After the admittedly rather short meeting in the gatehouse, we made our way to the library. Obviously, I had to see what a real dwarven library looked like. Borsdown’s was small, as I heard from multiple dwarves.

The building looked somewhat similar to the one I already knew. A wide stone front carved with stylized bookshelves and geometric shapes. It was all just bigger. If memory served me right, this building was about twice the size of the one in Borsdown. And that was just the width of its facade. It also had another two storeys and most likely extended much further to the back.

When we entered we were greeted by a warm reception room. There were restrooms and even a small bath to the left. When I asked, the boy next to me explained it was for those who forgot to wash up. Rather than dirtying the books, they had to clean up or they would not be allowed in. Another difference to Borsdown stood out to me. Rather than just one desk with one or sometimes two receptionists, there were a total of four desks with place for up to a dozen librarians. Three were labelled reception and one was for returns. It looked like most dwarves still used the reading rooms inside rather than borrowing books.

Currently, every desk had two dwarves standing behind it. More were lined up in front of each looking to pay for reading rooms or asking for information from what my ears gathered. We picked a line and stood to wait.

After about ten minutes, it was our turn. There had only been three others in front of us.

“Welcome, how can I help you?”, the librarian asked. She wore the usual robe of apprentices. Most of the receptionists did, with the exception of those on the returns counter and one woman eyeing everything from the back.

“Hello”, Droy greeted, “We dropped my sisters off here a while ago and would like to join them. Harra and Selvie Kinis.”

“Just a moment.”

The receptionist paged through her ledger and when she did not find the names went to the back for a larger book. The librarian watching everything walked over to her and after a short conversation, they found the right entry.

“Alright, they’re in one of the reading rooms”, she said when she returned, “Do you have a membership? If not you’ll have to pay for today at least.”

Her eyes slid over to me as she asked.

“Right…”

Before Droy could find his purse, I had pulled out my membership card from my storage. A tendril of shadows pushed it onto the wooden counter and the receptionist took it with a “Thanks”.

One moment later she gave it back.

“Enjoy your stay, Miss. What about you?”

She turned to Droy.

“Ah, right. Here.”

He produced his own card, most likely an apprentice membership of the Kinis clan.

Soon, we were in the library proper. A dwarf in adept robes was guiding us through the endless lines of shelves to where the girls were. He had to slow down quite a bit. It was definitely not my fault. I was just too enamoured with the place. It lacked the open centre of Borsdown’s library and I could not see into the higher storeys but that only meant there was even more space for books. And even on this floor, there was barely any space left. The shelves were just far enough apart so a dwarf could reach the upper books with a ladder. Only the main pathway was wide enough for two book-carts side by side.

The organization seemed to be a little messier than in Borsdown. Books pertaining to one topic still were placed in one area close to each other but the topics were not sorted cleanly to have for example mining, forging and smithing all next to each other. I mostly spotted books on plants, farming and brewing here on the bottom floor but there was a section about stone and one about metal somewhere. Even though there clearly was a system, it would surely take some time for someone to get used to it.

We got to the second floor filled with a more extensive collection on traditional dwarven professions and then the third floor, cramped with books about economics and things like tailoring and weaving. Finally, we ended up in a reading room. It was one of the more public spaces with lots of tables to read at but besides the sisters, there was only one other dwarf here and he was an apprentice from the caravan as well. He sat a little away from the girls but still nodded a greeting as we entered.

“Here we are. Can I get anything for you?”, the librarian asked.

“Something about flying monsters. Stormbringer as well, if there’s anything interesting.”

Droy translated my thoughts to speech and the adept was off with a nod.

We joined the sisters who were reading on something money-related. Not that I disliked the books but the topic was not the most interesting to me.

“Hey, you two. Any success?”, the younger sister asked. Apparently, she was lacking in focus as well. At least for this particular task.

Droy nodded and gave them the short version of our meeting with the Protector. That was when I realized the term had a deeper meaning and asked the dwarf what it meant.

“The Protectors are the dwarves tasked with interacting with the Guardians of their city. For official business, that is. They are often on friendly terms with the Guardian as well and as such highly regarded in our society. Most Guardians choose their Protectors from the local guard or just pick someone they like off the street. Serrington is a bit of a special case since the Nymph doesn’t ever leave her Sanctuary. The ones actually guarding her wall are appointed guards chosen by the actual Protectors, of which there are two right now, as far as I know. Banélin is one of them. I never met the other.”

I nodded.

“Thanks.”

Then the librarian was back with a small cart of books.

“Here you are. These are my recommendations for information on aerial monsters and this is what I found about Stormbringer.”

The second pile was decidedly smaller. It just held three books while the first was at least twenty.

“Admittedly, we don’t have much about Stormbringer other than hearsay. There’s a collection of legends here but I wouldn’t believe it too much. This”, he picked up another book, “is a travel diary of a dwarven thaumaturge. A bit messy to read from time to time but he claims to have seen the ‘eye of the storm’. This last one is the most reliable. A guard report from scouting the storm. They holed up in the wilderness to see what the inside of the storm was like. It’s your best bet for reliable knowledge.”

