A day passed when Euphemia decided to stay in a convent over being with Kirk and Rook. The place was run by nuns of the Order of Sofia – the Church's only appearance that managed to stay longest in the City of Magic. The nuns found it hard to believe that someone from another order, and not in habit, would ask for their hospitality. Things only changed for the better the moment Euphemia managed to have a word with the abbess in charge. It was a decision that was not completely sound, given that the closest inn from the convent was two streets away. Euphemia had to make do with their company in the meantime; the Sisters of the Redeeming Hand were very few in number, but the blue-black habit and the twelve-rayed cross embroidered on it meant any of the Empire's church servants gave Euphemia away too easily. Getting involved in an affair that would cause her to be immediately recalled to Blaurosen's Cathedral of the Divine Word for explanations was something she could not afford to experience. Time was something that could not be wasted; the canoness had not even the slightest clue to any lead on where to start looking for her still-missing father.

Euphemia decided to pay the two men a visit. Neither of them could go anywhere near the convent grounds without glares going after their every move. Two young men in bicycles wheeled past her; a pair of the Academy's students, based on the antiquated insignia printed on their maroon robes that fluttered in the wind. The school rector still opted to keep the centuries-old look of magical practitioners. She could have never pictured herself wearing such attire during her short stay as a student of Luminberg; most of her dresses would have looked weird with the robe worn on top.

Euphemia's habit wrinkled in sharp angles when the wind turned to play with her. It was a standard garb of the Sofians' - the fabric was somewhat stiffer compared to the tailored garments the Schild Family gave to her. She would like to get back to her old habit, once the filth gathered from Altrecht and the Antikwald was washed off and her clothes dried by the sun. She smiled at the thought that it took three washes to beat the dirt out – and that her hands were wrinkled and were soaked in the water longer than it used to.

Mornings in Luminberg started with people going about and around their houses. Most of the women sported simple dresses that allowed more movement during housework. Lawns were uncommon among residents; the most spacious one could afford inside the city was enough for a small fence and gate, and a few four-tiered racks that were allotted for either flowers or the more common vegetable produce. Bicycles and the occasional motorized variants began filling the streets. Having an automobile in Luminberg meant that one was a person of prestige or a part of the imperial government. Smoke barely filled the streets even at their busiest; much of their cooking was done on stoves or ranges that were connected to an upward exhaust system. There were also very few motor vehicles that circulated in the city; none of roadside fog one would see at Blaurosen's streets would have formed even if all of Luminberg's automobiles were gathered in one place. The largest of Luminberg's roads could only accommodate half of the imperial capital's traffic.

Euphemia waited for the roads to be clear of rushing cyclists before she crossed the street; the hum of what looked to be a small engine attached to a heavier-looking bicycle frame dominated the swarm. It was her first time to see a motorized bicycle inside the city of magic. The source of the hum was a globular apparatus encased in the middle of the vehicle's body. Her eyes followed the two-wheeled contraption until it made a turn to the second street and vanished. Such a means of travel were not found anywhere else; even the imperial capital was yet to be graced by the presence of such a mechanical marvel.

The canoness was at the southwestern end of the Grossflammestrasse when she stopped on her stroll. An apartment, four floors high, with old wooden carvings of goat heads and gnomes mounted on its walls stood at the vertex. Its pointed roof stood higher than most of the other buildings; a filament of steel held a deep red arrow wind vane that pointed west. It struggled to follow the air that began blowing eastward. Euphemia wondered how the two men were doing inside after she left them to stay at the Luminberg convent instead. Travelers they both were, they have most likely fended for themselves.

She wondered how both Kirk and Rook managed to be by themselves. It would have been easier, she guessed; neither of them needed to worry having a woman staying the night with them. Euphemia looked at one of the open windows on the second floor; the rightmost spot that Kirk picked. She waved her hand, hoping that either of the two men would notice her on the street. There was a slight rustle on the half-open curtain found on the window pane, followed by the sight of a golden-haired man emerging into view.

