Ray finished his meal as quickly as he could. He paid for it with half of a gold coin.

Apparently changemaking consisted of pieces of money broken off whatever you

were using to pay. He shrugged at it, but he wasn’t going to be around long enough

for that to be a consideration.

He didn’t want to be there the projected two years to the next invasion.

He walked out of the Blue Oak with a content feeling. A good meal always put him

in a better mood.

He looked around. Most of the buildings were tall enough to block his view of the

surrounding city. He decided that he needed a better look, and a map for future use.

He didn’t want to be there long, but he might have to explore the place before he

moved on to his next destination.

“Lamp, can you get me on a flat roof?,” thought Ray. He walked into an alley to hide

what he was doing.

Affirmative.

Blue light wrapped around him and lifted him straight up. He dropped gently on a

roof next to the alley. Flying was neat.

Ray looked around. He faced some standard medieval building practices where places

ran up against each other until they ran into a cross street. The roads were brick, or

cobbled stone. The buildings seemed to run to brick, stone, wood, and plaster from

what he could see.

“Lamp, we need a map of the city from this point of view,” said Ray. “Fill in names

of streets and buildings where you can. Internal view for the moment.”

Affirmative.

Ray’s thoughts showed him every section of the city. He quickly spotted the school

and Grandview in the north. The surroundings were grand and built with better

finesse than the neighborhood he stood in. He picked out a route to get him where he

had to go without attracting too much attention in his view.

He would love to just fly there, but how common were blue fireballs blasting across

the sky. He thought the exact number was close to zero.

On the other hand, four attempts to have an extradimensional invasion had occurred.

Some weird stuff might be expected.

He decided that he shouldn’t advertise until he was sure he had to bring the full

power of the lamp to bear on the problem.

He walked across the roofs, jumping over alleys and streets in some places. He didn’t

see anyone else, but he didn’t expect to unless they were up on the roofs to tend

private gardens, or go places like he was. In some places, he could see the outer wall

in the distance.

When he reached the edge of Grandview, he knew it just from the look. A wall with

a fence of metal rods separated it from the rest of the city. A gatehouse kept the

riffraff out. Houses were sprawling white things in a sea of grass with their own

fences.

The university stood on a hill in the middle of the white rows of mansions. The walls

seemed to be a pastel green. It had a low wall and its own gatehouse to keep even

better riffraff out.

Ray rubbed his face. He had to get through two different walls, a neighborhood that

didn’t want a one armed man roaming about, and whatever strange librarian that

might stand in the way. He wondered if there was another way to get what he wanted.

“Lamp, enhance vision,” thought Ray. “I want to get a better look before I commit to

committing a crime on the locals.”

Affirmative.

The scene took on an amazing clarity. Anything Ray focused on grew closer until he

could count the leaves on a tree at one point. He didn’t see anything unusual. He

wondered if the residents depended on their wall to keep out strangers.

“Lamp, do you see any magical defense?,” asked Ray.

Negative.

“I think we can get in over the wall and walk up to the University,” Ray thought.

“Then all we have to do is find the library.”

Lamp said nothing.

“Let’s go down and pick a spot to climb the outer wall,” said Ray.

Affirmative.

Blue light lowered Ray to the street. He walked up to the fence around Grandview.

He turned away from the guardhouse, and walked along the wall. He glanced inside

as he went, looking for people who were looking for people like him. He paused

when he thought he had found the right place.

“Lamp, be ready to help out, but nothing too flashy,” said Ray. “We’re trying to keep

a low profile.”

Affirmative.

Ray climbed up to the top of the stone wall. He stuck his metal arm through the bars

blocking his way. The split widened in a jolt of flame to let him through to the other

side. He turned and pushed the bars back together before he dropped down to the

ground on the inside of the wall.

“University from here?,” asked Ray.

A small flame appeared in his mind’s eye to show him which way to go. He nodded

as he started walking. The next step was to avoid any inner guards until he got to the

inner wall, then get through the wall, then find the library. Using the roofs should

allow him to find the library quickly with his vision enhancement.

The real problem in his estimation was the librarians. Would they allow to look at

their precious books since he didn’t attend their school? He might have to leave, and

then ninja his way back in to read everything he needed to know.

