Amaretto stared at the mountain looming over them, lips pressed thin and eyes narrowed. “So. What now?” he asked, turning to look at the alicorn beside him, her green coat shimmering in the late afternoon sun. “I don’t suspect we can just teleport inside like you would past a wooden door.”
Theá shook her head. “No. We can’t. My brother will have to grant us access, though that is the least of our concerns. The biggest problem will be to find a book and take it to Scalpel without my brother noticing. Either that, or convince him to let us borrow it for a time. I do not know which would be more difficult, but regardless we’ll have to be careful. Be it with our actions or our words.”
He grunted something vaguely reminiscent of acceptance in reply, eyes once again returning to the mountain in front of them. “So… when are we going in?”
Even out the corner of the eye, he could see the smile that slowly spread across Theá’s muzzle. It wasn’t big—but her smiles never were—but it was enough that Amaretto knew that what she was about to do would most likely involve violence in some way.
It was only seconds later when he was proven right. She called upon her magic, letting it flow through her horn and set it alight like a small beacon. Hardly a moment passed from when she had lit it to when she brought it to bear against the mountain, sending a blast of raw telekinetic power directly towards the barriers she knew surrounded the entire thing. The resulting boom was enough to cause Amaretto to cringe, folding his ears against his skull.
“You didn’t have to be so damn loud,” Amaretto grumbled as he and Theá finally found themselves inside what could be called the ‘lobby’ of Arcon’s base. Even deaf and blind the other alicorn would still have been able to feel Theá’s ‘knock’, Amaretto thought. He had let them inside as per his promise to Theá, only reluctantly allowing the mortal with her entrance as well, and even then only because Theá promised swore that she would not let him do anything untoward.
He had left them alone after that, making it clear that one hour, and only one, was how long he would allow the two of them into his vaults, and after that he would personally see to throwing them out if they had not disappeared already.
He might have imagined it, but Amaretto was almost sure that he had seen something akin to regret, or perhaps melancholy in Theá’s eyes as she and Arcon spoke.
But now that they were making their ways towards the vault that something in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by determination and a sense of urgency. She hadn’t yet told Arcon of why they were here, only that she wished to make good of his promise to her.
They arrived at the vaults minutes later, both of them wide-eyed at the sheer size of the thing: Bookshelves, pedestals, tapestries and everything in-between could be found here, and in enormous quantities to boot. Amaretto gulped as he looked about, wondering how in the hell they were supposed to find anything about ley lines or whatever it was that insane doctor had asked them to find. Or rather, had preferred that they brought back.
“Might as well start looking,” he muttered to himself and made his way towards the nearest bookshelf. Luckily for him it was labelled. Well, that’s going to make it a whole lot easier, at least, he thought, making his way to the next bookshelf; cooking recipes weren’t all that important, after all.
The next fourty minutes or so were spent just looking for the right section of the vault. They found everything from magic kindergarten books to analytical thesis on the size of pegasi wings written by some random professor from thirty years ago. By the end of those forty minutes, however, they finally found the right section.
The Forbidden Section, Amaretto dubbed it in the silence of his mind. He had never heard of any of these books, save perhaps a few in passing and even then only as a hushed whisper. There were books on raising the dead, of draining the life of others to achieve immortality—Rubbish. Every half-assed unicorn knows that’s not possible.—and, finally, books concerning the ley lines of the world. At first glance it wasn’t a necessarily dangerous book, as it only told of how the ley lines functioned and what they did, but, as Amaretto skimmed through it, he saw several pieces that, even his not-so-analytical mind, could see would allow someone with the necessary knowledge and preparation to utilize them for their own end.
Magic was something that was drawn from within oneself, the pool which every unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony had. What few knew was that when their pool recharged it was because they automatically drained magic from the ley lines across the world, but it was such small amounts that the ley lines immediately regenerated whatever amount was unconsciously drained.
Amaretto gulped. If anyone were to consciously drain from the ley lines, they would be able to do so in much greater amounts. Of course, the majority in this book was absolute rubbish, at least to Amaretto—and Theá agreed—but some of it were, at the very least, educated guesses and enough for someone to make use of if they could separate true from false.
“This looks good?” He asked, glancing at Theá then back to the book; ‘Ley Lines – A Conscious Drain.’.
“Certainly sounds like something he would want. Let’s get back before my dear brother kicks us out.”
----
Winterjet couldn’t keep the small grin from spreading across her lips, teeth showing ever so slightly.
“Not many would be able to say that they have fought with a god and lived. Let’s just say that I’m interested in seeing that you can do. So, yeah. It is a challenge.” She spread her wings wide, large in comparison to her body, flaring out each feather in the most intimidating and impressive display she could. “Let’s just say that I want to see if I can beat a God.”
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