A woman sat by her lonesome behind an ornate, black wooden desk, peering down at an array of thick, text-laden papers. Bookshelves lined the room, lit up by the enchanted candles that hung from bronze chains connecting to the ceiling. Clothed in a long, white dress that reached the floor, the woman had sharp features and tanned skin, along with smooth black hair that fell to her lower back. A focused look was drawn upon her face as she jotted down notes in a book beside her, occasionally referencing the texts in front of her.

A knock sounded out from the door. “Master Docent? Are you preoccupied?” a youthful voice asked.

Adalicia Mendenhall looked up from her work, a slight frown on her brow. “I was, until just a moment ago,” she said. “And I would have liked to be for some time further. But it’s too late now. Was there something you wanted?”

“I’m sorry, Master Docent. I was asked to go see you,” the voice answered.

Adalicia sat up in her seat and placed her pen on the desk before moving some of her hair back over her shoulder. “It’s alright. Come in.”

The door opened and a short man with glasses entered. He wore robes of a clear blue, with hints of gold lining the edges.

Adalicia eyed him. If she was remembering correctly, he was Proctor Mage Fiske. One of the younger mages that had joined on the expedition, and not someone she had any special business with.

“What was this about?” she asked.

“Master Docent Berkeley sent me. He said there was an important letter sent to you from the mainland.”

Was that all?

“…Could you not have reported this to me via message?”

The young man shook his head. “We tried. But there was no response.”

Adalicia looked down at the desk, towards the heavy, leather-bound tome that was placed in the corner. The gold tracery on the cover depicted a radiant circle with several spears through it. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out a sigh. “Of course. I’m sorry.”

She had blocked all incoming magics so that she wouldn’t get distracted during her testing earlier, but she’d forgotten to disable the crest when she was finished.

Leaning over and opening the tome, she turned to a certain page where a glowing sigil was engraved. The glow faded away as she moved her hand over the crest.

Having disabled the effect, she looked up at Fiske. “What was the letter about for you to be sent here?”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “I’m not sure, Master Docent. I was only told that it was important.”

Adalicia creased her brows. That was odd. It was unlikely the letter was addressed directly to her, if that was the case. Unless there was some sort of emergency. But if something were to have happened in the empire again, so soon after the last event… The thought brought an unpleasant taste to her mouth.

She rose from her chair. Her work was mostly finished for the day, and it was best to confirm something like this in person. “I’ll see with Master Docent Berkeley myself then. Thank you for informing me, Proctor Fiske.”

The man straightened his back a little. “O-Of course.”

Adalicia circled the desk and started walking towards the exit.

“If you want,” she said, pausing as she passed by the young man. “You can read over the reports on my desk while I am away. They’re the current status of the collaborative efforts between me, Master Docent Ainsworth, and Grand Wizard Hartford.”

His eyes went wide. “I-Is that okay?” he asked, the eagerness clear in his tone.

Understandable enough. It wasn’t often that mages from the Elystead Tower, the Ustrum Assembly, and the Rising Isle worked together on a project like this. Especially with an Arch Wizard like Ainsworth taking part. But this was quite a unique project, after all. The paper on it would no doubt shake much of academia when it was finished.

“Of course. It’s an open collaboration.” Despite the Assembly’s—and certain members of the Elystead Tower—best efforts for the opposite.

“Just make sure not to jumble any of my papers,” she added with a small smile.

“I swear I won’t!”

“Good. Then I’ll be back later.”

She left the room, exiting into the intricate hallway outside. The grand, arched windows lent a glorious view of the waterways outside, and the multitude of structures built on top of them, each tracing back further into history than any of the mage towers in the empire.

Walking down the hallway, Adalicia couldn’t stop herself from marveling at the sights outside the windows as sunlight glittered across the small waterfalls and weirs that connected the different levels of the city.

The architecture of the Rising Isle never ceased to astound her. So reminiscent of the Mausoleum and other buildings in the Ascendant Court, yet so fresh and unique all the same. Instead of simply copying and reusing some of the ancient Zuverian structures like all others had, the mages of the Isle had succeeded in restoring and enriching what already was. It brought to mind the dreams she’d had as a child — of joining the Isle and becoming a mage like no other.

Things hadn’t quite played out as she had dreamed, but she was here nonetheless.

She had her regrets, but the Elystead Tower was impressive in its own right.

And things were what they were.

Leaving the residence and office halls that had been provided for those in their expedition behind, Adalicia walked through the stately foreign dignitary quarter of the Rising Isle, passing by multitudes of mages on her way. Many were visitors, but even more called this place their home. Those were the ones that afforded this place the proud reputation it held as a holy land for all mages.

Still, one could walk across most of the Isle in under an hour, and it could not compare to the populations of even some of the smaller cities in the empire. But that did not make it any less of a power on the international level.

Soon enough, Adalicia reached the Chamber of Conjunction, where much of the Rising Isle’s traffic moved through. The large, spherical building almost dwarfed the Ustrum Assembly in Elystead and was the only place on the entire Isle where magic from the outside could pass through, as well as where its Kilnstones were located.

Finding one of the resident mages working here, she had them guide her through the structure’s involved layout to the large office that had been offered to their expedition for their stay. Inside waited two of the Proctor Mages that had joined the expedition, one Adjunct Mage, and Master Docent Berkeley, who sat behind a large stone desk at the back of the room. Several books and large stacks of papers were neatly ordered in front of him.

