Somewhere in a tall apartment building, in the middle of a city, on the top floor. A room filled with all kinds of surveillance equipment, and serious people. Here a team of police and federal agents observe various screens, take notes, and attempt to gather evidence on their target. They had just recently secured the apartment for surveillance the van being too conspicuous, and the suspect had seemed to catch onto its presence. Detective Mercer had made the call to abandon it for a more long-term approach as they were yet to get anywhere. The upside was now they could see more clearly into Nicholas Knight’s apartment.
With their new location, they settled in, as they rarely actually see Mr. Knight enter his living room or leave his apartment in general in the last four days. Nor had they seen the giant woman more than once or twice. They still hadn’t found any records for her at all. Both of them were like shut-ins except they seemed very active outside joining all kinds of classes.
Detective Mercer and the other officers were a bit baffled by all this, especially when they would just seem to appear in the apartment after leaving. The best they could figure was the building had a secret way out that he was paying for. So when Mr. Knight suddenly started spending time in the living room, in full view of the camera they paid close attention. It also completely confused them.
What the hell is he doing? Mercer could only wonder as he watched the man shove all his furniture to the side. Then he brought out what looked to be piles of books. When he pulled out a piece of chalk and drew strange symbols on the floor. It was when he brought out the candles that Mercer realized he was doing some kind of ritual. “Is he a Wiccan?”
“None of our records show him practicing or even being interested.”
“What about his meet-ups he goes out to?”
One of the federal agents goes through some files and it’s a good five minutes before he responds. “Looks like there’s one or two Wiccans in a few of the events and none seem to have anything to do with the occult.”
They watched him work like a man possessed. Constantly drawing and redrawing symbols, lighting candles, smearing strange substances, and even drawing blood.
“Why is he so desperate?” Mercer asked aloud.
“Desperate?” Bennet asked.
“Look at him.” Mercer pointed to the screen and then the stuff around Mr. Knight. Piles of disheveled books and weird items were tossed around. Mr. Knight himself looked ragged and tired. “He’s grasping at straws. Even trying magic. For what?”
Bennet turned away quickly to look closer at the screen.
No one had an answer and all they could do was watch the man appear to have a breakdown on camera. Then he began to chant.
“Bennet turn up the volume I want to hear what he’s saying.”
“Y-yes” Bennet stuttered oddly.
Detective Mercer eyed Officer Bennet as she turned up the volume. Odd. He turned back to the screen as the words came through. Somehow the words seemed to harmonize and dis-harmonize with each phrase spoken. It was unsettling as hell.
How did he do that?
Then a blue arrow shown in the middle of the circle pointing directly at Nicholas. The man smiled at first before moving himself left to right as the arrow followed.
It only took a minute before he. Began shouting “GOD DAMN PIECE OF SHIT SPELL!. Why wont you work!”
The man ranted for a while about various magics, bad mana, and other random things. I guess that settles he was trying to cast a spell.
“What did he hope to do?” He asked his team.
They all looked lost except Bennet whose eyes were locked to the screen her face going pale.
#
High in the celestial sky, where humanity dreams and wonders, in a place that shouldn’t be. In an impossible building, a man opens a door to an ordinary office, where a little doll sits on a chair behind a desk, playing on a tablet.
The man slams the door shut beyond tired, and frustrated. Nicki had been going through spell after spell for the last couple of days with no results or hints at where the book was. Hell, he didn’t know if they didn’t just burn the damn thing, but he couldn’t count on that. No, he had gone through the library trying spell after spell there only to learn that none of them would work on a different celestial entity. Days wasted. Then he went back to his apartment to try again, only to learn less than a quarter of the spells were able to be actually cast. The mana was either too thin, stagnant, or polluted with something, probably carbon monoxide. He had learned in his research man could be bogged down combined with common air pollution if stagnant.
Then after hours and hours of work, literally bleeding for his magic, nothing worked. He had nothing to lock onto the stupid thing. He thought he had been clever trying a spell that locked onto the greatest mana source in a hundred-mile radius. Used very little mana, and was compatible with his world. It was perfect. That was until he learned he himself was the biggest source of mana in a hundred miles.
It was only after all of that did he actually wondered if the book even had mana in it. Sure it did all that weird metaphysical stuff but was that a mana source or something that tapped into the reader’s internal supply? Nicki had no idea, and at this point, he was grasping at straws. No, he was trying to catch clouds, invisible clouds, clouds that he didn’t know if they even existed.
