Spiralling Up the Winding Tower

“It’s nice to have a true friend once in a while. However, friends usually fall out of touch over time. Maybe one of us dies first, and the other is stuck with the grief of a sudden loss of friendship. Would it have been better if that friendship had been lost from slow disconnection? Nevertheless, I like to cherish these feelings at the moment.”

“Kitezh, are you feeling better,” asked Nadia.

Kitezh saw the white glow of Nadia's wand fade away.

“Yeah, much better,” said Kitezh.

“Of course, I don’t know why I bothered asking. It was a powerful healing spell by me!” gloated Nadia.

“Somehow, I feel like you’re trying to get a rise out of me,” sighed Kitezh. “Though you are impressive. The wind magic, the healing magic. You’re pretty good.”

“Ohoho. I am an A-ranked priestess, actually,” Nadia boasted as she posed.

“Maybe there really is no God in this world.”

“Hey, you would be dead if there were none!”

Kitezh dusted her small clothes and looked ahead. They were inside a spiraling tower. It was as if there was a brick road curling upwards.

“Let’s quickly get to the top,” Kitezh said.

Kitezh and Nadia were winding up the path. On their left was a wall with large windows at different intervals of their ascent.

“Stop! We need to be careful. The killer knows we’re in here,” said Kitezh.

Kitezh looked at a window. She pressed her hand against the wall next to it, and the surface melted away. She could see outside like a one-way mirror. She looked down at the buildings.

“I see him. The killer is on the roof. I think he’s waiting for us to pass by.”

“Kitezh, did you forget you can turn us invisible?”

“Oh right, I could do that. But, let’s also crawl past the window just to be safe.”

Kitezh and Nadia turned invisible and dropped to the ground. They carefully crawled on the stone floor.

EER!

“Aha!”

Nadia was shocked. She felt something like a wire on her palm.

“It’s a tripwire!” exclaimed Nadia.

She carefully lifted her palm. She could feel the wire under her hand straighten out. As soon as she felt nothing, she withdrew her hand.

“No way, there are traps set here? That has to mean this killer knew we were coming here,” said Kitezh.

“Hmm, I guess reaching the higher point was not an original idea. Still, if he had all of this planned, maybe it could be his hideout.”

“This observatory is used by other people during the day. He seriously had the time to set all of this up?!”

“We’re dealing with someone who can snipe us with all sorts of stuff! We can expect anything crazy at this point.”

Kitezh inspected the trip wife. She was checking where it leads. As expected, the wire ended at the window and trailed along the column in the center. The center column had a few lamps, but nothing out of the ordinary.

“Is there anything inside the column? Does the wire just spiral around the center? We can see where it goes using my powers,” said Kitezh.

She pressed her hand against the column in the center. The column became transparent.

“Hmm, it’s just more walkway. Let me try something.”

Kitezh continued to spread her powers upward and to the ceiling itself. She could see right above her. It was just another walkway. She could see the ceiling of the next section of the tower.

“Does this tripwire lead to anything?” asked Kitezh.

“Uh, Kitezh, I think you’re forgetting something. You’re making things invisible, but that actually makes you-“

SMASH!

The hall got somewhat darker. One of the lamps was shot. Glass fell on the ground, and the light dimmed away.

“Crap, I forgot about him! But, he aimed at the lamp?” wondered Kitezh, as she looked at the mess.

She could see smoke from the now broken lamp. The fumes started to become a mist.

“Argh, this smells funny. My eyes feel weird, aaaaah…” said Kitezh, as she started to yawn.

“Oh shit, this is sleeping gas! That lamp was another trap!” yelled Nadia.

Nadia covered her mouth with her hand and pulled out her wand.

“AAAAH!”

FWOOSH!

A large gust of wind blew through the hall. The mist was clearing up.

SNAP!

“AH! KITEZH!”

“Ow, something… hit me… ah…” Kitezh yawned.

Kitezh was dozing off. Nadia located Kitezh's invisible body at the spot where she was inspecting the tripwire. She pulled her away from the window view.

“Stay with me Kitezh, you need to stay focused.”

RUMBLE!

“That snapping sound. Oh no, I must’ve blown Kitezh into that tripwire!” thought Nadia.

The sound of rumbling and banging got louder. Nadia held Kitezh tighter.

“Wait a minute. Kitezh used her powers on the ceiling. I can see what’s coming down!”

Nadia looked up as the sound got louder. She saw brown cylinders rolling down the winding path above. She could see it through the invisible wall on the side, too. They were metal barrels tumbling down the spiral walkway.

The barrels finally reached Nadia’s level. She pulled Kitezh aside and embraced her. The barrels bowled sporadically toward Nadia.

Nadia was dancing like a ballerina around the barrels to avoid them.

“Since I knew barrels were coming thanks to the invisible walls, this isn’t so bad. I just needed to focus on which path the barrels were coming down,” thought Nadia. “The real part I need to remember is-“

FWOOSH!

“When the last barrel is coming!”

SMASH!

Nadia used her wand towards the ground and used wind magic to send the last barrel flying through the window.

“It still picked up horizontal speed from the spiraling ramp. It’s probably not going to hit that killer. But maybe it can get attention up on his roof,” Nadia continued to think.

BOOOOM!

“What?! It exploded?!” yelled Nadia.

SMACK!

“Ow! Kitezh?!”

“Keep it down, Nadia! My head hurts!” said a sleepy Kitezh.

“Now’s not the time, Kitezh!”

SMACK!

“OW!” cried Kitezh, as she got slapped in the head.

“Shit, just try to sleepwalk! We gotta get to the top right now!”

“What… was that you did… Nadia?”

“It was apparently some explosive barrel trap. AH! Then the barrels down the tower will-“

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

“AAAAAAAH!”

THUD!

A violent explosion blew up at the ground level. The building shook as if there had been a massive earthquake. Nadia was knocked off her feet, dropping Kitezh on the ground. Nadia got back up and lifted up Kitezh.

“Shit! What the hell is this guy’s problem? He seriously went all out on this trap just to kill someone?!”

SMACK!

“I said keep it down, Nadia!”

SMACK!

“I said wake up, Kitezh!”

SMACK!

SMACK!

Kitezh and Nadia childishly smacked each other up the spiral walkway. They were so distracted, they didn’t even think of any other traps ahead, nor did they think about how they passed another window that faced the killer’s direction.

Meanwhile outside. there was smoke from the building below.

“What the hell is going on?!” screamed a man from the damaged building.

People were half-awake, half-angry. The streets were dark, but soon illuminated with lamps. People in the streets looked up at the observatory tower and the bombed building. Smoke and dust billowed out of both structures.

“Damn, so they intend to fight back.”

A figure wearing a robe walked discreetly on the street. It looked down and saw some brightly colored gemstones on the ground. They were part of the debris from the barrel explosion.

“This is getting tedious. I’ll just deal with them face-to-face,” said the assassin.