A dragonslayers tale
Chapter 3: Lessons learned

The assembled masters stared at the young man in the middle of the circle with deep frowns and some odd facial expressions. He was kneeling and sweat was pouring off him as he desperately tried to make the spell work. It was a simple one, in fact the first one any mage learned when joining the academy and it was basically so easy even a kid normally would be able to do it. He was told to create an orb of light and it shouldn’t take any effort at all but he was shaking all over and panting and his arms were shivering from the effort. He stared ahead of himself, over his head hung a tiny speck of light, it looked more like a slightly deranged firefly than an orb and while they watched it zig zagged around a little before it exploded with a barely audible poof and was gone.

The young man hung his head with a deep sigh, it was no good. The masters and teachers sighed too, stared at each other with some confusion and sorrow in their faces. Ivran was the grandson of one of the greatest mages of all time, the legendary Ulathay of Twelve towers and he ought to have inherited his grandfather’s immense power. He had been at the academy since he was twelve, now he was twenty four and he should have passed the final exams years ago but had until now failed at every attempt at doing so. He had the powers, everybody could sense that, the energy within him was very noticeable to any mage but he was unable to use it. He couldn’t do even the most basic spells without messing things up royally and no matter how hard he kept trying and training he always failed. The teachers had long ago quit trying to teach him anything new, and when they tested him they always did so in a special room which was shielded so no runaway magic could harm others. They didn’t dare to let him try any spells outside of it, they had done that mistake once and the result was that every bench in the city of Oakfell now was sentient and would start nagging whenever anyone tried to sit on it. Nobody enjoys being told that their butts are too fat or that they ought to lose ten stones of weight.

Normally a student with such a lack of gifts would have been tossed out within a month but Ivran was after all Ulathay’s grandson and he was born with the powers. Besides, even the most gnarly and vicious of the teachers just adored the lad. Nobody managed to dislike Ivran, he was just so likeable and he tried so very hard to please everybody and thus nobody were able to give him anything except praise. Even if his powers seemed to be out of reach in every possible manner. They had tried spells, meditation, even medication but nope, he couldn’t use magic even if his life depended upon it and the spells he did get right would always end up giving a result nobody had expected. Once he had tried a very harmless spell which is supposed to remove dirt from water and the result was that fifty barrels of ale and wine in the basement under the cantina caught fire and burned for seven days.

The headmaster bowed his head, this had been the last straw, the last chance. They just couldn’t allow him to continue, he was after all way older than the other students by now and ought to have been a mage years ago. They couldn’t have someone like him there, who didn’t study and took precious time and magic to control. The headmaster liked Ivran a lot, he would have been the ideal student if he just had been able to use his magic, in fact the headmaster was pretty sure that Ivran would have been the pride and joy of the academy if he had been able to access his abilities in a proper manner. He sighed and gestured towards the young man. Ivran was a rather tall fellow, a bit gangly looking with a very pretty face and an elegant but lithe body. He had dark auburn hair and soft grey eyes and the girls did swarm around him whenever he was off campus but he didn’t seem to care that much about them at all. All he wanted was to be able to become a great mage like his grandfather but no, it seemed as if fate had decided to kick him while he was down, over and over again. “You may rise son, this if futile. I am so very sorry”

Ivran got up, his legs were shivering and he looked as if he was close to tears. One of the teachers stepped forth and laid a cloak around his shoulders with an almost fatherly expression, normally old Tanagal would smack any student who failed to live up to his expectations over the ears with a ruler but he treated Ivran like some sort of favorite grandson. They all did, they had all come to love and admire the tenacity of the young man and he had earned their respect over the years, too bad he never would bear the honorable title of mage. The headmaster looked as if he was close to tears. “This is the tenth time you have failed at your exam young one, it was the last chance. You can no longer stay here as a student, it would be wrong in so many ways. You have a life to live and I am sure that you are capable of seeing the truth in this”

Ivran nodded, he bit his lower lip, his parents would be so disappointed but then again, they already were. His father was a merchant and his mother born into a noble family and thus he had been born into wealth and power but he had never become haughty or prideful due to this. In fact he was a very humble and demure person and it was one of the reasons why people liked him so much. The headmaster smiled, a gentle smile very few ever saw. “But we have a proposition for you. You do need work and you know this school better than most, we did get an idea last night and I think you may like it”

Ivran stared at them, he swallowed. “I am listening master”

His voice was very pleasant too, very deep but soft and the head master wondered if the lad maybe could have made a career as a singer if anything else failed. “We do receive some very young students from all over the realm as you of course already know, and they do sometimes need an escort while travelling to and fro. Would you be interested in being our emissary on such missions?”

