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Chapter 36: The First Floor
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“However dire the situation, that must be avoided at all costs. Under no circumstances must the seal be broken, lest we shall all know a suffering from beyond even the Gods’ control.” ~ From “Council” by Corio 4723 A.P.
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A fleeting tremble swept over her skin like a shiver that began and ended in an instant. Suddenly, as if all the candles in a bright room had all at once been blown out, darkness descended over the colosseum only to be replaced a moment later by a new setting.
A high ceilinged common room spread out around her; it was filled with similarly battered, bloodied, and beleaguered test participants along with several people who looked no worse for wear, as if the tests had borne them no challenge whatsoever. These must’ve been accustomed to killing. She could see the first and third tests being relatively easy for soldiers, adventurers, or mercenaries, but what of the second test? Had they all underwent something like… that? She shuddered at the remembered vision of her father’s melting face and her mother’s body, pulverized, and crumpled against the wall.
The room was wide and circular with rows of seats arrayed in a semicircle around an elevated stage with a rei screen in the same style as the one in the application plaza affixed to two curving beams extending down from the ceiling. Many of the test participants were already seated, and the others were either standing stupidly like herself or making their way towards a chair. The room was large and the seats were plentiful, but there were shockingly few people. She remembered the seemingly endless crowd that she’d ran through during the first test; compared to that number, what was represented here was shockingly low. How many had died?
Arwen had materialized in a mostly empty row towards the back of the amphitheater and, seeing nowhere better to go, promptly sat. Low murmurs buzzed in whispered tones throughout the large room, amplified slightly by its circular shape and the echoing walls, but most people were silent. She couldn’t imagine wanting to talk to anyone after what she’d just been through, and she shot venomous glances to either side of her row to ward off anyone from sitting too close to her.
A door opened from the wall behind the stage, and a man strode out underneath the rei screen to take his place at a podium in the stage’s center directly in front of and slightly above the newly arrived participants. He was pale and had an angular sort of face that was neither attractive nor ugly, but rather plain, like a porcelain doll or a marble statue. His skin, even from a distance, looked extremely smooth, and his face bore no expression at all. Light blonde hair tumbled to his shoulders in shining curled locks, and he wore a grey robe accented with black on the edges and on the sleeves of the undercoat which peaked through from beneath the hems of the robe. He stepped behind the podium, scanned the crowd from left to right, then looked off at the distant wall behind Arwen’s head, and spoke.
Immediately, his voice revealed his identity, and his plain manner transformed into that of an animated orator; he gestured with his hands in sweeping arcs as he spoke, and his voice rose and fell in rolling tones of high and low, emphasizing or dragging out words and syllables for effect. Throughout his speech however, his face remained a placid emotionless veneer.
“I am Tobi, the administrator of the Testing Floor and your subsequent tour guide of the tower’s first floor. We will begin with a presentation here, then I will lead you on a tour of the various facilities found on this floor. Congratulations for completing the testing stage, and welcome to the Meridian Tower’s First Floor!”
For a moment, no one spoke; Tobi’s nonchalant speech had doused the group of survivors into a stunned, disbelieving silence. Recovering from the oration, the crowd erupted into shouts and curses, insults and questions hurled at the man (though Arwen was hesitant to call Tobi a man, for his face bore only a passing resemblance to that of a living human) who, in their minds, had subjected them to the horrors of the testing floor.
Arwen gripped the armrests of her own chair, but remained silent. A boy a few chairs to her right glanced over at her, then turned back to face Tobi; he too was silent. The shouting seemed to quiet slightly as one man’s voice dominated the cacophony.
“Fuck the tower, fuck Gillataria, and fuck whoever the hell this Sakyubi imposter is. I demand to be released. The Queen of Anador will be having words with your heretical king! Free me immediately!”
