Scorches and Patterns

“The Spire of Strength was exactly what we thought it would be,” Morick said, drowning in the darkness of the room’s shadow. He sat leaning on his good shoulder, playing with a bottle of wine until he realized it was empty. All of his bottles were empty.

“We were strong…” he said, almost disappointed. “Too strong. At first, we thought the spire would unleash a pack of beasts to test our power. What it sent were ghosts. Specters, if you like your silly legends.”

“They were like… smoke. Or fog. Formless. And yet, it formed itself into people we didn’t recognize. I didn’t recognize. Jessa said they resembled faces from portraits throughout history. Champions of the past.” Morick shook his head as if in pain. “It didn’t matter who they were. We were stronger.”

Morick snorted.

“Who? Aven? Aven was the weakest of us, if you really think about it. So yes, Kyr Solian could’ve beaten him. Kyr Solian beat all of us…”

Morick’s eyes went wide in fear.

“Why… why did he go mad?”

Leatrix blinked.

She was back in present day, finally exploring the Spire of Knowledge. She said a silent prayer for her dead uncle, then set the memory aside.

Morick was helpful near the end of his life, but he never really talked about the second spire. When he did, it was always about what Kyr supposedly had done.

But now she was here to see it for herself.

The tower looked the same as it did from outside. Black stone, featureless walls. The difference was the faint light that crackled in the ceiling like fireflies. It was bright enough that they didn’t need torches to light their way.

At the center of the spire was a circular room. It was wide and spacious, and its walls were lined by an endless sea of books stacked all the way to the top of the spire. In the middle was an open staircase that spiraled its way upwards. There were no other floors but the ground they stood on.

Leatrix picked a random book from the wall. Both its leather cover and the paper inside were well preserved. When she flipped through its pages, she found scribbles of text she couldn’t read. Presumably, they were all ancient in nature.

“If you try to take anything out of the spire, they will crumble,” Nowe said, eyes and spectacles gleaming. “It’s the same when I joined Aven’s group in the first tower. Since you can only read the tomes inside, few ever get the chance to.”

“We’re not going to read all of this, right?” Roy asked. “There’s a million of them!”

Leatrix placed the book she was holding back in the shelf.

“As interesting as they are, many of them have been documented in the past,” she explained. “They’re a collection of stories from all across Feonas. Ancient kingdoms, dynasties, empires. The musings of a poet, the records of a goat herder’s debt, the life of a seafarer from across the endless sea. We may find a clue about the apocalypse, but whoever killed Aven left these tomes alone… and burned everything else.”

“And where is everything else, milady?” Cinza asked as he looked down from the second set of stairs.

Leatrix looked over at Kyr.

The sorcerer was… lost in thought. She already knew he didn’t remember anything, but she hoped memories would resurface.

“It’s all underground,” Nowe answered as she flipped through some of the books. “All four spires are mere decoration. It’s what underneath that actually matters.”

“Ah, I figured this place shared more with Serenti Prison than its walls,” Cinza said. “I don’t suppose they’re all made around the same time?”

“That’s the theory,” Nowe replied. “And we already know this tower’s been conquered. The test is simple. The spire will offer the hero and their guardians all the knowledge their heart desired. You pass by refusing them.”

Roy snorted. “I wish we had that test in the academy.”

“I imagine the spire will tempt the hero with certain truths?” Cinza asked as he descended.

“Maybe,” Nowe said with a shrug. “But I can already tell I will easily lose if I tried. According to the official story, Aven was in the middle of the test when… you-know-what happened.”

The room fell silent.

“We should go,” Leatrix said. “Do you at least remember how to get underground, Kyr? It would save us time if we didn’t have to re-solve the puzzle.”

The man nodded, then went around the room to move some of the books in different places. A type of mechanism clicked as he did so, until two rows at the back of the spire parted, revealing a new entrance.

Roy whistled. “I don’t know why Ilara’s group took forever to conquer this spire, but if it involved a puzzle with a million books, I can’t say I blame them.”

“There’s a trick to it,” Kyr said quietly. “Most puzzles are designed that way.”

