Valgrin paused halfway up the weathered steps to the Research Center, his gaze lingering on the vibrant crimson blooms nestled among glossy green leaves. "That rosebush—the thorns aren't as prominent and the petals have a deeper hue." He gestured across the entrance. "And when did that one appear?"
Ylnah and Skwilly both tilted their heads in identical motions, squinting against the afternoon sun. Their simultaneous "Maybe?" overlapped perfectly.
Ylnah leaned closer to the second plant, her fingers hovering just above a delicate bud. "This soil was bare last week."
The brass bell jangled as Valgrin pushed through the heavy door. "Hamblaruu, visitors," he called, weaving between tables cluttered with leather-bound tomes and artifacts that pulsed with faint blue light.
Skwilly blinked rapidly, “It’s brighter in here.”
Wings humming like distant bees, Hamblaruu darted from the shadows and alighted on a nearby desk, his azure fur ruffling. “Astute observation my young priggy.”
Valgrin's fingers tapped against his thigh as he surveyed the space. "Flourishing gardens, enhanced lighting," his eyebrows arched, “What’s going on?”
“You are.” Hamblaruu flew up to be level with Valgrin. “This Research Center made it to the top five most active this month. Mostly because of you three.” The furry blue creature flew to Ylnah his delicate wings a blur of motion, he then made his way to Skwilly, before returning to Valgrin. “Your consistent study here pushed this place up the list.”
Ylnah held up her hand, pausing Hamblaruu mid-flutter. "But we're only three?"
Hamblaruu's wings buzzed louder as he hovered closer, a tiny blue hand tracing something invisible in the air. "Three highly active patrons." He zipped to a glass case displaying a golden plaque with five names etched in flowing script, tapping the fourth line where "Research Center #17" gleamed. "The Structure notices.” He flew back to the group, landing on the closest table. “Better furniture. More money to operate from. Fresh ingredients in the tea room. And—" he lowered his voice conspiratorially, wings barely moving, "—respect within librarian circles."
Valgrin's eyebrows shot up. "Librarian circles? Do you know Lyrkan-Taleen?"
“Lyrk?” Hamblaruu's wings stilled for a moment. "Seven feet tall? Big scaly bookwyrm? ? Always smells faintly of cinnamon and mothballs?"”
Valgrin nodded, “Not sure about the smell, but sounds like that’s the one.”
“Wonderful guy, not the best at decisions.” Hamblaruu flitted back down to the desk.
“His need to find extra income?”
“That be it, drags him down career wise.” Hamblaruu clapped two of his tiny hands, his wings blurred as he darted upward, “Enough of this. Will you need a practice room or just here to study?”
“Practice room.” Ylnah replied.
"Follow me.” Hamblaruu took off and flew to the back room, leading them to a mahogany colored ornate door. “Here you go.”
“You know we know how to get here.” Ylnah stated.
Hamblaruu's wings stiffened mid-flutter, his tiny chest puffing out. "Protocol matters. Especially for a—" he tapped his chest with a diminutive hand "—top five center. Plus you haven’t been to this practice room before."
Valgrin's fingers wrapped around the brass doorknob, cool against his palm. "Your dedication is noted and appreciated," he said, pushing the heavy door open with a creak. The polished wood gleamed as he gestured Ylnah and Skwilly through with a slight bow.
Hamblaruu's blue fur caught the light as he hovered, beaming with pride. "Couldn't have done it without you three." He darted backward down the corridor, leaving only the fading buzz of his wings behind.
Ylnah let out a low whistle, her eyes widening as she took in the chamber. "He's right, this room must be for the high-end customers." She ran her hand over the table's charcoal-colored stone top, tracing the silver veins that glittered beneath the soft light of crystal chandeliers. "Bigger room, nicer table..."
"Whole different meaning to crystal chandeliers.” Valgrin interrupted staring at the light crystals hanging from the ceiling. “And there’s some ornate smaller tables along the sides," Valgrin continued, gesturing toward the mahogany pedestals carved with intricate runes that glowed faintly blue whenever shadows passed over them.
"Okay, need to get started with what I wanted to show you." Ylnah set her embroidered leather bag on the table with a soft thud and began to cast, her fingers weaving complex patterns that left trails of amber light hanging in the air.
Forty-five minutes later, Ylnah's shoulders tensed as she glanced back. "You see anything now?"
Skwilly and Valgrin exchanged glances before both slowly shaking their heads. The crack of Ylnah's fist against the stone tabletop echoed through the room, making them both flinch. She cradled her hand against her chest, knuckles already reddening.
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"Dammit!" She blew air through her teeth, flexing her fingers one by one. "No more punching the table." The corners of her mouth twitched upward then fell. "I don't understand. Everything seems to be correct for you to see the construct. Yet, it’s failed three times now." Her voice caught on the last word as she blinked rapidly, her gaze fixed on the empty space above the table.
She’s on the verge of crying. Can’t give her a hug, not with what Malcolm shared.
Valgrin motioned to the empty chair next to him, “Ylnah, please sit down. You need to rest and we need to talk.”
Ylnah slumped into it, her fingers still flexing from the impact with the stone. “I’m sorry, I’ve wasted your time. Forty-five minutes and nothing to show for it," her fingers trembled slightly as she brushed a strand of hair from her face, voice cracking as she finished.
