by Andrew Rowe
“He’s a delver, like you are?”
She shook her head. “Pretty sure he’s not. A climber, probably.”
I knew that term; it meant someone who was trying to reach the top of the tower. There were legends that anyone who reached the top of one of the six Shifting Spires would receive a blessing from Selys, and that someone who conquered all six towers would be lifted into the skies to reside with the visages.
Most people didn’t take the latter legend seriously, but there were plenty of people who claimed that they had reached the top of a tower and been given something by one of the visages: wealth; enchanted items; maybe even an additional attunement. The stories varied from person to person. It was likely there was something at the top.
The promise of a divine reward was a tremendous temptation. There were hundreds of climbers in each city, many of whom already had attunements. Climbers entered through different gates than the one used for Judgments, so they could go inside in groups.
Sane people kept their groups to a half dozen or so, though. The tower punished anything it saw as a threat, and everyone knew the stories about what had happened when it did.
The Kingdom of Feria had once tried to invade the fifth tower.
It was nothing but dust and ruins, now.
We continued walking down the hallway. In the limited time before we reached the next room, I’d have to gather as much information as I could.
“Do you think he’s a danger to us?”
Vera shrugged. “Of course. But we’re still better off following in his wake.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
She put a hand on the nearby wall. “Because we just broke out of a prison so, this is a threat to us, too. The tower doesn’t like it when you break the rules.”
I frowned. “You make it sound like the tower is sapient.”
“How else do you explain the constantly changing layout? The treasures that appear for one person who completes a challenge, but not another? Do you really think Selys is watching every room in every tower simultaneously, hand-picking who gets attunements and re-sculpting chambers?”
“I tend to lean toward Bermer’s spectral theory of tower design.”
“Oh, you’re a little scholar. How adorable! I haven’t read that one, so you’re going to have to fill me in.”
“Incorporeal minions, essentially. Dozens of them for each tower.”
Vera nodded, running a hand through her hair again. She looked disheveled, which was unsurprising if she’d been here for days. “Yeah, I could see that. Amounts to about the same thing as a thinking tower, though.”
“Sort of. If there are multiple entities, they might have to communicate with each other, which means some routes might be safer than others. And maybe they wouldn’t all be in agreement on how to handle us.”
“Mmm.” She gestured toward Keras. “Looks like we’re about out of time, kid.”
Keras reached the door at the end of the hall. I rushed forward just as the door opened, remembering the trap a moment too late.
The pendulum arced through the doorway, thousands of pounds of swinging stone. Keras’ hand blurred. The sphere, now sliced into a dozen pieces, clattered harmlessly across the floor.
I blinked.
I really need to stop being surprised by what he can do.
I’d seen a lot of attuned using magically-enhanced swordsmanship over the years. My Father took me to watch tournaments on a regular basis, both ones he competed in and otherwise. I’d seen championship bouts between experienced veterans.
A lot of them had been fast.
Keras was definitely faster. I’d been paying attention this time and I still hadn’t seen him draw his weapon.
I fell back to where Vera was inching forward. “So, uh, if he does decide he doesn’t like us, do you think you could handle him?”
Vera made a half-snort, half-laugh, and slowly shook her head. “No, kid. I’m attuned, too, but I’m not a monster like that. I’m not even specialized in fighting.”
My hands flexed in the air. “Well, at least if he decides to kill us, he’d probably do it quickly.”
“So bleak,” she noted. “Let’s focus on the positives, yeah? Looks like he’s solving the room for us.”
Keras was, in fact, “solving” the room... by slicing the other pendulums in the same way he had the first. When he was done with those, he grabbed the swinging scythe by the bottom, stopping it without difficulty. He yanked downward, breaking the chain that attached it to the ceiling. The blade fell to the floor.
I looked back at Vera. “I’m pretty sure we were supposed to use those pendulums to break through the crystal sections on the walls.”
She waved one hand back and forth dismissively. “It won’t be a problem.”
We made it into the room, stepping over the rubble from the destroyed traps, and watched as Keras moved to the red crystal section on the wall. Another blur in front of him, with no obvious immediate impact this time.
When he kicked forward, a large section of wall fell away. Not just red crystal, the solid stone surrounding it fell away. Enough that a crude doorway had formed in its wake. I couldn’t see anything but blackness beyond it.
He walked through and vanished.
I looked at the other crystal sections on the floor and ceiling. “We could split up from him here.” I patted the dueling cane on my hip. “I think there’s a good chance I could blast through that floor section.”
She shook her head. “As dangerous as Keras is, he’s our best chance of making it through here alive. C’mon. Gotta follow him before the rooms shift.” She grabbed my hand, leading me forward.
While she led me by the hand, I processed her statement. Would the rooms change while we were inside them? I hadn’t seen that happen, but it wasn’t impossible. In fact, with a large enough number of people inside the towers, it seemed likely that it had to happen on occasion.
I’d have to research that more when I got the chance.
