I was exhausted, dreary, and slogging across the street towards the library in the rain. I
could see the earthen mound across the front of the building that made up the roof of the hidden
magical wing. If you hadn’t guessed yet, it was exam week. Now, my exam might be slightly
different than what you might think. If you thought it had to do with filling in bubbles with a No. 2
pencil you are dead wrong. I was preparing to enter a duel with a peer in front of a panel of
judges who would decide if our magic was up to par with those in the grade above us. I almost
ran into the door, my slumped posture had limited my vision. I pushed open the door and shook
off my boots. Upon passing through the second door of the Bridgman Public Library I received a
warm greeting and responded in accordance. I wove my way through the large expanse of
books until I reached the back right wall. I found the familiar brick with the scratch and knocked
twice, waited a few seconds and rapped thrice more. While I looked around to make sure I was
alone I noted a fictional novel I would come back to. Once I finished a sweep of my
surroundings I knocked one final time and the brick slid back, opening an arched hole, close to
the floor. I crouched down to half my height and crawled into the dark.
“Back so soon?” echoed a squeaky voice, hidden in the
shadows. “Hey Jon,” I said, “I only ate, nothing else.”
“You seem quite dedicated to these exams of yours,” the small, stubby old man said as
he shuffled over to the light switch. He winced as he flicked it on, he prefered the dark but knew
I couldn’t see without the light. He had put on a jacket since I had been gone, I felt a breeze
just as the thought entered my mind. It made my wet clothing cling to my skin and sent chills
throughout my body. The ancient underground wing was surprisingly drafty.
“I have to be, I got paired up with a demon summoner,” I elaborated.
“Whoo-wee, you seem to be quite a lucky one,” the man wheezed while chuckling.
“Does seem that way, and he seems to be a little overconfident, which makes it all the
worse. With my luck he’ll probably summon a demon he can’t control and it’ll get
loose.” “I reckon the masters’ll have fun with that, won’t they?.”
“Yeah,” I said through a light laugh. I headed towards the magical tomes to find some
useful spells to combat demons. I studied for what felt like hours until my eyes could no longer
stay open. I headed towards the exit and peaked through the magically transparent brick at
the many rows of books now hidden in the dark of the empty library.
“Headin’ out are we?” Jon assumed.
“Yup, see you later.”
“Good luck in your duel Oliver, you're gonna need it.” I tapped the brick twice with my
newly acquired tomes causing the hole to slid open near my feet. I almost panicked and ran
back in before I remembered the books were magically checked out. I made my way home
and went straight to bed.
The next morning I woke up early and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I brushed up on
some of my few memorized spells until it was time to leave. I put on my uniform and waited. A
few moments later, when the clothing recognized me, I was transported to the sidewalk in front
of my school. It was an expansive red brick building with white columns and large windows. I
almost had to tilt my head all the way back to see the top floor, which is of course where they
force the lower grades to abide. I walked through the large white doors to the stairs and began
my ascent. With all of the available magic I don’t know why there isn’t a better way to climb
twenty flights of stairs, it seems quite simple. When I eventually made it to the top floor I went to
my master’s classroom and placed my bag next to my desk. I barely had time to open one tome
before Master Eli began his rant.
He liked to start the day with a complaint of the school system. Today’s topic was
exams, as I could have predicted. I normally savored his blubbering in hopes of it delaying
lessons, but today I just wanted to get my exam over with. Master Eli was talking about how
the exams were unfair because some students had strengths other than combat, even though
this was a magical combat school. Finally he glanced at the clock and cut his speech short.
“Sorry for the delay, today is your advancement exam. The arena for today has been
decided. You will be competing in the Sahara Desert. Would you all stand and pull your tie three
times,” Master Eli said, sounding like he would rather be anywhere else than teaching a class of
students. We all knew he wanted to be a Librarian Councilman. He was a tome user, one of the best
in the world, and thought his expansive knowledge of ancient writings should have gotten him onto
the council. Although he thought he should be a councilman, no one else wanted to give a rash
young man any power. The Librarian Council mostly dealt with the preservation of ancient texts, but
were often consulted by higher councils because of their reputation for being quite wise and
trustworthy. A sudden heat and glaring sunlight disrupted my thoughts.
