The Mage Tower in Free City was currently one and a half floors tall. Its Second Floor was expected to be finished before Deepwinter arrived.
A Mage Tower with only one floor was like a tavern with only one waiter, so no one could blame the people of Free City or its visitors for calling it the "Tree Stump."
The first floor of a typical Mage Tower served as a lobby for reception and meetings. A small library in the corner offered basic magical knowledge to Mage Apprentices, and commercial appraisals were handled there too.
Free City's Mage Tower followed the same plan. After all, neither a library, a laboratory, nor a meditation room belonged right by the front door.
So, with the Second Floor unfinished, the mages here had been working in the Mansion next door.
The workers building the Mage Tower showed up more often than they did.
Today, though, every mage had gathered in the Mage Tower's lobby, which was as chaotic as a marketplace. Hammering could be heard upstairs from time to time.
Barefoot and dressed in a moon-colored robe, Lilith entered through the main doors under the mages' watchful eyes. Olmedo followed her, along with Guards carrying the Heart of Magic on a Mithril pedestal.
The mages' breathing grew heavy, especially the apprentices'...
The slight improvement the Heart of Magic offered to magical affinity was not to be underestimated. However tiny it was, it could change many lives.
A "Squib" whose affinity fell just short of becoming a Spellcaster might, with that extra trace of affinity, gain the ability to cast a Cantrip instead of fading into an ordinary life.
Olmedo and Lilith faced the crowd. "I have something to say."
"Don't forget that this is a reward Annan won through hard fighting against the