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Old 11-30-2022, 09:15 AM   #3
Terquem
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Idaho Falls
Default Re: The Fantasy Trip inspired Fiction, The Tower

Chapter 1 Part 1

“What is the value of sentience? Our world teems with magic and things that have the illusion of life. Where is the strength of a living thing? From where does the flow of magic originate? Is it simply the need to know love? If a living thing does not long to be loved, can it said to be alive? Many have lived within me. I have not loved them, but I hoped I would. I am The Tower.”

“So, you’re alive?” She asked.

“I am a sentient being. I do not know if I am alive or not, though I think I once was.”

“Why do you think that?” She put her hand, gently, on the banister, now strangely aware of the tower’s possible humanity.

“I have a name, but no one has used it for a long time.”

She was curious now. Her original fear was fading.

“Name,” she said, “what kind of name?”

“I remember being called Alduen, Alduen Beaumont. I can almost remember that I was Alduen, but maybe I wasn’t. Maybe it is just the name of one of the people entombed within me.”

She froze at the top of the stair, as the fear came back. The tower felt colder now. The stone seemed darker. The light, which had been visible through the narrow window on the floor below her, grew faint as dark clouds gathered above the moor.

“Are there,” she swallowed, hard, “are there many, entombed?”

"Within my walls and floors," The Tower said, "no, not many, but some, and more in the catacomb below. But, that is enough about me. Why are you here, Lisa of Callinwitch? What brings you to The Tower?"

"You know who I am? You can see me?"

"I sense you. The Aben Moor sorceress is known to many of the creatures who have lived within me. They have talked about your coming."

She turned quickly, looking back down the curved stairs. Nothing was there.

"Monsters?" She asked.

"Monsters, yes, I suppose, and others. Some are just creatures looking for a dry place out of the moorlands all around us. Other things which only appear alive, and are less alive than I am, can be found below."

"The dead roam your cellars?” She asked. “Maybe your corpse is among them?" She tried to be interested in the mystery and less afraid of the situation.

"For certain it does not. I don't know why, but what of me that has become The Tower was hidden, hidden away for a very good reason."

She kept looking back behind her to the left, watching the stairs and the floor below as it grew darker. She had brought torches, naturally, but she was not yet ready to create light that others might notice. She wanted to know more about The Tower, about the previous occupants.

It had been three weeks since she left the home that she had known for the last forty years. The journey was not far, and there had been many stops along the way. Her home, well, the place that had been home, belonged to the previous Aben Moor sorcerer, Duncan Rhoanee. Lisa inherited the property on the coast, and the title of Aben Moor sorceress, when Duncan disappeared thirty years ago. Their relationship had always been a difficult one to describe. To the people of the moorlands, they were a wizard and his apprentice, while to those who knew them closely, they were more than that, more and at times less.

The tower itself was many miles inland and to the northwest of the town of Callinwitch. Between the coastal town and the high Aben Moor there were many smaller villages and settlements and Lisa had made it a point to try and stop at each one along the way. She had always tried to live up to the responsibilities of the title she had inherited, and the people were always glad to see her.

Her magic, learned from Duncan under years of tutelage, was known to be powerful, mysterious, and something to be feared. She was the protector of the moors. Hundreds of years ago the Witches of the Moors had chosen a human mortal to train in the ways of spells and gave that sorcerer the knowledge and abilities to draw power directly from the moor itself to keep the balance of wild magic and learned magic under some control.

Many wizards, who did not understand the secrets of the Aben Moor, had come to try and tap into the wild magic for many years. Some would come to challenge the witches directly. They died. Others would try to find ways to grow their own strength by spells that were not right or not balanced to the moorland’s energies. They suffered from fates worse than death. It was the task of the Aben Moor sorceress to protect the moor from these misuses of the strength of the moor.

Duncan had first told Lisa about the tower when she had turned twenty-three years old, the year he had left on a mission he had said was of great importance to the balance of the moor, and never returned. He had warned her of the tower, but he did not give her many details about its dangers or its origin.

What Lisa had learned about the tower was not much more than what Duncan had told her. He had said it belonged, originally, to the first Aben Moor sorcerer, and that it was in the very center of the moorlands.
He had said it was abandoned for a good reason, and nothing more.

A threat had come to the moors and Lisa was sure the reason was tied to the tower in some way. That is what brought her. She was not prepared to find that the Tower had reasons of its own to wish to be left alone. They would need to agree that only a compromise would satisfy them both. It would take a dead man to make them understand.

Last edited by Terquem; 02-01-2023 at 06:30 PM. Reason: minor editorial corrections
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