The White Tower
“I hereby officially name your sword, ‘Faith’,” Thea said, looking at the blade. If she was curious as to the inscribed names on the blade, she did not ask Arietta as she handed the sword back. Arietta took her sword by the hilt and sheathed it. Turning to leave Lady Thea’s office, she was almost knocked over by a messenger who flew through the door.
“Lady Thea!” the messenger said, “You must come at once!”
Lady Thea asked no more questions as she turned and took huge strides out of the office, the messenger in tow.
“Report!” she commanded, as they strode up the hallway, the messenger struggling to keep up. Arietta followed behind, eager to get a idea of the situation.
“There’s a white tower on the horizon, on an outcropping of land. It appears to be surrounded by forest. My lady, what if it’s Sanctuary?”
“I must see this,” Lady Thea said, taking two steps at a time up to the deck. She took a telescope from a nearby ensign who was looking at the white tower and looked for herself. She swallowed deeply, “Come in close at once,” she said. She turned to Arietta and Elisha, who had both hurried to her side.
“You two are with me. Bring Pandora and Luna as well. We’re going ashore to search that tower.” Thea commanded.
“I don’t understand,” Elisha said, “We’re not far from explored territory, and we must have come this way before. Why have we never seen this tower?”
“We changed course on my orders a couple of days ago,” Thea said, “I took a less direct route into the Uncharted Ocean, because there’s no point us going over the same old ground.”
“Makes sense,” Elisha agreed, “Lady Thea, do you think this is it? That it’s been under our noses all along?”
“It seems a little too good to be true,” Arietta said, “It might be some kind of trap.”
“Indeed,” Lady Thea said, “We must proceed with caution.”
Sashiko approached, “Captain, Master Kane is unwell and has confined himself to his quarters. He says he is simply suffering from a vomiting illness. What should we do?”
“He is well-versed in herbal medicine,” Lady Thea said, “Leave him be. Sashiko, you are in charge of the ship while I’m gone. I’m counting on you to take care of everything.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Sashiko said, and she helped the crew lower the rowboat with the shore party aboard.
~
Arietta felt her boots sinking into the sand as they came ashore, “That’s a thick forest,” she said, looking at the looming darkness in front of them. Do you suppose there might be monsters or wild animals in there?”
“Quite probably,” Lady Thea said, “We must remain aware and alert. Keep your swords out and stick together at all times. We can’t afford to get lost in here.”
“I’ll take the rear,” Elisha said, loading supplies onto her back and carrying a lantern. She ushered Pandora and Luna in front of her as they took their first tentative steps into the darkness.
The forest seemed to swallow them up, and soon they were engulfed in darkness. Elisha lit her lantern, and Pandora enchanted her sword with magical fire so it glowed brightly in the darkness. Luna looked on with awe, but quickly looked away when she saw Pandora had noticed her.
The trees were thick, and the ground overgrown with bracken. It looked as though nobody had explored the forest in a long time, if ever. But then, somebody had to have built the tower, Arietta thought. What kind of people built towers in unreachable places?
She thought she heard a whisper in the darkness, calling out to her, “Arietta,” it said. It was Selesti’s voice. She knew it was impossible for Selesti to be here, she was in San Ria, but what if she had snuck aboard and followed them here, what if...?
She felt herself leaving the party and making off into the brush, towards the sound, drawn to it by some unfathomable power.
They all felt it. Elisha heard Lizbet through the trees, and she too wandered into the darkness.
“Maia?” Thea called into the darkness, “Maia, what is going on?” She stumbled into the blackness, searching for her lost wife.
“What’s going on?” Pandora said, “Everybody, come back!”
Then Luna started to wander, as her father’s voice called to her. Pandora grabbed her arm, “No!” she said, “Where are you going?”
“My father!” Luna said, “He’s calling for help. He needs me! Can’t you hear that?”
“It’s some kind of trickery!” Pandora said, “Your father is safe in San Ria, Luna! There’s no way he could possibly be here! Think rationally!”
“Can’t you hear him calling to me?” Luna said, “He’s in trouble, Pandora!”
Pandora held Luna tightly, “Shut out the sound, Luna,” she said, “It’s not real. It’s just trying to trick you. I don’t know why it’s not affecting me but you have to listen to me! The others have already gone. Don’t leave me alone!”
