It was a thick, weighty book with a pitch‑black cover. The cover was made of some unknown material, smooth like a mirror, and within it, tiny glimmers of starlight would occasionally flicker into view. The paths along which those stars wandered made Amber involuntarily think of the crowds bustling to and fro on the busy streets of the imperial capital. Aside from that, there were no words or symbols on the cover at all—no title, no author.
It simply lay there quietly at the top of the stone pillar, its star‑lit cover seemingly guarding the contents within, while the pillar itself called to mind a reading desk in a chapel or a library… Perhaps that really was what it was for?
