“The task that you have set for yourself is not an easy one, as it takes a lot to enter the legendary level. Now you have the added complication of being a target to some in the kingdom, not only wanting to take your dungeon but to become allies with you and use your power. You should watch yourself,” warned the king.
“But Daddy, can’t you help him?” Symania demanded.
“My dear, my help may do him more harm than good,” said the king evenly as he turned back to address Ceras with a smile. ”The best position that you can take is to remain neutral and keep the factions guessing.”
“That sounds difficult, Your Majesty,” admitted Ceras with a frown, “but as long as I can study and be left alone it will work for me.”
“I can guarantee that nobody will be leaving you to your own devices. Just be very careful of what you do,” said the queen. ”Symania, dear, why don’t you introduce the other two young men?”
Symania moved away from her mother and smiled at Qyndad as she said, “This is Qyndad, an adventurer from the dungeon. He wants to train in the city.”
The queen seemed to notice how her daughter had smiled at the dark, handsome, powerful young man, but only nodded her head in acknowledgment of the introduction.
“This is Rinaldo, one of the adventurers I was with from the beginning. He also will be studying in the city,” said Symania.
As Rinaldo awkwardly tried to bow, he whispered, “And baby-sitting.”
“Well, Shunneth, you must stay in the palace with us while you train and keep my daughter company,” said the queen.
“As for the young men, I’ve detained you long enough,” said the king with a kindly smile. ”You will need to get your own accommodation, but remember it needs to be grand as people will be expecting it of you. You of course will be invited to events at the palace as I may not be able to help you, but I cannot ignore you either, so good luck to you.”
Chapter 9 University Entry
After finishing with the king and queen, the three young men were led by a guard through the winding service corridors to find themselves at the platform which would take them to the university level.
When Ceras stepped off the platform, he could not help but feel rising excitement at finally being in the capital where his thirst for knowledge could be quenched. After exiting the building from the platform between levels, the three boys found themselves in a throng of others making their way up and down the city. As Ceras looked around he saw a lot of young people in the crowds at this level, with bags that he presumed contained spell books. Many of the people were wearing wizard robes or smart clothing and were not fully armored, and the trio looked out of place again as they had in the provincial town.
The large square beside the platform building was filled with wooden market stalls selling food that seemed to be brought up by carts on the platform they had just exited from.
Ceras moved out of the way of a slow-moving cart that was packed full of fruit and vegetables, seemingly destined for a store on the market, while other carts were taking boxes marked with magical symbols onto the platform to be transported to other levels.
The noise of vendors shouting about what was on sale in the market was quite deafening as the three young men walked through the square.
“Shall we have a look around this level of the city before we find some accommodation?” Ceras asked excitedly.
“Fine with me,” said Rinaldo. Qyndad nodded absently as if he was in his own world.
Ceras started to amble down one of the major streets that ran parallel to the mountain, as the city level occupied a large strip of land cut into the mountainside. At the far end of the street he could see fountains and statues in another large square, but all the way along were large buildings made out of quarried stone, as if it came from the very mountain this level had been cut into. Looking at each of the large stone buildings they all seemed to bear placards made of brass indicating what was inside. Most of the placards indicated that they were part of the university colleges.
Walking in and out of each building Ceras could see robed magical users, often carrying books with parchments on top. In between the large buildings was a mixture of shops selling all manner of goods, mostly those used for magical purposes, and restaurants that seemed to be full of people eating and drinking with books beside them. Down the center of the road was a line of grass with some trees planted, where people lay as they studied with books laid out before them. The atmosphere was one of relaxed contemplation as the young people enjoyed themselves in the sun.
Ceras looked into one of the gateways to a building and saw a square of grass surrounded by buildings and covered archways from building to building, like a monastery. Backing off as a group of students exited the building, he joined the others to continue down the street. As the group of three got closer and closer to the large square at the end, the colleges of the university got bigger and grander with more foot traffic coming out of them.
Ceras noticed a look of boredom on the faces of the other two, which appeared a world away from how excited his own face must have looked as he read all the placards for the colleges. Entering the large square, Ceras saw fountains in the center with statues of magical users on plinths and shallow pools of water between them. Several people in robes were wading in the water as they cooled their feet on the hot day, but most were sitting on benches around the statues or on the grass in the square. Surrounding the square were four large building complexes, each with carved stone gates.
Off the square were several smaller side streets where people were walking back and forth. Ceras started to walk around the square on the right side of the fountain, and looked up the side street to see a cobbled pathway with inns on either side next to shops and other buildings.
“Looks as if we’ve found some inns.” said Rinaldo. “Shall we find somewhere to stay?”
