Stepping out of his carriage Chronos found himself standing in front of a vine covered tower with the only special thing about it being its height.
It was ten floors tall making it one of the larger towers but the fact that it didn't look any different from a normal stone tower bothered him.
He tilted his head wondering if he was at the right place, but the Relic Custodian academy next door told him he was. They had to build the academy close to the tower or they'd be failing to do their jobs.
Then a man exited the tower.
"Chronos glad you found the place." Micheal greeted him.
"So, it is the right place. Does it always look like this?" he asked while gesturing at the tower's somewhat dilapidated look.
"Yes, it is older than the city after all. According to our history it was built by the first mage to settle these lands before the Leighla Kingdom existed."
"Oh, just how long have the Archivists been around?"
"Unknown, but we have records dating back nearly ten thousand years. Come inside, there's no point in talking out here."
Nodding Chronos followed him inside the tower. When he stepped through the door he was astonished by the sight in front of him.
The inside of the tower was ten times larger than the outside with a central hole going from top to bottom and a stairwell going around the outside. Looking up and down Chronos estimated that the tower continued for at least a hundred floors in both directions.
Every wall was covered in shelves full of books with a few errant tomes flying about as the apprentices tried to catch them. In the center of the hole was a large Orrery displaying the nearby planets and stars.
Chronos could vaguely recognize what it was from his astronomy lessons as a kid.
The entire thing floated in the center of the tower tracking the movements of their solar system in real time, but it seemed to track more than that as several planets were transparent and several of the rods had nothing on them when it was clear that something should be there.
"Do you like it? It's a 3d model of the nearby stars," Micheal boasted.
"I do like it and I am familiar with an orrery. As a werewolf I kind of have to be if I want to maintain control."
"Ah, you act so normal that I forget you're a werewolf sometimes."
Micheal smiled as he began leading Chronos up the stairs.
As Chronos followed him he kept glancing at the orrery. It was a lot more complicated than the ones Chronos knew of and he wanted some answers.
"Micheal, what are those spare rods on the orrery for?"
Micheal glanced at the orrery, "They're for planets that only exist under special conditions or passages that only form at certain times. After you told me about layers, I went to ask Archivist Quillfeather for more information, and he confirmed that both layers and realms are real and can appear under the right conditions.
Apparently this orrery can be used to track when planets from other realms draw close to our own. Close enough that we might be able to establish contact with them."
That was interesting in its own way but the real reason Chronos was asking was because one of the empty rods bore a symbol for wolf and it was rapidly moving towards their planet.
"What about that empty rod with the symbol for wolf on it? Do you know what that one does?"
"What symbol?"
Micheal seemed confused so Chronos pointed out the exact rod he was referring to.
"You can read that symbol?"
"Yes, it's an old dialect of the werewolf language but I can read it."
Micheal looked at the rod again.
"I don't know what that rod does. It passes close enough to our planet that they almost touch twice a year, but it's never displayed anything on it in the past. You must understand that this orrery is older than our recorded history and was excavated from a ruin of a past civilization. Archivist Quillfeather had to pay a small fortune to have it fully restored and we don't know everything about it yet."
That wasn't a comforting response.
Since it came from a past civilization there was no telling what it was meant to do or foretell. And right now, Chronos' instincts were telling him that something important would happen when the wolf rod passed near their home planet.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any more time to study the orrery as they stepped onto an elevator that took them to the top floor.
Exiting the elevator Chronos found that the floor looked like a massive library with shelf after shelf filled with books and every time Chronos looked down a hall of shelves it seemed to move closer or further away from him.
This floor was even more massive than the ones beneath it stretching further than ten floors of the tower.
Near the central banister right across from the elevator was a desk stacked high with returned books and documents, standing on that desk was an emerald and gold parrot watching them closely.
He couldn't help himself from staring as he had never seen a place so filled with magic before. Not even the Royal Castle had this much magic in it, and it was many times larger than the inside of the tower.
Seeing him staring at the shelves Micheal spoke up, "The book hallways that move closer to you have books that can help you find answers to your questions while the ones moving further away don't. Archivist Quillfeather made them that way to help young archivists find what they are looking for."
"Are you sure he didn't enchant it just so he didn't have to walk further than was necessary?" Chronos asked with a teasing smile.
"I like him. He's got a sense of humor, certainly more than the rest of you." A voice said from the desk.
Turning back Chronos didn't see anybody there except for the strange parrot, and it seemed to be laughing at him.
"No way."
Walking up to the parrot Micheal said, "Archivist Quillfeather please stop teasing our guest. He is here for official business."