Amun.
***
“Alright.” I halted myself and everyone else in midair with a sigh and looked down on the expansive ring-shaped stone platform that gave way to sandy beaches along the outer edge. “Feel free to call this beach whatever you like,” I said, conjuring a hologram to divide the space into slender pie-shaped segments that everyone could see. “The space is divided between agriculture, training, and recreation. In addition to the farms and parks, we have fighting or athletic courts and other outdoor facilities available for use. Now then.” I paused to land everyone near the entrance. “Let’s head inside.”
So saying, I led them through a massive open archway that merged with a great foyer boasting an elevated dais of solid stone in the center that’d been carved to make a spiral staircase leading down to the lower levels. Massive stained glass windows stretched to the ceilings twenty meters above, where they ended at a living trim of a beige-colored moss that gave off a pleasant woody scent in tandem with the hanging roots from the floors above.
“How long did it take to build this?” Someone gasped from the rear.
“Around fifty years. Now, come on.” I waved them towards the dais to lead them downstairs. “I do apologize for the long flights.” I continued after a few ways down. “The pillar is just that massive. Though the Moons and Twilight lurking within the place will allow you to move freely throughout. Now then.” I paused to push through a door and lead everyone into a room just as spacious as the one above.
The difference was that the ceiling was half as high and the room was below the waterline. The entire space was floored with plush carpet and furnished around the circumference with a looping and curving sofa of layered cushions that provided a variety of angles and elevations from which to peer through the panoramic windows. Suffused in the blue light of the lake and accented by the same wood-scented moss and a quartet of shadow undead performing at the center, it provided quite the tranquil respite from any activities occurring above or below.
“No way!” Ritrix skipped through the room at once. “A club!?”
“And a lounge. I’ll leave the honor of naming it to you.” I smiled. Then waved to the half-orc staring through the window at Rod the skeletal fisherman, chasing after fish with a simple harpoon. “You can stare at the fish later. But there’s more to see.”
Down another extensive flight of stairs brought us to the industrial center, where we poked our heads in on the oversized mills, workshops, and warehouses before we pressed on to the industrial kitchen below it.
After we made our final stop in the storage room on the lowest level, Zarzok skipped up the stairs to approach me, shivering. Though he tried to hide it. “I’m curious about the logic behind this design. Heat rises, that I know. But it seems strange to have our food storage so far away.”
“This is only for long-term storage,” I said. “My undead will ferry food upstairs as needed. But I designed the lower levels this way so that the heat from the kitchen wouldn’t be wasted. Instead, it’s carried up to the workshops to give them something to start cold forges with. Or, if necessary, to the upper levels to keep the rooms warm.”
“No wonder it took fifty years. I can’t imagine the enchantments that went into creating this.” He chortled.
"No enchantments." I shook my head. "It's purely run by electricity."
“Regardless!” He spread his arms and took a whiff of the lakeside air. “All we have to go is up. I imagine this is the way?”
My eyes and everyone else’s followed his clawed finger up to the gaping hole in the ceiling. Then I nodded. “Yup.”
While it was a hole, it wasn’t just that. The roots from the plants and trees planted on the landing above protruded through and hung from the ceiling like living stalactites, proving a means for the unblessed to reach the upper floors. Given a little work of course. And work they did. Though, with mana bolstering it wasn’t as hard as it may have seemed at first glance. For me, it involved a tightrope walk along a curiously thick root until I reached the top and drifted over to the terrace protruding through the roof, and climbed the short set of stairs.
There were even more vines hanging from above. But around the base of the dais was an auditorium-sized half-dome sparsely adorned with busts, carvings, and tapestries created by the Bobs and a few art pieces I ‘collected’ from back home; all intermittently spaced beside the meandering trails that snaked through the park-like area to the ten-meter wide archways that yielded glimpses of equally spacious game rooms, lounges, water parks, and an arrangement of other over-scaled recreational facilities. The place was but a fraction of Corvus Tower, albeit intended for only forty-something Pages. Tilting the scale of the place more towards the ridiculous side of things. At least for now.
After several minutes of gawking at their rec rooms, I brought everyone back to the dais to first show them the alcoves sitting adjacent to the staircases; one filled with a small spherical rock that poured out a gentle light and the other filled with a ring of golden light occluded by a dark spot. The means of locomotion for the blessed. Though for now, they were anything but and thus were resigned to climbing the vines to the second level. It was structured like the last level. With a central, vine-showered dais that stood above a domed and semi-forested landing adorned with a small art gallery. This floor, however, was dedicated to the training halls, classrooms, and labs they’d be using for the next six months. Above that was one of my favorite levels of all. The library.
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Unlike the others, it was a mostly singular round room clad in two-tone wainscoted walls and billiard-green carpet. As brilliant as it was, though, my collection of books was not. Most of the shelves contained copies of my books or the textbooks my undead wrote out and copied while I was away. Many others were empty or contained nice crystals or lesser art pieces made by the Bobs as placeholders. Still, though, it was a place many of them spent admiring. As was the art gallery on the fifth floor. Though it too was virtually empty. Filled only with the pieces created by the Bobs. I was sure, however, that many of my new subordinates would soon begin filling out the space in earnest. More so, it would reach its completion once I learned the art of enchanting. Though that was for another day.
