The Stained Tower

The monster’s body crumbles as if time itself seems to rapidly move around it.

I think I overhear Terra instructing everyone to leave the room to give me privacy with my prize; I cannot tell. My Mana and Erysichthon have plummeted, and now this supremely aged feast is taunting me, so my mind is engrossed.

With my mind weak, the Independent Tendrils unravel and slink up the skewer that juts from Mithridates, or I suppose, with the flame snuffed, all that remains is his shell. With fixed eyes, I watch the tendrils almost lovingly shroud the shell.

Into the cattail, the sludgy shell is drawn, and toward my kiln, it drifts. Then, approaching my stomach, a tiny violet spark ignites it in a violet flame. 

As the walls of Mithridates’s shell melts, I notice a tiny glimmer of a yellowish-brown spark struggling against the violet fire.

A purple wall appears.

I can only skim the wall before my vision blackens. In my mind, I see naught. Yet, I can hear the sounds of someone shuffling about. A notion arises in the far reaches of my mind. ‘I am seeing a sliver of Mithridates’s time in Tenebrous.’

Mithridates has encountered someone in the unfathomable dark. 

I think he knows the person.

“Greeting: This one is ecstatic to have found the Master!”

Both Mithridates and I recognize the voice—it is one I heard quite recently. ‘Mithridates’s Interface. Earl elected to initially lead me from the shadows, but Mithridates’s Interface must have chosen to approach him. I suppose Earl has mentioned Interfaces handling things quite differently.’

As one might presume, Mithridates is scarcely cognizant at this point. Mithridates’s tears at the skin around his arms and face while babbling at the Interface in his native language.

“Response: Master, I don’t understand why such a thing has been requested.”

This time Mithridates screams at the Interface.

There’s a moment’s silence before the Interface answers,

“Statement: Very well. If the master demands it, this one will remind the master.

...Reminder:

Mithridates, on the 4th night of the next moon, you are to be put to death; the method shall be, skáphe—the boats. 

If you do not know, the method is as follows: Twin boats shall be joined together, one atop the other with holes fashioned for the head, hands, and feet. Every day you shall be furnished with a bountiful blend of honey and milk. What you refuse to gorge yourself upon shall alternatively be smeared upon your face, hands, and feet. If you refuse to eat or drink at all, it shall all be fed to you by force.

You will then be left to drift in the bog, sealed within the boat. Three times a day, your head shall be adjusted to face the sun at all hours. If you refuse, your eyes shall be pricked until you comply. 

Your only relief from the elements and the ones who shall ultimately decide when you are to be conferred the relief of death will be your lord, the flies. 

So says I, the King.” [1]

All I hear next is yelling, what sounds like fighting, and then time commences to progress in leaps. I am not sure how long exactly, but after that, Mithridates and ‘King’ traversed the dark of Tenebrous for what seems like a very long time. 

At one point, I see that the pair actually appear to find something in Tenebrous, but it passes so quick I am not even confident they did. Regardless, after that, Mithridates seems, at least, moderately ‘there.’

That all blinks out of my mind, and a new image takes its place. 

When the image picks up, Mithridates is now in chamber pot tunnels, and King is doing whatever it is Interfaces do in their personal time, looking for a beast spirit, mayhaps.

He stands over a wretched baby rat that’s writhing underneath a clump of paste. Glancing up, he watches the figure of a hazy girl erratically vanish around a corner. Then, with care, he takes the rat in his hand and adds a second clump of paste to it before wandering away.

This one fades, and the next image that appears is Mithridates surrounded by countless lights. Someone gestures toward him, and he examines a sign with big blue and white letters that read, “New York Police Dept.” Though he cannot comprehend the sights around him, he follows the person inside anyway. There, they eventually come upon the Paternoster, and he is ushered inside.

The next image comes. Mithridates is standing beneath a tree, speaking to someone with his crossbow ready. Whoever it is across from him raises a finger and removes something from their pocket. They seem to be spinning some type of tale until they open their palm, revealing a tiny piece of colorful glass shaped like a starfish.

Removing a parchment from their coat, they close their palm and crush the tiny shard of glass. Then, with their hand washed in blood and glass, they smear it across the parchment’s surface. The blood and glass slip into impressed letters in a language I do not know.