"Hey!" Kirk gave a wave, and certainly turned his head back to talk to Rook. "Wake up, boy! The holy sister is here."

There was silence, followed by Kirk looking back at the cleric. "Sorry, Sister. This boy here isn't that much interested talking to you. His head has not wrapped around the whole idea of you not spending the night with us."

"Tell him I'm still sorry about it."

"He'll be fine. Rook will come to his senses pretty soon. I'll just get down there and give the boy some space."

In a few seconds, the traveling swordsman made his way downstairs and was seeing eye-to-eye with the canoness. Euphemia was donning a new habit; it was in a plain shade of blue whose skirting only covered half her lower leg and sleeves that fell short on her wrist. Kirk could tell that this was meant for a larger but shorter cleric.

"I've come to tell you that I will be visiting the Luminberg Academy today."

"You need someone to accompany you there?"

"I do appreciate your concern Kirk, but I'm afraid I must decline. I would like to try and make sense of everything that happened in the Antikwald, and I must insist I do it alone."

"I say you know your way around this city, I suppose."

"I studied here for two years before my parents thought it best to hire an instructor and take my lessons at home instead."

"Then I have no other choice but to trust you, Sister. Take care on your way."

"Thank you, Kirk. Please tell Rook that I would stop by in the afternoon. I hope you like food and other niceties once I return."

Euphemia did not wait for the swordsman to nod or say anything when her feet started to move farther from him. The cleric turned away from Kirk and walked leftwards from the inn. She heard a slight rattle coming from the pouch mounted on the right side of her waist; Euphemia quickly looked down on the pouch to make sure it was still knotted shut. She took a right turn at the end of the street, where a long, straight path to the city center was seen.

At the end of the road stood a wide gate flanked by two narrower passages. Walls surrounded the perimeter in a circumference (it would have been a perfect circle had the gate followed this orientation), where Euphemia could easily spot a fountain with a floating blue crystal on top. In the background was a sharp-tipped, conical tower that stood above all the surrounding buildings of the area, and probably the highest point of the entire city. It was an orange oddity that stood in contrast to the clear blue weather of the day. The canoness was far from where she would be heading; she could still see the tip of Brillanz pointing to the sky.

And she was right.

It took Euphemia thirteen more minutes to reach the gates. There was not much activity apart of the small groups of students coming in and out of their assigned passageway. The canoness proceeded to the non-student entrance where the assigned guards greeted her:

"A pleasant morning."

"Good morning. I would like to access the main library."

"Identification, please."

"Oh, yes." Euphemia pulled out a card of blue and red with gold borders. She opened it like a book and showed it to the guard

The man's face changed from bored to perplexed, looking at the picture on the card and the person where it came from back and forth. This exchange of looks went on for three times until the guard finally recognized that the person on the identity card and its holder were of the same person.

"I am truly sorry, Your Ladyship." The watchman almost fumbled in returning the identity card to Euphemia. "Please sign the registration ledger to your right."

"Thank you." Euphemia wrote her name and copied the time shown on the watchman's desk clock.

"The main library is at the left of the magister's tower, Brillanz." The guard pointed to a low-rise building at what looked to be nearly behind the massive orange cone. "Welcome to the Academy."

Her way to the library was slowed down by students to loitering in the school grounds; a mix of boys and girls who either studied under the gentle sun, played games using a ball, or spent time making icicles and small flames appear from a crystal-tipped baton linked to a cable and a small, box-like metal device. She might come at a time when the subjects were at their fewest; hence more classes were on break. The shadow the tower cast over the library entrance reduced much of the glare, and it made the area cooler.

