Page 5 of Lightningborn

High Mage Elina was sitting at one end of the table, her silver hair pulled into its normal bun. She looked confused when the messenger strode up and bowed, presenting a sealed envelope to her with both hands. Gem watched her face as she opened it, saw her eyes go wide behind her spectacles and the blood drain from her face. Without warning, High Mage Elina stood, causing all the teachers to blink up at her, and walked to the head of the table. Bending down, she whispered something into the ear of Headmistress Idella, who straightened and looked at her in alarm.

The two women rose and walked out of the dining hall, to the whispers and stares of students and teachers alike. That was the last time Gem saw High Mage Elina. The official announcement from the headmistress was that High Mage Elina had to return to her island for family reasons. But if that were true, why had a royal courier delivered the message? Such communications were only used by the king and the royal council for delivering news of the utmost importance. Something seemed a little fishy there, but Gem wasn’t going to question it.

But now High Mage Alaric was leaving the college as well. Strange. But again, nothing she could do about it.

They had to leave the building to get to the library, which was across the yard, and the single largest structure in the whole college. It held the biggest collection of books, scrolls, texts, and tomes in the entire kingdom, and the mages were both extremely proud and protective of their stored compilation of knowledge. The library loomed over the grounds, three stories of ancient stone, brick, and mortar, the entrance guarded by two proud stone dragons whose wings made a sweeping arch over the steps. According to popular rumor, the statues actually depicted a pair of True Dragons, bigger, stronger, and far more intelligent than the beasts Gem was used to seeing. Though they were long extinct, it was said that the True Dragons were the ones who first taught magic to humans, in the days before the Shattering.

Gem loved dragons. Back home, her favorite thing to do was to ride on Cloud, her sweet white dragon with stunning blue eyes. Her father owned a huge stable of dragons, from even-tempered riding dragons like Cloud, to sleek but flighty racers as fast as the wind, to the fierce, armored, hard-to-handle battle dragons. Each dragon was different and special, and she loved getting to know all their quirks and temperaments. But gazing at the imposing statues looming over the library steps, she couldn’t help but shiver. Maybe it was their size; they were at least three times bigger than the largest battle dragon she had seen, an actual representation, according to the plaque at the base of the platform. Or maybe it was their stern, unamused reptilian faces, gazing down at the puny mortals far below, that gave Gem the feeling that, had these two been alive, they would be severely unimpressed with any of them.

“So what’s this report about again?” Lighthouse wondered as they climbed the steps and ducked into the cool, dim silence of the library. He kept his voice barely above a whisper; the librarians who prowled the aisles had ears like bats and could appear like a summoned demon should any shenanigans occur in their library. Their intuition was almost supernatural: Gem had accidentally dropped a heavy text onto the tiles once; before she could even pick up, she had found herself surrounded by three librarians, lips pursed as they scowled down at her.

Gem sighed. “The dangers of uncontrolled magic,” she told Lighthouse, rolling her eyes. “I think Headmistress is really trying to prove a point.”

Lighthouse nodded sympathetically. “Miss Hagda could find you books on the subject if you asked her,” he said, referring to the ancient head librarian who sat behind the mahogany desk in the corner.

Gem winced and shook her head. “Hawkeye Hagda” always had her nose buried in a massive tome and usually ignored everything around her. But whenever Gem walked by the desk, she would peek up from the book, beady black eyes watching her, until Gem was out of sight.

“No, I’ll find them myself. I have a general idea of where to look.” Gem gazed around the enormous room of shelves and aisles and sighed. Her next few days were going to be spent here, it seemed. “What are you going to do?” she asked, turning back to Lighthouse.

He shrugged his thin shoulders. “There’s a test in Ancient Dwarven History that I need to study for,” he said, somewhat evasively.

Gem smirked. “You mean you’re going to camp out in the adventure novel aisle until the library closes,” she said, “and hope the librarians don’t kick you out.”

“Shh! Don’t say that too loud. They’ll hear you.” Lighthouse glanced around warily, then stepped back, clearing his throat. “I have to go study,” he said, a bit louder than he had to. “Uh, you don’t need any help, do you, Gem?”

“No.” She shook her head and waved him off. “Get out of here. Have fun studying with Captain Madhammer and the Pirates of Tomorrow.”

