For once, Kio wasn’t flying alone. He was at the head of a convoy of pegasi 21 strong, shooting through the sky in a precise V formation to make the best possible use of the powerful winds conjured by the couriers, each of them a skilled wind mage in their own right. Kio directed their efforts from the front, channelling the massive swell of magical energy with a skill and precision few wind mages could ever hope to match. Though he couldn’t help but shift a bit uncomfortably in the saddle. He usually rode on the sleek black pegasi native to the southern isles. Slim, streamlined creatures designed to cut through the air like a knife. But black pegasi couldn’t really carry anything heavier than a lightweight rider with a courier’s satchel. This was a freight haul, and so his steed was a sturdy dappled pegasus mare bred for durability and carry capacity. The 20 couriers behind him were all carrying components for something which was, for reasons Kio didn’t even begin to understand, called a radio communication system. Something about electrical waves radiating through the air or something. Kaia seemed very enthusiastic about the whole thing, but whenever she tried to explain how it worked Kio’s eyes glazed over almost instantly. Supposedly, with the right infrastructure these things could be used to communicate across the entire world. But the important thing was that unlike most magical communication systems, these things worked in high magic environments. The components the couriers were carrying would, Kaia had assured him, allow the mobile garrisons to communicate with one another, as well as with the patrols they sent out. The saddlebags of Kio’s dappled mare held something very different, however. They contained all the components to assemble a brand new invention that looked rather like a very bulky typewriter. Kio didn’t understand how this thing worked either. Something about that whole elemental entanglement thing. The point was that once the device was assembled, anything written on it would actually be printed out on a similar device set up in Castle Midnight, and anything written on that device would in turn be printed out on this one. Supposedly, it worked instantaneously over any distance, regardless of whatever was between the two devices. Kio actually felt a little conflicted about this device. On the one hand, instant communication with the capital would be a great help to the garrison high command, and Kio firmly believed in helping the armed forces in any way possible. On the other hand, doing courier runs between the capital and the front line was the closest Kio was likely to get to serving in the army any time soon. Maybe he could finagle his way into doing more freight runs like this one… With a small sigh, Kio leaned in and patted the pegasus on the side of the neck. “Guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other from now on. Don’t you worry, girl. I’ll take good care of you.” The pegasus didn’t react. It was far too busy enjoying the fastest flight it had ever experienced, born aloft on a magical wind so powerful it tore the few clouds low enough to be caught in it to tattered shreds. Kaia had a problem. Actually, she had a lot of problems, but right now the one she felt most keenly was a lack of a truly challenging project. Her study of magical theory was progressing well, but she was still a long way from the point where she could contribute much to the elemental entanglement research. Her training with Awa had fallen into a comfortable routine, and while it was nice to have someone to spar with again, Awa didn’t exactly challenge her abilities. And the scientists working on the electricity project had pretty much caught up with her textbook knowledge in the field, even surpassing it in a few places. Sure, she was still the team leader, mostly owing to the fact that she knew much more than them about what could be done with electricity, so she knew what to work on. But the further they progressed, the slower that progress became, and Kaia was getting restless. She needed a new project. Which was why she was currently making her way to the Capital Library. A massive steel and glass construction which, she was told, had been built on the site of the original Capital Library. The original building had apparently suffered catastrophic structural damage in a magical accident about a century ago, resulting in some loss of life but, thanks to the valiant efforts of head librarian Cara Irons, very little loss of books. Stepping into the library, Kaia was immediately struck by the sheer size of the place. Massive steel shelves towered above her, most of them easily four stories tall. The shelves seemed to spread out further than the eye could see, only broken up by occasional reading desks or groups of comfy armchairs. Every so often a librarian would zip by, born aloft on some kind of magical floating platform as they hovered around the shelves, retrieving and putting away books with remarkable efficiency. It was frankly dizzying to behold, and Kaia simply stood by the door and stared for a few seconds. “Can I help you, Magus?” Kaia jumped a little as the unexpected voice snapped her out of her trance. Turning around, she saw a man in his late thirties with a sort of medium tan complexion, curly brown