Severus and Lucius climbed ashore along a fairly gentle slope and looked around the place.
It looked somewhat like an opera house, except the "seating" was not European in style, but more Indian. Each "box" contained a niche, and each niche held a lamp that would look very beautiful if lit.
The "opera house" had a roof and looked like an Industrial Age structure. Moonlight could pour in through the glass. Beside the pool stood many animal sculptures, along with countless flowers that looked as though they had been spread over a bride's "wedding gown."
Florence had a famous sculpture of David, based on the Biblical story of David fighting Goliath. Goliath was a Giant, while David was a normally sized human, yet Florence's David was a giant.
This "bride" sculpture was the same. Both Severus and Lucius only came up to her waist.
In fact, Ancient Roman and Greek sculptures had all been colorful. But the colors did not suit modern tastes, so after they were excavated, they were washed away, restoring the stone's original color.
Wax sculptures differed in color from stone ones, but because this one had been made with such exquisite care, her limbs looked almost exactly like those of a living person. There was even a faint fragrance emanating from the wax figure.
People in France were skilled at blending and making perfumes. In ancient methods of perfume extraction, animal fat was often used to obtain fragrances, and animal fat also happened to be a material used in making wax.
In a sense, mummies were also a kind of wax. Napoleon's tomb was ringed by statues of Victory. Behind each of them was a pair of inconspicuous wings, as if angels were guarding him. Behind the enormous bride sculpture was an entire wall of botanical