Her last words resonated with Luna, and she held onto Pandora, “I won’t leave you alone, Pandora,” she said, “What about the others, though? They wandered off into the forest.”
“Arietta! Lady Thea, Elisha! It’s just a trick!” Pandora cried, but all she could hear was the rustling of the leaves, as though the trees themselves were laughing at her futile attempt to bring the others back.
“I’m scared, Pandora,” Luna said, “We should go back.”
“I won’t go back,” Pandora said, “We came to investigate the white tower, and I intend to do just that! I won’t be turned away by trickery. We’ll go on alone. The others will be all right.”
~
Arietta saw Selesti standing before her in a clearing. She was naked, and Arietta felt herself drawn to her.
“Selesti... How? Why?” Arietta’s mind was trying to work out how Selesti had come to be on this island, in this forest, but her mind was in a fog as she felt the sweet seduction of comfortable memories.
“I missed you,” she said, “I’ve decided to have the treatment.”
“A lot of things have happened,” Arietta said, “I don’t know... if I can...”
“Hush,” Selesti said, coming closer to her. There was something ethereal about her as she glided through the clearing towards Arietta, “Come with me. Come lay down with me, Arietta. We can put all this behind us...”
“I’m not sure we can,” Arietta said, trying to shrug off the comfortable feeling of warm memories, the scent of better times, when Selesti smelled of sweet honey and she could lay wrapped up in her warm arms for hours. She felt tears flowing down her face at the sweetness of it, yet she could not, she could not...
“Please,” Selesti begged, “I’ve been so lonely...”
“No,” Arietta said, wiping the tears from her face, “My feelings have changed. I’m not in love with you any more!”
“That’s not true,” Selesti said, “If you don’t care, then why did you answer my call?”
“I don’t know,” Arietta said, the fog in her mind receding. She swallowed, as she let hard reality come into her mind and draw all the facts together. “I do know one thing, though; you are not really here. I left you in San Ria. You are just an illusion, Selesti, based on a dream that I have discarded.” She held her sword up, reading the names on it, “Your name is on this sword, Selesti. How do you feel about that? You wouldn’t know, because you’re not Selesti! All you have to work with are my memories of her!”
The apparition disappeared with a loud shriek, and a foul-smelling ghoul lurched towards her, slashing Arietta across the face with sharp claws. She pulled her hand up to her face and it came back bloody.
“Now you’ve really made me angry!” Arietta said, diving towards the ghoul. She sliced it in two with the sickening sound of flesh and bone cleaving. It fell to the ground, and started to disintegrate into a bubbling pool of acid, which dissolved the grass around it, leaving only a black mark where it had been.
Breathing heavily, she wiped at her bleeding face with her arm, and stained her white uniform with her blood. She found her pack abandoned on the ground and went to it. She wasn’t particularly skilled in field medicine, but she wrapped bandages around her face to stem the bleeding.
“Elisha!” she called, when she was finished, “Lady Thea! Pandora, Luna!” Realizing she was alone, she felt afraid for the first time. She wanted to go back, but she thought of Sanctuary and how much they all wanted to find it. Determined not to give up, she sheathed her sword, shouldered her pack, and continued on in the approximate direction they had been traveling in before she had been led away.
~
Elisha stumbled through the trees, hearing Lizbet’s voice, and saw the apparition standing before her, just as Arietta had.
“I’m sorry for all the things I said,” Lizbet said, “Come to me now, love.”
Elisha looked down at the ground, “You would never apologize, Lizbet. I always wanted you to, but you never would, because I was the one who betrayed you. I can live with that, knowing that I tried everything I could to protect you.”
“Why did you come to me, then?” the apparition in Lizbet’s form said.
“I think, somehow, I had to say it to your face. To admit my mistakes so I can move on. Even if you’re not real, it’s all right. This forest is enchanted, I can feel it deep inside. So what are you really?”
The ghoul dropped its pretense and appeared to Elisha.
“Who did this to you, who dragged you from your grave?” Elisha asked, but the creature was upon her, all intelligence and free will gone. She raised her sword.
“Return to the twilight, and sleep tight,” she said, as she decapitated it. The ghoul screamed and disintegrated into the ground, just as Arietta’s had.