Same as the Spire of Strength, if Leatrix recalled correctly. “The enemy we fought and the enemy we needed to beat were two different things,” Morick said in her memories. “After Kyr and Princess Irenea figured it out, we were led underground.”

They moved to the new entrance and cautiously descended its stairs. Old as the spire was, there was no dust or cobwebs, only scratches and bits of chipped stone due to every hero and guardian who visited it in the past. It was almost as if time had stopped in this place.

After several flights down, they reached a room as wide as the one above, but obviously not as tall. Its walls had rows of bookshelves all destroyed by soot and scorch marks. It was as Leatrix heard it would be.

“Sun above,” Nowe said. “There’s nothing left in here.”

“Let’s search it anyway,” Leatrix insisted.

They didn’t find a single tome, but there was no evidence of actual fighting either. That, they found when they descended another floor down. The new staircase had slash marks and chunks of debris strewn about. Even dried blood.

All of this was new information for Leatrix. The reports never detailed what the damage was like, only that it happened. And when they reached the actual floor below, she immediately had Cinza take notes for her.

The new room was more expansive, but instead of bookshelves, it had statues of men and women wearing ancient robes that had a flowery silhouette. They too were damaged in the fighting, with one completely missing its head as it lay on the floor.

Was this where Aven died? The other guardians fought the culprit as well, so it could also be their doing.

There was a great big door directly opposite the stairs. That should lead to the room of testing, along with an inner chamber where the hero performed the sacred rites.

Two hallways branched to both the left and right sides, with a total of four corridors. From what she read, they led to smaller rooms for resting, while some descended further down for more books to read. She knew them to be burned as well, but they better check them later to be sure.

The group dispersed whilst staying relatively close to each other. Leatrix and Cinza noted which scratches were done by bladed weapons, and which chunks of rock were cleaved by magic spells. The occasional smattering of blood also told them where people were possibly hit.

Kyr didn’t explore much, choosing to stare at the statues, the stairs and the door. The others occasionally chatted with him, but they said his mind was elsewhere. Perhaps Leatrix should leave him for now.

Eventually, they searched the hallway to the left of the giant door. It was probably the one that had the most amount of damage. Onyx may be resistant to mana, but it wasn’t impervious to force or the elements. Patterns of scorched fire and lightning marks were present, along with cracked walls and debris.

Part of Leatrix’s training was to visualize how a crime could’ve happened, but there was too much to consider.

“It’s sad to think the hero died here,” Roy said, further down the hallway.

“Is it possible that more than one sorcerer fought in this place?” Nowe asked as she inspected the walls. “There are far too many blasts of energy.”

“They all go in one direction,” Leatrix replied. She walked over to Roy and saw a small pool of dried blood on the floor.

“I don’t know if I can be much help here, inquisitor,” Roy said, his face green with nausea. “It’s a bit scary if I’m being honest.”

“Go see to Kyr,” she said. “He might need someone to lean on.”

Leatrix crouched and inspected the floor closer. There was splatter leading to the pool of blood. Whoever got hit was standing a few paces towards the mouth of the hallway, got hit by a strong force that caused the splatter... then landed here.

“Aven's wound would be consistent with the force, but…”

Did he stand back up?

There was a pool of blood, but it was small. Other parts of the room had blood just like it. It was possible Aven's armor stopped it at first, but…

There were drippings a few paces away. Leatrix followed it and saw more. A big piece of debris had fallen on top of it, but there was larger pool of dried blood beneath it.

What did that mean?

“Aven possibly got up after he was hit… then walked all the way here, closer to the wall…”

Aven died in this spot. Was found. Taken away. Sometime later, the crack on the wall caused this debris to fall on the floor.

Was that relevant?

Maybe.

The more important question was, why did Aven bother to move? There was a bit more blood on the floor, but parts of it were clean. As if something blocked the blood from getting to it.

Ah, that’s right.

They also found an unconscious Kyr Solian somewhere in here. He must’ve been lying on this spot and Aven went to his friend in his final moments.

Interesting.

Hmm?

Leatrix looked up as she realized something odd.

“How did…”

Leatrix turned to look at the entrance of the hallway. Kyr was standing there with Cinza and Roy, staring blankly in space. He didn’t dare step foot into the corridor.

“It can’t be...”