As the letters fade into the parchment, they roll the parchment up and present it to Mithridates.

My vision returns, and I behold the spinning molten drops of Mithridates’s shell slipping inside the cage around my shell and then sinking into my own kiln.

At the same time, multiple walls appear at once.

 

 

After experiencing tidbits of MIthridates’s mind, I cannot stop my hands from sweeping up and down my arms as if flies are creeping under my skin. 

‘Mithridates death was far more drawn out and crueler than my own. I suppose it’s rather amazing the man was able to produce a single coherent thought after seventeen days of the worst torture I could imagine.’ 

Feeling an itch, my eyes rapidly search for the source. After further inspection, my hand drifts to my chest in relief. All I can find are some sable copepods skittering about my belly. I presume they are the sables I arranged between my shell and the cage to insulate, shroud, and shield my kiln when this whole operation began. It’s likely absorbing Mithridates’s kiln displaced the copepods, and now the cage is rubbing against my shell.

In annoyance, I adjust the cage. To me, this cage is comparable to a noble wearing a girdle that’s built for the common folk—several sizes too small and confining.

With a shake of my head, I belatedly commence reading through the three walls that appeared. While reading, my thoughts drift to the people in the chamber pot tunnels. They seemed to have been ‘dispatched’ in a similar fashion to Mithridates... The thought gives me pause, yet I drive those notions aside. As far as I am aware, those bodies in the boats were dead before being placed within them or not.

Instead, I ponder the last thing I saw in Mithridates’s memories. That starfish glass was the very first piece of glass I ever created. 

I can scarcely remember what I did with it, but then I recall a waggish decision I made to give it to someone. ‘Curses! Leo! Leo must have betrayed me, betrayed us! He never mentioned someone stealing that piece of glass, and he was all over the place that night, shouting about Jessica missing! He threw us into confusion; it’s even possible he put Jessica in that tree! That…’ My fist clenches. ‘That beetleheaded whiddler!’ [2]

Calming myself a tad, I return to reading, this time focusing on Mithridates’s message. Yet, as I do so, another wall develops alongside a savory feeling of flavor.

When my eye read the message, a sensation akin to how one’s stomach might ‘drop’ passes through my kiln. 

I push the walls from my face, clearing my black and white vision. Then, looking down, I discover that at some point, I floated over to one of the corpses of the unknown creatures. 

My eyes shoot toward the being’s hand. There amongst its four rotten fingers is the Independent Cords, nibbling at one of them. {Nay!} I scold and knock the Independent Cords with my palm before then weaving them back together into the complete, docile cattail. {I… I ate someone’s pinky finger!}

{That you did,} I hear a familiar voice say in my head.

Freezing in place, I slowly turn my head to discover Terra eyeing me with a raised eyebrow. Rather than her usual attire today she wears all black, including boots, gloves, coats, trousers, eyepatch, and then a dense, heavy vest around her chest. Around her torso is a strap that bears a large, intricate firearm that’s inky black but embellished in silver. Lastly, she carries her tome in her arms, and In my hoary eyes, it radiates a bright silver radiance.

Though I am curious about the tome, my thoughts are elsewhere. {Thou didst not see!} I shout at her.

{Eating a finger?} She flexes her eyebrows. {Oh, but I did.}

Looking away, I stare at the glass-covered floor. {...Doth thou believe me a monster?}

Terra sighs. {Of course not, but you’ve called yourself a monster in the past, y’know? It doesn’t really seem like something you’re worried about.}

{I do not wish for thee to believe me a monster. That is different and not what I want.}

{Well, then don’t worry.} With a chuckle, she gestures toward where Mithridates’s original body was. {You ate what I think was Mithridates’s body before you ate that ‘person’s’ pinky.}

{Thou didst not see!}

{No, actually. I was giving the basement a quick survey and then arranged for the bodies here to be loaded for transport and autopsy. After which, I came in here so I could get a closer look at your new appearance.}

{Thou didst what?}

{I’ve only ever seen your ‘sable’ and childhood appearance through Earl, so now I get to see one of your other faces.}

