I whipped my head around and flicked my wand out of my locker, holding it up in the air and conjuring a shield over my torso.

I needn't have bothered.

The rumbling ended as the painting in the room, the one that was animated to allow it to track the time, swung open. A passageway lay behind it, one sized large enough for a minotaur, treefolk, or other member of a large race could have comfortably walked within.

That was clearly a spatial warp, as the painting was too small to conceal such a large passage, but when it came to this school, spatially altered passage was no longer quite as shocking as it could have been.

I cast ethersight for the third time this evening and studied the passage, noting the flows of conjuration and transmutation around the passage, as well as the tinge of something far older, doubtless the magic of the enormous cloud that everything was floating on. The other side of the painting, now exposed to me, seemed to be a door, complete with a handle that could be used to push it open or closed, and it was glowing with affinity magic as well, one that matched my ring. There was no abjuration or obliteration, though, which I took to be a positive sign that the passage wasn't trapped.

I stepped in, and the door swung itself shut behind me. I turned and opened it again, but the lock didn't budge. I slipped a bit of ether through the ring function that had revealed the door, and watched as it passed through the ring and into the painting-door. The magic clicked up in a pattern like the tumblers of a lock, and I pushed it open, stepping out into the room, where the painting swung shut behind me again.

I opened and shut it a few times, testing that I could reliably get in and out, then shut it and sat on the bed. I would absolutely explore the passage as soon as I could, but I wanted to finish experimenting with the ring before I did. I doubted I'd be able to activate all of its functions at once, but maybe I could get one or two.

The first thing I did was try to draw power out of the ring. It had a massive amount of ether rushing through it, after all, so maybe it would allow me to tap the ring for power. I reached down to try and draw it out, but no magic came up. Still, there was… something. I didn't know exactly what, but there was definitely something in the ring that responded to the action of me attempting to push ether deep within.

Maybe the ring wouldn't let me take power out, but I could store power in it for another time? That wouldn't be as useful right now, while I was in classes and continually exhausting my ether pool, but in the long run it could be a useful advantage.

That felt closer, almost right, but not quite it either. I puzzled over the ring for a moment before trying to cast a shield spell into it.

This time, the magic of the ring surged up, connecting to my own. It felt almost like when I stored a spell within a spellglyph, but without a component required for sacrifice. The vast pool of power in the ring accepted my simple first circle spell readily, forming a bubble around it that I could feel with a sort of proprioceptive sense. The second of the five tiny ether crystals lit up then, glowing softly with a fragment of light.

I raised my hand and popped the bubble with a thin thorn of ether, letting the spell free. I expected the spell to release out like a spellglyph, but instead the ether from the spell flowed into me. All at once, within my mind the words of the incantation rungout, the pattern of the spell flashed, and the gestures flowed around. The spell flashed from my hands, not as if I'd stored it in a glyph, but as if I'd just cast it.

I dismissed the shield and started experimenting with how much power the spell seemed to be able to hold, but quickly ran into limits. I suspected that it could store a single seventh circle spell, but I was entirely unable to test such a thing. It was able to hold a massive number of first circle spells, enough that it drained my entire ether pool and forced me to use Xander's massage to start restoring it.

I tried to draw the power from the ether that was returned to me for the casting of the spells back into my pool, but it just evaporated. Seemed like I couldn't use it as a generic ether storage. Ah, well, being able to hold a handful of pre-cast spells was useful. It could probably hold two or three arcane passages, for example. That spell's ether cost was too high to justify mid-combat, but having one tucked away to use in a fight? It would make that cost far easier to manage.

I attempted a handful of other things with the ring, but was unable to light up the ring again, so I took a quick shower, then laid down to nap. First thing I did in the morning, before even leaving the room, I turned back to the painting that told time.

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I opened the hidden passage and stepped inside, flicking a weirlight to follow me, then started making my way down the darkness of the passage. It continued for a short time, no more than ten paces, before ending in a small circular room with three intricate arches that lead into branching passages – four, if I wanted to count the one I'd stepped through while entering.

Interestingly, there were about a dozen other arches that looked like they could have been a passage, but only held smooth stone. Maybe I hadn't earned the right to open those passages yet?

I panned my gaze around the room, trying to figure out anything I could. Each of the arches was labeled with spidery handwriting, with the one I'd come from listed as 'dorm', and the other three being 'reading room', 'mess hall', and 'registration hall'.

