shit, Zeek thought.

He shrugged and scanned it, taking a moment to reward the Book of Spite and scan a few other interesting tomes on Lem. The book vibrated slower and longer than usual, like it was purring. Zeek crooked a finger at it and asked for directions to the reading area. A short walk later he was lounging on a long couch tucked into an alcove on the second floor, the railing visible a hundred feet in front of him showing a view of the central library. Around him were walls of books intermixed with doorways to the various librarians’ offices and the restricted collections. He pretended to be relaxing while the book floated above him and turned pages as he read.

Zeek wasn’t much of a scholar, and he’d only been at the academy a month or so at this point. He’d spent all his time reading legends from the Lost Age or getting involved in various events. It was no surprise he had no understanding of the architectural jargon the author of this book used. Zeek wondered if the book was even written to be read, or if this scholar just submitted a notebook of his thoughts and slapped a title on it. One thing was obvious, this guy spent a lot of time in the sewers.

It began with an overview of Lem’s overall design, which comported with Zeek’s general understanding. There wasn’t a central planning authority, so people bought land and put whatever buildings down they felt like. Corridors would form naturally, such as the harbor or the trade areas near the eastern and western gate. The smithies popped up beside the dock warehouses, so they’d have easy access to imported coal and metals. The same was true for spice and food merchants, who had perishable goods. Luxury shops centered around the academy, the palace, the central road, and a few mansions owned by dukes. Mostly because nobility and wealthy citizens flocked to those places as well.

Guard houses were spaced sporadically along the wall, to give easy access in case of defense. Inns tended to sit a few roads away from the gates. Slums were spaced out like pimples, rising up when the wealth in one area dried up or moved somewhere else. One slum formed when a duke fell from power and the nobles moved to the next thigh they wanted to hug.

Another formed after a plague came through a neighborhood and created a quarantine zone for a year. Each went through cycles of rebirth, as new wealth entered Lem and wanted their own land to control. The other businesses, such as restaurants, bakers, grocers, cobblers, and the like, were found anywhere residential homes were concentrated. Even the wall surrounding Lem had been expanded several times to accommodate growth in the capital.

Zeek was confused what this had to do with the sewer, but the scholar made it clear at the end of the first chapter. The sewer system didn’t mimic any of those areas. It just stopped at a certain point and appeared to radiate from a central disposal system somewhere under the hill the fortress and palace sat on. If you lived past that point, you used chamber pots and dumped your waste in designated wells created by the kingdom. There had, apparently, been many petitions by powerful nobles to expand the sewer to their mansions, but all had been denied without debate by the king.

The second chapter dealt with the design and crafting of the sewer tunnels. The writer commented that all access points were guarded, and he had to sneak in frequently to get a closer look. He didn’t reveal his entry point, but the implication was clear. Somewhere in Lem was an unknown and unguarded entrance, or at least there had been one when the treatise was written.

Zeek was, surprisingly, fascinated by the explanation that followed. The sewer was just designed in a totally different style than anywhere else in Lem. The arch on the ceiling tapered to a point, which the author pointed out was inconsistent with a functional design. Sewers in other cities around Numera used a rounded roof to save construction costs and make maintenance easier.

The stone used was sourced from an unknown location, as it had a smoothness and rigidity uncommon in the mountainous region north of Lem. Most stone buildings in the city were slightly porous and darkened when they were wet, but the stone used in the sewer was nearly water repellent. The author pointed out that all other sewer designs in Numera used locally sourced stone. Again, to save construction costs and keep maintenance low.

Next was the overall structure. Other sewers used a floor that was declined slightly with intermittent chutes to create flow for the waste. This funneled waste to a central area for disposal and kept the sewer moving at a pace that prevented clogging. Lem’s sewer, on the other hand, was slanted entirely in one direction with no chutes whatsoever. The author speculated that the sewer, if that’s what it was, only inclined after several earthquakes reported a few centuries ago.

And the lack of chutes meant there was no central waste point below the channels. The capital’s sewer let waste float to the lowest point, which happened to be near the river. A team of men would cart the waste periodically to a dumping pit a mile or so outside the city, in an area bereft of groundwater. In addition, there were numerous reports of clogging. Often it was caused by the poorly planned incline. But a few reports the author had managed to “glance at” used the phrase “architectural failure.”

A further investigation by the author showed those failures were actually cave-ins or collapsed walls. He managed to get on the outskirts of one such incident, but guards posted by the kingdom prevented him from getting closer to examine it.

Lastly, the author had a chapter on the width of the channels. Normal Numeran sewers were a quarter of the size of the capital’s. This was done because the architects had to roughly calculate how much the sewer would be used. If you made the channel too wide, the waste would build up and dry before enough came through to create a flow. Lem’s was wide enough for a carriage and guards to walk through, roughly the size of a street.

All of this led to the hypothesis that the sewer system predated modern Lem. It appeared, from all the author’s discoveries, that Lem was built on top of the sewers. He speculated they couldn’t be removed, because the passages and several supportive structures were placed specifically to reinforce the ground between the sewer and the surface. The end of the book had a rough sketch of the system, approximated by the scholar’s years of exploring.

Zeek studied it curiously. The author had put as much detail as possible into it. He marked collapsed passages, ground angles, areas where the walkway was missing, and all the exits under guard at the time of publication. The system was shaped differently than Zeek imagined. He just assumed it was a giant circle with passages converging towards the low point, but it was more of a geometric tongue twister.

One side was totally flat, another had jagged angles, and the inner channels curved or flowed at illogical angles. All the passages were connected, and a few ended in a central chamber located under the fortress. It almost looked like a spell model, but there were a few differences. Spell models had an entry point on the outside and one exit point in the center. This design had three entry points originating at the center and no exits. Zeek tapped his chin. Perhaps Turgi could see something here.

He’d ask him to make a copy of the book this weekend and examine it. Zeek thought it had been a productive day in the library, as he walked out the door and back towards his dormitory.