'Was that a mummified hand-- claw?'
It seed that it wasn't just who noticed the thing. Nathan and I stopped in front of a marble podium, as high as my waist, with the mummified claw encased inside a velvet box. The iron plate said it was apparently a gorgon's claw. See, I have no idea what a gorgon is but this thing is wild. I an, if you can just see those blackened nails? That leathery dried-up skin with scales in them? It looked sharp as hell it could definitely pierce soone without effort. And it's creepy too.
Both of us are looking at soone's or sothing's severed hand right now. For so, it might look ghastly. But to , it was nothing short of intriguing. It made curious about its origins and what these gorgons truly are. I have never heard of them before, nor does it belong to this world's myth. But who knows? Ultimately, I still have a lot to learn.
.
"I have read about gorgons before, here in this very room. They are females from greek mythology with snakes as hair and sharp claws, and wings and scales… They are believed to look very hideous," Nathan then stated.
'I'm sorry, what?'
Snake hair???
I just heard Nathan say so crazy things just now. Out of all the characteristics he broached, the thing about snakes as hair is the craziest. How is that even possible?
And obviously, they would surely look hideous! And probably creepy too! I don't want to et soone like that. It's fine if they have claws, wings, and shit, but snake hair??
Nope. That's a big nope.
"That's the only thing I could rember about them," Nathan added.
"You said greek mythology, I think I've heard of that before… I just… I just don't rember when and where," I grumbled with my brows knitting together as I thought hard.
'Greek mythology… Was it from there? The world I ca from?'
Nathan humd, "I also heard that there is another part of the gorgon's body here but it is on the upper floors. It's rumored to be its head."
Upper floors?
I instinctively looked up to the ceiling even though I couldn't possibly see through it.
I wonder if I could get to see it? The head? I an, I can access the floors above anyway. Though I am creeped out by the snake thing, my curiosity is as strong as ever.
Right. After I get to gather all the stuff I want to research and have all my questions and queries answered, I will certainly co back to explore all the floors of this tower. There are still a lot of ancient ntos I haven't gotten to look at yet.
We then passed by an incredibly long table that has a lot of things on it. There are weapons, so shiny things... dallions? Pieces of exotic jewelry… rocks in different sizes and urns…
Coincidentally, we saw a large chalice made of gold among them and both of us imdiately veered away from that table. We just assud that it's probably the sa chalice that sucked that poor historian's soul and even if it's not, it won't hurt to stay alert. Chalices now, or anything resembling a cup, is an imdiate no.
We were now going towards the floating book directory because it was my main objective for today after all. To find the mysteries surrounding , magic itself, and more. And while we're walking, Nathan finally can't keep his curiosity from earlier down anymore.
"What did he an by you being the king's guest?"
I glanced at him and t his imploring gaze, "Ah, that… Well, before you ca in and asked . Lord Janus had sent an invitation to visit the tower."
And that was when I was just thinking about it too. I was so sure he would never invite and the magician did the opposite. Maybe I should start saying the things I wish to happen aloud so it'll co true. At this point, I might just be an undiscovered silver-tongue.
"The Great Magician?" Nathan then frowned. "How did that happen? I an, were you two always acquainted with each other?"
"Hmm? Not really…" I honestly answered. "It's because we had t quite a few tis during my tea party with the Empress… you know… He sotis joins us and then we talk… All that jazz..." I trailed on.
All of my etings with him are entirely serendipitous. He just liked popping out of nowhere, that's it.
There was a short pause before he curtly answered.
"Is that so?"
I have no idea what my brother is thinking because his face was just blank, as usual. So I don't know whether he is satisfied with my answer or not.
"Yeah…" I mumbled.
We reached the floating book and oh boy, it was actually gigantic! I thought that it's a big book from afar, but reasonably big is what I ant. It's not. It's humongous. It's half the size of my bed or more.
How am I able to browse this?! It would take a whole freaking day just to see the books I wanted.
Nathan must have seen the utter look of bewildernt on my face and guessed what was probably on my mind. He then put out of my misery by saying the next things.
"Just say the keywords out loud and it will turn to the specific pages."
With my mouth still slightly agape, I gazed up at him in astonishnt.
"Say what again?"
"Keywords. If not, titles. The things you wanted to read about, just say it," he elaborated. "Here, I'll show you... Art of the sword."
After he said that, the book faintly glowed before it started flipping its pages on its own. It then stopped after a split second and the texts, which are also big as well, showed where the affiliated books were located. I thought that was it but a tiny glowing orb, the size of a cherry, appeared out of thin air and hovered for a mont before it floated away.
"Huh?"
"Oh, it's the thing that leads you to the book," said Nathan.
"Really?" I voiced out, thrilled by it.
"Or you can just summon the book to you," a male voice piped in.
"Oh geez!" I jumped back from the fright.
It was Z and he was standing there behind us. I didn't even notice his presence at all!
How did he get here so fast and without making a noise? Right, he's part of the arcane tower, he could have just teleported. But why must he surprise us like that?
"Just say the word, 'summon', and the book will appear in front of you."
There is such a convenient way like that?
Reviews
All reviews (0)