Library Trouble

The next morning Council of Magic met to discuss their findings from the previous day. First Mage Diggory took a deep breath and stated, "Yesterday we started on the first floor, we managed to look through four hundred and eighty books of magic, the Librarians here managed to cover an additional 520 books. We still have over ten thousand books remaining to look through, I am afraid that this is going to take some time."

Doreen nodded and said, "And that's just on the first floor. They have just as many magic books on the second floor."

Madeline frowned and said, "Guy said that things are getting dicey back in the Aumont-Ito Empire. There is already an active civil war underway."

They all looked at each other and then Doreen said, "Let's keep up our systematic approach to searching, we all have to try not to get sidetracked when we find good books. I know I was guilty of that myself."

Alicia thought for a moment and said, "Make sure to cast the Bless spell on yourself constantly, that will keep you feeling fresh and energized as you search."

Ella nodded and then said, "I find most of me distractions come from side chatter if we could keep down the talkin' today that would 'elp me concentrate, yeah?"

Algernon looked like he wanted to add something but everyone already seemed ready to get started so he quickly added, "Um, I think I may have discovered the right section for the type of book we want." He cleared his throat and said, "I found a book on slowing time and another on using time as a weapon."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Algernon, Diggory asked, "Where did you look?"

Algernon pointed and said, "Well, I noticed that the library was using a system where they placed the books in alphabetical order, so I started in the 'T' section."

Everyone stared at each other like they were complete morons for more than a minute before Diggory cleared his throat and said, "Yes, I concur with Algernon, we should start in the 'T' section today."

*****

Guy and Olivier found themselves on the bridge of the Aumont-Ito Empire's flagship, the battleship Argo heading to the Northern territory to confront the rebelling portion of the Aumont-Ito Armada. The Argo's Captain made it very clear he didn't think highly of having mages on his bridge. He grumbled, "Do ye see any drop knights on this bridge? Ye should be in the barracks gettin' 'em ready not up here standin' in ma way!"

Olivier and Guy laughed and the Olivier said, "Captain, you know what the greatest flaw on one of these airships is?"

The Captain thought for a moment and then said, "It be the people!"

Guy grinned and then said, "You aren't wrong about people being one of the flaws, but since I designed the airships I can tell you a secret. The greatest flaw they have is that they aren't really lighter than air. Watch this..."

Olivier and Guy both walked up to the window and looked at the incoming Airship fleet and started to say, "Dispell."

Each time one of them said the word, an enemy airship simply fell from the sky. The great masses on these heavily armed and armored airships caused huge explosions of earth and rock each time they dropped from the air. No one on board the ships would be able to survive the drop from hundreds of feet in the air. The Captain started getting sick to his stomach as he watched the mages speak a word and kill hundreds of men at a time.

After a dozen ships had been dropped out of the air, Guy turned to the captain and said, "Explain to the remaining ships that if they wish to remain in the air, they will surrender. Any ships that that refuse will suffer the fate of the first dozen."

The Captain sent the message through the pipe to the flag officer. Soon white flags started to stand up from ships in the enemy fleet one after another. Only two ships refused to stand down and Olivier and Guy simply dispelled the magic keeping them in the air. Once their work was done, Olivier and Guy had the flagship return with the surrendered fleet to the main airship base to deal with the crews on board the rebelling ships.

*****

As the team in the library scoured book after book Madeline found a spell that looked promising, "I found a spell, it's called a time cloud, this must be it!"

She read through it a few times and then said, "Yes, this is the spell it has to be, it's a spell that works similar to a gate and can move you through space and time."

Doreen frowned and then said, "I found a spell here as well that might work, it's called time hop. I think we should keep looking just to be sure. If the spell we tried the first time had unintended consequences like bringing us here against our wills, we should see if a better spell exists."

Diggory nodded and said, "Indeed, the spell I just found would only send a person's mind back in time. Something like that might cancel out the entire spell we placed the first time for instance."

"Alright I think ye all 'ave good points, let's bring 'em all and vote on 'em," Ella suggested.

Algernon nodded and said, "I second Mage Luthier's suggestion."

*****

Olivier and Guy seemed to be putting out fires everywhere all day long. Every change they made lead to a cascade failure of the system that required them to act in a big showy way as if someone was purposely exaggerating each tragic event to cause them problems. It was a system that seemed purposely designed to be as fragile as possible to keep people from making changes the way that they were trying. If you added something good it caused a failure one way. If you took something away, it could cause a failure in a different way. Even the act of firing the board of directors caused a cascade of failures as there was an army of people who relied on them to feed their families by maintaining the support structures of their opulent lifestyles.

Guy was almost at the point he was ready to give up and help the rest look for a spell. Olivier sighed and said, "Guy, you are going to have to face the facts, this was going to happen after you passed away no matter what. In fact, it still might. If we go back in time, we'll only be delaying the inevitable. The changes you brought when you created the Ito Conglomerate are the major cause of all of this mess. I also think people's reactions to the Council of Magic and the Ito Conglomerate are partly to blame."

Guy bit his fist and said, "Lets go see what they have found, there has got to be a way for us to save the world."