The Last Utopia

by Michael M Finch

  After we had laid ourselves to rest, my mind was still racing with all the things I had – and more importantly hadn't – seen today. There hadn't been any of the horrors the Mystic had suggested we would find, and none of the vibrant student atmosphere I had hoped for. So I asked the only other person in this place for answers. Luckily, Sophie was more than just a little smarter than myself.

  “Who knows?” my bunkmate answered. “It's probably safest to assume that this one is an exception rather than the rule.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Well, the city outside is still running, isn't it?”

  “...true.”

  “And it's running on magic, right? So considering all that, the towers would be the last place to go down if something happens. Think about it, why would the outer city be in such a pristine condition, if the towers themselves are dirty and falling apart? It makes no sense.”

  “Sense or not, that's how it is.”

  “Maybe it was abandoned for a reason. Maybe the Grand Mage who owned this tower did something to piss off the other council members, so he got axed and his place was closed down. Or maybe the number of mages has just been shrinking. Think about it: In the outer city, entire city blocks are no longer in use, like the area around the Squalor.”

  Although Sophie couldn't see me, I still nodded. Several quarters of the city were no longer accessible, mostly on the outside. In my caretaker days, I also met a good few older folks who told stories about the city's energy back in their youth. Of course, they could have just been blinded by nostalgia. While I still thought on Sophie's point, she had already move on to the next one.

  “Seems like our population has been on a steady decline. The old man said so as well. Less people means less mages means less space needed to get all of them under one roof. Why waste resources here when you can put everyone into three towers, or two, or one? Makes sense to me at least.”

  “That's still no reason to let the place rot like this. Wouldn't the tower be an important historical site at least?”

  “Who knows. We'll find out tomorrow. Since there's nothing here, we'll just have to go over to the other towers. The mages have to be somewhere, don't they?” Although Sophie's voice sounded strong, I could sense the slight quiver hidden behind her strength. “At least those red beasts have to come from somewhere in here. Those are absolutely real.”

  “I guess you're right. Let's try again tomorrow.”

  Although it took me another hour, I managed to calm my chaotic mind and forced myself to sleep. Tomorrow for certain. Tomorrow I would be reunited with Eileen.

  In the end, my prediction would be proven wrong. We spent the next two days like the previous one. Walk up to a tower, find it run-down and deserted, explore the inside, find nothing and then sleep in the dorms. Luckily, Sophie had planned to leave the caverns before our little confrontation at her spider web. In true Sophie manner, she had been fully prepared for a long excursion.

  Most of all, she had brought plenty of water, enough to last us a while. There was some of the Mystic's stale, dry bread as well, as emergency rations. Until now it had been enough, but after our three day march, we were running low. If we didn't find something beyond the long-forgotten remnants of civilizations, we would be in trouble.

  “Today will be different. Today I'll meet Eileen again,” I said towards no one in particular as I marched out of the third tower's annex and into the heat of day. No one in particular felt obliged to answer.

  “Right. Not like you didn't say that yesterday. Or the day before. Actually, can you just shut up about your sister for at least a second?” No one in particular was pretty grumpy today. She wasn't used to being out in the sun for so long, was what I thought.

  “Well, it makes sense though. They're positioned like rings after all... the towers I mean. Two outer towers, then another two in the middle and two more inside. We've looked at three total now and all of them have been empty and abandoned. Today we're gonna reach the central tower. If we don't find anything there, we're probably going crazy.”

  “Sure. I'm just venting,” Sophie said, always flippant.

  After I had moved closer, I reestablished the light barrier that had surrounded us over most of the past three days.

  “That thing again, huh? Don't you think this is a waste of your mana? I don't think the old man would've wanted that.”

  Sophie looked left and right as she talked, even though she couldn't see the shape of mana I had formed around us.

  “Well, we're expecting to find something today, right? Better safe than sorry.”

  “No, you're expecting to find something,” Sophie corrected.

  “Right. It's my expectation just like it's my mana. So how about you let me waste it the way I want to?”

  “...it's your funeral too.”

  “Shhhh.”

  While Sophie still tried to get the last word in, I had heard the echoes of an unnatural sound up ahead. This time, I was almost certain we would find more than a bundle of decomposed leaves, so I held my palm in front of Sophie's face to quiet her down. Although the girl got annoyed and swiped my hand away, she didn't say another word.

  Sophie knew what was at stake. If we were caught by the red guards it would be lights out. Even I wasn't sure big sis could save us in that case. After all, entering the towers without authorization was one of the great taboos of the city, worse than almost any other crime.

  We crouched down to quiet our movements and sneaked up towards the front. Soon, we could see something we hadn't seen in three days: fresh water, and a splendorous excess of it at that. Beyond the forest of dead trees, two giant fountains rose towards the top of the towers. Ever-changing, the liquid danced through the air in lavish arcs. Though we couldn't see the source of the water yet, the arcs shot so high we could see it past high walls and dead trees. A true spectacle to behold.

