Talarin Crystal Tower

Place
See also: Talarin Corporation

The Talarin Crystal Tower is a corporate headquarters in a secure skyscraper, in downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. It's the center of Talarin Midwest, one of Talarin's largest divisions.

The Tower is a masterpiece of modern architecture. 113 stories of opaque green glass is interspersed with green-tinted, cutting-edge alloys and black articulating solar panels. The whole effect is like shoot of striated, ringed bamboo that slowly, slowly twists as the panels track the sun.

The Lobby

The Raptors enter a beautiful lobby with a 40-story atrium filled with life. 13 mature redwood trees tower over winding pathways, benches, and reception desks. Hundreds of others plants fill the lower three stories, completing a damp, thriving coastal forest similar to northern California. Birds, insects, and small mammals and amphibians live in the forest, lending their sounds to the susurrus of 10-story waterfall and winding stream. There are tasteful emerald-glass awnings over the main walkways, to protect visitors from droppings and such. Both Unbound siblings can feel the colossal power of the wards and other countermeasures built directly into the foundation, in symbiosis with the pocket biosphere.
There is steady foot traffic of business people, messengers, and tourists. The receptionists could all have just stepped out of fashion magazine covers. Even the poised guards in the background are easy on the eyes. As the heroes approach the counters, a statuesque woman with long, blonde, braided hair walks up to them.

Archive

The antechamber to the Crystal Tower Archive is a fortified checkpoint. The far side of the antechamber holds a heavy blast door. It's flanked right by a sealed concrete guard station with narrow wire-reinforced glass windows and sealable gun ports. From within, two competent-looking male elves watch Ryllae and the Raptors enter. It's flanked left by a plain wooden bench. A female elf in a matte silver body suit is seated cross-legged, with a naked longsword across her lap. She has pale skin like Ryllae. Her eyes are closed and she seems to be meditating.
Behind the Raptors, the elevator closes, then a matching blast door slides down. Ryllae nods authoritatively to the elves in the guard station and the far blast door slides up. Ryllae leads the Raptors through. The swordswoman gives no apparent notice of the group.
The Crystal Tower Archive is a vast, three-story confection of modern architecture, mixing brushed steel, tinted glass, and light woods. The convex outer wall is almost-seamless, green-tinted glass, overlooking the Chicago Loop from 70 stories up. The remaining walls and much of the first floor are packed with light-wood bookcases (ash, maybe). The upper floors are accessed by elegant "floating" staircases and curving walkways--both made of grooved, green-tinted glass. The collection easily numbers in the hundreds of thousands: books, folios, maps, scrolls, tablets, sculptures, metal plates, and more.
At the moment, the Archive is lightly-trafficked, with as many as a dozen people scattered about individually or in pairs: searching the stacks, working at one of the many handy tables, or just sitting and reading.