The city closest to the passage has stood for 400 years.
It was built by people from another thread, great architects, sorcerers and philosophers. And it’s impressive, how they traveled over multiple threads (approximately five, though the threads have since shifted slightly) to get here. It was so long ago - during a time of instability for the closest threads too us - and yet they found their way.
The most notable part of this city they built was a circle of eight towers. The city has an inner and an outer ring, and in the outer one the eight towers stand guard. You can only ever see at most three at the same time, but everyone knows they form a circle.
The octagon, it is called.
Today most of the towers are overshadowed by newer buildings, however they still retain their significance. They house the main branches of the advanced academies, one of which, I go to.
It’s a beautiful place, our corner of the octagon.
It’s in the middle of a park called the Water Lily pond. Very self explanatory, indeed there is a pond and it is entirely full of water lilies that bloom in the spring.
The academy is right next to it, the newer buildings surrounding the tower like a skeleton around a heart. And the tower itself, it’s enchantments wearing off ages ago, is drooping, but still standing. It’s a part of the academy’s library now, and I find a very special sort of beauty in that. Stories in a place of history.
Few other parts of the octagon can compete when it comes to the peacefulness of my institution, and I would have it no other way. Maybe one day, I’ll even let my studies be known.











