Upon entering the small study, they came face to face with one of the more important people in this town. Behind a small desk sat an elven woman, short of stature. Her white and gray hair was bound tightly into a bun on top of her head, making her pointed ears more accentuated. She was wearing similar robes to the other scribes Cobal had seen walking throughout the library, and the same ones Kayzel wore, but she wore a sleeveless maroon cardigan over the robes. On her chest was a metal pin with a ruby laid into it. It shone brightly in the light peeking in from the windows. On the desk in front of her were several books and scrolls, as well as a piece of parchment she was writing on. The four of them waited for a few moments before she put down the quill and looked up at them, her green eyes piercing right through them. “I’ve been informed that we have a royal visitor.” She stood up. “My name is Lysa Drant, I’m one of the senior librarians here at the Ruby Observatory. Whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
“My name is Cobal Blueyerd, third prince of the Blueyerd Kingdom.”
“Prince Cobal, a pleasure to meet you. I’ve not met with a royal from your family in several centuries.” She looked over at Eliana.
“The name is Eliana Tidesinger,” Eliana replied.
“Tidesinger, that sounds vaguely familiar. Have we encountered each other before?”
Eliana smiled. “I sometimes go by Tidescreecher.”
Lysa pinched the bridge of her nose with her left hand and let out a deep sigh. “Kayzel, do you realize how much trouble you’ve brought into our library?”
“I apologize, senior librarian Drant, but she’s an old friend of mine and I owe her a favor. I’m sure she’ll behave herself.” He shot a pleading look at Eliana who just shrugged.
Lysa shook her head. “It’s fine.” Turning her attention to the remaining person she asked, “and who might you be?”
“My name is Mana, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”
Her eyes showed a hint of recognition. Her gaze moved back to Cobal. “Is this who I think it is?”
Cobal nodded.
She stood up and walked over to Mana. She reached out her hand. Mana hesitantly shook it.
“I’m so sorry for the things that the people of our world have put you through.”
She looked at Cobal. “Your people have played with magic they shouldn’t have played with. Do you have any idea how dangerous this little stunt was?”
Cobal nodded. “I am fully aware of the ethical problems that have arisen from my family’s actions. Although I was not involved in the decision and neither myself or Mana are to blame for this situation, we’ve both been careful about the way we approach things and we’re limiting the amount of information that gets shared with others.” Cobal said every word with confidence, believing each word he said. It seemed to be enough to convince Lysa Drant. For now at least.
“Fine, I understand. I’ll back off for now. Besides, I’m curious about what brings the prince of Blueyerd and the hero from another world to our library?”
“As you’re probably aware,” Cobal said, “my brother, crown prince Sapher Blueyerd, has been missing for a few months now. Although the initial suspicion was that the Rilodar kingdom was in some way responsible, myself and Mana believe that there is something else going on. We’ve come here to find out more about the few leads that we have, as well as figure out some other problems we’ve encountered.”
Cobal had to wait for a few moments before Lysa responded.
“Very well, please have a seat so we can talk about it in more detail. I’ll get us some tea.” Without waiting for a response she briskly walked off, leaving the quartet of strange folk alone for a bit.
“What the hell kind of friends have you been making?” Kayzel asked Eliana after Lysa left the office.
“You know, things happen, one thing led to another and now we’re here. I try not to worry about it too much.”
“A prince and a person from another world.” Kayzel couldn’t seem to believe it at all.
After a little while, Lysa came back with some very fragrant smelling tea.
“That smells lovely, your office looks great too,” Mana remarked.
Lysa smiled. “Thank you, I try to keep it looking nice and filled with a bit of nature.”
Cobal had also seen the – in his opinion – excessive amount of plants everywhere that looked very well kept. “What do you study here?” Cobal asked.
“Botany, mainly. As well as some herbalism and history.”
“I should have known, after seeing the office.”
She smiled. “Looks can be deceiving. But in this particular case they aren’t.” She picked up a quill and took a fresh sheet of paper from a drawer. “So, tell me in a little bit more detail what exactly brings you to the library and what I can help you with.”
“So you’re going to help us?” Cobal asked.
“How often do I get the opportunity to have a prince owe me one. Not to mention,” and she looked at Mana when she said this, “there’s a person here I’d love to have a few long conversations with.”
Mana smiled a bit awkwardly. “I can’t promise it’ll be interesting.”
“I’m confident it will be.” She returned her attention to Cobal. “So your brother?”
Cobal nodded. “While Mana and I were away from the capital, my brother disappeared. After we rushed back to Saphestan, we got a full briefing of what transpired. According to the guards that were present at the time, he just disappeared without a trace one night. They saw him enter his bedroom for the night and when one of the servants went to wake him up in the morning, there was no one there. There were no signs of violence, the windows were all still closed and barred, and the only thing out of place was a strangely drawn circle on the floor, with symbols in them.”
