The Decline and Fall of Magic

Chapter II

The admission scribe looked at the visitor with narrowed eyes before the scribe took down the man's name and discretely counted out the gold coins the man had placed on the scribe's little desk. The royal library was a place of quiet study and contemplation and visitors were rare. Learned men were by royal decree the only outsiders allowed to enter the library and only upon producing proof of their credentials. But it was no great secret that the scribes, who were to ascertain the worthiness of scholars interested in the library and its vast collection of rare works, could be made to look the other way by way of a bribe.

The man who had just be admitted wore a grey cloak and plain clothes. He was the kind of man who could disappear into a crowd. If you looked closer, though, you would see that the clothes he wore, albeit plain in appearance, were made from expensive materials. The weaving was tighter and the stitching finer than anything which could be bought on the streets outside. A single white ring adorned his left ring finger. His eyes were bluish grey and watchful. His nose was slightly bent and distinctive if you gave yourself the time to look at it. He moved through the halls of the library with long strides, immune to the allure of the many secrets held in the seemingly endless rows of books and scrolls. When he reached the back of the library, he knocked two times on the small wooden door off to the side. Nothing happened. The man looked to see if anyone was around but the back section of the library was deserted. The man knocked a second time. This time with a little more force.

"What is it? I was not to be disturbed." The head scribe opened the door slightly ajar and looked at the man on the other side. The head scribe had crumbs in his beards and chicken fat in the corner of his mouth. He did not seemed to recognize the man and was thoroughly annoyed at having been interrupted.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I come with an offer," the man with the slightly bent nose replied and looked disdainfully at the fat scribe. All the scribes wore brown cowls and their heads were shaved. The head scribe's brown cowl looked dirty and wrinkled and thin, long tufts of wayward grey hairs grew unbothered on his hastily shaven scalp.

The scribe looked up and down the man with the slightly bent nose and saw only his plain clothes. "This is not some shop on high street. We do not make offer and we certainly do not take them. If you need help finding anything, you need to pay the librarian." The fat scribe tried to slam shut his little door but the man had put his foot in the opening. As the scribe realized this, he let out a surprised yelp.

"Move!" the scribe demanded in voice meant to be authoritative but which was betrayed by a distinct note of fear.

"I am quite sure that you'll want to hear what I have to say."

"HE..." the fat scribe began to yell but he was quickly silenced by the man who with sudden speed and startling force toppled the scribe and let the both of them tumble into the room behind the wooden door. The man with the slightly bent nose now sat astride the scribe with one hand over the scribe's mouth. With his free hand, he closed the door behind them. Nobody in the library behind them seemed to have noticed the commotion. The man with the slightly bent nose sat intently listening for a long moment while the scribe struggled meekly beneath him and yelled muffled curses into the hand covering his mouth. The room they had tumbled into was part storage chamber and part office. It was the throne room from which the head scribe commanded his little fiefdom. Ten scribes worked in the library copying texts and answering trivial inquires; the head scribe was in charge of directing their work. The scribes were a class below the librarians but since there were only two librarians the scribes had won an uneasy victory in the battle for dominion over the library. The librarians mostly kept to themselves in their offices at the other end of the library. A small window placed at the edge of the ceiling revealed the fact that the room was mostly underground. Outside the weather was sunny and constellations of dust particles danced lazily in the lone beam of sunshine, which graced the office. Every few minutes the sunbeam was momentarily blocked by passers-by outside.