The staircase stopped immediately after starting, yet as Vivian put Alec on a window sill they were well above the forest.
The circular room was dominated by a large open tome at a center dais. Just looking at it made Alec's hairs stand on end. Andrea however walked straight up and started leafing through the tome while Vivian scouted the rest of the room.
Alec noted a weird stand near a window opposite to him, some papers were crumpled up below.
The stand smelled fairly good, it reminded him of the chicken girl from earlier. He carefully unfurled the papers on the ground.
"What have you found kitty?" Vivian asked, she was holding a lavishly decorated wand and a straight dagger in a dark red scabbard.
"There's some letters here." He squeaked in his childish Nekomata voice.
"Aww, is kitty learning her abc's?" Vivian joked as she picked up a scrap of paper.
"Very funny, but have a look."
"Seems like this witch has had a lot of contact with other witches in the area."
"Yes, the witches have been planning and communicating a lot lately." Andrea added from the tome.
"You can see that in that book?" Alec asked.
"It is a tome." Andrea corrected him. "And yes. Apparently, the reason we did not find any men here was because those she did not transform into sentries were transported away. Probably to one of the other witches."
"Does it say why?"
"No. At least not that I can discern it. But there is a lot to read here."
While Andrea read, Alec and Vivian completed their search of the tower. Alec marveled at the stuff they'd found. Daggers, both bendy and straight, some normal and some brimming with magic. Wands of varying sizes and shapes. Vivian however seemed disappointed. "I'd expected more from a witch her age."
Alec couldn't wait to try some of these blades. "Maybe there's a fireball spell in them!" He said excitedly and found himself hopping around in joy.
"Most will probably involve spells to prepare spell components." Andrea said, as she inspected one of the blades. It's blade seemed to radiate a purple hue. "This one apparently keeps liquid from leaking." As a demonstration she pricked her finger with the tip but no blood came out. "Probably useless in combat."
Using one of the wands Andrea managed to make some sort of copy of the tome. It involved a lot of words, because the wand apparently wasn't suited for that. Alec just took her word for it as he sniffed the new blades.
Vivian scooped Alec up after they'd packed up the loot and headed downstairs.