Virgil walked through the library; lantern held out in front of him. It was silly, in all honesty. He knew the lantern would ruin his vision in the darkness and holding it in front of him didn’t illuminate enough to make the trade-off worth it. The lantern was, however, a comfort in the dark. A bright little companion for Virgil to have, whilst roaming the ghoulish library.

It couldn’t have been more than five years since he left Capp to join the University, but even at fifteen, this library still terrified him. With the kind of sick humour only a master Earth Mage could have, every shelf in the library was made of obsidian, or “ghost stone.” It smelt like metal, but with this scenery, one couldn't help but think of blood. The smell didn't bother him, the mage labs used bleeding creatures frequently. What bothered him was the faces.

Screaming faces, figures being tortured, horrific monsters and other ghastly scenes were forever immortalised in the shelves. They seemed to flow from left to right on the east wing of the library, and the shelves on the west wing mirrored the flow in the opposite direction. The light of his lantern seemed to melt off it, disappearing into the recesses of the shelves. Every time it did, the figures moved, constantly morphing in a loop of actions. A maiden would run from a beast, be captured, eaten and the cycle would start again.

Virgil didn’t know how this mage did it, but he hated it all the same. All the bookshelves pointed diagonally inward, to a huge, gothic balcony overlooking the first floor. Its stairs were simple stone slabs, but the railing was made of what looked like intricately designed spears and swords.

The balcony itself appeared to have teeth, sharp and black as night, jutting down over the section reserved for professors. Descending from the teeth of the balcony, like drool in the mouth of a starving beast, came thin strands of metal. The metal seemed to pool on the floor as if it was a dripping liquid, but anyone who touched it would immediately know it to be solid metal.

Then they would be promptly captured by the librarian, the only one with access to this section. Even the professors would have to go to her for permission. There was a rumour Virgil heard around the mess hall, that the librarian was a Blank like him; meaning she couldn’t perform the hand magic to open the gate. Therefore, she would have to open that gate with a key of some kind.

Unfortunately, it was the mouth of this beast where his prize lay. A book known as Runes of the Old Ways lay in the professor’s section, taunting him. Virgil had been going to the library every day, simply to see how far back in the professor’s section it was. Unfortunately, whenever he got close, a higher ranked mage would always tell him off. He’d almost touched the bars once, but a senior lecturer caught him. Longest talking to of his life.

Due to his knack for purposefully pissing the librarian off, however, Virgil had been sent to her office enough times to study it. The first thing he learnt was that she was plenty grumpy, even without being a melancholic Earth Mage. The second was that she did have to use a key, and Virgil knew it was in her office somewhere.

Heading in the opposite direction from the balcony, noticing that even the echoes of his footsteps sounded like ghostly moans, Virgil wondered why he was here again. We know why, he thought, bitterly. Zephire had been bragging about her marks again. His friend taunted him with those at every opportunity, and he was more than a little miffed. It was about time someone showed that uppity bitch what for!

Still, as Virgil reached the Librarian’s office, he couldn’t help feeling that he’d been hasty in his decision making. He looked up at the wall above the librarian’s office, a gothic dragon with the librarian’s face, pictured in-flight with a battle axe in its mouth. Virgil grinned. Heh, the old dragon would flip if she saw that. The feeling didn’t last though, as he stared at the door and assessed his options.

Here he was, risking his position at this prestigious academy that he only afforded through an UNGODLY amount of loan taking, for good marks? His old marks weren’t so bad, he could probably turn around now and go do his work. Hell, maybe his assignment would beat Zephire’s! Then, afterwards, pigs could fly from his hands and he could bond to the element of cheese!

Virgil sighed as he opened the door, surprised to see it was unlocked. The librarian’s office was incredibly silent. Dust lay on everything like an obese cat, threatening to be disturbed and give away his sneaking. The dusty smell assaulted his nostrils, but he held back a sneeze. Putting down his lantern, Virgil searched around for anything resembling a key. However, the only things in the office seemed to be stacks of papers.

He had never seen so many lose papers in one place, all carrying information of varying necessity and depth. They ranged from recipes for bread-filled crab sticks, to complex magic seals capable of destroying a building. Virgil swore he’d even seen one with a symbol that didn’t exist. No closer to his goal than before, Virgil flopped down into the librarian’s chair.

Through all his snooping around the room, the thing that most surprised him was the absence of the librarian herself. He supposed it made sense, she probably didn’t live in the library. The unlocked door haunted him though. Surely that meant she was here, waiting in secret to capture misbehaving students attempting to steal books.

