The tower's entrance was a simple, unimpeded archway leading into a narrow tunnel. Makaela summoned a sphere of light to help them navigate the cramped corridor. Shadows scampered behind corners and beneath ledges as she and her group carefully made their way through.

The air was rife with dust and mildew. Using the collar of her coat, she covered her nose and mouth. The others did the same as they went. Had it not been for the bobbing ball of light, they would've been completely blinded by the darkness. Every footstep they took echoed around them, masking the sounds of their labored breaths.

Makaela was just grateful to be out of the cold. They might've conquered the blizzard, but the mountain range seemed to only drop in temperature as time passed. As the sun continued its journey across the sky, she knew the deep chill of the night would follow. The inside of Lumi's tower was a welcome refuge.

Entering the massive ivory pillar jutting into the sky was easier than she anticipated. There was no test to complete, no riddle to solve. Still, her body was teeming with anticipation like a frosty river full of jumping salmon. The further they went, the more feeling returned to her frozen limbs. Warmth crept into the tunnel, infiltrating her garments and soothing her stiff skin. She smiled. With a flick of her wrist, she sent her light ball a few yards ahead of her.

It stopped abruptly upon meeting a pair of brass, doors decorated with intricate symbols from the old language of their people. Ismael frowned at them.

"What?" Makaela asked.

"Charms," he explained. "Very old and powerful ones, by the look of them." He walked up to the door and examined the bronze handle. Makaela arched an eyebrow at the doors. While there was no apparent shield or protective barrier surrounding them, she could feel the magic vibrating from the metal. Ismael was right—the charms were strong.

Hand stepped forward and performed an uncloaking charm. A thin, filmy stream of magic flooded from his palms and poured over the door's handles. Golden energy flickered into view.

"That...looks dangerous," Karin noted.

Makaela nodded. There was no chance in Nordor they were touching that—not with their bare hands anyway. Folding her arms, she glared at the doors.

They had made it this far. Under no circumstance was she about to let some ancient charms stop from her reaching the rest of the fabled tower. Cracking her knuckles, she stomped up to them and prepared a blasting spell. But before she could unleash it, a wall of nausea slammed into her. Coughing violently, she dropped to one knee. Her entire world spun faster than a cyclone over a raging sea; spots dotted her vision, and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

With blurry eyes, she peered at the mark on her palm. The golden light inside was nearly gone. She could see the pink skin where the glow of her vitalae should have been. Her throat constricted and the air abandoned her lungs.

"Makaela?! Are you alright?"

Karin and Ismael were at her side in an instant.

Gulping, she stared at her hand. This was a first. Never had she gotten this close to exhausting all her magical essence before. She knew she possessed way more than the average magician, due to her unique heritage, but she still knew her limits, as vast as they were. Sure, she was still recovering from before, but a simple blasting spell shouldn't have zapped her energy. The elements weren't to blame either; much of her training with Madame Alizeh and the monks of House Vaya included adapting to higher air pressures and the cold while casting.

No...something else was happening here.

With the help of her companions, she shakily stood back up. Her knees shook which such force that they nearly collapsed again. Cold sweat dripped from her face and hit the ground near her shoes.

"The charms," Han announced. "I've seen something like this before. When you cast against the object they're protecting, it drains your lifeforce."

Makaela blanched. His analysis was on point, as she currently felt like death itself.

Ismael firmly placed his hand on her shoulder. "You need rest."

"No," she croaked. "No, we need to get through those doors."

"We'll figure out a way inside. For now, you need to—"

She waved his concerns off. They didn't have time for that. While they might have found Lumi's tower, they weren't any closer to saving the goddess. The Shades were still hunting them down. With the blizzard that had been shrouding the tower from view now gone, it was only a matter of time before the dark magicians arrived.

They needed to get through those doors.

"Just...just give me a second," she panted. The pain in her head dulled to a light throb.

While she attempted to catch her breath and bearings, Han decided to keep himself busy by continuing to examine the doors. She lifted a brow at him as he squatted down in front of the double doors. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, muttering to himself as he stared at something built into the metal.

"I think I know how we can open these."

The other three magicians shared a look before redirecting their attention to Han.

Shifting to the side, he gestured at a cleft built into the center of the reflective doors. The glowing white symbols came to a point at this indentation, as if presenting it to whoever stood before them. Makaela blinked at it as she realized what it was for.

