Goro: Look What I Found

He found it during his weekly reshelving of books in the library. Sheer fucking luck, really, since he didn't normally read books on natural history, but there'd been this one that talked about volcanoes and he held out a dim hope it'd say something about the one by Sienna Springs.

The book had been useless, but as he was putting it back on the shelf labeled *NATURAL HISTORY*, he heard an unexpected thumping sound. Wood against more wood. He frowned, grabbed a couple of the books, and rattled them. The shelf was loose, and there was another weird rattling sound on top of that.

He moved all the books to the floor, temporarily. Then he grabbed the shelf and gave it a shake. Rattling, again. He removed the shelf and set it on the floor next to the books, and there on the back panel of the bookcase he could now see a section of wood that didn't match the area around it.

He took the books off the next shelf down, too, to give himself clear access. The mismatched section was about a square foot in size, and it had been nailed on, like a patch to cover a hole. Goro knocked his fist against it—definitely hollow on the other side.

Neat.

The nails were tiny, and the wood patch looked and felt thin. He braced one hand against the back of the bookcase and worked his fingers under the edge of the patch, gritting his teeth as he pried. He pulled until one of the nails was loose enough to drag out, and from there he was able to break the thing off with a good yank.

A cloud of dust was the first thing to emerge. The secret compartment only went back a couple inches, but when he reached in and down, his fingers brushed something a few inches below. A book. He grabbed and lifted it out carefully, bringing some cobwebs with it.

It was a slim volume, less than a hundred pages, and so thick with dust Goro coughed as he was wiping off the front cover.

*A Recounting of the Tale of*

*MASK, LORD OF SHADOWS,*

*in his quest to steal the Emerald Eye Staff from under Helm's nose,*

*as written by Sister Lilith of Cuthwin*

Goro's eyes widened. No fucking way.

He knew Sister Lilith—not *knew* her knew her, she'd been dead for a hundred years, but any cleric of Mask could recite a list of her works in his sleep. She was a prophetess who'd traveled to the afterlife and back, bringing all kinds of stories with her about Mask's exploits and adventures, along with prayers, proverbs, and spells. Goro had read everything she'd written, multiple times.

Except this.

He'd never even heard of this.

He'd just stumbled across buried treasure, right in his own home.

This was fucking incredible. He hopped up and down like an excited kid, hugged the book to his chest, and scrambled over to knock on the top of Ombre's fort. "Ombre! Ombre! Look!" He dropped to his knees and waited for her to poke her head out between the blankets. "Look what I found!"

Ombre read over the title of the book. "Oh—oh," she said, clearly perplexed.

"You have no *idea* how great this is," Goro said, which he was pretty sure she agreed with. He turned the book back around and started flipping through the pages, sneezing when it unleashed another cloud of dust in his face. "This is like, some kinda lost fucking volume or something, from this lady's collection—she was a prophetess, she communed with Mask, and she brought back all kinds of secrets and shit, and now some of those secrets are *mine.* Fuck yes."

"Oh," Ombre said again. "That's… that's great, Goro."

She still didn't really get it. That was fine. Nice of her to play along, anyway. "It *is* great. You gotta take my word for it. Goddamn." Smiling at the book again, he hopped to his feet and headed for the stairs. This was going to be one hell of a good afternoon. Lunch, and some tea, and fucking Maskarran secrets—an entertaining story at the very least, but more than likely, a new spell or two.

When he got to the kitchen, he found Hansel there, making sandwiches.

"Hansel. *Hansel.* Look what I fucking found!" He ducked underneath Hansel's arm, hugging his waist, and waved the book in his face. "There was a fucking secret compartment in one of the bookcases and this was in there and it's like a goddamn fucking miracle! You have no—you don't even know—this is *so fucking cool*, okay, I bet there's some spells in here and shit, this is fucking—you don't even get it, nobody knows about this, this is like, fuckin', Goro-only knowledge right here, I'm so fucking excited."

Hansel paused his sandwich-making and put a hand on the book to steady it—Goro hadn’t realized he was fucking *bouncing*, he was so excited, god—and read the cover. "Oh," he said cheerfully, sounding just like someone who was trying to sound pleased and interested, but had no idea what was going on. "That's great, chatichi. I'm happy for you." He kissed Goro on the head.

"It *is* great. It's so fucking great." Goro hooked one arm around Hansel's neck and kissed his cheek, then took his book over to the table and sat down to start reading. He sneezed again. Goddamn dust.

Hansel finished the sandwiches and walked by the table, arms loaded up with plates. He set one in front of Goro and kissed him on the head again, then continued on his way. Goro didn't look up, just grabbed the sandwich and crammed it into his mouth one-handed while he read.

For the next couple hours, he didn't move from that spot. He read through the book twice—first time to get an overview, second time to analyze it in more detail. Sister Lilith wasn't the type to hand out instructions; instead she simply wrote a story and then included annotations in the margins. Like, *A suitable addition to any morning ritual* when describing an act or gesture, or writing out a brief prayer next to where Mask committed some miraculous feat—those ones were usually the spells. Any Maskarran worth their salt would find it more satisfying to puzzle the steps out themselves than have it spoon-fed to them.