Ray had never punched a librarian before. He didn’t want to start just because he was

in a different world for the moment.

He reached the university wall out of sight of the gate. He looked around. He didn’t

see anything with his eyes.

“Lamp, security?,” he mentally asked.

Negative.

“We’ll do the same thing with this as we did the other wall,” he thought.

Affirmative.

Seconds later, he walked toward the main buildings of the campus. He searched for

a sign to point him toward the library.

The translation popped up after a minute of walking. He smiled. At least that part was

still working like planned.

He walked up to the door. He couldn’t pass himself off as a student. What was his

plan? How did he learn what he needed to know in what could be minutes before the

alarm was raised and he forcefully asked to leave.

“Lamp, can you scan books from the outside?,” he thought.

Affirmative.

“This is the plan,” he thought. “I’m going to go in and ask the librarian where the

books on the invasions are, general history, geography, anything we might be able to

use. I want you to scan the books and retain the information. Conflicting accounts

will have to be evaluated to see if there is anything useful. Can you do that?”

Affirmative. Reading time will vary for each book.

“If you can’t get it done before I get kicked out,” thought Ray. “We’ll come back after

hours and do what we have to do.”

Affirmative.

Ray opened the door and stepped inside the library. He looked around. He didn’t see

what he thought of as books. Instead the shelves held folios with handwritten sheets

inside.

Whomever made the printing press work in this world would make a mint.

Affirmative.

A group of librarians approached Ray. They wore matching cloth suits of black and

silver with the holy letter at the collar and stern expressions on their faces. One of

them looked too young to be so stern, but he thought if he had to go through them,

she was the one he was putting down first.

Affirmative.

Scan starting.

“Hello, ladies,” said Ray. He noticed a blue beam spraying over the books like the

infra red reader at a grocery store. He had to keep the librarians busy while Lamp did

the work. “I was wondering if you could help me find some information.”

“What kind of information?,” asked the eldest lady, hair grayer, and pulled back more

than the other two.

“I need to know everything you know about the waves of dimensional invasion that

has taken place over the last two hundred years,” said Ray. “Whatever you can tell

me will be fine.”

“And why do you need to know this?,” asked the librarian.

“My boss thinks there’s a fifth wave on the way and he asked me to find out

everything I could,” said Ray. “I’m new in town, so I thought I should talk to the

experts.”

“That’s flattering, but I doubt you will find anything here,” said the librarian. “You

should go to the history department and ask your questions.”

“You can’t tell me anything?,” asked Ray.

“Lamp, how much time do you need?,” he thought.

Thirty seconds.

“No,” said the librarian. “This library is for the school. Only students may request the

material. Are you a student?”

“I haven’t been a student in a long time,” said Ray. He put on a smile. “If I wanted to

send my kids here, what would be the requirements?”

“That is a question best answered by the academic sponsors,” said the librarian.

“Thank you for your help,” said Ray. “It was a pleasure talking to you all. We should

do this again.”

He didn’t know if he should try to shake their hands. He settled for bowing.

“Lamp?,” he thought.

Finished. Reading the information gathered.

Ray turned and walked to the door. He stepped outside and let the smile vanish. Now

he had to spend time going over what Lamp had uncovered.

He wondered if the librarians didn’t want people to know there were invasions every

fifty years. He wondered if they knew it themselves. It wasn’t like these people had

a Snopes, or Fact Check.

Ray started for the wall. He wasn’t there to make a change in society. He was there

to stop a monster from doing something monstrous. Anything else was gravy as far

as that was concerned.

He thought the guy had to scope out the right time and place to do the deed. That was

the only thing that explained the different summon sites. He picked them based on

some criteria that no one had thought about yet, and went out to prep and do the deed.

Then he fled the scene.

That is if Mister Woad and his people were right about that.

Ray was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt since they had armed him and

sent him in to find out what was going on. He didn’t think the decision was born out

of paranoia.

“Lamp, give me a marker back to the Blue Oak, and keep an eye on our backtrail,”

he thought. “I don’t trust those librarians at all.”

Affirmative.