"Hello." Skyl nodded to the merchant's daughter. "I'm Skyl de Lin. By the customs of Common, you can simply call me Skyl. And who are you?"
"My name is Livia Miko. Skyl, where is this?"
Livia's voice was soft and delicate. She only dared to glance up at Skyl once before lowering her head to stare at her toes. She was wearing pajamas, her childish toes curled inward, the blue veins on the tops of her feet as fine as strands of hair. Born frail, her growth had been delayed. This girl was about the same age as Harry and the others, but her build was closer to Hermione's when she had first started school.
Skyl reached out to her. Livia hesitated for a while, then hurriedly offered her own hand, and the two of them shook gently.
"There. Now we're friends. Miss Livia, don't be afraid. You have entered the dream of a god from a foreign realm."
Skyl sat cross-legged on the ground. His friendly attitude, his gentle tone, and his extraordinary charm all made the little girl relax.
Livia copied him and sat down in front of Skyl, setting her face into a stern, composed expression like a little adult. Her merchant father had told her many tricks of the trade, and a good poker face could often seize the initiative in a negotiation. Livia often used this trick to act spoiled around her beloved older brother, and her brother was always helpless before his adorable little sister.
Only now, her pupils were still trembling slightly, and that faint trace of fear made the Warlock Lord secretly laugh.
After holding it in for a long time, Livia finally asked, "Can I go home?"
"Of course. You may leave at any time. This dream is not a cage. It is an invitation."
"An invitation?"
Skyl tilted his head toward the tower at the end of the road. "Look."
Livia followed the warlock's gaze. Her young eyes stared at the eternal white tower, astonished by that wonder that seemed to pierce both heaven and earth.
"What tower is that?"
"The Tower of Tomes. A library, and a universe."
"A universe?"
"That's right. The Library of Babel. Within it are countless hexagonal galleries, and they store infinite knowledge. From it, you can obtain the answer to almost any question. Whether you seek the power to destroy your enemies, the schemes to overthrow a kingdom, a remedy that can heal and save lives, or a secret medicine that can strengthen the body, you can find the corresponding texts inside the tower. It is both the resting place of truth and the paradise yearned for by those who pursue it."
Livia held her breath. She did not feel suffocated, because dreams did not require breathing, but after Skyl's low narration, she still exhaled a long breath.
Those born weak would always feel hope when they heard descriptions like strengthening the body. For healthy people, the frustration brought by physical frailty was difficult to imagine. Livia had already begun to long for that tall tower.
"That's pretty impressive." She deliberately pretended not to care. Most girls knew this little trick of saying the opposite of what they meant. "Then can I go?"
Skyl smiled. "Of course you can. But this road requires you to light the candles with your own wisdom."
"Please teach me."
"Go and learn. Listen to me. Immerse every bit of free time you can use in books, or do some craftwork, create art, seek out difficult questions and answer them. Discover the wisdom hidden in reality, and use it."
"It's that simple?"
"Yes." Skyl nodded. "The best way to repay truth is to master truth. Without a wise subject to interpret it, so-called truth is nothing more than rotten paper gnawed by bookworms."
Livia asked in confusion, "Truth?"
"Yes, truth. The answer to every question. Those who grasp truth may not be happy, but they will not lose their way because of misfortune. If everyone could grasp truth, perhaps all misfortune could be saved…"
"If I obtain truth, can I stop being sick?"
"Of course."
The longing in Livia's eyes was like the rustling snicker of a fairy, full of joy she could not hide.
Skyl suddenly stood and walked along the silver-cast road. His figure became like a flowing phantom, and in the blink of an eye, he had arrived beneath the tower.
The warlock looked back from afar. The girl was still standing at the starting point of the silver-cast road, and the candles beside the path had not been lit.
"Skyl! Come back! I still have so many questions!"
"Livia Miko, the High Tower King watches your fate. We will meet again, and by then, both of us will be shepherds of the god."
Livia anxiously chased after the warlock, but the moment she stepped out of the candlelight, she woke from the dream.
"Ah!"
The bedroom was silent at midnight. A faint current of air slipped through the window lattice and stirred the gauze curtain. The young merchant's daughter wiped the thin sweat from her forehead, climbed out of her soft bed, lit the magical lamp, and pulled open the curtain to gaze at Waterdeep's North Ward beneath the moon. The world was vast, and countless people were living their own stories, yet she could only remain in one corner, trapped within the protection of walls.
A maid hurried over at the sound and quietly asked if she was well. Livia asked her to fetch a book from the study.
"One that's a little difficult," she emphasized.
The light in the bedroom stayed on until sunrise.
Over the next few days, the Miko family discovered something strange about the girl. Although she normally read books to pass the time, she had never been so absorbed that she forgot to eat or sleep.
Her father, Jeremy, thought this was not a bad thing, and for the sake of his daughter's great cause of learning, he visited bookstores many times.
Her older brother, Andrei, vaguely sensed that something was wrong with his sister's behavior.
When she was not studying, she often muttered incomprehensible phrases like High Tower King and Light Within the Skull. Andrei was certain he had never heard of any deity whose divine titles included High Tower King.
A reasonable suspicion naturally came to mind, heretics.
On the land of Faerûn, wild faiths had never been rare. Cultists acting under all kinds of banners were often bewitched and controlled by fiends. For example, there had once been a sect in Amn whose members all mutilated their own eyes. An investigation later revealed that they were servants of a beholder. The corners of civilized society and the wilds beyond it were both breeding grounds for heretical faiths.
Andrei therefore fixed his suspicious gaze on that statue. After questioning her again and again, he finally learned from his sister that she had been called by a dream.
"Do you know how dangerous this is?! A dream could very well be a mind flayer's trick!"
"The High Tower King is not a mind flayer."
"You've already been bewitched, Livia. I have to take you to a temple. The priests of the God of Justice will dispel whatever fiendish secret magic has been placed on you."
Livia could not win against her older brother. Their parents both felt their son was making a fuss over nothing, but in the end, Livia was still taken to a temple, where the priests of Tyr, the God of Justice, cast divine magic. However, they found nothing abnormal in the girl.
Andrei apologized to his sister. After returning home, he thought it over again and again, then disposed of the sculpture anyway. He also planned to find the sculptor and demand an explanation.
However, he was destined to find nothing, because Skyl the sculptor had already left Waterdeep. He and Stan had ridden south on horseback, enjoying the scenery, customs, and people along the road.
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