Spirit Speaker

The Archives were in the dead centre of the Magic Department at the Academy campus. 

They were the hub of all the magical research in the Academy and housed the faculty chambers, where the Board of Directors would meet. 

I was too young to be on the board, a fact that rankled at me in my previous life. Now, I was nothing short of grateful.

I led the princess through the large glass doors, into the Archives. 

It was good to see it standing. 

The last time I had walked these halls, the building was burning. Hundreds of years of arcane research gone up in smoke. 

Now, students and teachers alike roamed the shelves, or gathered around tables, debating, arguing, and discussing spirits and magic. 

"Ah, Master Lukas. What can I do for you?" A young man manned the reception desk. 

"Norne." I greeted him warmly. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be preparing for the trials?"

"This is my trial." He said, shrugging. "The Archivist is going to be sending three spirits to me at some point in the next week or so, and I'm to direct them to the correct section of the archives. If I get it right, he'll let me join his class."

"Sounds simple enough. Here's a tip. Look at the colours. The brighter a spirit, the closer it is to its home." 

"Thank you, sir." He said, grinning widely. "That's helpful. Now, what can I do for you?"

"My student has come to find a wand," I said, turning to Anna, who was hiding closely behind me. 

Norne studied the princess for a few moments, then bowed deeply. "Princess, welcome to the Archives. And congratulations on becoming a spiritspeaker. It's not every day a new speaker joins our ranks."

He tapped the desk for a few seconds. "Are you sure you want a wand, princess? There's plenty of other magic focuses that you can choose from."

I cleared my throat. "Norne…"

"Master Lukas, you're a traditionalist, but your apprentice might not be. Besides, no spiritspeaker wants a wand. They're clunky and can be quite grumpy."

"I can choose something else?" Anna asked, curiously. 

"Of course princess. Anything can be a magical focus. Priests use amulets, druids tend to use stones, hell, wavespeakers use shells. It just depends on the spirit inside the object."

"I want to see."

I glared at Norne. "Princess, of course, you can choose whatever magical focus you want. Norne, will you alert the Archivist that the princess is here? I'm certain he would like to meet her."

Norne winked at me. "Very well." He closed his eyes for a few seconds, moving his lips in concentration. 

"He's contacting the Archives, who will then contact the Archivist," I told her. 

"Not summoning it?"

I shook my head. "Summoning a spirit is hard work. It's much easier just to talk to it. And to summon the Archive could crack the city in two. It's quite powerful."

"Alright, the Archivist will meet you in the repository." He bowed to the princess again. "It was a pleasure to meet you, highness, you're always welcome in the archives."

"Thank you Master Norne." The princess responded. "I'll definitely take you up on that. This place is fascinating."

"Yes, thank you, Norne." I frowned at him. He grinned at me. 

"He was nice." The princess told me as we walked away. "I thought all mages would be more like you."

"I'm nice." I protested. 

"You dump buckets of water on my head at least twice a week." 

"That's because it's really funny," I replied. "At least it's water, princess. My master used rocks."

"Rocks?"

"He's a dwarf and struggled to contact above-ground water spirits. He had no problem with stones though." I rubbed my head absently, the memory making me smile. "Don't worry though, I got him back good."

"How?"

"I tossed him down a mineshaft."

The princess gasped and turned to me. "What?"

"He deserved it, highness. He was the one who challenged me to a duel in the mountains. I had no choice."

"Did he live?"

"He's a dwarf, Anna. It barely tickled him. It did take him a week to get out of that shaft though." I chuckled to myself.

"So I'm going to what? Drop you at the bottom of the ocean?"

You threw me from the top of a waterfall last time.

"I hope not. That would hurt." I looked around. "This way, highness," I said, seeing a sign pointing to a descending staircase. 

We took the stairs. 

"The repository is underground," I explained. "There's hundreds of thousands of magic focuses down there. And sometimes the spirits have arguments. It's easier to contain the damage if it's underground."

The stairs led to a wide, well-lit corridor. Offices lined either side of the passage, with mages of all races cataloguing, studying and testing various objects in each one. 

"We have thousands of branches all over the continent, recruiting students with potential, and investigating reports of magical phenomena. When they find an unusual object, they send it here for analysis. If it qualifies as a magical focus, we store it."

"So they just magically appear as wands?"

I laughed. "No, no. They come in all shapes and sizes. We put them in wands and staves. Like Ilargia.' I tapped the stone on my staff. "Whoever created the staff found an innate branch, subdued the spirit inside, and then set Ilargia into his place."

