Chương 7: Mages Guild

Amberlin finally found the Lorelark mages guild when she realized that she wasn't looking for a spiral tower but a regular building like all the others around it. The front counter was tended by a young initiate who looked only a bit older than her. He had a thick tome open in front of him and was studying it intensively when she arrived. He let out a loud sigh and looked up like she was deeply inconveniencing him.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked pointedly.

"I have an exam coming up," he explained.

"If I pass, I'll secure a promotion to the second circle."

"Is that good?" He looked at the badge pinned to her cloak.

"You're an adventurer, right? The second circle is like high silver to low platinum."

"That's a confusing range," she said with a frown.

"It can't be helped," he said.

"There are eight adventurer ranks but five mage circles, and five doesn't divide into eight evenly."

"Why don't you just change to a four-circle system so everything divides nicely?"

"Why don't you change to a ten-rank system?" he retorted.

"That would mean adding one base metal and one more crystal," she said. If she recalled correctly, the first four adventurer ranks up to platinum were called the metal ranks. The prestige levels above platinum were called the crystal ranks.

"There are plenty to choose from," the initiate said dismissively.

"You can just add lead down the bottom and amethyst below ruby."

"That's silly," she said.

"Lead isn't precious, and isn't there already an amethyst?"

"No, the crystal levels go ruby, emerald, sapphire, and amber. You should know this." She remembered that amber was at the top because it was the same color as her hair. But there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the other colors. She'd decided it best to just ignore them, as she didn't plan on going above platinum anyway.

"It seems like instead of messing about with our ranks and making them even more confusing, you could just simplify yours by removing one," she said.

"Our circles already have a simple logic to them," he replied.

"There are ten tiers of magic, and each circle is equivalent to two magic tiers. Which is why it makes even more sense for you to switch to a ten-rank system so that each rank corresponds to a magic tier." She thought about this for a moment.

"Yeah, it is pretty silly, isn't it? I suppose adventurers just love our precious metals and gems." She fingered her bronze badge while saying this.

"And bronze isn't even a base metal," the initiate continued, unable to accept the concession gracefully.

"It's an alloy of copper and tin. It's the copper that makes it valuable. That's why we call our currency's base coin copper even though compositionally it's bronze." Amberlin nodded along.

"Yeah, copper is pretty nice too. If we add a rank below bronze, we should call it copper instead of lead."

"That wasn't what I..." The initiate narrowed his eyes trying to figure out if she was being serious. Happy to have found common ground with the grumpy initiate, Amberlin turned to the business she'd come here for.

"You sell books, don't you?" she asked.

"Magic books?"

"We do have a selection on offer," he replied.

"I can recommend some good titles for beginners if you'd like."

"Maybe something a little more advanced."

"How advanced would you say you are?" he asked.

"Oh, it isn't for me."

"No?"

"It's for my apprentice." His eyes briefly flicked down to her bronze adventurers badge.

"For your apprentice?"

"For my apprentice," she affirmed.

"I strongly advise taking a look at our beginner's titles." He clearly had some thoughts about her claim that he was keeping to himself. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"He isn't a beginner." The initiate shook his head but he stepped out from behind the counter and led her to a bookshelf—the only one in the lobby—and pointed at the three shelves.

"You'll find the books for beginners and the first circle down the bottom, second circle in the middle, and third circle at the top," he said.

"I thought you said there are five circles," she said, though looking at the shelves, there were barely any books for the third circle.

"Hardly anyone makes it to the fourth and fifth circles, and those that do tend not to write many books," the initiate replied.

"The only places I know that have any are the royal library and the mages guild headquarters in Tesseract. Though you won't be able to just walk in and read them. Such precious items require special permissions to access."

"Sounds like something we won't have to worry about for a couple of years," Amberlin said.

"Indeed," the initiate agreed.

"Why don't you tell me about your apprentice so I can make a suitable recommendation?" This was a tricky question to answer because she didn't have a good idea of Havlo's proficiency level. She'd tried asking him directly, but he was always coy about it. The more she tried to probe, the more uncomfortable he seemed to get, until she'd learned to stop asking.

Though it made her job harder as his teacher, everyone had something they were self-conscious about, and she understood how it felt not to be able to meet the pressure of other people's expectations. That's why she'd explained that she understood the burden of stereotypes and had no great expectations of his magical abilities just because he was an elf. And she left it to him to decide when he would be comfortable opening up to her.

