My entrance was a quiet and mundane affair. Up until I said who I was supposed to et. First I was t with dismissal, then with disbelief and disapproval. Up to the mont, when soone in charge looked at the scroll and confird my task. Then it was disaster and dismay instead.
Apparently, missives to this person were a common occurrence. Missives with a murk attachnt, however, were not. In the true fashion of bureaucracy, I was pin-ponged from person to person, with each unwilling to send directly to my destination but also afraid to suffer the consequences if my presence was actually important.
I took it in stride, busy observing the intricacies of the magical compound. The tower lood above my head. I actually noticed an interesting pattern: magical inscriptions were common, magical items, however, werent. If I looked hard enough I could see lines and squiggles at the oddest of places. On the stones around flowerbeds, pillars supporting pavilions. Even on benches in the park.
Magical items werent just around. They were displayed. The main pathway, that Ive managed to cross thrice by now, each ti with a different escort, had twelve glowing orbs acting as lampposts. Spread apart to cover the entire path, and still be visible from any spot. Found nowhere else. Clearly a limited commodity and extre symbol of wealth.
Unfortunate. I really wanted to see one up close, and try to figure out how and why does it emit a pale blue fla. I wondered if it released heat as well.
We stepped into the grand hall, I havent seen before. Clearly serving so arcane purpose or a ritual. The walls were spartan but engraved in a myriad of symbols. A giant figure on the ground, full of curves and pointed stars. A giant mandala made out of gold and precious stones. Four pillars at the corners.
We stepped inside a servant and a guard beside . And before I could ask a question about what we were doing here, everything turned white. Blinking out the tears from my eyes, Ive noticed that the door moved from one wall to another. Or we were in a different but similar room. Or I just turned around.
Be awed. You have stepped into the Tower. The servant proclaid pompously, eyeing like dirt on a fancy cup.
So it was the second. I ignored his treatnt. Wasnt the first ti, Ive experienced sothing like that and, frankly, it shouldnt matter soon, as long as I dont screw up. Instead, I was overwheld by curiosity.
Weve teleported? How does it work? I asked a clearly startled servant. Does it bend space and link two spots together? Or does it simply break us apart and then rebuild us here? My nanites were present and active, as such I was past the initial concern.
The servant opened and closed his mouth silently, like a fish. The guard looked green to the face. As if she had eaten sothing bad.
Enough with your gags! Shut up and follow ! How rude. A simple I dont know wouldve sufficed.
And so we went higher, climbing multiple floors and innurable staircases. The servant wanted to lead us to another portal room, but the guard insisted on stairs instead. I didnt mind the exercise, I wasnt sprinting like mad and all this walking showed more about the inner working of the tower.
Unfortunately, there was plenty to see but no ti to actually explore. Hurried by a cranky servant I let my heart break every ti we walked past a splendid library, filled with arcane tos and bored spiders. Or an alchemical laboratory, filled with glowing vials and shrooms that made you glow instead.
The place was also occupied. I could see the resemblance with my Domina everywhere. We walked through a veritable anthill of red and orange. Foxes of every kind working, researching, arguing. And tails. Lots and lots of tails. I smirked to myself. Two days ago Ive seen a first wermage. Now every large room we were walking by had at least ten.
I guess there would be enough clientele for the tail soap line.
After so ti we had arrived. The servant ripped the missive from my hands and disappeared into the office, while I stayed outside with a guard. It was still hard to grasp the social structure of this place. The servant was clearly a slave but yet worked with authority greater than a guard, a free citizen herself. Who was a part of this extended household, judging by her vulpine face and copper hair. Both were wer, most likely, climbing multiple floors in quick succession didnt phase either of them. And yet, she clearly followed him most of the ti, while he clearly accepted her suggestions without snapping, like he did whenever I tried to ask anything.
I shook my head ruefully and walked toward the window. The social structure was way more complicated than I thought. There were evidently multiple hierarchical ladders without any obvious comparison is status between. Ugh. And I was falling into this bog of interpersonal politics head first at breakneck speeds without realizing it. Up until today.
She was indeed a smart cookie with her lesson.
I looked out of the window feeling the fresh air on my skin, enjoying the view in front of . We werent really that high from the ground, forty floors or so. But, since all other city buildings rarely reached past four, the view was spectacular. I could see the manors of the city. Islands of green among the spiderwebs of stone. The river bisecting it like a sapphire snake that was leashed with a multitude of bridges in return.
