Castle Adelhardt, Dunsinane

Seat of Idara Adelhardt. Built by Jerald Adelhardt, the Castle is a modern re-creation of Mad King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein.

The Castle is open to tourists every Starday and Terraday.

Ahead, the trees divide, clearing a wide, straight lane at least a kilometer long. lined with flowering trees in white and yellows and pinks. At the far end, a craggy mountain rises steeply. At its top, gleaming white against grey granite, sits Castle Adelhardt.

The vista is as stunningly beautiful as tourist literature claims. The Castle itself looks like a toy, an idealized fairy castle with soaring towers, strong battlements, intricate crenelations atop strong walls. Pennants and flags of blue, yellow, and red wave from the towers.

Up from the sward, the side of the mountain is carved into a single straight stairway, broad enough to pass a Navy cruiser. Every step is a different shade, at the base an ochre so dark it shades into infrared, all the way to eye-searing indigo at the summit—it is as if a slice of brilliant rainbow froze in the sky and landed on the mountainside.

Rikk nods. “Okay, everyone’s right. That’s a sight indeed.”

Maarten waves at the fairyland castle. “I told you old Jerald was a character. He patterned this after a real castle in Kermany, on Terra…that one’s called New Swanstone.”