Still seated, I float a few feet away from her. {Aaaye.}

{If your sable form was cute, I’d call this one… avant-garde.}

{...I prefer thee not use purely French phrases to describe my appearance.}

{Then how about eye-catching?}

I pull my hair that’s longer than I am tall in front of my face. {I believe we have more important things to discuss than my appearance.}

{True, I just wanted to make sure you were still acting normal after everything that has happened… Not that I don’t think this appearance looks good.} She smirks and glances at me to judge my reaction. I look away, so she continues, {But, while you were eating, I found some things of interest.} 

Releasing my hair, I shake my head. {Nay, I was not eating; the cattail did it on its own! The cords, they do not listen to me!}

{Well, you or the cattail, it doesn’t matter much to me; though, I’d prefer you stay away from any humanoid corpses.} Reaching into her pocket, she removes an insignia and holds it closer so that I may inspect it. {Anyway, take a look at what I found hidden in a cubby hole, maybe put there by Mithridates or just overlooked.} 

To my eyes, the insignia resembles a chalice with a man and woman kneeling and bathing inside the chalice’s cup. The pair have their backs to one another, and each of them has their hands cupped as if they are drinking the chalice’s liquid.

{Should I recognize this symbol? I am relatively certain I have never seen it before.}

{It’s the insignia of the Pit’s Maw. I doubt you’d have ever seen it before.} While returning the insignia to her pocket, she explains, {They aren’t a very active criminal organization, cult, or whatever they may be. At least, it would seem that way on the surface because they’re a cloak-and-dagger organization. The Pit’s Maw has no solid territory or headquarters, and it’s honestly rare to know they’re involved until their dagger is already at your throat. It’s honestly weird they didn’t return to recover these bodies.}

{Pit’s Maw? As in the Pit said by the Church in Light to be in Hell itself...?} I think for a moment and then nod. {Actually, I have heard that name twice. The Bishop and The Consortium have each mentioned them by name. The Bishop said I ‘looked the part’ for the Pit’s Maw.} 

{He probably just meant you weren’t human. More importantly, it seems to imply that they don’t have human operatives or at least they have so few that they have a non-human ‘look.’ After checking some identification on the bodies, I suspect those masks they wear are a more advanced variant of my veils and while alive it made them appear human.}

Her words make me remember the betrayer and the latter part of the Mithridates’s message. {Not crisp!} I crawl to my feet and race into the ball that the monster was confined to when I initially arrived. {Leo! He is a whiddler! Perhaps not even human!}

Following behind, Terra purses her lips and raises one of her hands with a confused look. {Could I get all that over again with some context?}

Tossing rubbish from the floor, I uncover a handle and reveal the last thing I saw. {Leo! I gave Leo that starfish glass, and then the person Mithridates was working with had it! They used it on the thing that almost killed me. If not for thy trinket then, I am uncertain if I would have survived!}

Her face turns red, and her eyes narrow. 

At the same time, Summer is wandering in through the door, wearing attire similar to Terra but with a shorter, plainer firearm. “Fairy, I’ve been thinking about what I’d say to you after I saw you earlier.” She looks me up and down and then says, “What I decided was, you’re a lot scarier than I thought, like a lot... but I love the foggy hair and dress thing you got going on. I’m jealous.”

‘...Saying naught was a choice too.’

“Summer!” Terra snaps her fingers and whistles. “Have Leo, Jessica, and their families taken into our care immediately—family unharmed if possible.”

Summer spins on her heel and marches out. “Sorry, Miss Galtry, I’ll pass along that order.”

{What art thou planning?} I ask.

{Well, maybe we’ll start with an x-ray to see if they’re human? If the x-ray shows they’re human, then I might have a doctor perform a vivisection to double-check. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how talkative they are.}

{Jessica too? ...Wait, I have not seen either of them in a while, hast thee known of this possibility?}

{I’ve been investigating both of them after their actions after the assassination attempt. They were already betraying the police by working for the Esposito’s and then betrayed the Esposito’s by working for us, so it didn’t seem like a stretch that they’d cross us too. Still, they acted like ordinary dirty cops throughout the investigation, and the contract never activated. Now, after what you told me, we have reasons to suspect they circumvented it somehow. I never expected the Pit’s Maw involvement, and besides that, I have almost no experience with non-humans.}

