The space that greeted his eyes, once Tercius deemed it safe to open them, was much larger than what he initially saw through the portal. His legs never stopped advancing, just as Master Belior instructed.

"New students, please come over to me," a loud voice to their left said, and they turned to the source. A young-looking blonde man with a gray cloak waved to them, "Over here,"

As Tercius and Penelope moved to the man, Tercius took his time to observe his new surroundings.

The area in which they found themselves was smaller in height than the Grand Hall of the Library, but for width and length, he was not sure. It was brightly lit using those enchanted orbs mages so preferred. The walls, he noticed, had no windows at all. All of them were merely smooth surfaces.

Only three features captured attention inside this space.

On the floor, where the portal threw up more passengers, was a large engraving bearing some resemblance to the one he saw on the floor in the Library. Made of geometrical shapes, circles, triangles, lines both straight and curved, this engraved work of art was stomped over by the passing throng of people on their way to the other two other features that captured his eye out in the otherwise monotone gray space.

On the wall, right in front of the portal, was a large metal door. Before his eyes, the door slid wide open and every single large crate and box that came through the portal, was promptly carried there. A warehouse, Tercius observed as he gazed at the long rows of stacked crates.

On the wall behind the open portal, two smaller doors made of similar metal stood closed.

"Good, that’s all of you," the blonde young man said with a bright smile. "At least they told me it was to be twelve of you today. Now, first things first, let me see your amulets,"

Tercius fingered out his, from under his shirt, and showed it. Around him, every other kid did the same, and the man finally nodded satisfied, "All seems to be in order. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Master Slav, and I will be your guide to the Academy. Do you children have any questions for me?"

Slav swept his gaze over them, and when no one said a single word he said, "If any of you need to wait for someone, just raise your hand,"

Three hands went up, Penelope's included. Slav nodded and said, "Then we'll wait. I might as well use the chance to meet my new students. I teach the classes for reading, writing, and basics of mathematics, so some of us will be seeing each other. I also teach a few classes at the later years, as we call one annual cycle here at the Pyramid, but that’s best left for later. That’s it for me. How about you? What’s your name?"

The boy at whom Slav pointed got a bit startled, his brown eyes going wide at the sudden attention their group gave him. "Sonus, sir,"

"Pleased to meet you Sonus. I hope your stay here at the Academy proves fruitful. Now, I only need to make one small correction to that, and this applies to all of you children. The title Master is used for the staff of the Academy. Any mage who works for the Academy is a Master. So in Sonus's case, the respectful way to phrase his answer would have been 'Sonus, Master,' or 'Sonus, Master Slav,'. Don't push yourself too hard about it for now, during the first year it can be overlooked if you leave it out, but later, some might give you a hard time if you skip over the 'Master' part," Master Slav said, his hands gesticulating gently as he explained. He then proceeded to take the name from everyone present.

"Penelope," Seliana called from behind their backs, and Penelope turned and went to her mother.

Tercius met the eyes of Master Slav and asked something that bugged him when he put some thought into it, "Master Slav, you mentioned you are a guide to the Academy. I thought this ’transport’ was supposed to take us to the Academy?"

"We are near it," Mater Slav said, looking him straight in the eyes. "But we still have some ways to go to get to the Academy, proper. You’ll see. I would, however, advise all of you to bundle up, there’s a snowstorm outside,"

"So we are traveling by foot then, Master?" a small girl next to Tercius asked.

Master Slav moved his piercing blue eyes to her. "A few dozen meters, just to the Doorway,"

Tercius was about to ask what this Doorway was when Master Slav raised his hand and chuckled. "I have cleared the passage from here to the Doorway, and I will stave off the worst of the cold, but it might still be a bit chilly. As for what the Doorway is, well, I will let that be a surprise for all of you,"

Penelope came back bearing both of her pets, and Tercius saw Seliana wave to him, so he returned the gesture. She went and took the left door with a bunch of other folks from the ’support staff’, as Master Belior called them. Tercius and his group still had to wait for two other students to finish exchanging hugs with their families.

"Where is your mother going?" Tercius asked Penelope.

Penelope turned to look at him and said, "To that town Master Belior mentioned. It’s supposed to be near,"

"Chameos?" Master Slav suddenly joined their conversation. "It is. A few kilometers south of here,"

"But Master, how will they travel through the storm?" Tercius asked, suddenly worried for Seliana.

Penelope looked at him. "What storm?"

"Don't worry, most of the way to the town is through the tunnel. Besides, the support staff has a few mages with them," Master Slav said, his hand waving in dismissal of their worries.

Penelope whispered to him, "There’s a storm outside?"

