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{Loaded.}
[>>Now replaying: Log 3.16.0 - XVI -The Tower (Upright)]
Date: Error
Location: The Bunker at Progress’ Head // Zephyro’s Domain
[//draw the deck of Marsailles]
[>>The tower yet stands but it will not for long.]
[//Initiate the falling sequence]
[>>What was true now is not and]
[//Dial the lightning frequency]
[>>Sudden upheaval follows, presupposes and necessitates sudden freedom]
[//imagine yod.jpg —fire —ball lighting]
//After great pain, a formal feeling comes—//
//… is associated with sudden, disruptive revelation, and potentially destructive change… //
[//witness]
//16. THE TOWER.-- Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
E3 %What happened after she burned the Tradeweaver's Palace?%
I wanted to be safe.
I wanted to reach the Palace.
In the aftermath of my losing control, this thought alone drove me forward, and Zephyro took his place at my side as I hurried on. Instead of berating me for literally drawing a giant pillar into the sky, telling our enemies where we were, he kept quiet. Perhaps he didn’t know what to say, or didn’t trust himself not to yell at me after I had lost control. Perhaps he was afraid of me. I couldn’t say, even if I dared to try.
The road ran straight to the fortress, mere kilometers away and clear in sight, and yet I was lost.
It was as though the world around me was crumbling in more than one sense. Of course, it was still glitching sporadically, even though the errors had become rarer the closer we got to the center of Zephyro’s Domain. But more than that, I felt my grip slipping. I’d let my anger suffuse me for so long. Had let it grow deep roots and dark branches, and as I grew with it, I’d shaped myself around it. Not relying on the anger to keep me going was like ripping out the walls and pillars that carried what was left of my confidence.
I was tired. Not just of running, but of always having to run. My hand still ached, but my sore muscles were worse. I didn’t even think about the bone-deep weariness that had started to settle where my rage had been.
Golden highlights on marble fronts became the norm the closer we got to the palace, but they all blurred together after some point. Our rapid steps echoed on seamless asphalt, and shadowy alleys watched our progress.
Occasionally, we would find a straggling citizen, and Zephyro would stop to pull them up and tell them to use the side streets, while we would stick to the main road to lure the enemy away. We hadn’t encountered any monsters during the last kilometer or so, but I guessed it made him feel like he was helping. I wished I could help, too, instead of being useless, or even worse, a traitor.
For a split second, I waited for my anger to take over, to decimate those thoughts that threatened to pull me under, but then I remembered, gritted my teeth, and just tried to not listen, pushing the words ravaging my mind as far down as I could.
To distract myself, I tried to balance my speed with my rising core temperature and wondered where all the Ferals had gone. We knew there were at least three rats, two different wolves, and a giant snake alive somewhere in the city, but they were nowhere to be seen. Only when I heard a lone, anguished scream swell and die with sudden finality did I realize what they had been up to.
I ran faster.
Out of breath and with sweat dripping even from Zephyro’s brow, we finally arrived at the palace gates. From afar, the white-and-golden building had looked like a large, square fortress with lavish ornaments, but now that I actually saw it up close, all my assumptions were set straight. It wasn’t just large, it was massive. Its walls were carefully constructed of individual bricks higher than Zephyro was tall, and seemed to rise up to the shrinking sky. On either side of the gate, the walls reached into the distance, going on for at least a kilometer before ending in circular towers.
The gates themselves were easily 20 meters tall and 10 meters wide. Covered in highly detailed iconography, they formed an imposing sight of metal and gold, artistically arranged around a beautiful relief of a torch that dominated their center. The emblem’s artwork was incredibly intricate, enough to show each individual grain of the handle’s wooden grip. The artists had even set massive braziers into the surface, to make it seem like the Torch was burning, shedding its blue-and-golden light over the plaza, and holding the growing night at bay.
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A large crowd was huddled in front of the gates, trying to press through a smaller portal on the side of the main doors. The smaller doors were open wide, but still only fit one or two people at a time. Zephyro and I came to a stop as we reached the crowd, and while the Vizier immediately began to coral his subjects, I turned around and watched the thoroughfare for hostiles. I thought about following after Zephyro to help, but what did I know of leadership? Just enough to get people killed.
The main road opened into a large square which laid in front of the fortress-like a sprinkling carpet. Millions of perfectly cut cobblestones and precious gems were set into a mosaic of a torch radiating light. It reminded me of the one I’d destroyed under the first arch we passed, but this one was far, far bigger. In fact, it was large enough to be almost fully visible even though thousands of people had crowded in front of the gate. I doubted this sort of ostentatious display of wealth would even have been possible in the real world. The gems alone… I had never seen so much onyx, opal, and rubies in my life. The handle of the torch was covered with them, and that stretched all the way down to another arch at the entrance of the plaza, which in turn was covered with enough gold to blind someone, had the sun been shining directly on it.
Instead, its elegant curves and radiant symbols of moons and stars and glory enshrined a burning city and pitch-black darkness. Down the road, far in the distance, the outer walls had long since vanished into dark fog, and the void covered more than half of the city. I looked up, and sure enough, only a tiny circle of stars remained right above us, winking out one by one. I was about to tell Zephyro to hurry up when I caught movement on a nearby rooftop, slightly different from the twitching of the fire.
