"They might also need to temporarily seal teleportation arrays and lock the city's space down. Hopefully, the pretext of repairing newly emerged flaws in the arrays needing a stable space should be enough." The king continued, mostly to himself, as the trio continued into the palace. He summoned one of the nearby palace guards and requested for someone summon the Military Commander immediately, along with Royal Court Mage. As they ran off, Arthur sighed, "I haven't felt this much anxiety since I inherited the throne from my father... Come to think of it, he told me he had a strange hunch that my rule would both a golden age and a dark age... I never understood what he meant, not until today." His eyes gained a thousand-yard stare as he muttered, "I never should have doubted his instincts. He'd never been wrong before."
Luca thought for a moment about what he knew of the previous king. Surprisingly, compared to the other Valar monarchs, Arthur's predecessor had surprisingly little information about him other than his capabilities as a ruler. The only images of him were a portrait in one of the galleries of the palace and a statue of his likeness in the Valar family tomb. For some inexplicable reason, players felt that the two images felt... fake. It was as if someone had tried to make an elaborate disguise. Astonishingly, despite appearing to lack personal strength, not one person challenged his rule even among his siblings or children. He was neither kind nor overbearing, neither domineering nor subtle. What stumped players the most though was that his given name had disappeared completely. Andorians only referred to him as the previous Valar king, gaining a bewildered look as, upon being questioned, they attempted to recall such an easy detail to no avail. Even his own kin had appeared to have forgotten it, a fact that Arthur had once said he believed to be the result of a massive spell. Only two beings could do such great memory-altering magics, one a deity and one a Pseudo-Sage. If it was done by either of them, there was a serious reason for it.
The trio soon encountered another palace guard, who came to alert the king that the Military Commander was en route and would arrive in roughly thirty minutes to an hour due to being in a meeting with battalion commanders over the statistics of the armed forces. He then awkwardly attempted to explain that Crescius basically shoved anyone trying to bother him out the door rather roughly with an aggravated tone demanding them to not disturb him, not even allowing them to pass on the message.
Arthur leaned his head back with a groan, "He's in another one of his epiphanic trances again... Looks like I need to go get him myself." He thanked the guard before walking with a specific destination this time, with two boys in tow. "Even after five decades, he becomes a child with an intense and single-minded focus on something that strikes his fancy. I remember walking in once while dashed madly around our dorm room back when we were in the Royal Academy together, speaking Ancient Elvish so fast it sounded like he was just making strange noises, wearing only his shorts as he attempted to create a new spell that would allow him to summon a clone of himself, all just to avoid having to attend class with one of our professors..."
Luca was momentarily stunned at the image of a younger Crescius in the scenario that Arthur had just recalled. The absurdity of it made him start giggling, as did Arcturus. Eccentricities were considered normal for mages, some of which went to extremes, but the image of the wise Royal Court Mage being so bizarre despite his great skill and ability to carry himself in any situation.
Roughly fifteen minutes of walking passed uneventfully, with Arthur spending most of that time recalling other episodes of Crescius's moods, as they reached one of the two great spires that dug into the mountain above from the two front corners of the palace. The western spire, several hundred meters tall and big enough to fit a battleship inside, was essentially the magical laboratory and residence of the Royal Court Mage. Because of its enormous height, a magical elevator designed by the dwarves was installed in both spires for ease of transportation, though some levels had stairs as well.
At the very top of the western spire was basically a lighthouse setup, complete with an enormous magical contraption. Referred to as the Little Sun, the contraption used a passive array designed around the entire mountain to draw in mana, which it would convert into electricity to power the city. The electricity would, in turn, generate mana as it was used, in one form or another, and replenish what was taken. At night, it was the brightest light in the city, illuminating the entire palace district on its own. The Royal Court Mage and mage members of the palace guards were responsible for maintaining the great power source designed by a group of A-rank Magical Engineers from the dwarves and some expert mages together.
Another minute or so of riding one of the elevators way up to the top part of the spire, the trio stepped out to see numerous mages examining and researching things along with using what appeared to be a primitive version of the keyboard to monitor and record the status of the Little Sun's parts. Combined with the huge but mediocre screen, it looked like someone had taken the system of a Commodore 64, expanded the keyboard and made the monitor the size of a wall. The interior of the spire had always been off-limits to players, so Luca was in new territory, making him very excited.
Arthur called out to one of the mages, this one carrying several books, and asked if Crescius was still being his single-minded self in his private area. After giving a look of exasperation, along with an exhausted sigh, the mage confirmed that the Royal Court Mage was indeed in his private quarters. The king ignored the look, as he'd grown used to seeing that look from anyone that had prolonged exposure to Crescius's peculiarities.