“Do you have plans for your free study period?” Fethris asked after class as we walked back towards the castle.

  “I was going to go the Library. I haven’t had a chance to see it yet.”

  “How convenient. I was planning on meeting the others there. I assume Dellik assigned you Dragon Tower like the rest of us.”

  “I’ll bet you a drake that’s not a coincidence.”

  “I’m certain I’d lose.”

  Fethris looked up at Dragon Tower and stopped suddenly. I followed his gaze to the massive window five stories above our heads. A student wearing a red uniform was lounging against the windowsill. She looked down at us, too far away for me to see her face, and gave a small wave. Then she was gone.

  “You saw that, right?” he asked.

  “Yep. I saw that. Don’t think anyone else did though.”

  “Was that the same person you saw before?” he asked, excitement filling his voice.

  “Probably,” I nodded.

  (*********)

  The five of us, in our multicolored uniforms, probably looked a bit silly. Starting at myself and going clockwise around the circular table were pink, green, blue, purple, then orange.

  It took a while for them to speak after Fethris told them about what happened after class.

  It was Jarec who broke the silence. “So there is definitely something in that tower.”

  “More like someone…” Russel commented.

  “If a student had died, there would be records of it. Right?” Celica said. “Maybe we can find out who it is.”

  Jarec crossed his arms and leaned back, “I thought there are supposed to be wards preventing ghosts from forming or entering the castle. Jantres himself made them.”

  “I heard that too,” Celica confirmed. “It’s all Kraken Tower talks about. How what you saw couldn’t possibly be a ghost.”

  I shrugged. “If someone can come up with a better explanation, I would be happy to hear it. But I can’t think of what else it could be.”

  “It was a student,” Fethris said. “Had to be. She was wearing a red uniform just like ours. And she was just sitting there, like she was enjoying the view.”

  “Couldn’t have been a staff member,” Celica muttered. “The Tower was closed at that time.”

  “Do we have access to records about Dragon Tower?” I asked, “If there is something in it, assuming it’s been there since before the closure, then someone might have written about it.”

  The library, to the surprise of no one, was massive. Five stories tall, designed like a staircase. The top floor was the smallest, and a balcony that overlooked the entire mass of space. The floors increased in size the further down one went. A massive twisting stairway, shaped like a double helix, ran through the center of the space.

  Jarec was looking at the space. “Okay so we know what we want but how are we supposed to find anything in here?”

  Russel shrugged. “We could split up, then meet back here if we find something.”

  Celica sighed loudly and in a clearly exaggerated fashion. “Did no one tell you how the library works?”

  Jarec, Russel, and me all shook our heads.

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  She turned to Fethris, who looked bemused at this, and gave him an annoyed look.

  “Do you want to or should I do it?” he asked.

  “She has an excuse, what about the two of you?” she demanded.

  “The Salamanders were more interested in the Chaser fields.” Russel rolled his eyes.

  “Pegasus refused to stay in one spot long enough for me to actually understand any of it,” Jarec groaned.

  Fethris leaned forward and placed his hands neatly folded on the table. “Watch closely.” He then tapped the center of the table three times in rapid succession.

  There was a dim green light and then a small kelpie, roughly the size of an average housecat, neighed softly as it trotted over to him. It stood and looked up at him expectantly.

  “We need books on Dragon Tower, specifically dating from times when it was occupied.”

  It neighed again, then dived off the table, like it was jumping into a pool. It floated away as if it was swimming.

  “That’s so cool!” I exclaimed.

  “Oh, I get it. Instead of an army of librarians, they installed rune summons.” Jarec looked carefully at the center of the table, “I didn’t even see that.”

  Sure enough, blended into the white stone of the center of the table was an etched rune.

  “That’s certainly more efficient than wandering the library and hoping for the best,” Russel commented.

  “Professor Gorgon said the more specific you make the request the better, that even small details might help it find what you need,” Celica explained.

  I nodded. Runes weren’t something I had experience with. It was going to take time to get used to them. Assuming, of course, they would even work for me.

  Our little green friend returned with five leatherbound books in shades that varied from a deep crimson to a light tan. The books, hovering in the air, placed themselves gently on the table in front of us.

  The darkest red one was titled in gold lettering that read: Successful Students of the Ninth Tower.

  The next one was a bright red with black lettering: Secrets of The Nine Towers Volume Nine: The Tower of Ancients.

  The third one was still red, but it was a desaturated color that looked almost brown. The lettering was green and said: Stories from Dragon Tower.

  Number four was a dark brown with the title in tan. The Founder’s Trials: The Tower of Memories.

