As the sun set, the crew trickled back onto the Sky Ship, unloading their supplies. The hope´s guard found Ellyrie in the command room, feet on the table and her eyes racing across the letter over and over.

"We've got some wonderful work ahead of us team." The captain was smiling from ear to ear. "Elias is asking us to show up at the twin academies within the week to oversee some negotiations with the council of wisdom!"

"Within the week?" Aeneya pulled on her hair. "We just now restocked out crystals, you mean to burn through our storage again?"

"What, it's just the academies, we're already in Atal, if we really heat up we should get there within a few days no?"

"Do you even know how big Atal is captain?!" Cairon had taken his seat and stared at Ellyrie in disbelief. "Sure we could get there in three day´s time, but we would be entirely out of crystals again and I am NOT taking another pay cut!"

Ellyrie slid the letter over to him with a wide smirk on her face. "After this job you wont."

"HOW MUCH?"

Cairon´s eyes looked dangerously closed to fall out of their sockets. He handed the letter to Aeneya with a trembling hand, who finally sat down beside Ellyrie.

"Well then. That does make it more than worth it."

Mellador took his seat opposite of the captain and shrugged his massive shoulders. "If our financial advisor agrees, then that is enough for me."

"It would be a joy to meet with master Elias again, that alone is enough for me to agree." Thaeus crossed his legs on his chair and leaned back.

Fiona had squatted down in her seat as she was wont to do, her eyes focused on the map at the centre of the table. "My mother whispers of death in our path, it is destiny for us to follow it."

Ellyrie slammed her hand on the table and got up.

"Then set sail for the academies, let's not keep the Sovereign waiting!"

"YOU MEAN NOW?!"

Despite their complaints, the captain had her way. The ship was freed, the crystal fires lit, and a strong wind set them on the course further south.

The journey was uneventful, they were deep in imperial territory, atali territory after all. The lands below and skies above here had been pacified two hundred years ago.

The "Herald" sailed above seas of fields, irregularly parted by smaller settlements and towns, none big or important enough to even have a Sky tower. For the crew it was respite and motivation both, a sight of not only what the world could be, and what they had helped shape, but also what they were truly fighting for.

On the third day, the twin academies came into view. Before his fall, it had been the city of the Scholar, and the mages his priests. After his trial and conviction, the city was renamed for the two great spires in it´s centre, the tower of war and the tower of peace. They reached up into the sky, with their peaks often vanishing in the sea of clouds.

Compared to these titanic structures, the cities sky tower was a minuscule little thing. The captain and the hope´s guard had dressed for the occasion, their cloaks flowing in the wind. At the foot of the tower they were greeted by two priests of the Mother, dressed in crimson flowing robes.

"His highness awaits you and your companions already, lady Ellyrie. We are thankful that you could make it this swiftly. If you would please follow us."

Even with all of Ellyrie´s love for Atal, the academies were just not her world. It was not a city with a prominent school of learning, it was a school of learning that had necessitated a city to support it.

The streets were a chaotic labyrinth of smaller alleyways, twists and turns. Crystelleries, cheap housing and restaurants dominated the street view, but even they paled in comparison to the bookstores.

It was a guardian´s nightmare. Stores offering tomes for learning arcanery were the most frequent of course, but others offered treaties on philosophy, others dedicated solely to the writings of an especially accomplished mage or member of the council of wisdom, Ellyrie even saw one dedicated solely to offering a veritable library on the plants and wildlife of the white desert, west of the empire.

And all of it laid in the shadow of the academies. Multiple large bridges connected the two spires, far above their heads. They were wide enough for a whole battalion to march across in formation. Few feats of architecture could match the academies in their glory and sheer size.

They were lead through the large gates of the tower of peace, into the main hall. It was of a circular shape, with the ceiling having a square-shaped hole in it´s middle. Through it they could look up through tens of floors, near all the way up to the peak.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

In the middle of the room however stood the figure demanding the attention of all those around him. Not an ounce of inhuman blood flowed through his veins, proven in spite of his detractors, yet he towered above all. Even Mellador looked like a child in comparison, his head barely reaching the man´s core.

His enormous, giant body was covered in a modest white robe, akin to those worn by novice priests, before they were allowed to devote themselves to one of the seven gods.

When he turned and faced Ellyrie and her crew, his steps had the ground tremble. And for all his height and strength, his face remained as soft and warm as ever, his green eyes void of negativity.

"El and her friends, even Thaeus decided to come, it is so very good to see you!" His droning voice echoed from the walls, full of warmth. "I could hardly believe it when I was informed you were racing towards us, and not a moment too soon."