hair and a set of gently rounded facial features that somehow managed to be simultaneously both utterly unremarkable and oddly attractive. He was wearing the same uniform as the other librarians, though with a silver badge pinned to his chest. It wasn’t until he cleared his throat a little pointedly that Kaia realized she’d been starting. “Oh, right! Sorry. I was, ummm, I was looking for some books.” “That is generally why people come to the library, I find.” “Right! Right. Yes, of course it is. Sorry, I was just a bit taken aback by the sheer size of the place.” “That does happen a lot. The exterior of the building doesn’t quite prepare you for the inside. I’m Rory Irons, head librarian in training.” “Kaia Wilson. Magus of Water, or so I’m told.” “Wilson? The rumours are true, them? You’re really the Godslayer’s daughter?” “I guess I am, yes. He’s really just ‘dad’ to me, though. I never even knew about all his adventures until I got here.” “Really? Fascinating. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up with such a legendary…” “What about you?” Kaia interrupted in a bid to change the subject. “Any relation to Cara Irons? I heard about her when I asked Awa… I mean, asked the sunlit magus of water about this library.” “Only very distantly. You see, the Irons family has a lot of history with this library. Many of the most famous and influential librarians to have worked here were Ironses. So whenever anyone with so much as a drop of Irons blood in their veins gets a job at the library they generally change their name to Irons. It’s just one of those little traditions, you know.” “Ah, I see.” Kaia replied in the tones of someone who really didn’t. “In fact, one of the most well-known Ironses, head librarian Mhina Irons, famously helped your father find a set of books that supposedly helped him figure out how to bring an end to the Eternal War.” “Really?” “So the legend goes. It was over six millennia ago, though, so it is entirely possible that the story has gotten somewhat exaggerated in the retelling.” “Well, now I’m here, and I need you to find me some books.” Kaia hesitated for a moment, before adding… “They may very well prove instrumental in saving the world.” “Truly?” “Well, sort of. Close enough.” “My goodness. No time to waste, then. Simply tell me what you need.” “I need every book you have about water magic interacting with biology.” “Of course. I’ll gather them at once!” Rory summoned one of the floating platforms and shot off among the shelves so fast he almost collided with another librarian. Kaia watched him leave with an amused smirk. Awa was growing very concerned. By all rights, her main research project should be proceeding smoothly as they acquired a more and more solid foundation of knowledge to work from and focused more and more on solving the problem at hand. And yet it seemed that the closer they got to any kind of breakthrough, the more complications seemed to arise. Side projects like the communication device and similar efforts were all going as smoothly as they could possibly hope, but their work on adapting and developing the ‘cage’ process that was once used to seal away the Sunlit Goddess seemed plagued by constant setbacks and disasters. Over the past weeks, the cage project had suffered sixteen equipment failures, two power system overloads, four unplanned magical detonations, three fires and numerous injuries to research staff. At first, Awa had written it off as simply being the risk of using untested lab procedures and brand new equipment, but the sheer quantity of setbacks and mishaps seemed completely disproportionate to the risks involved with the project. It was almost as if… A high pitched whine shook Awa from her musings. Casting her eyes about, she noticed a set of heart fragments currently being bombarded by magical energy had started vibrating rather alarmingly. Without a moment’s hesitation she grabbed the hand of her lab assistant and dove over the thick slab of quatrite bisecting the room, pulling the both of them down behind the massive stone barrier. They had barely had time to hunker down behind the chest-high slab of magic-resistant stone when the whining tone reached its peak and the test chamber holding the heart fragments was torn apart by a violent eruption of magical energy. The barrier protected them from the worst of the blast, but the sound was deafening and tiny bits of extremely expensive debris went flying across the entire room. A small shard of metal even managed to rebound against a ventilation unit in the ceiling and hit Awa in the forehead hard enough to draw blood. Awa slowly brought her hand to the gash in her forehead, feeling the slick, warm blood seeping down her face. As her panic gradually died down, her look of shocked surprise was gradually replaced by one of steely determination. There was definitely something fishy going on in this lab, and she was going to find out what. Kaia’s work table was practically buried in books. She had expected Rory to find perhaps a dozen books on the subject, but there were already enough books here that the stacks that covered most of the table’s surface seemed to tower precariously over her, and Rory was still zipping around the library, discovering ever older and more esoteric tomes. Some of the books seemed very