“ThePrivateersof Tomorrow,” Lighthouse corrected. “You should really read the series sometime. Captain Madhammer doesn’t just fight monsters all the time; he solves mysteries, too.”

“A story about a pirate hero fighting evil mages and spell storm monstrosities, all for the good of the kingdom?” Gem rolled her eyes. “That really is a fantasy.” Sky pirates existed, of course. Countless warnings had been issued about sailing too far from the capital and the ring of main islands surrounding it. The farther you got from the center of the kingdom, its laws, and the protection of its sky knights, the more dangerous the skies became. The Fringe, the lawless ring of islands farthest from the capital, was the territory of thieves, smugglers, and all manner of cutthroats. And none of them were out there fighting evil for the good of the kingdom. “Pirates are criminals, Lighthouse,” Gem finished. “There are no real-life Captain Madhammers.”

Lighthouse sniffed. “Well, I still like him,” he said stubbornly, turning away. “And it’s better than dusty old textbooks. Have fun with your fifteen pages of research paper,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m going to read something exciting.”

She watched him hurry past the History aisle, take a sharp left toward Fiction and Adventure, and disappear from sight.

With a sigh, Gem turned and wandered toward the stairs. The Magic section of the library was the entire second floor; that seemed as good a place as any to find the research materials she needed.

An hour later, Gem sat at one of the long tables surrounded by three different books, the sound of her own pen scratching the paper grating in her ears. As expected, there were plenty of books that listed the dangers of uncontrolled magic, plenty of examples of mages who let their powers get away from them. Storm magic was, as all the books repeated over and over again, volatile, dangerous, and unpredictable, and the consequences of losing control were explicitly laid out. There had been several incidents where a mage had blasted a hole though the sky ship they were supposed to be controlling, and the vessel had gone down in flames. In the most extreme cases, the magic coursing through a mage’s body had torn it apart, or had twisted it into something unrecognizable. Magic came from the Maelstrom, which in itself was the most chaotic, destructive force of nature in the world. To use it required the utmost skill and concentration.

Gem put down her pen and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. Though the titles and authors were different and used different words, all the books basically said the same thing. Uncontrolled magic, bad. Losing control of magic, very bad. Bad things happen when you lose control. If Headmistress Idella wanted to beat the lesson into her head with this assignment, she was doing a great job of it.

Turning the page, Gem continued reading. This book was titledJoffrey’s Accounts of Magical Mishaps, 1402–04, and described magic-based accidents in gruesome detail. This one was an article about an infamous storm mage named Mordred who tried to send the entire crew of the ship he’d been controlling into the Maelstrom.

FromJoffrey’s Accounts of Magical Mishaps,chapter seven, page 216

It is unknown whether or not Storm Mage Mordred had already gone sky-mad when he decided to commandeer the merchant ship and send it plummeting toward the Maelstrom. Thankfully, he was stopped by his own apprentice, who regained control of the vessel and brought it safely out of the storm. When later asked why he would do such a thing, Mordred simply replied: “I saw an Ancient One in the Maelstrom.”

Mordred’s story was officially denounced by the college as the addled ramblings of a madman, though it was later discovered that his apprentice also claimed to have seen the Ancient within the Maelstrom. As of the time of these writings, neither claim has been taken seriously.

Gem blinked, sitting up a little straighter in her chair. An Ancient One? She had never heard that term before. What were the Ancient Ones? And why had they caused a powerful storm mage to go diving into the Maelstrom after them?

Quickly, she skimmed the rest of the tome for anything more about these Ancient Ones, or Ancients. But it seemed that single page held the only instance of it. Gem could find no more references to Ancients within the pages of the book. So, after putting it back, she started searching other books.

She found…nothing.

After another hour, with different tomes and texts open and scattered around the table, Gem was ready to bang her head on the desk in frustration. There was not one mention of Ancients in any of the books she had searched. She had dragged down the original book and checked the paragraph several times more, just to make sure she hadn’t misread anything. She hadn’t. The words “Ancient Ones” were right there, on page 216. But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find anything else about them.

“This is ridiculous,” Gem muttered, slamming another book shut after it held no mentions of Ancients. “This is the Great Library, the most complete source of knowledge in the kingdom. You’re supposed to be able to find anything here.”

---