A few days ago, Mrs. Arkans took (by force) Peggy on a tour of the town. During that tour, Peggy learned about the Admin Tower, the chess rook-shaped tower that stood next to the castle-like library. Never did Peggy imagine that she would be looking up at the tower again so soon. To learn why, we turn time back to this morning at the coffee shop.
On a whim, the town's Magic Director, a lady who likes to fly around as a creepy, old-fashioned doll and is usually called the Head Magus by most people, came by for breakfast, taking a seat by the counter and started chatting with the Owner. Although she and the Owner were snarky to each other, Peggy had a feeling that they were actually getting along pretty well.
"Paperwork has been a nightmare!" the doll complained. "I keep telling the guys up top to change the worksheets so they'd be easier for normal folks to fill out, but they're just too stubborn! Thanks to that, almost all the papers that get turned in to us are full of mistakes! And all that does is give us pen pushers even more work to deal with than we need! I tell you, those worksheets are a nightmare for everyone."
As Peggy came back from clearing a table that just became free, the doll suddenly turned and said, "I'm sure paperwork must have been a nightmare for you too, Peggy."
Peggy stopped by the cash register and blinked.
"Huh? What paperwork?" she asked.
"Why, the paperwork that says you want to live here, silly," replied the doll.
But even with that explanation, Peggy could only stare at the doll with a bewildered look.
"I . . . never did any paperwork like that," she said. "I didn't even know you needed something like that to live here."
"Say wha-?" The doll's jaw literally dropped to the floor, and her eyes popped out as well. They rolled to the front door just as a scruffy dog man walked in and stopped at his feet. Startled, the dog man howled in fright and fled.
Peeved, Boss snapped at the doll, "Oi! Quit scaring away my customers!"
The doll, however, snapped back, "Oh shut up, you coffee-for-brains moron! How could you forget something as important as Peggy's paperwork! You're supposed to be her guardian!"
"What?" the Boss said defensively. "I was going to get it done eventually."
"Eventually when?" the doll asked. "Next century?"
Bothered about the comment about having a guardian as if she was still a kid, Peggy tried to interject, "Uh, you know I'm already an adult, right? I graduated high school and everything." But the doll ignored her.
After downing her coffee in one gulp and slamming the cup on the table, the Head Magus said, "I'll take the rest to go. Peggy, be at the Admin Tower in one hour. No, thirty minutes tops. We have a lot of work to take care of. Hopefully, I can get everything sorted out before there's trouble."
And then she snatched the bag of take-out food from the Boss's hands and zipped out the door before anyone could get another word in.
With really no choice, the Boss gave Peggy the rest of the day off and sent her out to the Admin Tower, but not before giving her a bat plush doll.
"In case you get lost, just throw it, and the bat will show you the way," he said.
No sooner after stepping out of the shop, Peggy did just that. She had only been to the tower once and was not confident she could find her way without any help.
The bat doll fluttered in the air with rapidly beating wings. It circled around Peggy's head a few times a and squeaked before flying ahead. To Peggy, it almost sounded like the doll had said, "Follow me," in its own language.
Following the bat, Peggy zigzagged through the streets of Featherkeep, crossed bridges over canals, passed by stores and restaurants that looked like wood houses, and pushed through streets filled with people crowding outdoor food stalls. Finally, after a really long walk that left her feet sore, she spotted a familiar chess rook-shaped building. And that brings us to the present where she's staring up at the tower, scratching her head in puzzlement.
"Well, I'm here," she muttered to herself. "But now how do I get in?"
You'd think that a place where the townsfolk go for help would have a door, but all Peggy could find, circling the tower at least twice, was brick wall, brick wall, and more brick wall. In other words, there was no door and no way inside.
As she pondered what to do next, Peggy rubbed her chin thoughtfully and then tilted sideways to peek around the tower's right one more time.
"Is this even the right place?" she wondered. You could practically see the question marks flashing over her head. And then she swayed and tilted left to look around the tower's other side. All that did was confirm what she already knew: that there was no door or entrance of any kind into the tower. "Maybe someone at the library next door will know."
Peggy decided that rather than waste time standing around making circles in her head, it would be better to go find someone who might know anything. But just as she was about to turn and leave, Peggy heard footsteps coming from her right. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small green man with pointed ears, wearing a white lab coat approach. The green man was a goblin. She quickly stepped out of the man's way and watched as he walked up to the brick wall of the Admin Tower.
The goblin seemed preoccupied with the mirror in his hand and took no notice of Peggy, sort of like how most people walked around with smartphones back on Earth. He walked straight to the wall, stopped right in front of it, and then placed his right hand on the tower.
Curious, Peggy stayed a few feet away and watched.
