Armareth's Tower

They glided in the light, traveling through a sheet of darkness with tiny twinkling lights. Far beyond any of them could see clearly, one of the lights expanded and exploded. Warmth traveled through the darkness to them, the wind made Zoey’s hair flutter and Chloe laughed.

David looked back and around, stunned. They might as well be flying through a normal night sky, but he could tell it wasn’t. The lights couldn’t be stars. They twinkled, but the twinkles seemed more like he was blinking the lights in and out of existence.

They traveled for what must have been half an hour until he saw where they were going. His breath caught in his throat and behind him someone whistled. Elisha, he guessed. The blue light snaked around, as if curving around to follow a prepared path.

The towers stretched in the distance; the last one was only a vague silhouette. Each was made distinctly different, but that wasn’t the only thing different about them. Each was higher than the last, and they all had different banners waving over them.

“I thought these were supposed to be on different continents?” Zoey asked as they got closer. David nodded. He could make a guess, but something else had caught his attention. The towers were grand, strange, yet he couldn’t take his eyes off the creature waiting for them below.

The light had plummeted, and an orb of clear liquid floated in the air. The water in the orb was clear blue, as if purified, and in it a snow-white fish swam. Its scales were pearly, even in the blue of the water. It circled in the orb for a moment and then dove out and plunged back without a sound.

Bubbles floated out of its mouth, lifting to the surface until the orb itself was ringed with bubbles. Then the fish turned to look at them, its caudal fin wiggling as if it was happy.

It swam up again, shooting out of the orb. It shimmered as it came down, its motion slowing so that bare feet met the ground and the rest of the body formed all the way up. When the light disappeared, they were staring at a human, a woman. Her hair was so white it almost glowed. A wood brown cloak settled over her nakedness, adjusting to fit her new frame until she was well-covered.

She grinned when she was done, walking briskly to meet them. Before David could say anything, she pulled him to her, hugging him. A new version of her split out from her back and that one hugged Zoey. Two more copies of her split off the others to pull Elisha and Chloe into a warm embrace.

Then they all dissolved back into the first.

“Welcome,” she said. Her face was slowly wrinkled and her form bent a little. Time seemed to weigh her down immediately, but her smile shone still and her hair lost none of the glow. But when she spoke, she sounded old. That lasted for only a moment, soon she was young again.

“What is going on with you?” Chloe asked, frowning.

“Change,” the woman said. “I am Change, at least within this space that I have been confined to,” she said, grinning. “My story is not important,” she said, shifting from young to old again. She gestured for them to follow her. The orb she’d jumped out of vanished and a house that hadn’t been there some moments before was suddenly there.

The towers had vanished, and so had the sky. They were suddenly on the lip of a cliff and the house was built a walking distance from the edge. David leaned over and watched dark water slap against the rocks below. Even with the dark sheen, David felt no fear of falling to his death.

“David,” the old voice called, and when David turned to her—to Change- the others were watching him, waiting for him. He joined them, walking through the door. On the outside the house was a small cabin size, but made as if chiseled out of the mountains. But once he was through the door, he was shocked by the high domed roof, made of glass to let in sunlight. The whole place smelled of burning sweet spice. It was so much bigger on the inside.

There were shelves of books on every corner of the place, but arranged in a way that there were paths wide enough for them all to walk elbow to elbow. The woman—ever changing—led them silently. When she was young, there was a bounce in her step, as an elder, she smiled more.

“You are the first to pass Ifyr,” She began. “You are first, since Amareth and the others planted their pocket worlds here, to meet me.”

“Who are you?” Chloe asked.

“Right now? I am Arya,” she said, smiling at Chloe. Her cloak didn’t seem to change with the rest of her. “Can I have the Eternal’s heart?” She stretched her hand to David. He placed the gemstone on her palm and she nodded. She motioned for them to follow her as she walked.

“This is not your real form, is it?” Elisha asked. Zoey glared at him, but Arya chuckled and shook her head.

“I have no real form anymore,” Arya said as she led them to a part of the depository where there was a square, raised platform. On the platform was an etching. They all leaned down over Arya’s shoulder to look at it. Vines of many colors were etched on the surfaces, with thorns and flowers flowing every way, all guarding the middle of the surface.

As Arya set to place the gemstone in the middle, the etchings came alive, the vine latched out, reaching for Arya’s hand. They wrapped around her wrist and the thorns dug in, tearing her skin and spilling blood. Her blood came in thick, silvery drops and then it flowed freely as the vines pulled her hand down. The more blood it spilled, the thicker the vines got, until Arya placed the gem carefully in the center and it all vanished, as if the vines had only been a vivid dream.

Even Arya’s wound disappeared.

Something clicked under the surface. The stone groaned as it slid to the side, releasing a sweet smell, like that of squashed mock oranges. The fragrance was both comforting and nostalgic. Arya chuckled.

“For a sour headed eternal, she knew a thing or two about fragrance.”

David couldn’t argue with that.

“Here is Ifyr’s bounty, claim it,” Arya said, standing away from the raised platform. David walked close and pushed the top off. The fragrance was stronger, reminding him of the Eternal’s monstrous cackle. Within were four items laid on a cushioned base. He knew which was his without even thinking.

He picked the wooden sword. There was no sheath, but on the sides were strange symbols. David looked up to Arya, expecting her to explain, but she only stared.

You have acquired a high level item

Item name: Igis’s Bone Shard

Item rating: Evolving!

Item compatibility: All Elements

Damage count: Evolving!

David was about to say something about it being a wooden sword when another notification popped up, stunning him for a moment.

Congratulations!

Amareth finds you worthy!

You have been granted a unique skill!

Unique Skill: Master of All

You have been awarded with the rare gift of attaining unlimited skill in weaponry and elemental spells. You can combine swordsmanship and elemental magic to create unlimited types of techniques.