“Arietta?” she called into the darkness, but there was no reply. She looked back at the brown mark in the undergrowth, before hurrying into the forest to catch up with the others, if they were still moving forward.
~
“Maia,” Lady Thea said, “All those times I have longed for some direction from your spirit, something to show me the way. Tell me, Maia, do you still think that what I’m doing is wrong?”
“You have done all the right things,” Maia said, “I give my blessings to you finding Sanctuary. I know that you’ll be a capable leader, well above the temptations of other human beings.”
“Are you mocking me?” Thea called out to her, “I can’t believe that you changed your mind so easily!”
“I did, remember the diary? You read what was there, my blessings for your journey, my desire to find Sanctuary’s location so I could tell you where it was.” Maia said.
“N...no...” Thea said, “That’s not the truth...”
“It’s not?” Maia asked, looking uncertain, “But you believed...”
“I made that entry up in my head, so I could pretend to read to the others, claim that I had your blessing in my mission,” Thea said, “If you were really Maia’s spirit, you would know that!”
“Then how?” asked Maia, “How did I extract it from your mind?”
“I wanted to believe it was true,” Thea said, “I hate to think that I’m lying to the others. How can I tell them that you wanted to destroy Sanctuary? I wanted your blessing, so I lied, then I repeated it over and over in my head like a mantra until I half-believed it.” She raised her sword, “You’re not really Maia, and you’ve proved that, so reveal yourself and end this pretense!”
The ghoul appeared, and Thea almost felt a sense of relief. Her secret was safe from the others for now. It was just magical trickery that had brought her here. Yet still she felt uncertainty in her mind. Was she doing the right thing? It lingered as she reduced the ghoul to a pool of bubbling acid. No, she thought, they would all understand, in the end. They would understand why she had needed to keep it a secret, when they saw what kind of enemies they were up against.
She cut her way back through the trees and found where their footsteps diverged, then followed the two pairs of footsteps that had bravely gone ahead. Thea wondered who had succeeded and who had fallen, and what truths had the phantasms delivered to them?
~
“I see light up ahead!” Pandora said. Luna looked uncertainly ahead, “We might be back at the beach,” she suggested hopefully.
“I hope not,” Pandora said, “I want to know what’s in this tower.”
They stepped out into a wide clearing, and the tower rose up above them, higher than they could see from their current position.
“Do you think it breaks the clouds?” Luna asked, “Perhaps it leads to the Seven Gods themselves!”
“I doubt any human could build a tower high enough to reach the Gods,” Pandora said skeptically, “I do wonder what’s up there, though.”
“You’re not going to find out,” came a voice through the darkness. A black robed man came forward. He let his hood fall to reveal a serene face, with lightning blue eyes and long, black hair. His stance suggested he was a man of great power, and his face was one of arrogance and fearlessness.
“Who are you?” Luna asked, “What is this place?”
“This tower is a beacon, one of four scattered around the world. If the data from all four beacons is collected, the location of the place you call ‘Sanctuary’ will be revealed.” the robed man said, “You are not the only one searching for it, though,” he said, “You fools will never find it, sailing around aimlessly in that ship of yours. You think the people who created Sanctuary are stupid enough to leave it right out in the open? It has to be unlocked, like a door. You can all keep banging on the door, for all I care.”
“So you’re on our side?” Luna said hopefully, “You're searching for Sanctuary too. We could work together...”
The man in black laughed heartily at Luna’s suggestion, “Trust me, child, we are far from being on the same ‘side’. If there is such a thing. No, we may share a common goal, but the goals of your people and mine are quite different.” As he spoke, great black feathered wings sprouted from his back.
Pandora gasped in awe, “What are you...?” she asked.
“Not so much different from you, young magic user. In fact, your people feared me so much that they cast you out because of me.”
As he talked, Elisha emerged from the shadows, then Arietta, and finally Lady Thea herself. They looked on at the scene unravelling before them.
“Illuminus!” Pandora said, “You killed Lady Maia and her crew! You suck the life-force from the living to control the spirits of the dead!”
“Apparently I’m well known,” he smiled, “Indeed, Maia and her crew were in my way to finding Sanctuary, so I tempted her with its location. Oh, how easily she fell... I doubt she could have achieved her mission even if she had found it. She did not have the will to keep her promise.” He laughed.
