William sat on the ledge of the second story window of Joscurs' home, staring out into the colorful street and the sun setting off into the west, its' last few rays of light bursting defiantly over the horizon. He'd been there for some time, sitting and watching the city thrive. It brought peace to him after facing the hardships of the Wastes. He was wearing a set of white robes, loosely tied together around his waist and arms with leather belts. He'd been given the simple garments by Joscur, who had bought them for him earlier. His rags had been thrown away; William hadn't minded. His sword was leaned up against the window beside him. His lips had scabbed over quite well. He was no longer thirsty.
He thought through and remembered everything that he could about the day, telling himself what had happened as though recounting a rehearsed story. After the lovely woman who had offered to take care of him if he needed, Joscur had lead William through the streets on foot. The two of them together passed through throngs of people shopping for this and that. There had been so much to see that it felt to him as though he hadn't seen anything at all on their way to getting him registered.
"The first thing we need to do is get you some new clothes," Joscur had said with a smile. "I am sure that once you are out of whatever that used to be you will feel much better!" As they walked, Joscur kept looking back at the young man he'd just saved, apparently aware of the fact that he might lose him in the crowd. At the mention of the state of his cloths, William reached up and tugged what remained of the make shift hood off of his head, letting it fall to the ground as he followed quietly behind his savior. He looked around him from time to time, looking at people and things to pass the time and distract him from the thirst he had still been feeling.
The people that they passed all looked at William with equal mixtures of curiosity, worry, amusement, and outright surprise. It seemed that everyone in the city had darker skin than him, a clear sign that they had spent their life out in the sun while he either had not or that he wasn't from the Wastes as they were. This of course begged the question in many of their minds he was sure, 'Where is he from? What is he doing here?' He'd heard the questions before and would hear them again he was sure. He was content with letting them be curious about him though, making sure to keep his sword close and the tip pointed down to the ground so as to show he was no threat.
As they passed from one curious onlooker to the next, their words lost on William from his lack of understanding their language, he looked instead more closely at the buildings that they were passing by. Many of them, it seemed, served as both shop and home. As far as he could tell, most of the bottom floors were where people were selling things. People stood outside of sand stone door ways with their arms waving from side to side, speaking excitedly and gesturing towards this product or that. Some were selling furs, others foods like meat or even fruits and vegetables, although just what kind they were William couldn't say. Some were selling pottery and glass work, others it looked as though they were selling clothes of a similar fashion to what Joscur was wearing. Why they hadn't stopped there to get William some, he still wasn't sure hours later.
Some of the shops that they passed didn't seem to be shops at all, but were perhaps more akin to theaters. The vendors would stand in front of their crowds speaking in ways that were obviously meant to draw attention to themselves and what they were saying while they made grand gestures. One such vendor was constantly gesturing at paintings, motioning from one to another while another, younger, person would occasionally move them around or even replace one painting with another. Another vendor was using puppets to try and draw people in close. People who watched these entertainers paid them in applause, laughter, and the occasional gleaming stone. William couldn't be too sure of what they were using as currency, he had no time to properly inspect such things then and there.
Above most of these shops and vendors with people walking in and out of the ground floor entrance ways were more people, appearing as though to go about their day to day life. Some hung clothes out from window ledges while others sat on the ledges, sipping at a drink in colorful glass cups or talking to people standing on the streets. People moved within the buildings at a slower pace than those down on the street, their purpose not rushed by the time of day or the competitor right next to them. William could see children playing and mothers and fathers gaily giving chase to them, elderly people taking naps and even one couple dancing. Most of the buildings on either side of the street that he could see clearly had only two or three stories at the most. The further into Mirage you got, William saw, the taller the buildings became.
There was one vendor that caught William's eye that seemed especially fetching in the moment. Along a right hand street corner, a very portly man with a thick gray beard stood with a ravishing smile upon his face. He wore thick robes of yellow and rich purple, his arms waving in the air and his voice almost melodic as he seemed to sing about his product of choice – water, or wine, or perhaps just some sort of juice drawn out from some of the fruits that they'd seen before. His stall was adorn with thick bladders and sacks of dark leather, filled to the cork with some mystery fluid and hanging on twisted leather braids. William had wanted to stop and get something to drink from this man but didn't ask to, simply licking his lips and letting Joscur lead him on.
It was just after this vendor when Joscur took a left down the street, turning onto another with William in tow. "Tell me William," he had said, looking back at the pale young man, "how much do you know about Mirage?"
"Not much," William lied, giving a final look at the plump liquid vendor before turning back to Joscur.
"It is a long way yet before we come to the proper clothing shop, perhaps I can tell you about my city?" Joscur suggested. William just nodded, letting him speak and listening while he looked above their heads at the people flying above them. The flat metal strips that people flew upon came in many different shapes and sizes, ranging from a single person being able to stand on a particularly thin strip of metal and surf upon the air to great, curved carriages, almost like boats, with nearly a dozen people aboard. These modes of transportation were usually customized to whomever was riding aboard them, with silken wrappings creating billowing tails for some while others had many a stuffed pillow to sit upon. Some it seemed were equipped with small tables to be sat at while the riders enjoyed a luncheon together. All of them had beneath them an incandescent emerald green orb that left behind it a faint glowing trail that lingered so long as there was shade to give it cadence but quickly vanished within the sunlight.
"What are those?" William asked Joscur, pointing up above their heads. Joscur looked back at William then up to where he was pointing, looking perplexed for a moment and stopping on the street to give his company a more focused glance.
"Those? The natators?" Joscur asked, somewhat hesitantly as though expecting William to jest with him. When he took a moment to consider Williams' serious, shale gray eyes and the limp expression that denoted any sort of humor; he conceded that the young man with him truly didn't know what a natator was, which only intensified the mystery of this pale young man from the Wastes. "They are called natators. They are very simple machina that most people use for transportation within cities. Above us is the sky streets, where natator pilots are allowed to fly their crafts. Natators are not allowed down here on the street level," he explained, smiling at the end of his quick explanation and waving his hand onward and walking along. William followed.
