Julia gazed at something in the distance; a radiant smile covered her face. He didn’t know what had caught her eyes, but he didn’t care enough to ask and eventually had to look away, it eschewed what he knew was the true Julia.

Nathan looked back in front of him, letting the cold wind blow through his hair, but it gave him teary eyes. Closing them, his other senses became evermore present. His stomach growled, his hands burned, his legs became numb, and the air smelled of puke and blood. The dark screen which permeated the vision of all sleeping men began to glow white, and he found himself standing in front of his home’s shack—his home.

Its dingy wood structure radiated cold heat, and invited him in. Perhaps this home was the best he would get. He took one step, then two, until he was reaching for the door’s handle.

Then a wall of ice emerged from the ground, and his world glowed white once again.

“Nathan, why are you closing your eyes!” It was Julia.

“Yes?” he asked, startled. He hadn’t heard what she’d said.

Julia pointed straight ahead. “We’re approaching the Tower.”

Nathan whipped his head in the direction she pointed. But there he couldn’t see anything, but a tree embalmed in a purple shadow, yet he still somewhat believed her words, which made his heartbeat ever quicker. “Where is it!” He looked side to side, but he couldn’t find anything.

“No, not there!” yelled Julia. The wind had picked up its pace and made it ever harder to hear what the other said. “Follow my arm.”

Nathan did, yet he still didn’t see anything. But as she seemed extremely confident in her own words, he squinted and tried his best to find something of note. Alas, it was for noth. “I can’t see it. Are you sure it’s here?”

“No.” Julia shook her head. “Of course, it won’t appear all at once. You see the most distant trunk, turned purple by the sky’s haze. That’s the top of the Tower. For the next couple of hours, you’ll witness one of the five wonder's appearance. Isn’t that wonderful? Enjoy it. You can only experience something new once.” Her eyes were soft.

#

An hour passed, and the Tower was still emerging out of the horizon. Nathan had begun to grow bored with it, and every so often he would look at Julia, and her eyes were always filled with joy and admiration. At least now he knew why, but it didn’t seem justified. From here, the Tower looked like any other mountain hidden behind fog.

At least there was a Tower.

#

Another hour later and Nathan still couldn’t see more than its outlines. But at least the environment had. The sparse snow which covered the dark pine forest’s tree line was gone, and large swathes of yellow grass sprawled forth. And perched in the pine trees, he spotted hundreds of birds and scurrying squirrels. Deers ate grass, brown bears scavenged for berries, and two baby foxes played around, biting at each other’s necks while their parents hunted for rabbits and hares.

The amount of life overwhelmed Nathan and took his breath away.

But then a small black thing hit his cheek, Nathan jerked back and swatted at the thing. If his memories of his father’s teaching served him right, that was a bug. His father had once said that in the east their ponds weren’t inhabited by seals, nor birds, but swarms of tiny creatures that could drink a person’s blood dry. These were bugs. Thankfully, most were harmless if not annoying. You just had to learn which to fear, and which to ignore.

As they continued towards the tower, the grass steadily grew greener until it was just as green as the conifers. And then even the conifers began to be replaced by trees with flat and soft-looking leaves.

#

An hour later, the purple haze which had covered the Tower began to disperse and the monolith’s colour and details appeared.

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The Tower, the width of the sea and the height of the tallest mountain, didn’t have obvious levels like the two-story mage house in Bregva. No, the Tower was like a mountain built with hundreds of thousands of hexagonal columns stuck together. Most were bright white, while some were light grey, and a few were dark grey nearly black. But together, they made the Tower look not like a wonder of man but nature.

Nathan couldn’t help but mutter in wonder, “Do all the Towers look like this?”

Julia snickered. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” She smiled. “No, each Tower is different and magnificent in their own way. Ours is the Tower of a Million Pillars. Each pillar is to be eventually dedicated to a great mage. You see the dark grey ones.” She pointed. “Each represents a past Leader of the Tower, and the light grey columns represent a mage who has brought significant contributions to the Tower. To help paint the Tower is each Northern mage’s greatest dream. Perhaps you too could be up there one day.” Julia’s eyes shined with a childish excitement, and even Nathan’s heart couldn’t help but flutter. “Not only are they immortalized on the Tower, but their busts are added to the Hall of the North and a part of their aura is immortalized in the Tower’s orb.”

