Reigniting the Dragon's Flame(Love)

"The archive," Aldric muttered. Apparently, he didn't like my answers so much that he lost the desire to tease. "The thieves' guild has the most up-to-date archive at the moment. My knowledge is extensive, but some types quickly become outdated, while the thieves have everything 'fresh.' In exchange for your blessing, Veyra will give me access to the archive. And about the blessing… she'll tell you herself."

"I see," I muttered.

The matter is clearly not simple, since the deputy of the thieves' guild could not find anyone among the light mages with such a gift on her own.

"Exactly. If all the questions are over, let's go to her."

"What do I get for this?" I asked. "This is not part of our deal."

"You're wrong. That's why I made a deal with you. Because the archive will help me in the investigation much more than your interesting, but so far uninformative, visions."

Greedy! I forgot how greedy dragons are by nature. And I felt a little offended by my visions, but only a little: Aldric is right. With the dragons' ability to absorb and systematize information, the archive will give him much more than I can offer so far.

"Well," I said, getting up from the table, "there's no point in wasting time. I'll go bless Veyra and then rest."

"Rest?" Aldric stood up next to me and extended his hand, into which I placed mine without much thought.

"Well, will they let me into the archives of the thieves' guild?"

"Officially, no. But am I going to ask them?" Aldric grinned. "Besides, no one will let me into the guild's treasury, but we'll go there."

"What are we going to do there?" I sighed, realizing that I was about to be teleported.

Today I chose the blessing of calm as the main one very opportunely. Until they start cutting, I won't worry. It would be more convenient to use my legs; do I have to use magic everywhere?

"We? I don't care. But you will study everything carefully, so that you can compare it with my personal treasury and no longer make stupid assumptions that I could be poorer than some thieves' guild with a thousand-year history."

The Secret Thieves' Archive deserved to be called such.

Not only were we teleported here, having previously been blindfolded with a seal (with such a thing you can't see anything, and you can't even tell whether you turned left or right), but we were also forced to take a special oath that none of the knowledge gained here would ever be consciously used against anyone from the thieves' guild.

Otherwise—death on the spot.

Veyra took me by the hand to the right place so that I wouldn't accidentally test the strength of the floor with my knees. Aldric, of course, didn't need any help even with his limitations. After teleportation, he easily followed our guides along the winding, echoing corridors.

She took off my mask as soon as we stopped. Wow, is this a library? For some reason, I thought we were brought here exclusively for secret negotiations, and then they just…

"And the blessing?" I didn't understand why she was so accommodating.

"Aldric insisted that first my part of the deal, and then yours. Apparently, he's afraid that after the blessing you won't have enough strength for anything else." Veyra spread her hands. "Enjoy, you only have five hours; then I'll come for you."

Veyra smiled, which gave me goosebumps—what kind of hints about lack of strength?! I hope it's not something crazy and impossible, because of which I'll fall ill for a couple of months from the recoil?

Veyra closed the door, and it was instantly covered with a complex seal that even a dragon would have a hard time breaking.

I looked around a huge room: the long rows of racks, on which scrolls, books, magazines, and even simple notes and envelopes lay, stretched endlessly. Everything is laid out by dates, but there was no indication where to look for the right one.

Well, Aldric will sort it out, and in the meantime, I'll sit on the ottoman in the corner. Something told me that it would be oh so hard for me to pay off the debt for visiting the library.

However, my plans were not destined to come true.

Dragon. Dark. Immortal. Avenging, very, very vengeful! Otherwise, how did he make me read books about bright sources in the secret library of thieves? I read them myself, and then he gave me some books with the words:

"Reread, dear assistant. Suddenly you notice something interesting."

That's how I studied some books. This is not to say that I received incomparable pleasure, but not without benefit: something new about bright sources and why they went out, I found out.

For example, that their destruction occurred in two ways: some kind of magical poisonous energy, as I have already seen, and a more standard way—"overload." The second happened to us in normal times, rarely, but it did happen. Light sources are special artifacts of our country; there are no more of them in any other kingdom. The secret of their creation is kept in strict confidence; even we, light mages, know very little about it. Only special masters and scientists are initiated into this secret. Well, in rare exceptions, their children, alas, learn something.

But everyone has an idea of how they act. Artifacts are not only a universal city blessing, but also a small miracle. They helped many to fulfill small, bright, almost righteous desires.

It is forbidden to wish for wealth, something material, or something that increases magical power. More precisely, it is possible, but useless; however, good luck on an exam, a wish for an easy road to a dear son, or a joyful wedding of your own daughter—quite possible. The artifact "heard" the wish, concentrated the light power, and "gave" it to the one who made the wish.

Since artifacts have always been in general access, besides constantly giving protection from adversity, the local population used them rarely.

But once, a delegation from another country decided to try to make desires. There was nothing wrong with this—they received official permission, and no one thought that something could happen.

However, at the moment when the artifact was "made" with an extremely large number of wishes, it… overloaded and disappeared. Not just went out, as in the case of poisonous energy, but disappeared along with its container, turning into dust.

So they learned that there is a limit of "endurance" in bright sources. Since then, they have not been joking with artifacts like that, but once every ten to fifteen years, such problems have arisen.

However, according to the data collected by the thieves' guild, this began to happen more often than once or twice a year!

"Are you frowning? What did you read?" Aldric leaned over me unceremoniously and looked at the paper. "Oh, that. I noticed it too. We'll discuss it later; our five hours have practically passed, they'll come for us soon."

The scroll (fortunately, I finished reading) tore out of my hands and flew toward the shelves. I glanced at Aldric, who easily cast a levitation spell. What impudence! But it was impossible to be angry. For my own safety.

"And…"

"I managed to read everything; I'm not a human," Aldric smiled, moving away from me. "Well, there's not much time left before Veyra arrives. What should we do to avoid getting bored?"

I don't mind being bored, not at all; let's just have a great time being bored, don't look at me with such anticipation!

"What's wrong, Lysandra? Why do you look so miserable?" Aldric continued to pester. "Can't you think of something for us to do here? Don't be upset; I'll think of something."

It is precisely because one immortal dragon, who can't sit still, is planning to come up with something that I am upset! In advance.

"Please don't," I said as pitifully as I could, causing Aldric's eyebrows to rise.