The doors silently crept open. The metal of the doors remained dull despite reflecting against the light of day. They glided smoothly away from each other to reveal something quite grand and magnificent. Why, the Tower had already looked large and domineering from the outside, but one could hardly imagine it would have been able to accommodate such items of luxury and grandeur inside. For as much and as loudly Marina’s heart had been beating, it now laid completely still in utter silence, as she stared in disbelief and awe at what was just revealed to her. In contrast to the grey of the town and the black of the Tower, exuberant foliage and flowery decorated columns of pure gold. Jewels hung from the ceiling like vines, with sparkles of rubies, amethyst, and emerald reflecting from the polished gold that held the ice-like ceiling. Scattered upon the floor were diamonds, big and small, as if the Tower had once been exposed to the elements and a hail storm brought down ice that never melted. Crystal tables, leather couches, wine glasses adorned with diamonds – it was a scene of magnificence one could only dream of. Silk curtains draped over the stone walls, and the warm, yet fresh air that flowed gently toward Marina’s dry skin was as inviting as grandmother’s cottage in the woods. The breeze carried a scent, one obscure to most, but not to Marina.

Books. New, crisp pages of books.

If it wasn’t the lavish sights before her that bade her to enter, it was the smell of books, or rather, the crisp, new pages within books, that did. A wave of familiarity and nostalgia flooded Marina, overwhelming her senses.

She was home.

Her footsteps made no sound as she deliberately followed the scent. Soon, the scent transformed into one bolder, the smell of freshly baked bread. She could feel her stomach growling. In her head, a warm, nurturing voice that could have only been her mother’s, spoke.

“You’ve had quite the journey, my dear. Come and eat.”

And the scent of warm, toasted bread led her to a marvelous hall, signified as the dining hall by the long silver table stretching cross the middle of the room. Above it, chandeliers hung, and the million twinkling lights upon them might as well have been stars from heaven plucked out of the sky to light this room.