Thea spoke up, “You killed my wife!” she yelled, drawing her sword, “Now you dare to mock her? I’ll have your head if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Ah, we have company, I see. Well, I must get what I came here for,” he said. He jumped and soared into the air as the landing party raised their weapons. Pandora prepared a fire spell, but just as she did, light shot from Illuminus’s hand and a ball of white light struck Pandora in the chest, throwing her backwards. She landed on the ground, and Luna rushed to her side.
“Pandora!” Luna cried, “Pandora!!” She shook the green-haired girl, horror filling her as she saw the burned hole in Pandora’s uniform and the bleeding burn underneath.
“Illuminus wants what’s in that tower,” Elisha said, “We have to stop him!” They rushed for the tower, Arietta looking behind her sadly at the crumpled form of Pandora on the ground. She wanted to stay, but there was something inside her that told her it was vital to chase Illuminus down, to get to the contents of the tower before he did.
They flew up the steps, taking them two at a time. Thea and Elisha tired quickly, but something in Arietta fired up and she fought back the breathlessness that was sending searing pain through her body. She resolved to find Illuminus and hurt him for injuring Pandora, and it was that rage that kept her going, even while Thea and Elisha struggled behind her.
Eventually she reached the top, and entered the topmost room, a place filled with things she’d never seen before; glowing lights and screens which showed various pictures, and consoles which appeared to control them. As she surveyed the room, Illuminus turned around from the console he was at, chuckling.
“You’re a little late,” he said, “You should have stayed with your friend. I already have what I need.” He pointed his hand at the console, and white light shot from it, making the machine explode in a shower of sparks. He turned and pointed to other consoles in the room, and in a matter of seconds, the whole room was filled with smoke and sparks.
Arietta regained her breath and dived at Illuminus. He held his hand up, and a shield of pure energy enveloped him. Arietta ran right into it and went flying back across the room. She hit a wall and slid down it, knocked senseless by the blow, dust from the wall sprinkling down onto her head. Thea and Elisha rushed into the room, having finally ascended the stairway.
Illuminus swiped his hand, and all the windows shattered. He dived to one of the windows and jumped out, his black wings carrying him away on the wind. Elisha followed him to the window and looked out to see him getting away.
“Damn!” she cried desperately. She turned to see Arietta slumped against the wall and rushed to her side.
“Ari,” she said, “Arietta, wake up.” She put a tender hand on Arietta’s face, “She’s alive,” she breathed a sigh of relief, “I can feel her lifeblood pulsing through her body.”
“Carry her,” Thea said, “We need to get back to the ship at once.”
“Shouldn’t we look to see if there’s anything of value here?” Elisha said.
“He’s no fool, he destroyed Maia and her entire crew,” Thea said, “He’s left nothing we can use, we’re just wasting our time here. I have a bad feeling about the ship...”
They hurried down the steps, Elisha carrying Arietta in her arms. They hurried outside to see Pandora sitting up by a tree, Luna holding cloth over the wound in her chest. Thea knelt down and stroked away the green hair that was in Pandora’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Thea said, “I was weak and listened to the voices in the forest. If I’d just given the command to stick together... but I was seduced by the voice of Maia.”
“It’s all right...” Pandora said weakly, “You weren’t to know. I knew that dark magic was at work, yet I didn’t turn back... So don’t blame yourselves...” She passed out again, and Thea scooped her up.
“We must hurry,” she said, “Listen to no distractions, and try to retrace our footsteps. We need to get back to the ship as soon as possible. The lives of our friends may be depending on it.”
~
Sashiko paced the deck. The landing party had been ashore for hours, and she was starting to get nervous. The scent of uneasiness filled the air, and the crew were muttering to each other that something had befallen the landing crew. She had sent some crewmen to their quarters for lowering morale, but it had done little to ease the tension.
“Lieutenant!” the girl in the crow’s next cried, “There’s a ship off starboard, coming at us at full speed... It’s... It’s the Ghost Ship!”
Sashiko grabbed a telescope from a nearby watch boy and looked out. Sure enough, the ghostly image of Maia’s white ship came into view.
“How is that possible?” the watch boy asked, “We sank that ship!”