They made a right turn two streets down from where the liquid vendor had been and went straight for a while, the streets becoming less and less crowded the further into the city that they went. There were less and less shops as they went along, too, buildings giving way to more residential looking housing complexes with more and more people appearing as though they lived in the intricate, almost hive like buildings. At various places, people piloting natators would come to a stop just beside a wooden platform that was connected to the roof or one of the higher floors of a building. Those on the metallic and decorated crafts would disembark and tie their floating carriages to the platforms with a thick rope on one of a series of wooden rings, where they would continue to float while their presumed owners ducked indoors to conduct whatever business they meant to.
On one of the streets that they walked, William noticed a sudden increase in the number of women that were above. Most of them were young, almost all of them were clothed in fetching red garments that seemed at once light as air and thick as lead, revealing just enough of their bodies through the flowing fabrics to let the imagination stir while remaining surprisingly decent. The street was not entirely devoid of men though. Those that were there were usually in the arms of a woman, or sitting across from one, or holding ones hand and seeming to make them laugh. There were smiles all around and a heavy perfumed scent in the air that was at once faint and undeniable.
As they walked by, many of the women took notice of William and began to chatter among themselves in curious tones. Some looked excited, others simply raised a brow. It wasn't long before a small crowd of the scarlet clad women flocked towards the two of them. Joscur had to stop and hold his hands up, a smile on his face that spoke of regret and at once worry. The women around them spoke over one another, each wanting to have their voices heard. A few spoke to Joscur directly but most flocked to William, their silken garments carrying them to the pale young man like water down a drain. They spoke in Mirage-Tongue, reaching out and running their fingers over his bare chest and shoulders, pulling the blanket down. He could only look around with a slight flush over his face, at once confused and certain of what was going on.
It wasn't until Joscur raised his voice, now speaking his native tongue, and turned towards William, reaching out and waving his left arm back and forth did the women take a step back, looks of disappointment and denial etched on their faces. "I am sorry, friend," Joscur said, giving William an apologetic smile. "They saw you and came over with curiosity. They thought that you were from the north, perhaps beyond the Ysgrambull mountains. They uh, got a bit excited at the thought," he said, flashing a smile that said he knew exactly what this place was without them having to be told, a knowing sort of smile that one obtained from some long held knowledge left over from boyhood. William understood as well.
"We call this Scarlet Boulevard. Come, maybe we will visit later once our more pressing matters have been attended to," Joscur said, reaching out and clapping William gently on his sunburned shoulder, turning and walking on down the street. William winced lightly at the flare of pain in his shoulder and followed after his guide, giving a last look at the women of Scarlet Boulevard who awarded him, a couple of them anyways, by reaching up and pulling back the front of their crimson robes to either side, exposing their breasts to him and shaking back and forth while other women screeched and hollered with laughter. William blushed lightly and sighed, turning back ahead and away from Scarlet Boulevard and pulling the blanket back over his shoulders.
On they walked further into Mirage, the buildings growing taller with the shade it seemed as mid day turned towards the beginnings of evening. By then, William could see what was to be their destination, although he didn't know it at the time. There was a single, tall tower that seemed much taller and wider than all of the other buildings in the city, much more intricately designed as well. Natators flew in and out of the upper levels, as though it served as a navigational throughway for he pilots or a hive for some flying insects that made Mirage play host to their swarm. Just how many stories tall it was he could not say at the time, but even from as far away as they were he knew that it was without a doubt the largest building in the city.
Joscur came to a stop at the corner of a street, looking down to the right of it into the shadow of two buildings. William followed his gaze and saw a team of men working, five in total. Four of them stood on the street itself, side be side and spanning the breadth of the street while the fifth stood off to the side with a series of utensils at his disposal. He was a short, stout man with strong, rippling muscles and very broad, almost rectangular shoulders. He wore no shirt, though his thick wrists had on three thick, glistening silver colored bracelets apiece. His stocky arms each held a tool, his left holding onto the handle of a rather large mallet with a polished wooden handle and a round, cylindrical head while his right held on a thin metal bar up over his shoulder with a flat, wide head. Around his waist was a leather belt packed to the brim with other tools of varying sizes and he wore a pair of thick, slick looking knee high boots that were tied over with three belts each. The four men in the road wore a similar set of boots along with a suit that covered them from head to toe. They looked thick, black and rubbery and their forms were obscured by them. On their backs was a pair of metal tubes that had two hoses connected to each of them and spanned the length of their backs. The left tube had a thin wire like hose on the bottom which the workers were holding in their left hand. Atop both of them was a short, crescent shaped metallic elbow of a tube that connected them both together. The right tube had a thick, rubbery hose that looked to be of similar fashion to the material their suits was made out of that was connected at the top. This long hose connected to a strange, sort of gauntlet on the workers' right hands that looked as though it were complicated in design. Each of them wore a helmet on their head that looked similar to the leather clothing that Joscur wore but had a pair of goggles attached to them with retractable antenna connected to the lenses so that they could be lifted up and down on their face.
"Wait here a moment," Joscur said, sparing William a glance before walking down the street towards these men. The shirtless man shouted out something in Mirage-Tongue and lifted the mallet he held off of the ground a couple of inches before letting it fall. The four men responded something back in kind and turned their heads towards the ground. William followed their gaze and was somewhat surprised to find that the ground in front of them was made of sand, not glass. There was a decent bit of space between where they stood and where the alley they were standing in ended and the multicolored glass road began again. As one, the four of them lifted up their right hands and clenched their left fists, fire erupting from the palm of their gauntlet clad hands not a moment later. The fire was thin and concentrated, almost entirely blue. The stream of flame shot down at the sand and spread out, the men slowly moving their arms back and forth while keeping them quite rigid. The ground in front of them quickly went from sand to molten glass. They would cover over a few inches of sand before the shirtless man stepped forward, lifting his mallet completely off of the ground and hefting it over his shoulder. He shouted an order and the flames stopped, the four of them taking steps back as one in practiced movements.
