“Over here, guys! I found something!”
The eclectic group of Light and Arcane dragons trudged single file through the winding stacks of books towards where their companion’s voice had last been heard, Marjorie and Stella in the lead. They had barely begun to catalog the newly revealed level of the Enchanted Library when Marjorie’s student Alwyn had suddenly stilled, their head fins flaring in surprise, before they darted off into the dimly lit bookshelves encircling the room. The group had lost sight of them quickly, much to their alarm, so it was a relief to hear their voice.
“Alwyn, where are you my dear?” Marjorie called out, the Guardian moving slowly through the books to avoid knocking anything over. “You can’t go running off like that with no warning!”
“Sorry, Marjorie,” Alwyn said, their head poking out from between two bookshelves right in front of the group. “But I thought I detected a hint of air flow this way, and I was correct. There’s a hidden doorway!”
“A hidden doorway, you say?” the Arcanist Idol echoed. He was currently sitting atop of one of the larger dragons in the group, an Obelisk by the name of Graceful, to better keep an eye on their surroundings. The Arcanist Idol squinted in the direction Alwyn had indicated, and then looked to the Lightweaver bust in confusion, but she simply gave him a shrug (which was very impressive given she had no shoulders). “Hmm, how odd. Although we have both stood watch over this library for centuries, neither of us have any knowledge of a doorway here.”
“Let’s take a look at it, then,” Stella said, gesturing for Alwyn to lead them on. The student guided them through the rows of bookshelves until the group arrived at what looked to be a set of old tapestries hanging on a stone wall, their images faint and faded, yet surprisingly intact. They were massive, easily as tall as an Imperial was long, and they spanned the length of the wall as what seemed to be two matching panels.
“I think the doorway is hidden behind the tapestries,” Alwyn explained, their voice hushed. “At least, that’s where I felt the breeze the strongest.”
“Yes, I do believe you’re right,” Marjorie agreed absently, squinting at the details of the one tapestry. “Incredible. It’s hard to make out, but the image almost looks like…”
“Well, I suppose we should get started on analyzing the tapestries,” Stella suddenly cut in, rolling up her sleeves. “Winnie, do you have your notebook ready? Let’s start with the standard SpellScry, and work our way up from there.”
Stella began to gather Arcane magics in her claws, when all of the sudden a loud snort cut through the air. She froze, her magic fizzling out, and turned her head to face the culprit.
To everyone’s surprise, it was Marjorie. She chuckled softly, even going so far as to wipe a tear from her eye, and said, “A SpellScry! Oh, Stella, you are too funny!”
It took her probably a little too long to notice that Stella’s fins weren’t positioned to convey humor at all. Her laughter cut off, her jaw dropping open in shock.
“Stella. You can’t be serious. A SpellScry?”
“Of course I’m serious!” Stella huffed. “It’s standard procedure for any new magical discovery! Shards, Marjorie, you and I have both been doing this for years, you know this!”
“Stella, my dear, please use your head.” Marjorie stared at Stella in disbelief. “We’re in the middle of a magical library. A SpellScry would be a complete waste of time and magic, everything here is enchanted! It’s obviously going to come back positive!”
“If you think that a SpellScry is only for confirming the presence of enchantments, rather than conveying
what said enchantments are, then I have a few articles that you should probably - !”
“Ladies!” the Snapper at the back of the group suddenly interrupted. “Please! We’re getting off track.”
“Thank you, Edward,” Marjorie said cooly. “You’re right. Our focus should be on our research.”
“Fine,” Stella replied, just as coldly. “Then what do
you propose we do?”
“Obviously a Spectrum Scan would - Stella!” Marjorie gasped in dismay as Stella’s fins positioned themselves in a way to convey exactly what she thought of that idea. It wasn’t flattering.
“What? You have the audacity to claim that my SpellScry would waste time and then you suggest a Spectrum Scan!? You know very well that enchantments are invisible in the full spectrum of light! What could you possibly hope to learn from a Spectrum Scan over a SpellScry?!”
“Just because you Arcane dragons can’t interpret the results - !”
“Well, just because
you can’t parse the different strings of enchantments from a SpellScry - !”
Graceful anxiously leaned over towards Edward, and whispered, “Oh goodness, are they always like this?”
“Worse,” Edward replied flatly. “You should have seen them when they both tried to publish a paper on a time-loop triggering comet at the same time.”
“Oh dear,” the Obelisk gulped, taking a nervous step back. Unfortunately he hadn’t realized that his teammate R0seTh0rn was standing right behind him, and he suddenly tumbled over the Aether with a startled scream.
“Ouch!” R0seTh0rn howled. “My tail!”
“Sorr-
ieeee!” Graceful’s apology turned into a yelp as he crashed into one of the surrounding bookshelves, knocking several of them down on top of himself…and revealing a Manticore Screamer that had been hiding behind them. The enchanted familiar gaped at them all in alarm for a moment before shooting out of its hiding spot with one of its well-known screams, landing heavily on Graceful’s head, and then taking off into the air.
Unfortunately, in its panicked scramble, its tail hooked around the Arcanist Idol’s middle, and the small statue was soon dragged out of sight.
“No throwing, tossing, or flinging the artifacts!” A shrill voice cried out, quickly followed by rushing footsteps. “Teams may be injured by flying projectiles! And
where are your safety kits?! I know I distributed them to each of you!”
A harried looking Sandsurge suddenly stumbled up to the group, their claws full of clipboards and waiver sheets.
“Oh shards, did Vex find us?” R0seTh0rn muttered out of the corner of their mouth to Winnie. “I was sure we lost them upstairs.”
“Oh dear, we must have missed one of those magic familiars during clean up,” the Lightweaver Bust sighed, ignoring the new arrival completely. “Better head after them. Would one of you care to accompany me to find my companion?”
“Gladly,” the Lamplight Expedition’s cartographer, Mina, offered, picking the bust up in her arms and flying off in the direction the Manticore had gone.
“Don't forget an alternative light source in case of magic voids!” Vex cried, and tried to chase after them.
“I’m okay,” Graceful groaned from beneath the mountain of books he’d been buried under.
Meanwhile, the argument between the two team leads had become so heated that they were practically shouting in each others’ faces, no matter how much the rest of their teams tried to calm them.
“Fine then!” Stella abruptly shouted. “Fine! If you think your methods are so much better than ours, then let’s put it to the test!”
Marjorie recoiled, still looking furious, but now also intrigued. “What exactly are you proposing?” she asked warily.
“A competition. Our methods against yours. Whoever discovers more of the library and its contents by the end of this week shall be declared the winner.”
“Hmmm,” Marjorie squinted suspiciously at Stella, testing for a trap. “And what exactly do we get when we win?”
“
If you win,” Stella corrected angrily. “Which I doubt will happen. Regardless, the winner will be the one to submit the research paper to all of the archeological journals in Sornieth, while the loser will just get an acknowledgement at the end of the article.”
The entire group gasped in shock. Just an acknowledgement?! Surely that was too cruel!
But to their collective dismay, Marjorie only smirked and held out her claw. “Deal.”
Stella grasped her massive claw with both of her hands and shook it once, up and down, and it was done. The deal was struck and the challenge was on.
“Alright, Lamplight Expedition Company, you know what that means! Let’s get to work!” Marjorie gestured with her wing towards the tapestry on the right.
“M-my team!” Stella called out, sounding mildly put-upon that her crew didn’t have a special name to use. “We have work to do! Chop chop!”
The rest of the assembled dragons all shared a look before heading towards their respective team leads to get their assignments. What were they getting themselves into?