The man who spoke was standing some two rows in front of Arwen, close enough that she could easily make out his bright orange and white cape with its depiction of a grand, golden glowing spear overlayed upon a background of white and a pale orange crescent moon. The cape was draped over his plated shoulders and brightly polished armor which shone dazzlingly despite the streaks of darkened red blood that stained its metal. He wore a helmet that concealed his features from her, and a sword hung at his hip; in his right hand, planted firmly against the ground in a pose that shouted defiance, was a tall, intricately carved spear with a head of gleaming steel that spoke to the wonderous feats of the bladesmiths of Anador.
Tobi’s head turned mechanically towards the spearman, weighing him with vacant eyes. “You wish to leave before your contract is expired?” His words were even, cold, and completely impassive.
“You’re damn fucking right I do, I didn’t sign a contract with your bloody goddess Sakyubi, I’m the Queen’s man through and through; you’re a bleedin’ lot of thieves, crooks, and fucking daylight robbers, and I demand exit!” The rest of the participants quieted at his vehement tirade, their gazes fixed on Tobi’s indiscernible features. A palpable air of hesitation settled over the ampitheatre.
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They all knew that they’d been played, but the brand on each of their wrists was a real enough reminder that they were locked into the tower’s machinations for the time being. Arwen still bore the remnants of the last man’s defiance as blood on her clothes, a potent reminder of the explosive fate that awaited the disobedient. She suspected that many of the participants felt the same as the Anadorran, but ultimately what could they do but bear with the grief of the tests and move on until the thirty days was over and they could leave?
Seeming to have made up his mind, Tobi gave a curt nod. “Very well, The Venerable Goddess Sakyubi has heard your plea.” With no more preamble than that, Tobi raised an empty hand towards the spearman. The armored Anadorran looked at him with a shocked, somewhat disbelieving expression as if he’d expected to be ignored or denied and was surprised that he had actually been acknowledged.
Arwen felt a thrumming in the air, a gentle reverberation, and a tingle in her brand. It warmed ever so slightly, faint enough that she wouldn’t have felt it if she hadn’t just been sitting there doing nothing but paying attention to the spectacle before her. Nothing visually changed about Tobi’s hand; there was no shimmer, no accumulation of color, no growths or particles, but nonetheless her attention was irresistibly drawn towards it like a mote of flotsam into a whirlpool.
The tingling in her brand intensified, heating to an uncomfortable burning. All around the auditorium she saw people gripping their wrists or holding their arms away from them, yelping in alarm or cursing in pain. The spearman clearly had it the worst of all. He cried out in agony, then hefted his spear to his shoulder as if to throw it at Tobi. He placed a foot up onto the chairback in front of him, then cocked the spear back, the arm in which he held it visibly shaking with barely controlled pain. He screamed, a bellowing cry of rage and torment as he began twisting his body into the throw.
“The Venerable Goddess Sakyubi thanks you for your contribution.”
Tobi closed his hand into a fist, the pale, outstretched fingers curling into a ball.
The spearman’s cry was instantly snuffed out. Like a taught rope cut from above, the Anadorran went limp and collapsed into a heap of heavy armor onto the floor. His spear clanged against the ground beside him, rang as it settled, then stilled. Arwen shot up out of her seat and rushed forwards, gripping the seat in front of her, staring at the heap that was once a man. From over the backs of the chairs between them, she could make out his clothes and armor. They were empty, formless, lacking the substance inside to give them the shape of a person. She saw bulges beneath the clothing like cords of cable or rope, present but ever so thin. He’d been withered.
Arwen took a few steps back then collapsed once again into her seat. Dead in an instant. We’re truly trapped here. The refrain that’d brought her to the tower, the stranger’s words, echoed once again in her head, and her uneasy mind settled. She’d grow strong enough to climb the tower.
“If that is all, then I will proceed.” Arwen felt a tingling on her chest under her shirt strap and a sudden rush of invigorating energy that refreshed and energized her. Tobi returned to his place behind the podium, continuing to speak as if the incident with the man had never happened. “Your Key Tokens are now inert; their rei has been transferred to you. You may discard them or keep them. It is irrelevant. The Goddess’s mark on your forearms will serve as your identification within the tower as well as performing a host of other functions.” Tobi gestured upwards, and the screen above him became colored with a circular diagram crisscrossed by lines that formed various shapes within.