“Just let me check out the buildings around the square. I want to see if one of them is the library,” said Ceras as he started to jog off, leaving the others behind.
The building at the far side of the square was massive, towering over the surrounding ones. Ceras quickly counted ten stories in the base of the building with five squat towers rising up from the top - four at the corners and one in the center. The four outer towers reached up into the heavens, doubling the height of the building, but the one in the center stood out and was clearly double their height again and twice as wide. The building was decorated with sculptured relics on the stone walls with small windows at each story. On the roof of the building were statues of creatures from all over the world. A light seemed to shine from the top of the centermost tower that was clearly visible even in the bright sunlight.
As Ceras approached this building he saw large steps leading up to a porch entrance with many doors leading inside. A large stone notice on the porch declared this to be the library of the university. A wrought iron fence surrounded the building, with many entrances where people were walking in and out.
Ceras started towards one of the entrances with open iron gates to see if he could gain access to the library, and suddenly ran into a blue field, face first.
His face pressed up against the field as others passed him by and he heard a voice behind him asking, “Did you not pay your fees for last term?”
“What?” asked Ceras, turning to a thin girl of about his age, wearing a wizard’s robe and a bright smile.
She took in his travel-worn clothing and said, “If you haven’t enrolled in the university yet you need to go to the administration building over in the corner.” She pointed to a smaller building in a corner of the square.
“Thanks, will do,” said Ceras as he backed away from the shield and ran over to his impatient friends.
“Let's find a place to stay as I need to enroll in the university as soon as I can,” said Ceras excitedly, making his way up the street where he’d spotted the inns.
Walking beside Ceras, the other two smiled at his obvious eagerness
to get on with why he was here, but they seemed happy enough to just get somewhere to rest.
The first inn they came to was a large stone building at the first level while the top two stories were constructed out of wood, with white plastered walls. The upper floor had balconies looking out onto a garden that surrounded the inn.
Ceras turned and entered the gate of the inn that was unguarded. “Let’s try here.”
“Are you sure? It looks expensive,” said Rinaldo with a smile on his face. “You normally seem to want to save money.”
“Well, the king said we would need good accommodation, and this will do until we get something better,” said Ceras to justify choosing the first inn they found instead of looking around, as he was keen to enroll at the university today.
“As long as you’re paying!” said Rinaldo with a sly smirk.
“As always, it’s on me.”
By this time the three had entered a large reception hall through double doors with brass fittings and panels. The reception was mostly white marble, making it look like a temple, with carpets and comfortable chairs reducing some of the starkness of the polished interior which helped to give it an element of luxury.
A well-dressed woman stood behind the counter, smiling and giving a slight bow to everybody that went past. Crossing some elegantly-woven carpet, Ceras stood before the woman as she smiled in greeting.
“Can I help you, sir?” asked the woman, who wore a long braid down her back and a deep blue dress that seemed to be in the style of some of the university robes he had seen in the city.
“I need to hire a suite of rooms, please, for at least a week and maybe more,” said Ceras as he took some gold coins from his money purse.
As the woman saw the gold coins, she looked surprised but only said, “That is fine-”
“Great. My general will deal with the details as I have things to do,” interrupted Ceras as he passed the gold to Rinaldo, who was grinning.
“I’m your general now, am I?” he muttered.
“Well, you did fight a war for me,” was the last thing Ceras said as he exited the inn and started to run back towards the square with the library. He still wore the boots of air, and found that rushing past people in his hurry to get to the administration building was causing people to have to dodge him, so after a few looks of annoyance he slowed down.
The admin building of the university was smaller than the library but it was decorated in a grander style with several entrances. As he approached, he read one plaque that said ‘Enrolment’ and entered through an iron gateway into a small yard with cobbled stone, and a side door opened into the building.
The room he entered was very utilitarian in nature, with white plaster on the stone walls and wooden benches where several people sat with parchments and a magical sphere he had seen in the registration guild. In front of the door and blocking off the rest of the room from the entrance was a wooden banister and some chairs for people to sit and wait. Nobody was sitting in the waiting area so Ceras went up to the receptionist just behind the banister.
“I need to enroll in the university,” he told her eagerly.
“Take a number and wait to be called through,” said the receptionist, without even looking at Ceras.
There was a ticket holder sitting by the receptionist, reading a book as she ignored everybody. As Ceras took a numbered ticket a white light pulsed and flowed into one of the tables where the administrators were sitting. Ceras sat down impatiently for about ten minutes as he watched the woman at the desk that the white light been absorbed into, as she worked away at some parchment.
She eventually put it down and looked at the magical sphere. In a bored voice, she said, “Number twenty-eight, please.”