The library facade seemed to have stood older than the rest of the buildings; time and weather smoothed out what seemed to be vines that were sculpted from the front wall. Euphemia could see that it recently had a new coat of paint, judging by the glint the facade gave off when sunlight struck the surface. Two entrances greeted the cleric: one meant for students, the other for most other visitors. She would merely be using some of the privileges the clergy often enjoyed to get past this entrance - the badge of nobility was yet to be needed.

Euphemia was greeted by a vast arch inside Luminberg's knowledge repository. A mural was seen from the ceiling, where a monstrous wolf was pounding at an arched barrier formed at a section of the city wall while a contingent of men sent fireballs in an attempt to weaken the creature. This was no doubt a story of the First Empire from centuries back. She wasn't able to glance at the other portions of the dome when she was about to approach the librarian to ask for the card catalog, but she held off from doing so when she saw a student walking towards a room full of small drawers that stood for two-thirds of the wall's height.

"I should be able to use 'magic-powered machines' to start my search properly..."

The search for that category did not prove to be long, as this subject was nearly at the start of the "M" list. Opening the catalog was where the second challenge was about to begin. Euphemia started sifting through dozens of cards – most of them emphasized on empowering the projection crystals Luminberg has been recently teaching students on its use.

"'New Projection Methods'... 'Automobiles and Improved Crystal Cores'... Aha! This subject might prove useful..."

Euphemia pulled out a card that showed:

Magic and Machinery

A Treatise on The Use of Magic for Transportation / Ernst Bäcker and Reinhardt Göhler. -1st Edition. - Blaurosen. - Imperial Printing Press, 1723. L-MMDCXLIII, pp. 50-1643. : ill. ; 30cm

Includes index and terminology

Euphemia kept the title and authors in her mind, and then returned the card to the catalog. It was then time for her to search the book on the shelf where it rested. The only other challenge was that these books normally came in singular copies, which will make the search for it seem like a quest. She looked at bookshelves that stood almost as tall as trees, where the cleric managed to see large signs of the subjects each of them was housing. Euphemia managed to spot the category of "Magic and Machines" at a bookshelf close to the library's western exit. That was the only time she had to approach the librarian and ask if the said research was available for reading. Luckily, Euphemia was able to confirm not only that she can have access to the information like any Academy student, but also that the copy was available for reading.

Looking at a Luminberg library bookshelf instilled both the fascination of all the collected information presented by it and the challenge it would give to a researcher on how to acquire the book. The canoness would no doubt need a ladder to fully inspect the shelf for the book she needed. She found the work resting on the twelfth layer of the bookshelf; a film of dust has settled on the upper portions of the text, which gave her a hint that she was the first person to have ever touched the book in months. Its pages were still white and flexible – Luminberg has managed to keep the book in good shape for the time it sat on the Academy's compilation.

Euphemia found a good seat beside a group of six students who were working on local history; she could see that their books were focused on the House of Kriem and the wars during the Age of Monsters. She opened "A Treatise on The Use of Magic for Transportation" and started with the aim and scope of the proposal.

"...we have lost the abilities recorded by the people of the past, thus our current advances in technology can make it possible for the Science Bureau to copy this marvel through the use of machines..."

There were too many technical terms found in the work, as expected of these kinds of proposals, and Euphemia had to make do with her little understanding of the science being used, as well as pick up fragments of a previous idea and pick up another fragment to try and fit them into a more concrete thought later. Diagrams of a machine that will convert something, or someone, to light particles and a second machine that will restore the objects to their original states were seen. This was not what she witnessed in the Antikwald, but how light and mana were used to lure a horror to the world had almost the same principles in mind. There was a good chance that the Gray Fox had access to this technology; it made sense that a death merchant would be interested in things if it meant profit and very dubiously, destruction.

She wouldn't be able to finish the entire treatise, as there was no need to. Euphemia headed to the librarian's desk to return the book. She asked:

"Do you happen to know where I can read more of Bäcker and Göhler's works?"

