The Tower

On a remote beach in the Yrivian Peninsula, a tower stood. Constructed entirely out of black stone. It's wide enough to fit a small village inside with room to spare. Its height soared up to the clouds. Building such a structure would've taken ages. However, no large black rocks could be found anywhere close to it. There have been no written accounts of sightings of the tower in all of recorded history. Strangest of all, no one noticed it until a few weeks ago. 

A traveler arrived at a nearby town. He went around asking about the tower. He introduced himself to an older man. "My name is Sojou. I was wondering if you knew anything about the tower." 

The older man replied. "I've been going to that beach my whole life. I don't think I would've missed something as big as that. One day it was just there as if someone built it overnight." 

"Did you ever notice anything strange at this beach before the tower appeared?" 

"No, it was completely normal." 

"Has anyone gone inside the tower?"

"I never went inside, and if someone else did, the whole town would've heard about it by now. I think everyone's scared of it. Some even say it's haunted. Apparently, a voice can be heard inside it if you're quiet."

"I see. Could you point me in the direction of the beach?" Sojou asked. 

The old man told him how to get to the beach. It was just a short walk from the town. Before even reaching the beach, Sojou could see the massive tower in the distance. No one could miss it if they tried. Once he got closer to the tower, he noticed a large metal door that served as its entrance. He tried to open it, but it was locked. 

Sojou set down his box and opened it. He searched around inside it until he eventually pulled out a sword. He unsheathed it and managed to fit it in the gap of the door. Slowly, he slid the sword down the length of the door. Whatever mechanism was used to lock it was severed, and the door swung open. 

Sojou stepped inside and was surprised to find it lit up. Bands of blue lights lined the inner walls of the tower. The first floor was fairly small and only contained a staircase going up. Sojou walked up the steps cautiously. While climbing the stairs, he heard a voice come from above. 

"Who goes there?"The voice asked, clearly panicked. 

Sojou continued to walk up the steps until he could see where the voice was coming from. The owner of the voice was a man who looked a little younger than Sojou. He was fairly muscular and had long golden hair. His face carried a frightened expression. 

"I mean you no harm." 

"Then what's that sword in your hands for?" 

Sojou had completely forgotten to put the sword back into his box. "I only used it to get inside. Had I known someone was in here, I would've knocked." 

"So you're not here to kill me?"

"Of course not. I just came to investigate this tower," Sojou said as he put the sword away. 

"Investigate it? Why?"

"It suddenly appeared here not too long ago. Have you been in here this entire time?"

"I... I don't know. All I remember is waking up in this room one day. I don't remember anything before then. The only thing I can remember is fear. Something terrifies me. I just don't know what it is." 

"Well, you don't have to be afraid of me. Do you remember your name?"

"Yes. My name is Davian."

"My name is Sojou. Is there anything else you can remember?"

"No sorry. All I remember is my name and that indescribable fear."

"Have you been up on the other floors of the tower?"

"I've just been here the whole time. I was too scared to go anywhere else." 

Sojou looked around the room. The walls were covered with shelves that had rations of food and water on them. There was enough in that one room to feed dozens of people for months. Sojou no longer doubted that Davian had lived in the tower for weeks. "Let's just go outside for now, and maybe the fresh air will jog your memory." 

Davian only replied with a nod. He followed Sojou, and they went down the stairs together. When they walked down the steps, they were greeted with a large empty room. Looking around, they couldn't see the exit anywhere. Somehow, they had gone to a different floor of the tower.

Davian started to panic and ran down a staircase across from them. After he disappeared, Sojou heard steps coming from behind him. Davian came running down the stairs, ending up in the same room as before. Sojou tried walking back up the steps but ended with the same result. As far as they could tell, there was no way to escape the room by normal means. 

Davian looked to Sojou for help. "What's going on?" 

"It seems like something has distorted the space in this tower. I have yet to figure out what it is or how we can get out of here." 

