A Jaded Life

Standing atop the tower, I couldn’t help but smile as my eyes gazed into the distance. It was finished and, if I admitted that little bit of pride, it was excellent work. The tower itself was just forty metres high, with three spires jutting out at the top, almost like a crown but in reality, these three spires held three statues, one of Luna in her guise of the Child, one of myself in the role of the Mother and, lastly, one of the Grandmother, taking her place as the Grandmother. In the middle, there was a stone Altar, consecrated to Lady Hecate by Luna’s efforts, while I had placed my throne between the statue of the Mother and the Crone, allowing me to use the space for my own rituals. The stairs came up across the platform from my throne, next to the statue of the Child, and high above the tower’s main gate.

Aesthetically, the tower had turned out quite pleasing, at least when judged by Lia’s tastes. Not that I could complain. When given a choice between making the tower some mottled grey by mixing the natural granite and the other, darker rocks or making sure the tower was all in one colour, I decided to make most of the inner surfaces from the grey granite, while giving the outside a uniform black appearance. However, that was only if there was no light, when the light illuminated the outside, the black tower sparkled and shimmered just a little, an effect I was planning to enhance, so it would mirror my hair at least a little. I wasn’t certain if I could manage to make the tower glimmer in the various colours the sparkles in my hair had thanks to my varied elemental affinities but I had a faint hope that I could give it some of the effect. Maybe by adding some light from within the outer layer of the tower but I hadn’t considered that particular detail.

The inner parts of the tower remained fairly bare, at least for now. For now, I had only vague plans for the different floors. For example, I was planning to make the fourth and fifth floors, nicely in the middle of the construction, into a family area. The fourth floor would hold a common area for all five of us, maybe the kitchen and possibly a dining area, we’d have to see how much would fit nicely. On the fifth floor, I was planning to set up the individual living quarters, maybe a shared bath, or maybe that shared bath could go up to the sixth floor, we’d have to see. Either way, the idea was that the living area was in the centre of the tower, making it furthest from potential intrusion points, which I considered important. That distance could help buy us some time if we ever were to be attacked.

The first floor could serve as some sort of open area, which might even be used by people who weren’t us if there were any in the vicinity. Maybe set up something similar to the shrines we had set up before, add a couple of simple instructions for magical neophytes, give some direction in regards to the worship of Lady Hecate, and things like that. Nothing too much, not without some form of test to show that the one seeking knowledge was at least somewhat worthy but we’d have to see.

Above that, on the second and third floors, I was planning to have some experimental chambers set up. Having them close to the ground would hopefully make it easier to move test subjects into the space, or clean up failed experiments, things like that, but it would also mean we didn’t have to move the test subjects through our living spaces. Alternatively, I considered setting up some experimental space outside the tower, maybe in the cave we had been using as living space while I had been busy building the tower.

Lastly, the upper floors. I didn’t have any real firm plans for them just yet, only the idea that one of them would become a serious library, allowing us to write down a small legacy, maybe something for us if we returned at some point in the future, maybe something for a worthy seeker of knowledge to find. We’d have to see, both when it came to possible tests to show that the seeker was worthy and the reward they’d gain when reaching that level. Maybe Lady Hecate had some ideas in that regard, or the Grandmother, if I managed to communicate with her at a level that allowed such complex exchanges.

While I was working on the primary parts of the tower, Luna, Lia and Alex were planning to add their own touches to it, using their own abilities. I wasn’t sure what Lia and Alex had in mind, but Luna had already asked me if Silva and I could help her drag some living wood into the living area, which she was planning to shape using her Live Magic. The idea was that she would shape the living wood into the furniture we were interested in before it was allowed to die off, causing it to be stuck in the shape Luna wanted. If that part worked, she hoped I would be able to make the finished product somewhat resistant to the ravages of time, but I was a little uncertain how I was supposed to do that. An interesting project for sure, especially as Ice Magic held an element of eternity and timelessness, as I knew from my travels on Mundus. It was a project I was already looking forward to, even if I wasn’t certain where to start.

Lia and Alex had mentioned something about glass, offering a replacement to the fairly opaque glass I could magically create from sand, though they had yet to give me any details. Maybe we could use their glass for some areas we wanted to look through and my glass through those where we’d normally use frosted glass or something like that. I wasn’t sure and, quite frankly, this wasn’t really a priority for me.

Priorities were things like solid doors and ways to keep them shut to anyone who wasn’t us, especially if we went down the path of having part of the tower accessible to anyone. Similarly, I had been worried about potential attacks, so one of the things I had set up was a narrow tunnel through one of the spokes around the tower, starting at the fifth floor, our planned residential area, and leading towards the caves dug into the cliffs. Getting in from that direction would be difficult, getting out would be fairly easy, at least if you knew where to start and where to go from your end-point. Otherwise, you might find yourself trapped, so I would have to make sure that the entire family knew these plans. Just in case.

Later, as I was working on the bathing area on the residential floor, Luna called out to me, asking me to join her in the observatory, also known as the roof shrine. Curious, I heeded her call once I managed to get to a good stopping point and when I got up there, my eyes widened in surprise.

Where before, the observatory had been fairly plain, not counting the statues, the throne and the altar to Hecate, it had now been turned into something extraordinary on a level I couldn’t fully understand. The three statues had been altered, though their features remained as they had been, showing Luna as the Child, me as the Mother and the Grandmother as the Crone. What had been altered was their pose. When I made them, their arms had been fairly boring, sitting at their side or on their hips, the most intricate pose had been of the Child, with hands held at chest height in a pose of idle curiosity.

Now, that was all gone, the arms of the three statues were raised and stretched towards the sky as if they were holding something aloft. When following the direction these raised arms were pointing towards, the real surprise kicked in.

There, hanging in the air above the tower, was a massive magical orb, a construct of pure Astral Power, shaped from a wide variety of elements by divine magic. Even at a cursory glance, I could sense some Darkness and Air Magic, but there was much, much more that I couldn’t readily categorise. All in all, the thing looked faintly like a huge eyeball composed of black and red flames, giving it a somewhat dangerous and sinister appearance.

“Care to share?” I asked Luna, knowing that she was responsible for this but uncertain what it actually did.

“Well, you wanted something to observe the surrounding area, didn't you?” Luna asked cheekily, making me raise an eyebrow so she would tell me what this actually was.

“Lady Hecate showed me how to make it, when somebody stands before the altar or when you sit upon your throne, you can direct it and see things that are far, far away,” she continued a wide smile on her face. I couldn’t help but be impressed, though I was curious how exactly this thing worked. But if it was divinely gifted, I wasn’t about to insult Lady Hecate by rejecting her gift, especially as it looked quite useful. And very impressive.