practical. ‘The Water Mage’s Guide to Magical Healing’. ‘Anatomy and Magic, Book Two: Water’. ‘Blood and Water Magic: Dos and Don’ts’. Others seemed very technical. ‘The Effects of Applied Water Magic in Stimulating Muscle Growth’. ‘A Treatise on the Usage of Water-Elemental Spells to Combat Infections’. ‘Micromagic and Tissue Regeneration’. Yet others seemed to border on the downright mystical. ‘The Role of Water in Achieving Balance of the Self’. ‘The Healing Rain’. ‘Flowing Water and the Root of all Life’… Right now she was working her way through ‘The Waters of Life, Using Magic to Read the Blueprint of the Body’, which outlined a method for mapping the genome of a living creature using water magic. To be perfectly honest, she wasn’t even completely sure what she was looking for, but she felt like she’d know it when she found it. Somewhere in this pile of books was the solution to the issue of the elemental imbalance affecting this world. That is, a solution that wouldn’t require her to spend an extra nine months here. That would have been completely out of the question even if it wasn’t for the other problem with that solution… Fighting down a blush, Kaia called out for Rory, and the by now rather worn-looking librarian arrived a few moments later. “What do you need, Magus?” “This is clearly going to take a while. Is it all right if I borrow…” She threw a quick glance at the massive stacks of books. “…about thirty or forty of these?” “We generally don’t allow people to remove the original copies of our books from the premises, but we have devices that can make a resin copy of a book fairly expediently. If I commandeer the entire copy room, we could probably copy some thirty or so books for you by this evening.” “That would be fantastic. Thank you very much.” “Think nothing of it, Magister.” Willow and Miriam were working outside, sitting at an ornate stone table inside a small, walled-off garden behind the castle proper. Or, well… Miriam was certainly working, sorting through paperwork and vetting suggestions and requests regarding the state of magical education within the capital. Willow was mostly sitting leaned up against her, idly watching a pair of crows building a nest in a nearby tree. This wasn’t because Willow was lazy, although he was often quite lazy. He simply worked best in short bursts. If he tried to work for an extended length of time, he always ended up getting frustrated or side-tracked or simply bored into inaction. But if he just had to work for a few minutes at a time with extended breaks in between, he could be remarkably productive. He sighed a bit wistfully as one of the crows started lining the inside of the nest with bits of soft grass and stolen strips of fabric, making sure the interior was nice and safe when the time came to lay eggs. With a thoughtful look on his face he turned to look at Miriam, who was reading some sort of report from the board of education. “We should get some…” “Get some what, love?” “Kids.” Miriam sighed and pushed away her work, turning to look at Willow. “This conversation again, is it?” “Don’t you want to have children?” “I mean, I do, but…” “So what’s the problem?” Miriam sighed deeply. “Willow, my love, you know I would do anything to make you happy, but… Just look at this world! Much as we might like to pretend otherwise, it’s teetering on the brink of collapse. The twilight is expanding every day. Magic is getting more unstable and unpredictable. Much of the infrastructure we rely on every day might fail in the next few years if nothing changes. This is no place to raise a child.” “I suppose you’re right…” Willow looked forlorn for a few minutes, but soon his face settled into a determined frown. “Well then! I suppose we’ll just have to save the world first!” Miriam laughed and kissed willow on the cheek. “Now that’s the spirit!” By the time Awa got back to her room, Kaia was already curled up in bed, though she didn’t seem particularly concerned with sleeping. She was reading from a large book about the potential health effects of extreme magic exposure, occasionally reaching over to look something up in one of the other books stacked on the nightstand. “You seem to be keeping yourself busy.” Awa remarked. “New project?” “Yep. Trying to figure out what to do about the whole imbalance thing.” “I see…” Awa didn’t say anything else as she put on her nightclothes and slid into bed next to Kaia. Kaia looked over at her with a worried frown. “You seem a bit out of sorts tonight… Are you OK?” Awa sighed. “Not really. There’s something going on at the lab. There’s just way too many accidents and setbacks. Way more than you’d expect. It doesn’t sit right with me.” Kaia narrowed her eyes. “You suspect sabotage?” “I don’t know! I’d like to think no-one would sabotage the best hope we’ve got to save the world, but with all this…” Kaia considered the matter for a few moments before putting her book away with a quiet huff. “Tell you what, I’ll spend more time in the lab for the next few days. See if I can uncover anything nefarious.” Awa smiled. “Really? That’s great. I’m so busy with this project I just don’t have the time to go looking for traitors.” Kaia took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Don’t you worry. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”