  A Student’s Guide to Dragon Tower, was a tan book with black lettering.

  “Everybody pick one?” I offered. “Speak if you find anything interesting.”

  I picked the one closest to me, Stories from Dragon Tower.

  Celica picked up Secrets.

  Fethris chose Successful Students.

  Jarec grabbed A Student’s Guide.

  Russel was left with The Founder’s Trials.

  What I had picked, apparently, was a collection of letters written from students who were living in what is now called Dragon Tower. The earliest letters called it the Tower of Memories, which seemed to last a few hundred years judging by the dates. Then for a much longer stretch of time, it was called the Tower of Ancients. Judging again by dates the current name didn’t come about until about three hundred years ago.

  I was mostly skimming through it. Most of the letters talked about grades, classes, and their Towermates. School drama. It wasn’t until about halfway through that I noticed that a few names were repeated, meaning multiple members of the same line ended up in the same Tower.

  One family that popped up with consistency was the Hearth line. From the founding of the school it seemed that if the ninth Tower was open and a Hearth was attending, they were in it.

  A letter from a Serafina Hearth dating a decade before the closure of the Tower that mentioned something interesting:

  Father, I send exciting news! The Tower has deemed me worthy to commit to memory, though I didn’t recognize the sound of her voice at first. Why did you never tell me I sounded like a baby songbird? She was quite amusing to see running around the Tower with no idea what lies ahead of her. I wonder if my children will someday see her walk amongst them.

  Much Love, Your Serafina.

  Memory seemed to be a running theme in the letters as well. A majority talked about the Tower remembering things. How does a Tower have memories?

  “There is absolutely some kind of spell or enchantment on the Tower,” Russel spoke as he closed his book. “Which is not surprising, the other Towers have their own things going on. But it’s never described in detail. Or if it is it’s too abstract to make sense of.”

  “Is there a spell that can make a building remember people?” I asked. “Because I have references here to something walking amongst the students in the tower.”

  Celica added, “The guy who re-named it the Tower of Ancients said he did it because ‘it was the one place where ancient feet still make footsteps’.”

  “So it is haunted,” Jarec commented. “Because it sounds like it’s haunted.”

  “But not by ghosts,” Fethris was staring off into the distance, “because some of the people who graduated talked about seeing their past selves and learning to improve. If they talked about it at all.”

  “Is there any spell that can do that?” I asked. “Because I have never heard of anything like what is being talked about.”

  “If there is, I have never heard of it,” Celica was shaking her head.

  Russel leaned back in his chair. “The founders built and enchanted each of the Towers themselves. Whatever they did to Dragon could be lost to time. Or maybe something only one of them could do.”

  “Or all five of them together,” I added.

  But something still wasn’t adding up. If what I saw was some kind of memory of past events, then how did she interact with me in real time? She knew I could see her and looked surprised that I noticed her.

  “But the memory thing doesn’t explain it fully either,” Fethris chimed in. “Because she waved to us. She was looking at right us.”

  “Exactly,” I told the others.

  “There’s also another thorn in the memory thing,” Jarec pointed out. “You said she wore a uniform just like ours?”

  I pointed to myself. “This, but red.”

  “That’s not possible,” Celica said suddenly. “This style of uniform was introduced until eighty years ago. Before, the overcoats just had inner linings in the colors, as opposed to the entire garment.”

  A change implemented after Dragon Tower was locked.

  Meaning no one should have worn a uniform like the one I saw.

  This was making my head hurt.

  “When I saw her, she was definitely wearing the modern coat,” Fethris said looking at me.

  “Both my sightings had the modern uniform.”

  Russel crossed his arms. “Well…that’s definitely confusing. We’re missing something. Clearly.”

  Jarec started playing with the end of his ponytail. “Something impossible and without explanation. And here I thought this old castle was going to be boring.” He had the hint of a grin on his face.

  Fethris looked amused. “I wonder if they’re ever going to let us in there.”

  “As long as they clear the spiders out first.”

  Celica started giggling. “If they don’t, we should form a club. If I have to spend the next five years with the Krakens I might cry. This is the closest to fun I’ve had since got here.”

  “I fail to see why not. Or just meet here after classes for now. Even if we don’t get any further on the Dragon Tower stuff, we can still hang out,” I offered. “This was supposed to be a study period but why let it be boring?”

  “We all cool with that? Meet here after the last class until we start to annoy each other too much? My father will be thrilled to know I’ve already made friends.” Russel looked at me while he was talking. “Especially ones I have so much in common with.”

  He was trying to hint at something. But I had no idea what. Still…it was better than hiding in my room in Pixie Tower.