Vera vanished the moment she hit the boundary between rooms. It looked as holding hands hadn’t caused me to be included in the teleportation effect. I briefly wondered how Keras and the kid he was carrying had been affected, since they had appeared to vanish together. Was it based on consciousness? Or maybe proximity?
Either way, I was alone amid the shattered traps. Another window to break off from the group if I wanted to.
Vera had warned me about the shifting rooms, but I figured I could spare a few seconds to try to get some more information. I hastily pulled the book out of my backpack. I probably wasn’t going to get another chance at this.
You are in one of the tower’s holding chambers. Do not interact with the prisoners. Leave immediately. The people contained within the cells are not to be trusted.
I flipped to the next page.
That was a mistake.
You are risking a great deal, Corin, and I will not be able to protect you if you continue down this path.
No one is placed in a chamber like that one without a good reason.
And the next.
You are in the Room of Arcs, or what remains of it. You see now the power of one of the people you have freed. Recapturing them would be beyond your present abilities. Your best hope is to escape them.
That was not reassuring. I wrote a brief reply...
Thank you. Why are you helping me?
...and slammed the book shut. I would read more when time permitted.
I stepped into the next room.
I arrived in what looked more like a noble’s manor than another chamber of the tower. The walls were painted white and adorned with paintings and hanging weapons. At roughly equal intervals between the paintings were standing suits of armor with intricate etchings of silver and gold.
Three crystal chandeliers hung from a ceiling high above, each with a differently colored central crystal that bathed a section of the room with light. The way the lights overlapped made the room an eff
ect that I imagined looked something like a rainbow. I wasn’t sure because I’d never actually seen a rainbow, but I understood the concept.
Pretty.
It was a fleeting thought, and one that was unusual for me, but the mixtures of lights pleased me in a visceral way. I shook my head to dismiss the thought. I had more important things to be thinking about.
I was standing on a plush red carpet, which covered a path with three branches. The left and right paths led to identical double-doors, tall and wooden. The central path led up a carpeted stairway.
The central chamber was huge. I was probably a hundred feet from the stairway or either of the other exits. Keras stood at the base of the stairs in a low stance, his hand on the hilt of his weapon. The unconscious boy was lying nearby. Four tall pillars reached toward the ceiling, and Vera was currently taking cover behind one of them.
I could see why. We were not alone.
At the top of the stairs was a figure in golden armor. He was at least seven feet tall, a crystalline sword held in his right hand. Feathered wings stretched from his back, flexing in the air, spanning a width greater than the figure’s height. A visible aura of scintillating light emanated from his body. His blonde hair was cut in a short military style, his face perfectly a sculpted image of masculine valor.
Katashi, the Visage of Valor, barred our path.
It could have been a trick. An illusion, a shape-shifting monster, a simulacrum. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t willing to risk confronting even the shadow of a god. I rushed to the same pillar Vera was standing behind.
“Might want to find a different spot, kid. We’re kind of making ourselves a target if we’re in the same place.”
Right. I’d just go right back out into the open... “Uh, maybe in a minute.” Maybe not. “What’d I miss?”
“Oh, you know, just a visage of the goddess appearing in a flash of fire and thunder. Nothing big.” Her voice was tense, despite the levity of her words.
“Any idea—”
The visage took a step forward. I felt the entire room vibrate as he moved. His presence hung like a shroud in the air, pushing me down and forcing the breath from my lungs. Vera and I braced ourselves against the nearby pillar.
Keras remained standing with no apparent difficulty, raising a hand to scratch his chin. “I would appreciate it if you’d stop that.”
“You are not welcome here, interloper.” Katashi waved his right hand toward Keras. I was barely able to discern the blur that appeared in the air as he made the gesture. Keras flew backward like he’d been hit by a train, slamming into one of the support pillars with an audible crack, and falling to the floor. I winced at the impact.
Keras picked himself up, dusting off his coat. It was only as he stepped forward that I saw thick cracks along the surface of the pillar where he’d struck.
How the...?
A collision with enough force to crack a pillar should have shattered a human’s bones into mush. I briefly considered the possibility that Keras was some sort of artificial construct made of a substance harder than stone, but he moved too quickly and smoothly for that explanation to be likely. Maybe he was protected by some sort of barrier...but that didn’t explain the damage to the pillar itself. Did he have some method of manipulating kinetic energy? I’d never heard of an attunement for that, but it wasn’t impossible.
I turned my head toward Vera. “You wouldn’t happen to have any way of protecting us, would you?”
She snorted. “Duck and hide, kid. Duck and hide.”
I ducked and hid.
Meanwhile, the visage had tilted his head to the side, confusion on his face. “How do you remain unharmed?”
Keras raised his gaze from his clothing to the visage before him. “Trade secret,” he replied. There was a moment of pause before he spoke again. “Are we done now?” His voice was exasperated. “Can we have a conversation?”
The visage stood a little taller, his expression dark. “Talk.”
“Thank you,” Keras said. “You are one of the ones they call visages, correct?”