Virgil considered just sitting at the desk, waiting for the librarian to come back and simply explain his situation. Ok, sure. That’s brilliant! Let’s just explain how we are jealous of our friend and thought stealing a restricted book would help us get an element. That couldn’t possibly fail! He thought with a grimace. Virgil slammed his head into the table, trying to knock a helpful thought into his brain. As he did so, however, the wood made a rather odd jingling noise.

Virgil froze.

Quickly but carefully, he knelt to examine the desk itself. At first glance, the desk seemed to be a rather simple affair, no drawers even. The strange thing was that the more you stared at it, the more ornate the desk became. The wood was smooth, almost flowing like a chocolate lake, supported but four sturdy legs. The legs resembled the towers of the University, four spires sticking up from the flat ground. They were a dark wood, darker than the rest of the table, but grooves cut into them.

The grooves were as black as night, drawing the eye down to the floor, where the legs simply thinned out. They connected to the table with wooden bulbs, best described as closed fists pressing up against the underside of the table. Although, Virgil couldn’t help but feel the legs were incorrect, not quite a perfect image of the towers creating a square around this very building.

Finally, it stuck him. One of the legs was crooked! Twisted slightly out of place, the left leg closest to him was very clearly not the same as the others. Virgil instinctively tried to twist it back into place, fully aware that he wasn’t to be able to move this leg without disrupting the table. A part of him was screaming at this, crying out for logic, but Virgil ignored it.

The leg was only slightly twisted. Surely, he could move it just a bit. The leg twisted slightly and immediately clicked into place with ease. Another click echoed out from the desk, right above Virgil’s head. He looked at the underside of the table and found a hidden compartment staring back at him. He pulled at the compartment greedily, seeing a small card.

Virgil held the card close to his lantern, studying the symbols on it. There was a magic circle, a thin band filled with druidic runes, which surrounded the symbol. It was mountain with two peaks, inside a square made of four smaller squares connected by lines. Virgil thought back to his classes, recognising the squares and mountains as Earth and Fire respectively. The symbols were drawn with incredible precision, not a single mistake made.

Not the most visually exciting runic combination, but that’s Metal Mages for you. That would explain the neatness. Metal mages were notorious perfectionists. It could have also been drawn by a Blank who was used to using relics and talismans. Either way, I need to test it. He picked his lantern up and placed it on the table. It had a metal casing, so it should be affected.

He breathed in deep, closing his eyes and pictured a circle. It was a perfect circle in every single way, filled in white against a black background. Slowly, he pictured a stream of inky blackness enter the circle, swirling into its centre. It hit the middle and he felt his breath get deeper. An energy filled him, like he’d woken up from the best nap of his life. Virgil opened his eyes and focused on the card.

The symbols glowed with a silver sheen, not even bright enough to outshine the lantern. He felt the energy slip out of his body and into the card, causing it to vibrate a bit. The light got somewhat brighter, but Virgil could not stop himself from falling over. He’d never felt weaker in his life. He heard a clink in front of him and stopped the manna supply to the talisman. The locked face of the lantern had swung open.

Virgil smiled. He had found his key. He stood up, energy returning to him steadily and narrowly missed the table with his head. After slipping the key into his trouser pocket, he took one more glance around the office. Who knows how many useful things could be sitting in this office, drowning in dust? No! Don’t get greedy, just take the card and go. Don’t forget Simon.

That hit him harder that he thought it would. Virgil left the office quickly, closing the door behind him and leaning on it. He sighed and looked up at the dragon, the carving having changed. The dragon was now dead, decapitated by the battle axe formerly in its mouth. He shivered at the sight. “I didn’t know they changed…” he muttered.

Virgil was starting to think the walls were just making fun of him now, a depressing though in and of itself. Touching the librarian’s door with his back, Virgil tried to get his breathing under control He turned around and pressed his head to it, his jaw tight. “Calm down” he whispered, but suddenly everything felt off. Like something was watching him. A sudden shadow encompassed his in the lantern glow, but Virgil dared not turn around. Monsters only exist if you look at them, right?

“Who dares disturb my slumberrrrr….” A voice said behind him. The voice itself was soft, a mere whisper in the wind, but it consumed Virgil’s entire world. He began to shiver, putting both his hands up in submission. Then a thought occurred to him. We are in the library of the largest concentration of mages in the world. Why would there be a monster here that they don’t own?

His first feeling was of utter relief. A monster owned by the University was most likely here to make sure no one stole anything. While the High Mages of the school were strict, they preferred to capture and interrogate, rather than outright kill. Killing did terrible things to specimens and could get blood on the books.