Ivran blinked, he felt terribly sad and confused and he was first and foremost disappointed for he had been so sure that he would make it this time but no, no way. He hadn’t been able to do any of the spells required of a mage and he knew they were right. He couldn’t stay as a student anymore but as their emissary he would still have a connection to the academy and most of all, it was a title which carried both respect and power. His father would like that, and he would receive a rather fat salary as well. He didn’t need much time, he nodded his head. “I accept master, I am most grateful for your kindness”

The headmaster went over and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Having you among us has been such a pleasure young one, we do hope that you will work for us for many years to come.”

Ivran swallowed, he felt a bit like crying but he didn’t quite know why. Deep within he had been prepared to fail also this time, he had to be honest with himself, he probably never had been born to become a mage in the first place. The gods probably had other plans for him. He stared at his toes and the headmaster ruffled his hair. “Go back to the dorm and rest child, tomorrow we will give you a uniform and you will get new rooms and whatever else you need. You will be a very treasured coworker and I am sure you will make us all proud”

Ivran managed to smile. “I will do my very best master.”

The teachers mumbled in unison. “Beyond any doubt”

The headmaster went over to his desk and opened a drawer within it, he pulled out a small box and opened it, it held a ring and he returned to Ivran and put it onto his finger. “Here, this will identify you as a member of the academy, it will open many doors for you young one”

Ivran stared at it, it was almost identical to the one a mage received after having passed his final exam and it felt a bit bitter to receive this ring instead of the much coveted mage’s ring. But he bowed and kissed the headmaster’s hand politely. “I thank you master”

The headmaster smiled and waved his hand at one of the other teachers. “Miraus, go get the box, he deserves it.”

Ivran frowned. “The box?”

The headmaster nodded with a soft expression within his eyes. “Yes, a relic, it belonged to your grandfather and we want you to have it. You are no mage but you are one of us after all and I bet he would have liked the idea of you having it now!”

Ivran felt a rush of excitement, he was going to own something of his grandfather’s? It was awesome, he had heard so many tales of the greatness of his famous forefather and he had always been an idol to the young one. The teacher returned shortly after with a small wooden box in his hands, it was very pretty and made from very valuable black wood, nice carvings covered it and it was the sort of box women use to store their jewelry. Ivran received the box with an expression of awe upon his face, it was rather light and it couldn’t contain that much. He frowned and turned it around. “Where is the lid?”

The headmaster sort of made an apologetic grimace. “Ah, there is the problem, we cannot open it, apparently it doesn’t have an opening at all. We think he has used magic to seal it”

Ivran gaped and knocked on the box with his knuckles. It was hollow beyond doubt and he stared at the teachers with narrow eyes. “Have you tried an opening spell?”

They nodded simultaneously. “Yes, every one of them, even some forbidden ones”

Ivran’s eyes got huge, forbidden spells? That meant that whatever this box hid had to be considered very important. No sane mage would try the forbidden spells for something insignificant, the risks were way too big. He held the box with reverence, what could his famous grandfather have hidden in it? It was a mystery and Ivran had always loved mysteries and he felt his heart beat faster at the thought of maybe solving this one. He bowed his head. “Thank you, this means…so much to me”

The headmaster grinned. “I know child, your grandfather was capable of doing magic none other could repeat, too bad he went missing”

Ivran nodded slowly, held the box close to his chest, like you would hold your lover or your child. “Yes, I would have loved to meet him”

His grandfather had disappeared without a trace before Ivran was even born, his own father had been just a teenager when the mage went into a cave to investigate something and never returned. Nobody had seen the slightest trace of him ever since. Ivran had always wondered what it was that had happened, maybe this box held the answer? He was almost shivering with eager energy and he bowed again and backed out the door, suddenly his failure wasn’t that important anymore. He ran back to the dorm, it was a huge building which housed at least five hundred students and he had his bed on the top floor, with the older students. Since he was older than everybody else he had gotten some privileges, he had a sort of screen around his bed which provided him with some sort of privacy and he sat down on it and held the box out in front of him. It held an answer, he was sure of it.