{...I suppose I should thank thee for thy caution.}  My head turns toward Terra in a hurry. {And Lorcan and Dylan! Have they been recovered? How are they?}

{Dylan… I’m not sure. They were trying to rush him to a hospital where a doctor I arranged should be waiting, but I haven’t heard anything from them since. Lorcan’s not well either, but he’s breathing. Honestly, his condition is difficult to explain. It’ll just be easier and quicker if you go see him yourself.} Squatting, she inspects the hatch in the floor and wraps her hand around the hatch’s handle. {And speaking of which, I need to get back to the surface. So if you’re ready, then I’m going to go ahead and open this hatch to make sure there isn’t anything dangerous. After that, I need to go.}

She glances at me, and I nod back. 

The hatch’s hinges creak as Terra yanks it open, revealing the inside of a surprisingly well-furnished chamber. There are beds, torches, storage chests, and other such luxuries. Though the ceiling is only around six feet high, it’s a dwelling far better than any I lived in while I was alive.

I glance at Terra who’s hair is now bobbing about after opening the hatch. {Now it all makes sense. The generators are on because they are needed to pump oxygen and cool air into this room. The paternoster probably just turned on when this place started receiving power because Mithridates, or whoever, didn’t know how to switch it off.} Terra grasps her silver tome and prepares it for a potential attack. {Anyway, I think we can say that there is definitely something alive down here.}

“Miss Galtry! I knew it!” a woman yells, charging from the far side of the chamber.

A silver sewing needle shoots from the binding of Terra’s tome, placing a shallow cut on the woman’s cheek. Lost for words, the woman stands with her mouth agape as a droplet of blood moves down her cheeks. 

Like her, I am also lost for words, not only because of Terra’s attack but also because of who it is standing before me... Emily, the Spirit Scribe that, like Jessica and Leo, I have not seen since the heist we performed weeks ago. 

Emily wears filthy and ripped winter apparel. Swallowing, she begins to try and fix her knotted light-brown hair. Her gaze drifts to me as she cleans her bloody cheek with her sleeve. “Y-your contracted spirit is so crisp. They’d be at home in a haunted house….” Then, taking two steps up a ladder, she pokes her head out and glances around. “Have you guys seen my tome, by the way?”

“...No.” With a short pause, Terra asks, “Are you okay, Emily?”

“Y-yeah…” Not finding her tome, a few tears start to fall from Emily’s eyes. “B-b-but, oh, Miss Galtry! That monster tried to get in, but I heard the fighting outside, so I blocked the hatch from opening! I’m so happy, I can’t believe it, but you came for me! You came to rescue me!”

Widening her arms, Emily tries to hug Terra’s feet, but Terra dodges the embrace a second with a quick step. “Uhm, sure Emily, in a way, I guess I did rescue you. But only by being under-practiced and missing your eye with that hex. You’re very fortunate.” Terra tugs a silver stand sticking from her tome, and the sewing needle darts through the air returning to the tome’s binding. “But, as far as rescuing you, we had absolutely no idea you were here.” 

I nod and then recall Mithridates’s message. ‘Did Mithridates also believed I was here to rescue Emily? I suppose he would have known we are acquainted, and his final words seem to imply as much. Except, if the monster was attempting to open the hatch, does that suggest Mithridates intended to use her as a prisoner? ...Emily should be thankful because I cannot say my decision would have been to her benefit.’

When all of Terra’s words have worked their way through Emily’s brain, her jaw practically hits the floor. “You didn’t even know I was here!?”

“No.” Shaking her head, Terra hugs her tome and explains, “I thought you might have been confined to your room in the church or possibly exiled to another branch. Anyway, I guess it’s good you seem to be okay.”

I nod in agreement. {Frankly, I thought Emily might have been the Bishop’s prisoner. The Bishop can read minds, so I assumed he would have found her out by now.}

With Emily still struggling for words, Terra takes the opportunity to respond to me. {There’s one of three possibilities: she’s simply too low in the church for him to bother reading her mind, he hasn’t read her mind at the right time to learn what happened, or he does know and is saving her for some other reason. The latter is part of the reason I severed association with Emily.}

Moving her hand to her forehead, Emily asks the only question her mind can piece together at the moment, “W-w-why would I have been confined or exiled!?”