Almost immediately, however, another thought occurred, and Virgil settled back into the cosy arms of fear. What would happen now? They would most likely expel him, send him back to Capp on the first skyboat available. He could see it now, the village elder welcoming him back as a hero, misunderstanding Virgil’s failure for passing early.

He would be forced to fish again with all the rest of them, an eternity of smelly clothes and unsatisfying pay. Then he heard a light giggle, and his fear blazed immediately into rage, before simmering into annoyance. “I fucking hate you Zeph” Virgil said, turning around to stare at the young mage.

Zephire was grinning the mischievous grin of someone in complete control and who was bored of that position. A native Westerner, Zephire had flawless dark skin, aside from some freckles over her nose but that could hardly be called a flaw. She had angular blueish-grey eyes and brilliantly white teeth. Slightly taller than Virgil, a fact she never let him forget, she looked down at him in the way only a friend could.

Her long, silky black hair was tied up in a bun with several pencils protruding from it. Studying then, and unsuccessfully it seemed. “No bodyguards?” Virgil asked, feeling instant relief at the shaking of Zephire’s head. Being the most powerful mage in a generation came with perks and status. Kids liked to flock to her because of that, under the guise of protecting her. They were never good kids.

Zeph looked at Virgil, a sparkle in her eye and evil in her grin. “So, study buddy” she said, placing weird emphasis on study buddy, “where’s the book?” Virgil blanked. “W-what do you mean Zeph? I don’t-” He stopped immediately, as a cold feeling was creeping up his leg. He looked down to see a glass viper curling up his calf. “Don’t you lie to me Virgil.” She said, her voice icy. Virgil looked up, unable to meet Zephire’s now colourless eyes.

He gulped and pointed to the professor’s section; the metal teeth of the balcony as terrifying as always. Virgil could almost feel the power from that balcony. It was someone’s masterpiece, a real work of art. For a brief moment, Virgil forgot how this place looked in the daylight. All there was in the world, in existence, was that balcony.

Maybe that was part of the magic? Some small charm, a piece of old magic, that made you feel insignificant in front of it. He looked over at Zeph and she smiled back. Maybe he was just scared of teeth balconies. As they walked over, Zephire waved her hand dismissively, the very air around her rippling with power.

The metal bars dripping down from the balcony’s teeth, once a terrifying image showing how mages can hunger for too much knowledge, bent aside. Just like that, Virgil’s crimes were rendered pointless. He stared at Zephire and she smiled back. “What?” She asked, grinning like an acolyte. “Nothing…” He said, staring at his friend.

His superior.

“Come on Virgil!” She whined, “we have to get that book before sun up!” She was right, of course, but Virgil was still tentative about going in. He took shaky steps towards the entrance of the professor’s section. He looked over at Zeph. She was annoying, boastful, obnoxious and worst of all, better than him. Even so, he was glad she was here.

He felt safe with a genius at his side. He felt more confident, lengthening his stride and straightening his back. Why not go into the professor’s section? Zephire here was a three element prodigy, on her way to becoming a High Mage most likely, and he could finally join her in the big leagues when he got this book! He could go into the mouth of any metallic beast! He could do anything!

Then there was a crash.

Virgil and Zephire turned around to see a hulking mass of metal, a gothic steel monstrosity, running at them. It roared, the sound of steel scraping on steel, and smashed entire bookcases aside. The whole library seemed smaller now. “Zephire, we need to go. Zephire? ZEPHIRE!” Virgil turned to see her, or at least what was left of her.

Zephire had turned to glass before his eyes. Her clothes, her skin, her hair, every bit of her was glass. Virgil didn’t have time to worry though, as a metal fist lifted him off the ground and into a wall. The wall he hit was not in the library. It was wooden, wet and old. The room began to fill with water and Virgil thrashed about before noticing the golem’s face. It melted back, revealing a young man wearing broken glasses.

“Why did you do it Virg?” Simon asked, his eyes tearing up, metal fist shaking. The shaking spread to his body, sending ripples through the water. It began to rise. “Why Virg? Why couldn’t you just let it go?” A tear started to run down Simon’s cheek. “WHY!?” Virgil couldn’t breathe, the water had reached his face.

Suddenly, the room was upside down. Simon’s glasses floated off his face, his metal body morphing back into his normal one. He was still crying, Virgil could tell even in the water. He could feel the tremors, see the pain in his brother’s eyes. Virgil wanted to apologise, he wanted to weep, to hold Simon. Most of all, Virgil wanted to scream. He tried, but the words just wouldn’t come out…

…

“Tell me, Virgil. Do you know what the most powerful emotion is?” Arch Mage Penn asked. Virgil had been sitting in his office for nearly half an hour now, since the Librarian had pulled Zephire and him from the library. She’d been sent to her room by her own Arch Mage, Mereena, of the Earth Spire. Unfortunately, Arthur Penn of the Fire Spire was far less forgiving.