Joscur called over to the man, drawing the attention of a couple of the suited flame-throwers. The boulder of a man didn't seem to hear him though. He stepped onto the sand just a foot or so away and brought the long, thin tool off of his right shoulder, holding it out in front of him and pressing the flat end onto the molten glass. He dragged the tool towards him, spreading the red hot liquid sand like butter. It wasn't until Joscur was right beside him that the man looked up from what he was doing. He, too, wore a pair of goggles although his head was absent a helmet. Words were passed between the two that William couldn't hear, Joscur seeming to do most of the talking while the other man worked at spreading the newly created street to connect up with the already completed one. Before long, the burly man looked over at William and for the first time he had a proper look at the man's face, minus his eyes. Most of it was obscured by thick, kinky hair. His beard seemed to constitute the entire bottom half of his face while his mane billowed out on either side of his neck to rest on his shoulders, barely held down in place by the strap of the goggles. His nose seemed broad like the rest of him and his cheeks looked strong and gnarly.
A few more seconds passed between Joscur and this man before he turned to one of his coworkers and held out the long, thin tool. One of the suited men hopped over the line of molten glass and snatched the tool out from his hand, resuming his work while he and Joscur walked over towards William, who straightened up as they approached. He was much smaller in stature compared to whoever it was that his savior was bringing over, despite being a good deal taller. "William, I would like you to meet Daniellex, a very good friend of mine. Daniellex, this is William, the young boy I found in the Wastes that I told you about," Joscur introduced the both of them.
Daniellex, hammer still held over his left shoulder, held out his right hand in an offer to shake. "Pleasant moons to you," he said, his voice thick and rough like gravel. William reached out and took his hand, gripping the callous, leathery grip as hard as he could while Daniellex did the same to his comparatively soft hands. William made sure to grip this new acquaintances' hand with his ring and pinkie finger while his index and middle fingers laid flat against the burly man's wrist. He only flinched because of the sunburn on his hand being agitated. "Pleasant moons," he said back in kind, unsure of the significance of the phrase but thinking it polite to respond in the same way.
Daniellex smiled, a gesture that could only be seen by the movement of his beard, as he let go of William's hand, turning to Joscur and saying, "He is practically a citizen already, eh? Greeting me in the same way! I thought you said you found him in the Wastes today?" Daniellex said, his voice jovial.
"I did. William must be sharp of eye and ear, picking up on some of our customs already!" The two friends shared in a chuckle over this. William remained silent.
"Well, he is awfully pale for a wanderer of the Wastes... you do not think he is a reaver," Daniellex said, making a statement rather than asking a question
"If I thought that, I would have let the reauslers have him. There is much mystery around William here that we have yet to solve, and I have not yet asked him. Such things can wait, I simply wanted you to meet him now since I saw you working so that we could forgo these introductions later," Joscur said, giving William a slightly curious look. Daniellex nodded, looking to William as well and saying, "Well, I am sure that we will have more time for a more in depth introduction later, when I am not working of course! Joscur, I will stop by later for dinner and we can both interrogate him together, eh?" The pair chuckled and Joscur nudged Daniellex's burly shoulders. He didn't budge. Looking back to William, Daniellex said, "Soft winds to you, William. I shall see you later!" before turning and walking back towards the other four workers, barking something in Mirage-Tongue as he went. William looked at Joscur, waiting for him.
"Never mind what he said about interrogating you, he was just joking," William's guide explained, perhaps thinking that William had taken it seriously. The pale young man showed no signs of reaction. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Joscur chuckled and gestured back towards the street they had previously been on. "Come. Let us see about getting you some clothes and getting you out of the sun for a while."
On they went, leaving Daniellex and his group of road workers behind them in favor of completed streets and pleasant strangers. William had begun to suspect that the words spoken to him in passing in Mirage-Tongue were likely that phrase that Daniellex had spoken to him, 'pleasant moons'. They only walked a few streets past where they had met with the burly man before stopping in front of a small building sandwiched between two larger buildings. The two buildings on either side seemed to William to be entirely dedicated to residents. The building in between was decorated with ribbons of colored fabric, in nearly every shade imaginable. They walked into this building together and once inside, William looked around.
The inside of the building was modest but purposeful. There were tables made out of a dark, ashen colored wood that held on them folded sheets of colored fabric, all solid colors on one, all designs of a similar manner on another and another. To the west side was a counter carved out of stone. A young woman stood behind it, talking with a customer who was holding up a sheet of cloth with a wave pattern on it. Stone mannequins stood next to the eastern wall, crudely carved and draped with clothing. A staircase lead up to the second story of the store where, no doubt in Williams' mind, the young woman lived with her family, or perhaps there was simply more cloth to be looked at. Aside from the woman at the counter, the customer she was dealing with, Joscur and William, there were two other people inside – a young man with a child at his side, holding their arms out and letting him hang pieces of this color fabric or that on them; a brother or a young father perhaps.
"Pick out whatever you want, I will explain why you are dressed as you are," Joscur said, smiling and giving him a pat on the shoulder before walking over towards the counter and leaving William to his own devices. He watched as Joscur make his way across the clothing store and got the young woman's attention. They exchanged a few words with Joscur doing most of the talking. She looked concerned for a moment or two as she looked over at William and saw his unsheathed blade. He turned away.
William meandered through the store slowly, reaching out and running the fingers of his left hand over the colorful items, feeling their texture, trying to decide which ones he wanted. He was aware that Joscur was looking at him as he wandered about, taking note of the seemingly distant and dazed look in his eyes, as though he were still out in the Wastes and this was all an illusion to him. He didn't pay him any mind, but instead went about his business in selecting an outfit to replace what was left of his previous one, which had burned quite nicely in his descent. As he walked slowly, he gravitated towards the young man and the child with him, who were near the mannequins. It didn't take them long to notice him. The child, a young boy, looked at William with awe and curiosity. The young man, who stood just a little bit shorter than William, looked at him with confusion and concern. The child said the increasingly familiar words in Mirage-Tongue, followed by the older man to shush him and hold a hand out, saying something that William didn't understand.
