It was hard to tell day and night apart in Drandin, there were always roughly the same amount of people in the streets and due to the use of glowstone and the fog you also couldn't tell by the light. There were always miners bringing up new resources, the furnaces and the steam engine ran around the clock, nothing ever stopped. The only way to tell time in Drandin accurately were pocket watches and a central clock that was used to keep track of time in the world outside Drandin. Drandin was entirely self-sufficient, the deliveries from the outside significantly raised the living quality in the city but were ultimately expendable. However a lot of people and towns all over the server depended on regular deliveries of metal, diamonds or beverages from Drandin. The money they paid went directly into whatever the current Eye-and-Claws projects were, whether that was technological advancement, the bribing of key figures or something else entirely.

Due to the timeless nature of Drandin everyone went at their own pace, or in Fire's case, the pace of his friends' sleep cycles. He waited for TehLulz specifically since he wanted to show him something as a part of his enchanting training. He was sure that Shadow would train with freeZe. Ambigious and Unchosen were free to do whatever they wanted but he encouraged them to visit Andras to learn more about what was ahead of them.

Fire left the house with TehLulz and started walking in the opposite direction of where they went the day before.

TehLulz asked: "Where are we going?"

Fire said: "There is a tower on the edge of the crater that I would like to show you. I once told you that you need to learn to understand enchantments made by others, there is something in that tower where you can try."

The road they were on quickly turned into a narrower but still well paved path as they walked away from the settlement. There was still a lot of room for expansion in the valley. The path kept getting steeper and eventually turned into a staircase that snaked its way up the progressively more vertical mountain.

Fire had no problems with the fog and could still see just fine, TehLulz could barely see his hand in front of his eyes and very quickly took to climbing the stairs on all fours so that he wouldn't trip. After half an hour of climbing they had reached the top. Behind them was a steep rock wall which led into the valley, in front of them was another rock wall, even steeper and far taller. A cold wind was blowing.

Fire pointed in the direction of the path and said: "The tower is just over there."

As they continued along the path, the tower slowly came into sight. It was made from shining white quartz, which made it almost impossible to see against the fog. It was hard to make out how tall the tower really was. Fire opened the entrance door and TehLulz followed.

TehLulz said: "Great, more stairs."

They made their way up the spiral staircase, it was hard to tell how far up they had gone since there were no windows anywhere on the staircase. When they arrived at the top of the tower they were on a platform under a dome, which was held up by several pillars. There were no walls and the bitter cold wind blew strong, the only thing that could prevent them from falling off was the quartz railing that surrounded the platform. Above them was the clear blue sky, below them they could see the fog flowing down the mountainside.

Fire said: "Welcome to the highest point on the server."

TehLulz looked around, his eyes getting used to the bright sunlight. He pointed into the distance. "What's that over there?"

There was a building far off on the other side of the valley, only barely poking out of the fog.

Fire explained: "That's the airship port." After a short pause he said: "Now, what we really came here for is above us."

As TehLulz looked up he saw a large eye floating in the dome, it looked like an ender eye, only much bigger. The eye stared out in all directions at the same time and pulsated with energy.

Fire said: "What you see here is the reason for the Mencur-Besh's success. This eye enables us to establish mental links over longer distances. There is a whole network of those eyes out there, most of them are well hidden near points of interest. Only two are in cities, one here and one in Rockhaven."

TehLulz said: "Okay, that explains some things. Like the people in the train station knowing our arrival time."

"Exactly, you can imagine how powerful such a network is, it allows us to have a communication advantage at all times. This also allows us to react in case something happens that requires our immediate attention. One time a lich lord spawned and made its way to the surface where it proceeded to raise an army of powerful undead. We were there to bring it down before it could reach any towns."

TehLulz asked: "Now, there was something about enchantments, right?"

Fire nodded. "Yes. It is obvious that this eye holds a powerful enchantment. Now what I want you to do is to is to enter an enchantment trance and try to read the enchantment."

"Is that safe?"

"Yes, enchanting is different from magic in that you can poke around in the inner workings of a spell without being harmed. Of course, the eye is also enchanted to prevent tampering but only for those that don't have an Eye-and-Claws mark."

TehLulz gave Fire thumbs up. "Got it."

TehLulz sat down on the ground below the eye and closed his eyes. He was glad that he had was wearing the clothes he was, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sit down on the almost frozen floor and much less stay there with the wind chilling him further.

