Chapter one
Obedience.
That was the word he'd heard for almost a decade now.
Obedience.
The Commandant was now a product of obedience.
He'd been human once. At least he vaguely recalled being so, but remembering was dangerous behind the walls of The Spire.
He stood in his quarters, looking out the wall opening to the dock below. The fresh recruits were arriving.
The Spire was an Old Kingdom place that Lucien Fairfax had searched for relentlessly, finally finding much of it below the surface of the sea.
Lord Fairfax employed many men to rebuild the Spire, but he spent much of his time with the man who could only somewhat recall being human.
He was now called The Commandant. He could not recall if he had a name before that. He could only remember the pain. Pain and the blood from the cutting of his flesh. There were now pieces of The Spire jutting from his skin and from his head. With these pieces of stone, he could use his Will to wield power. With just a though, he could strike a man down.
The Commandant could even now feel the pain of the stones being sewn into his skin. How he had fought! But he could not escape the leather straps that held him in place. The face of the man he now served standing over him those years past looming over him. A face he respected. A face he hated.
As the Commandant idly watched the new recruits, he caught sight of the one he was waiting for. The woman. The woman who won The Crucible.
There were women here, of course there were. There was cleaning to be done, meals to be cooked and laundry to be washed, but the woman who was coming down the gangplank would not be doing any of these menial chores. She was the one who would be the first woman at the Spire to help oversee its construction. He expected obedience from her.
The Commandant squinted, trying to see her better from his high vantage point. The woman couldn't have been much more than 16 hands high. Her? That little slip of a woman won The Crucible? It was laughable if the Commandant were capable of laughing. It was a wonder she had survived the two week journey on the ship to get here.
The Commandant went to the wooden door and opened it.
"Officer 87!" he barked in a low, gravelly voice.
"Yes, Commandant, sir," said the guard on the right side of the door.
"You will oversee the new recruits. In the morning you will send the woman to me."
The guard trembled slightly. "As you wish, sir."