Chapter Ten: The Throne Room

"Where's Mise?" Vol asked immediately.

There was a long, very uncomfortable silence. Heros didn't say a word and not once brought his eyes to meet Vol's. Force had even seen the tragedy from his position in the door, and also remained silent. Evek's eyes scanned over everyone else and although he would have said something, he had nothing to say. Vol's fiery eyes remained fixed on Heros, piercing him, the last one through the door.

"Where is Mise?" Vol finally asked again, this time her voice shaken and her eyes welling with tears. She knew the answer; it wasn't like there were many places he could have been, but she still wanted to hear it out loud. A third time, louder, she demanded: "Where is Mise?"

"Gone," Heros barely said. There was another long silence. No one was looking at each other, their eyes all either fixed to the floor or wandering around the room. Vol couldn't hold back her tears and they steadily, but gently, streamed down her cheeks. She didn't make any sounds, she just cried.

"I'm really sorry," Evek said to Vol.

"He saved my life," Heros finally felt as though he could speak since Evek broke the silence first. He continued, "he pulled me up, or was trying to. I don't know what happened. A spider was right there, right on top of us. And then Mise was gone and I... I just got through the door as fast as possible." Heros knelt next to Vol, who was on her knees with her legs folded underneath her, and handed her Mise's goggles. He didn't say anything else.

Vol took the goggles in both hands and held them in front of her face, her eyes carefully surveying what she held, trying to take it all in: this was all that was left of her brother. With this thought, more tears were unleashed in a quick flurry of cries, this time accompanied with audible sobs. They were short lived and after just a few moments she took a deep breath and wiped her face clear of tears. She fastened the goggled to her belt, securing them very tightly so they were hanging free but were in no danger of becoming loose. Without another word, she stood and turned, and began surveying the room.

It was much better lit than any other room in the tower they'd seen so far. Like many previous rooms, it was mostly lit by small to large gaps in the room's walls, letting in some daylight. Much like the dark staircase, the room was also lit by dozens of pairs of torches mounted on pillars leading down a central passageway. Unlike any other room, however, this one also had sections of the walls that were cleanly cut in line, unlike the haphazard gaps, meant to serve as actual windows.

The chamber was also the largest by far: it seemed at least two stories tall, and looked as though it went on and on forever. The door they'd just come from was little more than a footnote on a massive pillar in the center of the room, a room which was as wide as the very tower itself, indicating that the staircase they'd just used surely must have been at the very center of the entire tower. The very grandiosity of the room demanded that it had to have been the top and final floor of Eos Tower. The remaining four were close to their goal.

"Where's the treasure?" Force pondered. "The old man said the highest floor would be our reward: endless gold, jewels, precious things. I don't see any of that!" Force, for the first time, lost his cool tone and let angst ring in his voice clearly.

"Well, hold on. It's a big room," Evek observed, "let's circle around and check the entire chamber before we start getting upset."

Force and Evek both began heading around the center pillar in one direction. Vol, without even turning back to give her friends a look, began treading down what seemed like a passageway made by the pairs of columns lit by torches. Heros considered following her and trying to console her, but he felt it was better if she were alone for now. Instead, he began heading around the center pillar in the opposite direction as Force and Evek, straying from the pillar and meandering closer to the edge of the room.

Heros was wholly unimpressed. Other than the sheer size of the room, it differed very little from every other single room they'd been in so far. Worse, it was devoid of the reward they'd been promised by the old man. "You shall find the untold riches on Eos Tower's highest floor," the old man's words rang in Heros' ears.

Vol's trip down the column-lined passage was nearing its end as she approached a massive throne with a dark, round, shadowed silhouette resting upon it. She halted her progress to study the figure in front of her, but from the distance she couldn't make anything out through the shadows. She slowly walked closer and closer to the figure, but immediately stopped again when she saw it moving.

From the shadows lit two globes of piercing white light, spaced from each other and resting on the figure. Vol stood perfectly still as the silhouette began to rise, this rounded darkened shape now even taller as it seemed to float. The white lights partially dimmed but still remained prominent as a deep, beckoning voice echoed across the entire floor: "Who approaches Alishar?"

Its voice was easily heard by the rest of the group and they came running, seeing Vol standing alone before a shrouded creature. They hurried to where they had began, and then headed down the same passage Vol had, ending up right at her side. They all stood ready, but remained unequipped, and gazed in awe.

The source of the voice rustled again, and then began approaching the group very slowly. It easily towered over the adventurers, and answered the question of why this floor had to be so tall. The shape finally began exiting the shadows as it floated closer and closer to the four. It was definitely massive, and was a strange shape: it wasn't perfectly circular, but was round in shape, and had no signs of extremities.

The piercing white globes became unspectacular as they crossed into the light, and were its eyes. Its mouth lay a great distance below its eyes, nearly at its bottom, and was lined with monstrously sharp teeth. It was mostly blue save for a patch of white that covered what could loosely be described as its front, only because that was where its eyes and mouth lay. A strip of fabric, like a belt, was wrapped around the creature's entirety just below its mouth and had keys of various shapes and sizes hooked to it. What looked like a shiny blue gem was fixed to the belt's center. Upon its top lay a peculiar hat that itself was taller than any of the adventurers and had at its top a clock, though the clock had far too many hands ticking at different speeds and a great many numbers scattered about its face.

The frightening beast stopped after it had wholly exited the shadows, but remained floating just above the floor. Its eyes didn't seem to move at all, and its mouth remained shut. It just hovered in place waiting for an answer.

"We're looking for the treasure of Eos Tower," Force said, stepping in front of his three cohorts.

"You may not have it," the creature replied simply. Its voice remained impressive and daunting, especially loud as he was now even closer to the adventurers. Its mouth moved, but hardly opened at all as it talked. The mouth nearly spanned its entire width, so Heros for one was glad to see it remaining mostly shut.

"We've come all the way up the tower and made great sacrifices to uncover the treasure of Eos Tower. We must have it," Force insisted.

"Did that stubborn man send you?" Its eyes gleamed gently. "Be wise, turn back now and tell that man that he will never get his hands on it."

Heros was reminded of his conversation with the old man in the Adventurer's Guild. "All I ask in return for providing you with this information is one of the treasures," the old man had told Heros. "It's nothing you'd be interested in, anyway. There will be plenty of mesos and jewels. What I want is small and blue, and could otherwise easily be overlooked. It's about as big as your palm and will be jagged, like it was broken off of something."

Heros stepped forward besides Force and demanded answers to questions that the old man would only cryptically avoid: "Who are you? How do you know about the man, and what he wants? What is it?"

The massive figure in front of them then did something very unexpected: it laughed. It bellowed from its mouth a haughty laughter before finally replying, "You don't even know for what you search? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he told you nothing. However, I cannot tell you either. I am Alishar, and I keep it safe."

"Fine," Force once again took over the dialogue, "that old man sent us on a fool's errand. Perhaps its fitting that he doesn't get what he wanted, but we came here for the mesos, the gold, the jewels. We were told there were many."

"This is how he enticed all who came before you, but you may not have any. They are locked away here, and I keep them safe."

"That's unfortunate," Force threatened, "because we all really need them. We're not leaving here without the mesos."

"That is unfortunate," Alishar retorted, "for you shall have none. I'll only warn you once more, turn away and leave."