The crowd took it in quietly, only faint whispers permeating the space as Tobi continued. It seemed as if they’d been dissuaded by the spearman’s example, and now thought only of their continued survival. That’s how she felt, anyways, but scanning the other survivors she noticed many who sat still, calmly deciphering the diagram, which Tobi had revealed as the blueprint of the tower’s first floor, or surreptitiously surveying the other participants.
“How do you think he did that?”
Arwen ripped her gaze away from the diagram of the large rectangular training room on the screen and glared towards the source of the voice. An adolescent boy, maybe sixteen or seventeen, she couldn’t tell exactly, was sitting just two seats away from her. She was sure that last time she’d looked his direction he’d been at least five times that far, almost halfway across the room. He pushed a draping curtain of birch-brown hair from his forehead and rubbed at his nose with a sleeved wrist, then looked at her with supplicating green eyes and a small, shy smile. Without knowing why, her hostility began to dissipate. How had he gotten so close without her noticing?
“What do you want?” she hissed, anxious to draw Tobi’s attention. He squirmed, then shrugged. “I just haven’t seen that before, you know? Kinda creepy.”
Creepy? Her father’s melting face, her mother’s deranged eyes as she charged her, knife held high, the exploding man’s blood splattering her face and clothes, getting into her eyes and mouth; the images flashed in quick succession through her mind, and she grimaced, a simmering anger bubbling up inside her, warming her. Seeing her reaction, the boy apologized.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to offend you or anything. My name is Kai. What’s yours?” The way he spoke was so irritatingly soothing and placating; it infuriated her. Did he not just go through the same three tests as herself? How was he so… calm? Normal? He offered her another encouraging smile, a strand of silky brown hair falling over his face again. Hesitantly, she answered. “I’m Arwen.”
“It’s good to meet you, Arwen,” he said, turning his body back towards the front of the room and looking up at the rei screen. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to meet anyone reasonable here. Everyone I came across in the first test tried to kill me.”
The screen had switched to a chart that listed amenities available in the tower such as food, beverages, and living supplies with their attendant costs in “Meridian,” a currency accredited to their brands for winning duels in the tower.
“And you didn’t kill anyone? How did you get here, then?” Arwen asked. Kai glanced at her inconspicuously under his hanging bangs. He’d given up on taming them.
“I snatched tokens from people that didn’t make it. I don’t know where you were, but near me there were plenty of people who killed indiscriminately, even after they’d certainly already taken three keys. I laid low. What about you?”
Arwen shot him a glare dripping with renewed venom. “What about the other tests, then?”
Kai frowned at her aggression. “The other tests?”
Now it was Arwen who frowned. Had he only taken the first? How was he here, then? “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Why are you even talking to me, anyways?” she asked.
The moment of tension passed, Kai returned to his normal composure, looking back at the screen. “If we’re going to survive in the tower, then we need allies.”
He was so earnest that she had trouble staying angry at him, but she wouldn’t allow herself to trust anyone yet, especially here. She didn’t like the prospect of facing the tower alone, though. She’d been alone for so long, having someone to watch her back would be a huge relief.
“I… okay. Why me?”
The screen switched to a long list of numbered names in columns starting from one and counting down. The name at the top of the list was “Zeroth”.
“Because you look strong.” Strong? She was a mess of caked blood, mud, tattered clothing, frayed hair, and overall dishevelment. All she had for a weapon was the knife she’d taken from the sandy colosseum floor. It did give her a certain look of feral danger she supposed, but not strength. “And you were the closest to me in this row. Plus, I like your hair. It reminds me of my brother.”
He's strange. But she did need an ally. She knew that the majority of the goings on in the tower were solo combats, but if she wanted to climb then she’d need to be prepared for anything. An ally would help with that.
“Okay. I’ll team up with you. But don’t get in my way. I’m going to climb the tower, with or without you.” Kai gave her a warm smile, his emerald eyes glinting.
“I look forward to it,” he said.
Tobi clapped his hands and the rei screen returned to a blank slate.
“Follow me, I’ll take you to your quarters.”