The Gate Traveler

After Rue and I got back to the hotel, we spent the rest of the day in our suite. I wanted no more adventures for that day. The next day, Rue didn’t want to go for a walk, so I took the opportunity to visit the Arcane Library. It wasn’t far, so I walked.

The library was inside a medium-height spire, decorated with designs of books, letters, and runes. Nothing happened when I focused on the runes and tried to pay the mana to learn them. I frowned.

Hmm, fake runes.

Rich wood paved the entrance floor. A large table was in front of the door, behind which sat two distinguished ladies. They looked up as I approached.

“Good morning, ladies,” I greeted with a nod.

“Good morning, respected merchant. How may we help you?” one of them replied with a polite smile.

“I’m interested in visiting the library,” I said, glancing around the grand room.

“Fifty silver coins for one day’s entry to the first three floors. The other floors are only accessible to members of various guilds,” the other lady explained, her tone businesslike.

I raised an eyebrow. “What topics can be found for fifty silver coins?”

“General knowledge, history, legends, and folklore. There is some knowledge about crafting and children’s books,” she listed, her voice even.

“What about knowledge of healing?”

“It’s limited to the fifth floor and only to members of the Healer’s Guild,” the second lady answered, her voice firm.

“And knowledge of magic?” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

“It’s restricted to the eighth floor and only to members of the Mages Guild,” she responded with a slight tilt of her head, as if gauging my reaction.

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “How does a person prove they are a member of the guild?”

“Two well-known members of the guild need to vouch that they are also members of the guild,” she replied, her expression impassive.

Bummer. No conjuring identifications, I thought, my shoulders slumping slightly.

“Can you please direct me to the Mage Guild?” I asked.

The Guild wasn’t far, and I found it easily following their directions. It was in a tall spire a few blocks from the library. The building looked dull compared to all the other buildings I had seen. Its front was completely smooth, with standard square windows, and even the roof didn’t shine. I raised an eyebrow.

Are they trying to look respectable?

Black-and-white tiles adorned the entrance floor, and glass display cabinets stood throughout the space. Some sellers were assisting customers. I tried to tune into my feelings, but sensed nothing. The man I saw in the palace—he felt like he belonged to one of the magical classes.

Maybe because he was at a high level?

A young man approached me, his expression polite but curious. “Need help, sir?” he asked, his voice carrying a slight note of formality.

“Yes,” I replied, glancing around the room. “Do you have spells for sale?”

He looked at me like I had asked a stupid question, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Of course,” he said, drawing out the word. “This is the Mage Guild. Are you interested in individual spells, or buying in bulk at merchant prices?”

“How many is buying in bulk?”

“At least ten of each spell, a minimum of fifty spells,” he replied in a practiced tone.

“No, I’m interested in singles. Where can I see the options?”

He pointed to the right side of the room. “Utility spells, ten gold for one,” he explained, then pointed to the left side. “More advanced spells and channeled spells, thirty gold. I must warn you,” he added, his tone suddenly more serious, “even if you buy the spell, if you can not channel mana, the spell won’t work. It doesn’t matter if you learned it.” Finally, he pointed to the back of the room, towards a very fancy glass cabinet. “The most advanced spells—prices range from fifty to a hundred gold for one.”

First, I checked the utility spells, and the selection was very disappointing. They didn’t have a general Mend spell like the one I had. Instead, there were variations like Mend Fabric, Mend Wood Furniture, Mend Wood Flooring, etc., all kinds of specific mending spells. I sighed, feeling my frustration grow. They also had the Hot and Cold spells. When I read the description, it was equally disappointing. “For 50 mana, raise the temperature of something by five degrees.” The same for Cold, only in reverse. Very disappointing, and it still costs ten gold. Daylight robbery.

I switched to the thirty-gold display, hoping for better options. Here, I recognized some spells. They had Clean, Purify, and Repair—not the general Mend I knew, but when I read the description, it was the same as the other.

So they don’t get confused with the other Mends?

There was also the Heat spell I had and the Cool spells I had seen before. Both channeled. The only partially interesting thing was a spell I hadn’t heard of before—Fuse Stone. Next to this spell, there was also a sign: 30 gold for the general public, 20 gold for the Builders Guild. I understood how they built all the spires. There were some other spells that had to do with construction, but nothing that interested me.

The advanced spells I checked left me shocked by what I saw. I recognized Mana Dart, Fire Dart, Ice Dart, Mana Shield, Stone Armor, Minor Heal, and a few other spells from the Travelers’ list.