How hadn't she noticed that before?

Her first instinct was to attack the door. In fact, her first instinct was to attack most of the time. Clearly, that wasn't always the best course of action.

Karin pointed at the ring on Makaela's finger. "The Illumio?"

She nodded. The cleft in the brass was shaped exactly like the gemstone humming on her hand. With them standing inside one of the original shrines built for Lumi, it wasn't a stretch to think the only way inside was with the Eldenarian artifact she created. She glanced at the Illumio. Thousands of years of history were embedded in that gem. All the past leaders of House Lumai wielded the power of the artifact—including her father.

Her face fell at the thought of him.

She banished it, replacing it with a look of determination, and approached the doors.

Thorian and the Order tried their best to eradicate House Lumai. They almost succeeded. But for as long as she lived, the sun would continue to shine on their house. Hope would remain. When this all was over, she and Remy and Olivier would rebuild. She didn't know how, but they would. House Lumai wouldn't die. She wouldn't let it.

She fixed her gaze on the doors standing between her and the rest of Lumi's tower. Every inkling of doubt and uncertainty that might've been hiding in the chaos of her brain was eliminated. The golden gemstone on her hand flared brightly as if mirroring her shifting mood. Nodding to herself, she approached the doors.

With a deep breath, she placed the gem against the bronze.

Blinding light followed. The white lines snaking through the metal lit up like streaks of lightning cracking through the sky. They momentarily stole her sight, drowning everything in yellow. Using her other hand to cover her face, she listened to the sound of the doors grinding against each other. Her heartbeat quickened. A grin spread across her lips.

The doors were opening.

Her vision returned in the following seconds. Once it did, she nearly had to pick her jaw off the floor. Ismael, Karin, and Han emerged on either side of her. They all wore similar awestricken expressions on their faces.

"Woah," Han muttered.

"Woah is right," Ismael added.

Grinning, Karin strolled into the open space in front of them. "We did it! We did it, we did it, we did it!"

Han and Ismael sprinted after her, their cheers filling Makaela's ears. She took one last look at the Illumio on her finger. Smiling brighter than the sun itself, she ran through the doorway.

#

The doors gave way to an open pavilion. A curved staircase guarded by a bronze railing went up along the back wall, while another entryway interrupted the wall to the left. Faded paintings of Lumi, the sun, and the sky decorated the right. A bridge journeyed over a large, empty pool. Cobwebs hid in every corner and dust danced in the air like fireflies.

"What now?" Han scratched the top of his head.

Makaela didn't have the slightest clue. The tower didn't exactly come with a directory.

"We do what our ancestors did," Han said with a smile. "We explore."

Karin clapped her hands together. "Finally, something fun." Before anyone could say anything else, she conjured a compressed ball of air, mounted it, and sped off toward the stairs. Ismael and Han offered to go behind her, as there were more rooms and hallways above them to search through.

That left Makaela on the ground to venture into that room off to the left. Nodding to herself, she passed through the curtain draped over the entrance and began her pursuit for anything that would tell them what to do next.

Her ball of light bobbed behind her, illuminating the quaint room at the base of the pavilion. It was rather small—more like a shed than an actual room. She tiptoed around stacks of old books, careful not to touch anything. With the charms on the doors outside, she couldn't be certain the rest of the tower wasn't fitted with other types of traps and security measures.

She glanced around the rest of the room.

There wasn't anything else of note. Just books and scrolls. She must've walked into an old storage room. Pouting slightly, she wished she'd have taken off for the stairs as Karin had. They were more likely to find something than she was. With a sigh, she approached the end of the room.

There wasn't anything else except a simple painting standing out proudly against the white stone wall. She quirked a brow at the artwork. Unlike the paintings outside, this one was in pristine condition. It looked like someone recently painted it. Something told her a preservation charm had been placed upon it.

Her eyes widened as she examined the picture the art was depicting.

A long, white line traveled from the base of the wall to the ceiling, culminating in a bundle of clouds with two people atop them. The first was a girl—knelt with her head bowed and a mane of black hair covering her features. The second was easy to recognize—it was Lumi herself. She had her hand placed on the forehead of the girl before her.

Makaela screwed her face at the image.

She stepped closer, further studying the intricate details in the artwork. Her eyes landed on the kneeling girl again. The longer she looked at her, the thicker the air around her felt. Her chest tightened. Her hands trembled at her side.

