The Wizard of Elsewhere

1.10 - Forthright and Forewarned

The truth is, no Wizard truly knows what happens in Witches covens. But every wizard worth his beard brush acts like he does, and does a lot of blushing besides when they think about what they think occurs in one.

Witches certainly aren't telling, but they sure do cackle loudly when asked....

— Encrypted excerpt from Grand Wizard Virgil Borengirdles late night Pondering (decrypted by then Apprentice Wizard Barnibus Jefferson Montgomery Barnwinkle)

* * *

There once was a grand Wizard who lived a wholesome and fulfilling life in his humble little library.

He tinkered and dabbled and Pondered quite a lot and generally bumbled around discovering new and exciting potion ingredients and eventually made some highly questionable statements about the nature of magic which some other Wizards liked quite a lot.

His wife, Agatha the Nonchalant and not at all Revolutionary corroborated those statements and then some Witches jumped on the bandwagon, and those ideas spread.

Together, this Wizard and Agatha lived out their lives in harmony.

They had five children who each went ahead and made their own somewhat questionable discoveries, and eventually the Wizard died at the rather respectable age of seven hundred and two in his humble library. His wife post dated his death by seven years and eventually slumped over in the center of her small coven during a summoning.

This Wizard's name was Emanuel Mordechai Menovchinsky, and his rather questionable discoveries were the two part bisection of the magical phenomenon, or, more colloquially discussed as Anima and Mana.

The end.

...

Or, the beginning.

For around the grave of the Wizard, his library grew.

Wizards came from far and wide to add books to his shelves and hang their hats on his walls.

With so much magic in the air, the walls expanded, twisting and curling in on themselves until the confines of the previous construction became too tight, and they burst from their constraints.

They unfurled rapidly. Growing and shedding their previous shabby wood frames in exchange, first, for mud-fired brick, then rough hewn stone... and then just hewn stone.

They twisted and tangled and stretched and spread.

They grew shelving like tree moss and wizards dutifully added books to them.

The magic grew.

More Mana attracted more Wizards and the walls helpfully provided benches and chairs for seating and contemplation. Wizards sat and thought and pondered... and the magic grew.

The Wizard's Hats grew large with insight and their beards long and heavy with knowledge.

So the walls vaulted the ceilings high... and high ceilings allowed the Wizardly Imagination to take off and soar and tumble like dandelion seeds... and the magic... grew.

Wings were added and then floors, then columns to hold the floors. The library grew.

Laboratories grew like knots and Wizards used them, and brewed in them and sometimes exploded them.

Artificeries bubbled up around the Laboratories like air drifting to the surface of ponds of possibility, and Wizards hammered and carved and etched and sewed talismans of great power.