Revelations

[Magus]

He pushed into the unassuming Library and immediately took note of the dramatically increased security presence. Since the last time he’d been here, they had more than doubled the guardsmen in the Library. Magus could feel various powerful energies fizzing and crackling around him. Stray magics hummed and dully buzzed all around him.

He strode directly to the reception desk, paying no mind to the many eyes that followed him down the misleadingly humble corridor. “Woman,” he tersely asserted, closing the distance between himself and the clerk’s desk with wide strides. “I will see the Librarian immediately.”

“Excuse me, I don’t need to he-”

“Fetch the Librarian, woman,” Magus rasped, almost inaudible, even to the clerk. He leaned in. “No amount of guards and magisters and spells will make any bit of difference in the few seconds it would take to render you into ash.”

The color drained from her face. She stammered something unintelligible and nervously nodded her head four or five times before quickly disappearing among the many rows of books.

Magus stretched and squared his shoulders. Something in his back popped in a satisfying way, easing the creeping pain in his muscles. His approach had been too aggressive, too soon. Severe agitation roiled around, deep below. It was finding its way through cracks to the surface.

He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath, then cast his gaze around with an appraising eye. The heavy security seemed to have, for the most part, gone back to business as usual, but a few lingered, keeping an eye on the lavender haired man who waited at the reception desk.

The Fiendlord sneered down at the desk. Glorified security guards.

By the time he looked back up, six of those glorified security guards came marching around the end of one of the endless rows of bookshelves with the clerk in tow. “There he is,” the damn shrew declaring, pointing an accusing finger at Magus. His face twisted into an even more disdainful expression. Goddammit.

The guardsmen at the door – all battlemages, judging by the various types of heavy armor, weapons, and magical auras they all apparently possessed – closed in on him from the other side. Magus found himself ringed by ten seemingly powerful practitioners of magic. And one fucking shrew.

“Yes?” he coolly inquired, turning around to sit against the edge of the desk.

“I am going to have to ask you to leave,” said one of the battlemages who had arrived with the clerk. He circled around into Magus’ view, but not in the way of the exit. “Or we will have to arrest you.”

“Not until I’ve seen the Librarian.”

“I’m sorry, but that won’t be an option.”

“I’m sorry, but you seem to fail to appreciate the seriousness of what I need to say to him,” Magus retorted, subtly channeling energy into the room, careful to avoid dramatically increasing the energy noticed in the background noise. “I will see the Librarian before I leave this place.”

“You’re not seeing anyone here,” the battlemage asserted. He took a step toward Magus. “This is your last chance. You need to leave, or we will arrest you.”

“You don’t understand. I have important news for him,” Magus calmly insisted. “He and I need to have a discussion before I go. He will want to hear what I have to say,” his energies steadily suffused the air with Miasma. Soon, the effects would manifest, and he’d be able to slip away from the mages. He wasn’t yet certain if he would use the distraction to escape, or to slip further into the Library. He still had some time. “It’s extremely important news.”

“You can share it with me if it’s that important. I am the Captain of-”

“No, I cannot. You don’t understand,” the Archmage responded, further weaving his fabrication. “There are ears everywhere.”

Wisps of Miasma began to appear at Magus’ feet and along the floor. Greasy tendrils of dark magic faded in and out in the air, just ethereal enough to avoid notice. The Captain of Whatever-He-Was-Going-to-Say unsheathed his sword and attempted to grimace menacingly at him. As he did so, the others followed suit and hefted their weapons. Short swords, long swords, and great swords bristled at him from every direction. The Miasma continued creeping in.

“By the authority invested in me by the Council of Mages of Dalaran, I am placing you under arrest for uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm to a person, as well as failure to comply with the order or signal of an officer of the Mage’s Guild,” he blustered, moving in aggressively, now. Magus flicked his cape over his shoulder and raised his hands, causing the other guards to raise their weapons and tighten the circle around him.

“Lower your hands immediately!!” one of them shouted from behind him. Magus sighed and stood upright, lowering his arms, the Miasma very nearly ready to obscure everything all at once.

“Would you just-” he paused as an orangutan swung up from the endless sea of books and reference manuals onto a nearby bookshelf. “You! Please, there’s been a misunderstanding; I simply need to talk to you.”

“There’s no misunderstanding, you threatened to kill me!” the shrew snapped.

“Had you done your job and fetched me the Librarian, there would have been no such altercation. Besides, I wouldn’t have actually done anything to harm you. I was nearly killed fighting a dragon, and I’ve spent a long time in a coma. I’m just… agitated. You have my apologies,” Magus turned to the orangutan. “I need to talk to you. It concerns our last discussion. The Rathalos is dead.”

The Librarian’s expression seemed disdainful at best. The hairy beast scowled at him. Finally, he climbed down and retrieved a piece of parchment and a quill from the reception desk. He dipped the quill in the inkwell, and scratched out some words on the parchment before holding it up to the Captain of Whatever. [b]We will talk.[/i]

“You must have done something to get the Librarian to stand up for you,” Captain of grumbled. “We’ll have our eyes on you. You won’t be able to take a piss without us knowing as long as you’re in Dalaran. Don’t dare step out of line.”

The guards backed off and Magus dropped his Miasma. Immediately a previously unknown pressure seemed to lift up off everyone. No doubt the guards had felt it and known what he was up to. Can’t prove a spell is malicious in nature until it’s loosed, though. Magus allowed himself a soft smile as he returned his full attention to the Librarian.

“No doubt you’ve heard by now,” he began. “The Rathalos is dead. Slain, as you’d requested. I sustained severe injuries in the fight, but as you can see,” the wizard gestured to himself. “I’m better now,” he began pacing a short distance, back and forth. “I have done as you asked, Librarian. Now, I think, it’s your turn to provide me with the information I was looking for.”

Magus looked into the orangutan’s eyes and he looked back.

“How do I get to Omni? You told me you would tell me,” Magus continued to pace, before turning back to the desk and placing his palms on the cheap wood surface. He leaned over the desk toward the Librarian on the other side. “I need to know.”