I rolled out another dish hollering at Granite to take it out to the customer. While my initial agreement to help him was only for the night I arrived, it had quickly extended into an offer for me to be the night chef. This suited me as the library was closed during the night and I had no need for sleep. I was finding kitchen work to be incredibly rewarding as all of the time I spent cooking left me absorbed in Syven’s memories and that made me feel, in many ways, whole.

I was also damn good at the job. Aside from Syven’s experience as a cook I also had many advantages that were helping me to excel. I could taste things from a distance, I required nothing protective to handle hot things, and I could hold a spoon and spin my gauntlet to mix things far more quickly than would be necessary by hand, though I only did that when I was sure I wasn't being observed. I began preparing some blackened chicken, with creamy terok sauce for the next dish.

While I relied on Syven’s skills during the night, Pebble’s were guiding me during the day. I’d been spending all of my daylight hours immersed in whatever texts I could find involving dragons, gods, and Aurum. I’d so far learned from older texts that Aurum was, in fact, a god, and a major one. He was the god of dragons, a being of pure whim, who did what he wanted when he wanted with or to whomever he wanted. There were hints in some texts that the gods had worked together to stop him, but what exactly they did I couldn’t find. If I could, then that might be the secret to stopping him. I also learned that it was the gods themselves that had ordered the church to aid in the hunting and extinction of dragons of all kinds. The reason for that was also unclear, though one interesting thing I found was that at least one dragon had betrayed his kind, helping the church to eliminate his brethren.

At this point I had reached the end of what I could find in the publicly accessible areas of the library, and the time had come to figure out a way to get into the inner library that existed in the tower. Not even Pebble had been granted access to it during his time at the university. Only scholars officially recognized by the university were granted access. It was rumored to be filled with dozens of forbidden texts and ancient histories that only those acknowledged by the university were trusted to access.

I had a few options. I could break in, but it would likely make it difficult to read and research if I was fighting off a group of enraged wizards at the same time. I could ask someone who was a scholar to do the research for me, but so far the student connections I’d made weren’t yet recognized scholars and the ones that Pebble had known would likely be suspicious if I approached them. The final option was to become a scholar myself. That option was surprisingly viable thanks to the inherent corruption of the system. There were a few ways to become a scholar, hard work, bribery, and presenting something unique for study, which is also a kind of bribery, but for bookish types. My funds weren’t exactly low, but they weren’t enough to buy my way in, and I didn’t have time to create and defend a thesis, but I did have two magical items that they may not have seen before.

I wrapped up my shift, handing things off to the dainty Miss Tylen, the day chef. She was a wisp of a woman, dainty even for an elf, but she had a real presence to her. When I’d first started she’d walked me through a few of Oasis’ signature dishes and I had the feeling that in spite of the fact she’d been quite critical the entire time, she had been impressed with me. I gave her a brief rundown on where we were on ingredients and then I made my way down the streets toward the university.

While I had initially been concerned about people questioning my armor, to the point that I'd rehearsed what to say if someone asked, so far it hadn't come up. Usulaum was a city of refugees and outcasts, so people tended to be less curious about individual's personal idiosyncrasies.

It had felt good to be there. The familiarity of Pebble’s essence with the library and city itself and Syven’s life in kitchens had meant my time in the city had fully unlocked their memories and impressions in the same way that Sevald’s and Byn’s were. Unlike their focus on family and the approval of their communities, Syven and Pebble sought recognition from within themselves. They had goals that they gave meaning to internally. With all of the essences flowing freely through me I felt more complete, more capable and that let me put all my focus toward getting whatever information I could find that would let me take the fight to Aurum.

The University grounds were made up of utilitarian buildings consisting of sandstone and built to cool themselves using the water produced by the red tower at the center of the city. That water also fed a lush garden that gave the entire campus a paradise-like feel. A few of the buildings closer to the central tower were made up of a similar red stone, but none were quite the same shade. Some of them even looked like miniature versions of the central one. Attempts by mages to emulate Rubrus that had clearly fallen short.

Eventually I reached the administrative building that was built up against the tower and entered. There was a perky young dwarf girl standing at the counter with pen ink on her face. She smiled and waved for me to approach.

“Welcome back. Here to do more research?”

“Hey, Em. Yeah, though I seem to have reached the limits of what I can discover in the main library. I need access to the tower.”

“Ah, well will you be bribing, registering as a student, or presenting an item for research?”