“I know,” Sashiko said, “There’s something very wrong here. Get everybody to battle stations and prepare to fight! Weigh anchor!”
“Lieutenant, we can’t leave the shore party behind!” one of the crew said.
“I said weigh anchor!” she yelled, “We can’t fight stuck here. We’ll be sitting ducks!”
The crew obeyed their orders and the ship started to move off as the white ship came closer, “We need to sink that thing!” Sashiko yelled to the crew, “Fire at will!”
She rushed up and took the wheel as cannonballs started to fly. Yet still the White Ship was coming at them, full speed.
“It’s going to ram us!” she cried, “We need more speed! Every available man to the oars!” She cursed the still wind.
“We’re giving it all we’ve got!” a crewman yelled back.
“Shit, I don’t want to die here,” she muttered, “What can I do?”
She cleared the ship and turned quickly, using all her strength to turn the wheel, “Fire!” she said, as they came up next to the ship. At this range, their cannonballs were devastating. Yet the ship had sustained incredible damage already and was still afloat. How could they sink this thing forever?
“Bring us in close, we have to board the ship!” Sashiko cried. Master Kane came up on deck, looking sickly, “What’s your plan, Sashiko?”
“We have to set explosives on board and send that thing under the waves again,” Sashiko said.
Bridges were put down between the two ships and fighting commenced between the zombified crewmen of the ghost ship and the human knights on the white ship. Adam led the assault, leading the Knights into battle. Sashiko grabbed a sack of explosives.
“Wait,” Master Kane said, putting his hand on Sashiko’s shoulder, “You’re going in alone?”
“I can hide in the shadows well,” she said. “I can set these charges while the fight is underway. When the ship starts to sink, pull back.”
“It’s a dangerous job,” Master Kane said, “Don’t die out there.”
“I’m not planning on dying just yet, Master,” Sashiko said.
The Knights pushed back the zombies long enough for Sashiko to rush in. She hurried below decks, keeping her katana in hand. She set the charges in a pile in the rotting hold, and hoped it would be enough. She lit them, and hoped that she would be out of the blast radius before they exploded.
Turning, she saw zombies coming at her. She cleaved through them, fighting for her life, desperate to escape before the explosion killed her. A zombie swiped her in the leg and she went down, losing her katana. A dead zombie fell on top of her just as the bombs exploded, and its body shielded her from the extent of the blast.
A huge hole opened in the bottom of the hull, and water started to fill the hold quickly. Sashiko threw off the zombie’s body and reached for her katana. She pulled herself to her feet, dragging her injured leg as she hobbled through the ship, the water seeping up behind her. She fought the pain in her leg, trying to remember the layout of the ship and where the stairs were to take her to the deck. She took the wrong stairway and ended up in a storage room with a locked door. Cursing, she threw herself at the door, but it seemed to be the only solid thing on the ship and it held.
The water was around her feet, but she was determined not to give up. She threw herself at the door again and again and felt a quick sense of relief as the door finally gave way and she came out on the deck.
The ship had sunk a good way, however, and the white ship seemed impossibly high above her. Zombies shuffled towards her in one last protest, determined to take her with them if they had to return to their watery grave.
A rope was thrown from the white ship and Sashiko heard Kane’s distant voice calling to her, urging her to grab it, but it was beyond the sea of zombies that were coming at her. Desperate strength filled her and she cried a desperate battle cry, diving into the group of zombies and cutting through them with amazing speed. She forced herself through them, ignoring the pain as she was attacked on all sides by swords, clubs and makeshift weapons. She forced herself through the crush and grabbed hold of the rope just as the water started to consume the deck. A zombie grabbed the rope behind her as Kane pulled it and her into the air.
Hanging on with one hand, she stabbed her katana downward into the zombie, desperate to make it let go. She kicked with her feet and felt agony as her injured leg slammed into its head, but it fell from the rope and fell into the gloomy ocean below.
Hauled onto the ship, she gasped for breath as the Knights gathered around, clapping and cheering for her. She sat on the deck and smiled as an immense wave of relief washed over her.
“The landing party’s been spotted on the beach!” A crew-member informed her.
“Are you hurt?” Master Kane asked. She pointed to her leg, but shook her head when he bent down to take a look.
“Get this ship back to the island,” she said, “We have a landing party to pick up.”