"We're going to die here! The other room had food and water, but this has nothing!" Davian cried. 

"It's going to be alright. We just have to find a way out." Sojou started to pace the room as he thought. His eyes lit up when he got an idea. He opened his box and pulled out a long rope. One end, he tied around his waist, and the other end was handed to Davian. "Take this and hold onto it."

"Why? How is this going to help us escape?"

"Just wait and see," Sojou said as he descended the staircase. 

Davian wondered why he needed to hold onto the end of the rope. There was enough slack on the ground for it to reach the other staircase. Before he could end his thought, the rope was suddenly pulled. Almost instantly, all of the slack went down the staircase. It went so fast that it nearly brought Davian with it. Sojou appeared on the staircase behind him and smiled. 

"Just as I thought. It's not a perfect loop from one staircase to the other. There's some space in between."

"How does that help us? even if there is some space, we miss it every time."

"We might miss it, but the rope didn't. I need you to tie the rest of the rope to your waist. Then, I want you to move forward, so the rope pulls me back. If it works, I'll pull the rope and drag you to where I am." 

Davian did as instructed and started to pull on the rope. Instead of walking up the stairs, Sojou sat down, letting the rope pull him. Even with Sojou's weight on the other end, Davian didn't have much trouble pulling him up the stairs. Once he was up the stairs, Davian looked down the staircase in front of him, expecting Sojou to come up. However, Sojou was nowhere to be found. 

Davian felt a tug on the rope. He went near the bottom of the staircase and let the rope pull him the rest of the way. At the bottom of the staircase, he saw Sojou and a completely different room. The plan had worked, and they had escaped the room. Although, they were now in a new room. There was no telling what would happen when they went up or down the stairs again. 

"What is this room?" Sojou asked. 

Davian looked around the room. All sorts of different weaponry were hung on the walls. Memories flashed in his head. "These weapons were for us to protect ourselves." 

"Us?"

"I remember now. Others were supposed to be in here. They didn't make it."

"What do you mean didn't make it? What were you protecting yourselves from?"

"I don't know. I still don't remember most of it." 

"Maybe going through more of the tower will help you remember." 

"Maybe, but where are we to go from here? What if we go up that staircase and get stuck in that room again?"

"We're not going to get anywhere without trying. Besides, we know how to get out of that room now so we'll be fine," Sojou said as he walked up the staircase. 

Davian waited a bit, then heard a thud. He became scared realizing that he was alone, and rushed up the staircase. Before he got to the top of the stairs, his feet began to lift off the ground. He could hear Sojou yelling something from below him. He started to fall and looked down just before he crashed into Sojou. It took a minute for them to recover from their fall. When they got their bearings, they saw that they were standing on what would be the ceiling of the room. 

"What do we do now? The other staircase is on the ceiling now," Davian complained.

"This room is much more straightforward than the other one," Sojou said as he started to climb up the wall.

Once Davian started to climb,  another memory came to him. "I remembered something else. Before I was stuck in this tower, the world was on fire."

"Maybe that's what you're afraid of? The fire?" Sojou replied above him. 

"I don't think it's the fire that I'm afraid of. It's probably whatever caused the fires." 

"Interesting. Tell me when you remember anything else." 

They were now halfway up into the staircase. Sojou suddenly fell off the wall and toward the stairs. However, he was ready for it this time. He flipped himself over and landed on his feet. On the other hand, Davian was still caught off guard by the change in direction. Sojou tried his best to catch him, but he was quite heavy. They both tumbled down the rest of the steps arriving in another room. 

"lamron smees moor sihT," Davian said. He was surprised at his own words. They had all come out reversed. 

Sojou tried to move forward, but his feet moved back instead. "od ew gnihtyreve gnisrever eb tsum moor sihT." Davian couldn't understand a word he was saying, and neither could he. Giving up on verbal communication, Sojou turned around. He tried to walk back up the steps, but he went down them. Davian caught on quickly to what he was doing and followed suit. 

