It turned out that all of what I needed was on the first floor of the library pyramid. The lowest floors were always general access. The first floor itself was separated into two basic sections. The larger was just called general information. As near as I could figure out, it dealt with everything from different sciences to mathematics to history, everything that had nothing directly to do with magic. The other section contained stories, some being fiction, some being mythological or religious in nature, as well as biographies of important people - or at least people the authors had thought were important. It was all meticulously organized, but I didn’t get to spend much time exploring that organization. The Abbess seemed to want to keep me separated from the others for now. She bustled me through the library and took me straight to various sections.
When we left the library after just under an hour, I had a small pile of books in my hand. My starting point was a set of two large tomes named “The Changing Bestiary of Colvale”. Then I had a book called “Formation of the Riverrine Confederation”, which the Abbess said would give me the history I needed up through a century ago. It was supplemented by some loose folios which she told me were the incipient stages of a chronicle about the current High King of the Confederation, which would tell me about recent history. None of it looked particularly interesting but it would hopefully at least be straightforward. We hadn’t been able to find any non-fiction books that talked about different boat types, so we had tried again in the fiction section of the library.
What I really needed from that fiction section was some kind of slice-of-life story about a fishing village. I had never read a slice-of-life story in my old life back on Earth, but I knew they were a thing. I often found myself struggling to empathize with the characters without any sense of impending doom or crisis. Perhaps it was poetic justice or karma that the genre did not appear to exist at all here. The fiction section of the library was pitifully small to begin with, and most of those appeared to be grand heroic epics more in the vein of King Arthur than something calmer. In the end, I was forced to settled for two stories that at least appeared to start in useful settings. They rejoiced in ridiculously grandiose titles: “The Adventures of the Eldritch Sea Viper” looked like it started in a port city and the title promised plenty of voyage-based stories that might reveal something about boats while “The Rise of the Humble Archmage Farmer” which at least began in a simple village. Hopefully, between the two, I could concoct enough of a backstory to satisfy the occasional question.
The Abbess wasn’t best pleased with my meandering through the fictional stories and kept trying to drive me back towards the stairs. In so doing, she almost certainly drew more attention to me than otherwise would have come to some random man wandering the stacks. Anonymity was a great defense to secrecy, but the Abbess was too well known of a personage in her own library to be anonymous, so I didn’t doubt that she was drawing more attention. Although it was futile to try telling that to her. Much like the directors back at home, once someone got to a certain level of importance, it was hard to take correction from your juniors.
As I browsed the sections, I also picked up what seemed to be a basic primer on their religion. If my experience in the void was anything to go by, my summoning probably had something to do with the gods. I should at least learn their names. At this point, though I had five books in my arms, and I was starting to feel the strain. I hadn’t carried around this many hardback books since my days in school, and I didn’t even have a backpack here. Apparently, whatever came from living in a magical society did not include paperback books. One thing that that these mages could do though, was travel easier. At least when the Abbess wanted to. I noticed about halfway through my browsing that she wasn’t walking, but rather floating around with her feet supported by two glowing disks of energy. When I asked her about them she shrugged. “What’s the point in being a Master of Air if I can’t use it to carry myself around?”
“Can you do that for me? I’m not looking forward to climb back upstairs.”
She laughed in my face. “No. It will be good exercise. Training at the Monastery School will not be easy on your body.” She shrugged. “Besides, this spell requires mental control. You wouldn’t have that if I cast the spell.”
I filed away the piece of information that at least some spells required continuous mental effort. I was starting from scratch here about magical knowledge. Everything she said was potentially new information. But I was not looking forward to the climb back up.
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It was as deadly as I had been afraid of. It was long, arduous and sweaty work to climb back up the stairs. My arms were almost jelly from carrying the six books and more than once, I had had to stop. The Abbess was impatient, but unless she was willing to carry the books for me - and she wasn’t - she just had to put up with it. By the time they had reached the floor of her Third Study, I was liberally coated with sweat.
As we entered the space, she wrinkled her nose in distaste at my scent. She pointed at a door on the far wall. “Through there, you will find a toilet and cleaning room. You should use it before settling down.”