Cobal took a sip from the tea while Lysa scribbled down several notes based on what he’d told her. The tea was quite lovely and caught him by surprise. He’d never tasted anything like it, but it was sweet like honey while also having some herbal qualities to it. For a moment he got distracted by it before he noticed that Lysa was looking at him again, expectantly. “Right, Mana and I encountered similar magic circles in our travels, specifically to summon and teleport people and creatures. At least that’s what it looked like. So when we saw this circle, we compared it to the ones we’d encountered before and there were enough similarities that it’s likely a match.”
Lysa paused her writing. “Can you tell me exactly in which ways you’ve seen these magic circles used?”
Mana answered this question. “We first encountered one on our way from Ravadier to Milinia. It seemed to be almost randomly placed in some poor woman’s house. We had to save her from disaster and unfortunately her house burned down. It was hidden under a cupboard and it summoned a fiery beast. We managed to defeat it, and although we initially thought it was something that came from the Feral Wildlands, we’ve since then concluded that this wasn’t the case. The second time we encountered these circles was during the Harvest Festival in Milinia. A bunch more creatures attacked us there as well as a strange mage that spoke of others and although all we got from them were vague hints about some bigger plan they had. We had Dionil look at them as well, but he couldn’t make much of them either. The idea to go to the library here came from him, although we initially planned to stay in Milinia longer. The news about the crown prince’s disappearance sped up our decision to go back to the capital.” She thought for a moment. “Oh, and of course we also encountered them on the island where we fought those cultists. There were similar looking circles there as well, one of which paralyzed a friend of ours. That’s something we’re trying to find a solution to as well, while we’re here.”
Lysa listened intently, making a few notes here and there. “Right, a few questions then.”
“Go right ahead.”
“These circles, is there any logic you found in them yet.”
Mana nodded. “Nothing we could confirm, of course, but I personally believe that they are layered, and that each layer has a different circle.” She pulled the copies they’d drawn of the circle out of her bag and put them on the table in front of Lysa. “You see this one? I believe that the inner circle is the magic itself, then the second layer sets the specific parameters and the final circle sets the destination. I don’t know if that’s true, but we’ve seen one that didn’t have the outer layer and we assume it was used as a trap to send someone to a random place. That’s probably where some of our friends disappeared through.”
Lysa looked intently at the drawing while talking. “It sounds like you’ve had to go through a lot before coming here.”
Mana smiled. “It’s been a rough few months.”
“Coming from you that’s probably doubly true.” She nodded, satisfied with what she’d seen. “And you told me your friend was paralyzed. Do you know if he was turned to stone, unable to move at all or stuck in a particular position.”
“The last one. We could pick him up and move him, and he still had a pulse, but we weren’t able to move his fingers or arms. We didn’t try particularly hard, of course, but we tried it enough to be pretty confident he was stuck in that position.”
Lysa nodded. “Although I can’t make promises, that sort of magic does exist outside of those strange circles and usually the person turns back to normal after a while. Depending on how potent the magic is this can either last a few hours or a few months. It won’t be a fun experience for your friend, but if this is the sort of magic I think it is, it probably won’t kill them.”
Cobal let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.”
Lysa looked him in the eyes. “This isn’t a promise, keep that in mind. It could be a magic I’m unfamiliar with that does something different, but I think it will probably resolve itself eventually.”
Cobal nodded. “One less thing to worry about, for now.”
“You’ve mentioned a strange mage and some cultists throughout your story, can you tell me a little bit more about them? I have my guesses as to who they are, unfortunately, but I would like to hear a bit more before I share those.”
Eliana chuckled and looked at Kayzel. “You’ve made some pretty smart friends since we last met.”
“She’s my boss.”
“So was I, do you not consider me a friend?”
Kayzel smiled nervously. “I think this is a bit different.”
Lysa Chuckled. “Scribe Kayzel and I aren’t particularly acquainted, but I am aware of his work in our library.” She looked back at Cobal expectantly.
“Right, the cultists. We unfortunately don’t really know anything about the mage we saw at the Harvest Festival. That person is a complete mystery to us. The only information we gleaned from them was that they had some sort of interest in us – I presume in Mana specifically – and would be back. As for the cultists we encountered off the coast of Jasodar, we learned a little bit more. They were trying to bring some powerful god into this world. That god was the one that granted them this magic. Apparently these magic circles existed for a long time, and the knowledge was mostly lost until one of this god’s followers found a scripture containing it.”
Lysa sighed. “The good news is that I know exactly who you’re talking about. The bad news is that they’re, well, bad news.”
“So who are these cultists then?” Eliana asked.
Lysa sighed again and put her quill down. “I’m pretty certain that the people you’re talking about are the Jasmine Order.
Opal Kaharis 