The rest of the hall was empty now, everybody was having classes or training and the rules were strict there. Even the older students had to follow them and the lady in charge of the dorm was a veritable dragon who didn’t hesitate to drag someone out by the ears if they disobeyed her. But she was sweet as candy to Ivran and treated him with nothing but kindness and he had always found that odd but then again, he never misbehaved and tried to be polite to everybody. Every student had just that one bed and a small locker and it was all they needed, the dorm rooms were huge with room for more than fifty beds and at night everybody was supposed to be quiet but that was impossible to achieve. Some snored, others talked in their sleep, some were wanking off and others trying to talk even if it was forbidden. Ivran had always enjoyed being alone and he had hated the first years he had to live in the dorm. But by now he had learned to ignore all the sounds in the night.

This would be his last night there after all, he put the box down onto the covers and stared at it, there had to be a way to open it. Magic was too simple, he was rather sure that his grandfather would have found another way to hide the contents of this box. Could the clue be in the carvings? He turned it around, stared at it from every conceivable angle. The carvings were just that, carvings. A not very elaborate pattern of curved lines made to look a bit like vines. He let his finger run along the pattern, it was not even that well carved, here and there the wood had been torn more than cut and splinters were sticking out. It was a cheap box after all in spite of the nice wood, pretty but not very expensive. It wasn’t the box itself which held any interest, that was for sure. You could buy much prettier looking ones at every street corner for just a few copper coins. He pulled his hand back with a small yip, he had managed to puncture his finger on a splinter and a few drops of blood fell from the small wound onto the wood. “Damnations, Akhi take it!”

He sucked his finger and shook the box and suddenly something happened. The box became oddly hot and he dropped it with a small shriek, it transformed right in front of his eyes and became larger and it was no longer wood but steel and jewels. The box now had a lid and it slid open with an audible pop, he sort of leaned away from it, expecting anything really. Nothing more happened, no demons burst forth, no genies appeared so he leaned forth again and opened the lid hesitantly. There was just two objects in the box, a piece of parchment and a small round flat piece of crystal. He blinked, what was this? He hesitated for a moment, then he reached into the box and grasped the parchment. It wasn’t large, just a small note and he unfolded it with shaking hands. This could be anything really. He feared that this could be some deadly spell, or some secret time had forgotten. It was just a line of letters and numbers and he frowned. What the heck? This was no spell, that was for certain and it probably had absolutely naught to do with magic at all. He took a closer look at the note, it had been written down with care, and the longer he looked at the note the closer he came to a conclusion. It was a map! Not a map of some long forgotten realm or anything like that but a map of the huge library hidden underneath the academy. It filled the entire basement and there were several floors too and the number of scrolls and books unimaginable. He knew that few would have been able to understand this, unless they were studying at the academy and had been sent down to the basement to retrieve certain ancient scrolls. He had been used as a sort of courier so often he knew every shelf down there like the inside of his right hand and he even had a fair understanding of the layout of the deepest floors where only the masters were allowed to enter. This was simply a list of shelves and spots on them and he realized that this list had to explain something rather important. His grandfather wouldn’t have made it just for the sheer heck of it for sure. He took a deep breath, this was exciting, and he lifted the crystal. It was natural and very pretty, probably quartz or something like that. He put it in his pocket and then he closed the box and put it under his bed before he got up and walked off towards the library. He was shaking with excitement, his heart beating like a drum and his mouth felt odd, dry sort of. It was the adrenaline for sure, he had never felt this nervous nor as alive before. What could it be that his grandfather had hidden?

The library was as usual almost empty at this time of the day, the students were having classes and Ivran walked through the long lines of high shelves with a relaxed expression on his face. He didn’t want to cause any sort of problem and he knew that the librarian on duty this day was of the extremely zealous kind who would watch over anyone entering like a hawk, afraid that they would harm his books. It wasn’t without reason though, the library held a fine collection of erotica which was stored in a shelf placed in a corner and that corner had seen a lot, and so had the poor librarians too. Some of the books were almost impossible to read anymore since the pages were stuck together and sometimes you could definitely smell that someone had been there, having some fun. Ivran had never had a date with his fist in that spot, the thought of getting caught sort of put him off such behavior but he knew of countless others who had been caught with their pants down quite literally.