We had been transported to a square arena about the size of a football field. The terrain
was mostly sand with dunes in each corner. There was a raised stone disk in the center that I
assumed was the beginning point. I looked around the stands until I saw the Summoning class. I
couldn’t tell who my opponent was just by looking at the group, but they all looked ominous. I
took a seat and watched the first few duels while looking over my tomes from the library. I recited
my bookmark spell, which magically turns to a certain page, to make sure I marked the correct
pages. I heard Master Eli call my name so I walked over to where he was standing.
“You’re up next so you better hurry over to the judges,” he informed me.
“Oh, and a quick tip,” he said as I began walking away, “low level demons don’t like
the water much.”
“I know,” I responded, “I did some research in the Bridgman Public Libraries Magical
Wing, but thanks anyway.” I made my way over to the judges and waited for the current match
to finish. A few minutes later my opponent approached. He was tall and very large. He wore the
school uniform and filled it so that it looked a size too small. If I was recalling correctly, his
name was George. We both stepped onto the discs in front of the judges. A few seconds later
we were in the center of the field. The larger disc separated into two halves and took us to our
opposite sides. A countdown appeared in the air. I took a deep breath and calmed my mind. I
hovered my hand above my bag ready to grab my tomes in an instant. The buzzer blared
throughout the stadium and my hand flew to my first tome, this tome focused on manipulating
the environment so I could get the upper hand. As soon as I made contact with the rough
leather binding I quickly said my bookmark spell. I touched my finger to the page and read the
text. When I finished I looked up to see the progress of my opponent. He had retreated even
farther back and was still summoning his first demon. A rumbling sound started to overwhelm
the arena. A large wall of earth began pushing itself up through the sand. I turned, ran, and
scrambled up onto the rising rock. I flipped to the next spell in the tome. I placed my finger on it
and read. I could start to feel a demonic presence which motivated me to read faster. I finished
that spell and quickly pulled out another tome. There was a sharp crack and then water began
spraying from the disk on the opposite side of the field. I looked up as I flipped to my mark in
the new tome. The arena was filling with water at a surprising rate and George was submerged
up to his waist. I was relieved that there were no holes in my earthen barrier, but I could also
feel the dark presence very prominently. I quickly cast an anti-demon shield in front of my self.
Now that my preparations were ready I retrieved my tome of offensive spells and flipped to
my first mark. I recited it and felt a surge going through my body and shoot from my fingertips. It
raced towards the shield in front of me and began to reflect back at me. I had to jump out of the way
and force my arm down below the shield and into the water. After the all electricity had exited my
body I slumped down onto the rock, my heart racing. I had not expected the electricity spell to draw
from a demonic source which i now realized was what made it reflect off my
anti-demon barrier. I looked down to the field and saw no sign of George or his demon. The
dark presence was also quite faint. I broke the spell for the earth barrier to let the water drain
from the arena. It revealed a very soaked George laying in the sand and a limp red and black
dog at the base of my wall, just below my feet. I was too busy almost killing myself to notice
the demon hound charging towards me.
The judges all stood and started to recite a spell. I was instantly teleported back to the
disk by the judges and the arena had returned to it’s original state. George was nowhere to
be seen, so I assumed he was back on the medical floor in the school. I shook the judges
hands and tried to read their expressions to see if I had passed, sadly they relayed no
information. I walked back to the Tome class accepting some small praise along the way.
“Those are some pretty rare tomes you have,” Master Eli said as I returned.
“Yeah,” I responded, “They were at the Bridgman Public Library.”
“There is quite a selection at that place.” He commented. I took my seat and within
a minute I had fallen asleep.