"Department of Alchemy," the goblin said.
Suddenly, one by one, the bricks of the wall in front of him folded into each other, going, "click-click-click-click-click!" until finally, there was a perfectly square opening into a hallway inside the building. Once the goblin stepped inside, the bricks all folded out again until the tower was once more sealed shut.
Peggy walked over to the spot the goblin had been, folded her arms and stared at the brick wall while the magical thing she just saw sunk in.
Suddenly, a lady's voice spoke up.
"Can I help you with something?"
Startled, Peggy jumped and looked around, but she didn't find anyone behind her.
"Who said that?" she wondered.
"I did," said the lady's voice.
Peggy looked around some more, but there was still no one around. But then, a thought crossed her mind.
"Wait a minute," she said. "It can't be . . ."
She slowly turned her head and once more, faced the brick wall of the Admin Tower. Pointing a finger at the wall, she said, "Were you the one who -?"
"Spoke up? Yes, that's right," said the lady's voice. "I am the artificial intelligence in charge of this tower that serves as Featherkeep Town's administration building. In other words, this tower has a mind of its own, and I am that mind."
"So basically, you're a building that can talk," Peggy summed up. "I didn't even know buildings could talk in this world."
That last part was mostly just mumbling to herself.
"Pretty much," said the lady's voice. "Although I can do a lot more than just talk. Anyway, what are you here for? Since you're here, you must have some civil-related business, right?"
"Uh, I think so," said Peggy. "I was just told to come by someone who works here."
This feels so weird and so wrong, she thought about talking with a building. I just know I look like a crazy person right now. I hope no one sees me like this. Better to just hurry up and get inside.
"People call her the Head Magus," she told the building.
"Oh! So you're the Head Magus' guest," said the tower. "She told us she had someone coming over to fill out some forms. So that's you. Well, no sense keeping you waiting out here. Come right on in! Bleeeeeh."
The brick wall in front of Peggy became a giant mouth that opened wide with a huge, thick tongue rolled out to make climbing inside easier.
"Oi," Peggy said, glowering at the mouth. "Why'd the green dude earlier get an awesome, mystical wall parting and I get some silly big mouth and tongue?"
"Because he's actually someone important and you're a nobody from out of town?"
"Why I oughta!"
Peggy had a few choice words for the talking building, but then someone behind her tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Uh, can you hurry this up? I got a meeting I need to get to that could change the fate of this town."
The one in a hurry was a lady in sparkly blue robes and a big pointed hat, carrying a huge book in her arm.
"Oh! Sorry about that!" Peggy quickly apologized to the lady and climbed into the giant mouth. The tongue was squishy beneath her feet, which she could feel through her shoes and it sent shivers down her spine.
Once through the mouth, she emerged in a hallway that was wide, tall and full of doors. Peggy sort of expected it from the way the town looked, but the hallway, while grand, had an old-timey vibe, like she had stepped back in time seventy or so years ago instead of an entire world entirely. The doors and wall-embedded pillars were polished dark wood, the floor was made up of shining tiles of white stone with pearly-colored veins spread out like jagged cracks, and glass lamps shaped like flowers hung on the walls in evenly spaced columns.
At a glance, it was just a normal hallway. But there was one thing about the hallway that stood out, and that was it had white feather chickens and brown feather roosters marching back and forth in the hallway with envelopes and paper-wrapped packages balanced on their heads.
While staring at the ground-bound birds running errands, Peggy muttered, "Hey, Admin Tower. What's up with all these chickens?"
"Oh, well, I used to be the home of a witch who came to this kingdom hundreds of years ago," said the building. "She was a huge fan of chickens as pets, and raised a whole bunch of them. A bit too much, apparently. When she moved away, she left both me and the chickens behind and gave the land back to the kingdom. These chickens are the descendants of her pets. When the people made me into their town office, they let the chickens stay as workers."
"I see," Peggy said as she watched a line of chickens march by.
Careful not to disturb the parade of flightless birds, Peggy made her way down the hallway towards the very end where the Head Magus' office laid, just like the Admin Tower told her. For a door that led to the office of the town's top magician, it was nothing special. It was the same as any other door in the hallway. But according to the bronze plaque stuck beneath the doors blurred window, it was definitely the right one.
After being sure she was at the right door, Peggy wrapped her fingers around the brass doorknob and turned it. She pushed the door open and inside, looking up from papers spread out on an old, rectangle desk was a skeleton, a full on set of human bones, in a grey suit with patched elbows.
"Howdy," said the skeleton, waving a hand. Like the rest of him, there was no skin or muscles. Just what they normally covered bared out.
Without answering or going inside, Peggy closed the door.
No comments:
Post a Comment