[B3] Chapter 24 — The Crystal Tower

A spire of faceted crystal loomed before Ria like a gemstone erupting from the depths of the Deep Earth, rising in a spectacle of refracted and reflected light that would have been painful to look at if not for the changes her bloodline had brought. Delicate shapings twined around the angular main body of the tower forming whimsical walkways, balconies, and outdoor platforms.

This close, Ria and Ranger could only stare at its majesty. The tower of the Vesali mages. With Ranger's Magesight the view of powerful energy flows reaching into the sky above was no less spectacular.

"It is impressive, isn't it?" Arella said proudly from behind.

"Woof…"

"Yeah… it's no wonder Parthanex Tower is looked down on. There's no comparison."

It wasn't just the tower. The intense energy flows spilled out from where the spire met the ground to be gathered up by the immaculate and beautiful gardens that were busy with small groups of students gathering to study or work on attunements. Many older students took to the air to descend from or ascend to suspended garden platforms that spiralled the mid and upper reaches of the tower.

Before her was the height of Crysellian power.

This was why the Vesali were feared.

Claiming such power as hers by right, this was what chasing after Phaelys really meant, what becoming Vesali meant.

As usual, she had been naive.

No, she had always known that to crush her great-grandfather into dust, this was the power she needed: the power and might of a nation. She just hadn't context for the heights of such power.

The looks many of the noble girls gave her for presuming to seek such heights as a recently village bumpkin made a lot more sense now.

Ria breathed deeply of the energy-infused air. Being intimidated was silly. Keira spent most days here taking classes. As a princess of Drelfgar and Vor`Daarryn, she would simply rise to the heights needed to prove worthy.

Freeing herself from the sense of awe, she strode up the wide crystalline walkway that rose gracefully into the air and to the tower's excessively arched entry, passing other first and second-years on their way out. Her Sages of the Nine Circles mantle and 'war dog' would have surely drawn the expected disdain if not for the royal Gryphon Knight trailing behind. Most quickly recognized her from the rumors and the Daily Shadow articles, and the pairs and trios whispered among themselves—whispers Ria easily overheard. All were careful to give her space.

A bored second-year manned the crystal-wrought reception counter that formed a partial circle in the center of the tall entry chamber. There were fancy seats for two more but apparently weren't needed—because of the quarantine, maybe. The boy sat up straighter at the precise clacks of Arella's armored boots upon the crystal floor.

Ria wrapped herself in her mantle of pride. "I seek directing to the Room of Lustrous Refining."

It was hard not to cringe at the name of the room. Trust the pompous Vesali to find a fancy way to say 'Room of Sweaty Training' with a snooty face. The result was terrible to the extent she suspected it might be intentional.

The boy looked at her strangely for several uncomfortable heartbeats before motioning to the crystal tube at the rear of the chamber where several second-year girls were exiting from a floating platform not unlike that used in Parthanex tower. "Take the lift all the way to the tower's peak."

Ah.

Of course.

It was at the very top of the tower.

She should have expected nothing less.

Ria coughed into her hand and thanked the boy, continuing regally around the counter toward the lift, aloof from the embarrassment. Yep. She knew it was the top of the tower. Asking was just showing proper courtesy. That's what it was.

And, no, she wasn't going to look back to see if Arella was struggling to hold back her amusement—that was clear enough from the woman's quivering energy flow.

"There's no way you didn't know," Ria accused once they were alone in the lift.

Arella did a respectable job faking sincerity. "My apologies, Young Lady Celestria. I assumed the young lady was already aware."

Ranger tilted his head, not understanding why she was feeling embarrassed.

"It's nothing complicated, Ranger. It was my fault for assuming and not asking."

"Woof," Ranger sagely pointed out.

Yes, though she was doing better, she still hadn't fully overcome her tendency to do things on her own, to not rely on the others around her.

The platform stopped at several floors, but the presence of someone escorted by a Gryphon Knight discouraged anyone from joining her on the lift, leaving Ria to stew in her unsettled emotions.

This was the first time Phaelys had invited her somewhere. She tried to take comfort that it might still be out of a sense of obligation, and she already knew that he admired her accomplishments, but…

No, no. Those were dangerous thoughts to entertain when the person in question was the #1 sought-after boy at the academy and probably in all of Crysellia.

Ria hadn't been able to completely keep thoughts of meeting Phaelys from her mind during lunch either, but when they weren't teasing her, her friends had kept her distracted, and the planning session had been fun. The elves of Farenthil Hall and Tensley's Silver Lions team were expected to be Team Z.E.D.'s toughest opponents, so they focused most of the time coming up with strategies that would be effective against those two teams. Aelyri's replacement on the elf team was a big unknown, and they had to mostly plan around the three team members they knew.

