At first the sight of The Moonlit Tower is disorienting. Having stepped from the bright afternoon sun into darkness illuminated by the light of a full moon, it takes several seconds for my mind to transition. The area is similar to The Twilight Grove but with several distinct differences.
The first of these is the gleaming tower rising from the center of the area. Constructed in a rising spiral of gleaming white stone it looks more like it was grown from the earth rather than built atop it. The outside of the tower is covered in a mesh of black lines that seem to flow in strangely familiar and yet completely unknown patterns. Weaving their way around windows and even a couple of balconies the patterns cover all five floors of the tower.
The next difference is that unlike The Twilight Grove, The Moonlit Tower is surrounded by a verdant garden that thrives in the soft moonlight. Great flowering trees in shade of palest pink, and deepest purple loose petals to swirl on the breeze. Smaller trees bear fruit in the shapes of apples and the darkest juiciest looking cherries. On the ground delicate blossoms spread wide to reflect the moonlight in a dozen colors while spreading their soft sweet scents. The garden is beautiful beyond words. It grows wild with no semblance of order and yet it all seems to fit together perfectly.
“Oh Mel it is so beautiful. I wish that you could see it.” I whisper as my gaze roams over the garden. Mel lets out a small sad pulse that makes me sad while at the same time giving me a new idea. “Oh don’t be sad little one. Some day when you grow into a great tree I will create a garden just like this for you.” At this Mel seems to brighten and the pulses of energy she emits become happier.
“Okay we need to explore this place. I want to know what’s in the tower but first we will have to do something with the tri-horn and have a look around the garden.” With an effort of will I pulled my attention away from the garden and set to the task of cleaning my kill. It was a lot of work but the sharpness of my mana knives made any cutting I had to do easy. I followed Reina’s instructions as best as I could but still made a fair number of mistakes. When I was finished I was left with a stack of crudely cut meat, a pile of bloody bones, tattered scraps of pelt, and a pile of unusable other stuff.
I stored the meat and pelt in my storage belt and decided to leave the bones behind as I had little use for them. The pile of other stuff I levitated in the air with gravity magic before blending it all into a thick bloody liquid with a combination of water and pure mana. Toting my floating ball of blood behind me I began my exploration of the garden.
I found nothing of particular interest in the garden apart from an abundance of beautiful plants. Whenever I found one that was particularly pleasing I would approach it and try to make a deal. They couldn’t talk to me but seemed able to understand the offer I made. I would ask for some of their seeds and would offer a portion of my blood ball to them in return. Most of them accepted my offer but there were a few that declined. One of the trees in this latter category was a particularly pretty shade of deep red and purple. I made it several offers but was gently turned away with a small amount of disappointment. Even Mel joined in on the hunt for plants to add to The Twilight grove. She would occasionally direct me to a plant that she seemed to be able to detect, maybe she sensed its aura or something.
By the time we had completed our circuit of the garden my ball of blood had been completely depleted and I was left with a good amount of seeds for future use. I had collected moonblossom, midnight cherry, evening breeze, and many more. All were plants that thrived off of either moonlight or starlight. Some of the plants produced fruit, others had healing properties, a few were poisonous, and a couple were just pretty. All together they would make a good start to a garden for the Twilight Grove. In my mind I was picturing it as a place that held a little bit of everything that I could need while still thriving in the evening light and looking pretty for Mel.
With nothing left to see in the garden I slowly began to approach the tower. The gleaming white stone rose higher and higher above me as I drew close to its base. When I got to the wall I ran my hand lightly over the flowing back lines. The pattern teased at my thoughts with that same hinting familiarity while still maintaining its mysteries. I wracked my brain trying to figure out where I knew it from but came up with nothing. While the lines almost seemed to be the flow of mana it was not being shaped in any way that I could recognize. When I started to get a faint headache from my search for answers I gave a sigh of resignation and turned away from the walls.
I don’t know why I seem to recognize you but for now you will have to keep your secrets. Since I can’t make any progress out here I guess I should try and find an entrance and see what’s inside.
Determined to come away from this area with something to show for my efforts I started to circle the tower looking for a way inside. As it turns out I had approached the tower on the side opposite that of the door. Carved out of the same glittering black stone as the strange lines it stood out starkly against the white of the tower. Standing out just as clearly on the door was a sign carved out of the same stone as the tower. Leaning close I read it aloud to Mel.
“We leave this tower as remembrance of our lost leader, in the hope that one day she may return to us. Should her soul pass on to once more enter the great cycle of rebirth may it find its way back to the place she once called home.”
Hmmm so this place used to be the home of some people’s leader, I guess. I wonder if I should go in. It probably wouldn’t hurt anyone if I just took a look around. If the sign is still on the door then there is probably no one inside. Alright I’ll give things a quick peak and if it looks like no one has been there in a while then I’ll start exploring.