"Pleasant moons to you," William said, greeting the two of them as best as he could, hoping that by doing so he'd ease the apparent tension in the air between them and let them know he didn't speak their language in the same gesture.
"Oh! Pleasant moons!" the boy said, grinning from ear to ear and looking up at his elder companion. "Baba! He does not speak Mirage-Tongue!" the young boy said excitedly, making William smile despite the pain it caused his lips. He could tell from the excited tone in his voice, his age, and how his apparent father gave him an embarrassed grin that what William was speaking was his second language. No doubt he was eager to use it any chance he got.
"No, he does not by the look of him," the young father said, turning to William. "I am sorry, are we in your way?"
"No, I was just looking..." he told them, trailing off. The young father looked behind him at the mannequins, then back to William. "Oh, well, we will not get in your way of looking then. Come, Mamo," the young father said, reaching out and placing his hand on his son's shoulder. They walked away from William, the boy turning to wave at him and wish him well in Mirage-Tongue. William watched as they went to a different part of the small store, noting how Joscur and the young woman were looking at him. He turned his back on them and looked instead at the stone figurine in front of him, at it's white robes that hung over its' broad shoulders and wrapped around it's non existent waist. He tried to imagine what it would look like on him, knowing full well that this was what he would get without having to look at anything else.
"Do you like it?" Joscur asked, walking up behind William as he was looking the garment over.
"Yes. This is the one I want," he said simply, not turning to look at him.
"Are you sure? I brought you here because of the wide variety of colors to choose from, I bring my daughter here often enough. Perhaps you might want -"
"No, I'm sure," William said, half turning and looking at Joscur with an expression of certainty that couldn't be denied. Joscur nodded slowly, looking up at the garment over William's shoulder. "This one, then," he said before gesturing over towards the young woman at the counter. She walked over towards them promptly, passing by the young father and his child. William took a step back as she approached, letting her do her work and take the white robes from off of the stone figurine. She turned to William and held the clothes out for him, saying something in Mirage-Tongue that left William looking at her silently.
"She said that you can go upstairs to change into them," Joscur translated. William nodded, reaching out with his free hand and taking the white clothes from her. He turned and walked towards the stairs while the woman and Joscur talked to one another in their native tongue. The stairs were cool against his feet, the shade of the building making them much more comforting to his raw and irritated skin than the sand and glass outside. He climbed them one at a time, not looking up to see where they were taking him. When he got to the top, he turned to his left to see the hall that lay before him. It wasn't terribly long, enough to have three adjoining rooms to his left, each one a changing room. A window looking out onto the street was letting sunlight in at the end of the hall. He looked out at it momentarily before walking to the door closest to him. A curtain was hanging in front of it, thick and the same color yellow as the sun. Lifting his sword up, he pushed the heavy cloth aside and stepped in to change his clothes.
A few short moments later, William walked back down the steps to the main room of the store. Joscur was standing there with the young woman, casually leaning up against the counter and smiling as they talked together in their native tongue, laughing amongst themselves. William smiled at the sight of their simple enjoyment of one another's' company. It was a sight that he never got tired of seeing. William walked over to the counter, gaining Joscur's attention in the process.
"Ah, look at him now! Much better, now that you are out of those rags!" he proclaimed jovially. Williams' smile widened as he lifted up his left hand, holding the rags in a clamped ball, the blanket now folded under his arm, showing the two of them that he still had what he'd come in with. Seeing the gesture of ownership, Joscur laughed and shook his head. "You won't need those anymore, what you're wearing will be your clothes from now on," he said, turning back to the young woman and untying a leather string holding a pouch on his belt. Opening up the pouch, he tilted his hand over and dumped three clear, shining gems into his palm and held them out to the young woman. She took them from him, placed them into an unseen container behind the counter, and gave him back three amber colored stones roughly the same size.
A giving of thanks was given, or so William assumed, and Joscur nudged his head towards the door. "Come William, we have much yet to do," he said. Giving a final look at the young woman, he said, in Mirage-Tongue, "Pleasant moons," and turned to go. William gave her a nod and followed, feeling much more comfortable and much more protected from the sun now that he had something proper covering his skin. Joscur took the blanket from him.
On they walked, heading towards the center of Mirage and their destination – the termite hive of a tower where even then as the sky was beginning to turn orange. Natators were flying in and out of its cavernous entrances. It grew taller and taller as they drew nearer, seeming to look over them and step forward as a giant would who saw two small creatures and wanted to get a look at them. William craned his neck back further and further the closer they got, feeling as those it's many shaded port holes were eyes all watching him intently. He ignored the feeling.
As they came to the front of the tower, William could plainly see the activity that this one building attracted. As above with natators flying in and out of upper levels, so below did people stream in and out of one of four wide, elongated doorways, one on each side of the tower. Stairs, like pouted lips or a wide tongue, gave people access to the interior of the busy building and seemed to drool color. All around the base of the tower, where before the roads had been angular and straight as circuits, the road suddenly became circular as though it were a pool of water and the streets were gutters for that water to trickle out of. Inside these doors was shade, revealing little of what was inside.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Joscur lead the way, joining the line of people as they were entering this central pillar. William followed, taking note that people weren't looking at him as much as they had been before, likely due to the fact that he was wearing a full, untarnished, set of clothes now, although the occasional nervous glance was still granted to him due to his naked sword. As they stepped out of the setting sun, past the thick walled entrance of the tower, William craned his neck upwards to look at the inside of this hive. He had expected, perhaps, a hanger of some kind where natators were held on shelves or tied to rings such as he had seen before. Inside, he saw very few natators though, not nearly as many as was coming in on each level. The look of the tower inspired imagery of more of a library than that of the center of a bustling city. Inside was almost eerily quiet, save for the sound of foot steps. What few natators there were seemed to travel only up and down with people standing on them, stopping every few levels to let people off. Every two dozen feet was an inner lip of a walkway that went entirely around the tower, leading to doorways and natator docks. Shelves of books and scrolls lined the walls of the ground floor where they now stood and occasionally on some of the upper levels. Torches hung on walls along doorways and at regular intervals, clear glass bulbs glowing with a luminous, almost ghostly light, giving a dim source of light for the interior.