That was all clear enough, and made me think there had to be a way for the other places on campus. I turned and headed toward the reading room – if there was a place that was likely to be rife with secrets, it was the library. I hadn't been in since the end of the semester, not wanting to have to put in the effort to be on guard while I was supposed to be on vacation.

But I wasn't on vacation anymore, and the excitement of possibly being able to get a new book for free combined with the scintillating scent of secrets was enough to get me to begin walking up that tunnel as well. Ten paces in, I was at yet another door, which I unlocked and stepped through.

I stumbled into the reading room of the library, and heard someone let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank the gods and hells. I don't have to be alone here! It's been like… four hours!"

I turned to see a young man, probably about seventeen or so, wearing the school uniform that marked him with yellow and green, the symbol of a second circle caster able to stretch to cast third circle spells. He gave me a shaky nod and smiled.

"You've arrived early," I said. "First year?"

"I just wanted out of my dad's house…"

I gave him a smile and nodded my sympathy, then pointed outside.

"Just let me collect a book – I'll be back in a moment."

I walked over to the battered wooden table, which now had a tiny burn mark joining the blood splatters. I traced my finger on the burn.

"Are you all that my mother's flames managed to do to you?" I asked. When I heard no response, I glanced up and looked around. Once again, I spotted the spell guide for wish sitting on the shelf, and I glowered at it.

"It's obvious you're a mimic. I might have done a lot of growing, but wish is too powerful of a spell. At least pick a second circle spell, third tops. That being this close to the entry of the stacks would be believable."

I paused for a moment, then added.

"Also, you already tried to pull this on me, and it didn't work the first time. I get that I've done a lot since then, but not 'wish spell' levels of a lot."

The fake spell guide wiggled and popped off the shelf, sprouting six pairs of chitinous legs before running deeper into the library. I sighed and turned to leave. I'd been hoping for a free book, but–

The scent of smoke and shadows, and a flash of motion out of the corner of my eye. I whipped my wand up and cast abjure shadows, letting the wave of white light blast out of the tip. It rushed over the shadows, driving them back to their home planes, but the smoke monster lunged forward, claws outstretched.

Against smoke and ash, air spells were an obvious answer. I didn't have any wind magic of my own, so I materialized Orla, who barked and knocked the ashen form aside, giving me the time to mutter and flick my wand a few times, completing the incantation for summon lesser elemental.

A grapefruit sized wind spirit burst into being, sucking up some of the smoke and scattering it away. I summoned two more, and they made fairly short work of the library monster. I glowered down at the floor of the library.

"Really? I haven't even gone into the shelves and you're attacking me? Is it because of my coven membership?"

I held up my ring and examined it, but it didn't seem like any of its abilities were active. There was a glint of something out of the corner of my eye in the faint light it shed, and I turned, whipping my hand out and snatching whatever it was.

A thick book had appeared on the table, and I lifted it to examine its cover for a moment, making sure there wasn't a rune trap on it, before stuffing it into my bag and scampering back to the reading room. The new member of the school was looking at me, eyes wide, and I grinned at him.

"You get used to the library. Are you taking Applied Mage Combat?"

"No," he squeaked. "It was listed as a part of my scholarship, but the High King decreed that we didn't have to actually take it…"

"Take it," I said. "It's worth it. Anyways, didn't you want to run somewhere?"

"Oh!" the kid said, nodding, before turning and sprinting for the exit. I shook my head and watched him go, then set my book on the table next to my grimoire. I could examine that in a moment – for now…

I pulsed ether through the ring, and it revealed a spot on the wall where I could step through in order to exit. Weird that the passage in my bedroom was physical, but this was more illusionary, but what could I expect with the library. Nothing else revealed itself, so I settled down into a chair, picking up the book that the library had seen fit to reward me with for my growth over the last year.

The book was thick, weighing at least fifteen pounds, bound in dark red, pebbly leather, reminding me of a red stained alligator or drake skin. The corners of the book were made of gold, as was the enchanted lock that bound it closed, its ancient leather was in remarkably good condition, and the leathery pages had a pink silk bookmark marking the last reader's place.

There were two words written on the cover, in an ink that had been speckled with gold and gemstones, written in the bloodline tongue of dragons: Ketsalkuet's Grimoire.

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