by Jakob Tanner
It was one of those banal quirks you never thought about. The type of habit so mundane and routine, you didn’t realize you made it every single time you went home. It was the kind of detail that meant nothing to the person making it, but everything to the person secretly watching you.
The alley was empty and dark.
Bruno was halfway across it when he found himself unable to move.
He wasn’t even squirming. His legs and arms were frozen in place.
He tried to speak.
“Hello? Is someone there? I...uh...need help?”
A figure stepped out at the front of the alley.
The figure walked closer, stepping in and out of the shadows.
It was a teenaged boy with blonde hair.
“Hey kid,” shouted Bruno. “Would you help me out here? I’m stuck!”
The boy smirked at him. “What would you like me to do, Bruno?”
The man froze. “How the hell do you know my name, kid!?”
“I know everything about you,” said the boy, calmly. “What you like to eat, what you like to drink, where you work, what you do in your spare time. Ask me anything. I’m an expert of all things Bruno Slevsky.”
The man’s eyes bulged. “You better be careful now, kid. Do you know who I am? I work for some very powerful people.”
“That’s true, but you’re also replaceable. You’re a meathead enforcer. There’s a dime a dozen of you. Plus, you’re nothing but a traitless. I’m sure your boss could hire an ex-climber to do a much better job than you.”
“Screw you, kid. I’ll beat you to death here and now.”
“Except you can’t,” said the boy. “Because unlike you, I’m not a traitless. I have a trait and a rare one at that. Aren’t you curious why you can’t move? That’s cause of me.”
The boy opened his jacket and pulled out a long silver scalpel.
A surgeon’s knife.
“Okay...” said the man.
He was becoming less angry now and much more fearful.
“Just let me go kid...I’ll give you whatever you want...”
“But you are what I want, Bruno,” said the boy. “I want someone that nobody cares about. Not even law enforcement.”
“Please...” squirmed the man. “Let me go...”
“I wish I could do that,” said the boy, admiring his reflection in the shine of his silver knife. “But I’ve had an aggravating day and I really need to unwind.”
He stabbed the man right in the gut.
“Aghhhh!”
The man screamed out in pain.
“Don’t worry, Bruno. I’ve stabbed you right between your major arteries. You see, that will cause you the most amount of pain and least amount of blood loss.”
The man squirmed in pain.
“The average adult human body contains around one and a half gallons blood. Most humans die of exsanguination if they lose just over half of that. I’ll keep stabbing you between all the major arteries so you don't die straightaway because that wouldn’t be fun now, would it?”
Bruno screamed again and the boy put his hand over the man’s mouth.
“No more screaming, Bruno,” said the boy. “Let’s not rush this.”
He stabbed the man again in the stomach, twisting the knife through his flesh, but making sure not to burst any of the important arteries that would turbo-charge Bruno’s remaining lifespan from minutes to seconds.
“You see, I come from a very important family, Bruno,” said the boy. “One where it would be frowned upon for me to get arrested. That’s why I must be careful about who I target. But you, I can do anything to you. I’m from a prestigious family and you are nothing.”
The man squirmed as the boy tortured him some more.
“My family isn’t so prestigious because we all have rare invaluable traits. No, it’s because we have a hereditary trait, passed down between the fathers and sons of the family. You see—I don’t just know where your important arteries are, I can see them beneath your skin.”
The man continued to squirm in pain. Tears leaked out of the man’s eyes.
“This hereditary ability is called blood eyes,” said the boy. “And it’s why the Archer family will one day rule this city.”
The boy was about to stab the man once more, when his phone began to ring in his pocket.
“Shit,” hissed the boy. “Right now?”
He stabbed the man right in the heart, twisting the surgeon’s scalpel.
He then walked away from the alley, answering his phone as he did so.
“Yep?”
“We’re having a family meeting in half an hour,” said the stern voice of his father on the other line. “We’re discussing the next phase in the plan. You’ll be expected to be there.”
34
The rest of the week at the climber academy was significantly less stressful than the first day. A lot more teaching and learning, and a lot less fighting for one’s life.
The firebringer instructor walked them through the signs of the endless forest and showed them the route to the departure teleporter.
There were more defense climber guards hanging out there, guarding the teleporter. The instructor showed the students how to get there, but threatened expulsion to anyone who tried to go any floors above the endless forest.
Max didn’t mind such a rule. As curious as he was, with a mana affinity stat of 4, he wasn’t going to get very far before he got tower sickness and potentially died.
He was content with just being able to visit floor-2 for the time being.
Finally the week came to an end and, for the first time in what felt like forever, Max actually had time off. Free time.
What the heck was he going to do?
He thought about it Saturday morning over a cup of instant coffee and decided he was going to do some life admin and research.
He went to get his mobile phone, which he hadn’t touched in a few weeks to see if he had any messages from Sarah back in the outer-rim.