"What is this building?" William asked, keeping his head in a state of upward and downward momentum as he sought to look up and take in the sights while keeping an eye on Joscur.
"This is the heart of Mirage," Joscur explained. "Natator Tower, where, as you saw, most of the cities' natators are stored. Most people do not actually own their natators, William. They instead rent them from the council for whatever purpose they may need, be it business or luxury."
"The council?" William inquired.
"Yes. Here in Mirage, we are governed by a council of seven elders who ultimately make decisions for the whole of the city. They accept input and ideas from commoners and, well, anyone who has an idea, and they decide together, as one, whether it is best for the city for a change to be made or not."
William was silent at this revelation.
"That is where we are going now," Joscur said, leading William along through the ebbing crowd towards one of the elevators. "The council sits upon the highest floor of Natator Tower – their chamber is there."
"And that's where I'm to be registered?" William asked as Joscur stepped onto one of the elevating platforms that had just come down from the higher levels, joining a small throng of people who smiled and greeted him while eying William curiously. William got onto the platform.
"No, not exactly..." Joscur said, trailing off and looking at William with the same sort of curiosity as the total strangers around them who turned and spoke to each other while making off-hand gestures towards the pale young mans' general direction. William took note of the look and how stark it was in comparison to the, thus far, warm and welcoming looks that he had been given so far.
Joscur took two steps to his left towards a small, raised pillar with a flat rectangular surface atop it, adorned with green buttons that glimmered in the torchlight. Each button, William noted, was positioned next to a rune of some sort, or a letter. He thought perhaps this was the written form of Mirage-Tongue but said nothing. Pressing one of them, the button lighting up and joining a small group of others while at the same time seeming to stand alone on its' corner of the panel, Joscur stepped back over towards William and flashed him a warm smile, clasping his hands in front of him as the platform began to rise upwards in a slow, steady ascent.
The further up they went, the more William looked down. People grew smaller and smaller in his eyes and the lights from the torches along them with, only to be replaced by new torches and new people at every level of the way up. William looked around as they passed each thick rimmed landing of stone, looking at people talking among themselves or reading from a book or scroll, their eyes keenly fixated upon the pages in front of them. One such young man was leaning against the wall next to a book shelf, his legs stuck in juxtaposition at a forty-five degree angle, keeping him only a handful of inches off of the floor. A young child was looking over the side of the landing on one level, eyes wide with wonder and terror at the sight of distance to the ground below and was quickly pulled back by an older man with a graying beard who knelt down in front of the child, waving their hand in their face and presumably warning them about the dangers of the edge of the hall. William didn't think the two were related.
Up they went, occasionally stopping at one level or another, where a button upon the podium would blink on and off repeatedly while people stepped off onto their floors. Once everyone who was getting off on that floor was off, Joscur would press the blinking button and it would go dark. The platform would ascend higher still.
As they reached the top floor, the roof of the building seeming to be a simple jumps' distance away compared to the height they had climbed up, William gave one last look down and was almost startled to find that the people below were as distant shadows now, the lower level torches glittering stones like the three amber colored pieces of currency Joscur had been given earlier. He saw, also, the reveal of a grand pattern in the stone floor below them. Invisible to the eye down below, up there he could see the elegant and intricate workings of the stone masons who had labored away at this tower some nameless age ago. He saw in the center a brilliant depiction of the sun, plain to see despite how much shadow had drawn inward from the oncoming night; the torches provided just enough light to make it appear as though it was giving off the light, the specks of torches positioned at each arm of the decorative sun. The moon was also present, second largest next to the sun and made from a white stone that seemed not to glow but instead absorb the light around it and thus stand out because of it. Between the sun and the moon was a dragon, carved into the floor itself rather than placed there as colored stone. It gave the ancient beast the appearance of eternity, as though it were part of the sky itself where the sun and moon hung and would be there should they be removed. Behind these three icons was blue stone of varying shades, placed haphazardly as shards rather than as a single, solid color or colors as the sun and moon appeared to be. All around this pictograph was sand stone, forming a perfect circle and leading to the sand and glass outside, as if to exemplify that they were an oasis in the desert, and this picture was the symbol of that.
"Come, William," Joscur said, drawing his attention away from the floor down far below. They walked along the wide landing together, past people who sat or stood or paced silently reading. They seemed not to notice the two, so absorbed were they in their tasks. William saw that where below book shelves had been placed in broken patterns and at seemingly random points, here on the top floor the entire wall was covered with them, each shelf a refuge of knowledge. They both walked on by without giving these shelves many glances.
On the far southern side of the circular landing was a door way, lit by a pair of torches on either side. Joscur lead William to this door where a set of stairs and a narrow corridor turned and seemed to spiral upwards. William followed silently, his steps and manner quiet and subdued. Why he was being taken before this council, he wasn't sure, but the thought of being presented to a governing body of people after being rescued from an eventual fate in the Wastes sat ill in his stomach, spreading through his body a feeling of dread as a blanket being drawn over him, wet and cold and heavy.
At the top of the stairs was a door with seven circles on it, the central one being the largest and the six on either side of it, forming an arch, gradually decreasing in size. A phrase was carved into the heavy wood of the door, and although William could not read the script it was written it, he knew what it read: "For the good of us all".
Joscur knocked four times on the door and stepped back, his head bowed. William waited and stared straight ahead at the door, not thinking it necessary to bow his head. After a handful of dreadful seconds, the door was opened by a rather short individual – and that was the only detail that William could make out of them. They were entirely covered, head to toe, in a suit of some sort that looked as though it were made of canvas or some sort of thin leather. The fabric was uniform, not a break or hem to be found in it's formation as though it were a second skin rather than a suit. The face of the suit was a set of three dark circles, glossy as though with a layer of glass. All along the front were a set of what looked like dials, all set within the suit itself to the right while on the left was a long, singular zipper that ran from the bottom of the neck to the crotch of the suit. Little plug holes were present on the suit as well, three on the left and right of the torso, three up the arms and the legs each.