That wasn’t even the worst part, some of the more promising spells required a lot more focus or time, and every time he got the ritual going or started to follow the tracking pull, he would be snapped out of it when a Hero appeared. Completely, shattering his focus or simply breaking the connection.
Nicki let out a long frustrated growl as he banged his head on the office door.
Drystia looked up from her tablet, “Didn’t work?”
“No, it went to the closest source of mana.”
“Was it you?”
Nicki stood and made his way to the desk, “Yes.”
“So, was the spell a prank?”
That hadn’t occurred to Nicki. It was very possible the spell would be there to misdirect the caster, but he didn’t see it being likely. “I don’t think so. Honestly, I can’t tell at this point.”
Placing the tablet down she took in Nicki’s appearance and frowned, “You’ve been at this for almost three days straight. Take a break.”
“I have?” Nickis was shocked not realizing how long he’d been at it. He rubbed his hands and wrists. They felt sore and painful. When he looked down he was surprised that even the purple lighting seemed dimmer. He was so tired, but he needed to find the book.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Drystia’s voice became serious, “How many circles, intricately detailed, and insanely complex magical circles have you drawn?”
After thinking the answer he mumbled under his breath.
“What was that?”
He let out a long sigh, “Seven. Fourteen if you count doing them here. Not to mention the other spells.”
“And how many have worked?”
“Technically, I think they all did.” Drystia stared at him with an eyebrow raised. “They just don’t have anything to lock on to.”
“So none.” Her voice was flat.
Nicki’s head fell, “No.”
“Take a break.”
He needed it. But if he just went home he would just dwell on the entire thing. He didn’t want to deal with that. He looked down at her tablet and got an idea. He had plenty of emails.
Catching his glance her eyes narrowed, which was interesting to see on a doll. “Consulting is not a break.”
Nicki didn’t have the energy to argue it, “I know. I just. I just need something to take my mind off this. If I go home-” Nicki’s voice trailed off.
Drystia must have heard the pleading and understood. “Nothing crazy.” She pulls up her tablet, “How about a tower?”
#
In a place between what is real and not. A place that sits between one moment and the next. Where a God is sitting in a library of his own creation with a man who can supposedly assist with his request. Erot was a God who loved his people dearly and did what he could to make their lives better. Yet, he was a firm believer in subtle guidance and letting his people learn on their own.
Erot had slowly learned that that might be the best approach. His world and people were stagnating. The people at the top had found a balance that kept their people just happy enough that they wouldn’t rebel, and the neighboring wars were just symbolic things. They were all happy to keep everything the way it was. They hadn’t even attempted to find magic, to Erots ever frustration.
Erot loved magic and just wanted to share it with his people. They were too stubborn. No one believed the dreams he sent no matter what he said. The priest completely misinterpreted them, sometimes out of selfishness, but more often even they thought it was some kind of trick by a demon. That had gotten even the idea of magic considered heresy for almost a thousand years.
Now though something was coming and he no longer had the luxury of going slow. Erot didn’t know the best way to get his people to learn, and he did not have the best track record. That’s when he decided to reach out for help. He sat at his little desk deep in his domain and opened a book. Searching through the multiverse for something, when a page caught his eye. “Hero Inc.?” He found himself intrigued, the more he read. It even gave him ideas on what to do. Taking a chance he filled out the form, and that’s when he learned of towers. They would be perfect.
Not a minute after filling out the form, a human man appeared. He was confused, Erot had been expecting another deity, or possibly a concept, not a mortal human. Though. He took a second tasting the mana around the mortal finding something more.
The man spun around before locking onto Erot. He smiled, “Thank you for choosing Hero Inc. I am Nicholas, and I hear you are looking for a tower.”
“Yes. A tower appears to be what I need.” Erot didn’t know what a mortal could do. “You can help me with that?”
“I can certainly try. Now, the most important question. What kind of tower do you want?”
Erot expected this. “What are my options?”
“A lot. It really boils down to what your goal is.”
“For them to learn magic.” He stated simply.
“Even that has a lot of options. Do you want to limit them to certain kinds? Do you want a system that will essentially just grant the magic to them? Do you want to implement a fighting system in the tower where each floor is a new challenge while they slowly gather power as they climb floor after floor? Or maybe they can gain a crest that would unlock your world’s magic and evolve as they learn? There are so many options, just in this category.”
Erot was shocked at the number of options for learning magic yet, “None of those feel right.”