"Apparently so," Tercius whispered back. "But you heard what Master said, there are mages with them, don’t worry,"

Finally, the two students came back, joining them when Master Slav clapped his hands together and said, "Now that everyone is ready, I think that we can go. Follow after me in pairs,"

Tercius made sure Amber was nice and cozy, then fastened his cloak and placed his hood close. His backpack was on his back the whole time they waited and one more travel bag in his gloved hand. Master Slav went to the front, and as he ordered, the students went after him in pairs.

The support staff took the left door, while Tercius and his group took the door to the right. A short hallway lead them to a... dead end.

What's going on? Tercius thought as he saw that Master Slav still kept going straight for the wall. Right before the wall, the Master made a stop and turned to the stumped students. The man pointed at a break on the floor and said, "See that line there? Move across it, to my side."

Once every single student moved over, with a small amount of Mana from Master Slav, the piece of the floor where they stood started to move upwards. Tercius's knees buckled a bit, a reaction to the sudden move. An elevator, Tercius thought, surprised. They have an elevator.

Every single kid around him gaped at the sight, and Tercius was no different. It had been over a decade since he saw something like it. The elevator was only a flat platform, with no safety around the sides. The part of the ceiling right above them moved out of the way, the stone flowing away like water. They went further up through the smooth stone shaft, while mage lamps lighted the way up.

A minute later, when the platform finally made a stop, it left them inside a small enclosed space. There were windows on this room, but something was blocking the view through them. A wild wind was fowling outside, screaming and groaning like all of the tortured souls of hell.

"Everyone move to the door," Master Slav ordered. While they shuffled to the door, as commanded, Master Slav stayed behind. Just like before, a small pulse of Mana left the mage, and sank into the platform. With a groan, the platform sank down, and the hole in the floor closed itself, the stone flowing back into shape, leaving a smooth floor behind.

Tercius observed the process both with his eyes and Mana Sight.

He did not observe anything that indicated that Master Slav was the one who was responsible for what he just saw. "Master, how does that work?" he had to ask.

"The elevator?" Master Slav asked. Tercius nodded and memorized the new word. "The whole structure is enchanted with spells. If you know how to do it and are cleared to do it, then it's a simple matter of sending a command. You will all learn how it’s done, once you get a bit in your studies,"

"I see," Tercius said, his mind retreating back with this new information to consider what this meant. What was an enchantment exactly? From what Master Slav said, Tercius extrapolated the answer to be a previously prepared spell activated by some kind of command. Previously Tercius thought that only items could be enchanted, but now, a whole underground complex seemed to be under an enchantment. Maybe it’s two or more enchantments woven together?

Master Slav chuckled and once more went to the front of their little group. "Now, stick together and stay near me."

The man turned to the door, placing his hand on a small box on the door-frame. As soon as a pulse of Mana sank into the box, with a small sucking sound, the door opened. Master Slav immediately took hold of the door, as the violent wind forced itself inwards.

The forceful wind lasted only for a moment.

Master Slav shouted something and the wind stopped, pacified in an instant. With Mana Sight, Tercius observed a sphere made of Mana expanding around them, moving outside, preventing wind and snow from moving in.

"Two by two, move out, and wait for me on the other side," came the order from the Master and they followed it to the letter.

In front of their eyes, the white storm raged, and the only visible distance was up to where Master Slav’s barrier extended to. There was a mostly cleared path forward, that looked so out of place when it was surrounded by almost a meter and a half of snow on both sides.

When they all went through, Master Slav closed the door and went to the forefront of their column. "Follow closely behind me. Observe where my barrier extends to, and stay in,"

Tercius felt Amber get a bit fidgety as the temperature inside his cloak went down. Where Master Slav moved, the snow moved away, leaving a neat cobbled path through the snow.

The trip to where they were headed was less than a minute long. The Doorway turned out to be shaped like an arch, with two columns made of stone, both of considerable girth and height, joined with a curved stone bow in the middle. Tall as most of the trees in the background, it stood alone before a snow-covered evergreen forest, enduring nature's savage temper tantrum. While the trees swayed low, as if they prostrated themselves in submission and praying for mercy, the Doorway endured with pride.

The sphere made of Mana took a real pounding from the storm, Tercius observed, as Master Slav kept sending Mana to reinforce it. Seeing the expenditure, Tercius even worried about how long the man could power the barrier before he ran out of Mana.

Master Slav went to the middle of the arched Doorway and sent pulses of Mana to the columns, in different directions and different amounts. Where before hey saw trees and snow, a moment after Master Slav’s actions, a field of hexagons appeared in the Doorway reflecting back their own image. The field shimmered, like a water surface, and Master Slav went to it and turned his piercing blue eyes to them. "Anyone with another living being stay a bit more. The rest of you, take your amulet and place it here. Then move forward,"

He showed them where and how, and one after another, the kids went into the reflective field.