"You're expected," the short person said, their voice distorted in much the same way that Joscur's had been earlier. They stepped back out of the door and Joscur raised his head, looking to William and tilting his head towards the entry way. William stepped forward into the room.
Inside was a vast room that seemed empty and yet so full. In the center of the room, on the floor, was a sunlit circle that bore the same artistic design as the floor at the bottom of the tower though much smaller. The roof of the room was that of a glass ceiling, thick and dome shaped to the point that one could see the imperfections in the glass, that let in the light of the setting sun. All around the edge of the circular room were monitors, control panels and people all wearing the same suit as the person who had opened the door, their hands set at the consoles in front of them which were similar in shape to the one that operated the elevator but far more complex looking. None of the figures looked up as William and Joscur entered the room.
Sat in the middle of this large room were seven individuals who were seated upon seven increasingly large chairs, the two smallest on the outside and growing in size as they reached the middle. These figures were only just barely wreathed in shadow, the light of the sun having passed over them moments before it seemed. Though William could not see them clearly he knew that they were all looking at him and Joscur. The pair entered the room and stepped into the light of the sun, while the strange little person moved back to their assigned console. Joscur bowed his head low, bending his body forward and placing his hands on his knees. William watched as the little person picked up a set of chords with strange plugs on the end of them and reattached them to his suit.
"Elder Council," Joscur said, remaining bowed as he spoke. "I have brought the boy before you as you have asked. He seems to me to be no reaver. He does not speak Mirage-Tongue and stands before you to be judged."
William's unease grew as he turned to face the Elder Council.
A hand from the shadows, first to the left of the center chair, rose. "Rise, Joscur. And thank you, for bringing the boy before us," the councilwoman spoke, her voice gentle but stern. Joscur did as he was bade, bowed his head once more, and stepped back, leaving William to stand and face this elder council alone. He stepped forward and stood upon the center of the stone sun.
A man leaned forward into the sunlight from the central chair, his arms grabbing a hold of the rests and pulling him forward. He was an old man, his face heavily wrinkled and sagging around the eyes, the weight of his years showing plainly on his face. He was shaved, a light gray fuzz covering his head as it hadn't been shaved for a few days now. His beard was long and white as William's new robes, braided together into a neat yet wild rope of facial hair that was held together with a glimmering sky blue orb. Like William, he wore robes of white that stood out against his skin. Their contrast came in the color, where William's was pink from sunburn, his was nearly black as night. His eyes stood out in the fading sunlight as two emerald gems that glowered out from beneath a pair of overhanging cliffs with thick white brushes for eyebrows. This man looked as ancient as the stone beneath William's feet and as tired as he felt with a seriousness about him that came from the burden of responsibility.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice deep and booming in the hollow room.
"I am no one," William replied, turning away from the old man and looking instead at the group of plugged in workers, all toiling away doing something.
"No one?" the old man echoed, a twinge of amusement in his voice.
"No one!?" came the harsher, shriller voice from the old man's right. Two tall seats away from him, a woman leaned forward into the light, her face tight with scrutiny and distaste at William's answer. She was dark skinned in much the same way as everyone else was with dark, thick black hair that was tightly braided dozens of times, creating tendrils that hung down and were decorated by beads. Her lips were a tight line and her eyes were hard and dark. She wore a dark vermillion robe that hugged her body tightly, her wrists adorned with bracelets of shining metal. William did not look to the woman. "How dare you mock us with such a nonchalant answer!"
"Calm yourself!" came the voice of another woman, five seats to the left of the second who had spoke. She leaned forward enough to look over to the outraged councilwoman, revealing the soft, young complexion of her skin. Her hair was kinky and wild, pulled to the back of her head and held in place with a bright green stone band that could not stop her hair from jutting out in all directions. Her neck was completely covered by rings, six in all, each one with a clasp on the front that could open to remove them. Her robes were a soft violet color.
"I will not calm myself!" the second councilwoman replied, turning her glare to the younger woman. "We have sat in this chamber anxiously all day, waiting for this boy to arrive and he just... just insults us! As if he has no idea who we are!"
"I don't," William interjected, speaking up so that his voice could be heard. The vermillion clad woman turned back to him and pointed an accusatory finger. "Liar!" she cried.
"You will stop your venomous words now, Mernavia," spake the white clad old man, raising his voice so that it echoed throughout the room as a display of his authority. There was a short silence in which only the tapping of fingers against devices could be heard. "We have all been here all day, suffering from the same anxiety as you. This young man may very well not know who we are. He has certainly never met us before. Do you wish our first impression on him to be that of a spiteful, impatient body that lashes out at inconveniences?" he asked the councilwoman named Mernavia, turning his stern gaze to her. She glared back at him momentarily before letting out a huff and leaning back into her seat, slamming her back against the back of the high stone chair and crossing her arms over her bosom. The younger, violet clad, councilwoman retreated back into the shade much more softly than her counterpart.
"Good," the elder man said, looking from right to left at each of his fellow councilmen and women respectively. "Remember, it does not do well to succumb to irritation... or fear for that matter. Not one of us sits on this council because we make quick, rash decisions. Come, let us unravel the mystery of this nobody boy together," he said, holdings his arms out to the side, his voice now much more controlled and quiet. Turning back to William, he asked, "What is your name?"
"What's the reason for all of the books and scrolls down below us?" William asked, turning away from the canvas-suit adorned workers and looking back at the old councilman. "I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."
Mernavia scoffed and turned her head away from William, clutching her triceps angrily. Joscur looked up and over at William with a bewildered look on his face, as if he'd never seen anyone ask these seven people a question before.
"It seems a fair exchange," said a young man, no older looking than Joscur to the direct right of the central figure, his voice calm and even. He sat forward and revealed himself to be wearing a sky blue robe with a white sash that ran from his left shoulder to his right hip. His hair, too, was kinky but cut short, his eyes a warm brown and his face covered in freckles. He looked at William and William looked back. "They are records, mostly, with books of knowledge as well. Natator tower, the structure in which you stand, acts as more than just a place for us to store vehicles of convenience. It is a library, the seat of the council, a central intersection between the whole of Mirage and much more. Now, please, answer the Elder's question."