Katashi gave the slightest nod. “Katashi.”
“They’ve been calling me Keras here. Does your goddess hear what you hear? Does she see what you see?”
The visage turned his head to the side. “I have no reason to answer that.”
Keras frowned. “I mean you and your people no harm. I was hoping to get a message through to your goddess.”
Katashi made a broad gesture, indicating the room. “You tear away pieces of a sacred place, then seek to speak to the goddess? Your insolence is astounding.”
“Was that a problem?” Keras scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. “I was told that we could make the way up the tower any way we wanted.”
“Cutting through the walls to make your own entrances and exits is not a respectful method, outsider.”
They were talking now, which was good, and the pressure from Katashi’s...whatever he was doing...seemed to have lessened. I turned my eyes to the unconscious boy, still at the base of the stairs. If they resumed fighting, which seemed likely, he was extraordinarily vulnerable.
Speaking up now, with tensions high, was probably a terrible move. I didn’t really know what I was getting into here. Katashi kept calling Keras an interloper, and I wasn’t quite sure what that implied. Someone from outside the city? Or, thinking bigger, maybe someone from outside the continent? The latter was supposed to be impossible, given the continent-wide barrier that we had in place, but people didn’t usually break stone pillars when they collided, either.
Terrible move or not, it was probably my best chance of keeping that poor kid alive.
I stepped out from around the pillar, lowering my head to the carpet in supplication. It was a familiar gesture, one I’d done at shrines to the goddess a thousand times as a youth, though I’d fallen out of practice since Tristan’s disappearance. I’d never prayed directly to a visage, of course. I’d never seen a visage before, not even from a distance.
“Great Visage of Selys, forgive me for my insolence in speaking to you without permission. I was amidst my Judgment when I stumbled on these people, and beg your leave to take the unconscious child and continue in my tests.”
Katashi turned to me. I kept my eyes low, not daring to meet his gaze. “Your respect is a credit to your bloodline, scion of House Cadence. I will consider your request. Assist me and you may earn my blessing.”
I pressed my head further into the carpet. “Thank you, Great Visage. How may I assist you?”
I felt the pressure lift from my shoulders. Breath swam into my lungs. I lifted my head, noting that Katashi had turned back toward Keras.
The visage pointed at Keras. “Do not allow this one to escape.”
Oh, curse it all.
The last thing I wanted was to get involved in a battle between these two, at least one of which literally had deific levels of power.
Nevertheless, if I didn’t act at all, now I risked antagonizing the visage. That couldn’t possibly end well.
I was shaking as I stood up, unclipping the dueling cane from my belt. I looked at Vera. She shook her head at me vehemently.
I sighed, walking to take a position near the doorway on the left side of the room. I chose that exit because it was the furthest from where the combatants stood, meaning that it was the spot where I was least likely to be a victim of collateral damage. I tried to position myself in alignment with one of the pillars, so that it could also serve as a shield.
If Keras came for me, I didn’t like my odds of being able to stop him. I thought of nearby door with wistful longing, but I didn’t even know if I could open it. It wasn’t like I could check without enraging the visage.
I could have sided with Keras, of course. He had survived Katashi’s opening moves. There was a possibility he had the upper hand in this conflict. But both my gut and my common sense told me that was unlikely.
Keras was terrifyingly strong, one of a doz
en people on the continent who might have had more than two attunements.
The visage, though... He’d have all of them, including some that no human had access to. Scholars argued about how many total attunements existed, but the best guess was at least fifty, each providing a broad variety of abilities associated with a particular theme. Their benefits were cumulative, so someone with two defensive attunements would be extraordinarily resilient.
With fifty attunements? Well, I mentioned the broken Kingdom of Feria before. Its destruction had taken the Visage of Law less than a day.
The Visage of Valor gave me a nod, apparently approving of my position. There was still another exit to block, but Vera wasn’t moving for it. She stayed behind the pillar, giving herself as much cover as possible. Her eyes were scanning everywhere, searching for openings. Opportunities.
“I would prefer not to bring other people into this.” Keras folded his arms. “And, moreover, I would rather not fight at all.”
It was somewhat endearing that Keras was still trying to reach a diplomatic solution, even if it probably was just to save his hide. I felt bad about standing in his way. It was a small betrayal, even if it was mostly symbolic.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
I think he heard me. I hoped he did.
Katashi lowered his weapon, shaking his head. “Though it may seem contrary to my title, I do not relish battle. Nevertheless, you are a threat to the residents of this tower, and I cannot permit that. If it is any consolation, I will make your end quick.”
Keras turned his head down, shaking slightly. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was laughing. As he looked upward, a grin spread across his face.
“It never can be easy, can it?” Keras turned his head toward where Vera still hid behind the pillar. “Get the kid out of the way before we start this.”
Vera began to move, but Katashi spoke a single word. “No.”
No?
Why wouldn’t Katashi want the kid to be clear of the battlefield?