My number. He jumped up and walked to the wooden gate in the fence which opened without him pushing it, allowing him through to the banister. He walked quickly through the room until he was in front of a table where a woman was sitting, wearing a wizard robe decorated with several crests. In front of the table between them was an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair.
“Sit down and place your hand on the magical sphere,” instructed the bored-sounding lady, without looking up at Ceras.
“OK.”
Ceras placed his hand with the guild marking and his levels onto the sphere, and felt the magical energies run through his body. After a few seconds the woman looked at the sphere with disinterest, and then did a double take. Finally looking at Ceras, she appeared shocked and surprised as she lifted his hand from the sphere, looking at his guild mark.
“How did you get to be such a high level without being a member of the university?” asked the woman, now paying full attention to the young man in front of her. “You’re nearly at legendary level.”
Ceras was wondering if he would have to go into his whole story of becoming a dungeon master, but the women's demeanor changed to one of servitude.
“Sorry for being so inquisitive, sir, as it is not my place to question a high-level master,” said the woman, as if fearful of getting into trouble with a high-level wizard. “You can of course gain access to the university at this level. Do you have any preference for the college you want to be in?”
Ceras did not know what she was talking about so simply said, “No, I've just arrived and have not been able to look into the university structure.”
“We can leave the college and department blank for now as you’re a master. I’m sure that you’ll be contacted by many of the colleges and departments begging you to join them,” said the woman, now exceedingly polite.
“What's the difference between them?” asked Ceras.
“The colleges are a community of scholars which provide accommodation, meals, tutoring and social activities if you want, while each department teaches expertise in a certain area of magic. If you're a member of the university you have to be in both a college and department. But it will all become clear when you are approached by the faculty to join as a new master,” the woman informed him.
“I guess I’ll see what happens, but will I be able to get access to the library straight away?” questioned Ceras keenly, as that was really what he wanted.
“Yes. As soon as we’re finished here you can use the main library, but remember that each college and department will also have their own library to which only members or guests will have access.”
“That’s good for now - so what do I need to do?” Ceras asked.
“As a master of the university you will have to teach some of the students, but that will be organized by the colleges and your department. For now, you’ll need to pay the entry fee and the change will be made to your mark which will take the information that we require.”
The woman gave him the entrance price, which Ceras found surprisingly easy to hand over, and then the magical sphere flashed for a second, producing a slight heat in his palm. When he looked at his hand, it now bore the crest of the university around the wizard icon.
Chapter 10 Entering the Library
The daylight was starting to dim as Ceras left the administration building, making a direct bee-line to the library entrance. He noticed that now the air had cooled, most of the students had left the grass and gone elsewhere. The bubbling of the fountains was a nice, calming noise as he headed across the square to the library’s wrought iron gates. They stood open and the sight of them seemed to invite him through with the promise of excitement for all the knowledge he could gain.
Passing into the library’s large grounds, this time no blue field blocked his entrance but he did feel a slight magical pull as if he was being searched. Bounding up the steps of the library’s porch entrance, he walked through the door and looked around the foyer. The room had a clean-cut grey marble floor and white stone walls. In the center of the room, in line with the doorway, was a deep red, carved marble counter with a woman sitting behind it reading a book. Leading from the room were several doorways to corridors and stairs running up and down. The woman behind the elegan
tly-carved counter noticed Ceras for the first time and eyed his dirty, travel-worn adventurer’s outfit that looked so out of place here.
“Can I help you?” she asked as she inspected him with a frown.
Ceras walked over to the counter with a smile on his face, and her grim expression melted away to see him at his young age and so full of excitement to be in the university library.
“Yes, I’ve just joined the university and want to look in the library. The people in the administration building said that I would be able to gain access.”
“That’s right. May I see your guild mark with the university crest, please?”
Ceras held his hand out and got the same look of surprise as he’d had in the administration building, but she quickly recovered her composure.
“Because you’re a master, you’ll have access to more areas of the library than the journeymen or standard-level members of the university, but the same rules apply to everybody. No taking any of the books out of the library. You can pay for a copy to be made in the library but that is expensive, so most people just study in one of the reading rooms.”
“How do I find my way around the library and look up the location of books?” asked Ceras.
“You need to use the indexing spell. This will present the index as if it was the goddess blessing, when you think about what you need. A copy of the spell is in the first room down the corridor. Once you have learned that, it will guide you to the location of the book.
“The library has ten stories above the ground and twenty below the ground that are cut into the mountain. The whole library can be quite a maze so don’t start exploring until you have learned the indexing spell, as it will always lead you out of the building if you need it to.
“That’s really all there is to it, but if you need any help locating items, copying books or even some research being done for you, anyone at the front desks can put you in contact with the correct department. There is of course a fee for all of these services,” the librarian finished with a smile.
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