Lower Palace

The doctor took one look at Airi and ordered her into bed. Airi lay as still as she could while the doctor examined her injuries.

“Infected,” he muttered, setting down her left arm and lifting her right arm. “Infected, too. Great stars above. I’ll need to clean these out.”

He looked at Mildred. “Distinguished Mage, if you would kindly put the patient to sleep, so that we may begin the operation.”

Mildred pulled out another book from her seemingly bottomless pockets: The Sleeping Princess.

“Hey, isn’t that the one written by Mage Elowen?” Airi asked.

“Legendary Mage Elowen,” Mildred said with a grudging nod.

“I hate that book,” Airi muttered.

“Would you rather be awake during the operation?” Mildred’s eyes scanned the spellbook. Apparently first-class mages were capable of casting spells without reading them out loud.

Meanwhile, the doctor was prodding at Airi’s glove. “Great stars above! It’s hard as stone. What kind of fabric is this?”

“Let me see.” Mildred reached for Airi’s hand. Airi looked up into Mildred’s ice-colored eyes, holding her breath. Mildred, in turn, was unreadable as ever.

“Doctor Lewy, this is the result of a magical experiment. Please do not question it.”

Airi released her breath. Suddenly, her eyelids felt much heavier.

The doctor bowed. “Yes, Distinguished Mage. We will proceed with the operation as soon as the patient is asleep.”

Mildred set down The Sleeping Princess. “She should fall asleep soon.” She glared at Airi and muttered, “Any second now.” Her voice sounded like it was coming from the end of a tunnel.

A thought darted across Airi’s dreamy consciousness. Mildred had scolded that water mage for calling her by her name, but she’d never scolded Airi.

“Hey, Mildred,” she said sleepily. “You let me call you by your name.”

“What about it?” Mildred snapped.

“You didn’t let that other mage... whatshisname...” Airi yawned. She never was good with names. “Luke? Lucas?”

“You must be imagining things. I don’t remember that,” Mildred said, resting her chin on her hand and looking away.

“Who’s lying now?” Airi said drowsily.

“Stop talking and lose consciousness already.”

Airi smiled as the world faded to black, but she wasn’t sure why. If she hadn’t been so tired, she’d probably feel ridiculous.

Over the next few days, Airi grew well enough to leave the hospital wing, which was a relief. She was tired of listening to the sound of Mildred’s pen scratch against parchment.

The doctor was sad to see her leave.

“At least we gained knowledge about broken bones!” she heard him assure his assistants. “Did you write down...”

They walked through an open courtyard and into a hall where mirrors of varying sizes covered the walls. “You mages sure know how to waste money,” Airi remarked, looking at the jeweled frames. Each one must have cost a fortune.

“The Upper Palace belongs to the king. Mages live underground, in the Lower Palace,” Mildred said.

They walked down a sunlit corridor. Instead of glass, the windows were sheets of water with real goldfish swimming around inside.

“These windows were a gift from Wendolyn to the king, if I recall correctly,” Mildred said, dipping her finger into one of the windows. A goldfish nibbled her finger.

“Wendolyn?” Airi said, looking out the window at the blurry view of outside.

“Mage Calypso’s birth name. We hardly use our mage names in everyday conversation. Well, except Prometheus.”

“What’s your mage name?”

Mildred flinched and the goldfish swam away. “Let’s keep moving.”

After heading down a flight of stairs, they entered the Lower Palace, which had a humbler feel than the Upper Palace. The ornate wooden furniture and warm lamps reminded Airi of a library. So did the walls, once she realized they consisted entirely of bookshelves.

“Tale of Flight, 103rd edition. Tale of Flight, 104th edition. Tale of Flight—” she read the titles from the nearest bookshelf.

Mildred pulled her away. Though Airi was mostly healed, they had gotten into the habit of dragging each other around.

As they walked past doors, Mildred introduced each room.

“This is the Wind Study Room,” she said. The lamb's-head doorknob rattled violently, as if something were trapped inside.

“This is the Water Study Room. Your brother will be spending a lot of time here.”

“This is the Argument Room.” Mildred stopped beside an open doorway.

Airi heard echoing voices. She leaned into the Argument Room, which resembled a lecture hall. The raised velvet seats were arranged around a center stage, where two men gestured and spoke loudly.

“As you all know, the three Legendary Tales aren’t merely spells. They’re prophecies," the first man said. “However, it is unreasonable to assume that all three Legendary Tales have come true already. If you study Wolf At the Door and The Great Ocean, you can observe that they conclude with the words 'The End.'"

The spectating mages flipped through their books, nodding along.

“However, Great Mage Elowen’s Sleeping Princess has no ending. It merely ends with the princess falling into a deep slumber.”

The other mage slammed his hands down on the desk. “That may be true, but the majority of researchers over the past millennia have agreed that Legendary Mage Elowen—bless her soul—intended for the princess’s slumber to be the end of the tale, paralleling the eventual destruction of our world by the sun. Knowing that, do you really think it’s reasonable...”

“Who are they?” Airi whispered.

“Second-class mages who spend too much time reading old spells,” Mildred said. They kept walking.

Eventually, they reached yet another staircase leading downwards. This floor was called ‘Lower II,’ and it resembled a school.

All the doors opened to classrooms full of children. Some were Nestor's age and others looked like they could be Airi's classmates, but they all wore the same white robes. They bowed as Mildred walked past.

Mildred nodded at them. “Please return to your studies.”

Whispers followed them down the hall. Mildred stopped in front of a door carved with flowers and rapped the gold knocker, which was shaped like a wolf's claw. 'Head Mage's Office' was spelled out in faded gold letters above the door.

The door opened by itself, wafting the smell of flowers. Airi and Mildred stepped into a waiting room. They sat on plush chairs embroidered with crocuses and hydrangeas. In the corner, a lily-shaped gramophone played soft music. There was a second door in the waiting room, but it was locked.

The second door opened, and an older woman walked out with a worried expression on her face. She looked like a teacher to Airi. Over her shoulder, she said, "Again, I'm so sorry. I have no idea how he managed to sneak out."

"Don't you worry!" said an airy voice from inside the office. "Every student tries sneaking out at least once. I'll find him in time for lunch."

After the teacher left, Mildred knocked on the door to the office, and the lamb's-head knob turned on its own, letting them into the headmistress's office. There was a mahogany desk covered in a lacy tablecloth and a pink lamp with a frilly lampshade. An enormous vase of pink-and-red flowers sat on the desk, and a person sat behind it. Airi couldn’t quite see their face, but she could see a hand writing with a dove-feather quill.

A pink-haired girl poked her head out from behind the vase. “Mildred? It’s been ages! Oh my stars, who’s this? A new mage? Come in, come in!” Her pastel-pink eyes sparkled.

Airi closed the door behind her. The office bloomed with roses, carnations, tiger lilies, and pink crystal-winged butterflies. It was the most aggressive display of pink that Airi had ever seen. The only non-pink things were the walls, which were covered in enormous maps of the world.

“Airi's not a mage,” Mildred said to the pink-haired headmistress.

“Is that so?” The girl pouted. "How disappointing."

She looked like she was in her early twenties. Her long hair was bound with red ribbons that formed Xs all the way down to her waist. Her champagne-pink robes, complete with a giant bow at her waist, were hiked up to her knees, displaying boots with silken laces.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Marianne. You can call me Mari, or Anne, or just Marianne,” the pink-haired girl said with a big smile.

“Airi, this is Mage Hestia,” Mildred said. "Mage Hestia, this is Airi."

Airi saw a gold crest glittering on Marianne's corset. Despite her unassuming appearance, this girl was a first-class mage.