Jet Springs Library

"Many would come to learn from us. She was one of them, and with her help we could teach far more than ever before. But then they came for her..." - Junayed Shaheen, Archchancellor

Jet Springs Public Library, located in the Jet Springs district of Fountain, was the main library and educational centre of the city. It acted as a third place for the city's denizens to come together for learning, regardless of their species and disparate cultures. Founded by the Order of Falcon Wizards and funded by the Council of Owls, the Library would serve Fountain denizens for decades until it was destroyed, signaling the start of the Luminary Annexation of Fountain.

The Opening Exchange

Fountain has people of many species, everything from fish to birds, all attracted by the springs of fresh water all over the city. When the Order of Falcon Wizards first arrived in year 250, their leader, Archancellor Junayed built their nest at the top of a beat-up 10 storey building next to the Jet Springs. Over time, his fellow wizards joined him, bringing their collections of books and filling out shelves they had constructed in the lower floors. This occupation of a building so close to the Jet Springs brought the attention of the Council of Owls. The Owls negotiated with the Falcons to make more space available for homes for the continuous flow of immigrants, but the Archchancellor wount not budge from his nest. Ultimately the Owls relented in year 253 with convincing the Archchancellor to open up the Order's collections of books to the public as a library, in return for a seat in the Council itself. The Library expanded out to all floors of the building, and opened its doors to the public soon after for nearly the next 30 years.

A Place for Myriad Peoples

The Order did not stop at opening their doors. Seeing an opportunity to grow their numbers and attract wizards of other species, they bought the neighbouring buildings as well and combined all of them into a larger block, vastly expanding the floor areas of the lower floors. These lower floors were full of shelves of all kinds of books, and there was enough open floor space left over to run various arts, cultural and even magical research programs in laboratories. There were indoor treehouses for birds, scratching posts for anything with claws, even aquariums where waterproofing spells would automatically apply on books so fish can let go of their above water bubbles. The Order wanted to draw everyone in.
And people did come. They came from all over the city, and outside of it too. Children would come with their families to study and do homework, their elderly grandparents checking out the newspapers section and playing board games in the corner. Students from the Northern hemisphere of Moontides would alter their migration patterns to stop at Fountain now and visit the Library, and many would stay afterwards. There were twelve thousand, seven hundred and forty-six books at the time of its ruin, with the Order of Falcons rebranding into the Order of Wizards as students of various species joined over the years.
Their first non Falcon member was an elderly alligator witch named Siddiq Maze, who the Archchancellor had wooed into the university with the promise of a rocking chair wherever he wanted. Siddiq had the power to cast illusions and alter everything one could sense around them, and he proved a hit with the younger kids. You can often find him seated in the middle of a circle of children, all of them looking around in wonder, with him comfortably reading from his rocking chair. Entering the circle would take you into the world of the book itself, as the Library would fade away and be replaced with the fantastical forests and islands of the fables he would read to the children. Siddiq's popularity convinced the Archchancellor to open the doors of the Library wide open.
Another pivotal entry was their latest employee. In 280, a katydid nymph joined the ranks of the order. Her skill and repertoire were promising, as she proved to be capable of shapeshifting into various other insects and access their abilities as well. Usually only katydid adults could access such powers, but seeing them in a nymph had the Order very intrigued and so they hired her to keep a close eye on her. She proved popular with the insect population of the city as well, as she started teaching magic classes and running training programs for children from various insectoid species throughout her stay there.
However, her katydid form was merely a disguise. She was none other than the Daughter of the Luminary God-Queen herself, Layla Fortuna. At the time she was a runaway from the Luminary homeworld of Haven, having escaped her Mother's confines. Her abilities to alter the fabric of reality made it trivial for her to hide her identity even from the Order of Falcons, even while she worked with them. Right under their noses, she built and stayed in a secret laboratory under the library, where she experimented with encoding the powers of Luminaries and her own into technology. This experimentation led to the creation of Ball, a robotic sphere that presented itself as a child spider with the ability to spin golden threads of magic, similar to what any adult Luminary could do. Her Mother, Dame Fortuna, was content to let her daughter play truant for a while, but this act of reducing Luminary powers to a mere machine could not go unacknowledged.

Ruin and Destruction

Rumors about a terrorist organization led by Safiya, a Fire Ant, spread throughout the city in 282. There was talk about her having murdered the Luminary Princess, and the Luminary Fleet invaded the city in droves of ships. Their strong presence allowed Dame Fortuna to pierce the protective veil over the city that Layla had placed to prevent herself being followed. In one fateful day, both Dame Fortuna and Safiya walked into the Library, each accompanied by a squad of Luminary troops and Fire Ant revolutionaries respectively. The Order and their Archchancellor were confused about why both would show up in the same day, but they got no time to ponder their questions as Layla merely waved her hand once and teleported all the Library's patrons, the librarians, and the entire Order outside of the city. The birds amongst the Order flew back as fast as they could, but they arrived too late. The whole Library exploded with a great thunderous bang, blue smoke and a blue mushroom cloud rising from the debris.
They managed to uncover some of the debris to find the corpses of most of the troops that had followed Safiya and Dame Fortuna in, and to find Layla's secret laboratory. There was no sign of Layla, Ball, Safiya or the Queen herself, and they did not get the chance to look any further. The rest of the Luminary Fleet descended upon Haven and stormed the Citadel, killing the entire Council of Owls and ransacking their home. The Queen then revealed herself to be back in Haven, having somehow traveled back before the explosion, completely unharmed and addressing her new subjects. She declared Fountain to be controlled by the Luminaries from now on, and the Order had no choice but to fly away. None of them wanted to stand up to the Mother of the One who had misplaced them with merely a wave. The Library had closed its doors one final time, forever lost to the explosion.

"I don't know whether to thank her or to curse her name. They came for her and the Library was lost. Yet she might have ensured we all survived by sending us away like that. But then now we are alone, and the city has been conquered." - Siddiqa Maze

253 - 282

Location

Fountain