We stand in front of the metal doors, "So, you figured out how to open it?" Zack asks; his attempt to force it open met by a stare down with the golems. One he lost.

"This word stands for 'open' in Runic." Azu starts speaking in a distorted version of English. It sounds like complete gibberish to me, but after a few minutes, the doors rumble open. She smiles, "I just needed to say it right."

As we walked through the doors, a thought passes through me: "It's weird that this is the only time metal has appeared in these ruins."

"It's possible metal was rare to these people. Whatever is in here must be important," Zack says. Inside, the place is lit up, much like the rest of the city. Above us, the roof curves into a half pipe, connecting the two walls, artificial sunlight streaming from the strange roof. This building is one giant hallway. It curves around the tree, with a slight bend, but eventually, the hallway disappears behind the curve. The walls themselves are covered in scribbles. Thousands of various symbols and pictures decorate the walls, and small scribbles fill every inch.

Azu gasps as she traces her hands over the scribbles, "This are a new language. Something we have never seen before."

I look at the pictures that decorate the walls. There isn't any real pattern to them, but they are very detailed. Some have animals I've never seen before. Giant cow-like creatures with tusks as big as their body and birds with beaks twice as long as itself. Some have humans in them. One particular engraving captures my attention. A human with wings on its arms.

"What is this place?" I ask.

"A library," Hearon replies. "The entire history of the city from the looks of it."

"Yes. This could be the most important discovery of our age. My god, there is so much." Azu's eyes shine like suns, a look of pure wonder on her face. "This could completely change our concept of the forest. We need to capture as much of this as possible."

Zack remains silent as he stares at the walls. His expression unreadable. Azu and Hearon begin taking pictures of the walls, and Zack eventually helps as well. I stand in front of the wall of text, overwhelmed. To think that only a few months ago, I was in Calypso, thinking my life would forever be filled with struggle. Now, I've helped uncover an entire civilization's history. This isn't too bad. I never was one for mysteries, but there is so much mysticism about this place. How could I not want to find the secrets behind it?

"Silen, are you just going to stare, or are you going to get to work?" Azu scolds. Right, pictures. Hours pass as we carefully make our way through the walls. Hours turn into days. By day three, we had only managed to capture half of the total library. It's quite convenient that just outside these walls are multiple store rooms filled with food and water, allowing us to continue our research without having to leave or worry about the Fairy.

On the evening of the fourth day, I rise from my sleeping bag in our temporary base in one of the store rooms. It's too dark in the corridor to do much, and our flashlights have long since run out of power, only one left for emergency use. So we adjusted our timetable to sleep during the day and be awake at night. Outside, the sun has just dipped below the trees, and the massive beam of light is already illuminating the tree canopy and lighting the entire city.

The other three are already hard at work, Azu sitting near the entrance, and hundreds of floating holographic images we've taken over the past few days hover around her. The other two aren't on site. They must be on the other side. Azu motions for me to sit across from her; a disk the size of a dinner plate between us provides us with the hovering images. With a sigh, I sit, sorting through the pile of files from images to text. Thanks to the forest blurring our pictures, Zack and Hearon have to painstakingly capture each word separately so it is clear enough for Azu to read.

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"Figure any of this out?" I ask, lazily flipping between pictures, moving the text and pictures to each side of me.

She shakes her head, "No. This language has no connection to English. I have noticed a few connections between it and Ruinc, but we do not know enough about it to create a translation from this new language to Ruinic."

I hum in thought.

"You do that a lot." Azu observes, staring at me.

"What?"

"The humming. I notice you do that when you think. What is that melody? It is very enchanting."

"Oh." I blush slightly. I didn't even realize I still did that. "It's from a song my brother composed for my tenth birthday. I was really into knights and adventure. He thought the best gift he could give was something to go along with my daydreams."

She gives me one of her rare smiles. The kind that holds real emotion, "He sounded like a great man."

I look down at my hands, "Yeah. He was. A better man than me." We resume our tasks, an unnatural silence filling the air. "Azu?"

"Hmm?"

"Why am I helping you? I'm just a number filler, right? I'm mostly here to do your guys' busy work. But throughout this trip and this sorting task, you've asked my opinion on a lot of things—things that Zack or Hearon could easily answer or give thoughts on."

Azu sighs. She looks at me, seeing I'm serious in asking this. She taps the metal disk, causing all the pictures to disappear. "Silen, do you think yourself strong?"

I look at her, surprised. That's an interesting thing to ask. I rub my chin. "I used to think I was strong. But ever since meeting Zack and discovering this new world, I'm not so sure. I feel like I'm nothing more than a drop in a bucket here." Just like when I first started out as a merc.

She nods, "You are right. You may barely clear the average civilian in strength. However, that sword of yours makes up for your many flaws." She motions to it, leaning against the wall, "But tell me this. What are you without it?"

Without it? I avoid her searching gaze. I'm nothing. Do I even have any practical skills besides fighting? I was never the genius my brother was, nor was I interested in anything but spending my father's money on horse races as a kid. I was spoiled. Calypso didn't do much to help in that regard, either. If anything, it made it worse, thanks to my teacher forging me into a weapon, only good for killing other people.

"Exactly," Azu says in response to my silence. "You are weak without it. I doubt you would be good for anything besides manual labor. But I have seen flashes. So have the other two. Your intuition is sharp, and the analytical mind you have during battle is not to be underestimated. You have the potential for something beyond fighting. You have made it clear you plan to continue as a diver, and you will not be stopped."

"But a diver is more than their combat prowess. Even Zack has many practical skills in engineering and survival tactics. Hell, he is the one who repairs and maintains the MULE the majority of the time. Hearon has vast knowledge in the medical field, which is even better than mine. We promised to help you, and finding your purpose outside of combat is one of our duties."

I sit there, dumbfounded. Something outside of combat. Do I even want to live without fighting? It's such a core part of me, literally beaten into my very bones. But I know she's right. Here, fighting will only get me so far. And with me being weak, my fighting ability is even less valuable.

"You need to create value for yourself. Obtain skills that Sir Bell will want."

I look at my sword. Skills he wants. Something to think about, I guess. But I wonder why they are so fervently helping me, asking nothing in return. It can't be just from the goodness of their hearts. There's a story here. I've seen their sad gazes.

Before I can think too deep into it, steps pound on the ivory floor, and Zack stops in front of us, his eyes shining. "Az, you are gonna want to come see this."

We dash after him as we circle the tree, stopping around the halfway point. "It can't be." Azu gasps. There, engraved on the wall, is a massive image, from floor to ceiling, of a perfect white tower.