When the wave subsided, she found herself lying face down on hard, cold stone. She opened her eyes and tried to guess what kind of world she had been thrown into. She was inside a room, with stone walls and floor, but it didn’t look like the Castle or any other medieval setting. She couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why she had that impression, until she realized there was a constant rumbling that didn’t seem to correspond with a charge of cavalry or anything like that. Whatever was happening outside most definitely included explosions. Big ones.

Sarah sat up and tried to determine where to go from here. From the noises, she determined that she must be at ground level; glancing around she confirmed that impression by noting that the stony staircase went only up, so if there were more levels, they were all above that one. She went to the staircase, peeked through the opening, and arrived to the conclusion that she was inside some kind of tower.

Would it be too much to ask for an elevator?

She put her foot on the first step as a tremendous explosion shook the whole place and deafened her with its noise. The walls withstood the attack, though, and she decided it would be best to hurry up. She started climbing the stairs as the rumbling outside redoubled. It felt as if everything were about to come tumbling down at any moment.

As she made her way upward she noticed that the tower was square in shape. The staircase was enclosed between the stony walls; some kind of shaft ran through the middle of the tower, so there was no hole in the middle of the staircase through which she could fall. There were also no windows anywhere, so she kept wondering where she was and what was happenin outside for a long, long time. The stairs seemed to go on forever, and there were no intermediate levels where she could get out and take a look outside or just lay flat and rest.

After what seemed like two hours of climbing stairs, she finally saw the end of it. She was close to the top; there were maybe thirty more steps to go. As she calculated this, a different rumbling sound, more mechanical in nature, took her by surprise, and the inner walls trembled in unison. Then she heard the sound of a pneumatic door just above her level and somebody’s heavy steps on stone.

So there was an elevator? she thought, incredulous.

When she arrived at the top level she could cofirm that yes, what she’d heard was an elevator reching the end of its journing and its door opening. And the guy who was now looking through the glass, surveying the battle outside, was a blond, handsome guy with a big chest and an air of satisfaction.

“Hey, I thought I’d lost you,” he said, flashing a calculated smile.

Really? I spent an eternity stuck in the apocalypse and now I come here to be stuck with you again?

“Hello, Uberyn,” Sarah said tiredly. “Where are we?”

“Take a look,” he said.

The window ran across the four walls in their entirety, only interrupted by some columns of stone to support the roof, letting her see the whole landscape. They were about twenty stories high, and she could see pretty far away. The landscape was dark and mountainous; some of the peaks she could see in the distance looked like lava-covered volcanoes. In the vicinity of the tower there was a dark forest, and from there a row of huge, terrifying things came in their direction, slowly but constantly. Those were the things they were fighting against.

“Those things are floxas, and they are trying to break the Gate,” Uberyn said, pointing at something that was visible from the other side. “There are four towers defending it. This one is the Burner. We fight with fire. Up there, on the other side of the road,” he pointed to his left, “is the Piercer tower; they shoot arrows at whatever comes near. A little farther away from the Gate, on the same side of the road, is the Damper. You’ll see magic rays coming down from it once the guardian arrives. I hear she’s a girl. And the fourth tower is up there.” He pointed ahead and to the right. “Your friend is there covering our side of the road. That’s the Flasher tower and he is supposed to be firing rays of light, but I guess he’s not too bright so nothing’s coming out yet.”

Uberyn chuckled at his own pun. Sarah ignored him.

“Maggot is out there, then?”

“Where else? You left it at the Castle. If it weren’t for me, he’d be dead already. He’s truly a useless guy.”

“Can you stop being an asshole?” OK, that was not very Diplomatic from my part. “A wave took me away, what did you expect me to do? You could at least have trained him a bit, helped him improve.”

“A brick,” Uberyn muttered, and turned away to watch the battle.

Sarah dropped it and took a look around inside the tower. She saw several pipes running along the corners, made of bronze or some similar material, and boxes of the same stuff popping out the walls. There were also several small screens protruding from the inner walls around the elevator shaft, all of them framed in bronze and looking like antique TV sets, with old-style dials and buttons on the side. Once in a while a valve popped open in one of the pipes and let out a bit of steam. An old clock with Roman numerals hung from the roof, also framed in a bronze-like metal. Both Uberyn and herself were wearing leather clothes. It was all so anachronistic that she couldn’t determine if this was supposed to be the past, the present or the future.

She leaned forward to see the field of battle better. The floxas were coming down the road, straight towards the enormous Gate. Who knows what’s on the other side? It didn’t matter; Sarah had played enough “tower defense” games to know that the only important thing was to keep that Gate standing. The floxas were coming in a constant wave, but as they got in the range of the Towers, they fell one after the other. Enormous flames came out of the Burner, where she was now, setting the floxas on fire and making them collapse; they in turn set on fire the ones that came after them, if they were close enough. From the other side of the road, a rain of arrows came out of the Piercer every time a floxa managed to escape the fire, which happened quite often because of their sheer number. Sarah wondered if they were actually robots or some kind of organisms that could be easily replicated, or their strategy would make zero sense.

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“So how are we firing this?” she asked.