The distant port, filled with sails, a tint of salt felt even here. The sea, full of fishern and traders arriving and leaving. The hills of green around the city with roads expanding away like roots. And like roots they were full with moving carts, constantly supplying Samat with food and other produce. The city lived. And, like a giant set of hearts, seven towers floated above it all. Surrounding a giant open plaza devoid of people. A place of worship and yearly sacrifices to the gods of magic. Useless and intangible.
My eyes narrowed at a particular detail.
The Tower, it is moving. Each tower had an amplitude, floating up and down. Hard to notice from the ground, but standing inside one it was obvious the motion was imnse. But, I feel nothing. Why?
Magic, The guard responded and then continued with worry in her voice, Why should we feel anything?
Because we accelerate with the Tower, and yet my body does not perceive acceleration. Does it an it is actually sohow locked in space and ti? But then we would be flying west with enough speed to grind us to dust across the hills! And yet I feel the gravity. Does it an it sohow selectively warps the world around us? Or does it mimic the pull of the earth instead?
Enough! It works because the Gods willed it to be like that! Who are we to question their design. She barked with annoyance in her voice. Her hand gripping a pillar, knuckles white. And step away from the window!
I shrugged my shoulders and stood aside while contemplating in my head how sothing like that was possible. For the first ti after my talk with Irje, I grew frustrated with my inability to sense magic. Having it right now wouldve been invaluable.
A servant exited and left telling us to wait. That was to be expected, from all that I saw I was eting a rather prominent figure in all regards. Even a letter from his student wouldnt make him drop everything and et a slave with unknown potential. We waited more, the guard visibly uncomfortable with my presence until eventually I was called inside. Alone.
Virnan Kiytl Shah was exactly like Albin described. I watched him quietly as he peered over my scribbles in contemplation. His face set as his mind worked at the problem in front of him. Not senile. He had large silver ears and fox tail tinted in grey, languidly moving as he lied on his couch in quiet deliberation. Absentmindedly stroking his beard. Circular glasses over the slanted vulpine eyes like a real wise fox would have had.
He humd and dragged his stick through the sand covering the entire office floor, turning my three into an eight.
It is much more susceptible to forgery. His words calm, a re statent of the fact.
It most likely is. But that is not its main strength.
Yes, speed was it? But how a written system would affect your thoughts.
Well, just as mathematics itself does, it breaks a large problem into smaller parts, with each number being able to be solved separately and then added together as a whole. My stick moved fast drawing multiple examples as I spoke, showing all four basic operations. What separates it from the other counting thods that while position matters it also makes it simple. Just as there ten ones in ten there are ten hundreds in a thousand, within their position, they all act the sa, you just have to rember the position of the answer.
He watched quietly, clearly engrossed in the drawings on the floor, fascinated by division especially.
I made yet another, bigger example as I continued And with that as long as you can count to ten you can count forever. You can count numbers large and small this way. Each number after ones is but a sum of fractions, a tenth, a hundredth and so on.
And yet it still fails to do what geotry can do with ease. He smirked at
I raised my eyes and looked at him smiling slyly. His eyes so narrow they looked like slits.
Which is?
Diagonals of squares, for example
A square root? I arched my eyebrow. Alright, old fox, you wanna play, let's play. My stick drew yet another symbol. A square root of two. You an this? and then I started drawing digits. One, dot, four, one, four
Bah! That's just an approximation, and you simply made up a squiggle!
Perhaps, but what is math if not a choice I kept writing numbers, making him frown. Human brains were bad as such calculations, I would have had to morize this beforehand if I was normal. Unfortunately for him, my brain had additional hardware installed, perfectly capable of doing sothing so simple. I moved on Whenever we are stuck, we simply move on, inventing new things, assigning sothing simple to sothing complex, once the pattern is understood. Besides what about cubes?
What about them?
I drew a cubic root. They also have a diagonal right?
Yes, and it is still more precise than that squiggle. He definitely lost so steam there although he was smiling still, engaged in the discussion.
And then? I smiled back.
And then what?
I drew the fourth root. What shape I need to get diagonal of that?
He stroked his chin in contemplation. Well you can probably do it with a bunch of squares in succession
I smiled and drew an n-th root in silence. And got a stick thrown between my eyes.
