"Sanctuary has the vine-and-wave designs all over the city. We could be nowhere near them," he says. "And if they are uninterested in visitors I expect they would have let us know by now," he adds. 

"Oh, right. Would they be able to tell who we are or notice that I am weird or something?"

"I expect they can tell that we're here, at least" he says. He motions to the open doorway at the end of the hall, "That door did open itself, after all." 

"I don't know if they can tell you are different, however. The Healer could, I expect, but she is both wielded and one of her colours is Life. I have no idea if her level of awareness is the norm for the controllers of cities like this, given she's the only one whose city is still intact - aside from this one, perhaps." 

"I mean, it might sense something weird about my ice manipulation or maybe it can hear us through air." Shrug. =

"They could," he agrees, "I wouldn't be surprised - really, it would seem strange if they couldn't monitor the city in some way, given the level of knowledge the Healer has of hers."

He begins down the hall, heading towards the door, "They seem to want us to come this way," he says, "I guess we should oblige." 

He follows. "What else they might be able to do?"

He hums, "Ruins like this are run on massive amounts of mana, which course through adamantium veins in the walls, the floors, the ceilings. I expect they have some amount of control over what those veins are doing - which will allow them to open doors and set off traps, for example." 

"Okay. So they currently approves of us being here. Or they can't do anything about it."

He nods, "That's about the shape of it," he agrees.

Through the open doors, into another large hall. 

This hall isn't nearly as large as the first space they had explored, but it is still fairly massive - it would take them about a minute to walk to the walls opposite from where they entered.

The walls are covered with windows, letting sheets of shifting prismatic light fall in to colour the pale stone of the floor. Pillars dot the room at regular intervals, covered with more of the spiral and wave designs, as well as more runescript. The ceiling is high, and arched, and appears painted to resemble the sky at sunset, a gradient of black-indigo-violet turning to rose-orange at the other end of the room. All four moons are visible in diffent parts of the 'sky', and the sun rests on the 'horizon' across from them.

Beneath the sun is a set of doors, made of the same pale stone as the rest of the room. Etched into them is a depiction of a shining Spear, which glows with pale blue-and-orange mana. 

Zephyrinus sweeps across the room taking in all the details. "Oh, convenient that they labelled what their artifact is."

Jaim has to take a moment to admire the place. 

"Yes," he agrees eventually. "A Spear, clearly. I wonder if this is the entrance to the tower or if we're still some levels up?" He begins walking towards the nearest windows, running a hand over the first pillar he reaches, admiring the carvings and deciphering the runes - the same preservation scripts as Sanctuary has. 

Ilek, meanwhile, continues on towards the doors.

"Would the entrance look even better then? Is that even possible?" He looks at Ilek.

(Ilek pauses, shrugs, and looks to Jaim.)

"Aside from the ceiling this is about standard for Sanctuary," Jaim says. "The whole place is a work of art." 

He peers out a window, the light settling over his form, his shadow stretching out across the floor. 

"...Gods," he breathes, turning his face up to the sky outside.

"Wow, amazing." Zephyrinus says taking a place next to Jaim. Looking through, can he see any ground? Is the thing a projection?"

He can - and it appears to be a real window. 

It is apparent that they are not, in fact, on the ground floor of the tower. 

Outside they can see a grand city, stretching for miles, its boundaries marked by a ward dome - the source of that prismatic light. Even from this height it's easy to see what Jaim meant by the cities being works of art - the architecture is all soaring, elegant, pale stone - the actual colours obscured by the light of the dome. Plazas dot the city here and there, several leading up to large buildings presumably meant for important persons or services. Above the main streets and sparkling canals are high walkways, allowing passage from the higher doors of the various towers. 

There are some number of wild, overgrown patches of land dotted here and there, the remains of parks and gardens grown out of control over the past three centuries. The vegetation hasn't left their bounds, however - presumably the Artefact in control of the city has some way of penning it up. 

Just barely through the wards they can see solid stone. The city appears to be buried - but thanks to the wards it is still, miraculously, intact. 

"This is amazing, so many people could live here."

"Safely, too," Jaim agrees, voice hushed. "Those wards - we must be over a wellspring. There's no other way the Artefact could have kept the city safe for so long. If we can find the gate here - there must be ones to Sanctuary and the Guardian's city, if we can activate them on both sides-" he pauses in his rambling. 

"Sanctuary is running out of room," he says. "This is..." he shakes his head, "Even if there are no Artefacts here besides the controller, this could help a great deal." 

Nods. Grins. "We should investigate then. See if we can find the controller and need the first steps to make the city safe?"

He grins at him, "Yes," he agrees. He reluctantly turns away from the window - it is a truly beautiful view - and looks over at the doors at the other end of the hall. 

"We should start there, I think," he suggests. 

(Ilek stands before them, poking gently at them with a thread of unrefined mana. There's no reaction, though.)

Zephyrinus observes this. "What have you figured out?"

He sighs, frustrated, "Not a lot. I think they want someone with primarily Water and Air mana to interact with them? Maybe some kind of test?" 

Jaim raises a brow, "I can do that," he says, "But I'm already bound."