“No reason,” Terra says with a shrug. “It was just an inkling I had that was clearly wrong.”

{Terra, should we not warn Emily of the Bishop?}

{No. The Hex Church’s congregation always thought Galtry and the Church had a great relationship. They just thought it was a well-kept congregational ‘secret.’ The kind of thing that everyone knew, but no one could prove. Consequently, Emily never actually knew she was outright working against the Hex Church by assisting me, just that it required a contract for discretion’s sake. It’ll be better for her if she can argue her innocence from a place of ignorance.}

{...Oh, aye. That is shrewd and has a fair chance of saving her from any severe punishments, at least.}

Terra kneels and inspects Emily’s body for injury. “So you’re okay, Emily? How long have you been down here?”

Frowning, Emily sighs and lays her head in her hands. “Yeah, I’m okay, and it’s a long story. I’ve been a prisoner here for a couple days, I think, but I’ve been in the sewers themselves since… well, since whenever the big spider attacked us.”

“The spider attack, around four days ago? The one from the subway station? Where the Hex Church and Church in Light were working together on the quest?”

Emily nods. “Yeah…” 

{Did we not know Emily was at the spider incident!?}

{No, we didn’t. The Hex Church hasn’t publicly released any of their Spirit Scribe’s names. They only requested that their tomes be returned if found and then said they want to make sure to notify first of kin before releasing any names.}

“Can you tell us exactly what you remember, Emily?” Terra asks.

“Well, the whole thing was kinda messed up, to be honest. I was in charge of preparing the manholes for us to hunt. The next thing I know, everyone comes running out shouting for us to run, and this big spider burst through the roof with an army. Everyone just abandoned me! I was the furthest away, and they all had a huge head start. I’m not going to lie, I wanted to kill those assholes; they basically left me for dead!” 

‘...So Emily did not witness anything, save for the spider and mosquitoes.’

Emily huffs and chokes back her tears. “Luckily... I had already opened a manhole, so I slid in just as one of the things tried to stab me with its mouth-thing. I almost skewered my calf on a rusty hunk of rebar, but whatever, those things were too big to follow me down the hole, and that’s all that mattered.”

Terra nods. “And what happened after that?”

“Well, if things had worked out, I would have left after things had cleared, but I dropped in next to a big, pulsating heart thingy. So suddenly, instead of the spider’s minions, I’m being hunted by some goldfish fish-eel-things! Goldfish fish-eel-things! It was still better than the other things, though, so I decided to run from them instead.”

“Please go on,” Terra insists.

“After that, I ran into a tiny… I don’t know; I guess it might qualify as a village. The village was inhabited by ‘whisker people.’ I spent a couple of days there because they had sealed all the manholes that lead to their village, so I couldn’t leave without going past the fish-eel-things. And of course, the whisker people didn’t want me to leave either; they just wanted me to stay and open up expired cans of food for them… So anyway, things stayed like that until some boat freak just came chargin’ in with hordes of flies...” Emily slumps over, laying her head against the ground outside the hatch. “Miss Galtry, I’m starving, and I really want to shower. Can I just tell you the rest later?”

‘Whisker people? ...Wait, could it be the cat-girl people Terra once mentioned!? Nay, they cannot be real! A whole village!’

Terra, however, neglects that portion of Emily’s words and merely nods. “Sure, you’re safe now, and I’ve got a lot I should be doing right now.” I glance back to see Summer returning to the room, giving Terra a thumbs-up while doing so. Terra nods and then points at Emily. “But to be blunt, Emily, you’re also extremely suspicious. Living underneath the floor of a known hostile, totally unharmed and unbound. Hence, you’re going to be taken into my care and questioned until I can verify your claims.”

“...Huh?” Emily’s head slowly rises from the floor. She blinks. “I’m… I’m going to be what, Miss Galtry?”

Summer approaches with a set of metal restraints. “You’re being detained and taken into our ‘care.’ Though you do not have the right to remain silent, we will allow you a warm place to eat and shower. So, please, don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be. I’ve had a really, really long day.”