My head snapped up, but all I caught was a long, furry snout withdrawing. Could have either been a rat, or a wolf, but one thing was clear—
“We got incoming,” I yelled over my shoulder.
Zephyro cursed. He barked a few quick orders I did not understand, and seconds later I felt his presence to my left. His chainmail chimed and his sword sang out of his scabbard, composing a minuet promising violence.
“Where?” he asked, but he didn’t wait for a response, raised his sword as though in a dance. The curved blade shone red, reflecting the surrounding void-framed conflagration. It drew a slow arc across the sky and its infernal sheen intensified, burst upward from the steel. It flickered in the air, now red, now silver, and directly above us, in the center of the square, a giant moon blossomed from thin air. It was an almost perfect silver sphere, pulsing gentle defiance against the void, so large that I felt as if I raised my hand, I could simply reach out and touch it.
As I gazed upward, awestruck, a tiny sliver of red appeared on the far side of the moon, claiming its surface inch by almost imperceptible inch.
Bathed in this moonlight, breathing felt just a little easier. The heat surrounding us relented. The stench of burning plastic waned. And when I pulled my torch from my belt, it seemed lighter than before. I flicked its blue flame to life, and it shone brighter ever so slightly.
{NEW CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE AVAILABLE: ZEPHYRO_MAINFRAME}
Beeeeeep!
[$ sws autoscaling create-auto-scaling-group X://ZEPHYRO_MAINFRAME]
[>>Now load-balancing with ZEPHYRO_MAINFRAME]
“Holy shit Zephyro, why didn’t you do that earl— Zephyro?”
He stumbled forward, and before I knew it, I stood in front of him, propping him up with my back as I held my Torch in front of me, ready for an attack. His form stuttered. I could feel it against my shoulders, and heard the discordant screeching of one of his glitches. Then it passed, and with a grunt, he straightened again and gently pushed past me. His hand flickered. He clenched it into a fist and the glitch was gone.
“Zephyro?” I asked again, but he just shook his head, staring ahead. His face bathed in writhing shadow, avoiding my eyes. I leaned forward a little, and even though he turned his head away, I caught blood running down his cheeks. It seemed that whatever he had done earlier with his Logic, it had run out. Or perhaps supporting all the people on the plaza on his mainframe had driven some piece of hardware or another past its breaking point.
“Do not worry about me, Sultana.”
“But—“
“I said, do not worry!” he snarled over his shoulder, and I jerked back.
He grimaced. “… Sultana. Please, I can do this.”
As I recovered from my shock, that cold feeling welled up in my fingertips. “I only wanted to—“ Something scratched against the cobblestone behind me.
I whirled around, torch blazing, and hit the Rat mid-pounce. Pharus dug deep into its weirdly distorted stomach and from its mouth, and bile erupted all over my chest. Then the momentum of my swing sent the creature tumbling backward. It flipped in the air and landed on its feet. The green substance covering me sizzled and popped on my padded coat.
{CPU Load: ▼ 88%}
{Core Temp: ▲ 72° C}
I only had a brief moment to notice the UI improvement before another rat joined the first one. And then another. They chittered, fur bristling.
“Three rats. One spits acid, no idea about the other two. Can you see them?”
Or at least they looked like rats. Mostly. They each carried different modifications, as if a mad scientist had grafted tubes and containers holding bright green fluid onto living animals.
“No Sultana,” Zephyro said. Blue light flashed behind me, and his breathing sounded less labored.
Damnit, I had hoped the tracking was automatic! I took a step forward, spinning my weapon. The blue flame roared as it trailed through the hot night. I opened my stance a little, trying to coax them into giving me an opening.
Just as the one on my right twitched forward, I heard Zephyro curse behind me. I couldn’t lose focus, couldn’t check, had to wait for… there! The rat scurried forward, approaching rapidly until it reached pouncing distance. The other two scrambled to keep up lest they miss out on the meal.
I got my mace ready.
The first rat tensed, twitched.
My eyes narrowed. Patience… I had to hit it right at the apex, just like before…
Instead of jumping as I had expected, the fucker spewed acid all over my torso. As I recoiled, the bile sizzled on my armor and an acrid stench filled the air. I tried and failed to suppress a violent coughing fit, pulling back blindly until the fumes dissipated and readout coalesced in the remaining smoke.
{CPU Load: ▲ 85%}
{Core Temp: ▲ 75° C}
Another coughing fit wrecked me. I took one more step backward and stumbled over something I couldn’t see, inadvertently offering a window of opportunity to the other two rats. Falling through a haze of tears, I could see their predatory instinct glinting in their greedy eyes, just a split second before they pounced. I followed my momentum instead of trying to find my balance, letting myself drop with the intent to transition into a backward roll. But while one of the rodents’ leaps sent it sailing over my head as intended, and it crashed against something very hard and unforgiving, the other beast corrected its trajectory, slashed its claws against my thigh, and robbed me of what little remained of my balance.