Magical Engineering

“Where are we taking it? This place is huge, and anywhere we set up is going to attract a lot of attention that we don’t have the power to stop,” Yorela said. She didn’t sound remotely against the idea, just unsure of how to do it practically.

“We can take it all. I wasn’t originally planning to, but things have shifted on how much we can haul with us. All of Smithtown is going back to Earth now, and it’s probably best you two do as well. We won’t be able to pull the books out of storage for a while, but at the very least, we will know they are safe with us,” Elody replied, clapping both of her fellow librarians on the back.

“I can’t imagine your order is going to be overly happy about this, but I’m on board. Things were always bound to fail here anyway, without a faction backing the archives, eventually someone was going to get tired of our independence,” Yorela replied. I was having a hard time telling if Elody and her were friends or not. The banter suggested they didn’t hate each other, at least.

“If one of you ladies could show me to the administration office. We are on a deadline, and I’d like to get started,” Pryte said, walking up to the three of them.

“Now that’s interesting. How did they get you and Elody working for them, Pryte? I won’t claim I talked to Dave much when he was last here, but that seems like a pretty big swing for someone like him,” Yorela replied, smiling down at Pryte, with strangely hungry eyes.

“Yeah, I was hoping to be a bit more discreet on our past, Yor, but I’ll explain how I got here if you show me the way.” Pryte’s eyes swiveled to the ground as he replied, and I could swear I spotted him blushing. I don’t know exactly what I had expected on this trip, but running into one of Pryte’s exes was not remotely one of the possibilities that had entered my head.

“That, I didn’t expect,” Elody said, echoing my thoughts.

Quarilyn erupted into laughter. “Not everyone is quite so uptight as you, El. Wait, you don’t have all these newcomers thinking all Olkerfins are like you, do you?” I heard Alex giggling behind me as well.

“I don’t mind playing catch up, but Pryte was right, we are on a timetable. Mel and Timon are getting our escape ready, so we need to figure out the best way to get all these books to them. And where are the dungeon cores?” I said, before pivoting to the cores. As much as I wanted the books, the cores had to be a priority too.

“You really want to take everything, El?” Quarilyn asked, two of her eyes staying focused on me.

“If possible, yes, at the very least I do want everything from the sublevels,” she replied.

“Then we need to take the new dungeon out of the picture, turn everything back on, and see if we can’t reverse the automated retrieval system into loading the books onto the transport fleet,” Quarilyn said.

“How big of a problem is the dungeon?” I asked. If they had kept it limited to a vault, I imagined it wouldn’t be that bad, but I had been in a small dungeon here before, and it hadn’t gone great. Without Elody, we’d never have had a chance.

“We don’t go into the vault, so hard to say. We’ve just been stopping any mana beasts that try to form outside it,” she answered.

“Alright, Connie, the brothers and I will handle the core. Everyone else stays up here and helps these two with whatever they need. Can you turn our library cards back on so we can access the vault?” I asked, after laying out my barebones plan. As much as I wanted Elody down there with us, she’d be better here getting things working, and I’d much rather Alex stay here with Maud and John.

“Yes, I’ll have them enabled momentarily. Take the elevator down to sublevel seventeen and head for vault two. I’ll make sure you have access,” she replied. I nodded before turning back and around and trying the elevator. She really had meant momentarily, as it came to life for me this time.

“Almost feels like old times again,” Cecile said as the doors slid shut behind us.

“Yeah, but we’ve added a singing dwarf this time,” I said with a smile, not wanting to offend her.

“Hey, I can play instruments too, and I’m not bad at poetry!” Connie yelled, with fake offense in her voice, as the door opened. Her words spread out into the dark basement, echoing back at us.

I shuddered slightly as we moved past the door. The memories of the first time I had stepped foot in these basements returned to me. The weird man who had stabbed me in desperation to take my mana orbs, only to later find himself the victim of a dungeon core, wasn’t a thought I enjoyed. If it hadn’t been for enhanced senses, the pressing current darkness would have weighed even stronger on those memories.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“This place has certainly gotten creepier since the last time we were here,” Elicec said as a ball of fire appeared hovering over his hand, casting a shadowy red light partially around us. It did nothing to help the feeling of discomfort that had been growing since the elevator door had opened.

“Looks like the vault is over here. Despite what those librarians might think, based on the vibes I’m getting out here, be ready for a fight. That core has grown pretty strong.” As Connie said this several spectral instruments appeared floating around her.

“Let me try to talk it down before we fight, and I only want to kill it as a last resort,” I said as I pulled up a chat window.