“This isn’t about your casting, directly.” Valgrin looked up, then brought his eyes back down to Ylnah. “I’m impressed with what you’ve described, not disappointed. It not being visible to anyone but yourself is not a failure, you didn’t have a way to test it until you got us in here. All it means is we need to figure out what needs to be changed to make it do as desired. And me wanting to talk to you doesn’t have anything to do with this spell. Um…now comes the hard part, best way I know how to do this is jump right in.”
Ylnah straightened herself up, looking puzzled. “Jump away, I guess.”
“Might be easier said than done,” Valgrin folded, then unfolder his arms. “This may bounce around a bit, stream of consciousness type of thing, maybe it won’t. And I need to stop babbling. First point and what led to this discussion now instead of later…um…I could tell you were upset and embarrassed over things not going as planned. Back home when Addy, my daughter, went through something like this I’d give her a hug. Wanted to do the same to you a few minutes ago, but Malcolm shared something this morning that made me stop. Not sure that it should, but maybe it’s the right call. Anyway, I guess a few people have asked him if there is some relationship building with you and I. I mean a romantic relationship, as my…uh, mentee, apprentice, student…not really sure which one of those apply, maybe all of them.”
Ylnah gasped, “You’re married! And made it apparent that you want to get back to Kara…”
Valgrin nodded, “True on both accounts. I didn’t think there was anything, but I’m dense and miss signals people send—all the time—so I wanted to bring it up to clear the air.”
“Consider the air cleared.” Ylnah's cheeks bloomed crimson. She tucked her hair behind her ear, then untucked it. “I’ll admit that if you weren’t married, I might be interested. You’ve shown me kindness and consideration that it would be stupid not to say it’s wouldn’t be possible. But no there’s no need to worry.”
“Okay, uncomfortable topic tabled.” Valgrin swept his hand across the table as if physically brushing away the awkwardness hanging between them. His eyes darted to the ornate timepiece on the wall, its hands creeping steadily toward mid-afternoon. "So," he said, leaning forward with deliberate focus on the empty space where Ylnah's construct should have appeared, "what exactly were you trying to show us? Skwilly and I still need to make the jump, recover, and catch that last shuttle to Plarest before sundown."
“Still don’t see why I can’t come. Unless it’s because of what Malcolm said.” Ylnah’s eyes flashed brightly.
Valgrin shook his head, “I told you that you couldn’t come yesterday, before Malcolm said anything. Though it is another reason not to go with me. But first and foremost it’s your safety and you’d not do well in the snow. I can walk on it, you’d sink depending on the depth of the snow.”
“Which would slow you down, at the least. I get it, but I want to go on adventures.” Ylnah pulled at her collar, “Anyway, with the construct you were supposed to see was the magical form of a spell with the components identified. Usually, you just see the construct and an overall feel for what the magic should do.”
Valgrin let out a low whistle, “That would allow for much easier collaboration.”
Ylnah nodded eagerly. "That's exactly it. Being able to see the magical architecture at that level would let spellcasters collaborate on modifications in real-time."
"Fascinating," Valgrin leaned forward, elbows on the table. "I'm still catching up on these concepts—haven't quite found the time to dive into the theoretical frameworks yet. How exactly would that work in practice?"
“Right now we can’t really break down at the component level. This spell I found to do that is very old and seems to be no longer widely taught. So we deal in trial and error on a massive scale, if we want to modify. With the components identified we can focus in more specifically than before, still be some trial and error. Take the spell Heal Wounds, with a standard Read Magic we can see that there is life-energy or healing magic combined with a some force magic. However, we don’t know where in the form those energies are applied, and if there are any minor magics incorporated. With the ability to see the components we get much more detail. Heal Wounds does include what I just mentioned, but also includes a small fire magic component. Don’t have a clue why it does, but it does. Changing it to air magic cause it to fail at doing anything.” Ylnah’s hands stopped moving as she stopped talking.
“If I’m understanding, you can cast this component reading spell now, but you added the ability to make it visible to everyone around?”
“Thought I added the ability, yes,” Ylnah said with a quick nod.
Valgrin tapped his chin, “So it’s like getting all of the ingredients to a recipe but not the amounts, but right now we don’t even get the full ingredient list.”
Cocking her head, Ylnah spent a moment in thought before replying, “Your analogy fits, I’d add that it doesn’t give us instructions on how to cook the ingredients either. It’s more like—you know there's flour in the cake, but not whether it's one cup or three. Or whether you fold it in gently or beat it vigorously. One wrong move and—" She snapped her fingers. "Flat cake."
Valgrin's eyes lit up. "I wonder if there's a spell that would—" He caught himself mid-sentence as Ylnah's shoulders tensed. "That wasn't meant to diminish your work. What you've found is..." His fingers sketched an expanding sphere in the air. "Remarkable. Sorry, was picturing next steps and got ahead of myself."
Ylnah pressed her fingertips against her temples, making small circles. A strand of hair fell across her face. "First next step is I need to figure out why you and Skwilly were staring at empty air while I saw a glowing lattice of spell components."
"Which gives you another reason to stay behind." Valgrin tapped the table decisively. "When I return from Plarest—assuming we don't find another world-ending crisis—we'll pick a guild adventure. Something with actual treasure this time."
"Malcolm should come with us," Ylnah said, glancing toward the door. "For appearances."
"Absolutely." Valgrin nodded. "And Izzy and Deeah too, if they're available." His mouth quirked into a half-smile. "Less gossip, more swords, better odds of survival."