"You may call me William," the young, pink skinned boy said, turning once again to study the workers that surrounded them and filled the room with the sound of dull clicks and whirs.
"How is it that you came to be in the Wastes?" asked the violet clad woman, speaking after the freckle-faced councilman sat back in his chair.
"I don't know," William said.
There was silence for a moment, in which each of the council members looked at each other uneasily, trying to measure the truth in William's words. William took the momentary silence to ask another question.
"Why did you send Joscur out to get me?"
"We were not going to let you die within the Wastes," the Elder councilman said. "When we saw you, we knew that we had to go and retrieve you – or your body. We weren't sure which we would find, if indeed we found you at all. Out in the Wastes, reavers, reauslers or worse could have gotten you if you hadn't been buried beneath the sands already. You're very fortunate to be alive."
William kept quiet at the revelation of his luck.
The Elder councilman sat back and an old woman, dressed in a dull sunset orange robe, furthest to the Elder's right. Her hair was graying and straight, combed over to the right side of her head and held in place with three ornamental stone hair clips of red, pink and blue. Her skin was tight looking, as if someone were pulling her face back, giving her wrinkles around the corners of her eyes and her lips. She asked, "By saying you do not know how you came to be in the Wastes, do you mean to say that you do not recall having traveled there? You were not exiled in any way or in an accident perhaps?"
"No, I wasn't," he answered frankly. "I wasn't in the Wastes, as you call them, that desert, and then I was. That's all."
The seven council members looked at one another again, puzzlement on their faces. Joscur stood silently, listening. The strange workers around them continued their near silent work. William stood and waited for the inevitable. At last after looking from one member to the next and finally to the Elder, the old man nodded and cleared his throat, lifting his hand up as if to beckon one of the cloth clad workers over. Wordlessly, one of them to William's right turned without unhooking his suit from the system they were a part of and faced the shaded wall behind the council members. With a few button presses, light shot out from the eye sockets of the suit the person was wearing. The light projected onto the wall a view of the Wastes, the vast, seemingly endless desert that William had been traveling in before with a blue sky up above it with only a few sparse clouds. The image was honestly lovely in William's opinion, what he could see of it between the tall stone seats of the seven he was stood before.
Their high pillar-like seats all rotated a quarter of a turn in unison after only a pressing of a few buttons, allowing them to turn and see for themselves again the video they had captured. William did not need to see it to know what they would witness but watched anyways. The video light flickered dully as the visor played it's recording, much like an old projector would without the loud, obnoxious clicking. Joscur looked up as well, having seen the footage before being sent to collect William but still amazed by it. Together the ten of them, the seven council members, William, Joscur and the one suited worker all watched as the blue sky opening up in a brief flash of azure light. From that light came a streak of blue as if the sky were trying to reach down and touch the earth. The view of the footage zoomed in several times, each time it did the feed was cut momentarily returning the room to it's shaded darkness, until they could all see what was falling from the sky within this streak of blue much like a meteor:
William.
The video feed zoomed out once more to a full panoramic view and they watched as William collided with the desert sand below, kicking up a massive cloud of sand that swirled and billowed in the wind. The Elder councilman turned away from the video feed and looked at William, trying to gauge the mysterious young man's reaction to seeing the footage, but there was nothing to see. The white clothed stranger simply stood and looked on indifferently.
The video footage was cut shortly after William's impact and with another simple press of buttons the seven monolithic chairs turned back around to face William. Joscur looked at the young man he had saved with a clear look of wonder, curiosity and a touch of fear. The suited worker turned back around to their console and resumed their work. "You saw what we saw just now, did you not?" the old man asked gently.
"Yes," William said, gazing at him.
"Then you understand our curiosity and bewilderment at you as a whole. You, a young man who fell from the sky into the Wastes, are a puzzle most vexing..." The old man trailed off for a second before speaking again, this time in the strange language that everyone had been speaking in the streets below Natator Tower.
"I don't speak Mirage-Tongue, remember?" William asked.
"No, of course. I had not forgotten, it was just... just a saying that we use. It means 'the desert holds many secrets.'"
"Mm." William replied.
"Never mind the puzzles of it all! We don't even know if we can trust this young man!" spake councilwoman Mernavia. "We all witnessed, again, this boy's fall from the sky! Yet he lives! Yet he lives, and he comes before us armed as well! Has it not occurred to the rest of you that that blade which he carries could be used to do us -"
"How do I know I can trust you?" William asked, raising his voice and interrupting Mernavia, his eyes locked to hers as he spoke. She glared at him and scoffed, as if the notion of her, and by extension the council's, trustworthiness was absurd.
"It is a fair question. We have failed to even introduce ourselves, after all," the young, freckled faced man said, leaning forward into the light. He turned his head from side to side, saying as he did, "Perhaps we should drop the mysteries, drop the fear and perform some basic courtesies?"
"Forgo your courtesies: Let's get to the point," William said, lifting his sword up and pointing it at the council. Then, to the surprise of all in the room, he turned his blade on himself, grabbing a hold of the now cool metal in both hands and holding the tip right up against his neck, directly under his chin! There was more than one gasp and a flinch from more than one body. Mernavia began to protest, but was once again interrupted by William's voice. "Either imprison me, or let me go. Either kill me, or let me live. I don't have the time to waste explaining, so make your choice."
"How dare you!" Mernavia cried out and her outburst was followed by many voices talking at once. Some voiced concern, others declared there was no need for such a gesture. The oldest voice within the chamber remained silent, but stared hard back at the young man who so symbolically made clear what had been on people's minds for hours now. Joscur, too, was silent, watching on in bewilderment at the council he believed to be a calm, collected body of the wisest individuals within this oasis break down into a squabble of conflicting thoughts and courtesies.