He took the phone out of a cupboard where he stored a few of his things and powered the device on.
He couldn’t wait to tell Sarah about some of the stuff that had been happening to him since he had entered the tower-zone. He’d keep the assassins and murderous psychopaths to himself and only mention the good things, like, magic powers or ramen with magical creatures from higher floors.
Yet when the phone powered on, the whole screen lit up and the words “ERROR” flashed over and over again.
“Huh?”
Sakura stepped out of the bathroom at that moment, covered up with a pink towel. She was smiling, feeling refreshed from the long hot morning shower.
“Whatcha doing over there, Max?”
Max turned to her glumly. “My phone doesn’t work.”
She walked over and bent down to take a look at Max’s mobile phone.
“Of course it doesn’t,” said Sakura. “That’s a phone from the outer-rim. The wards throughout the city disrupt the electric flow of such devices making them unusable. It stops more than just phones, but lots of small electronic-based devices. Music players, digital cameras, that sort of thing. It’s to stop photo journalists in the outer-rim from trying to snag photos of the tower-zone.”
Max sighed. He thought something like that might happen. He thought there were going to be rules like it was illegal or forbidden to use an outer-rim phone, which was why he hadn’t used his up until now, but actual manatech stopped his devices from working. Why did the city go to such great lengths to hide things from the population?
“So you mean—there’s no way to communicate to the outer-rim from in here?”
Sakura made a solemn face and shook her head.
“Only the outer-rim mayor and the climber president have special phones that allow them to contact each other,” explained Sakura. “That’s it. I’m sorry. It’s done for everyone’s safety.”
Max sighed again. He’d just have to hope Sarah was doing okay. He was sure
after his meeting with Mr. Grimes that the man wasn’t going to cause any more trouble and Sarah was smart enough to keep the rest of the orphans safe. Max would just have to have confidence in them and wish them well.
“Hey! Cheer up!” said Sakura. “I might have an old tower-zone mobile phone you can have. Just let me get dressed.”
Sakura went into her room and came out a few minutes later, fully dressed, and an old flip phone in her hands.
“Obviously there’s much better phones on the market even in the tower-zone,” said Sakura, handing Max the phone. “But this should do you good for now. I’ve programmed my number in there, if you ever need me.”
She then nudged Max, playfully. “And now you can ask out all the pretty climber girls in class, huh?”
Max blushed.
“My life isn’t one of your romance novels,” he said.
“Suit yourself,” said Sakura, going to the kitchen and making herself some instant coffee. “But today’s my day off and I plan to binge the newest volume of One Hundred Floors of Love.”
Max looked down at the junky phone Sakura had given him. This would be a convenience, but he needed to get on a computer. He needed to do some research.
“Is there a library in the tower-zone?” Max asked Sakura.
“Of course,” she said, laying back on a cushioned chair with her mug of coffee in one hand and her steamy paperback in the other. “Why do you wanna know?”
“There’s just some stuff I want to research,” said Max.
“Oh, I get it, trying to impress a girl in class,” cooed Sakura.
“It’s not like that,” said Max, blushing again. “Not all of us are as obsessed as you are!”
“Fine, be that way,” said Sakura. “Have fun at the library, nerd.”
Sakura then gave Max the address and he left the apartment for the day.
The tower-zone library was a large stone building with roman columns at the entrance and leafy green vines growing along the side.
Max walked up the steps and entered the building.
The library was a grandiose hall with high ceilings, polished wood, and dim lighting. The place was filled with the smell of old books.
Max wasn’t really sure where to start so he went up to the girl at the front desk.
The librarian behind the desk was a pale girl with bright blue eyes hidden behind large rimless glasses. She had very long and straight blonde hair that she kept in a ponytail at the side.
When Max approached her she said in a very quiet voice, “How can I help you?”
“Hi,” said Max. “This is my first time visiting the library. I wanted to do some research on contemporary tower climbers working today.”
“Great,” said the girl, not raising her voice an octave. “If you want the most up-to-date information, your best bet is to check the climber database on one of our computers. Since this is your first time here, let me make you a library card so you won’t need to sign-in for a visitor’s pass if you come in again.”
The girl asked him a bunch of questions and then paused after she asked him what his profession was.
“I guess I’m a student climber,” said Max, scratching the back of his head.
“A...a...climber?” stuttered the shy girl. “But...you’re...so...nice?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” said Max. “Are climbers not usually friendly?”
“Not all of them, but quite a few, refer to those without traits as traitless. They think they’re better than everyone else,” she said. “Not all climbers, but quite a few. Especially, young student climbers.”
Max sighed. Based on Cyrus and the other climbers he met yesterday, he could see how some of them probably walked around thinking like they owned the place.
