As Adrian and Amber were led through the gate by the Captain before them, Adrian turned his gaze to the town's interior. Unlike the village he and Amber had stumbled upon earlier, this town was much bigger and vastly better.
He first noticed the roads, all of which were paved with cobblestone similar to the small pathway Adrian and Amber had found in the forest on their first day. This cobblestone road, however, was much bigger and better maintained. Adrian saw no weeds or grasses growing between the cracks of the road, which made it seem clean and freshly built. The roads themselves curved and bent with the land itself. No road Adrian saw was as straight as an arrow. As he walked through the town, he felt like he was river rafting and would eventually find a large intersection between several roads, the famed lake-like square Adrian expected to find in the center of the town.
Although there was no dedicated sidewalk, the houses next to the road were all built like actual houses- not like the wooden shacks of the village. Most houses were one or two stories, though there were a few Adrian saw in the distance that could've been three stories. The houses were mostly made out of wood- though there were stronger support beams and more windows. Most houses had a chimney, which implied the possibility of stone foundations, though the ones that didn't were few.
The few torches that were fixed atop tall poles stood like stop signs at the ends of each road. Other torches were rested lower down, near the middle stretches of most roads. These torches were more like wooden pikes that were shoved into the ground rather than bolted into a foundation- and it showed. Some of the smaller torches had been extinguished once they were knocked over while a few others were bent or leaning in a weird direction.
After a few minutes of silent walking, the Captain eventually led Adrian and Amber to the other side of the town. Here, there stood a tall five-story stone tower. The tower's shell was as smooth as pure marble and as strong as steel, yet it looked broken and old. The supports near the tower's base were cracked and mossy- as were some of the windows on the tower's eight sides.
"Where are we?" Adrian asked as he gazed at the tower's roof. There, he saw the figure of a shadow watching them from a window. The shadow suddenly disappeared, leaving Adrian to wonder if he had even seen it in the first place.
"We're here to see an expert. Come, follow me," The Captain jested as she walked toward the tower's front entrance, "He doesn't like those who get lost."
Adrian and Amber nodded before they followed behind the Captain. As she opened the door, Adrian winced when he heard the jarring sound of the hinges scraping against the wood. Just behind the door was a set of stairs that wrapped around in a spiral. Between the spiral staircases was the hollow interior of the tower. When Adrian walked inside the tower, he looked up to see the ceiling of the tower four stories up.
"The entire tower is used to hold one room?" Amber gasped in amazement. The Captain began to walk up the spiral staircases, but she shrugged as she did so.
"No, not really. The tower works through some strange magic. The tower has five rooms, but only one room is allowed to exist at a time. It's up to the tower to decide what room that is, so sometimes he'll end up trapped in the same room in some weird limbo state- only when his room doesn't exist- until the tower decides to let him out," The Captain explained. Adrian listened closely as he tried to wrap his head around the tower's strange logic. How can the tower ignore the existence of four rooms all at once and act like it was giving 'existence permissions' to whichever room the tower preferred? Was the tower sentient?
"Strange," Amber muttered. They continued to walk up the spiral staircase before they finally arrived at the top. There, Adrian and the others stopped before a large oak door. The door was very ordinary, save for the golden emblem of a bird's talon bolted to the surface. The Captain lifted her hand, then knocked three times on the door's surface.
Immediately, the door opened, revealing the cluttered study behind it. As Adrian and the others walked inside, he looked to the room around him in amazement. The room, which Adrian assumed would be the same size as the tower itself, was in fact the size of a small basketball court.
The walls, which counted four- not eight, were covered in layers and layers of books. None of them were on bookshelves, either. Instead, the walls were blocked off by literal stacks of books, each as tall as the walls themselves. Between the walls of books were smaller towers of books, each placed on the ground like the building of some metropolis. The only part of the room that remained book-free was the center, where a small pathway connected the door to a cluttered desk on the other end of the room.
Behind the desk sat a young boy about twelve years of age. The boy wore a dark grey robe with golden inseams. Beneath his robe was a boy's pair of shorts, knee socks, and a brown blazer that adorned the crest of some noble family.
His hair, which seemed to move up and down like it was submerged, was colored dark brown. His eyes, which Adrian could only compare to the sight from a kaleidoscope, painted a canvas of blues, reds, pinks, and all other manors of colors.
Yet, despite his strange clothing and unusual hair and eyes, the boy's physical appearance didn't appear strange at all to the pair of wooden bird wings hanging from his back. Each wing was double the height of the boy and appeared broken. The wings, which had lustrous leaf feathers and powerful roots rested upon the floor behind the boy like dead appendages.
"Don't be fooled," The Captain said, "This man's name is Dimos. He is the only other Artist I've ever met, save for you two. Despite his appearances, he's nearly five hundred years old."
"An Artist?" Amber gasped. She looked back to the boy, her eyes gazing upon the wooden bird wings behind his back. Dimos stared back at Amber, then smiled widely.
"I forgot to mention. He's a bit mad. Trustworthy, but mad," The Captain said. Suddenly, the wings on Dimos's back began to move. They lifted into the air, lifting him with them. He soared over his desk, then quickly descended before landing right in front of Adrian and Amber. Then, once his feet touched the ground, his wings returned to being dead puppet limbs once more.
"Shards, Shards, Shards," Dimos said with fervor as he stared at Adrian with wide eyes. He looked to Captain, then smiled, "a new wave! This is exciting, Missy!"
"I've told you to stop calling me that, Dimos. It is disrespectful to my rank," The captain replied with a frown.
"Yes. All is disrespectful when faced with the cruelty of time," Dimos said. He looked at Amber, then stared in confusion as a frown appeared on his face, "You are female now? Two bodies? One soul? No, just twins, foolish me. These twins look so alike it's scary."
"Dimos, can you explain to them what an Artist is? They're... uh... new," The Captain said. She folded her arms, then took a step back. Dimos smiled, then quickly turned back around. Within a blink of an eye, he had returned to his place behind his desk. A velvety chair appeared from thin air behind him. He planted himself onto its cushion, then snapped his fingers. Two other chairs, each of identical appearance to his own, appeared in front of Dimos's desk.
"Yes, you are new. Sit, sit. You came with the new wave, did you not? The time of the game is upon us, how exciting," Dimos smiled as he rubbed his palms together. Adrian looked at Dimos and nodded.
"Yes! The game! You know about it!" Adrian took a few steps forward, then sat into one of the velvety chairs waiting for him. Amber followed suit as she sat in the other chair.
"What do you know?" Amber asked calmly. Dimos smiled again, then leaned back into his chair. His wings, which still rested on the ground without a care, seemed to pass right through the chair like it was replicating a certain glitch from video games.
"Everything, yet not enough," Dimos replied, "Would you like to listen?"