Ellyrie felt her shoulder relax within the man´s presence. He had many names and titles. Sovereign Viceroy of Atal, beloved by the pantheon, the great tower of piety, voice of the gods, the enlightened.

"I'm glad we can help Elias, we could never just ignore a call to help, especially not one this lucrative! So what are these negotiations about?"

They stepped onto the large black square in the middle of the room. Beside Elias stood a mage clad in a dark yellow robe. He held a crystaline staff in his hands, and pushed it down into a socket in the ground.

The square began to glow, and was slowly lifted into the air. As they ascended upward, Elias spoke.

"As usual, nothing too pleasant I am afraid. The council has again been ignoring calls from the capital to part with pieces from their vault. Normally they play this game for a few months, pretending not to receive the letters, dragging their feet, trying to bring up some obscure law from sixty years ago."

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "But this time they have been tremendously insistent. And word I heard from the capital hinted that they were close to unleashing the guardians on the academies, and you can imagine what kind of carnage that would leave behind."

The blood froze in Ellyrie´s veins. She could imagine all too well.

"So I decided to visit them myself, and to have you and your guard follow me to show them just how serious this situation is becoming. I know they have no love for the capital, but these trinkets are not worth an investigation by the guardians."

Their surroundings were changing fast as they ascended. No floor was the same. One lead into libraries, with ceilings that the captain could only guess at. Other´s had long winding hallways, holding the personal studies of the mages teaching at the academies, while another housed multiple large lecture halls, each able of holding near a thousand students.

Finally they stopped at the highest floor. The echoing buzzing and sounds of life were silent here, not a sound from below reached them, or likely could leave.

Four large doors greeted them, one in every cardinal direction. Three were closed, only one open, the council´s room. It was a wide open hall with a large golden table in the shape of a crescent, and along it sat the six members of the council of wisdom.

Jenafari, archon of the tower of war, a tall and muscular man, dressed in a robe of pitch black sat at the centre left. Opposite of him was Turinan, archon of the tower of peace. His golden robes did little to flatter his swollen body, he was the only one of the six who looked on their visitors without a form of frown.

On the outher edges sat the two lower archons of their tower. Ninia of Cirei, clad in the green of her home province and Thileos of Zana, the grey of his robes mirroring his sickly complexion, sat to the side of Jenafari, on Turinans side were Khao, the only member of the circle who did not follow tradition and wore a relaxed and informal suit, and Ultira, who even here did not halt her industrious hands. Feather in hand she was writing down whatever thoughts had again possessed her attention.

With her exception, the five lowered their heads as Elias and the guard approached.

"I do not seek to waste the council´s precious time, my friends." Elias began, folding his hands. "So I will spare the formalities. I understand your reluctance to part with your treasures, but surely you can see reason, yes?"

"We see reason much clearer than those tyrants of the capital, your highness." Ninia hissed, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Their distrust knows no end, they will take until not a stone of the spires is still in the same place."

Elias let out a sigh. "I understand your concern, lady Ninia. But certainly you can at least understand the capital´s concern. The Scholar´s crimes were grave, that distrust of him would move to distrust of those living in his footsteps seems to me understandable."

"The Scholar was executed a hundred years ago, Elias. Even his oldest followers are dead by now, yet we are still made to submit, be questioned and humiliated." Jenafari´s voice was much calmer than that of his subordinate, but no less stern. "This recent demand simply goes too far."

"The Heart of the scholar, the book of Parsae and any and all writings pertaining to either." Turinan leaned back in his seat and rested his hands on his stomach. "Why these are the most precious artifacts we have. Can you not speak for your subjects, your highness? Speak to whatever paper pusher in the capital has ordered this?"

"I am afraid I cannot, old friend." Elias shook his head. "Word has it that should you not soon answer, then the capital will authorise the Guardians to investigate the reasoning for your insubordination."

The words echoed through the hall like the shot of a rifle.

"Surely this is a jest." Khao´s eyes were wide open. "They cannot mean to let those rabid dogs run wild in the academies. Your highness, if they come here-"

"Yes." The loud boom of Elias´s voice made the very room tremble. "I know very well, that is why I have been fighting to keep the Guardians from Atal. But I cannot go against an order from the capital itself, my friends. And as much as it must pain you, I must ask, demand, that you give them what they want."

"Well, that is a crying shame." Utira was still not looking up from her writings. "A true shame, really. That they ask of us the impossible."

Elias rose his eyebrow. "I didn't take you for such a pessimist, Utira."

"No pessimism, Elias. Realism." She stroked a last black line across the paper. "We can't give them something we don't have. The Heart is not here. And we have no idea where it may be."

Silence fell across the room.