“The other towers are manually operated. This one fires more or less automatically,” Uberyn replied. “We need to keep the fuel deposit below the ground always filled and ready, and point our crosshairs at the part of the road we want to defend. Then the sensors located on the outside of the tower spit a flame every time a floxa gets too close to that point.”

“I see,” Sarah said. “That’s a job for one.”

Uberyn glared at her.

“Why am I here, then? You can manage to keep the tower fueled and targeted on your own.”

“Well, I don’t know why you are here,” Uberyn said. “It’s not like I summoned you. Those waves keep throwing you from one world to the other. Barely my fault. Anyway, I could use some help. The fuel this tower uses comes from gems that need to be harvested. And guess where they are: behind enemy lines.”

Really? That makes no sense at all. Fucking Pac-Man has a better plot than this.

“You won’t kiss me again, Uberyn,” Sarah said.

The blond beast tried to look shocked and offended, but he was a very bad actor.

“What do you mean? Oh, yes. That kiss. I had forgotten. It was long ago.”

“It won’t happen again. Look, I’m not mad about that. Really. But I need you to be my friend. Right?”

“Right,” Uberyn said, glancing at the battlefield as if to appear disinterested. “But why do you need me? You can play on your own, nothing’s stopping you.”

“No, you see. I—”

The Damper tower started firing then. Sarah leaned over again and watched the scene unfold. Barely visible pulses came out of the Damper, like shockwaves, making a hollow sound. When hit by those pulses, some floxas broke down and collapsed in pieces; the rest went unharmed, but slowed their pace a bit, as if walking against a forcefield.

“Hey, this is awesome!”

The voice came out one of the small screens on the inner wall. Sarah turned around to see: she had recognized the voice.

“Undaya! We were both washed out in the same shore,” she smiled.

“You’re fucking crazy, you know that?” Undaya said. “You’re lucky that the wave swept us off before you could jump.”

“You were jumping? Where? Why?” Uberyn asked.

“Ah... long story,” Sarah waved him off. A few seconds earlier she had been about to tell him of her quest; now she was doubting again. Also, it was really a long story.

“I see you got the gist of it pretty fast,” Sarah said.

“Oh, I’ve been manipulating magic from the start,” Undaya explained. “I’m a mage class, or I suppose a witch.”

“Maggot is here, too,” Sarah said.

“Really?”

“Yes, in the Flasher. Let me see.”

The screen that corresponded with Maggot’s tower was off. Sarah pushed some buttons, turned some dials, and finally managed for Maggot to come into view.

“Hey, Maggot!” she greeted him.

“Oh, hi,” Maggot said. He looked frustrated, concentrated on achieving something. But when he saw Sarah, his face lit up. On seeing Undaya, though, he frowned.

“Hey, sorry about that thing,” the big-eyed girl said. “I was afraid, so I ran.”

“No problem,” Maggot said. “Let’s talk later. I am trying to—”

He disappeared from view.

“Undaya? Is it you?”

A male voice now, coming from the other screen. The guy in the Piercer tower. He was white, reasonably handsome, and wore a big brown mustache that put him decidedly in the “antiquated gentleman” camp.

“Gervain! Long time no see! How are you?”

“A bit complicated at the moment,” Gervain said, looking out of the picture as he talked. “These things are coming faster and faster. Thank the gods you’re here now.”

“Maggot could help too,” Uberyn whispered.

“I heard that,” Sarah said, and after a second added, “asshole.”

She looked out. Gervain was right: the floxas kept coming and coming, and they were inching ever closer to the gate thanks to that seemingly idiotic strategy consisting on sending more and more of them to die under the fire, arrows, and magic pulses. The tower vibrated constantly with the shock of explosions, because they happened nearer now: the things were already at the tower’s gates. If they for some reason decided to attack the tower itself instead of going for the Gate, we would be toast, Sarah realized. An uncomfortable thought.

“Maggot, are you there?” Undaya asked. She looked worried. And in fact, some floxas seemed to be eager to abandon the road to go and attack the Flasher tower. Maybe the lack of defense made them bold.

“I’m— I’m here,” Maggot said, reappearing on the screen. “Just let me put this thing on.”

He was in the process of putting on a couple of silvery wristbands and a headband made of the same material. He was having trouble getting them to stay put. Sarah guessed they featured a diamagnetic lock.

“Has he ever fired that thing?” Undaya asked. Now she definitely was worried.

“Not that I know,” Gervain replied. “I wanted to help him but the longer he stays inactive, the busier I am here shooting arrows.”

“I can help him,” Sarah offered.

“No,” Uberyn said. “We need gems. You should go get some.”

“Why me? Why don’t you go?”

“You need training,” Uberyn said. “It’s a chance to acquire some skills. Let me take care of Maggot.”

“You seem to have been taking care of him for a long time, and he still hasn’t shot a single ray of light,” Sarah retorted.

“These things don’t lock,” Maggot complained. “Look.” He put his wrists in front of the camera. The wristbands didn’t seem to feature any kind of lock indeed, and his efforts in trying to close them were unsuccessful. Each one had an opening of about one inch, which might be the reason why they were not working.

“The longer he takes to make it work, the more important is for you to bring those gems,” Uberyn said, looking her in the eye. “I’m trusting you more than anything right now.”

Sarah looked down, cursed internally, and sighed.

“OK,” she finally said. “Take me to my horse.”