This costs 100 gold? Are they crazy?

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. There was no choice. Mahya needed Mana Shield, Clean, and Purify.

The young man approached me again, his hands clasped before him. “Did you decide, sir?” he asked, his tone polite but expectant.

“Yes,” I replied, giving him a nod. “I’ll take the Mana Shield, Clean, and Purify. I also have a question.”

“Yes?” he prompted, leaning in slightly, his eyes attentive.

“My friend wants to get the mage class,” I began. “He explained to me the ‘no double benefit’ rule. Is it still a ‘double benefit’ if I buy spells and gift them to him?”

His face fell, and he nodded slowly. “I’m afraid so, sir,” he said, his voice tinged with regret. “He either has to earn them or apprentice to a mage.”

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Okay. So I’ll take only the spells I mentioned.”

We repeated the same song and dance with the coins from Earth, but here I got more for them. They appraised the same full medium wooden box of coins for a hundred and twenty gold, not about a hundred, give or take. I didn’t know if it was because the mages were more honest or the luck of the draw with the more valuable metal of the coins, and it didn’t matter. What mattered was that I spent almost two hundred kilograms of Earth coins in the city. We needed more coins, much more.

“Do you sell general books about magic?” I asked him, curious.

He gave me a fleeting strange look, his brow furrowing briefly before quickly schooling his expression back to neutral. “No, sir. We are not the Wizard Spire.”

“There is a Wizard Spire in the city?” I inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, sir,” he confirmed, his voice steady.

“How can I find it?”

“Look for the building with strange protrusions coming out of it. There’s only one like that in Crystalspire; you can’t miss it,” he replied, his tone matter-of-fact.

“Oh, I saw that,” I said, nodding as I recalled the unusual structure. “Do you have any idea what those protrusions are? I was wondering about that.”

He met my gaze, holding it for a few seconds. Then, in a serious tone, he said, “I never try to understand wizards, and if you want to keep your sanity, you shouldn’t either.”

Okay ... I’m glad we cleared that up...

Outside, I changed my class to Wizard Battle Master and headed to the spire. When I got to the spire, I looked up at the protrusions and still couldn’t determine their purpose. They didn’t have windows or anything; they just stuck out from the top of the building like weird horns pointing in various directions. The building was also slightly crooked, almost like a half-moon, but the curvature was more subtle. It was a strange building, not just because of the protrusions and the curvature. The windows sat at different heights, as if the floors went up half a floor each time. Some windows were arched, and others were square. Part of the building was a yellowish stone color, while other parts were black. It looked like something a kid in kindergarten drew, and they built it according to the drawing.

Two enormous doors stood open, and I went inside. I arrived at a spacious lobby paved with marble in a psychedelic pattern. There were circles, squares, waves connecting them, and pieces of marble in different shades between the shapes. Just looking at it made me feel like my brain was cringing.

As I stood looking around, a man in his late thirties or early forties walked up to me, put a hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, “Battle is good for the spirit, but real insight comes in the moments of tranquility in between.”

“Okay?...” I didn’t know what else to say.

He nodded solemnly, continued walking, and exited through the door.

I saw a man in his fifties sitting at a large table in the center of the foyer, reading a book. It was the only piece of furniture in this vast, ballroom-sized space. I approached him and asked, “Hello, sir. I’m a wizard. May I visit your library?”

He raised his head and said, “Knowledge is the roots of the world, my friend. Can you feel the knowledge growing beneath your feet? You must dig deep, deep into the soil of understanding.”

Scratching my head in confusion, I asked, “Um, can I visit your root collection?”

He looked at me for at least fifteen seconds, squinted, and said, “That is the stupidest question I have ever heard in all my two hundred and eighty years of life,” and lowered his head back to his book.

Okay... Yoda... whatever you say...

I looked around again and saw a large door with stairs on the other side.

I’ll find the library myself. They don’t seem to care that I’m here.

I went up the stairs, and halfway up, I heard shouting. I hurried to the next floor and saw a young girl, maybe sixteen, with blond pigtails, berating an older blonde couple who fidgeted uncomfortably and looked at everything but her.

“...it’s dangerous! I’m tired of checking after you! You’ll end up burning the spire!” she yelled.

The man put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. After the spire burned for the third time, the master invested in the best fire defenses available.”

She raised her hands, clawed the air, trembling with anger and frustration, and shrieked, “You two are driving me crazy!”

“Don’t talk to your father like that.” “Don’t talk to your mother like that,” they both said together.