There came a singular voice in the maelstrom that disturbed the storm and demanded to be heard. It was a young voice, a child's, and it's high pitched tone made it distinct among all of the adults currently arguing. It asked a simple question, and in the wake of that question came silence: "Has he done anything wrong?"
The rest of the council withheld their words and turned to the far right, to the smallest seat of the entire council. From the shadows came a small boy, dressed in a bright orange robe and a small, circular hat with ornaments of colored stone hanging off of it. William couldn't be sure, but he didn't think that the boy could have been older than ten. His face was soft and his brown eyes were filled with uncertainty, yet there was a sense of clarity to the expression on his young face as he looked to his left at the rest of his fellow members of judicial concerns. "Has he broken any of our laws?" he asked again now that there was quiet.
"No," said the violet clad councilwoman, her answer firm.
"Has he made threat to Mirage or to us?" the young boy asked.
"Certainly not plainly," came the distrustful response of Mernavia, looking down at and patting her vermillion robes to give herself something to do as the reality of what was being asked had already washed over her. She knew where this was going.
"Then do we have the right to detain him? Can we rightfully hold him here for questioning if he has given us no reasons to question him?" the boy asked.
"He has given us reason to question him though, Boma," the freckled faced young man replied. "His... arrival in the Wastes is reason enough."
Boma, the young boy, paused for a moment, his lips held tightly shut as if to prevent a thought from escaping before it was properly formed into a sentence. "I only meant... legally..."
"Legally he has given us no reason to be detained," said the Eldest, who had not looked away from William until now. A smile crept onto his face and he raised his hand to gesture towards Boma. "Boma is right. He has no broken any of our laws or customs, he has not threatened us. Despite his peculiar arrival which has us all very confused, it is not a reason for us to panic or act rashly!" The old man chuckled lightly, leaning back within his chair and saying softly, "Ah, the wisdom of children... You can lower your sword, William. The gesture is not necessary."
Pulling the tip of the blade away from his throat, the pink stranger grabbed onto the handle of his weapon and brought it back down to his side harmlessly without saying a word.
"I believe we are all tired," the old man went on. "Tired, testy, and unsure of what to make of you. I think that a few hours rest and contemplation would do wonders with our temperament and judgment. Agreed?" he asked, looking from side to side.
"Agreed," said Boma first, raising his left hand up, followed by each of the others echoing his statement and gesture. "Then for today, we are adjourned," the Eldest said. "Joscur," he called, gaining the young man's immediate attention. "Take our guest down the tower and have him registered, so that we may update the census. For the time being, William shall stay with you until we can find accommodations more fitting for him. Is this acceptable?"
"Yes, perfectly so," Joscur replied, his words rushed like a child who doesn't want to disappoint their parent and so doesn't think about what they're saying before saying it.
"Good. Tomorrow, I would like you to bring William back here so that we may question him anew. We will see, then, if we cannot get to the bottom of all of this, and then, and only then, will we make a formal decision on the matter." With that said, the old man gestured towards the door in which Joscur and William had entered. Joscur bowed his head respectfully, walked over to William's side and placed his hand upon his shoulder. "Come, we should go," he said to him. William gave a final look at the old man in the central chair and a last look at the workers around them at their stations before turning and following Joscur out of the room.
From there, the pair made their way back down to the base level of Natator Tower. In what felt very much like a rush of bureaucracy, William was brought before a man around the same age as Joscur sat behind a desk with a quill in hand and several stacks of parchment all around him. Joscur exchanged some short words with him in Mirage-Tongue, the man looked curiously at William, as though reluctant to do whatever task had been asked of him. But, with another short phrase from Joscur, the man behind the desk buckled down, rifled through his papers until he found the one he was looking for, sat it down on the table in front of him and pushed it over towards William. "You need to sign," Joscur said, and William obliged. From there a few more words were exchanged, a small laugh, a shaking of two hands and an increasingly familiar phrase later, and the purpose for which Joscur had said he had brought William to Natator Tower had been completed. He was registered within the city of Mirage as a citizen, for the time being.
From there, the two of them had made their way back into the city though away from the hustle and bustle of the business district from which they had come to a comparatively quiet part of Mirage. Children played in the streets and parents watched from windows or sat out in the shade, most everyone took the opportunity to stare at William as he passed by, including Joscur who couldn't help but see the boy he was escorting back to his home in a different light now that he had seen him fall from the sky. William stared on ahead, silent and observing, his eyes looking back and forth as if searching for something which only served to make Joscur more uncomfortable.
Before too long, they were stood outside of Joscur's home which, apart from its' relatively large size compared to his neighbors, did not at first seem to stand out in any way to William. "Well, this is home," Joscur said, stepping in front of William and holding his arms out to the side before letting them fall and taking a few steps backwards. "Come, come inside, we will get you something to drink, and you can rest before dinner."
William had a quick look around at the outside of the building before following Joscur inside. He was tired, exhausted even, that much couldn't be denied. He didn't bother to much look at his surroundings but noticed a set of stone stairs and lead to the upper floor. While Joscur was preparing him a drink, he followed the stairs up and walked down the hallway that they lead to to the window, where he sat down and laid his sword up against the wall beside him. Now, a few hours of rest and several drinks later, he stared off into the setting sun, contemplating what had happened that day and more.
William knew. Deep in his heart of hearts, a gut feeling stirred. Something was off about Mirage, something simply wasn't in its' proper place. Though he'd only seen a bit of the city within his one day of being there, and though the residents seemed kind, though he was currently lodging with one and his life had been saved by the will of a curious, if not slightly fearful, council, this was all just on the surface. He could sense that something was amiss, he just couldn't place his finger on it. As the sun set and the buildings of Mirage cast their shadows over the oasis city, something caught William's eye in an alley down below. There, nestled in the shade of two buildings was a poster, or perhaps a painting he wasn't sure which; a painting of one of the workers he'd seen at the top of Natator Tower, the round goggle eyes and the indistinct canvas obscuring all features. Below the visage were words in a language that he did not understand, and yet he knew what they said. As the sun fell to rest beyond the horizon, William looked at these words and felt a connection with his unease. He knew what they said:
"For the Good of Us All"