But of course that didn't stop her from paying close attention to his use of magic during their journey together, and taking notice of how he never used any spells more advanced than the ones she'd already shown him. It was very brave of Havlo to live on that dangerous mountain when his magic was so weak, but she supposed that he had that big automaton to protect him. Even after it malfunctioned and attacked her and Boots, it still recognized Havlo and obeyed when he sent it away.

Amberlin explained what she could to the initiate, leaving out details that she considered too personal. Her apprentice was clearly a person who valued his privacy, and she was going to respect that. It wasn't her place to tell strangers where Havlo had lived or the lifestyle he'd led, and it didn't seem relevant to the question of his magic proficiency. After listening carefully, the initiate pointed out that all the spells Havlo had used belonged to the first two tiers.

"He's more advanced than I expected," the initiate admitted.

"I would suggest a book that bridges the first and second circles." He picked one out of the middle shelf.

"This one is a part of our curriculum here, and I can personally attest to it being very good. It also teaches some useful Tier 3 spells." She took the book, titled The Third Tier: A Guide for Advanced Beginners, and flicked through it before turning back to the initiate.

"How can you know if it's good or not until you've actually passed your exam into the second circle?"

"Because it was written by the Amber Mage himself," the initiate replied.

"The greatest mage to have ever lived, who mastered all ten tiers of magic. I'm sure he would know a thing or two about getting from the first circle to the second."

"Do you know the saying, 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach'?" she asked.

"I've never heard that saying in my life," the initiate replied.

"We respect our teachers here."

"Well, my teachers say that it also works in reverse," Amberlin continued unperturbed.

"Teaching is a skill unto itself."

"While I agree with the sentiment, it feels very biased for a teacher to be the one saying that," the initiate said.

"I just want to make sure my apprentice gets a good education," she explained.

"If it will put your mind at ease, the Amber Mage did have some experience as a teacher," the initiate said.

"He took on a few apprentices in his time. I believe that's what inspired him to write a series of books." Hearing this did put her at ease. With an author who was renowned both in practice and in teaching, this book would make the perfect gift for her apprentice.

"In that case I'll take your recommendation," Amberlin said.

"How much for the book?"

"Five gold coins," the initiate replied. That was more than a professional-grade gittar. There was no way she could afford that.

"Why is this book so expensive?" she demanded.

"Is it the royalties?" She could imagine an illustrious personage like the Amber Mage demanding a princely sum for his knowledge.

"It's got nothing to do with the king," the initiate said.

"Well, except for the taxes. But it's just the costs in producing the book. To ensure there are no mistakes, all our books are transcribed by a mage who has mastered the material. In this case that means someone at the top of the second circle or higher. It's then checked by another master mage. As you can imagine, this is tedious work, and those mages' time is rather valuable."

"Why don't you just use a printing press?" she said.

"A what?" She explained the technology to the best of her ability. The initiate listened skeptically and then said, "That sounds like more trouble than it's worth. We don't sell enough copies of any individual book to justify the cost of setting up something like that."

"Maybe you'd sell more if they were cheaper," she said. The initiate shook his head.

"I have a friend who works for a trading house. He says that the market is efficient. If something was worth doing, someone would already be doing it."

"Oh." She tried to haggle, but the mage refused. The price was firm. The other books on the shelf weren't any cheaper, and there was no point buying something from the bottom shelf since Havlo was clearly already proficient in the basic spells.

"There is another option," the initiate said.

"Oh?"

"Members of the mages guild have access to our library. You can read as many of the books there as you want. You just can't take any out. It's how most of the initiates can afford to study before they become proficient enough to earn good coin." While library access didn't suit her purposes, it seemed like a useful option to keep in mind.

"How much is it to join?" she asked.

"Five gold coins," the initiate replied. And so Amberlin left the mages guild empty-handed. As she made her way through the busy streets, trying to think of another plan for training her apprentice, she remembered the shiny red scale she'd picked up in the mountains. She took it out of her cloak pocket and studied it. It didn't look like much, and there were some deep scratches that probably tarnished its value. But in a world like this, there must be people who collected useless knick-knacks.

Maybe she could get enough for it to buy another pound cake.