The story was on the short side, and it contained only three such prayers, two of which Goro already knew. One was to temporarily blind a foe, and one was to magically make oneself unrecognizable. Easy.

The third one was more unusual, and that was where Goro focused his attention. At first, he mistook it for the spell Blink, since he thought the narrative was describing Mask stepping briefly onto a different plane. He'd known a few Maskarran clerics who could cast Blink, so it made sense. Reading over it a third time, though, paying closer attention to the language used, he realized that didn't quite add up. Blink could make a person disappear and reappear a few feet away. But Mask disappeared from Helm's sight, then reappeared on a balcony above him, where he proceeded to sneak away holding the Emerald Eye Staff. That was a little farther than a *few feet*.

Goro kept rereading the prayer, too, and what stuck out to him was the use of the word *envision*, because Blink—from what he understood—could only step you to a place you could see. Envisioning implied something different.

He didn't want to get too ahead of himself, get his hopes up before he tried it, but he had a hunch. The spell being described was Dimension Door.

Fucking fantastic.

*Now* Goro had someone who could really share his excitement. Mishka. Mishka would get a kick out of this, for sure. Goro needed to try it out first, though, make sure he was right.

#

The next morning, after praying and meditating, he went out to the woods. He needed a big space to practice in, and didn't want anybody to see him.

He brought the book with him, even though he'd memorized the prayer, along with most of the relevant scene from the story. Wasn't much to it. He started small, at first. Stood next to a tree, picked out a different tree about fifteen feet away. He closed his eyes, envisioned the spot, and recited the prayer.

Didn't work right away. After a few tries, he decided he must be taking the wrong approach, so he sat down to reread one more time. Make sure he was going for the right image.

The story described Mask *stepping* onto the balcony. Aha, maybe that was what he was missing. He stood up and said a quick prayer for guidance, gesturing over his chest. Then he readied himself by the tree again.

He picked out the spot he wanted. He closed his eyes, said the prayer, and *stepped*.

There was a little lurch in his gut, the world tilting, which he recognized immediately from the times Mishka or Roddy had done it with him. He regained his balance and opened his eyes, smiling, now looking back at the tree he'd been standing by an instant ago. That was it, then. Simple.

He did it again, stepping back to his starting point, less disoriented this time. He vanished and reappeared with a faint puffing sound, like a candle flame being snuffed out.

It was fucking draining, was the only thing. He could already tell this was not the kind of thing he'd be able to do several times a day, like Mishka. He was pretty sure he'd only gotten away with doing it twice so far since it was such a small distance he was traveling.

One more time, though. He wanted to try it one more time. He'd be stuck in bed for the rest of the day recovering, but it'd be fucking worth it.

Heh. In fact, maybe he could even get straight to his bed.

He walked, first, wanting to get close enough to see the castle. He stayed just inside the edge of the woods, still not wanting to be seen. He had an eye on his bedroom window, though. He held on tight to his book, closed his eyes, and breathed in and out a few times, getting focused.

Then he envisioned his bedroom, recited the prayer, and stepped.

He landed on his knees on top of his bed, groaning loudly, but laughing too. Felt like being fucking pummeled by a bunch of boulders, straining himself like that without enough magic. Made him dizzy as fuck, too. But *hell*, was he pleased with himself.

He flopped over to rest, sleep off the nausea and the achiness. Couldn't stop smiling, though.

#

Mishka was gonna fucking love this shit. He'd be so proud. Goro didn't want to tell him, though, he wanted to show him, so first he had to make sure he had it down. Tricky, when he could only do it once a day without making himself sick.

He took just a couple more days to practice. Always careful to make sure he disappeared and reappeared where no one would see him.

He didn't have a plan in mind for how exactly he was going to show Mishka. He thought about it as he headed downstairs the next morning. Maybe a "hey, watch this" followed by snuffing out. Nah, wait—Mishka would just think Goro had gone invisible. Not enough of an impact.

As he reached the landing in the entry hall, though, a different opportunity presented itself. He could see through the doorway to the dining room that Mishka and Hansel were sitting at the table together, eating breakfast.

A good twenty feet away.

Hmm.

"Morning," Goro called, smiling. And when he had their attention, he closed his eyes, whispered his prayer, and stepped, reappearing in the chair across from Mishka's.

Mishka started to make a sound that could have been an *oh*, but it was cut short. Because he vanished, with a crack.

"Ah shit," Goro said. Should've seen that coming, honestly.

"Hey," Hansel said, looking sadly at the spot Mishka had been a moment ago. He frowned at Goro, then blinked, looking back and forth between Goro and Mishka's empty chair. "The fuck—the fuck just happened? Did you just—"

Goro stood up, sheepish. "Uh. I'll go find him." And he walked away, headed for the stairs, to begin searching the castle.

"Hey," Hansel said again, calling after him. "What the fuck?"