The man took a breath, “Hmm. Well, those were just off the top of my head. Let’s really dig into this. We still need to figure out how many you want. If each will be the same, or offer unique magic, forcing your people to explore your world more. What happens if they reach the top? Is there a time acceleration? If this is a metaphorical tower or a real one. Do you want a tutorial? Limit the ages of participants? There is so much to go over.”
Again was surprised by this mortal. It appeared he really knew what he was doing. For the first time since he filled out the form, he grew excited. This would be a lot of fun.
#
One day on an ordinary day. On a blue-green planet, people went about their days doing their normal things. Then suddenly they weren’t. Towers reaching deep into the sky and beyond into places no mortal should go.
When the towers came no one knew what they were. They didn’t know the kindness and wonder contained within them. The pure desire to teach the world of a hidden energy that had alway been there waiting for the people to tap into. Three days after they appeared the people vanished into the towers.
When the people were taken they arrived alone in a small room. A place the people will refer to, with a shudder, level zero. It was here the people were taught to unlock their magic and mana. The first people were rightfully confused, angry, terrified, and many lashed out. The tower constructs created to teach found the nobles were the hardest to convince and teach. No one wanted to remember the arduous and painful training they went through to be able to unlock their mana, but no one would not say it was not worth it.
Maho was once a simple farmer near the end of his life. He had taken to magic like a slug crossing salt, at least in the beginning. It took him decades of work to unlock his magic, while others rarely took more than a year. So much time passed that he was one of the first to learn the truth of the tower. They didn’t age inside. Of course, he didn’t know if there was a time limit but he should have been long dead before ever connecting to the power inside. His mind had been slowing for years and nothing the teacher did seemed to stick to Maho. His mind just couldn’t make the connections, until finally it did, and his mind expanded making connections after connections.
Then he was released upon the first level of the tower just like everyone else, and told to climb to level ten to return home. All that he had to do to climb the tower was search out one of the many schools of magic and learn their specialty. Once that was completed he would be given a test and be allowed to explore the floor more. Even learn another school of magic. If they wanted. It would just take another year of time.
Maho knew most people were too impatient, or would just want to get home. So he assumed most of the people would work with one or two schools. The driven might do three or four, and the ambitious five or six, maybe more, but how many floors would they last? How long would it be before they simply stop and only focus on a single school? How many didn’t realize they had all the time in the world?
Maho? Maho was patient and old. There was nothing to rush him through. Maho smiled. He loved just how mana made him feel. His old joints didn’t hurt, his eyes cleared, and his muscles moved how he wanted them to, no more shaking. He was old yet rejuvenated. With him being the last person on level one he began to whistle as he walked to the first school of magic.
- Excerpt from the Biography of Maho the Magic the first Archmage Hero of the people.
#
A smiling man steps through a door, into an office, where a large woman is busy stacking a tower of her own out of various books, printers, monitors, and other various office supplies. Nicki looked to the tower and then to Drystia who smirked at him before continuing her little project.
Nicki laughed at the site.
“By the smile, I take it, it went well?” She said as she tried to balance a chair on top of the tower.
Nicki could only watch in fascination as he answered, “Yeah. They just wanted to teach their people magic. Then somehow we essentially turned a tower into an academy. Have to pass a test to reach the next level.”
“I thought towers were things you had to fight and kill your way up. Risking life and limb to barely eke out enough power to level up or evolve to beat. Then repeat till at the top.” She said as she let go of the chair seeing it surprisingly stable.
“That’s how it normally goes. Sure, there’s usually some kind of twist. You go in mortal show your worth going through some trial. Then you get a crest or a system, or maybe a grimoire. Or maybe you get that before the tower and that’s what lets you access it.” Nicki paused as he watched Drystia jump in the air changing back into her doll form and sitting atop her tower looking down smugly. Nicki shook himself before continuing, “Then there are the towers that release monsters and have to be climbed to stop. But those are usually done to contain rifts uncontrollably releasing them.”
“That explains some things, especially from the books I’ve read.”
“You know most of them are true. Or at least the setting.”
“Multiverse thing?”
“Pretty much.”
“Who teaches them?” Seeing my confused look Drystia added, “The people in the teaching tower?”
“Oh! Angels.”
Drystia stared down from the top of her tower, trying to decide if I was being serious. Then she leaned back and the entire pile began to wobble and collapse. Strewing office items all over the room.
“You good?”
Drystia’s voice came softly from below the rubble “Yeah.”
With her safety confirmed, Nicki laughed.
* * *