“W-wait!? I can’t be a traitor.” Shaking her head, Emily points at her hazel eyes and shouts, “See! See! If I had betrayed you, I would have lost an eye! But nope! Both of them are still there!”

“I’m sorry, Emily, but an unaccounted for variable has only just made itself known very recently. As a consequence, things have become complicated, and I can’t rely on the contract’s terms alone anymore. The variable organization’s capabilities are simply too unknown.”

“No! No! My sister!” Emily raises her hands and tries to explain in panic, “I’ve been stuck down here for days; I need to let her know that her sister is okay A-S-A-P!”

“And where is your sister?” Terra asks her.

“She’s in the Hex Church’s school, so I have to go back! My sister probably thinks I’m dead; I don’t know how she’ll react to that kinda news!”

“All I’ll need is for you to answer my questions, then we’ll run a few tests, and later maybe have a doctor perform an examination. After that, if everything checks out, you can go back to your sister. Reasonably, you’ll only be detained for two or three days.”

Emily drops into the chamber and backs away. “Two or three, but I’ve already been missing for four days!” Emily replies.

With her out of the way, I notice something move in the far corner of the room.

‘It cannot be!’ I peer behind Emily to find a dozen shadows hiding in the dark. ‘....It cannot be.’

Not the rumored cat-girl, but rather, one of the original goals of the chamber pot tunnel expedition—the Elderly Rat’s offspring. They are all about six inches in height, excluding one closer to nine inches tall with a wide torso. 

The group shuffles forward together and grabs onto Emily’s trouser legs. With a squeak, the tall one pushes his siblings from his path and pokes out his chest. Then, he flexes his whiskers and glares at us with a devastatingly powerful expression.

{Terra, it’s the Elderly Rat’s offspring, and they are so small!} I shout at her through telepathy. {They need to be delivered to the Tower’s gates. All of the small rats shall live within the Forbidden Willow forest in Fairy’s Pantry. I will take them home to their parents! ...Though, they are curiously protective of Emily.}

{Sure, but I need to focus on everything else first. Particularly Lorcan and my injured people, so I’m about to leave now.}

My mood steadies. {Aye… my apologies.} I raise one of my hands, finding my hands are beginning to turn darker. The hoary haze is waning, my emotions are recovering, and I am squandering my ability to see spirits. {I have some things I must do now as well.}

Nodding, Terra raises a finger and points at Emily with fiery eyes. “Here’s how it is, Emily. I can’t offer you anything better than what I am. So come out of the hole, show me some gratitude and respect, and stop wasting my time. And if you dare shout back at me, ever again, I’m going to kick you back through this hatch and have it welded shut.”

Emily shoots through the hatch so quickly that the little rats are left standing as if they are still holding Emily’s trousers. “Sorry, Miss Galtry, thank you for your generosity and kindness,” she replies in a tiny voice.

Seeing the standoff ending, I start to turn on my heel to leave.

Yet, almost immediately, I am stopped by Terra’s voice in my head, {Are you going somewhere?}

{Aye.} Glancing at the tiny rats who all appear very wary of me, I nod. {I lent someone my sword, and now I must walk them home. Prithee, be careful with the little rats; they seem scared.}

Terra raises an eyebrow. {They seem to like Emily, so I’ll have her load them into carrier cages.} Her silver hair sways back and forth as she shakes her head and says, {And if you of all people loaned someone your sword, it must be important to you. So go. Before things somehow become even more complicated.}

{Aye.} I move toward the door. {Also, I shall visit Lorcan myself soon, but prithee, keep me informed on his condition.} 

{Sure. Just don’t get distracted and forget what’s supposed to be happening soon. Regardless of what has happened, and what might happen, we have to keep things moving forward.}

{I am aware. The candlelight vigil is tonight, and a few days after that, we will have a festival to celebrate the Tower’s grand opening. As promised, I shall be there tonight, the Tower shall be prepared for the first groups of token holders, and I am excited about the festivities.} Pausing, I glance back and then add, {Mayhaps I shall prepare something for thee to taste during the festivities?}

Her eyes drift to my bare feet.

Tilting my head, I look down to discover a heap of fly carcasses decaying into nothing from my feet’s touch. I shuffle out of the room. {Never mind.}