For now, it would be used as a dance floor. At least in the presence of Scarlett.
I almost didn’t want to stop her. But I did and guided them up to the sixth-floor landing. Wherein, unlike the lower levels, the half-dome was closed off and filled with sixteen alcoves that mostly led to arched porches. “The next four floors are for your rooms. Though I use the word ‘room’ sparingly.” I let out a chuckle and pointed to the two open alcoves within the landing; one filled with a familiar glowing archway and the other with the furnishings of a common area. “Each floor has a bridge that leads back to various parts around the structure, or back to Campus, as well as a common area for the residents on the floor. For now, all the rooms are similar. But if you get with the skeletons down below they’ll build them up to your liking.
“Let’s take a look.” I jerked my head towards the nearest door and pushed inside. Then even I had to step back in astonishment.
It was an expansive pie-shaped cave that was acres both long and wide, with domed ceilings that, like all the other floors, stood a hundred meters high at its highest point near the balcony. Creating what felt to be a plot of land embedded in the side of a mountain. From the vertex of the wedge, we entered and were met with a moss lawn that stretched towards a relatively small house of carved stone taking up most of the right side. It was two stories high and set halfway into the wall, leaving a terraced front to face the left-most wall and open views to the front.
“You call this a room!?” Rhody coughed.
“As I said, sparingly.” I shrugged. “I made it a point to not make any room face the sun directly, though mirrors and tunnels embedded between the floors and rocks will still provide lighting during the day. Each… room.” I sighed. “Has its own garden on the terrace and, as you can see.” I gestured to the wall. “Comes with a house. They all contain the obligatory bed and bathrooms; as well as a cellar for storage, an office, and two rooms for any purpose of your choosing.
“I’ll explain why they’re so big and why there are so many later. But for now, we’ll continue the tour.” So saying, I began ushering everyone out and picked them up with a Gravity Domain once outside. “The eleventh floor is where my room is.” I gestured to the doorless dome as we passed. “My lab and study too. Above that, however.” I spread my arm around the hourglass-shaped room on the twelfth floor. “Is the observatory and the chapels.”
Though it was a half-dome like all the other floors, two bulbous protrusions of stone interrupted the space like alcoves seen from the other side of the wall. Centered on each of them were oversized doors of wood and iron that’d been carved and inlaid with a symbol of a crescent moon on one and a symbol of an eclipsing sun on the other. The unoccupied space, however, was left open to the winds like the grand foyer far below and lipped around the rim with an overhang that functioned as an observation deck for the floor and doubled as a sunshade and drainage system for the floors below.
“As you can see.” I gestured above. “That was the last central opening. However, there are stairs and ladders around the observation deck that lead to the cave pool and the rooftop grove above. "Welcome to Noctis Reach.” I conclusively clasped my hands. “Your training doesn’t begin until tomorrow. So feel free to explore the tower. Learn about yourselves, or me, and make sure you rest well. But before you go.” I paused to infuse shadow mana into my voice. “Doppelgangers, Rise.”
Though it was my policy for only my subordinates to have them, I spawned Doppelgangers for everyone. Even the apprehensive ones. It was only a matter of time until they joined, after all.
“Meet your-”
[Doppelgangers: Living umbral clones, spawned from the bridge between this realm and the Shadow Plane to assist their originals. Doppelgangers Spawned - 897.]
“Doppelgangers,” I belatedly said. Then stared at my grimoire floating between me and my subordinates before continuing. “They’ll be your teachers from tomorrow onward, and they’ll help you get around the tower. That’s all.”
Quite to my amusement, they scattered with the wind. Even Toril and all the others went off to claim their rooms. Leaving me alone on the observation tower, staring at my grimoire. ‘Now then.’ I sighed out a raspberry. ‘Why did you open?’
As if it heard me, the inky white words soon began shifting atop the abyssal parchment to first erase the page, then form new words right before my eyes.
[Through giving these hundreds of clones the freedom to live and then spreading them far and wide, they have learned to live independently and act without order. Though still, they craved the call of their creator to lead them. As time passed, your spawned Doppelgangers clones have grown in the darkness as their originals have in the light. Now, as a collective, their senses have become attuned to the distinctive ripple your Sorcery exudes on the Shadow Realm.]
“Uh… What?” I muttered. Then stammered as the lines faded to reveal the blank page that was my Doppelganger spell. Then, as before, the diagrams, descriptions, and annotations of how to cast the spell were written on the same page. Only… it was different.
Mutated.
[Signal Doppelgangers: Living umbral clones, spawned from the bridge between this realm and the Shadow Plane to assist their originals. By using this bridge and their link to their summoner, Signal Doppelgangers can whisper between the Material Plane and the Shadow Realm to share information, regardless of distance. So long as their original is near dim light or darkness, you or your Doppelganger can hear their calls through the shadows, and use the shadows to call back.]
“Nice.”