Trutharchivist

Galard got up and looked around him, disoriented for a moment. Then he realized where he was - at the roof of this... Mishmash Inn. Whatever that was. He looked beside him - Lightning was still fast asleep. Then he glanced to the side... And nearly jumped seeing a half-empty glass of wine beside him. Apparently, he forgot to put it down somewhere downstairs. Or finish it, for that matter. He recalled how the glowing man created it ex nihilo. He breathed deeply, then concentrated, fixing his attention on the glass. Refill. He thought, commanding it. Refill! The glass, annoyingly, stayed just as full as it was. He tried sensing its Ether flow - as per usual, it formed around the cup at its shape, leaving the regular grid-like flow. The wine inside had a circular pattern to it. He concentrated again, trying to tell it to refill and... The glass jumped one foot upwards, spilling the wine inside on the way back down - though Galard managed to catch it before it broke. If anything, it was now less full. He grumbled a bit. Not surprising, that he'll accidentally send the glass through the Ether lines instead of magically refilling it. At least he didn't send it to space. He took the glass and went for the stairs, going down to get breakfast- There were more people around now. True, most were turning in just now - since he came from another universe himself, he guessed they al were living on different time zones. Huh. Fadran was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the glowing man. Or nearly anyone he conversed with the previous day. He sighed and went for the kitchen, hoping there will be something to eat.

Galard went out and gave Lightning the essential information. He climbed him and they flew to the roof, going around the clock tower. After reaching there, Galard decided to finish for the day - he'll try to catch this glowing man later. And figure out what this Fellowship he just joined actually was.

Galard turned to the window. "What do you say, Lightning? They can get you an indoors place or a space on the roof!" He shouted. "I prefer rood, thanks!" Said Lightning. Galard turned to Fadran. "He'll have the space on the ceiling. It's under the sky, right?"

Galard turned to him, abandoning his conversation with the glowing man. "You must be Fadran." He said. "I got a message through the Ether informing me of your inn - it ked me to a hole in the universe... That's a long story. Anyway, is it possible to maje room for my dragon companion? He tends to feel rather left out when I... Well... Leave him out."

"Right. Can you recommend me where to start?"

"... Right. And you had a very long time to practice. Got it." He kept scratching at the back of his neck, there was something there... "And this mindscape being likely to have been commanded to obey guests... Does it mean just people who trained with that? Or can it be easier for the untrained, too?" He looked thoughtful. "I've been studying channelling Ether flows in the University, but since I'm on a vacation of sorts perhaps I can try learning something different. Though I won't really have much time to practice it, I guess..."

"Right." Galard said, adjusting quickly. "So... Mindscape... It's created by a person's mind? Can I learn how to manipulate it, or is it just for... Immortal creatures such as you?"

Galard distractedly scratched at the back of his neck, speechless. He murmured: "... Create... Out of thin air... No conservation of matter... Youth, eons ago? What the..." He shook his head, then took a small gulp of the wine. "I'll... Have to consider a few things. I don't think even dragons live that long..."

Galard takes the glass, hesitantly, then sips. His eyes widen. "That's some good wine. Where did you summon it from?"

I seem to have made a small mistake - the first of the Death novels is Mort, not Reaper Man. My brother recommended starting from either the beginning - the Color of Magic - or from it.

Galard stared at it. "... Right. Mindscape. Got it." He shook his head. "It doesn't work like Ether channeling, I suppose."

"Great. Do you know where he is? Me and my dragon friend out there -" he pointed with his thumb to the window, from which Lightning was still clearly visible, "-would like a room where we could be together, if possible. He doesn't like much being out of the conversation, so he feels a bit... Left out, out there."

Galard walked toward the slightly going person. "Excuse me," he said. "I thought I heard you say you know the person that created this place, or something similar?"

"'Here' is a very general term." Said Galard. "Me and Lightning... We're not exactly from around here. We just followed an Ether thread with a message about Mishmash Inn." Meanwhile, Lightning raised his head and huffed. Galard was gone for long enough, and he was stick outside, away from all the action! True, he was a tad to big to enter, but... He stepped toward the house, stopping with his eye looking theough a window. When he found Galard he said, in dragonish: "Come on, Galard, how long is this going to take? Is this the right place or not?" Galard turned his face to the window. "The host here seems to be busy! You'll have to wait a bit longer, I'm afraid." Galard turned back to his interlocurs, while Lightning growled and settled back to the ground. "The fact most human settlements around outside our home valley aren't too ready to host dragons kind of weighs on him. That reminds me, though... Do you know where our host is?"

"Not... A magical bond, I'm afraid." Said Galard, a bit perplexed. "In the valley I come from, there's a tradition of raising dragon and human children together. Some form companionships for the rest of our lives - though dragons tend to live longer."

Galard turned to the pair. "You must be talking about Lightning. He's mine, so to speak - my friend would be the most accurate phrase for that."

Galard jumped at the people coming in from odd portals. He tried to relax. This was... Expected, I guess. He kept waiting for their host to appear.

While not as directly Christian as Narnia, the Sunlit Lands Chronicles by Matt Mikalatos are inspired by them, and I enjoyed reading them even though I'm a Jew, myself. Also, Lewis' Space trilogy (though I didn't read it) also leans heavily into Christian ideas (AFAIK), although like Ender's Game it's Sci-Fi. Jewish fantasy books, sadly, are far more rare. Not that it's connected to the topic in any way, but still.

Might I recommend the Death series from Discworld? In it, it's best to start at Reaper Man, I think - do read it before Hogfather, people tend to say that there's no order to the Discworld series but the events of Reaper Man predate Hogfather and contain some characters that appear in it. I personally didn't like Guards! Guards! all that much, but I guess it's an important one. There's also the Witches series - starting with Equal Rites - which later contain parodies fairy tales and Shakespeare's plays. Hope I'm not going too over the top here... Anyway, Pratchett's Discworld - his main work, you could say, somewhat like Brandon's is the Cosmere - includes a few sub-series. Two of which I just mentioned by name. Another is the Night Guard series, of which "Guards! Guards!" is the first. Other series include Rincewind - this one includes the first two books to be published in the entire series, the Color of Magic and the Light Fantastic, and Moist Von Lipwig - of which Going Postal is the first. My older brother who also convinced me to read Sanderson is the Pratchett expert in our family, but he doesn't have a Shard account.

Something is odd about this boy. Thought the man - Galard was his name, frowning. But he seemed to calm down, so that was fine. He resumed waiting at the door.

The man politely moved aside to let the girl with the monkey come in. He frowns at the terrified boy. "Don't be afraid of Lightning," he said. "He won't hurt you. Right, Lightning?" The dragon snorted, and a small puff of smoke went out of his nostril. "Don't let that worry you, he's very good at controlling his fire."

A fifteen-foot-tall yellow dragon landed right before the inn. A man jumped off him, looking around then going to the steps of the inn. His dragon sat where he landed, gaze locked on the man. "Hello, is this Mishmash Inn?" He asked.