“You are very open about the bribery aspect.”

“You betcha, no reason to pretend half our scholars aren’t spoiled nobles trying to look smart.”

“That’s fair. I’ll be presenting an item for research.”

“In that case let me fetch an appraiser.” She hopped off her chair and made her way to a back room. Emerald was a uniquely helpful sort of person, a quality I truly appreciated. Many of the other administrators I’d interacted with had been cold and clearly disdained interacting with anyone outside of what they considered their own elite little group.

Em returned with a gangly older Orc man wearing glasses and wrapped in loose fitting robes.

“Good morning,” I said.

“What have you got?” he asked gruffly. It seemed clear that Em had dragged him away from something.

I pulled out my new sword and divided it in two, placing both on the desk between us.

The man grabbed them, holding them lightly in his hand then he put them back on the desk. His right eye glowed briefly. “A multi-sword. Mildly interesting, but unfortunately we’ve seen a few before. This won’t earn the title I’m afraid.”

“I have another item.”

“Oh? Two magical items is no small thing. I’m surprised.”

“Adventurers like me tend to stumble across these kinds of things more often than most.” I pulled my shield off my back and laid it down between us. I was a little concerned about giving it up considering I had still promised it to Rock if he or a champion defeated me, but priorities were what they were and they’d return the item after they’d completed studying it anyway.

The orc peered down at the shield, his eyes glowing again as he did so. “Hmmm, this one is a bit more interesting. An energy stealing shield. Eminently practical for one such as yourself I suppose.” He looked at it a bit more closely. “Unfortunately we have actually encountered this same enchantment before, though it was used on a monk's punching bag to train their endurance more quickly. I’m afraid this wo-” The orc looked up at me, his eyes still glowing. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

“I see you’ve found the third magic item.”

The man fell backward, out cold.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Em woke the man by splashing cold water on his face, and I helped him to his feet. He shook his head a few times, as if trying to shake something loose. He looked back up at me.

“You alright?” I asked.

His face lit up, all previous grumpiness dispelled. “Alright!? You may be the most fascinating thing to ever walk into this building.”

“Does this mean I can receive the title of scholar?”

“If that’s what it takes to allow us to study you, absolutely. I’ll need to go to the tower at once to bring some of my fellows to examine you. Emerald, please work on having this entity added to our esteemed ranks.”

“Entity? What does he mean?” asked Em.

“Oh, I’ll show you." I placed my hands on the side of my head, but hesitated. "Please don’t be afraid.”

“Why would I be afraid?”

I removed my helmet revealing the nothingness underneath.

“Oh!”

“Yeah. I’m not human. Not sure what I am actually.”

“Fascinating,” said the appraiser, having returned with a few men with fascinating facial hair, all of whom were doing their best to look down the hole my helmet left.

“Well, human or not you’ve always been nice so I don’t see any reason to be afraid.”

I returned my head to its rightful place. “Thanks Em, I appreciate that.”

…

The Orc appraiser, whose name was Tesh, had brought in about a half dozen other men who were staring at me with glowing eyes, taking notes, and occasionally asking questions. I’d convinced them that I could do that while also searching the library with my new credentials as a scholar. For a moment I felt guilty that I’d gotten that status so easily when Pebble had worked so hard to earn it, but then I realized that it was Pebble that had earned it. If I hadn’t eaten him, I would never have thought to search Usulaum for information on Aurum in the first place.

We walked to the entrance to the tower, passing over a small bridge over the water at its base, and two of the men whispered into the door which flew open. The tower itself wasn’t actually all that large. It was maybe the size of the atrium of the Wyrwind estate, but it made up for that with height. It was so high in fact that there was no way it would be structurally sound without magic. The walls on the inside were the same color as the walls on the outside, though I couldn’t see much of them as there were shelves lining them as far as I could see.

“So, you can store items inside yourself?” asked one of my robed shadows.

“Yes, though there’s a limit.” I said as I started to peruse the spines of the books on the shelf nearest to me.

“Is the limit what would fit into your armor?”

“No, it’s quite a bit more significant than that.”

“Fascinating, just like an ancient bag of holding.”

“Bag of what now?”

“Ah, they were a type of dimensional storage space. The methods for making them were lost and all of the old ones were worn out until they disintegrated by the adventurers that favored them.”

“The fools,” added one of the others.

The first one nodded in agreement. “There are none left now.”

