Murmurs swept the Fradihta.
"I thought the ziggurat was enormous, and nothing could come close. Boy, was I mistaken on that one," Rayo admitted next to Lucian. Lucian pursed his lips and nodded his head in tacit approval of the ingenuity of the tree's denizens.
"This tree, the Tree of Naran and Naru, had stood watch over the Academy grounds for more than a millennium. The last seed of its kind had been handed down from generation to generation since the First Republic, waiting for the right place to take root. Eleven hundred years ago, the seed fell upon the hands of two siblings – a twin brother and sister – named Naran and Naru."
"They fought the forces of the Empire of Jin to free the people of their city, but in the final battle at Cita de Lumière, after successfully repelling the last-ditch assault from Jin to retake the capital, Naru succumbed to her wounds. She alongside her brother and five-thousand others had faced off against a force of 50,000 and prevailed."
"Oh, I know this one! This one is the legend of the Immortals, right?" asked Elwin, putting up his hand.
"You remember well," answered the professor. "When Aeternitas was founded, Naran came to Headmaster Astinel with Naru's ashes and the seed of the ancient tree. He asked if he could plant the seed of the tree alongside her ashes upon the lands of the Academy, so that his sister may see the Sun again, a new sun in a world free of strife. Astinel readily accepted his request. When Naran passed away two decades after, Astinel gave Naran a warrior's funeral just like his sister, and buried his ash next to the sapling that had sprouted. And so, a thousand-hundred years on, Naran and Naru watch over us, their dream fulfilled."
All of the Fradihta had gone quiet. It was a good minute until one of them could give a remark again. To think that one's deeds would be remembered and spoken for a thousand years later, and as long into the future as the Tree could stand: was that what it meant to be immortal? The thought enwrapped the kismets in silent contemplation all the way to House MANASURA.
***
"Behold, the floating city of House MANASURA," declared the professor, she and the Fradihta now at the western edge of the Academy grounds where the lake Aienien met the shores. Aeternitas and its campus was bordered by it to the west, into which the glacial meltwater from the sacred mountain flowed; it was more azure than the sea when viewed from afar and clear as crystal when viewed up close, and in classical times, it was possible to drink out of it directly, whose divine freshness invigorated any drinker. Out of the Aienien, the great river of Aientirus flowed, winding for hundreds of miles through forests and meadows until it nourished the capital city to the south, and found its way out into Mare Lumière, the Shining Sea.
It was by this lake, and in the temple complex carved out under the low-rising limestone cliffs, that the great House of MANASURA found its origin. And eleven hundred years from its establishment, the House spread out from the shores onto the lake in causeways of bridged marble, dividing into spacious open-air amphitheaters and hundreds of classical villas in alabaster white connected by colonnades. Beside them and around them, numerous quaint gardens floated in the calm waters, their shrubs laden with fruit and glints of what seemed like ears of crops; next to a gleaming pier of white stone was a massive galleass, larger than the ship that Elwin and Carl once sailed, with the denizens of House MANASURA moving about on its decks, diving into the water and then back up in a waterspout.
"Do all the structures really float?"
"Haha," explained Professor Aionia, "the causeways, the piers, and the villas are rooted to the bottom of the lake. But all the floating gardens you see do indeed float without such support. Certainly looks like all of them float, don't they?"
"What do the gardens grow?"
"A choice selection of garden fruit and vegetables, along with staple crops. The produce from House MANASURA is supposed to supply the academy with food in the event of famine. But with advancements in experimental philosophy, the ages of hunger are hopefully long behind us – now, the upperclassmen grow and garden out of their own volition, and any they grow, they get to keep or sell to Aienwater. A certain variety of rare fruit grows exceptionally well in soils supplied by the pure water of the lake."
Spying the floating gardens laden with fruit and crop, Elwin wondered whether he would be granted a garden to grow fruits of his own – perhaps he could sell them for good sums, and by the time he graduated, he would have enough money to bring his family to Utopia!
He looked next to him to see Isaac and Mirai thinking of the exact same thing, the thought of denaros practically oozing from their gazes. Katherine, on the other hand, couldn't be more indifferent.
"A Viatira told us that House MANASURA pumps all the water we use on campus. Were they saying that to boast, or is that true?" queried Isaac.
"That Viatira is correct. All the water we use is supplied by the House of the Waters."
"Professor," queried Katherine, "how do they manage all the night-soil? They surely don't dump it into the lake, do they?"
"Glad to see someone take interest in what could be considered mundane," Professor Aionia answered, remembering that this was the daughter of the Archon Alexander Heriz. "Indeed, House MANASURA possesses quite the fine stratagem to tackle such problems, given their promise to keep the lake pristine. Wastewater, when they arise, is pumped onto a facility on the shore through a series of concealed pipes. They are cleansed there, and decontaminated a second time through distillation using the heat of molten salt from House SUNNA, before finally being sent back to the lake. The town of Aienwater relies upon the lake and Aientirus for their water, and so do we. It speaks ill if we muddy the gift of water that flows from the Sacred Mountain."
Wow, other places would have disposed of waste without second thought, pondered Elwin. House MANASURA certainly did not sacrifice their conscience for convenience, all while performing the essential functions that held up the Academy day-to-day. They had so much to be thankful for.
"Now that you understand the fundamental layout of the academy grounds, I will hand you over to Professor Thales for your first lesson of the day," said Professor Aionia.