The man looked up as she approached, what remained of his greying hair swaying as he did. He pushed a book to the side.

“Hmph. You sure took your time, Adalicia,” he grunted, screwing up his mouth as he righted his glasses with his finger. “I sent the boy ages ago.”

“Not more than twenty minutes have passed since he came to me, Kinnard.” She pulled up a white chair, pressing down on her dress as she sat opposite him. “Why don’t you stop being a grouch and tell me what this letter was about?”

“A grouch? A grouch!?” The man’s disgruntled stare met her eyes. “You young people have it easy these days! Exalted opportunities—as if handed down by Ittar himself!—seem to fall down on your laps if you so breathe correctly, yet none of you ever show any respect. Hmph.”

Adalicia restrained from rolling her eyes. Kinnard considered anyone under sixty ‘young people’. And despite his age, he had yet to understand that his own behavior was what prompted this apparent disrespect towards him.

Still, his words did make her curious. “What do you mean by exalted opportunities?”

Judging from how calm they were here, it didn’t appear to be bad news, as she’d feared.

Kinnard picked up a piece of paper from his desk and handed it over to her. His overly neat handwriting dotted its face. “There you have it. Apparently that noble has been trying to contact you for a while, but no one bothered forwarding it here.” He shook his head. “This latest message was supposed to only be for you, but I doubt it’ll stay quiet for long. Those fools at relations don’t know how to shut their mouths.”

Adalicia glossed over the text.

Greetings, Emeritus Master Docent Grand Wizard Mendenhall.

My name is Evelyne Hartford. I am contacting you on the behalf of my sister, Baroness Scarlett Hartford. As you might be aware, our family recently uncovered a set of undiscovered Zuverian ruins outside of Freybrook, and has for the past month been in talks with the Elystead Tower regarding the management and transfer of ownership of some of the findings.

Adalicia’s eyebrows rose.

Hartford?

Was there a noble family with that name in the empire?

Were they related to Grand Wizard Hartford here on the Rising Isle? As far as she was aware, though, he had no ties to nobility. But matters of the aristocracy were far from her expertise.

Now that she thought about it, she did recall another, somewhat prominent mage, with the same name. While she had never met him herself, the Vice-dean had been acquainted with the man. Him being a noble would have made sense.

Of course, although she wasn’t familiar with this noble in particular, she had heard about the recently uncovered ruins. There had been much talk about it between the mages here on the Isle after it was announced, though Adalicia had later heard that there didn’t seem to be anything of note amongst what was discovered. She had assumed the towers and the Assembly would still bicker over the findings, but the Isle mages already had more than enough Zuverian relics to care about smaller discoveries like this.

She continued reading.

My sister has expressed the desire to meet with you—as an individual, not a mage of Elystead Tower—regarding matters related to our recent discovery, as well as other subjects that are more confidential and cannot be disclosed over letter. I have, however, been informed you are currently in the middle of an exchange expedition to the Rising Isle, and I do not know when this message will reach you. This is not the first time I have tried to contact you, but I do hope it will be the last.

To this end, I have conferred with my sister, who wished to inform you that the revelation of the Zuverian ruins near Freybrook was no fluke, and that there remains much more to discover. She is willing to negotiate the future application of her research on the matter with you in person, in the hopes that it might help both parties to achieve goals that may be considered beneficial to them.

If you were to be interested in further talks on the subject, my sister has invited you to visit her at our family’s mansion in Freybrook, where you will be greeted as a welcome guest at the nearest time that suits you.

Cordially,

Evelyne Hartford, in lieu of Baroness Scarlett Hartford, Lady of Stagmond Keep.

Adalicia spent several seconds looking down at the letter.

She didn’t quite understand the point behind this. Assuming this baroness was telling the truth—and did in fact have research that spoke of the location of more Zuverian ruins and the like—it was of course huge news for most of the towers. But why would she contact her specifically? The two of them had no prior relationship, and the number of people who would have an interest in this couldn’t be understated. Adalicia knew nothing in particular about herself that would attract a noble of the empire.

Still, the proposal itself was, without a doubt, appealing. While some Zuverian artifacts held little research value to the community at large anymore, the ones that did meant that each Zuverian ruin was still a potential treasure trove. She could definitely understand Kinnard’s envy, and why the others at the Elystead Tower would hold interest. If it meant forging good relations with this noblewoman, they would probably want her to accept this offer before the Baroness started looking towards any of the other mage towers.

Adalicia looked up at Kinnard. “Were there any letters other than this?”

He shook his head. “They probably didn’t bother saving any of the other ones before this one caught their attention. That bunch is as lazy as they come.”

She glanced down at the paper again. It was true that certain sections of the tower had grown more closed and complacent over the last few years, a fact that had only exacerbated since the Dean began spending less attention on tower matters and disappearing more and more frequently. But it wasn’t something she could change on her own, unfortunately.

Still, she was at the very least curious about whatever this Baroness knew. It would truly be a waste to let an opportunity like this go. Sadly, her current work took priority. And while they were nearing the end of what they could achieve here through practical efforts alone, there were at minimum a few weeks left before she could leave. And travel through the Kilnstone back and forth to a city like Freybrook couldn’t be done on such short measure.

Adalicia held her hand up to her chin.

There were other ways, however.

A certain Arch Wizard, for example, owed her a favor or two.