Hello readers! Information Notice
From now on, the characters' thoughts will be marked with sideways rather than 'between apostrophes'.
So it's easier to understand.
Happy reading!
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The following day, Alice, Adamas and Ambra went to the red tower to fill out the registration forms and all the necessary paperwork.
The road in the early morning was still noisy, with laughter and chatter from people going to work.
To get to the Tower, they took a carriage, because it was quite far away, being the center of the capital.
And so, amid the yawns of Adamas, and chatter between mother and daughter, the trio arrived at their destination.
As soon as they arrived, they were amazed by the magnificence of the structure: a fence went around an immense open-air park welcomed them, highlighting the figure of a very high crimson tower stretched up to the sky, which seemed to go beyond it, the whole embellished with Gothic-style windows and sculptures outside the tower walls.
As soon as they crossed the threshold of the fence, the image they had of the tower in front of them changed, causing them to be blown away: the tower was not on the same level as the gate, a part of the earth was elevated, detached, and held the bases of the tower; around the floating rock there were reddish stones set in similar clouds, which held the floating rock. The structure was so impressive that it could be seen from every point of the capital.
Wow, so this is the red tower, from our house you can see only the upper half of the tower, but now... Besides, since when is there the lower rock that raises the tower?
Ambra was fascinated by the whole complex of structures.
Similarly, his brother Adamas was fascinated the structures and runic complexes present, as well as he saw his own city tower for the first time.
Because they had crossed the outer gate, the guards asked for documents to ascertain the reason for the entrance, but, after showing the commander's recommendation, the trio, amused at the scene of the embarrassed guards, received a red tag - which indicated the permission to enter and unlimited time inside the structure - and a guide to lead them wherever they wanted to go, as the space of the courtyard and the tower were so big that they could safely occupied about 40% of the capital.
The guide was fully dressed, with a white shirt inside the trousers of the red wine suit and the semi-elegant shoes, to allow comfort during the visits. The only peculiar aspect was her black helmet hair and red eyes.
"Welcome to the Red Tower, I'm Edwin and I'll briefly explain how the tower works and its functions, while I'll take you to the registration office."
The eyes of the guide... the eyelids don't close? It looks like a reptile... Ambra was internally surprised, but did not give to see her expression, as always.
"The towersit was built to have several functions: obviously as a dormitory for the magicians who dedicated their lives to research on magical power, as well as structures for the study and learning of novices, but only the laboratory are here, the place where the students will be is the Red Academy, located in the Heart region, along with the other 4 Academies. In addition, here at the Red Tower, there are shops for every need; so if students were to shop, they could safely access their corresponding tower according to the academy. "
"Excuse me, so will my children have to go ahead and back between the two regions when do they have to go home or shop? But isn't that tiring?" Alice asked puzzled.
"Absolutely not, Milady. Her children will use the Academy's transportation services for free, the journey takes about 10 minutes, it's extremely fast," said Edwin, proudly, as if he had designed it.
Alice looked at the guide for a few seconds, with an incredulous expression but amused by the scene, and then nodded with a friendly smile.
During the explanation, Adamas kept looking around, admiring what knowledge and the application of magic could do. He was fascinated by the courtyard with state-of-the-art automated lighting systems with runes capable of capturing the magic imprint of the sun.
"Excuse me, can I ask you a question?" Ambra churches taking advantage of Edwin's silence
"Of course! Tell me, too" said the guide beamingly, evidently meeting few people asking for information.
"How is it possible that from the outside it is smaller than what this place actually is? Besides the fact that to contain all the things you said, the space of the tower seems to me little."
"GOOD QUESTION, MISS!" He shrieked Edwin, blowing Ambra and Adamas out of surprise and chuckling Alice.
"Everything you said is right, but you're missing one detail: the magic of space. Thanks to it, our commander, Mr. Rubino, manages to deform the space and/or deceive the sense of sight. Let's take an example," said the guide, amused by Amber's puzzled face.
"If a house is 100 square meters in reality, with the aid of the magic of space I can make you believe that it is twice or half of what it actually is, so the subject does not actually know the size of the house until it enters the area of effect of the magic of space."
It makes sense... Now I understand what happened at the entrance
Ambra nodding in the meantime to Edwin during the explanation.
So you can do this too... fun.
Continuing the 'guided tour', other basic concepts were explained, like the distribution on the planes, the number of them and all the minor functions.
During the explanation, Ambra and Adamas continued to alternate with continuous questions, insatiable to know more than the guide actually knew, flanked by their mother Alice amused by the scene.
So they got to the base of the floating rock, the base where the tower was.
There were two cages, with two people each inside, and connected from above with what at first glance looked like an arch made of a dark material.
"Well, go through the two cages, then wait a few seconds and go up," said Edwin quietly.
The first to go was Ambra, who, after passing under the arch, felt the tiredness of the walk coming out of her body, while the obsidian above became clearer.
"Wow, I feel lighter. What happened?" she asked to the guide with a nod of surprise.
"Nothing, the obsidian contained in the arc above you is a material as well as a magical conductor with properties of collecting impurities. Let's say it 'cleaned you up' " said Edwin with a slight laugh.
But to make the obsidian so clear when normally the change is not seen with the naked eye... who is this girl? he was surprised in his thoughts.
Immediately after the explanation, Ambra walked forward as she had indicated the guide, but stopped on the puzzled edge.
But there is nothing in front of us, except the void left by the rock... Ah, right, I have to wait a few seconds.
But just the time to formulate the thought that one by one of the stairs made of celestial flames appeared in front of her, ending exactly at the main entrance of the tower.
For the first time, Ambra showed her astonishment openly, observing the flaming stairs for a few seconds with wide-eyed eyes, and then hinting at a smile of excitement.
After Ambra passed Adamas, followed by Alice and finally Edwin.
Arriving at the entrance, Edwin finished his excursus of the tower: "Finally, on the top of the tower, there was the commander, the person in charge of protecting the region, as well as continuously monitoring the powerful barrier created to protect the Capitals, the cities where the towers resided. The power that a commander could exercise in his tower was on par with the emperor." He said, showing a friendly smile to the trio.
"Now we will enter the tower, please stay close to me, it's easy to get lost."
Saying this, Edwin showed to the sphere in the middle of the door a card in his pocket, which lit up with fiery red, and opened the door accordingly.
Strange celestial mechanisms appeared in front of the gate, which began to rotate, opening the interior of the tower to the view of the trio.
Ambra and Adamas were both enthusiastic, but for different things: if it was a sight for Adamas to be able to see so closely the mechanisms and runes used for the avant-garde of magical craftsmanship; for Amber it was a pleasure for the eyes to finally be able to admire the interior of the tower.
Ambra, Alice and Adamas entered the tower, but the view from the inside was completely different from what they expected.
Opened the door, the view was simply unlike anything they expected: waiting for them was the view of a magnificent interweaving of the wild nature, represented by the plants that surrounded what would then represent the human part of the 'picture', a white marble structure that stood out in the green foliage.
A majestic white dome highlighted a simply immense oak trunk, which most likely connected the first floor with the upper ones
and a tree-lined street accompanied the road that connected their position to the white marble structure in the distance.
All this under the beautiful sunlight, as if they were in the open air.
So, after giving the group time to be stunned, Edwin turned around and said proudly:
"Welcome to the Red Tower, 1st floor, also called 'the reception of nature' !"