  As we closed in on our first sign of life in days, our path was blocked by a hedge. However, unlike every other place in the inner city, it didn't show any signs of decay or disuse. Instead, it shined in a lush, verdant green. The opulent vegetation appeared as if one could squeeze pure morning dew from its delicate twigs. With my face pressed up to the hedge, I looked around to see if I could take a peek past the leaves. I wanted to uncover the mystery inside, of a world that wasn't death and decay.

  Finally, I found the gap I had searched for. What I saw would have been expected just three days ago, but now almost seemed like a miracle. This was a true, honest to god pathway. The slick white plates on the ground were squeaky clean, proper and neat, just like everything else in their surroundings.

  Beautiful green grass lined the pathway, a true marvel after our days of brown and gray. Meanwhile, the two fountains we had spotted before flanked this neat route and caught their liquid projectiles within enormous, shallow basins at their base. This was my mental image of the greatest academy in the world. At last, between the fountains, I saw the first signs of life within the great Towers of Knowledge.

  The guardians of peace, the red guards, the beasts. Here they were, in orderly formation and in large number. I watched as they loaded themselves into the backs of large transport vehicles. In fact, I had seen this type of transport before. One of them had stood outside the community hall on the day of the assessment. These were the official transporters of the Guardians of Peace.

  At once, my brain made the connection. The fated day had come once again. Today, rows of young hopefuls would line up and get themselves tested to see if they had the mettle to join the Towers of Knowledge, and my little sister was right among them. Hoping beyond hope, I just prayed that within these walls, the young mages would find what they had dreamed of.

  While I was busy distracting my brain from reality, the gentle hum of the transporter signaled its departure. Another look over and I found that most of the guards had left the area. Only four remained behind, to protect the perimeter. If we wanted to get inside, we would have to sneak pas
t. Either that or we would have to find an alternative point of entry.

  Just as I was trying to think myself into the annex, a ball of dirt flew over and landed in front of my feet. While I had been immersed in my thoughts, Sophie had moved a good distance, along the hedge and towards the side of building. Now that her attack had gained my attention, she waved me over with impatient movements.

  Rather than argue over her rudeness and attract the attention of the guards, I decided to follow the command without complaint. Once I had reached my companion, she pointed towards a portion of the hedge. Through the holes in the thicket I could see a side entry, maybe meant for delivery or an emergency exit, which led to a small gravel path between the hedge and the building itself.

  Unguarded. Perfect.

  I used some of my mana to press the hedges aside to form an archway. Of course I formed my shape with the greatest care, to make sure no one would sense the emitted mana. Though getting to the prettier side of the academy had been easy, the side door turned out to be blocked, with no obvious way to open it. All we found was another one of those stone carvings we had become so familiar with over the past three days.

  Since there was no way through the side door, I thought we might as well try the front instead. So far the guardians had failed to spot my light barrier, so it was worth the risk. We walked the long way around and found ourselves within the welcoming plaza of the tower. However, upon inspection, the front doors provided much less welcome than we had thought at first.

  We walked past the guards without trouble. The door wasn't locked either, but I could sense the complex shapes draped over the entryway right away. This was another spider web, spun by a professional. We couldn't go through the front without triggering who knew what and I wasn't willing to take the risk.

  Thus, we had no choice but to park ourselves near the side entrance and hope that a chance would present itself. At least we could refill Sophie's water bottles at the fountain. That would last us for a while.

  After we had waited for several, mind-numbing hours, a click of salvation brought life back into our lethargic bodies. The side entrance had opened, no, it had been opened by one of the red guards, maybe on a smoke break or whatever vices the guardians indulged in. Making good use of my mana, I bounced up and held open the door before it could close shut, for both me and Sophie to slip inside. Before I had even processed everything, we had infiltrated into the central tower of Astralis. Although the door behind us shut with a soft click, in my mind it sounded with the booming finality of cannon fire.

  - Two

  Once again, we had left the outside world behind. With our retreat cut off, there was only one way to go. Before us stretched a long corridor, its appearance unlike anything we had seen in the other towers. Although they had all been different in design, each had appeared clean and modern in its own way. While some interiors had been painted in bright, inviting colors, others had appeared in stylish monochrome.

  However, now we were confronted by grimy, black machines, with nothing but a dim shine from the lamps above to illuminate them. Strange tubes, pipes and cables ran along the walls and connected the pumping, beeping and glowing mechanisms. All of this sat there exposed, with no walls or grates as protection. Or at least Sophie must have seen it that way. I on the other hand could sense the magic barriers around the brutalist machinery, an invincible shell to shield it from any intrusion.

  “Why would a school look like a machine shop?” Sophie whispered. When she stretched her hand towards a pipe, her fingers bumped into the invisible walls and shied back.

  “Guess that's one more thing we'll need to find out,” I replied.

  In truth, I also couldn’t explain the sight. These machines might have been here to run the tower's facilities, but after our experiences so far, it seemed unlikely. After all, any systems within the other towers had been powered through the stone slabs, with only the personal mana of the mages. There was no need for complex machinery or long cables to support them. Instead, mages would be their own personal battery and any arrays or circuits were local.

