NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter: 43: Grink
While it is still not known exactly how, it is now clear that new Fonts are being formed. While the gods created the originals by pulling more granular concepts from the all-encompassing Font of Creation, these new Fonts are formed from the combining of Fonts. Some examples include Understand, formed of Bonds, Mind, and Identity; Wind, formed of Force and Air; Illusions, formed of Mind, Light, and Sound.
-Tallen Elmheart, Secondary Fonts
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Everyone—minus Runt plus Doug—left class and headed for a late lunch after the study session.
“Are you going to look for your sister today? Or work on the rod,” Kole asked her, hoping for the latter. Not because he wanted the rod though—which he did—but because he was running through his conversation with Tallen and he really needed to go think through some of the new perspectives.
“Sister,” Amara said. “I need to do something different for a while. Tallen gave me some ideas, and I need to let them ruminate.”
“Was his rune knowledge that extensive?” Kole asked.
It was extremely rare for a wizard to dabble in runes. Both took the same limited resource of Will to study, with marginal cross-applicable gains.
“No,” Amara answered quickly. “He was familiar with the craft beyond the average wizard, but his ideas were very peculiar. Most wouldn’t work, but some just might. I wouldn’t be surprised if the rune smith that taught him about runes died in a tragic accident of ill-advised experimentation.”
“Yer not half wrong,” Rakin said, “My ma’ taught him some, but they both worked closely with an eccentric crafter. He had some peculiar ideas, or so ma’ says.”
“You should hear my mom’s stories about him,” Zale laughed. “She once convinced him that someone had polymorphed Tallen into a chicken, and he spent a week carrying it around with him until Tallen returned. In trying to cure ‘Tallen’, the man invented a potion that formed psychic links with animals, mimicking what Assuine’s Blessed can do to some degree—though it didn’t boost the animal’s intelligence. Then of course he realized he’d been tricked.”
“Wait…” Amara said, interrupting. “Levar?
Zale nodded while Rakin grunted in affirmation, but then Zale winced slightly as if she’d made a mistake.
All the excitement and adoration Kole had seen in Amara when she spoke of Professor Donglefore was nothing compared to what followed.
“Tell me everything you ever heard about the man!” she demanded forcefully as she pulled out a notepad and began to write.
Rakin and Zale then took turns through lunch telling tales of the long-dead eccentric alchemist cum runesmith that their parents had once traveled with.
***
After a long lunch-turned-interrogation session, Zale excused herself.
“I have to go do a thing for my mom,” she said, gathering her things. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow for the group mixer, right?”
“No,” Rakin answered. “I got a mentor. Ye couldn’t pay me to go to a ‘mixer.’”
“I have a mentor too, but I can’t go either,” Doug apologized. “I’d like to. But I have to work out in the conclave.”
“I will also not be going,” Amara said, feeling no need to make an excuse.
With each rejection, Zale deflated a little.
“I’ll be there,” Kole said, “It’s not my idea of a fun time but I don’t really have an abundance of choices.”
“Okay, see you then,” Zale said, cheery once more.
Everyone finished up and they talked for a little while. Through it all, Kole kept seeing Amara look up to him, working up the courage to say something.
“Shall we?” Kole asked Amara when he realized she wasn’t going to bring up the topic of the search herself.
Amara smiled in relief and gave a big nod.
“I’ll go too,” Rakin volunteered, causing Kole to double-take.
Slowly, Kole moved his finger to poke Rakin on the cheek, but the dwarf swatted his hand away
“What’re you doing?” he demanded.
“Seeing if it’s really you.”
“How would poking me in the face prove that?”
“I don’t know,” Kole shrugged. “It was the first step in a multiphase investigation. After that, I might have poured water on you.”
“On second thought, maybe I have better things to do,” he grunted.
“I’m sorry! Please come. I was just surprised you volunteered to help,” Kole explained.
“Family is important,” Rakin said in explanation. “Don’t poke me again or I’m keeping the finger.”
“Noted,” Kole said then turned to Doug. “You in?”
Doug shook his head, his antlers magnifying the gesture.
“I can’t. I have duties at the conclave.”
***
“This way,” Amara said with more certainty than Kole felt their predicament warranted.
Following her latest version of the tracking device, they’d delved deep into the library. They went past the well-lit and populated sections into the outer areas rarely visited by the students—save for those on deep research projects. The device had bounced around erratically but had generally led them to the library. As they explored, it became less erratic, but still occasionally spun around. It had brought them to this deep section of the library but since they’d arrived it had seemingly led in a circle.
While the innermost stacks of the library were clearly a series of concentric circles, the layout of the outer rings became less clear, Kole had begun to think the space they explored now was warped by the Dahn’s odd Spatial magic.
“Ye think yer sisters hiding in a book?” Rakin asked.
“Do you think that’s possible?” Amara asked earnestly.
Rakin sighed.
“No. I was joking.”
Kole was certain they weren’t in the section of the library that held his door, but the scenery in the unlit sections was familiar enough that he constantly expected to stumble across it. As if on cue, as soon as he thought this, a rat jumped off a shelf to the floor in front them them before escaping between another shelf.
“Wait,” Kole told the group, as he brought his light closer to the shelf the rat had escaped from.
Peering through the cracks he saw that the light extended far beyond the shelf.
“There’s a passage back there.”
Gus jumped off Amara’s shoulder and ran through the path the other rat had taken.
“There’s a door!” Amara shouted.
“It looks like someone pushed these shelves over to block a passage,” Rakin said, pointing to the gaps between the shelves on either side.
Together they—but mostly Rakin—pulled one of the shelves to the side just enough to allow them to squeeze past.
Beyond they found a narrow hallway that ended in a door.
“I knew it!” Kole exclaimed before squeezing past the shelves and running through the stacks until he reached where he estimated the space of the secret hall to occupy. Instead of finding a wall, there just stood more rows of books.
“Knew what?” Amara asked when he returned.
“This part of the library isn’t fully on the Material Realm. Or, it is using a lot of Space magic to bend it.
“Hurray. You’re smart,” Rakin said, deadpan. “Let’s open the door.”
“Should we?” Amara asked with concern. “Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”
“Professor Shalia told me that if you can open a door in the Dahn, you’re allowed to go through it,” Kole said, recalling the conversation with Zale’s mother. “I thought that was weird at the time.”
“That’s because the Dahn was originally used by the Hardune,” Rakin explained. “They made great use of runic oath wards to grant access to their facilities. The Dahn learned from that and decides who it allows in.”
“That seems like a flimsy defense if we get caught being somewhere the faculty would rather not find us,” Kole said. “Or if we die in some hidden hole.”
“Don’t be such a grink,” Rakin gibed. “I thought you wanted to be an adventurer. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go. Also, what in the realms is a grink?”
Rakin ignored the question and walked to the door. The door looked identical to the door of the dungeon. Black stone with a shining steel vertical handle. He placed his hand on it gingerly pausing for a second before pushing.
The door didn’t budge.
Next, he grabbed the handle and pulled.
Still nothing.
“Maybe it's stuck?” Kole suggested, moving up to help.
They both braced on the door, ready to push on the count of three.
“One, two, three,” they said together, and on three they pushed and the door flew open as if it had never been stuck.
“Ow,” Kole said from the floor where Rakin lay atop him.
“It didn’t look stuck to me,” Amara observed.
“I must have loosened it,” Rakin defended.
“That must have been it,” Kole agreed, giving the dwarf the out.