“Hello there,” I say with a smile.

After passing through a corridor, I find myself in the library supplied by [Archmage] Marcus. Here, two young students are taking notes and sketching down spell matrixes. How that makes sense, to sketch them down, is beyond me. Could it be something similar to musical notation?

Both of them look at me, but the younger one turns to his older brother; the older one, clearly in charge, fixates his gaze on me.

They both have the same splendent purple hair as Princess Laura. And their eyes, too, are purple, unlike the golden irises of their older sister.

“I’m a guest of [Archmage] Marcus. He said that many of his people are busy with other tasks. He said you could show me around?”

“Sure,” the older brother nods and looks at the younger with determination.

Their etiquette, so far, has been impeccable.

“I’m Aurelius. This is my younger brother, Plinius.”

The older brother has quite a bit of muscle and is generally fit to the naked eye. He should be thirteen, or close to that. The younger is still more of a kid than a teenager. He’s nine and still learning the very basics of magic. Meh, he probably knows more theory than me.

“Hi, guys, I’m Joey!”

“What would you wish to see?” Aurelius closes his books and speaks out.

“There’s some kind of ancient statue around here? I heard about that. And would you mind telling me the story of the academy and the towers? I’m not from here, and I don’t know much about it.”

“The Canti statue.”

“Oh, yeah, that one, Aurelius. But I think Canti is plural of Cantus. One Cantus, many Canti.”

“He’s right,” Plinius says to his older brother in a whisper.

“Are you proficient with the ancient language?” Aurelius ignores Plinius and asks me.

“Heh, I’ve studied some in my free time. More of a hobby than anything else, if I have to be honest. But it’s a fascinating thing for sure.”

While we talk, I take my time to observe the insane space inside the library. You don’t know, but this place has a huge number of spatial enchantments, which means that even though the tower from the outside looks like a ‘small’ skyscraper, it’s much, much larger on the inside. This library alone is probably three times as big as the New York Public Library. It’s insane.

And its architecture is one of those fancy ones that Chinese people go nuts about. It has spirals and levitating books that go from shelf to shelf on their own. God, the magic here is so thick I can almost touch it. Also, the ceiling is tall. But not like ‘Oh, this ceiling is tall,’ – more like ‘How in the nine hells did they make a thing this tall?’ Listen, there are private reading chambers that are – and I’m not joking – veritable towers. Like, towers inside the library tower. Isn’t that messing with your mind? If it’s not, I don’t know what to say.

“Should I address you by your noble title?” Aurelius asks, composed.

“You can call me ‘brother’ if you want. Otherwise, Joey is fine. Some like to shorten it to ‘Joe.’ Whatever you prefer, buddy.”

After a suspicious look, Aurelius just tells me to follow him.

“The towers are ancient, as you might know. Their structure has been altered to fit the needs of many [Archmages] throughout the years. The existence of the Nine Towers Academy dates back to long before Elves had annexed its territory. Some say it even precedes Humans.”

There is no malice in his words. He’s clearly educated, but he’s also not talking too fancily. I don’t like people who embellish their words too much.

“If you are a person who finds solace in beautiful architecture, I recommend you visit all the towers. [Archmage] Marcus, however, might be the most obsess—partial with how his tower looks.”

“Rumors have it that it’s to attract possible female Dragons to its—”

Aurelius slaps his hand in front of his brother's mouth before anything treacherous can escape. However, that piece of information is out now. And, oh, boy, I will have to teach dear [Archmage] how to get some scaly tail.

…

I’ve obviously been put up to this by Stanimal. Yeah. But the tour idea was mine. I shall at least get some ‘solace’ in this stupid test. And, I’m not going to lie, this tower looks hella cool. Plus, the room with the Cantus statue is something that I’ve been interested in as soon as Lord Juler mentioned it to me when we were crossing Marcus’s tower.

“And this is the entrance.”

Unlike the previous public spaces, this time, Aurelius does not enter first, nor does he look as composed as before. This hall has weird energy and two massive doors, thicker than one could reasonably craft, barring the access to it.

I put my hand on one of the doors and push.

The giant wooden titan silently and gently slides open.

What I find in front of me is…

It’s all steel. It’s as if we just transported from a medieval tower to a spaceship. Perfect rectangles of steel line the pavement, with the same small distances between each other. As they reach the wall, they grow in height. They get taller and taller until they spring from the ground in the form of sharp, squared columns. Looking closer, it’s more like bronze than steel. It’s slightly brown, but it gives off a golden shine.

When the square metal columns approach the wall, they become more and more inclined. It’s impossible to describe how perfectly aligned everything is. Normally, such a composition would feel way off. But here, it doesn’t. No, it creates a circular feeling in a perfectly square room. And the more the steel approaches the end of the hall, the more it bends, forming three concentric circles, at the center of which is the famed statue.

“Lauridiana,” Plinius whispers.

A massive statue, somewhere around 30 feet, stands at the end of the hall. If the architecture here is grand, the figure is grander still. Much grander.

It’s a woman with two massive steel wings on each side, two times her already insane height. She’s wearing a helmet with two massive horns that point to the sky, parallel to her angelic wings. The lines are all straight and squarish, which gives it the sharpest feeling I have ever witnessed.

“[Archmage] Kasiiaris often comes here,” Aurelius says. “She says that Lauridiana was most likely a [Ferromancer] like her. Or at least that’s what her aura tells her.”

At that moment, a divine aura washes over me.