As Julia bombarded Nathan with information and the coldness of the north warmed, the words of Brian began to melt and drain out of Nathan. The anticipation which had been built up for fifteen years was being met and surpassed, and a sense of pride began to bud in his heart.

#

Half an hour later, Nathan could see nearly all the way down to the Tower’s base, however, a city sprawled and obstructed his view. Even a few kilometres away, he was blown away by its scale. There were so many buildings that he couldn’t peer even a fifth or a tenth of the way through the city. And in the roads, he could see, all manners of people and things. As their transport raced ever faster towards the city, he was getting a better look at the people and the goods they sold…but then trees appeared out of nowhere and blocked his vision. “Hey, I can’t see it!” he exclaimed in surprise and disappointment.

“Sorry, but you’ll be able to head back out and get a better look at the Tower once you undergo the official entrance ceremony, but for now I need to report to Mage Kregrack about the betrayal.” Her eyes were stern and staring straight ahead. “Duck!” She pressed Nathan’s head down and the next thing he knew, the ground dropped, the world turned black, and he winced.

The sound of the transport’s wheels on the iron rails echoed and consumed the tunnel.

“A secret passage!” Nathan yelled over the metal screech.

“Not secret, just not well known!”

Nathan tried to look for any kind of light, but the tunnel was as black as it could get. Thankfully, it didn’t take too much time for them to emerge on the other side.

This other side didn’t shine bright white, or a sunset orange, but a dim blue glow.

The transport slammed into a straight bar of iron, sending Nathan flying out of the transport into a pile of Grenold crystals.

“Are you okay?” Julia shot up and jumped out. “Sorry, I forgot, you can only use attack magic.” She jogged over to the mount of crystals. He tumbled down the pile. His beginner’s robe had protected most of his body, but there were a few shards stuck on his face, which Julia picked out.

“Thanks,” said Nathan, shaking his robe to get the crystals off. They hurt, but he had long gotten used to its awful sting. After he made sure the crystals were all removed, he turned around and was faced with a hill of Grenold crystals he couldn’t see the top of. “Is…is this where all the crystals are sent?” he asked in awe and despair.

“Yes, look.” Julia pulled Nathan back so that he could see the entirety of their Grenold reserves.

His eyes shot open. With each step he took, more and more hills appeared, until a grand mountain of Grenold crystals emerged out of the first hills’ glow. It was at least fifty times his height and the width of the boats on which he crossed the frozen sea.

He couldn’t even fathom how many people it had taken to mine this many crystals, nor why the Tower would need so many. As he thought about it his mind grew dizzy, so he closed his eyes, yet the dim, but all-encompassing glow of the crystals pierced his eyelids, rendering him sick to his stomach.

“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” said Julia. “But we have to go.” Her steps echoed through the room.

“Wait!” Nathan said, on impulse.

The echoes stopped two seconds later. “What is it?”

Nathan couldn’t break his sight away from the crystals. “Ah…” he said to give himself a bit more time. But Julia repeated her words and Nathan ran off to her.

Together they walked through this dimly lit jail. Nathan looked up where he spotted a few rows of small white lights. Yet the entirety of the room was blue and in this blue, he saw the Northern snow, his father's ice, and Grival's blood.

Finally, they reached a heavy-looking metal door. It was so tightly fitted between the wall that one could only tell it being a door by its knob.

“Know that even though this place exists, and all know of its existence, none know of it. Therefore, it’s best you don’t talk about it.”

Nathan nodded with a grave tone. He, too, didn’t wish to know it existed.

“Good.” Julia grabbed the doorknob. “For now, we’ll head to my place. You can go and enrol tomorrow. I must do other things now. Hopefully, one day, I can share them with you.” She smiled and pushed open the door.

A bright white light flooded Nathan’s sight and after having taken three steps into the room beyond the door, he felt his body disappear.