Page 60 of The Last Remaining Light

Lora had explained it rather poorly the previous night over tea sweet enough to make Elowynn’s teeth ache.

“Everyone dissimulates that the factions are merely academic disagreements,” she had said while lounging backward across a wooden archive bench. “Which obviously means they are substantially worse than that.” Her thoughts on the matter had been indicative of how she placed emphasis on specific words.

Now, as she closed and locked her chamber door, Elowynn followed Lora through the tall observatory corridors. Scholars moved around them as they walked beneath astrylite chandeliers so large, they needed to be anchored in multiple points from vaulted ceilings.

“You know, you still haven't explained these so-called factions properly,” Elowynn said thoughtfully as they walked.

Even now, she could perceive the divide as some of the scholars passed one another with a cautious air about them. Several offered polite nods and smiles that never reached their eyes. Conversations lowered the moment certain colored robes approached. Entire groups occupied opposite sides of observatory halls, even with there being ample space elsewhere. One corridor smelled of parchment, ink, and candle smoke while another hummed with heated astrylite machinery and pungent metallic ozone.

Even the clothing differed in subtle ways. Older scholars favored layered silver and dark blue robes embroidered with traditional resonance sigils, while others wore more fitted attire threaded with copper wiring and crystal clasps that shimmered beneath the lights.

No one openly argued, however. No one acknowledged the tension at all, even though it could be felt in thick waves. But Elowynn had been around northern nobility and observatory courts. She recognized restrained hostility when she saw it. She had often seen it in her mother, specifically.

Lora groaned. “Stars preserve me from sheltered southern scholars.”

Elowynn lifted a brow. “I arrived only one span ago and have already been insulted twice in half a bell.”

“Only twice?” Lora gasped. “I must be growing soft...” she murmured.

Pursing her lips, Elowynn slid her gaze toward Lora, but she wasn’t angry. In fact, Elowynn was quite amused.

Lora shot her signature, toothy grin and began to prattle on.

“The Auric Conclave and the Ascendant Collegium,” she began. “Those are the two powers that actually matter within Veylspire, whether the Council admits it or not. Any others you hear about are too insignificant to care about.”

Elowynn was nodding along as she listened intently. “And what exactly are they?”

“The Conclave believes resonance exists in harmony with the aethercurrents.” Lora adjusted the scrolls tucked beneath her arm while they crossed one of the upper observatory bridges. “Restraint. Preservation. Orthodox methods. Most archivists, astronomers, historians, and those of the traditional observatory scholars align themselves with the Conclave.”

“Alright. And the Collegium?” Elowynn asked.

Lora snorted under her breath. “Innovation at any cost, according to the Conclave. Astrylite engineering. Resonance experimentation. Aethercurrent manipulation. Half the magi-tech woven through Veylspire came from Collegium research halls.”

Elowynn perked up at that; it sounded familiar.

Comforting, even.

She glanced toward a lower terrace where several scholars adjusted a massive resonance orrery suspended above the city streets. Astrylite rings revolved around a luminous central sphere while delicate streams of blue light traced shifting celestial paths through the air.

“You do not sound as though you care much for the Collegium,” Elowynn pointed out.

“It’s not that, but they’ve been known to experiment first and apologize later.”

The words troubled her more than expected, because she understood both sides.

It reminded Elowynn of the duality of her and Caelyn.

As the pair continued their trek through the spire toward their lessons, Lora rambled on about what she was hoping to eat for the mid-sun meal or what color robes she would wear during their trip to the markets later.

Meanwhile, Elowynn took mental note of things she saw in the distance.

The Ash Wars still haunted Aetheris like a wound that never properly healed, and nowhere did those scars feel more visible than here.

Entire portions of Veylspire still remained partially ruined from resonance collapses during the wars, while older observatory districts—which she could see from where she stood on the higher bridges—had been sealed beneath the mountains from all the rubble after catastrophic fractures of the aethercurrents.

It made her question: how far should scholars push the currents?

The question lay hidden beneath nearly every conversation she overheard since arriving.