As the opalescent castle drew closer,

  Crys felt overwhelmed

  by the divinity it radiated.

  The way it shifted its glow in the sunlight

  felt almost like an expression—

  as if the castle itself were aware.

  The very top of the spire, invisible even from the distant hill,

  still towered above him

  even as he craned his neck upward.

  It shimmered in calm, gentle hues,

  yet carried an unmistakable pressure.

  Crys shivered without meaning to

  and looked up at the magnificent castle

  with something like reverence.

  The castle walls were seamless—

  a single, unbroken surface,

  as if carved from ice.

  Light rippled across them like an aurora.

  Gold streaked along the window frames

  like falling stars.

  The spires shifted color by the moment,

  changing like a living rainbow.

  Everywhere he looked,

  the design felt beyond human hands.

  TT walked straight toward the massive gate,

  without hesitation.

  The doors were huge and heavy, tightly shut—

  far too solid for the two of them to open together.

  But TT didn’t touch them.

  He took out his black wand,

  pointed its tip at the door,

  and said a single word.

  “Open.”

  The moment the word left him,

  the ornate doors began to move—

  slowly,

  with a deep, heavy sound.

  Crys stared, dumbfounded.

  TT didn’t wait for them to open all the way.

  He stepped inside at once.

  Crys froze.

  Entering the castle without permission

  didn’t feel like chasing a ball

  into a neighbor’s yard.

  It felt like being tested—

  asked whether he was worthy

  of stepping into something sacred.

  But as TT disappeared into the shadow beyond the doors,

  panic nudged him forward.

  Crys clenched his hands tight against his chest,

  as if bracing himself,

  and went in.

  ?

  Inside, the air was slightly cool—

  but the pressure he’d felt outside was gone.

  Instead, there was a gentle stillness.

  The doors to the great hall were shut tight.

  The long, wide corridor was empty.

  TT looked left and right,

  then turned back to Crys,

  hands on his hips.

  “Do you remember which way you came from?”

  “Right.

  One turn,

  then the spiral staircase at the far end.”

  “Okay.”

  The quiet inside the castle

  made them lower their voices without thinking.

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  A red carpet ran down the corridor.

  Shadows from geometric window frames

  fell at regular intervals.

  They turned left at the end,

  passed several doors.

  Crys half-expected someone to step out

  and scold them

  for entering uninvited.

  No one did.

  When they finally reached the familiar spiral staircase,

  Crys stepped into its center

  and looked up.

  The ceiling vanished into shadow.

  …We’re climbing this?

  The height made him groan under his breath.

  TT stood beside him, looking up as well.

  “You said it was high—

  how high?”

  “Probably the very top.

  There wasn’t any staircase going up

  when I came down.”

  “Wow.

  All the way up there?

  That’s exciting.”

  TT grinned, sharp and daring,

  and started up the stairs.

  Crys already knew his legs would feel heavy,

  so he tried not to think

  and followed behind.

  The walls around the staircase were ice-clear,

  like peering into the heart

  of a massive crystal spiral.

  No matter how long they walked,

  the view never changed.

  After nearly ten full rotations,

  they finally reached the first landing.

  The sheer scale of it all

  nearly overwhelmed Crys.

  He braced his hands on his knees.

  “…We climbed all that

  and this is still the first floor?”

  “Hang in there, twig.

  We’re meeting Tsitsi.”

  Crys glared up at TT,

  who still looked annoyingly fine—

  and then an idea struck him.

  “Hey, TT.

  Why don’t you just use magic?”

  “Turn the stairs into an escalator?”

  “That works too!”

  Crys’s eyes lit up,

  taking the joke seriously.

  “Soliorbis used a magic circle here—

  went down like an elevator.

  Can you do that?”

  “I think I could.”

  TT shook his head.

  “But I won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  Magic was supposed to be convenient—

  do anything you wanted.

  Crys had no intention of using it himself,

  but TT was different.

  He couldn’t hide his frustration.

  “Like I said before,” TT replied calmly,

  “magic in this world runs on thought.

  It takes focus to channel it.

  If we don’t know how high this goes,

  thinking ‘how much farther?’ becomes noise.

  I don’t know what happens

  if my focus breaks mid-cast.

  I don’t know my limits yet—

  and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  Then, with a teasing curl to his mouth—

  “Besides.

  Now that we finally have a chance to move our bodies,

  we might as well.”

  “That’s cruel…”

  TT laughed under his breath

  and started climbing again.

  Crys felt all the strength drain out of him—

  but once TT was a full rotation ahead of him,

  he grudgingly followed.

  ?

  They kept climbing.

  TT led the way,

  sometimes coming back down

  to check on him.

  But Crys was too busy breathing

  to say much.

  The scenery never changed.

  Round and round—

  his sense of place blurred.

  If he wasn’t careful,

  he felt like he might fall backward,

  headfirst.

  He kept one hand against the wall,

  feet unsteady,

  dragging himself upward.

  “I can’t…

  I seriously can’t…”

  After dozens of rotations,

  hundreds of steps,

  Crys finally collapsed onto the stairs.

  His heart pounded violently,

  pain pulsing up to his temples.

  Even breathing hurt.

  Every time he opened his mouth to inhale,

  he thought he might throw up.

  The castle had felt cool before—

  now sweat poured from him.

  As he sat there,

  TT came back down again.

  “Want to rest?”

  Crys nodded weakly.

  “We’re at least halfway, right?”

  He started to say it—

  and TT suddenly covered his mouth.

  Crys stiffened.

  From below,

  footsteps echoed upward.

  Muted voices followed.

  “…about that person’s… plan…”

  “…Soliorbis…”

  He couldn’t catch everything—

  but Soliorbis’s name was clear.