"Who did create you, Ilargia?" The princess asked. 

- Don't remember.

"Liar." I teased. 

A crackle of lightning erupted from the staff, causing my hair to stand on end. "Alright, alright, sorry."

I tried in vain to flatten my hair and then gave up. 

"Here, this might help you." The princess said, and removed the green band from her hair, handing it to me.

"Thank you, ma'am," I said, pulling my hair into a bunch and holding it in place with the band. 

"Keep it. I have dozens of those."

"Thank you, Anna." 

Another set of clouded crystal doors greeted us. 

"Spirit stone," I said, tapping the glass. "It keeps the spirits inside from escaping. This door cost the same as about six months of The Kingdom's tax revenue."

"It's that expensive?"

Not for long. I thought, remembering the large veins of high-quality spirit stone in Corel. 

I opened the door, and let the princess enter first. 

And stepped into chaos.

Assistants were chasing floating books, magical stones were whizzing past at high speeds, and a group of staves had cornered some poor mage, and were taking turns changing his hair colour.

I even spied a pile of amulets, playing king of the hill, knocking each other off a rather disturbed-looking statue.

The statue saw me looking at it and cast me a pleading look.

The Archivist was standing in the middle of the mess, his staff raised, lightning dancing around his head. 

"SILENCE!" He shouted. 

And the chaos stopped.

"Thank you. Now I want all of you to return to your places, or I will chain you up."

The magical focuses started moving slowly back to their assigned spots, though they weren't happy about it. 

I watched a staff attempt to kick the Archivist as it passed. 

The Archivist glared at it. 

"I'll put you in a wood chipper." He warned. 

The staff stopped midswing and then returned to its rack a lot quicker than its compatriots. 

The princess was grinning widely. "Is it always like this?" She asked, watching as a few magic stones piled on top of each other into a neat stack in the corner. 

"No," I said surprised. "This is the first time I've seen something like this happen."

The Archivist saw us at the door and headed towards us. 

"Highness, Lukas, good to see you."

"What's going on, sir? I've never seen something like that before."

"Beats me. It was like this when I arrived. It's a good thing I arrived when I did, I caught some of the scrolls trying to read each other."

He looked over my shoulder to Ilargia, who had warmed considerably on my back. 

"Do you know something Ilargia?"

- No. The staff replied unconvincingly. 

He shook his head. "Right. Well, welcome, highness to the repository, I understand you're looking for a focus?"

"Yes, a wand," I cut in.

"Hush, Lukas. Norne told me that under no circumstances was I to let the princess leave with a wand."

"I'm going to set fire to his beard when I see him," I said darkly. 

"Come princess, we have a wonderful selection of jewellery that just came in from an old wizard's tower outside of Tulath."

Anna turned to me, questioningly. 

I smiled gently. "Go with the Archivist, princess. I'll be right here."

She turned to the Archivist and gave him a devastating smile. "Thank you, Master Archivist." 

And I was left alone. 

"So, Ilargia? Is there anywhere you want to go?"

The staff was quiet. Uncharacteristically so. 

"What's the matter?"

- There's something here that doesn't belong. 

The spirit sounded…afraid.

The Weaver's words niggled at my mind. 

"Something dark?" 

The staff didn't reply. 

"Do you want to look for it?"

Again, silence, though the staff went cold against my back. 

"I'll ask the others if you don't want to tell me," I said, teasing. 

- Go ahead.

That stopped me cold. Ilargia was fiercely territorial. If another focus so much as looked at me, he was summoning fireballs. 

"It's that bad?" 

 I looked for an apprentice. 

"Where's the oldest focus here?"

"She's quite prickly." The apprentice warned as she dusted off a shelf. One of the stones on the shelf tried to crush her fingers. 

"Stop that." She said and sprayed it down with water. 

Steam erupted from the stone, leaving both me and the apprentice diving for cover. 

"What's going on today?" She muttered. 

"That's what I want to find out. Will you direct me to her?"

The apprentice pointed at an old statue on the far side of the room. "She likes that spot. Though it isn't uncommon for her to be roaming the archives. None of us can control her."

I thanked the apprentice and made my way to the statue. 

She was gorgeous, and well looked after, made of pure, white marble. 

I reached out and touched her. 

- Twisted Weave. Help.

"What's going on?"

- The Rending has come. It's in the library.

My stomach sank. I knew it. 

"Thank you."

I broke the connection and started running.