"Let me see." The librarian waved a hand on a palm-sized dome crystal on her right. A square display shot up in front of Euphemia. "We have no other works related to Ernst Bäcker, and Reinhardt Göhler's is compiled at the Restricted Access Section."

"Restricted... access?"

"Yes, Holy Sister. We will require written consent from the city magister for us to allow you to enter this part of the library."

"I see." Euphemia looked down for a moment, and then returned to the librarian's gaze with, "would you know if the magister is in office today?"

"He normally is. The magister also serves as the Academy's rector."

"All the better. I'll be off to see him then."

†

Euphemia stood in the middle of the Academy when she looked at the imposing visage of the Brillanz; the tip of its cone made an illusion of the sun being held in its zenith. It was carved out of a rare rock that gave it an orange hue when light strikes it, much like a smoothened version of an upturned ice cream cone. There were windows that spiraled upwards on the structure; their shapes were composed of circles, half-circles, and crescents – phases of the moon motifs that were common among Luminberg's structures of old. Such layouts were reminders that an older era of the city existed – one which was no longer preferred by the newer generations of its people.

She stopped at the closed front door where an attendant stood guard; the shining visor giving off a red gleam made recognizing his face hard for the canoness. The man asked:

"Your purpose of the visit, Holy Sister?"

"I wish to see the Headmaster. I'm seeking his approval to access a level in your library."

"Rare for church people to have such requests. You may proceed."

"Thank you, Sir."

More lights greeted the cleric's eyes when she set herself on the interior of Brillanz; the torches were made of floating crystal that gave off white light. The interior was somewhat silent that day – it wasn't as occupied as the canoness envisioned it to be. A pair of custodians carrying buckets of dirty water and mops were about to settle at one of the rooms within. There was the scent of ink and oddly enough, roast meat that ventured from one of the ground floor's rooms. She stared at the ceiling; around her were at least, eight spiraling flights of staircases that led to the floor of the headmaster's office (Euphemia hoped that her memory would not be wrong, after all her years of not visiting Luminberg). Crystallized vines were engraved on the black rock used for the interior; each of the 'leaves' glowed in faint green. At the center of the tower was a wide, transparent pillar where a black, capsule-like object traveled up and down. The dark part of the pillar rested on the ground, where a door opened to reveal a small space.

She was about to enter the room when a graying man whose hair flared like a frayed fan was about to go along. Euphemia looked at him, noticing that a traditional cloak of the Luminberg magical caste draped an otherwise modern-day suit and pants. She could remember who this man was, but Euphemia was not too sure. Assuming an identity was imprudent, after all. They were both about to proceed when the cleric asked:

"Is the headmaster's office still on the top floor of this tower?"

"Of course. You have come at the right time, as I am about to return to my office."

"Pardon my ignorance, Magister Silbern of Luminberg." Euphemia made a slight curtsy before she resumed speaking. "I am Euphemia, of the house of Schild. I wish to speak to you on some pressing matters."

"Euphemia...?" the old man stared at her face long before he resumed speaking. "Ah, the Lady Euphemia of Alberta. Why would you come to me in a habit?"

"I... have pursued a life in the clergy, Your Grace."

"Such as waste of talent. Surely, Carolus should have taught you better. You have not turned your back on the ways of magecraft, have you?"

"I would have done so completely, but my situation called for me to use it again."

"This has something to do with your father, the good general, I suppose."

"Yes." Euphemia looked away from the headmaster. "I would like to tell you more about it in private."

"As the lady wishes."

Headmaster Silbern pushed a button on the only panel inside the cylindrical chamber. The door closed; the lines that suggested its existence seemed vanished, restoring the clear pillar to a flawless polish. A soft whirr of air around both the cleric and the headmaster told them that the mechanism began to move up. The semi-transparent capsule stopped a few meters before it met the uppermost tip of Brillanz; panels suddenly appeared out of the empty space and created a floor for the two people to step on. A web of yellow light formed on its surface as if to say that the place was ready to be occupied.