She knew exactly who she was.

It was herself.

The paint on the wall wasn't just decoration. It was a premonition; years ago, someone predicted her eventually meeting with Lumi again. Someone saw her fate and left it behind for her to find. But who? Lumi's tower had been lost for ages, and the only people who knew of the prophecy were the members of the Eldenarian Council.

The Illumio sparked to life on her finger.

She tore her attention from the wall for a moment to peer at the ring. Light flooded the room. What was its deal? The light pouring from the golden gemstone condensed and focused until it was shining on a single item in the entire room: a book sat atop a desk tucked away in the corner opposite of her.

How did I miss that?

She glanced at the Illumio again. With a shrug, she approached the wooden table. It only took one look at the book's glossy cover for her entire body to stiffen. It was an exact copy of the spellbook her father used to own—Liberis Lumia. Her father owned the third edition, though. The second was kept in the Eldenarian Palace; Olivier told her that when she was twelve. But the first? The first had been lost for decades. She remembered how her father told her he'd seen it before. She never believed him; he'd always been good at crafting stories. He was always good at telling stories.

Perhaps it wasn't a story after all.

There'd only be one way to know for sure.

She grabbed the book. It felt heavier than the sky in her quaking hands. In the one her father owned, he packed the back casing with notes, comments, and even spells he created himself. Taking a breath to calm herself, she flipped to the end of the book.

Tears welled in her eyes as she recognized her father's handwriting in the margins. Tiny diagrams of casting sequences for his custom charms met her gaze. There wasn't any white space left on the inside cover. A sob climbed up her throat. She promptly forced it back down and continued to read. There were notes about dreamwatching, spells on how to create light mirages, and even a charm designed to manifest a set of armor crafted out of light. Everyone spoke about Pierre Moreau like he was a genius. They were right.

Thorian stole him from the world. Stole him from her mother. Stole him from her.

Wiping her eyes, she discovered a note in the corner. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

It was addressed to her.

[My dearest Makaela,

You haven't been born yet, but Lumi tells me you'll find this someday. She tells me you'll grow up to become an amazing magician and woman. I believe her wholeheartedly. The day your mother gives birth to you will be the greatest day of my life. Even better than the day I became leader of the council.

Nothing will compare to the first time I look you in your eyes. My little sunchild. I cannot wait to meet you and witness the greatness you'll achieve.

Lumi also told me to relay a message: seek the sun at the top. I'm not sure what she means, but she knows best.

I love you,

Pierre (your father)]

Makaela pressed the book to her chest and cried. She sobbed like a baby as her father's words repeated in her head. He wasn't alive to speak them, but she heard them as if he'd read the letter himself. Hearing his voice in her ears was intensely visceral and deeply upsetting. He should've still been alive. Her mother should've still been alive too. But they weren't. They died protecting the Illumio from Thorian. They died protecting her.

More tears fell. She didn't wipe them away.

Dropping to her knees, she tightened her arms around her father's book.

#

Makaela eventually made it out of the room with the spellbook in hand. Dried streaks stained her cheeks, but she didn't care.

She found the others at the top of the staircase and explained to them what she found—which still wasn't much help for their search. To her surprise, they hadn't found any clues either. Instead, they found another doorway into another sector of the tower. This new area much was grander. And much bigger.

Makaela could barely see the painted ceiling, which depicted a glorious depiction of Lumi's golden face framed by her azure hair. The contrast of the bold colors clashed with the stark whiteness of the rest of the auditorium-like space.

Massive walls, curving ever-so-slightly, reached for the domed roof. The sheer size of them made her feel more insignificant than a bug. Oval-shaped windows fitted with golden panes of stained glass were spaced equally in the white stone of the upper level. Filtered light streamed in, illuminating the dancing particles of dust—along with the floating, metal sphere in the center of the room. A block of white eldricite—speckled gold and carved into the silhouette of a woman's figure—hung in the middle of the rotating sphere, flat bars of metal gyrating around it in a mesmerizing rhythm.

Bookshelves taller than some buildings made up most of the base level. Balconies extended off from random places, ladders going up and down from various points. There must've been millions of books in the tower's archives. House Lumai and House Vaya were known for producing scholars and studiers of magic theory. The collection didn't surprise her, but the sheer volume of it did. Thousands of years of knowledge were stored in these walls.

