Luminberg’s local convent did not offer lodgings for traveling clergy, though they welcomed the canoness as another helping hand. The awe and wonder of crystal-assisted projections did not draw many Luminbergers to the Creator’s calling. Inside the compound was a round-domed building that resembled less of a church, and more of a temple. Tangled roots and a sun-looking flower: symbols of an ancient belief in nature spirits—had moss and fungi growing through their porous surfaces. These growths posed no danger to the structure, though Luminberg’s engineers were yet to discover how. The smell of earthy humidity endeared many travelers and the faithful to this place, a dedicated prayer hall for the weary, or simply for those who wanted a break from common city fare.

  Inside the prayer place was the eight-point icon of the Creator twice as large as the one on Aurelburg’s outskirts; the single chunk of solid crystal it was carved from reflected several faces. It was less glaring than Euphemia thought, even with the full brightness of the autumn sun beaming down on it. A temple in the round: a remnant of the Old Belief that the ?therlicht decided to retain. The Holy Symbol above, and the altar below. What about the churchgoers on the flanks?

  She remembered, through some books of the Empire's history, a tree whose trunk was made of gnarling roots that stood at the center. People used to revere it for miracles until one of the Saints prayed for a wish that caused the idol to burn itself. The specks on the floor were said to be the ashen remains of the former symbol.

  Euphemia entered the prayer grounds. Luminberg was a city that relied less on prayer; most of the people who entered the church sat on the pews. There was a flow of cool air here, and being in a quiet place helped frayed nerves. She went through the motions: kneeling before the star-like symbol, lighting up a few sticks of incense, and walking back five steps with her head bowed, and finally turning away. Finding a good place directly in front of the altar and Holy Icon, she knelt and said her prayers in silence.

  ????

  It was an hour before noon when Euphemia decided to visit her two companions. She exited the church grounds after advising the resident priest. Two young men on bicycles wheeled past her; a pair of the Academy's students. Maroon robes fluttered in the wind, emblazoned with an antiquated insignia. The school board evidently preferred the centuries-old aesthetic of the classic wizard. She could never have pictured herself wearing such attire during her short stay as a student of Luminberg; most of her dresses would have looked weird with the robe worn on top.

  Euphemia's habit wrinkled in sharp angles when the wind turned to play with her. The fabric proved pliable enough to sway only when it needed to. At least she did not become a literal walking flag, or a tablecloth turned loose on the streets. Thank the Creator that the breeze wasn’t too strong, or that she had reasonably strong legs that prevented her from being whipped to building walls.

  Daily life in Luminberg started with people going about and around their houses. Most of the women sported simple dresses that allowed more movement during housework. Lawns were uncommon among residents; the most spacious one could afford inside the city was enough for a small fence and gate, and a few four-tiered racks that were allotted for either flowers or the more common vegetable produce. Bicycles and the occasional motorcycle began filling the streets. Having an automobile in Luminberg meant that one was a person of prestige or a part of the imperial government. Smoke barely filled the streets even at their busiest; steam rose from narrow, usually pointed pipes at the roofs of some of the residences. It was that time of day for meals, after all. There were also very few motor vehicles that circulated in the city; none of the roadside fog one would see at Blaurosen's streets would have formed even if all of Luminberg's automobiles were gathered in one place. The largest of this city's roads could only accommodate half of the imperial capital's traffic.

  Euphemia waited for the roads to be clear of rushing cyclists before she crossed the street; the hum of what looked to be a small engine attached to a heavier-looking bicycle frame dominated the swarm. It was her first time seeing a motorized bicycle inside the city of magic: a new model, and a rare one at that. The source of the hum was a globular apparatus encased in the middle of the vehicle's body. Her eyes followed the two-wheeled contraption until it made a turn onto the second street and vanished. Such a means of travel was not found anywhere else; even the imperial capital was yet to be graced by the presence of such a mechanical marvel.

  The canoness was at the southwestern end of the Boiling Flood Street when she stopped on her stroll. An apartment, four floors high, with old wooden carvings of goat heads and gnomes mounted on its walls, stood at the vertex. Its pointed roof stood higher than most of the other buildings; a filament of steel held a deep red arrow wind vane that pointed west. It struggled to follow the air that began blowing eastward. Euphemia wondered how the two men were doing inside after she left them to stay at the Luminberg convent instead. Travelers, they both were; they have most likely fended for themselves.