David grinned. He stared at the wooden sword, unsure of what to say or how to express how he felt. Then he saw Zoey’s look of impatience and shifted out of the way for her to pick her own item.

Zoey’s item was a small translucent orb. At least, that was what it seemed at first, but then it melted when she placed it on her palm. She was flustered for a moment, but realized that it simply reformed into a tattoo on her palm. A series of complicated intertwining circles that formed an eye in black ink.

You have acquired a high level item

Item name: Mark of Oreus (The Wandering Druid)

Item rating: Evolving!

Item compatibility: Can transform into one unique weapon and has healing ability.

Damage count: Evolving!

Zoey stared at the mark for a moment, wondering what weapon she would prefer. They already had a swordsman and Elisha had speed and daggers. She needed something that would give support while dealing some ungodly damage. And from what she understood, whatever weapon she made would evolve with her too. She was about to decide when the second notification appeared.

Congratulations!

Amareth finds you worthy!

You have been granted a unique skill!

Unique Skill: Changeling!

You have been awarded with the rare gift of acquiring the traits of any animal you make your familiar. You acquire its gift and abilities, gaining these through established connections.

“Are you going to let me get to mine?” Elisha asked, even Chloe was frowning up at her. She chuckled and stepped away. She couldn’t tell how exactly she felt about the unique skill, because she’d already had some kind of bestial trait. But then it hadn’t felt like hers. Perhaps that was the difference. She closed her eyes, envisioned the mark on her palm and made as if she was nocking an arrow in a bow.

“Zoey?” David called and she opened her eyes to see a finely made bow in her hand, with an arrow nocked. The eye was carved in the middle of the bow. She grinned. She could feel the arrow and bow pulling at her essence though, so she let the image of the bow go and it faded away in a green mist. The arrow too.

Elisha and Chloe were celebrating their unique skill. Elisha had gotten two new daggers. The pommels were the carved head of dragons, stretching down into the handles. One black and the other white. The carving was precise, the dragon’s scales, horns and eyes. The blades were curved, one black with white veins and the other white with black veins.

“What’s your unique skill?” David asked him.

“My shadow has some unique properties,” he said. “I could only use it to shroud myself before, but now I can use it for so many other things. And look,” he said, turning his index in a slow circular movement, slowly a crackling swirl of a shadow appeared. He flicked it to David where it grazed David felt numb for a moment.

“I can use it for offense now,” Elisha said, grinning. David turned to Chloe who was telling Zoey about something called the Phantom Scripts.

Arya clapped her hands, they all felt it in their minds, like a bad memory. She grinned as they turned to her.

“You have been blessed again,” She said. “And it will not be the last, but first you will walk the floors of the towers. Amareth’s tower is the first of the six, distributed all over your world. You will travel the mind-grinding floors, face dreadful monsters and move through the lives of many like wraiths while you try to save your world.”

She smiled, looking at them one after the other.

“They are terrible, those who bless you now. They will curse you as easily as they bless you. And you will find that they are not the only ones to fear as you go through the tower. Knowing this, would you still like to journey through Amareth’s tower?”

There was silence for a while. David looked at the others, and except Chloe, it seemed they were thinking the same as he was.

There was no choice really. He wasn’t sure Arya would let them go, but even if she did, they would just die out there. And he wasn’t sure his parents had survived that wave. The clear choice was in going forward, so he made that decision for them.

Arya smiled, but in the way she looked at them, she was disappointed. David didn’t blame her. Whoever or whatever the creators of these towers were, they had punished her. She didn’t like them, nor did she want them to be happy. David wondered if he cared about any of that.

“Since you have decided to go up the tower, you must know about the tower rings,” She said. She strode forward and picked up David’s arm. She pulled up his sleeve and there on his arm was a half circle in a fat and vivid line. “As you ascend the tower, you will gain tower rings, this helps you measure your strength and essence capacity.”

“Like how people gain levels in games?” Elisha asked. Arya thought about that for a few seconds and then gave him a thumbs up.

“Exactly! As you get powerful, your rings increase and so does your essence capacity.” She giggled, transforming into a young woman. “You should watch out for those with higher tower rings. Although the four of you are special cases, I can think of ten people you should be wary of.”

“Ten?”

“There is more to fear in the tower,” Arya said, her face folding with wrinkles. “You should be careful. I am quite fond of you. You destroyed Ifyr while many failed.”

“What else do we need to know about?”

“The ranking system,” Arya said, frowning. “The tower ranks those who travel its floors according to its interpretation of strength. It only ranks to fifty, so you might not be able to access it yet, until you have about three rings.”

“Is there a way to get rings faster?” Zoey asked.

“Yes,” Arya said, and David saw the mischief in her eyes. They twinkled so wantonly. “More adversity, children. Amareth’s blessings come only by suffering. The more foes you face, the stronger you will become. Now come, you must be on your way.”

She led them away from the empty platform to another part of the hall of shelves where a door stood alone. There was nothing behind and around the door. It was plain, wooden, with an iron knob. Arya’s old face smiled at them as she nodded for them to go. She pulled Chloe in for a long hug. Then she kissed Chloe’s forehead.

When she stood before David, she was young again. Radiant and timeless. Her eyes were clear pools of knowledge. There was something sad within them too, but David couldn’t glean anything from them. Instead, he listened to her warning.

“In the tower, essence is the currency of life, it is strength and living, you must acquire as much as you can. The stronger you are, the safer you and those you care about will be. And like your mother said, be the eldest.”

David laughed, because in that moment he’d realized she could tell what he was thinking. Maybe she had always been able to see their thoughts. It didn’t matter, all he could think about as he walked through the door was his parents.

Would they approve?