Professor Promell brought me to a massive rectangur structure that dwarfed the surrounding architecture in every dimension, stretching taller than any tower within Berindal. Its inside may as well have been its outside, as we passed through gardens under gss ceilings, and by trees huddled under rings of crystals shining to imitate the sun's rays. The core of the building opened up to a cavernous center with floors stacked upon one another at its perimeter, spiraling upwards behind gss railings; students and faculty milled about on every floor, often nose-deep in books and yet somehow not bumping into everyone they passed. Some students would pause their games of hurling discs of energy from their wands at one another or look up from tinkering with tiny mechanical dragons to greet the professor as we passed. She ignored them all.

  Past a balcony overlooking tiers of beautiful flowers and greenery, we entered the Museum of Enchantment. If someone told me that every single enchanted relic in existence were contained within these walls—except for me, of course, until that moment—I'd have believed them after seeing it for myself. Row after row of dispy cases featured a staggering array of mystical objects: a pair of daggers crackling as electricity arced between them; axes dripping molten va from the bde; a golden crown with sharp teeth along its base, hungry for a royal head; boots walking under their own power on the ceiling. Menacing lions carved out of onyx pawed at the dispy gss that contained them, while across the way, tiny clockwork mice milled about in their own enclosure, weaving a gmorous evening gown out of spindles of fabric they held on their tails. A suit of armor covered in runes saluted the professor, and this time she acknowledged the greeting with a nod of her own.

  We walked the length of the museum, stopping only when we could go no further at a gss case near the back windows overlooking the distant Berin Mountains. Just as every other museum dispy had some sort of theme—magical weaponry or wands owned by famous wizards or haunted paintings—this gss case at the end of the aisle featured enchanted neckces of various designs. Two in particur stood out to me, their energy feeling familiar in a way I couldn't articute, but I immediately understood them to be like me, despite their wild divergence in design. The blue relic on the left may have contained a sphere at its core, but its metallic cage was cubic, its corners like brass book corners framing a symmetrical and tidy design. To its right, another sphere relic sported thorns, looking handmade and primeval in its structure, adorned with the shapes of leaves enveloping its purple core. Credit where it's due, the professor understood me better than I thought, as even with such different structures, if they were Silvaln Spheres, then I had to be one as well.

  "Cerulean, Amethyst, I've brought something special today," Professor Promell said, presenting me to the gss with the energy of a child eager to show off their new toy.

  The two relics stirred, mist pouring from the neckces as mine had done moments before my first shapeshift, no surprises there. What caught me off-guard was that their mist gathered into doll-sized silhouettes of vaguely human shapes, each forming a head with two giant white eyes and two stubby little arms, the bottom half of their mist-made bodies merely a tether back to their respective relics. These ghostly beings were extensions of the minds encased in the spheres, coming to life as their avatars to interact with their surroundings. I had to learn this trick!

  "Ah, good morning Dr. Promell," Cerulean said, despite the blue ghost having no visible mouth to speak it. Silvaln Spheres really can talk! Incredible! "It's been quite a while since you've st visited this wing of the museum. Is that a—oh my. Another sphere? How'd it come to be in your possession?"

  "May we have a closer look?" Amethyst said, speaking in a calmer and gentler demeanor compared to Cerulean's tones of academic bravado. When either sphere spoke, their voices felt like an echo of an echo of a whisper.

  Promell nodded. "Yes, of course. That's why I brought it here, after all." The professor drew a circle on the gss with her finger, the gss vanishing when she completed the circuit. She pulled the other two neckces out of the dispy, setting the three of us on a nearby table. "As for where I got it, it's on loan from a future student who made up a story about it being some prized family treasure. We have it for three days, and I want you to learn everything you can about it. Understood?"

  Cerulean and Amethyst gnced at each other. "If I may be so bold," Cerulean said, "What exactly is it about this one that intrigues you? I don't recall simir levels of excitement when we first arrived here."

  "It doesn't even know how to use its mist properly yet," Amethyst said, prodding my sphere with a stubby purple arm.

  The professor focused on me, csping her hands together in anticipation. "Show them."

  I guess that was my cue. The idea that I had something to demonstrate to others of my kind struck me as odd, especially when I cked what seemed like essential skills for communication. But, since my shapeshifting abilities thrilled Promell for some reason, I performed my trick once more, this time extending my shape slowly so as to not knock the other relics from the table.

  "There it is," the professor said, marveling at the newly-formed sword before her—as did Cerulean and Amethyst, their already-rge eyes growing at the sight of me. "Now, do either of you have a configurable flux-metal exterior and you've just been hiding it from me this whole time?"

  Cerulean and Amethyst looked me over, then turned back to their own relics, reaching out with their approximation of arms to pull and tug at their metallic cages. The little ghosts groaned and strained, but their metallic shapes remained the same. "Our metallic composition is roughly the same, but I've only ever known my exterior to be rigid," Cerulean said. "It's likely that this one is a ter generation of Silvaln Sphere with additional features. I recall Crimson and Indigo saying the artificers were always tweaking the design."

  "Well, Crimson used to say a lot of things." Professor Promell reached for my handle, and just as I'd done in her office, I retracted back into my spherical shape. Swords are for champions. Even though she'd identified me correctly, only one person had earned the right to wield me in that form. The professor scowled and crossed her arms, gncing away. "Hmph. Can you get it speaking?"

  "Maybe with a day or two of practice," Amethyst said. "Once they learn the basics, it should be easy."

  "Good. Get it talking, then get anything and everything you can out of it. I want to know where it came from, its capabilities with this flux-metal transfiguration, any additional details about its augments, every detail is important. If the metal can be reshaped but is still as indestructible as yours, that could be the mort important discovery in enchanted materials of my career! A Silvaln Sphere with some true utility... Three days."

  Cerulean nodded. "Understood, Professor. We'll do our due diligence with this one."

  "It's almost like a little family now," Amethyst said, beaming with joy.

  Professor Promell put all three of us on hooks on the back wall of the dispy case. I felt uneasy about being sealed behind gss again, but the excitement of being next to two other spheres like me drowned out any doubts. For the first time in a long time, I felt true excitement for what awaited me.