Books and the Basics

“Oh no, no, of course not,” Mintten quickly assured her. “We’re just using fusion as an energy source. You see, you use a bit of magic to get it started, and then the fusion reaction carries on and produces large quantities of magical energy that we can syphon off into other spells. Kind of like you humans and your… electersea.”

“Electricity,” Claire corrected. She looked to Iggy and asked “is this true? The fusion’s just for energy?” Even though he wasn’t nearly as agreeable as Mintten, she still trusted him more. Maybe because she’d met him first, or he was just too stubborn and grumpy to be a good liar, or because she felt like Mintten’s explanation was just a little too convenient.

“Look, never you mind about that,” said Iggy. “There’s no way I’m letting you get involved with it. Letting an untrained magician like you have access to that kind of power? That’s one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard.”

Claire noticed that he hadn’t confirmed or denied what Mintten had said, and decided she would try to look into this on her own if she got the chance. “Okay, so if I’m not going to be helping with this, what will I do?”

“I think the best plan is for me to give you what training I can, and we’ll do some research to see what we might be able to come up with. Alright?”

Claire started to respond before realizing that this was directed at Mintten. The two dwarves stared each other down for a moment. Mintten broke first. “Fine. But I expect you to get her trained as fast as possible.”

“Very well. Come along, Claire, we’d best get at it, then.”

“Goodbye Claire,” said Mintten. “I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.”

“No doubt. Goodbye!”

She followed Iggy away. Just as they reached the entrance, Mintenn called after them “Oh, and Ignatius?”

Claire’s companion paused and turned back for a moment. “Yes?”

“I think it’s best if we keep this just between us for now, don’t you agree?”

Claire tried without success to read the facial expressions that passed between the two cousins during the moment of silence before Iggy responded, “Yes. Of course.”

Then he hurried away, out of the little room and back across the crowded work hall to the tunnels. Claire followed after him, trying desperately not to trip over any dwarves or their work. “So our first order of business is to get to the library,” Iggy explained as he led her down one of the tunnels. “We can set the librarians to doing research into human magic for us while we’re getting you trained in the basics.”

“But didn’t you just agree not to tell anyone about what I can do?”

“Yes, well, I don’t have to tell them that part. Don’t you worry.”

The library was not nearly as big as Claire had expected it to be; she had imagined vast caverns filled with shelf after shelf of ancient tomes. Instead, Iggy led her into a smaller chamber, slightly smaller than her house. At a desk by the doorway sat two elderly dwarves, both looking like they were more asleep than awake. They startled as Iggy and Claire approached, and stared wide-eyed at the human visitor.

Iggy cleared his throat until the pair shifted their attention to him. “Oh! Master Montgomery, forgive me,” exclaimed one of them, standing up and bowing to him. “What can I do for you?”

“I need anything you can find on human magic. I was spellcasting out in the woods when this fool came along and ruined all my hard work. I’m hoping there will be some sort of human spell I might be able to modify in order to undo what harm she’s done.”

“Yes, of course, sir, I’ll get right to work. I’ll let you know as soon as we’re done.”

“Thank you.” Iggy turned and walked away, ignoring the bowing that carried on as he left. Claire followed him out, slightly bemused by the interaction.

“You really are important around here, aren’t you?”

“Yes, well. I suppose. The Grand Chief Warlock is due a certain amount of respect.”

“You didn’t act as though you really appreciated that respect.”

“From that fuddy-duddy? I’ll appreciate it when they find what we need.”

“Well surely that shouldn’t take too long,” Claire mused. “There aren’t many books in that library, are there?”

 “We have two libraries here. The other is much larger, and contains all of the books on building, science, and the so-called ‘practical spells.’ The one we were just at is only for history and the more obscure magical arts. I’m afraid these topics have fallen out of favour; these days they are mainly of interest to warlocks like myself.”

Just then, he turned down another tunnel which led to a small chamber. “Here we are!” He sealed the heavy stone door behind them, and Claire felt as though the weight of the whole mountain where pressing in on them. She looked around. Against one wall was a small desk with books and scrolls stacked neatly on it, and a sort of cabinet with many small drawers. The rest of the room was bare.

“Where is here, exactly?”

“This is my study,” Iggy explained. “It’s where I come to practice magic and work on spells. It’s not too close to anything else, in case anything goes wrong, and there is a thick layer of rock on all sides, to absorb the magic safely. Now. Are you ready to begin training?”

Over the next few hours, Claire started to learn magic. Some of it was the theoretical basis: Ignatius explained about magic energy and how it could be concentrated by the mind and released through the words and movements. The first real magic she learned was more about not using magic; Iggy taught her a spell that would essentially put a stopper on her magic until she spoke the words that took it off. Once she had mastered that, they moved on to a spell that would prevent souls from returning to the world after they’d died. Claire really didn’t see how this was ever going to be useful, but Iggy said it was very important in all the ancient human magic he’d studied. Since it was one of the few human spells that he knew, she just went along with it, figuring it was better than not learning any magic.

Before she had completely mastered this spell, however, Claire started to lose her focus. Eventually even Iggy agreed that perhaps it would be best if they took a break to eat, and led her to the great hall where most of the dwarves ate together. The dwarves might call it great, but to Claire it looked a lot like a high school cafeteria, except carved out of stone and with long wooden tables. Even the food was the same suspicious looking slop, though Claire was pleased to find that it tasted much better.

They took a seat with three dwarves, relations of Iggy’s, who he introduced as Lucinda, Hansofer, and Percadence, all of whom worked with Mintten in the workshop they’d visited that morning. They were all very curious about Claire, and hoped to be the ones to spread the gossip on her to their fellow workers, but she was equally curious about what information she might be able to get from them.