Page 67 of Godslayer
Despite everything that’s happened in the past weeks, I cannot forget that this tower was the purpose of everything in Tau City. This tower loomed over us, like a lord. Filling the air with spark-fueled expectations and anxiety. And now, here I am, inside it. The forbidden tower. The unknown tower. The mysterious center of my whole existence.
Immediately, we find ourselves in a luxurious lobby with no signs of decay at all. The lobby is similar to the ones in the Maiden Tower and Extraction Tower, but much, much more. The walls are a slate blue stone, not cream-colored plaster. But they are soothing and smooth. Little gold veins slither across the dark bits, making it glitter.
The furnishings are, again, much like the furnishings you’d find in any up-city tower lobby. But grander. Bigger. The couches, the chairs—they’re all covered in a gold fabric and there are accent pillows the color of the walls. Which is a very nice combination of colors, even with my uncaring and untrained eye for décor.
The lobby is massive, but in my estimation only takes up about half of the interior space of the tower. Shooting off in just about every direction like spokes on a wheel, are hallways. There has to be two dozen of them, at least. It’s impossible to see where they lead, because each one of them curves to the left or right only a few feet in.
“Feel free to gawk,” the god says. “It’s impressive and you’ve never been here, so it’s not bothering me at all.” He looks over his shoulder at us, a knowing smile on his face.
“How do you know so much about us?” I ask.
His reply is dry. “Patience, Extraction Master. We have a long climb.” Then he points up to the top of the tower, which feels like a very long distance away, and we begin to ascend the wide, spiraling stairwell.
“Do you entertain guests here?” Jasina suddenly asks.
I’m not expecting the god to answer her since he just shot down my question, but he does. And he’s not the least bit rude about it. “Occasionally, I do.”
“Who?” Jasina demands. I squeeze her hand, giving her a subtle, but firm reproach for the tone of her voice—this is a god, after all. But she ignores me. “I mean, who is coming to see a god? Our god never had visitors.”
The god pauses on the stairs. Turns. Narrows his eyes at us. He looks at me first, then Jasina. That’s who he’s talking to when he speaks. “You are quite bold for a down-city whore, aren’t you?”
How dare he. I’m about to protect and defend her honor, but Jasina is not one to cower and doesn’t need my help.
“You can insult me all day long, if you’d like,” she says. Her voice even and strong. “But I am not a whore, nor do I reside down city. Perhaps if I was still a slave in Tau City Factory, this approach might work. But here,” she waves a hand at his factory. “This isn’t my town, these aren’t my people, and you’renotmy god.”
The god snickers. “The perfect answer. Congratulations, you pass.” Then, without another word, he turns and once again begins his ascent.
Jasina and I pause on the steps, looking at each other with confusion.
But the workers coming up behind us, prod us into motion by poking our backs with their weapons.
So we follow.
It truly is a long way up and by the time we get to the top, Jasina is breathing so hard I’m actually concerned. But she tilts her chin up, determined to be strong, so I say nothing. Just turn back to the god, looking past him at… plates? I think? Lots of glass with lots of colorful things on it. Many of them have views of houses or rooms. The insides of towers as well. But most are colored shapes. Rectangles with words and numbers inside them. Some of the plates are very active, showing many scenes or many colored boxes with information inside them. But there are quite a few static ones as well.
Spaced evenly around the perimeter of the massive domed room are tall, skinny, floor-to-ceiling windows about the width of a man.
In the very center of the room is a glowing circle. A sort of stage, I guess. It’s elevated off the floor about a foot. But it’s not made of stone, like the God’s Tower Stage outside. It’s glass. Black and shiny like the desktop inside the Looking Glass room in the Extraction Master’s tower. Parts of it are lit up, parts of it not. And I immediately recognize these lights as switches.
Looking back at the colored shapes on the plates, I surmise that they might be switches as well.
Around the inside perimeter of this main circle are more, smaller circles. All of these glow a bright cyan-blue.
“Would you like a tour?” the god asks.
I look over at him, blink like a confused idiot, then check myself. “Maybe later,” I say, looking the god straight in his eyes. They are blue, I notice. But they shine unnaturally. Spark, I realize. He’s got spark in his eyes. “We’re here. We followed. Will you answer my questions now?”
He holds up a hand. “Mr. Scott, be assured that all your questionswillbe answered. But I imagine I can speed things up by explaining what is happening here, and how you’ve beenmisled. And that starts with a tour. So, if you don’t mind, please answer my question with a ‘yes’.”
I look at Jasina, but she just shrugs. As if to say,What choice do we have.
The man is a god and he just caught us snooping through his… realm, or whatever.
And now that I think about it, I realize we saw something we absolutely weren’t meant to see. Those cocoons, the woman inside that looked like Clara, and the rest of the city.
It’s all his. The women, the city, the cocoons, the spark. We are uninvited strangers. And I think he’s pretty pissed off that we got in here. Nonetheless, here we are. So he’s being forced to deal with us.
Which can only turn out one of two ways.