“Well!?” Penn’s voice had gained an edge that tickled Virgil’s spine. “I-I don’t know, sir…” he muttered, trying hard to maintain eye-contact with the Arch Mage. “Nor do I, nor does anyone. Jezeren Ore, however, believed it was fear. Which is why he imbued his Obsidian Library with the intention of scaring off trespassers. Any manna used, any at all, would set off this intention.”

“So, tell me, just WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?” Virgil recoiled as Arch Mage Penn screamed. His eyes were flaring with magic. Both irises turned a bright yellow as the room’s temperature steadily rose. The amber stone in his diadem also lit up, transforming the obsidian band that housed it into living flame. The fire seemed to almost fizz, with small white-hot jets of flame circling his head. “I didn’t mean to…”

“To sneak into the library!? To steal from the restricted section!? TO WAKE ME UP!? There I was, having the best dream of my life, researching dragons in the very heart of Europe! Only to be WOKEN by you SCREAMING from the library!” Virgil tried to shrink lower into his chair. Arch Mage Penn attempted to glare harder while adjusting his night cap and smoothing his gown.

There was no saving his hair though, as wild and untameable as his current rage. Arthur Penn was usually so prim and proper; his long white hair neat, his triangular salt and pepper beard well-trimmed, and his robes always looked practically brand new! Many students aspired to look like him, the pale skin and weary eyes of a paranoid academic notwithstanding. Seeing him dishevelled like this was more than weird, it was unsettling.

“Calm down Arthur!” Mereena said, slipping back into the room, having fetched her own Diadem. She was dressed in a gown as well, but the dishevelled look suited her far more. Arch Mage Mereena preferred working outside, covered in dust and dirt and smiling brightly. She was almost the complete opposite of her husband, and just as many students aspired to look like her.

Penn stared at her, anger flashing in his eyes. There was something else there, however. His eyes kept darting around the room, as if looking for an eavesdropper. “No! I will not calm down! Too long have we allowed this, this, BLANK to tread our halls. I have his benefactors at my throat everyday asking why he isn’t improving, and now he tries to steal from us!?” Virgil grumbled, “I was going to give it back…”

“BE QUIET THIEF!” Virgil flinched at the sound. He’d been shouted at before, this very week in fact, but it was hard to get used to the activity. Not to mention that Arthur Penn was very much a professional in shouting. “Now you listen here Arthur! I will not have you use that word on students!” “OH! I HAVE SOME MORE THAN CHOICE WORDS FOR THIS FU-” The Arch Mages argued while Virgil tried to clear his head.

From what the Arch Mage said, it seemed his and Zephire’s casual magic use had allowed manna to leak into the obsidian. Ghost stone reacted strongly to manna, creating illusions based on the magic used and the intention of the stone’s owner. Just like how the Arch Mage turned his diadem into a ring of fire, the pair had accidentally created the illusion of a metal golem. He didn’t know how, but Virgil guessed that was also why it turned into Simon and the boat.

His stomach tightened at the thought. Simon had never been very far from his thoughts, but it felt like some progress towards moving on was being made. After tonight, however, Virgil dreaded sleep. His brother always found a way into his dreams at times like these, somehow. He clasped his hands over his eyes. Leave me alone Simon! You didn’t know! You didn’t know what they were going to do to us! We needed the gold, we NEEDED IT!

“Virgil…?” Arch Mage Mereena looked at him with worry. Her diadem had activated unconsciously, the emerald spreading its green across the band, jagged crystals sticking out like thorns. She tried to give him a comforting smile, the tiny wrinkles on her face scrunching up. He remembered when the University first brought him here, and Arch Mage Mereena would bring the new recruits biscuits.

Arch Mage Penn was still glaring at him, but some concern had entered his eyes. Penn was angry, paranoid and scary, but everyone knew he cared. These two people had shaped the majority of Virgil’s life, more than anyone else in the world. And I just tried to rob them. He looked down at his hands, shaking in his lap. He tried to calm them down, but they shook still. “I-I’m fine ma’am. Sorry to wake you.”

“It’s fine dear, don’t you worry.” Mereena smiled at him and shot a glare in Penn’s direction. His fire crown flared slightly but seemed to cool with his temper. “Alright, fine! It’s late, and clearly we are all tired.” Penn jabbed a finger in Virgil’s direction, “But don’t think you are escaping this without punishment. First thing in the morning, we are having a disciplinary hearing with the other Arch Mages. We’ll decide what to do with you then.”