He just ran past the infamous shelf and headed towards the basement. The first floor was open to everybody but those lower down were not to be entered by ordinary student. That didn’t mean that the students stayed clear of the area, there were many ways to enter those floors unseen and Ivran knew them all. He walked down the wide stair slowly, listening intently for any sounds which could warn him of someone’s presence. The huge halls were empty, nobody was there and he found the door to the bottom floor and stopped. It was a huge room, filled with hundreds of shelves but the first letter and number on the list told him this was the right floor.

The door was locked, and the padlock very solid and also put under several spells so trying to open it would be extremely silly of anyone not capable of warding off nasty magical attacks. But there was no need to enter through the door, the students had discovered this decades ago and the secret was one everybody knew of and never mentioned. Right behind a corner of the corridor there was a hatch, it wasn’t large and it was a remnant of the days when this basement had been used to store food. The hatch was once used by the kitchen workers when they came to retrieve potatoes and it hadn’t been removed, simply because it was something nobody had thought of.

Ivran slid the hatch open, everything had been well greased and thus it made no sound and it almost looked like just another large rock in the wall since it was so old. He was agile and slid in through it with relative ease, behind it was a small couch which had been strategically placed there by some compassionate fellow, without it you would tumble to the ground rather brutally. Ivran landed on his back in the couch and jumped onto his feet, the room was well lit by magical lamps everywhere and he went over to the door and stared at the note. The shelves were placed in rows of six and three so one unit consisted of eighteen shelves and there was at least a hundred such units down there. Without a map replaceing anything down there was in short impossible. He found the first shelf unit, it was called A 3 and he stared at it, what now? The note only mentioned the shelf itself, and the spot on it but he couldn’t see anything unusual there. Just about twenty books about the botanical gardens of Twelve towers, most of the information was probably outdated centuries ago. There had to be some other clues there, what? His hands were fidgeting with the contents of his pocket as he was thinking hard. He felt the smoothness of the crystal and lifted it carefully, perhaps? He held it in front of him and caught the light from the nearest lamp with it, let the beam slide over the shelf and lo and behold, suddenly a small letter appeared right in the middle of the spot, glowing but invisible without the crystal. He had a pencil and some pieces of parchment in his pocket, wrote it down eagerly. This was important for sure.

He ran on, found the next and the next and he did spend quite some time down there, the list of letters was long and in the end he stood before the last shelf and this time it wasn’t a letter but an arrow, pointing towards the floor. Ivran bent down, the dust was thick there and made him sneeze and he tried not to think of the things which could hide in the darkness underneath the shelves. His fingers touched something, he took a deep breath and pulled it out, it was yet another crystal and as he lifted it the thing started to glow and so did a small scroll stored right in front of him. It didn’t have a number nor any sort of name written onto the front and he pulled it out. He was so eager now he no longer had any reservations of any kind. He had to solve this mystery. It was some sort of text, written in the old language Ivran never had been able to learn and here and there letters were missing. He grinned widely and put the letters he had found onto the scroll and hoped he did it right.

The text wasn’t long and he stared at it and started reading it, the way his teachers would. He didn’t understand more than a couple of words but it sounded grand, like some sort of prayer or something. He held his breath, nothing happened. Now this was disappointing to say the least but who knew what his grandfather had been thinking. They said he was a wee bit mad and very mischievous so maybe he had done this as an elaborate prank. He was about to put the scroll down when the floor started to glow around him, in a very familiar pattern. It was a pentagram but within it his family crest and he stared at it and there and then he knew that he as the largest moron there ever was. He had just read some spell out loud, without knowing what it was. He tried to turn around to flee but he couldn’t and the crystals he was carrying started glowing again and they felt warm too. Oh no, this could end badly, what in heck’s name had he done?!

His feet were like glued to the ground and he felt a strong tingling spreading through his body, it grew stronger and stronger and it became painful and then it sort of overwhelmed him completely. It felt like a very powerful and almost violent orgasm, just not as pleasant. He wanted to scream but could make no sound and he saw that his skin had started to glow in strange patters, like someone had painted them onto him with fluorescent paint. His head felt as if it was about to explode, his entire body jerked and shook and he just knew that this was it, he would die down there and nobody would replace him for weeks, or probably months.