Once only those who had a pet, or a plant in the case of one girl, were left, Master Slav said, "I will have to adjust the field your amulets produce to include your pets and plants,"

Tercius had to place the bag he carried down, to take out the amulet, and Master Slav took it. "You need a hand, let me help,"

Tercius thanked the man and pulled out his amulet. Holding it in his hand, he felt its warmth, and just like he was showed he placed the front of the amulet on one of the hexagons.

"Go on, I made the adjustment," Master Slav said beside him.

Tercius pushed forward, and in a moment, the amulet went through and Tercius followed after it. His fingers went through, then his forearm, bit by bit. The temperature on the other side was warmer, and as soon as he was able to tell that, he hurried.

This time he did not close his eyes, keeping them purposefully open. One moment his eyes saw the reflection of his face and the other… something that took his breath away.

***

The stepped Pyramid complex was an architectural marvel of the ancient world, one never repeated to this very day.

Made of colossal amounts of stone and metal enough to make a few mountains and rumored to be personally shaped by the titular Tergaron, the first thing that captured attention was the sheer size of the whole complex.

The base of the stepped Pyramid was made over an area of gigantic proportions. Raised off the ground level by exactly 99 meters, packed with earth and encased with white and yellow stone walls of considerable thickness, the first step alone was an area designed to house a whole forest of fauna, flora and fungi. Bearing the name The Infinite Gardens, legends surrounding its creation claim that the forest was made by Tergaron to house anything interesting he met on his many, many travels around the world. To place everything, Tergaron had to enchant the forest to be bigger on the inside. Strange stories about The Infinite Gardens abound with peculiar memories of mercurial surroundings and scenes. Tales of animals both alien and familiar, plants long thought extinct and some never seen before, it was a place that offered a different experience every time you entered below the thick canopy. Some wild tales even claim a desert existed under the tree boughs.

The second stone-made step of the Pyramid, visible over most trees from the Infinite Garden, was also raised by exactly 99 meters compared to the last. Occupying around a third of the area of the first level, the second step of the Pyramid was placed in the exact center of the square base that made up the first step. Known to the inhabitants as The Academy, this level holds a complex of buildings both large and small. The Academy was, in fact, if not in name, a town. Such was its size, that any other town in the world would be in envy of. From dormitories, faculty buildings, laboratories, restaurants, amphitheaters, baths, entertainment, and more, this complex of buildings had everything a student or a staff member of the Academy might need.

The third step of the Pyramid complex, riding on the coattails of its predecessors, raised itself up by another 99 meters. On this third level, placed in the middle was your regular Egyptian pyramid. With a base of almost 111.000 squared meters and a height of precisely 333 meters, it basked the surrounding lands in its golden-stone glory. This pyramid, called The Repository, was a place designed for knowledge to be stored and retrieved at need. Only one entrance led inside its hollow interior and it was guarded by mechanical traps and ancient magics. Anyone who attempted to enter without proper knowledge was either found dead or half-mad after the ever-shifting interior played with them. The Archivists, led by The Prime, work inside this towering stone edifice day and night, sorting new and old information with frightening speeds. Built in a square ring around The Repository was a complex of flat-roofed one-story buildings offered lodgings for Archivists, administration, and more. All of these buildings were based on blueprints that had for a base a rectangle, a square, or a circle. Each of them built in a uniform height of three meters, they seemed like ants compared to The Repository.

At the top of The Repository, like a crown atop a monarch, was a giant red crystal, its four-sided structure pointing to the heavens like the tip of a spear. As Master Tergaron never deemed necessary to reveal any information about this giant crystal, the legends about its function or significance abounded with wild guesses and were a common topic of discussion between the staff and students.

To get from the ground level to any of the upper ones there are two ways. The first way are the giant staircases that lead from the ground level all the way up to The Repository. The second way, the one that sees far more use, are the elevators inside The Tunnel. These levitating platforms can take anyone to the level they desire, if they have the necessary knowledge.

Standing before this Pyramid, was a Doorway.

An entrance of sorts, if you will. Some ten minutes ago it was open and twelve youngsters came through, followed by a Master.

As the youngsters gaped at the sight before their eyes, the older man explained to them some basic information about the layout of the Pyramid and, for closure, decided to offer a formal welcome.

"All of this, my little friends, is the Pyramid of Tergaron," Master Slav’s grandiose sounding voice said. "Your home for the next six cycles,"