  She wondered how both Kirk and Rook were doing. It would have been easier, she guessed; neither of them needed to worry about her. She had no choice but to rent a room beside theirs. Euphemia looked at one of the open windows on the second floor, the rightmost spot that Kirk and, after much persuasion, Rook, picked. She waved her hand, hoping that either of the two men would notice her on the street. There was a slight rustle on the half-opened curtain found on the windowpane, followed by the sight of a golden-haired man emerging into view.

  "Hey!" Kirk gave a wave and certainly turned his head back to talk to Rook. "Wake up, boy! The holy sister is here."

  There was silence, followed by Kirk looking back at the cleric. "Sorry, Sister. This boy here isn't that much interested in talking to you. All that cold city air got to his head, I’m afraid."

  "Tell him I'll be waiting outside." A soft shout, almost lost in the wind that passed by.

  In a few seconds, her new companion made his way downstairs and was eye-to-eye with the canoness.

  "I've come to tell you that I will be visiting Luminberg's Academy today."

  "You need someone to accompany you there?"

  "I do appreciate your concern, Kirk, but I'm afraid I must decline. I would like to try to make sense of everything that happened in that forest, and I must insist I do it alone."

  "I say you know your way around this city, I suppose."

  "I studied here for almost half a year—before my parents thought it best to hire an instructor and take my lessons at home instead."

  "Then I have no other choice but to trust you, Sister. Take care on your way."

  "Thank you, Kirk. Please tell Rook that I will stop by in the afternoon. I hope you like food and other niceties once I return."

  Kirk made a slight nod, and the canoness replied with a weak smile and a simple waving of the hand. The cleric turned away from Kirk and walked leftwards from the inn. She heard a slight rattle coming from the pouch mounted on the right side of her waist; Euphemia quickly looked down to make sure the knot remained sealed and intact. She took a right turn at the end of the street, where a long, straight path to the city center stood.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  At the end of the road stood a wide gate flanked by two narrower passages. Walls surrounded the perimeter in a circumference (it would have been a perfect circle had the gate followed this orientation), where Euphemia could easily spot a fountain with a floating blue crystal on top. In the background was a sharp-tipped, conical tower that stood above all the surrounding buildings in the area, and was probably the highest point in the entire city. It was an orange oddity that stood in contrast to the blue-gray weather of the day. The canoness was far from where she would be heading; she could still see the tip of Brillanz pointing to the sky.

  And she was right.

  It took Euphemia thirteen more minutes to reach the gates. There was not much activity apart from the small groups of students coming in and out of their assigned passageways. The canoness proceeded to the non-student entrance, where the assigned guards greeted her:

  "A pleasant morning."

  "Good afternoon. I wish to access the main library."

  "Identification, please."

  "Oh, yes." Euphemia pulled out a card of blue and red with gold borders. She opened it like a book and showed it to the guard.

  The man's face changed from bored to perplexed, looking at the picture on the card and the person where it came from back and forth. He looked from the card to her face and back again, blinking in confusion.

  "I am truly sorry, madam. I’m not too used to seeing church members coming to this place." The watchman almost fumbled in returning the identity card to Euphemia. "Please sign the registration ledger on your right."

  "Thank you." Euphemia wrote her name and copied the time shown on the watchman's desk clock.

  "The main library is to the left of the City Magister's tower, Brillanz." The guard pointed to a low-rise building that looked to be nearly behind the massive orange cone.

  "Welcome to the Academy."

  Her way to the library was slowed down by students loitering in the school grounds; a mix of boys and girls who either studied under the gentle sun, played games using a ball, or spent time making icicles and small flames appear from a crystal-tipped baton linked to a cable and a small, box-like metal device. She might come at a time when the subjects were at their fewest; hence, more classes were on break. The shadow the tower cast over the library entrance reduced much of the glare, and it made the area cooler.

  The library facade seemed to be older than the rest of the buildings; time and weather smoothed the texturing out of stony vines that were sculpted on the front wall. Euphemia could see that it recently had a new coat of paint, judging by the glint the facade gave off when sunlight struck the surface. Two entrances greeted the cleric: one meant for students, the other for most other visitors. She would merely be using some of the privileges the clergy often enjoyed to get past this entrance - the badge of nobility was yet to be needed.