Once the lift passed a certain point, one side of the tube suddenly turned clear with a view out onto the campus below and the city beyond. Ria couldn't help moving closer, carefully resting a hand against the smooth crystal to assuage her irrational fear of falling from the tremendous height.

Was this what it would be like to fly? To take to the air at such heights?

All too soon, the lift slowed and stopped at a spacious landing with plush benches accompanied by side-tables. Beyond the seating areas, an ornate double door stood proud and closed. Though the interior walls were also made of crystal, they only showed reflections and could not be seen through.

A lone third-year girl at least as strong as Rialle and wearing a mantle of the Order of the Golden Serpent stood up from one of the tables. "Celestria ad'Drelfgar. Phaelys is already waiting inside. I shall let you in."

Who was this girl?

The Order of the Golden Serpent was an Order specializing in alchemy and alteration magic, if Ria remembered right.

The third-year pressed a palm against the left door, and a gust of dense amethyst energy filled the landing, rushing out from the gap between the slowly opening double doors, even with a glowing barrier visibly spanning the threshold.

"Arella, will you be okay with that high an energy density?" Ria quietly asked her knight. From the way Lestina had mentioned Ria exploding in a gory mess from taking in too much energy, there was little chance this would be safe for normal mages—much less knights.

"My armor's enchantment should be enough to keep me safe from most of it," Arella assured, though a grimace betrayed the knight's confident words.

Ria motioned to the side opposite where the Golden Serpent girl had moved to be out of their way. "You could guard outside the door like you normally do for my classes."

"No, that won't work, Young Lady Celestria. My mission is to keep you safe. I can't do that from outside a door I cannot open."

Ranger was sniffing at the boundary of the barrier, his nostrils flaring with interest.

Ria nodded to Arella and continued through the barrier. The previous gust was replaced by a constant pressure that felt almost humid in character. The density of energy inside the large vaulted chamber was a balm that brought her crystal horns and hair to life with each eager breath. In a way, it reminded of High Priestess Elora's garden.

The tapering crystal walls of the chamber gave views like that of the lift outside. Above, Ria could clearly see the great flows of magic channelled by the tower, the chamber's location and shape designed to focus the flows.

"Speak of the little dragon, and here she is."

Ria froze.

What was Nielle doing here?

Phaelys was seated at a fancy table that had been placed in the practice room. Ria's eyes darted to the boy's unreadable expression, and her heart raced with worry.

The additional presence of not just Nielle but also a fourth-year Unseen Hands boy meditating over by what looked like a target range was particularly worrying.

"Welcome, Celestria," Phaelys calmly greeted and motioned for her to join them, his hair and presence as immaculate as ever. "Cousin Nielle expressed interest in your effort to learn crystal magic. I hope you do not mind."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I did!" Nielle agreed, not giving Ria a chance to object, fake cheer sneering through her words and manner. "Just imagine how surprised I was during Cousin Phaelys' and my lunch together to hear that our resident ad`Drelfgar was shortly meeting with Cousin to that very purpose."

At least, the books on the table, the largish spell-training cube, and small pile of paper Phaelys was writing on were less indicative of a trap.

Cautiously, Ria approached the table and took the offered seat beside the second-year Vesali boy.

Ria checked through the bond to make sure Ranger was okay. Her loyal familiar had seated himself just to the side of the now closing doors, mimicking Arella as they both meditated to keep the intense energy from dangerously overwhelming them. In Ranger's case the excess seemed to readily seek balance through the bond, so while she wasn't thrilled about the worsening of Ranger's earth-fire imbalance, he did seem like he would be fine.

Arella's energy flow stabilized into a pattern of cycling and storing after an initial struggle. The enchantments blazed on the gryphon armor, and just cycling to keep herself safe would undoubtedly take the majority of the woman's attention.

That might be close to ideal, if they wanted to talk about things Ria would rather keep secret from Arella, but there likely wouldn't be much help immediately coming from her knight should Nielle and the two others decide to remind Ria of her place in society.

The third-year girl walked over to the target range and she and the fourth-year boy began launching attacks at the targets, mostly earth magic.

"Oh, don't mind Lavi and Naver. They're our attendants," Nielle assured.

Ria was reminded of the third-year boy that attended to Joren Sorrel, though she'd forgotten his name. Again, she could only thank Lord Vorshan for not having to follow Keira around everywhere like that. Though, now that she was recognized as a member of a Greater House, was it reversed? Was Keira supposed to follow her around everywhere?

"How do you like the energy density?" Phaelys asked, looking up briefly from his writing.

"It's impressive. I can feel my heritage waking up just breathing it in. We use Parthanex's training rooms for class sometimes, but it's nothing like this."