  Instead of the more modern image of the other towers, our surroundings reminded me of old pictures from the industrial age. Pistons chugged away and strange liquids bubbled through the pipes, so wholly different from how I had expected a mage's tower to look.

  “So where to now?”

  Sophie looked down the long corridors before she answered her own question and just started to walk off. Since I myself had no idea about our location or goal, there was no reason to fight the stubborn girl on this. Only a few corners later, I would regret my decision.

  “So where to now?” I asked my guide in a chipper voice.

  “Oh don't start. How could I have known how big this place is?”

  “No, no. I'm not blaming you. Surely, we'll have reached the academy any minute now, right? I put my complete trust in you.”

  Silenced by my genius, the girl decided to ignore my fantastic quips and kept walking instead. At last she had realized that she could never defeat me in a battle of wits. Happy with my pointless victory, I hurried after her.

  Once again, my companion had marched off with no regard for her fellow man. Even so, I had to guarantee that she remained inside my light barrier, so I had to stay close. When I hurried around the corner she had just disappeared past, I bumped right into her backside.

  “Ah, sorry.” After an awkward second of silence, I mumbled an apology while my cheeks turned to fire. Despite my fluster, Sophie still ignored me.

  At last I looked over her shoulder and saw what had distracted her so much: We had found the gateway between the machinations of the tower's bowels and its beautiful outer facade. Another row of strange, unknowable machinery led to a spotless, snow-white door.

  “See, I told you so,” Sophie said without even turning to face me.

  Nonetheless, in her voice I could hear that smugness had conquered her face. With long steps, my impatient companion marched to the exit, out of the eerie atmosphere, back into the light. Before I could do anything, she had already rushed straight through the door.

  Careless!

  As if frozen in time, my ward stood still, her hand still on the open door’s handle. Her enlarged eyes stared down at her fingers. For once, even Sophie realized her own mistakes.

  “Yeah, the door's safe. No magic seals and there are no guards right behind it either.” This time, my voice was no less sarcastic than her usual tone.

  “...I knew that,” Sophie answered as her face flushed with some rare color.

  A simple grin from me was enough to break the girl's composure, until she gave up on defending the indefensible and went outside. As she walked off, I realized my own lack of composure, my childishness. Why would I joke around like this? We would have to be careful, both of us, unless we wanted to get caught. We wouldn't be this lucky every time.

  Beyond the door, a short hallway of white greeted us, capped off by another door on its end. This time without words, we marched over and Sophie waited for me to open the gate. On the other side we finally found what I had expected on day one: A true magic academy, like the ones I had seen in my dreams.

  Along the white, luminescent pathways, young students ran around with books under their arms. Others lazed around in the lush green grass to the side. Through the seamless glass ceiling, the sun illuminated the entire room. To our right we found a large, sealed door. Somehow, it looked like the kind of door to lead us deeper into the tower. However, the familiar glyphs around its frame told me that entry wouldn't be easy, so my focus returned to the last magic academy of Astralis.

  This place was a foyer or plaza I assumed, connecting tissue between the organs of the academy, while the students were the lifeblood that ran through them. To me, the long-awaited sight had an unexpected, uncanny quality.

  Not only had spent the last few days in the silent desolation of the other towers, so different from the vibrant atmosphere we found ourselves in now, but I wa
s also unused to so much activity. After all, the outer city's streets were almost always deserted. With basic amenities guaranteed and the wonders of the Aether at our fingertips, everyone had retreated into the privacy of their homes and left the streets and parks to the guards and birds.

  As I thought about my old home, a teacher with a straight back and imperious look strode along the pathways, greeted by the students. Once I saw him, that familiar strangeness from the machine shop returned to me. Just like all the students, he was surrounded by a magic barrier. Unlike the students however, his was not one shaped to conserve mana or stabilize his body. Instead, the shape seemed designed to trick the light, similar to my own. Inside the teacher’s barrier, I sensed nothing. No matter his outer appearance, this teacher was a fake. Only a thin shell of illusory flesh veiled the truth.

  And yet, the students didn't take note. Since they had already deployed their own barriers, they were mages and should discover the fake teacher's charade right away. Even so, they treated the apparition like a real person.

  Maybe for them, a strange sight like this was normal, just another day among the wonders of the tower. However, a pinch in the back of my head told me they weren't aware of their teacher's nature.

  Soon I realized another problem: Like the human husk had done before us, we could march through the plaza without notice. Somehow, the students around us failed to sense my light barrier, just like the red guards had. If they couldn't even sense my amateurish attempt at disguise, they wouldn't see through their teacher either. Still, we hadn't found any of the horrors the Mystic had talked about. Since the students seemed in good health, I was hopeful to find Eileen safe and sound, and soon. In order to investigate the rest of the tower for her location, I grabbed Sophie's sleeve and pointed her in the direction of a nearby stairwell.

  As much as we enjoyed our mutual banter, we both remained silent for once. My noise-canceling barrier still wasn't perfect after all. Sophie's nod confirmed her understanding, and so we made our way over to the steps. Maybe somewhere in the dorms or libraries we would find my sister and put an end to the mysteries.