And why would I need sothing so abstract. He huffed.
I handed him his stick back, rubbing my nose. What are numbers if not abstracts themselves. They have no sense of sll, nor taste, nor colour. We cant grasp them with our senses but our minds.
Hmpf. He yanked his stick back. Unwilling to concede. And what makes you believe that sa cannot be done with shapes instead? New forms?
Oh, I know that its possible. But the mathematics is more than just numbers and shapes. There is calculus: the mathematics of change and motion. I rubbed my fingers together as if rubbing coins. Compound interest too.
He sighed at looked at . Who do you think I am?
I frowned, did I say sothing offensive? Virnan Kiytl Shah
Exactly. I study math to understand the world! I study geotry to understand magic!
Truly?
He went on, If you want to entice soone with sothing like that go talk to Aikerim Adal, she still only has gold in her eyes. This is the place of knowledge, not profit!
I let him vent standing quietly. So her na was Aikerim Kiytl Adal, huh. Eventually, he sighed and picked up a cup of water as I went on, taking it as my cue, My apologies for using a wrong example. But then this branch also tells you how a curve curves, or how much area a certain shape takes. The reason I chose interest was that it is very easy to visualize the basic premise using cuts or any other money. A heuristic of sorts.
A spray of water t my face. What an ungrateful audience. Are you alright? He was choking a bit.
He waved off with a stick, violently. Dont step on that!
I looked at my feet, I almost stepped on the square root sequence that Ive written. Okay, I took that back, I had a grateful audience, it just wasnt grateful to .
So, out with it. He continued in a no-nonsense tone as if nothing happened.
Er?
Your interest thing. Show it.
Well, imagine if an interest of a full cost per year
And so I went, explaining the origin of Eulers number to a renowned mathematician who had been known for his knowledge more than Ive been alive. I broke in a cold sweat at the implication, a re slave trying to explain sothing so basic to soone like that. Luckily for , he was in extrely serious mode, absorbing my words like a sponge, not even thinking about sothing silly like pride. I felt myself closer to his greatness in doing so. Like a child with a ti machine shakily explaining things to Archides, reading from a cheat sheet. And simply basking in his brilliance.
Although I wasnt planning on introducing calculus with e, he was as stubborn as he was willing to learn. And more. Besides, he liked geotry, so I decided to give him a taste of yet another transcendental number, different from pi.
Albin Shebet Chasya
He walked briskly through the city, ignoring the crowd that spread apart in front of him. His tail twitching with excitent. A card gripped tightly in his hand.
All his relatives had different ways of staving boredom off. All boring and mundane. And yet they dared to scoff at his. Braggarts. As if standing in front of a paper covering it in smudges, or sweating at the stone chipping pieces off sohow put you at the forefront of the intellectual elite.
Him?
He liked to murkwatch.
It was so fascinating to find interesting stories among the average. He felt as if he was digging for treasure each ti he went down onto the lower city, observing their lives. So called his findings worthless trinkets and baubles, but he felt they made the history alive.
Sparkies? They were obvious, their actions so predictable that it barely took him any real effort. He actively avoided doing so in fact, no point in making his life more boring. Wermurks were different, their minds clouded from scrying. Each one a puzzle to solve.
He had gotten good at reading them by now. For most, he barely needed to even draw a card. For so, he did only to confirm his guess. Precious few surprised him.
Until today.
He glanced at the card in hand. The sa one that he pulled last, just before they have spoken for the first ti.
The crossed swords.
The male hand holding the blue blade. Arkshi, The Sky Father, The Protector drawing his blade to strike his wife.
The female hand raising the yellow. Mreea, The Earth Mother, The Provider eting her husband in battle.
The Divine Divorce. The End of Tis. Chaos. The card had many anings each more intimidating than the other.
He chuckled to himself and spoke, to no one, How interesting.
He turned around and stared at the silhouette of the tower he just left behind. Glowing runes flared up and, with a snap of fingers, dissolved to dust. The street fell silent.
Well then, the child of chaos. A murk who speaks the language of magic. Walk your life and show what the chaos really is. Yours might be the most interesting murk story I would ever write! He proclaid and then frowned. Although going around his Domina might prove tricky. Well, no matter!
He turned around and resud his walk, whistling a tune. Avoiding the still figures slowly coming back to life.
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