  Euphemia was greeted by a vast arch inside Luminberg's knowledge repository. There lay a mural on the ceiling, where a creature made of various animals was pounding at an arched barrier. Part of the battlements revealed a contingent of men who sent fireballs in an attempt to weaken the intruder. This was no doubt a story of the First Empire from centuries back. She wasn't able to glance at the other portions of the dome when she was about to approach the librarian to ask for the card catalog, but she held off from doing so when she saw a student walking towards a room full of small drawers that stood for two-thirds of the wall's height.

  "I should be able to use 'magic-powered machines' to start my search properly…"

  The search for that category did not prove to be long, as this subject was nearly at the start of the "M" list. Opening the catalog was where the second challenge was about to begin. Euphemia started sifting through dozens of cards—most of them emphasized empowering the projection crystals Luminberg has been recently teaching students on their use.

  "'New Projection Methods'... 'Automobiles and Improved Crystal Cores'... Aha! This subject might prove useful…"

  Euphemia pulled out a card that showed:

  Magic and Machinery

  A Treatise on the Use of Magical Energy for Transportation / Ernst B?cker and Reinhardt G?hler. -1st Edition. - Blaurosen. - Imperial Printing Press, 6-4-17. L-MMDCXLIII, pp. 50-1643. : ill. ; 30cm

  Includes index and terminology

  Euphemia kept the title and author in her mind and then returned the card to the catalog. It was then time for her to search the book on the shelf where it rested. The only other challenge was that these books normally came in singular copies, which would make searching for them seem like a quest.

  She looked at bookshelves that stood almost as tall as trees, where the cleric managed to see large signs of the subjects each of them was housing. Euphemia managed to spot the category of Magic and Machines on a bookshelf close to the library's western exit. That was the only time she had to approach the librarian and ask if the said research was available for reading. Luckily, Euphemia was able to confirm not only that she can have access to the information like any Academy student, but also that the copy was available for reading.

  Looking at a Luminberg library bookshelf instilled both a fascination with all the collected information presented by it and a challenge it would give to a researcher on how to acquire the book. The canoness would no doubt need a ladder to fully inspect the shelf for the book she needed. She found the work resting on the twelfth layer of the bookshelf; a film of dust had settled on the upper portions of the text, which gave her a hint that she was the first person to have ever touched the book in months. Its pages were still white and flexible—Luminberg kept the book in good shape for the time it sat on the Academy's compilation.

  Euphemia found a good seat beside a group of six students who were working on local history; she could see that their books were focused on the House of Kriem and the wars during the Age of Monsters. She opened A Treatise on the Use of Magic for Transportation and started with the aim and scope of the proposal.

  "...we have lost the abilities recorded by the people of the past, thus our current advances in technology can make it possible for the Science Bureau to copy this marvel through the use of machines…"

  There were too many technical terms found in the work, as expected of these kinds of proposals, and Euphemia had to make do with her little understanding of the science being used, as well as pick up fragments of a previous idea and another fragment to try to fit them into a more concrete thought later. Diagrams of a theoretical machine that would convert something, or someone, to light particles and a second machine that would restore the objects to their original states were seen.

  “No, this is not it. But creatures like the Servus Venatoris were brought from the Netherworld, as the bestiary said. Is it possible that someone tried to copy this technology and brought monsters as a side effect? Maybe these authors have written similar books on another application…”

  Euphemia kept scanning through some of the texts. A thought came to her:

  “They may have taken Father with these means. Is this why I found no entrance to a hideaway in the Old Wood? I have not ventured there far enough to conclude anything...”

  She wouldn't be able to finish the entire treatise, as there was no need to. Euphemia headed to the librarian's desk to return the book. She asked:

  "Do you happen to know where I can read more of B?cker and G?hler's works?"

  "Let me see." The librarian waved a hand over a palm-sized dome crystal on her right. A square display shot up in front of Euphemia. "We have no other works related to Ernst B?cker, and Reinhardt G?hler's is compiled at the Restricted Access Section."

  "Restricted... access?"

  "Yes, Sister. We will require written consent from the City Magister for us to allow you to enter this part of the library."

  "I see." Euphemia looked down for a moment and then returned to the librarian's gaze with, "Would you know if the Magister is in the office today?"

  "He normally is. The Magister also serves as the Academy's rector."

  "I should come at a later time with the needed approval then. Thank you for your assistance."

  Euphemia looked outside; the frosted glass of the library window showed a sun crossing westward. She thought of resuming her search for answers and maybe taking Kirk and Rook along. How would those two react to a massive gathering of books?