“Interesting,” I said. Perhaps my master had used the methods that created part of those bags as part of my construction. It would be nice to get some answers to what I was on top of what I was searching for relating to Aurum.

After I’d amassed a relatively large stack of books I sat down and started reading, letting the researchers continue to poke and prod me as I did so. Within only a few hours I was finding answers to questions I’d spent days searching for, along with answers to questions I didn’t even know I had.

Dragons were hunted to extinction by the church in order to curb Aurum’s power. Some books theorized that it was because the dragon's belief in their god was making him stronger, but the oldest of the books had a darker theory. They posited that Aurum was not born a god, but instead became one by devouring other dragons, gaining their power, and growing stronger in the process.

Aurum had destroyed cities, laid waste to empires, and acted indiscriminately all while having liaisons across the continent. The other gods banded together after using the church to weaken him, and joined their powers to strike him down. In order to prevent such atrocities from occurring again at the hands of the gods, they removed themselves from the world.

One book I skimmed theorized that the reason powerful magicians and sorcerers were no longer commonplace was because the absence of gods and dragons had lessened the magic in the world. Which was interesting, but unhelpful.

I found myself at a loss. I had searched through multiple libraries and travelled across the globe to find the information I sought, but while I now had all the answers, I didn’t feel like I was any closer to knowing a way to stop what was happening. I had been a fool. I trusted in the sensibilities of those I’d eaten rather than in what the base part of myself understood from the beginning. I had to kill them, and keep killing them until it was done.

I cursed whatever force had pulled me to the tower, but I decided to at least finish looking through the library to its peak. I stood up and began walking up the stairs, making one last check to see if there were any books that still may contain anything useful. I found nothing of use, plenty of other valuable information on magical theory and technological innovation, but nothing that suited my purposes. When I reached the top, the group of scholars studying me was panting and wheezing from climbing the stairs. The top floor had no books, only a small reading and studying room with a large portrait hanging against the far wall.

The man in the portrait was young and handsome, wearing a bejeweled outfit in a red color that matched that of the tower. He had long burgundy hair and his eyes were bright gold. I clenched my fist.

“Who is that?” I asked the scholar nearest to me.

He panted a few more times, wiping sweat from his brow before looking at where I was pointing. “That would be the only surviving picture of Rubrus, the mage that built this place. Our esteemed founder.”

I looked back at the picture. It was my former master. The hair was longer, the clothes slightly different, and the eyes were not the red I remembered his were, but it was him.

“I’ll be leaving now,” I said. “I have the answers I need, and other questions I need to resolve immediately.”

“But we have not yet finished our inspection of you!”

“What have you learned so far?”

“Well, only a few things. The magic is very complex, you see. Between the armor and the void within is a wall of runic magic, but rather than in dwarven or elvish as is common this appears to be in draconic. We’ve already sent for a translator.”

“Even with a translator it sounds like it’ll take quite some time for you to find out anything significant.”

“Well, the nature of magic is that it’s complicated.”

“I’m afraid that while the magic is complicated, I tend to be quite simple. I don’t have the time to wait around. I’m leaving. Thank you for your help.”

“No! You cannot leave! The insights we could gain from you… they’re immeasurable.”

“I’m afraid you can’t stop me.” I leaned over the wizened man, growing myself a few inches to add a bit more intimidation factor.

One of the scholars behind me gestured with his right hand and four daggers made of pure force slammed into me. I grabbed the man in front of me and threw him hard into the one who threw the daggers. They slammed into a wall and collapsed. The two remaining scholars made more gestures. One of them sent a wave of fire at me through his hands and the other cast a spell that lifted several of the chairs in the room into the air, and began throwing them at me with his will. I let the flames wash over me and rolled under one of the chairs, cutting through another before it could hit me. I moved toward the fire thrower, dodging some bolts he threw until I was standing right in front of him. I stood still long enough for the other scholar to throw a table which I ducked under, letting it slam into his companion. I moved on the last one quickly and rammed my gauntlet into his stomach before he could make another incantation, knocking the wind from him and sending him to the ground.

“You guys weren’t half bad for people who’ve never been in a real fight. If I have the time, I may come back to let you study me, but please be more polite in the future.” I took some time putting out a dozen small fires to make sure the tower didn’t catch fire and made my way back downstairs. I was glad I’d been training a replacement night chef, it didn’t seem like I’d be working there anymore.