"For class?" Nielle snorted. "This place was reserved for the royal family and their top retainers back before the fall of the monarchy. First-years from any but the Greater Houses would pop like a flaming swamp puffer if classes were held here."

Ria suspected that might not be an exaggeration. "Is that why there's a waiting area outside the doors and why the barrier leaks so much energy when the doors are open?"

Nielle nodded. "It is. The doors can be used to control the energy density outside the chamber and acclimate or test those who would enter."

There was another question that was burning in Ria's mind about the chamber. "Wouldn't a space like this normally be used by the towermaster? As his office, I mean."

Nielle's expression showed understanding of what she was asking, but Phaelys looked up with a puzzled eyebrow raise. "Why? Meetings are on the lower floors, and it would make use by others inconvenient."

Ria tilted her head. "Don't people with power view higher locations as having more prestige?"

Phaelys watched her quietly for a moment, maybe disapproving in some way. "The Sorrels and the Benathi might care about such things, but is your impression of House Vesali such that you think our elders care about such trivialities?"

Yes?

Ria didn't voice her thoughts. She'd grown enough to keep them to herself.

Administrator Rente was a Revelle and seemed like the type to want a top-floor office, but his and Soulkeeper Renard's were both first floor offices. Rente Ravelle wasn't the Academy Headmaster, though, and Renard wasn't the head of his Order either. Her own towermaster and assistant towermaster did claim Parthanex Tower's top two floors. Atheros Riftsail wasn't from the Greater Houses, but Irelyni Sorrel was a Sorrel—one of the Houses Phaelys had derided for valuing such things—so maybe that had biased her thinking?

As for House Benathi, all she knew about the magic-knight Greater House was that they had a magic knight academy in Erime, were a mostly light-affinity House, and sought only blessing-derived bloodlines. For House Mendan, Vestra, and Blackmarsh, her knowledge wasn't much better—just the names of their provinces, council members, and their magic specialties: fire, divination, and rot.

Grimacing, Ria made an apologetic gesture and admitted, "I don't really know much about the Greater Houses."

Nielle huffed. "You should at least learn about the House you are trying to join—and those who would become your enemies."

"Keira has been helping me with that. I hadn't expected to get caught up in matters of the Greater Houses so quickly."

"Obviously."

Though Ria's pride wasn't happy about the snideness, Nielle wasn't wrong. Keira had warned her. Repeatedly. Learning about the Houses was just so tedious and boring.

"Your aura has become more homogeneous," Phaelys volunteered, maybe to change the subject to something more productive.

Ria nodded. "Researcher Shadwich's efforts to reverse the damage from the poison unified my affinity and internal energy reserves."

Phaelys exchanged a glance with his cousin. "Ah… that's unfortunate."

Ria blinked and swapped her gaze between the two cousins. "Why? Isn't it a good thing? My magic is more powerful than before the change."

"No. It means the poison significantly damaged and maybe even destroyed your primary affinity," Nielle bluntly pronounced. "The true affinity of House Astacio. One not seen publicly in recent generations and doubtlessly why they were so quick to claim you: the draconic mithril affinity. In its purest manifestation, it acts as a mirror to the elemental aspects around it, gradually taking on their properties. Surely, you've been made aware of the Hidden House that birthed your Order's most famous archmage and of which both Astacio and the Hidden House of ad`Drelgar are branch Houses?"

Wha-?

Ria's thoughts ground to a halt.

Luventi's rumored affinity. The Astacio's true affinity.

Reflecting the aspects around her like a mirror... would that give the illusion of her internal energy being unaspected?

Had she really shared Luventi's affinity from the start? Their starting attunements had been remarkably similar on the challenge board—his light-aspected, hers shadow-aspected. But adamantium and orichalcum were both shadow-aspected. If her mithril affinity was reflecting that…

If it was true, she should be able to construct the glyph from her Body gate just as she did for orichalcum. Ria wasn't sure she wanted to risk using the Soulkeeper inspiration-boosting technique again after what happened in the library and Soulkeeper Renard's warning.

Rather, she was able to manifest the glyph for 'burn' through her ancestral memory. Maybe she could do the same for 'mithril'?

Mithril in draconic…

Orichalcum was 'true gold'. 'True' she knew was Vor. 'Gold' was Daarryn. As her mother's royal lineage, the taste of the metal lingered in her divine ancestor's memory of the word.

Did she also know mithril?

With the Astacio's affinity being silver now. Mithril should be 'true silver'. Though Ria was less sure about the taste of mithril, she was familiar with the taste of silver. 'Silver' was… Shan-

"Vor`Shan?!"