Makaela walked down the tiled floor. Similar symbols to the ones on the doors guarding the tower decorated the white ground. A brass railing sectioned her off from the void ahead. A hexagonal hole hollowed out the center of the tower. More bookshelves extended underneath. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head.

Just how big was this tower?

This was only the bottom. What else was there for them to discover? Exploring the entire thing would've surely taken them days at the very least.

A frown tugged at her mouth.

Finding Lumi's tower was supposed to be the hard part. But now that they were here, she didn't know what else to do. Madame Alizeh didn't tell her how to save Lumi. She wasn't given a guide or instructions or a dream telling her what to do. All that was said to her was "find the tower".

Around her, Karin and Han were going through a section of books on ancient lightningweaving techniques. Ismael watched them from the base of a statue of a past leader of House Vaya. His hands were resting in his lap as he calmly stared ahead.

A lightbulb lit up inside her head. Maybe he'd know what to do.

She joined him in sitting on the huge block of marble and indulged in the silence he had created. The quiet made her skin itch.

"What do we do next?" she finally asked.

Ismael simply shrugged. "Who is to say?"

That wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"As magnificent as this place is," she said, "we need to figure out how to help Lumi." She looked around at the infinite collection of books around her. The sight was suffocating as she realized they might've needed to comb through everything to find a solution. There still were rooms and more levels of the tower to be explored.

Despite her confusion, she knew what she was there for; she needed to find a way to get into contact with Lumi. Madame Alizeh said the tower was where people went to speak with the goddess, but the Vayan monk hadn't given her any other information. No spell, no sequence to follow. Nothing.

Makaela's eyes settled on the spinning ball of metal hovering in the air dozens of feet above her. The rotating metal bands hypnotized her as she peered at them. The bright piece of eldricite in the center piqued her interest.

"What is that thing?" she asked.

Ismael mirrored her vision. "Not sure."

"It looks like an armillary sphere!" Han shouted from his perch beside a bookshelf.

Makaela had no idea what that was. Luckily for her, Ismael seemed to know.

"An armillary typically has a sphere on the inside as well," the monk pointed at the floating brass ball. "I don't believe this thing fits those parameters."

"Well, that's because they're centered around our planet or the sun. They were built to help travelers navigate," Han explained. His brows furrowed as he tilted his head back to get a better look at it. "But this...this is centered around Lumi."

Makaela's eyes widened. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes drinking in every inch of the tower. Everything in there was centered around the deity. But the armillary in particular... That was it. That was the key to reaching Lumi. It had to be.

Gazing up at the floating sphere, she racked her brain for an answer. As it spun, rays of light seeping through the golden panes of glass hit the polished bands of metal. The shimmering, streams of yellow split off in dozens of directions; a few touched bookshelves and illuminated books with glossy spines while others ignited runes etched into the walls like fireflies bobbing in the dead of the night. Every few seconds, the rays of light shifted and selected new targets. Different portions of the massive space lit up while others succumbed to the darkness that followed. It was a never-ending dance of light and shadows.

Makaela froze.

"What?" Karin joined her and Ismael at the base of the ivory statue guarding the inner workings of the tower.

"She has an idea," Ismael said. He lifted his chin ever-so-slightly at the Lumaian magician. "Go on then."

Nodding, Makaela pointed above them. "While I don't know exactly how we're meant to contact Lumi, I do know that thing is supposed to help us. The light and the runes on the walls aren't there by accident."

Ismael rubbed his chin. "Interesting theory."

"She's right!" Han exclaimed. "There's a pattern here...." He pointed at a wall that was currently being illuminated by the fragmented shards of light raining down from the stained-glass windows built high into the towering walls. His index finger shifted to the rotating metal sphere. "That thing controls which runes get activated. I've heard of puzzles like these before. If we can activate the runes in a certain sequence, we'll get our answer."

Makaela nodded and turned her attention to another wall. She studied the symbols and dove deep into her mind to decipher their meaning. Runes weren't her specialty; in fact, they weren't many people's specialty these days. Rune-making was an ancient form of magic not often practiced by the modern magician. If they wanted to crack this puzzle and find out how to help Lumi, it would take all of them, and then some.

Exhaling, she turned to the rest of her group."Alright. Let's begin."