~
When Thea and the rest of the landing party made it to the beach, they saw the ghost ship sinking beneath the waves.
“Looks like they had some action as well,” Elisha said tiredly, “Looks like they could handle it, though.” She set Arietta down on the beach. She had tried to come around a couple of times, but had soon slumped back into unconsciousness. Pandora was still bleeding, and Luna had burst into tears several times as she had replaced Pandora’s blood-soaked bandages.
“She’s going to be all right,” Elisha had tried to comfort her, but she didn’t feel sure of anything at that moment.
“It looks like Illuminus is going to be a thorn in our side,” Thea said, “Next time, we need to be prepared for him.”
“How do you fight a power like that, though?” Elisha said, “He was virtually invincible.”
“We can’t fight him,” Luna said, “We have to race him. He said that these towers are beacons which lead the way to Sanctuary, and that there are four of them. We need to beat him to the other three.”
“How do we do that, when we don’t even know where they are?” Elisha said.
“I don’t know...” Luna sighed, “I don’t know...”
When the ship came close enough to anchor itself to the seabed, they loaded themselves into the rowing boat and made their way back to the white ship. The crew took Pandora and Arietta away from Luna and Elisha as soon as they were aboard for medical attention. They wanted to follow, but the ship’s doctor took a look at the injured and shook his head. “There’s nothing you can do right now. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“We’ll gather in my office for debriefing,” Lady Thea said, and Elisha and Luna felt themselves being carried off by duties which for the time being, they didn’t care one bit about. The people they loved and truly cared about were in danger, and talking about what had happened didn’t help the situation any.
“I hate being helpless,” Elisha admitted to Luna, as they paced outside the medical bay together after the debriefing was over, “I want to do something.”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Luna said, “Next time I see that Illuminus, though, he’s going to feel my blade!”
“At least we’re on our way again,” Elisha said, “I don’t want to see that creepy ghost ship again.”
“That was Illuminus’s work also,” Luna said, “Pandora knows a lot about him. She said he uses the life-force of others to control the dead. He’s mentioned in her people’s legends, the same legends which caused her to be exiled when they found out she could use magic.”
“Are they from the same village, then?” Elisha asked.
“I don’t know,” Luna said, “I don’t like to bring up Pandora’s home. She’s always gracious about it when I mention it accidently, but I don’t want to upset her.”
“I understand,” Elisha said, “We’re going to have to ask her a few things when she wakes, though. We know nothing about Illuminus, and it puts us at a huge disadvantage.”
“Especially since he knows who we are and what our mission is,” Luna said.
“Luna, Elisha?” came a voice. It was one of the ship’s medical assistants. They turned to him at once, “What’s going on?”
“They’re both going to be okay,” the assistant said, “Pandora had to undergo surgery, but she’s stable. She’ll have to remain under medical care for a while. Arietta has suffered some concussion. The doctor wants to keep her overnight, but she’s going to be fine.
They both breathed sighs of relief, Luna was crying, “Can we see them?” she asked.
“Certainly,” the assistant said, “but they need a lot of rest, so please don’t stay too long.”
They entered the room, and each rushed to their beloved ones, sitting down beside them, holding their hands.
“Arietta, you’re all right,” Elisha said, tears falling down her face, “You scared me so much.”
“It was just a blow to the head,” Arietta said, “I’ll be okay, once this fog wears off.”
“You frightened me so much!” Luna said to Pandora, “I swear, I’m going to kill Illuminus for hurting you!”
“No,” Pandora said, firmly gripping Luna’s hand, “Luna, he is incredibly powerful... You have no idea... Promise me you won’t fight him for revenge. I don’t want you to get killed for my sake... I’m going to be okay... so you don’t need to fight for me.”
“I was so scared,” Luna admitted, “I thought... if anything happened to you, how would I go on?”
“I’m the Chosen of the Fire God, remember? He won’t let anything happen to me... so don’t worry, okay?” Pandora smiled.
“I must go and offer my thanks to the Fire God!” Luna said, “I’m just so glad you’re all right.”
“We’re fine, for now,” Arietta said, “I worry about the future, though. How can we fight someone like Illuminus?”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” Elisha said, “Get some rest, and tomorrow we’ll figure it out, don’t you worry.”
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