They both walked the length of the room backward. When they reached the staircase, they both raised their legs. Realizing that their legs went up when they tried to go down, they focused on raising their legs instead. Slowly, they awkwardly made their way down the steps. After they got halfway down, things returned to normal and they almost fell over. 

They stopped at the end of the staircase. There was a little bit of floor around the staircase, but otherwise, the room was a black void. Sojou tried stepping on it, but his foot fell as if there was nothing there. He tried not to think what would happen if he fell in. 

Davian started to breathe heavily. "The darkness. It's the darkness." 

"What are you saying?"

"The darkness is what I'm afraid of." 

"I don't think you have time to be afraid right now," Sojou said while he pointed to the side. 

Davian looked to see a piece of the floor drifting toward them at an alarming rate. "What do we do!?"

"Jump!"

They both jumped onto the piece of the floor as it crashed into the staircase. Davian was about to slide off, but Sojou caught him and pulled him up. 

"Look over there," Sojou said, pointing to a different staircase across the void. The staircase was strangely going up instead of down. However, they didn't have time to worry about it, as another piece of the floor came toward them. 

Again they jumped onto it as it sent the previous piece careening into the darkness. Sojou identified a few other pieces of the floor floating ahead of them. "If we can jump to those other pieces when they come by us, we should be able to reach the staircase."

Davian looked over the edge into the darkness. "I don't know if I can do it." 

"You've got no other choice. If you want to make it out of here, getting to that staircase may be our only hope. Now get ready. We have to jump again." 

Davian collected himself and took a deep breath. He kept his focus on Sojou's back as he jumped after him. They repeated this a few more times until they were right next to the staircase. As they were going to jump across, the staircase caught on the piece of the floor they were on. It began to tip toward them. Davian just closed his eyes and jumped. 

He hit something hard that started to move beneath him. It swung open, and Davian fell through into blinding light. Sojou followed soon after, landing on top of him. For a moment, there was a bright light all around them. After their eyes adjusted, they looked up and saw a blue sky. They were on top of the tower. 

Davian stood up and looked over the side to the ocean. His eyes widened, and he started to cry. "I remember everything now." 

Sojou, still getting up, responded, "Please tell me what you remember." 

Davian continued to look out over the ocean. "We had always thought that the gods resided in the heavens above us. However, that all changed one day when gods rose from the waters beneath us. With them came a darkness that swallowed everything. Only death and destruction came after. At first, the world's armies tried to fight them off. Those that weren't outright killed were driven to madness. It didn't take long for civilization to fall to its knees. 

I was part of a group of survivors. Every day was spent living in fear, not knowing when they'd find us. That was until we discovered this tower." Davian approached a large mechanism in the center of the tower. "This tower can travel between space and time. After we found it, we knew it was our only hope for salvation. We stockpiled rations to sustain ourselves. Weapons were brought in case we arrived at a hostile time.

We had everything prepared. Just before we were going to leave, they found us. I managed to escape to the tower leaving the rest of my people to die. The last thing I remember before activating it was that I wanted to see the ocean. See it before it turned black and dead."

"Traveling through a great length of time and space must've put quite a toll on you. It's probably why you lost your memories. The distortions in the tower were likely caused by that as well." 

"We never fully understood its power. All we knew was that it could get us out of there, and that was enough." 

"What will you do now?"

"I've decided that I'm done running away. I have an idea of where and when the downfall of the world began. I'll head there and see if I can do anything to stop it. As for you, the exit to the tower should be open now. You're free to leave."

Sojou nodded and started to walk down the stairs. "That's a lot of weight to bear on your shoulders. If there's anything I can do to ease that burden I'd be happy to help."

Davian smiled. "I'll let you know." 

Sojou got to the bottom of the stairs and realized that he was now on the first floor. He walked through the door and stepped outside. When he turned around, the tower was gone. Almost as if it had never been there in the first place.