When Elwin and his kismets had turned their head from the lake, Professor Thales was already beside them, tall and imposing, his cape of azure billowing in the wind towards the west. He'd appeared in their midst without the slightest sound that they all flinched a little to see him there.
"Was he there all along? Did you see him appear?" Isaac poked Elwin.
Inverting the Artens' impression of him as a serious and intimidating instructor, Professor Thales broke the ice with a warm chuckle, making a finger-cannon.
"Got you, didn't I?"
Elwin relaxed his shoulders a little.
"Woah, how did you arrive without making so much a noise?"
"Oh, there are many ways," winked the Master of the Waters. "For this particular case, it was the effect of Water – Mashur – and Air – Ayu. With both, you can dampen quite the sound," he answered. "Thank you, Professor Aionia, for introducing the Artens to the Houses."
"Come, let us unfold the first lesson of all, the first lesson above the water."
***
The Fradihta stood on a shallow pool of an amphitheatron that came to their ankles, the noon sun hot in their hair.
"Here is a tale from my younger days," announced Professor Thales, motioning his Quan-laden arm with a swift rhythm that pulled up equal-sized globules of water from below. Hundreds of them froze into shapes of miniature skycrafts, suspended in the air; half of them were on the left, and the other half on the right side of the amphitheatron. Tiny oscillations seemed to vibrate from Professor Thales's Quan as he piloted each and every little skycraft.
Elwin and his friends leaned in closely to hear Professor Thales speak.
"Back when the Blood Syndicate and the Republics were at the zenith of their conflict over the future of this country, skycrafts and their cannon-fire roared like drums in the upper deep," he explained, as the miniature skycrafts amidst the Fradihta started firing pellets of snow at one another in furious volleys. Numerous figurines were hit and began a slow descent towards the pool below; others weaved in and out, desperate to survive in this mock battle.
"For many months, our skycrafts and their crew fell from fiery heaven like downed MAHANIR. Many did not return. But for those that did, we perused them in detail in the hopes that we could find ways to protect others in future missions."
Little flecks of ice fell from the miniature skycrafts in front of Elwin and others; they weren't simply hearing a tale, but watching it unfold as if they were in the middle of those battles of years ago.
"But how were we to protect them? The technology for antaromagnetic shielding was far from ready. We could only hope to make our skycrafts speedier, or sturdier. But there was a limit to how speedy they could get, and how sturdier we could make them."
"We were faced with a difficult task of balancing speed and armor to best effect. So the question became this: where on our skycrafts should we add armor?"
Professor Thales melted the skycrafts to liquid and brought them together, this time materializing into a single skycraft, slowly orbiting the center of the pool. There were numerous holes in its fins, wings, and body.
"The Syndicate – our enemies – saw the holes and bruises on the wings of skycrafts that returned and decided to armor those parts for the other skycrafts in their arsenal. Seeing them take such measures, we the Republics almost did the same – until an enterprising man stopped us in our tracks."
They all leaned in their ears.
"He said the following: Consider this – all the skycraft that had returned safely were damaged in the wings. But what about the skycraft that weren't damaged in the wings, and were shot somewhere else?"
A clever looking girl with a hair the color of wheat shot her hand up in the air.
"Yes, Miss Daphne."
She answered with confidence. "It means that if you were shot in the wing, you could make it home – but if you were shot elsewhere, you couldn't. So the right answer would be to add armor to anywhere else – anywhere other than the wings."
"Bravo," praised Professor Thales, letting her answer settle in with the crowd. Katherine glanced at the girl, seemingly impressed.
"At first, our statisticians were skeptical. Putting armor in places which appeared pristine on those that returned? What a crock, they dismissed! But at the behest of the desperate crew, they followed the enterprising man's suggestion," he explained, plating the skycraft in front of them with an armor of frost in the places described.
"And in the next battle, all but one of the twenty-three skycrafts that went to fight returned home safely. In the previous battle, less than half had returned." The skycraft in front of Professor Thales had divided into miniature ones again, with many of its crew waving their hands with wisps of icicles.
"Armed with our new wisdom, we beat the syndicate back inch by inch in a war of statistical attrition. And although they too began armoring their skycrafts the way we did, the scales of the war had long since tipped in our favor."
Elwin gawked at the marvel of such a revelation. From so ordinary a subject as skycrafts and fire-holes, where the layman's answer would have been to patch up the most obviously damaged parts – the opposite was in fact true, and that such an answer decided the fate of the nation impressed him beyond words.
Tendrils of dripping water and frost combined now to form a statue of a man above the pool.
"And the fearless man that elucidated this answer," Professor Thales continued, "was Stanislaus Kosmogorov, who was the Master of the Waters before me at Aeternitas – also my Tanaar."
"You see, the Art of Water – Mashurmastra – is not simply about learning to fight with it. It is also about contemplating what we see, to have courage to look beyond what appears ordinary, to find a rhythm behind the movements of the world, just as FOUNDER MANASURA once did."
"When you choose me as your Tanaar, I will ensure that you learn how to put this into practice – to think beyond confines, to analyze, and uncover truth beyond the veil."
Listening to Professor Thales was like glimpsing an ocean of secrets below an unfathomable depth. Surely he would have much to teach Elwin; but there was yet a hint, a whiff of something unseen beyond the vast intelligence of Professor Thales.
Or was Elwin seeing things?