***
Magist's study was the opposite of his neat library. It was dim and dusty, his many shelves crammed with dog eared books and worn scrolls. Tables and desks groaned under the mountains of papers and disheveled stacks sat on the floor beside them. One wall bore the bookcases; another was hidden by a collection of yellowed maps that showed all of Adrala to its finest detail. Behind Magist’s desk was a cupboard crammed with artifacts: swords, axes, bits of ancient tablets, a silver gear, a twisted plate of a tin-white metal with bubbles frozen across its surface. All collected from the few pioneers to the Second City. Magist’s most prized possession lay in a glass case on his desk; a small grayish-silver ball with flecks of orange dusting it. The wall across from Magist's desk was simply a great pane of glass that looked out across the many smaller houses, Saranoda standing proudly in the distance.
The new addition to the study stood firmly at the room's center. At first glance it looked like an oddly shaped stone table standing upon a single ornate leg. A slender pillar rose from its center, the table's surface was rough and was carved into a distorted circular shape.
“What is it?” Eris asked curiously.
“Look and you shall see,” Magist said with a smile.
“It's a map!” Sye said in sudden recognition, rushing to its side, “Look at Saranoda! It’s perfect!”
“A map?” Pird asked, getting closer. To his astonishment, he immediately saw that carved into its marble surface were tens of hundreds of tiny, lifelike buildings. The major canals were cut deep into the stone, each one radiating out from Saranoda, connecting to the sea and to each other in a network of pencil thin waterways. Saranoda itself was rendered in perfect detail, every arm, fountain, vein, and aperture carved intricately at their precise location. However, a meter up from the map the detail noticeably faded, until the sides were blank and Saranoda ended in an artistic shard.
Pird immediately found Eretor's memorial, a nail sized figurine of the island’s founder displayed in the central square. There was the Great Hospital in its miniature glory, the Third Archives, and down a few carved roads...
“Magist?” Pird asked slowly, “Is that our house?”
“It is,” Magist said, immensely pleased, “This map is perfectly accurate, but there is much more to this than extraordinary detail. Pird, will you bring me a plug?”
Pird nodded and kneeled near the wall behind him. He felt along the wall's bottom until he clicked a hidden catch. A small panel flipped open and Pird reached inside to grab the complex nozzle inside. He pulled the nozzle out, dragging out a slack black hose from the hidden reel until he thought he had enough. Magist took it from him and fitted the device into the map's underside with a satisfying click.
“Watch,” said Magist. Pird pressed a catch under the hose's reel and immediately the hose thickened with rushing water. After a few moments the minuscule holes and slits carved elegantly into the imitation Saranoda suddenly erupted with water, flowing down the tower's side and misting over the miniature city. The tiny canals flowed, water reaching out in an encompassing web over Eretia until it was sucked under the sides to be recycled.
“It's beautiful,” Eris said in wonder.
“The map is one of six,” said Magist proudly, “One will be placed at each major port and a larger one will be in front of the Mayor's manor. Before we continue, this amazing contraption still has one more trick.”
Magist felt under the lip of the map's northern coast. Before Pird’s eyes several of the mock-tower's fountains strengthened while others weakened. The even distribution of ‘rain’ shifted until it took on a familiar fall.
“It's like today,” Sye said, grinning at the map's ingenuity, “It's been raining on the western side all day.”
“As it has been for the past week,” said Magist, “There is supposed to be a switch in trade winds, High Idusces might give us a rainwall spectacle tonight. This map allows for wind speed and more, we can predict rainfall more accurately now.”
“I think I'll retire from being chased and become an engineer,” Pird said, already examining the controls.
“I am sure that would be a positive direction for your career,” Magist said, “We will explore the map more in tomorrow’s lesson, but now it is late and we will not want to miss the fireworks and the speeches.”
“More fireworks. Less speeches,” Pird remarked.