Reaching out I pushed against the door. At first I thought that it was locked but then with a loud groaning and scratching the door swung open. Inside small globes of light flickered before stabilizing and filling the room with cool pale light. The room was large circular and completely empty. A staircase started at the side opposite the door and wound its way once around the exterior wall before disappearing into a small hole in the ceiling. Spaced evenly around the room were six more sets of stairs that each lead down to rooms that must be below ground, and everything was coated in a thick layer of dust.
“Well Mel I don’t think that anyone has been here in a very long time.” I say as I take a step into the room and my foot gets completely covered by the tick dust. “There are no traces of anyone having been through here. We might even be the first to find the tower after it was closed up. I mean we did kinda find it by accident so it is likely. I am going to take a look around this floor. I want to see where each of those stairs lead before we go up.”
With plan in mind I start making my way to the first set of stairs on my left. I make it only a couple of steps before I have to raise a shell of wind around myself to keep from choking on the dust my steps kick up. This was probably not my best idea as my new wind shell kicked up even more dust quickly filling the room with it. More annoyed than anything else I called on my wind magic and began to funnel the cloud and any other dust that had not firmly adhered itself to something out the still open front door. It took several minutes of careful work but the air was eventually cleared and I set off once more towards my target.
Reaching the top of the stairs I looked down and could see that they descended about one level before ending at another black stone door. Going down the stairs and pushing the door open I stood confused for several long moments as I looked at what lay inside.
“Sand? They had an entire room for just sand?” I ask the empty air. The room was small being roughly rectangular with sides about two and three times my height, and the floor was completely covered in sand. I walked into the room and let the smooth grains of it play through my toes and over my feet as I searched for something hidden. I looked for a while but my first assessment of the room had been right. The place really did contain only sand. “What a weird person keeping a room just for sand. I wonder if it has any purpose of if the owner really was just weird.” I say to Mel as I make my way out of the sand room and over to the next.
Behind the second door was something just as weird as the first. A bowl filled with bright red and orange flames sat atop a small pedestal. Apart from the bowl of fire the room was completely empty. Okay the sand room was strange but this one could make a little sense. Maybe the owner came down here to cook or something. Hmmm that doesn’t quite make sense. Why hide your kitchen at the very bottom of the tower. It would kinda suck to have to climb all the way down just to cook a meal. These rooms must have a purpose.
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Pondering a few different possibilities I made my way from the flame room to the next. The single large floating ball of light that occupied this room started to give me an inkling of what the rooms might actually be. Not wanting to jump to any wrong conclusions I quickly went to explore the next rooms.
The next room over was filled only with darkness. It wasn’t a darkness that conjured fear though it was more one that was just the pleasant absence of light. After the dark room came one that had holes covering the walls. Through those walls gental breezes would enter and swirl about before leaving. Before I had even opened the door of the final room to reveal a large pool of water I had known what the rooms were meant to represent. “Mana. Each room is set up to represent one of the basic forms of mana.”
I was about to leave the room when I stopped. My gaze drifted back to the clear waters of the pool. Water entered in a small stream from one side and left through a crack in the wall on the other. Steam rose gently from its surface and I squirmed in indecision at the edge of the pool. Taking one final look around I let myself give into temptation and leaped in. A sigh of happiness escaped me as I was enveloped by the warm waters. It was the first time that I could remember taking a warm bath, the streams and pools I had used previously being on the cool side. The heat sank deep into my sore muscles and I found myself tempted to just lay back and drift in the waters warm embrace. Had it not been for my mounting curiosity about what ley in the upper floors of the tower I might have done just that.
Acting quickly to ensure that the temptation would not overtake me I began to scrub the blood, dirt and sweat from my skin and fur. Finishing as quickly as possible I exited the pool and made a silent promise to come back after I finished exploring. I dried myself off by using water magic to pull the water from me and then conjured some wind to fluff out my hair and tail. Making my way out of the water room I once more raised my wind shell and started for the stairs leading to the next level.
After finding all the small rooms on the first floor each designed around a single aspect of mana I was completely surprised by the second floor. The room was a single large open space encompassing the entirety of this floor of the tower. There was a large kitchen in one part of the room, a rusted iron stove taking up space behind a short counter. Dusty and worn shelves adorned the wall behind the stove either striped of their contents or what was once there having turned to dust. Another part of the room was taken up by a large bed. The final portion of the room held a large desk and shelves filled with books. Put all together this floor looked like the living quarters of whoever had once owned the tower.
Somthing felt strange about seeing everything here. Most of the stuff in the room was things that I could never remember seeing before yet when I looked at them I just knew what they were. The feeling was quite odd to say the least.
I made a quick circuit of the room but my curiosity inevitably drew me over to the shelves of books. All of my knowledge of healing and my resulting skills in magic could be traced back to a single book and to see dozens upon dozens of them here had me nearly squirming with excitement. My hopes for a wealth of new knowledge were quickly dashed when I pulled the first book from its shelf and it crumbled to dust in my hand. With a great sense of loss, I scanned the shelves and found that all the books were in similar if not worse condition.
“Why Mel? Why must there be so much here that we are simply to late for?” I asked.