With the words uttered in surprise, the dense energy from her lungs expelled through the glyph forming in front of her fangs, and Nielle threw herself back from the table to escape the glittering cloud of blue-tinted metal that puffed outward from Ria's breath, sliding to a combat-ready hand and knee, wand appearing in her free hand.

Ria panicked and dissipated the accidental magic as quickly as she could.

Nielle's chair noisily clattered to the ground, and the amethyst-haired girl gasped, "You manifest draconic speech?! Ah-! The dragon breath spell you used during your team practice!"

Nielle muttered to herself, biting the corner of her lip in thought. "Could Researcher Ervryn's work really be so far along?"

Researcher Ervryn? Not Shadwich?

Was Ervryn the unnamed 'bloodline researcher' Jarrel had mentioned? The one Father was working with? The one interested in uniting 'certain' bloodlines…

Orichalcum, Adamantium, and now Mithril. She had so many powerful draconic bloodlines. Was her father's effort to claim the orichalcum bloodline not just for strategic reasons but because he was involved in secret draconic bloodline research? Were she and her power truly the result of this Ervryn's research efforts?

"Nielle, let us not involve others in matters more fit for the elders and the High Council. You and Celestria can discuss this later, privately. I would like to get started teaching her the spell while we still have time."

Ria blinked in shock. How much about her secrets did Nielle and Phaelys know?! Why?

Nielle grimaced and nodded, motioning an 'all clear' to the pair's alarmed attendants as she returned her chair to the table.

Phaelys pushing the small stack of paper in front of Ria distracted her from glancing the attendants' way, and her eyes widened when she realized what the stack was: personally-tailored notes and advice on learning and using the Crystal Grip spell! She flipped through the pages to see practice exercises and recommendations for structures and glyphs to be included in wands or other casting aids.

Across the table, a reseated Nielle was looking smug. "Phaelys is an excellent tutor. You should be grateful."

"Thank you," Ria breathed out, honestly impressed by the boy's unexpected thoughtfulness and dedication. Even with a casual glance through the thorough notes and included insights, she couldn't help thinking there was no way Phaelys disliked magic as much as he disliked dancing.

"You will need the spell cube to follow the notes," Phaelys offered, motioning with his hand to the cube.

Other than for an opportunity to discuss the undercastle adventure, this was what Ria had come for. Phaelys was right that the rest could wait. Putting thoughts of new revelations about her heritage aside, Ria brought the cube made of gold and glass closer and sent her energy inside to fill the shapes, just like she would in her elemental magic class. She was surprised how the Vesali spell-cube used the same solution of gold suspended in glass that she had come up with on her own.

Learning from spell cubes was something Ria had become comfortable with since starting her lessons at the Grand Academy, and she set to work memorizing the structures and glyphs. Once she understood the function of each component and successfully cast the spell using the cube, with Phaelys' expert assistance, she moved on to forming the spell matrix without the spell cube. The Vesali boy was more demanding than Elder Genwald, and he quickly pointed out any sloppy control she showed in the spell construction.

As the lesson wore on and Phaelys continued to show Ria attention, Nielle's face grew more sour. An hour in, the girl's patience seemed to be nearing an end.

From the romance novels Ria had read, she was fairly sure what was going on but wasn't sure how to address it. Meeting with Phaelys wasn't supposed to be anything romantic—just like her first outing with Hulle wasn't. If it wasn't for her friends amusing themselves by always putting such thoughts in her head, she wouldn't even have thought about it. Now, though…

Every time Phaelys leaned in to guide her use of the wand he had given her, she couldn't stop thinking that he was too close! And she couldn't stop noticing the slight sheen of moisture on his perfect lips when he talked or his gem-like irises, or that his gaze kept drifting to her horns.

"-ia, should we work on something else to restore your focus?"

Ah-! Her mind had wandered again!

Nielle's eyes were narrowing dangerously.

Ria quickly shook her head. "Sorry. It's my fault. This week has been…" She stopped herself. The week had been busy because Phaelys' failure to keep her safe had caused her bloodline to be revealed and her to miss a week of classes—or that's what the honor-bound boy was surely telling himself.

Sure enough, Phaelys' hand started to clench into a fist, and Ria stopped him using both her hands to keep his from balling up, carefully smoothing the boy's fingers out.

"You kept me safe from making political mistakes all evening. I am more than grateful," Ria assured, then quickly snatched back her hands. Nielle was openly glaring and looked moments from exploding.

Phaelys sighed. "That doesn't excuse my poor performance at the end."

Any more apologizing from Phaelys and Nielle was going to-

"About that adventure we've been planning," Ria quickly blurted to Phaelys, saying the only thing she thought could side-track-

"What?!" came the expected outburst from Nielle. "What adventure?"

The girl was eyeing both of them with a glower.

Ria gulped. There was nothing to do about it now. The gambit was committed.

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