"Of course, you weren't planning on hiding the Princess of Gold's formula, were you?"
"...what? What are you talking about?"
Seeing Lord Byron's breath catch, my brother continued.
"Tower of the Sun, Tower of the Moon. Princess of Gold, Princess of Silver. Naturally, it's clear enough to see that the formulas of the Sun and Moon are patterned after gold and silver. On top of that, the foundation of the magecraft seems to have an alchemical motif. The use of the Sun and Moon in metaphor is a common pattern in Western Alchemy. From the beginning, the objective of Alchemy was to turn Fool's Gold into actual gold - following that metaphor, it is an Ars Magna (Great Craft) intended to transform the lowly human into a being capable of being compared with God. In short, the Princesses of Gold and Silver and their unspeakable beauty are a result of that process."
Smoothly, as if reading it out of a textbook, my brother summarily shattered the mystery behind the Princess of Gold.
No, in this case, that might literally have been true.
Lord Byron, whose expression had gone dark from my brother's first words and had only continued to worsen from there, seemed to be ample evidence of that.
"However, when I actually saw the Towers of the Sun and Moon, I was truly impressed. In actualizing the form of the Princess of Gold, you've internalized the motion of the planet into the human body. Certainly, correspondence between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm is a fundamental of magecraft, but rather than incorporating that into your living space, you've incorporated the motion of the planet directly into a human's life. Even if it's an idea proposed often enough, those who are able to actually accomplish it are vanishingly few.
I imagine your meal times, sleeping schedules, even your bathroom breaks are strictly regulated for time. As it was once said, 'you are what you eat.' The things you put into your body are what make up your physical structure. For example, as a certain emperor attempted in his quest for immortality, the imbibing of mercury isn't actually wrong per se, but if it isn't done with a body built the same way as the stars, then it will just become poison. Understanding that, not just your food and lifestyle, even your environment were made to unify with your physical bodies. Even the leylines in the ground here are the same. Like the styles of magecraft unique to places in the east like Tibet, drawing magical energy forcefully from the earth was probably a daily habit for you.
The Sun and the Moon are the forces of the heavens. Food and lifestyle are the forces of earth. In short, the Princesses of Gold and Silver could be better described as manifestations of the land itself. In addition, if your bloodline has continued to stack up this behaviour over the generations, then-"
"Stop!"
A sudden shout interrupted him.
Lord Byron glared at my brother with obvious enmity.
It was understandable. Having one's magecraft so thoroughly explained right in front of your eyes was like watching your own soul get pillaged. On top of that, having it happen in front of so many high ranking magi, even if it wasn't something so simple to copy, the chances of their carefully concealed magecraft being stolen away was quite high.
The trade secrets and patents of magi within each faction were akin to a lifeline to those magi that owned them.
"Right. Then let's stop here." Without missing a beat, my brother nodded.
Case Files II, Chapter 4, Part 1