Death, Devotion, Dissonance

After the most wonderful lunch that Evin ever attended and a casual stroll through the streets reserved for the 1st grades, Evin and Leanne approached the Mage Circle\'s building from its backside. The building was still very impressive to look at from this side, but it definitely looked a lot blander. Perhaps it was because the giant triangular rooftops didn\'t have any windows on the backside, making it look uniformly white.

But Leanne did not bring Evin to the building itself, rather a shorter four-story building right next to it. Evin guessed that this was the dorm.

As the two entered, a guard greeted Leanne with reverence and respect. Noticing Evin walking next to her, the guard seemed to note something in his head and went back to doing whatever he was doing before.

"The first floor is a common area, which includes the lobby, the cafeteria, the dorm master\'s room. There\' also the sleeping areas for some of the guards and the servants. You\'ll be staying on the 2nd floor with the rest of the boys," Leanne explained as they walked up a stair, "On the third floor, the girls will be sleeping and on the 4th floor, the children of nobility will be sleeping."

Evin nodded casually, trying to remember the layout of the building as he walked. He was eventually brought to a certain door that read [217].

Leanne opened the door and urged Evin inside. The room itself was relatively simple, two desks, four chairs, one big wardrobe and two beds. Nothing overly luxurious, like Leanne\'s house - no walls that were grandly decorated and no furniture masterfully carved. But of course, it obeyed a certain standard. A standard that stated everything should be flat and straight. A standard much higher than what Evin was used to.

For him, it was normal for some parts of the wooden frame to be rotten; it was normal for the floor to be creaking, and it was normal to have parts missing from the walls and the ceiling. A perfectly level room like this one was something that was only reserved for the rich and noble.

"Here\'s a map for the dorm and the Academy building," Leanne smiled and gave Evin a piece of paper with highly detailed explanations, "If you have any questions, don\'t be afraid to bother the servants and guards. They\'ll be happy to help you out. If someone asks for your origins, tell them you were enrolled under my name."

"I will."

"There are two sets of Academy uniforms inside the wardrobe and four sets of casual clothes. I hope you\'ll agree with my sense of fashion, he-he. I\'ve also gathered some day-to-day necessities for you to use in the bathroom over there, but if you want something else, then there\'s also a pouch with 1 golden coin and 100 silver coins. You can use them however you wish and if you find yourself in desperate need of coins, you can bother me for more."

"That\'s too much money!" Evin replied hurriedly, imagining the amount that was stated.

"No sweat off my back. I don\'t have much use for them anyway and I\'m happy to help you out. Truth be told, I wanted to keep you in my house for a month or so until you got used to things… but some stuff happened... and I was unable to," Leanne explained and gave Evin a hug, "But, if you want to, do come over to visit sometimes. You\'ll always be welcome in my household."

"Thank you, Lady Leanne. For everything."

Leanne gave Evin a kiss on the forehead and rubbed his head playfully.

"Alright, I\'ll come pick you up at noon tomorrow. There will be an Opening Ceremony of some sorts for the new students," Leanne said and gave Evin the dorm room\'s key, "Oh, there should also be another boy who will be staying with you, so you can expect company. Hope you get along!"

The woman walked off with that statement, leaving Evin alone in the room. Evin looked towards her back wistfully, wondeiring how such a kind and beautiful woman could exist. He looked around the room thoughtlessly, before sitting down on the bed.

<Gather your new items and check whether they have the recording devices of any kind,> the voice ordered.

Evin thought that it was a bit too paranoid, but feeling that he should at least be prudent, he walked to the wardrobe and saw a few sets of clothes inside it. There was a small pouch on top of it as well, and Evin could see the coins bulging from the side.

Unable to still his curiosity, he opened the pouch and saw the huge amounts of silver coins inside. These coins were minted in the thinnest manner possible, and they depicted a thick line ornamented with weird symbols all over its body. The Black Tower. The tower in which the Empress resided.

The copper coins that Evin was more used to, didn\'t really depict anything, simply possessing a number one, written in Imperial.

Evin dug through the stacks of coins, before his eyes fell on the golden one. To think that this single coin was equal to all the other coins inside this pouch… it was a hard concept to grasp for Evin. Even with a single silver coin, Evin would be able to live like a king for a week.

Would this one possess the face of the Empress? Curiously, Evin inspected the coin and found he was right. A side shot of a face was depicted on the thin golden coin… but Evin didn\'t really see the celestial beauty that he expected to see. Sure, the face was beautiful, but some could argue that Leanne had a more beautiful face, and they would still be correct.

\'But I probably shouldn\'t compare the face of a goddess with the face of a normal mage…\' Evin shook his head and searched for these recording objects that the voice asked him to search for.

Finding nothing of the sort, he went to the bathroom that Leanne pointed at and looked through the items that were given to him. Most of them were hygiene related stuff aside from one water flask, but Evin wasn\'t able to find anything suspicious.

<Hmm, try searching under the beds and over the wardrobes. I could be wrong, but it just feels weird here,> the voice insisted.

Evin could only comply, as the voice was the only thing that could teach him magic for now. He searched every corner of the room, before his hands felt the ruffling of paper while he was trying to reach the top of the wardrobe.

<I think that\'s it! Don\'t make too much noise and pull it down here. Let\'s see what it shows.>

\'What the hell, there\'s actually something here?\' Evin thought, half-hoping some dumb drawing of some sorts to appear on the paper.

Carefully, he picked the square-shaped paper up and held it in his hands. In the center of the square was a symbol of some sorts, depicting a dot surrounded by a bunch of wavelike lines colliding into it. All the other symbols were drawn around it, connected to the center symbol somehow. Shocked that the voice was actually right about the recording device, he inspected the intricate drawings on it.

The paper and ink used to create the thing didn\'t seem normal either. It definitely wasn\'t similar to the rune that Evin used to cast magic which was practically exuding energy from it. Compared to that, this one felt sturdier and more lasting.

<This is exactly the same as the thing that a mage put inside your room. This center most drawing should be a rune for gathering sounds. In fact, all these other drawing should be runes as well, but they seem kind of unimportant to the eyes,> the voice murmured, <Well, it doesn\'t really matter that much. Search the room again! It wouldn\'t be weird if there are more than one of these things.>

Evin was a bit unconvinced, but after searching the room, he found two similar papers, one tucked under a bed and one hidden behind a mirror in the bathroom.

At this point, Evin was properly confused. Who was so interested in him that they\'d put three of these magical items in his room? What the hell was happening here?

<Hmm… We could\'ve just torn it up and forgot about it if there was only one, but three means business. Three means that they\'re not going to stop until they find whatever it is they want to find,> the voice murmured.