I obeyed the order but stopped in flabbergasted amazement when I saw what was inside. I had been expecting something like a bathroom from home, and while there were certain similarities, the space was designed completely differently. The toilet was recognizable as a hole in a metal sheet that, when I stepped up closer revealed itself to be a bowl set into the sheet. But that was the only thing I could recognize in the room. There was nothing I could recognize as a sink or even a towel. “Uhh … Help?” I called back to the main room.
“You are long past the age when you should be able to do this by yourself.” The Abbess grumped as she came over.
“Sorry, but I don’t recognize hardly anything in here. What are those?” I gestured over at three metal plates set into the wall next to each other. They were covered in glittering engravings.
“You’ve never seen a shower?”
“This is a shower? It’s just a metal plate! Where’s the nozzle, the drain, any kind of curtain or glass to keep the water contained?” I protested. “How do you control it?”
The Abbess laughed. “I suppose this is one of those ignorances that catch us by surprise. This is why we’re keeping you secluded for a week so we can catch more of those. But if this is how you react to simple enchantments, I’m surprised the lights haven’t set you off.”
I looked around in surprise. Truthfully, I hadn’t given any thought to the lighting. There had been so many other things on my mind over the last day that looking for light sources hadn’t ranked among my priorities. Once I located them, I also understand why. While their workings might wind up being quite mysterious, their final appearance resembled LED panels back home, creating a similar pane of light. “They look similar to lights back home in their final appearance, so I didn’t think about it. Now, would you please explain all of these?”
“Sure, sure.” She pointed at the three panels in turn. “There are two fundamental controls for two different types of shower. The one of the left activates a rush of air and nature magic that cleanses without leaving behind a residue. That’s the one I expected you to use, as it takes only a moment. It doesn’t replace a deeper clean and you’ll still feel a little grimy under your clothes, but it’ll prevent you from stinking up my study. The one on the right activates a more traditional water shower, similar to what can be accomplished without magic in other communities. You’d need to disrobe, as it would soak your clothes, but it’s a deeper clean. The water is contained by the magic of the enchantment and reabsorbed here.” She points at the center tablet. “This is the control for both of the other enchantments. When they’re active, part of it will glow. You can use it as a slider to control the pressure of either air or water and the temperature of the water.” She walked over to the toilets. “There are two enchantments that make the toilet work. The first is for waste disposal after you are done using it. This second one here is for cleaning yourself afterwards. It is a water enchantment similar to the shower, so don’t stand up while it’s running or there will be a mess. Use it before you use the disposal enchantment.
“This set-up is common here at the Monastery, although these spaces in your dorms at the school are communal. Enchantments are expensive to set-up and maintain, so students aren’t given individual bathrooms.” She moved back to the door and shut it behind her with a final command to not come out again until I didn’t stink.
I decided to use the air shower like she had recommended. I was also curious, as it was like nothing at home. When I pressed it, both it and a part of the control plate activated. A rush of air surrounded me, carrying with it something that tingled - must be the nature magic she had mentioned - and the sense of sweat clinging to my exposed skin and the robes I was wearing was whipped away, leaving me feeling like I’d stepped outside into a gale that disappeared as quickly as it had come, as the pressure disappeared into the central control plate. I decided to use the toilet as well, my body reminding me that I hadn’t done so since before I stepped into that glowing green doorway. Their cleansing mechanism sounded a bit like a bidet, but I had never used one of those, so it was a novel experience. The disposal enchantment caused everything to disappear in a burst of green energy which reminded me of the various summonings I’d seen.
Huh, it seems that that teleportation magic is quite versatile. I thought to myself. I never would have thought to use it as a waste disposal though.
When I emerged from the room, I found the Abbess waiting impatiently. “I have more to do with my day that babysit you. So I’m going to leave you here. When Astri returns, get her to take you to lunch. I will return to bring you to dinner in the evening, at which time, we can discuss what you have read. I would suggest beginning with either religion or politics, as ignorance there will more easily given offense than if you miss some fact of botany or sailing.” With a flash of light, her body turned translucent and disappeared like a cloud blown away on a breeze.
I was a little miffed at the abrupt exit, but I decided there was nothing I could do with the anger so I let it fade. I decided to ignore her advice though, and reached for the stories.