These are her parents? Poor kid!

The parents noticed me, and the girl turned to see what they were looking at. Her eyes lost focus, and she pointed at me, asking in an accusing voice, “Are you both a wizard and a battle master?”

“Yes?”

She again threw her hands in the air in dismay, shouting, “We are doomed!” and ran toward the stairs. Her parents fidgeted a little more, exchanged an awkward glance, and ran after her.

I stood and looked after them, not even knowing what to think.

I started checking the doors one by one in search of the library. I checked the first two doors and found them locked, but the third door was open. Inside was a wizard working on the most convoluted magic circle I’ve ever seen in my life. The wizard constructed the circle of green mana, making it three-dimensional with rings of magic circles connecting the various parts of the entire construction. It was fascinating, and I stood there with my mouth open.

Suddenly he saw me and shouted, “Isn’t Shosh tired of sending spies?” He raised his hand, and the door slammed hard on my nose. I heard the crunch of my nose breaking and felt a powerful stream of blood rushing toward my mouth. I tasted the coppery flavor of blood.

Son of a bitch!

I healed my nose, and my hand came away full of blood. After casting a Clean on my face and hand, I continued looking for the library. I looked down the corridor I was in and noticed that all the doors were quite close to each other. These were probably small rooms. The library should be bigger.

I walked toward the stairs to go up another floor. Someone came running down the stairs, and when he saw me, he stopped and asked, “Did you feel the pulse of the world’s mana that just passed?”

“No?”

“Why are you standing there? Go meditate at once!” he shouted, waving his hands.

“I’m going, I’m going.”

I got to the second floor and looked around. There were still many doors close to each other, but at the end of the corridor, I saw an open arch.

Library?

Beyond the arch was an open space with couches. On one of them sat a man arguing with something invisible. For a moment, I thought he was arguing with the wind, so I connected with her, but it was immediately clear that it had nothing to do with her. I sent her a question asking if she knew what he was arguing with and got the feeling of a shrug in return.

Okay! Continuing up.

On the third to fifth floors, there were only doors, and I didn’t meet anyone. On the sixth floor, just as I was about to return to the stairs and continue up, one door opened, and a man came out. He looked at me, smiled, and approached me. “I feel your glow, but it is hidden. Remove the veil over your glow.”

He can feel my eyes glowing through the glamour?

I shrugged and humored him. I canceled the glamour. He looked at me, started tapping his foot on the floor impatiently, and said, “Remove the veil over your glow.”

Huh?!

I shook my head, turned, and walked toward the stairs.

He called after me, “If you keep hiding your glow, you’ll lose it.”

I waved at him without turning around and continued up the stairs. After two more floors, I met someone who looked normal. I approached him and asked, “I’m looking for the library. Could you please direct me?”

“Ah, but what do the stars tell you? Have you consulted them before seeking knowledge within these walls?”

I paused, not sure how to answer that. “Well, no, I haven’t... consulted the stars recently. I was more hoping to—”

“Ah!” He interrupted me. “The stars are but one path, my friend. The true wisdom lies in the songs of the birds! Have you listened to them today? They sing of secrets lost and found.”

Okay... he may have looked normal, but he definitely wasn’t.

I bowed to him and said, “Thank you, brother. I will ponder your wisdom.”

In Rome, you act like a Roman. In the Wizard spire, you act like a madman.

Finally, on the eleventh floor, I reached the library. Luckily, I met no more wizards on the way. An ancient man and woman were sitting at a table looking at a manuscript. Their faces were so wrinkled I couldn’t see their eyes. When I entered, they both raised their heads toward me, and the woman asked, “What do you seek, son?”

“I would like to visit your library. May I?”

They looked at each other, both got up, and approached me. They started talking, one completing the other’s sentences. It was like listening to one person with two mouths.

“The truth is out there...”

“... not inside dusty books...”

“... If you want to learn about the world...”

“... go out and learn...”

“... Listen to the mana and the world...”

“... and the truth will be revealed to you...”

“... The dusty tomes will always be waiting...”

“... for you here when you reach the end of your path.”

Then each of them grabbed one of my arms. They turned me forcefully and pushed me toward the stairs. As soon as I was on the landing, the library door slammed shut behind me. I tried the handle and found it locked.

I guess I can’t visit the library.

I went back down, exited the spire, and stood looking at it. After a few minutes, I shook my head, turned around, and walked back to the hotel. Mahya was right—every wizard except me was completely bonkers.