I thanked him with a hoot and the dwarf got back to his own work. He was probably just going to read. I could not fault him for that.

“Stormbringer, huh? Do you really plan to follow him?”, the elder sister asked with a worried face.

I nodded.

“Sort of. I will follow the trail with a little distance. I want to see if there’s any magic left behind. After all, such destructive weather coming through twice a year should prevent much plant life from growing properly.”

The dwarves’ eyes widened.

“Wow. That actually makes sense. Has nobody ever thought of that?”

They looked at each other. Apparently, I was the only one. At least as far as they knew. Maybe I should ask the librarian later?

I picked through the books with my shadow tendrils. The three about Stormbringer went on the desk to read. The guard report first since it was the most reliable. The rest was a number of scout reports, research papers and some tales that were separated into a ‘hearsay and legends’ pile. The most interesting was the bestiary specialized only on flying animals. It had two volumes, one on animals, one on monsters. I was interested to figure out the definition the author had decided on to separate the two. I had started as a mostly normal animal, disregarding my sapience. Sure, my parents had the shadow magic and [Intimidating Screech] but still. I had turned decidedly more monstrous in the last few months since starting to interact with vis.

I spent the afternoon reading and the next three days as well. The siblings sometimes joined me but I did not pay much attention. I was too absorbed in enjoying all the knowledge.

The first book I read was the guard report on Stormbringer. It was decidedly down to earth with clear observations noted as such and speculation added with an obvious separation. The things they had seen matched my memories pretty spot on. First came insanely dense rainfall with lots of wind pushing it all around. The dwarves had holed up in a small cave and reinforced the entrance with a large door. A triple-pane of reinforced glass served to let them see outside. Still, they had to dig drains or they might have drowned in the cave. I had been very lucky my resting spot was going upwards into the mountain.

From there, the report went into the observations of the ‘eye’. The comparatively calm centre of the storm where the dragon moved. They had seen pretty much the same as well but their thoughts on the matter were backed by much more experience and knowledge as well as research after the fact.

They were convinced he was a dragon-type unique species. Possibly evolved from a snake. They also knew the lightning was a common occurrence during infusion crafting when the altar was not properly stabilized. A thaumaturge had been asked for his opinion but his ideas were only mentioned as ‘madness’ and ‘impossible’. I knew better than to disregard them like that and took a closer look. He had made a few assumptions about the dragon being a living infusion altar of sorts, trying several different angles to find a solid base for further investigation. In the end, the thaumaturge believed Stormbringer to have a massive amount of vis that spontaneously infused the surrounding air with energy leading to the discharge. The phenomenon was the result of the same thing as what happened during infusion: energy that was not controlled at all and looking to return to a stable state. The difference was that Stormbringer just did not care about a ‘bit of flux’. The amount of vis he had to channel to constantly create the storm was already a multitude of it.

I found myself agreeing with the thaumaturge's idea though I was still convinced he was wrong. He had not seen the lightning and infusion could not create such energy unless you went way further than even I would consider possible. And by way further, I meant reaching for something akin to divinity. The discharges I knew infusion to have were at best finger-thick. Stormbringer had to have lightning casually discharging around his body that was at least as wide as my body. It was still possible the thaumaturge was right but I was hesitant to agree without further investigation.

So far there was nothing new about the report. I still found it helpful to refresh my memory on what I was dealing with. The guards had not had a problem during the storm after finishing the drains other than getting wet. The real issue appeared after. The feathered wyverns.

From here the report read almost like a horror story. The winged beasts reached the hillside of the dwarven hideout just as they were packing things back up and getting ready to leave. Two dwarves were dead and eaten before the others could even react. The rest tried to retreat into the cave but it was not very large and the door had been removed and packed for transport. Wyverns reached their heads in and tried to get to the easy meal. After five more dwarves had been dragged outside, one of the guards managed to kill a wyvern. The beasts started to gorge on their fallen kin instead of going for more dwarf. It was as a great stroke of luck the fallen beast was enough to sate the others’ hunger until the flock moved on. Of the twelve guards and two carriers setting out on the mission, only half survived. The report included a description of the state the valley was in after the storm and the wyverns had been through. Then it concluded with the words: ‘Keep your distance if you value your life. There is nothing to gain from this beast’s passing.’

I asked the librarian and apparently, this report had been written over 150 years ago. Since then it had been deemed too dangerous to deal with the force of nature that was Stormbringer and they decided to just keep out of his way. Especially since the dragon seemed to make sure to always fly the exact same path.

The report only served to increase my interest. I could not ignore such an interesting phenomenon that had been going on for centuries. One of the first paragraphs of the report mentioned Stormbringer’s passing as a constant event for centuries. Not a number, centuries. They did not know how long he was flying back and forth or why. They could only deal with it. I wanted to find the answers. My curiosity was burning.