Luma stood at the edge of the circular library hall, her eyes wide with wonder.
The Athenaeum of the Spire was nothing like she imagined. Towering shelves rose like cliffs of parchment and polished wood. Light danced across the floors in patterns that changed with the sun's angle through crystalline windows. The air smelled of leather bindings, old dust, and the faint buzz of energy—physics and history vibrating together in one living space.
She had come alone.
Ever since their meeting with the Grandmaster, Elder Ion had been busy—speaking in hushed tones with figures who seemed carved from the Spire's very stone. He had left her with a simple instruction: "Ask questions. Be curious."
She took that seriously.
Quiet footsteps echoed as she walked down an aisle titled "Gate Systems and Forbidden Mechanics." Her fingers traced the spines of books with titles like The Praxis Equation and Entropy in the Age of Alignment. She finally picked one that wasn't as heavy as a boulder and sat cross-legged on a cushion beneath a reading orb.
It was called "The Bridges we Cross."
As she read, names started clicking into place. The Gate of Praxis wasn't just a door. It was an ancient testing mechanism, designed to allow only those who understood the laws of motion, force, and energy to pass. And the Bridge of Laws? It connected the outer sanctum of the Obsidian Spire to the deepest chamber of knowledge—where truths and theories collapsed into understanding.
The deeper she read, the more confused she got. Inertia gates, harmonic locks, reactive platforms…
"Confused already?" said a warm voice behind her.
Luma jumped.
Standing there was a tall, slender woman in a robe threaded with golden symbols—each representing a field of science. Her eyes were sharp but kind, and she held a glowing clipboard that hovered beside her as if it obeyed her thoughts.
"I—uh—I didn't mean to take anything important," Luma stammered.
The woman laughed lightly. "This library exists to be taken from. Just be ready to give back in return."
Luma blinked. "I didn't understand that part about harmonic locking gates."
"Harmonic gates respond to vibrations, frequencies… like music," the woman explained, kneeling beside her. "They open only when certain oscillations are matched—like tuning a string to just the right pitch. But here, the string is space itself."
"That's so… cool," Luma said.
"I'm Archivist Kira Alwyn," the woman said, offering a hand.
"Luma. Just Luma. Still learning who I am, I guess."
Kira's expression softened. "Well, Luma, if you're curious enough to get lost in this section on your own, I think we'll get along just fine."
They moved to a nearby table as Kira pulled a few more beginner-friendly books and diagrams from floating drawers.
"Tell me," Kira asked as they began, "what do you think the Bridge of Laws means?"
Luma hesitated. "Maybe… it's where you show you understand how the world works. Not just the equations, but… how they feel?"
Kira smiled. "That's more accurate than you know. You might belong here more than you think."
They spent the next hour discussing everything from Newton's laws to energy conservation—Kira guiding her not like a teacher lecturing, but like a traveler pointing out wonders in a strange new country.
And somewhere in that quiet corner of the Spire, lit by floating lamps and curiosity, a friendship began to form.