Good place to start. "He's a wizard?"

"In training. We met at the Academy a few months ago, we were roommates. —do you know about the Academy?"

"Nope!"

"Alright I'll leave it to him to explain it but it's a place sponsored by Eden Group—big adventurer org—that trains novice adventurers in the basics and streamlines acceptance into one of the major Guilds out there."

"...Eden. Them I've heard of. ...you trust them?"

"Oh, yes. With a lot more than just my life. ...I'm from Morroc, I lived in the city proper, the only reason I'm not dead is that I was away from it when Surt destroyed it, and Eden is the main reason why that did not go a lot worse than it could have. They got Rune-Midgard and Morroc to actually mount a defense and guarding system."

"...that's good to know."

It takes a bit of walking for him to find what to say.

"Beuriman told me a lot of things," he settles on. "She was lying about a lot of them. But - some of them, they're true and nobody knows it. Anyone would tell me she was lying, and if I hadn't seen the proof I'd believe them. And she didn't have proof, about Eden. But no one would know if she was right."

"...what did she say, about Eden?"

"She said, it's really clever. See, they're really strong, those big heroes. And they got that way because they were so excited to fight and win and do the right thing. But normal people aren't like that - no, don't look at me like that, you're special, you're not normal. Normal people want to be happy, not strong. Normal people want strong people to protect them. So what do you do, when there aren't enough strong people? Well, eventually it'll take care of itself, right, because if there's not enough strong people, the way to be happy is to be strong. But that takes time. And they saw the sand falling through the glass - and it is falling, never forget it's falling. And - let me show you something."

He breaks out of the eerie reenactment, the pleasantly detached feminine tone. "She showed me a little magic toy, with two halves and a wall that was stronger from one side than the other. You could hammer away at the one end and it wouldn't go through at all, but if you poked at the other, pop, it was gone, and the water rushed in."

"That's the trick. Surt could have come here of his own accord, but it would be hard. But with an invitation, well, that changes things. I could've summoned Surt, if you gave me thirteen virgins and a white goat. But it wouldn't have done anything for me. If I want someone to be strong, I show them how to be strong. But those heroes over in Eden, they wanted something that made the people want themselves to be strong. They wanted a nice big sandbox where the boys who got big enough could fight big nasty demons and get even stronger. And they wanted to save the world from it."

"And they did. They got everything they wanted, and all it cost them was a few soldiers past their prime and a little secret."

"...she thinks Eden summoned Surt? I—well, that would in fact change everything and I would actually want to destroy them if it were true, but it... I'd need rather extraordinary evidence, for that.

"Do you know the tale of Ragnarök?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I know about Ragnarök."

"So. Surt—if that demon is Surt—was fated to come, no matter what. If that demon is Surt, it seems—impossible—that it was people, on this side of reality, who managed to break the seal? Not without a lot of nudging from the other side. And I want to kill a god or two same as anyone else, but I would be—surprised—if anyone on this side could possibly claim to be that strong, yet."

They're at the foot of the impressive tower, but Taharqi wants to finish this conversation before walking in. "I don't know that I believe it's Ragnarök. But even if I don't, I'd be surprised if Thanatos's seal could have broken that easily. Baphomet's seal took a thousand years to break, and Asura was not as strong as Thanatos was, according to the legends, and his seal was much weaker.

"I admit it'd be a very tragic and ironic story, if what she said were true, and I would dedicate my life to burning Eden and everything it stands for if it were. But I really, really do not think it is."

"...I absolutely trust your judgment more than I trust mine. Even if I have some disagreements with your premises."

"Well. We'll find out, eventually. Beating Surt is my personal goal, and I refuse to stop or die until that happens, and I will stop at nothing to reach that goal. Annika feels the same."

He takes a deep breath and recenters himself. "Anyway! Let's go?"

"Let's go."

Into the Tower.

It's enormous.

This is, of course, unsurprising, but bears restating, because people often focus a lot on how tall it is and neglect to observe how wide it is. It doesn't use any kinds of spatial manipulation to make the inside bigger than the outside, but it definitely feels like it, especially with how the ground floor is laid out: a relatively empty atrium, except for a colossal blue crystal in the center, floating above a circular pool of clear water, raised on a platform, emitting a soft almost calming hum and rotating slowly and orbited by other, smaller crystals (though only relatively so, as each of them is about half as tall as a person). To either side of them, across the room from each other, are two sets of stairs set against the dark stone walls and climbing the tower in intertwined spirals. The stairs lead into ring-shaped landings hanging over the atrium, each successive ring thicker than the last so that as they go higher the open hole in their middles get smaller and smaller until, about two thirds of the way up to the top of the tower as seen from outside, there is a ceiling.

The landing is only relatively empty, though, compared to its size. Closer to the walls there are tables and chairs and bookshelves where pockets of people are chatting or reading or napping or staring at nothing in deep concentration. Most people are dressed as wizards, which is to say "in thick, shapeless, typically-dark robes with many layers, occasionally with pointy hats", and the average age is into 50s or 60s. There isn't anyone that looks very much like an apprentice of anything.

Arik looks for a desk, like the one at the banker-temple.

There doesn't seem to be one.

Arik approaches the nearest bundle of cloth. "Excuse me, we're looking for his friend Vallyn? He's a wizard in training."

"Are you looking for the Mages' Guild," they say, tiredly.

"Yes."

"Outside," they sigh. "Not here."

"Thank you!" Arik chirps.