His thoughts stood still for a moment and then resonated with the enchanted eye above him. The enchantment was incredibly complex, thousands of runes were aligned in seemingly nonsensical positions. TehLulz knew what most of them meant but some were new to him, he assumed that those were either ancient and not used in enchantments anymore or that they were created for this enchantment. He knew that runes that were created specifically for an enchantment were rare since the process was very difficult but they made their enchantment extremely powerful. It was almost impossible to determine what anything meant, not until he found a pattern to use to read the enchantment.

He said: "There is a lot in there but I don't really have a point to start from. Also, there are some runes I don't know. It's really complex."

Fire answered: "I'll give you a hint. I'll show you the keystone rune, maybe you can go from there. You may also be able to determine the meaning of some runes by their shape and what they're connected to."

Fire started humming, one of the small runes before TehLulz' mental eye started glowing.

He asked: "That one's the keystone? Really?"

As TehLulz examined the rune more closely he suddenly understood why this specific one was so important. It was a rune that resembled the Eye-and-Claws mark, it stood for Mencur-Besh. Now that he had identified the keystone the fine lines binding the runes together became more apparent as he gained somewhat of an understanding of the enchantment. From there on the structure was nothing he hadn't seen before, only much bigger and more complex. The Mencur-Besh rune was linked to a rune that stood for connection, one that stood for distance and one for Ender. It branched out from there.

"I see it now." He said. "Once I got past the fact that linked runes aren't grouped it's easy to read."

Fire just nodded.

After sitting there and looking at the runes for some time, TehLulz slowly gained an understanding of how the Mencur-Besh network operated. It wasn't very different from how computers outside of the server communicated. He also discovered the existence of a joined memory that was shared across the entire network. Fire had once talked about something like it. Once he was done he stood up and stretched, the cold and the sitting had made his muscles stiff.

Fire asked: "Do you understand it now?"

TehLulz answered: "Yes, it's fascinating."

"I hope that you also understand why it is so important that the network remains undisturbed. There is one weak point in the network though, can you imagine where?"

Fire started going down the stairs again, TehLulz followed while thinking.

He said: "Hmm… the only way to access it is by either being a Mencur-Besh or by manipulating one of the eyes. There is only one other eye in an exposed locating, that would be the one in Rockhaven. Am I right about that?"

Fire answered: "Precisely. That is why there is someone assigned to guard the Rockhaven eye from any tampering, the person holding that position is called the tower keeper. They are elected from one of the guilds in Rockhaven, usually they are Eye-and-Claws but not always. We do try to nudge the vote to ensure we have someone trustworthy in the position."

TehLulz asked: "Would that mean that they if they are Eye-and-Claws they have the highest ranking mark?"

Fire explained: "No. And there is the problem. The election of the tower keeper is a tradition in Rockhaven, their duty is to ensure the eye is in good condition and that nobody harms it. While we can try to get Eye-and-Claws into the keeper position, ensuring that specific people get into the position is nigh-impossible. Most tower keepers don't even know what the eye is, they just guard it."

TehLulz muttered: "Oh, I can see how that is a problem."

Fire said: "The keepers themselves aren't the main risk here. While Rockhaven is officially under human rule, we do still pull a lot of strings there. The king can do as he pleases but he is inclined to listen to us since we have proven to be valuable allies. However, there are a couple of people that would rather see Rockhaven without Mencur-Besh, those are the real danger."

"It sounds like you have a few specific people in mind."

"Not really, I hired some expensive mercenaries to do some spy work and they found out that there definitely is a dynamic there, a conspiracy of sorts. The worst part is that we don't know who is part of it, we don't know if there are moles in the Eye-and-Claws, if there are that would be a first."

TehLulz said: "We are going to Rockhaven anyways. Maybe we can investigate."

Fire shook his head. "No, we are there for just the Axe. While shattering a conspiracy certainly sounds exciting, the Ban Hammer has priority."

TehLulz asked: "That's fair enough but I still don't entirely understand, the eye might be a weak point but what could those people do that endangers the Mencur-Besh?"

Fire went ahead down the stairs, while walking he explained: "You see, poking around in the enchantments of the eye is harmless for all involved parties. The problem is when someone actually tries to link their own mind into the network, which definitely is possible under some circumstances for Ender or Life mages. The only way for a human mind to be able to safely join the collective is through a slow process of attunement, which is how I can access it. Technically Shadow can access the network too but that's its own can of worms. If someone were to just hook themselves into the network it could cause unforeseen consequences, at the very least it would kill the one who tries. This is why interacting with the eyes at all is forbidden by the contract you need to sign to join the server."

They walked the rest of the way back down to Drandin in silence, a lot of time had passed while they were in the tower and it was time to go to the meal hall again. They would depart to Rockhaven in two days.