  Crys shrank back instinctively—

  then froze.

  Soliorbis.

  He pulled TT’s hand away

  and leaned over the open center,

  peering down toward the voices.

  TT looked startled by the sudden move,

  but followed his gaze.

  They couldn’t see clearly,

  but it looked like two figures—

  a man and a woman.

  The man spoke carefully,

  watching the woman’s expression.

  She didn’t look at him at all.

  They stepped into the open shaft—

  and just like Soliorbis had—

  they descended smoothly,

  sliding downward through empty space.

  When the staircase fell silent again,

  TT finally spoke, low.

  “They said ‘that person’—

  not Soliorbis of Zahav He’arah.

  Which means…”

  “Tsitsi.”

  They said it at the same time.

  “Tsitsi might be on the floor

  they came from.”

  Crys forgot his exhaustion.

  He pushed himself up at once

  and hurried down—

  three and a half rotations—

  toward the landing

  where the two figures had appeared.

  The corridor was long and wide, almost like a hall,

  lined with silver carpet.

  The arrangement of doors, though,

  was no different from the first floor.

  Each room felt a little too large to be called a private chamber.

  Still, Tsitsi might be in one of them.

  That thought made Crys bold.

  He put his hand on the nearest door

  and pushed.

  It didn’t seem to be locked.

  He glanced at TT.

  The moment the door opened,

  both of them caught their breath.

  It was a library.

  It was much larger than it looked from the entrance—and not an ordinary one.

  It felt as if snow were falling only here—

  a world of pale silver.

  The walls and floor were coated in white,

  as if mixed with silver leaf.

  The bookshelves,

  the chairs placed here and there—

  everything was white.

  “…Wow.

  It feels like we’re outside.”

  TT let the words slip, quietly awed.

  Despite the furniture,

  the room’s all-white stillness

  wasn’t so different from the place they’d reached by elevator.

  Crys held back his impatience

  and called out, softly.

  “Tsitsi…?

  Are you here?”

  No answer.

  His voice vanished,

  as if swallowed by snow.

  He opened the door wider and scanned the room.

  No Tsitsi.

  No one at all.

  He hadn’t expected to find her in the first room—

  or so he thought.

  Only then did Crys realize

  how disappointed he actually was.

  “Looks like she’s not here.”

  “Then let’s try the next one.”

  The neighboring room felt like an exhibition hall.

  It had the same silver-white tone as the library.

  Long glass cases lined the walls lengthwise,

  others stood upright across the floor.

  Unable to see the back of the room past them,

  Crys stepped in carefully.

  Along the walls were stone tablets

  etched with star-like patterns,

  ancient Egyptian papyrus scrolls,

  ritual objects whose purpose he couldn’t guess.

  In the tall cases stood crystal clusters

  and gemstones far larger than anything in a museum—

  most of them gray or silver.

  “Labradorite…

  Gibeon…

  That’s a huge gray quartz…”

  “Ad, you know stones too?”

  TT sounded impressed.

  Crys didn’t answer.

  Moonstones that waxed and waned

  depending on where you stood.

  A dull silver star sapphire,

  six rays crossing its surface.

  And above all—

  A tiara designed like a necklace,

  worked in platinum.

  Five teardrop-shaped gray diamonds on each side,

  and at the center,

  a large, colorless diamond.

  It was so striking

  Crys stopped in front of the case.

  The calm glow of the gray diamonds

  softened the brilliance of the clear one.

  As the lights caught the gems

  and scattered color after color,

  something old stirred in him.

  Back when his mom was alive,

  magic had filled everyday life.

  He’d memorized the names and traits

  of ores and gemstones without effort—

  because they resonated with magic.

  Realizing that stone names

  kept spilling from his lips on their own,

  Crys felt restless—

  as if he’d wandered into a room inside his own heart.

  “Let’s go.”

  He grabbed TT’s arm

  and pulled him out, almost running.

  Beyond the third door

  was a garden where snow drifted down.

  The snow had no temperature.

  When Crys reached out,

  it vanished instantly—

  no droplets left behind.

  At first it looked as if snow had piled up

  on trees and flowers,

  but on closer look,

  each petal, each branch

  was transparent—

  as if carved from ice.

  Those clear trees and flowers glowed silver,

  creating the illusion of snowfall.

  Butterflies fluttered above them,

  shedding sparkling dust.

  When one crossed his field of vision—

  its wings shining silver as well—

  Crys shut the door, fed up.

  The fourth room was a hall,

  like a gathering place.

  A silver carpet ran down the center.

  On both sides stood white benches,

  glittering with silver flecks—

  almost like a church.

  The central platform was raised several steps,

  and behind it

  loomed a large stained-glass window.

  Only clear and silver glass was used,

  yet their gradations alone

  cast floral, geometric shadows,

  filling the space with solemn quiet.

  The fifth room resembled a hotel lobby.

  Low tables of smooth stone,

  wide sofas that could seat three with ease,

  all gleaming with understated luxury.

  From the ceiling hung a chandelier

  of silver-tinted crystal,

  and from it drifted fine silver particles,

  like diamond dust.

  “Tsitsi’s blonde—

  not as long as when we saw her in the great hall, but still.

  In a place this silver,

  she’d stand out right away.”

  “Then she’s not here either.”

  The sixth door stood directly opposite the passage leading to the spiral staircase.

  Crys knew at a glance—

  this one was different.

  Every door so far had felt slightly too small

  for the rooms beyond them.

  This one was heavy, imposing.

  Its frame was carved with patterns

  like sacred script.

  If Tsitsi was on this floor,

  it had to be here.

  Heart pounding,

  Crys opened the door.