As I continued to search the shelves for a book that had survived the ravages of time my eyes were drawn to what had once been a large painting hanging for the wall. Like the books most of it was lost to time. All that remained of the portrait was a woman’s face. She seemed young in the sense that she had no grey hairs, but her deep sapphire eyes seemed to hold a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. She had pale skin jet black hair and two furry ears on top of her head.
I don’t know when I started to cry but looking at the image of this woman sent deep waves of sadness crashing over me. Just like the exterior of the tower the image brought such a sense of familiarity that I could almost remember something that was being kept just out of reach. “Why does it hurt so much Mel? Why do I feel like I should know her? Why can’t I remember anything!” I asked through my tears, the last coming out as a shout. Mel responded by sending out soothing waves of comforting energy doing the only thing she could to make me feel better.
I’m not sure how long I sat crying in front of that old painting tormented by familiarity without understanding but eventually I made it back to my feet. I thanked Mel for being there for me and turned away from the painting. I was ready to find more answers and to be away from this place that was causing so much pain.
The contents of the third floor were just as much of a shock as the two previous ones. This floor was occupied by all manner of musical instruments. There were lutes and flutes and a myriad of others that I couldn’t identify. Some had as few as four strings and one even looked like it had fifty while some of them had none at all being designed for air rather than strings. They came in all shapes and sizes large, small round, and square and each of them looked completely unusable. Suffering the effects of time just like everything else the instruments had deteriorated and looked like a mere touch would cause them to crumble. I made my way slowly through the graveyard of forgotten things trying to puzzle out what kind of person the owner of the tower had been. First the rooms for mana, then a rather spacious living quarters, and now an entire floors worth of instruments, who in the world was this lady?
Finding no answers among the decaying instruments I made my way up to the fourth floor. This room was cluttered with old decaying papers. I walked over to one and looking at the faded ink on it I almost instantly recognized it as music. Notes crawled across the page carrying a silent melody. Below the notes separating each line of them were a collection of wavy lines that I also recognized as mana manipulations.
It was at this point that all of the small hints and clues started to come together in my mind. First the individual element rooms, then musical instruments, and now music set to flowing with mana. “She was searching for the songs Mel. It all makes sense now. Everything in this tower was to help her find the songs of nature!” I shout excitedly. Looking around the room at the stack after stack of music I could see that the woman had clearly devoted a good portion of her life to the search for the songs. A small thrill of excitement shot through me before I realized that I would be unlikely to find any of the songs here and even if I did I would likely not be able to understand them.
Now knowing what the tower had been used for and filled with a burning curiosity I climbed the stairs that lead to the top floor of the tower.
I’m not sure what I had been expecting to find in the final room but when I entered, I knew what I saw hadn’t been it. The final room of the tower was set beneath a large glass dome that let moonlight poor in to illuminate the single long glass case that was its only occupant. Approaching the case I could see that it contained seven sheets of paper preserved perfectly in their own individual pains of glass. Five out of the seven were willed with a strange dark mist that prevented me from seeing most of their contents. Looking at the two that contained on mist I gasped as I instantly recognized them.
“She found them Mel. She found all the songs and they are right here.” My voice was shaking and came out just barely above a whisper. I quickly switched my gaze from the songs of wind and water to search the other sheets. Mostly hidden by the strange mist I was able to make out bits and pieces. I think that somehow she enchanted the sheets so that they can only be read after you understand the song. That’s a bummer but I still can’t believe that they are all right here. Maybe I should take them with me. They are too powerful to just leave here and from what I’ve seen so far I don’t think anyone would miss them. But…
As I pondered the merits of simply stealing all of the songs my gaze was drawn towards the seventh sheet that lay in the center of the line. When I saw it my heart nearly stopped. “M- Mel we- we have to take t- these.” I manage to stutter through my shock. Mel replies with an uncertain pulse of energy as if asking why. “Mel that- that’s The Endless Song.” I would recognize the tiny bits of it shifting in and out of focus anywhere. The song had been constantly tormenting me since I first discovered the song of the wind. If the small glimpses of it I could see and the whispers of power it promised were true there was absolutely no way I could leave a copy of it here. Acting without conscious thought I raised my fist and brought it smashing down, shattering the case holding the songs.
The instant the glass shattered I felt a massive surge of magic go off deep beneath the tower. Oh shit, what did I just do? As the surge of magic faded a faint tremor passed through the floor and a soft groaning noise echoed up from the floors below. “Not good. Not good!” I shouted as I quickly grabbed the seven songs and put them into my storage belt. The groaning and shaking was definitely getting louder and I looked around desperately for a way out. Seeing the glass above me I threw a handful of mana daggers at it intending to break it and jump to safety but they simply glanced off leaving not even a scratch. “Shit not good!”
Just as I was turning to run for the stairs the tower shook violently and with a massive groan the floor beneath my feet fell away.
I was falling. Falling with the entire Moonlit Tower crashing down on top of me. In a desperate attempt to keep myself from being crushed I threw up a shell of gravity around myself that pushed debris away. I fell into darkness my scrams lost in the crashing of stone.