It was so crazy to contemplate that he used to think the divisions in Zestiris came down to simply those who lived in the outer-rim and those who lived in the tower-zone. Yet such divisions didn’t even scratch the surface of the myriad of social hierarchies that existed here.
“Oh well, I’m sorry they’re unfriendly,” said Max. “A trait is something one should be grateful for having. A privilege that should be respected. Not used as a tool to lord over others.”
She smiled at that and gently pulled a lock of her hair behind her ear.
“It’s nice to hear a climber say that,” she said. Then she smiled and pulled out a card from behind her desk. “Here’s your library card. Let met know if you need any more help.”
Max thanked the girl once more and then headed over to one of the computer stations.
The card the librarian girl had given him had a wifi network and password to sign-on with.
Soon enough, he was online.
But it was like he was on a different internet.
He couldn’t access any websites he used to frequent: Google, The Outer-Rim Times, social media.
Every time he typed in a site url, he got an error message.
Maybe it was just like his old mobile phone. Certain things that worked in the outer-rim, didn’t work here in the tower-zone.
He clicked on the internet browser’s home button and he was taken to a website called Find Out More.
It had a similar layout to other search engines he’d used in the past, but he’d never heard of it before. It must be an exclusive search engine to the tower-zone.
Max thought this control over the flow of information seemed a bit excessive, but he didn’t ponder it for long.
He typed in “climber database” into the search bar and clicked on the first result.
It was a boring government website. It didn’t look special in the slightest.
And yet, Max shivered as he looked at the computer screen.
If his sister was in the tower somewhere, that meant she must have passed through the tower-zone first. She would have had to graduate from the climber academy and be given jurisdiction to head up to the higher floors. There must be some trace she would have left behind.
With both excitement and trepidation, Max typed his sister’s name into the search engine box on the government website.
Eleanor Rainhart.
Elle.
He pressed enter and waited for the website to load.
A page loaded and Max looked on it with shock.
There was large black square with a white question mark where a photograph should be. Then in bright red font above the empty photograph were the words, “Restricted Information.”
Huh?
Max slumped in his chair. He thought he was about to find out more on his sister, get one step closer to finding her, but it didn’t look like that was happening today.
Restricted Information.
What the heck did that mean?
Max got up from his chair and went over to the librarian girl, he’d spoken to earlier.
“Yes?” she said in her whispery-tone.
“I need your help with something. I just tried to search for a climber in the database and it came up as ‘Restricted Information’. Do you know what that’s about?”
The girl pushed her glasses up her nose and then said, “If something is restricted on the climber database that means only highly ranked climbers can access that information. Things that are restricted usually involve higher tower floor politics, S-rank climbers, and—” She paused, momentarily. “Rogue climbers.”
Max shivered at those words.
Elle—what happened to you in this place?
35
After Max’s trip to the library, the weekend flew by. He dedicated himself to continuing Sakura’s training regimen and by Sunday night he saw some improvement in his stats.
He looked his profile over before bed with satisfaction.
Name: Max Rainhart
Rank: Unranked
Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.
Strength: 7
Agility: 7
Endurance: 7
Mana Affinity: 4
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Passive Skills:
Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)
He smiled. His endurance had gone up by one point and he could feel it in himself. Sakura’s exercises were still tough, but he found them less and less difficult now. He was going to have to think of new ways to push himself so he could get stronger.
His low mana affinity still bugged him, but he figured that was a stat that he’d only be able to truly train properly by going into the tower more and more.
He went to bed that night with excitement for a new week of classes.
Casey did not share the same enthusiasm the following morning when they met up outside the courtyard of the climber academy.
“Blergh...” she groaned. “I hate Mondays.”
She had bags under her eyes and her shoulders were slumped.
Max had spent the whole weekend training, but he wondered what people did for fun in the tower-zone. How did it differ from what people did in the outer-rim?
“Did you have a nice weekend?” asked Max.
“I had amazing weekend plans,” she said. “I was going to go shopping, I was going to get a chocolate strawberry crepe downtown, but instead my part-time job ate up my whole weekend and now I’m back at school again. It’s unfair!”
“I’m actually quite excited for a new week of classes,” said Max.
Casey’s eyes drooped, unimpressed with him.
“Hurray for you ,” she said, sarcastically.
Max looked around the courtyard to see if the instructor had arrived. There was still five minutes before classes started but you’d think the teacher would have arrived early.
Someone knocked into Max’s shoulder.
Max swerved and it was Cyrus and his goons arriving to class. They didn’t even say anything to Max after the altercation, simply walking into a far corner of the academy courtyard.
“Ignore them,” said Casey. “They’re morons and probably still pissed off that we passed last week’s test. Don’t give them a second thought.”
Max nodded to Casey. She was right and he appreciated her telling him so.
Sybil Westley sneered at them as she walked by, but didn’t give them much trouble that morning.