She was just a girl.

She didn't think she was special, knew she wasn't. She didn't think she had some grand plan laid out for herself or anything, she knew she was just like everyone else.

Born with the most average skills, the most average looks, and the most average house.

So why was she forced to compete like she was something greater?

She, like her sisters, were sold as nameless daughters to be a contender for that houses glory. She, among several of her other nameless, unimportant peers, would fight every day to establish who was strong and who was not.

The weakest would eat at the bottom of the table, while the strongest ate at the top.

She was always at the bottom.

A life of such hardship wasn't ill suited for her, per say, but she just couldn't fathom why the tower had created her to be this way. Why was she born into such a low class family if only to compete with those who had talent?

Why did the god of the tower make her so average, and then expect her to fight her betters- even though she never won against them.

This place revolved around two things. Strength, and food. Both were equatable to each other, so that meant that the strong ate food, and the food belonged to the strong. Their whole lives were about eating and fighting. They knew not each other's names, or their lives. They knew competitors and food.

So her, that was hardly even worth a candle compared to the older girls, who wasn't even a competitor…

Sometimes she heard the older girls refer to her as food herself.

As if she was just like the bread that they fought and earned. As if she was the food they fought and competed for.

As if she was born just to be food for these talented girls.

And how unfair was that? To believe that she was created with no real purpose other than to be the stepping stone for those the god of the tower created with talent and destiny.

And so, it was with those thoughts that she fled. If she were to eventually die as food for her sisters, she would at least rather die trying to live her own destiny.

She hid in a cave.

Even though she was on a lower floor of the tower, for someone like her that was not a chosen regular, even these mild conditions were too much for her.

The terrain was uneven, the trees blocked her vision and clouded her surroundings in peril. By chance she found a cave. Inside were webs of shinso, weaved together by a myriad of spider like creatures.

Rachel was safe here, if only because none of those species were large enough to consider her food.

She would watch them weave and create shinso with that instinctual talent that animals of the tower were born with. How envious she was, that the god of the tower had given these insects more talent than he had given her.

She cried herself to sleep, imagining a life of weilding bright and terrible magic, weaving her own destiny with the tips of her finger…

On the first day, she left and searched for food. All she saw was unfamiliar plants and animals. The plants didn't even look remotely edible, and the animals were all either too quick footed, or too large for her to ever hope to match herself.

And she knew that most animals that hunted by themselves in the tower knew some form of shinso, knew how to manipulate the energy of the world at an instinctual level to help them survive in the harsh climate.

On that first day she searched, and found herself empty with trepidation. She dared not hunt the strong, dared not eat the unfamiliar, dared not venture farther into the unknown…

She was abandoned here by that same god that had created her. Her purpose not even worth being a stepping stone for someone else to climb over.

She went back, and cried herself to sleep again. This time dreaming of a glowing hand lifting her from the filth, and offering her the beauty she always yearned for.

On that second day, she knew that desperate clawing in the pit of her stomach. Starvation, and hydration.

Her body ached in ways she had never experienced when she still competed with her older sisters. She felt frail, weak, lethargic… even with the knowledge and fear of her imminent death looming over her she still wished to just sleep until it all went away…

With legs that shook and arms that could barely hold her up, Rachel emerged from that dark cave, seeking help under the light once again.

Fueled by the knowledge that things would only get worse from here, she felt a bit more adventurous today. Need turned into conviction and she ate the plants indiscriminantly. She choked and gasped and ate and prayed that even that little nourishment would give her enough strength.

Perhaps the god of the tower would grant her this much?

Hoping the odds were in her favor, she set out to find water. But in every direction she listened, no matter how far she went, she would not hear even a drop. All she knew was the animals that roamed the forest and the sounds of nature around her.

It all seemed to mock her, for being weak.

She went back to her cave again, too tired to cry herself to sleep, and fell into a deep slumber without preamble.

Tonight she would dream of climbing to the top. Of being above and beyond the tower, so high up that even those pitiful beasts that she once feared could never hope to reach her, never hope to even touch her-

Rachel woke with a burning in her stomach. She raised, and heaved all the non-digestible foliage that she had tried to eat earlier in the day. Heaved more, dispelling even that trickle of water that was left in her stomach. Heaved more, until even her stomach acid couldn't fill that hole inside her.

She bit back cries and groans and felt a deep and terrible ache inside her. She felt her body grow so weak, incredibly weak, she wondered how her body could still move.

She felt it then. That deep and terrible sinking that rose up from the pit of her stomach, that knowledge that this was it.

Finality and the end weighed upon her, and she knew that this would be it. That she would never survive another day of this, or her body would fail and she would never be able to rise again until her world went black for good…

Rachel cursed the god of the tower for what she thought would be the last time. Cursed it, for making her weak. Cursed it for denying her any purpose or destiny. Cursed it, for placing her in this unfair world. Cursed it… for denying her the mercy to sleep until morning, and pretend she wasn't slowly accepting the reality of her death.

On that third and final day, when she felt herself weaker then she had ever been in her life, she felt perhaps lighter than a feather. Her body dragged as she moved, hardly walking but not quite crawling… but her conscious mind had lifted. The storm of survival made way for the calm peace of finality.

She spoke aloud to the god of the tower and told him.

"I'm ready to fulfill my life purpose."

She would fight one of those beasts. She would either win, and get nourishment, or lose, and become food.

Competing to be food or to eat food, that was her life. That was the life of all things in this tower, that was the world that god had created.

But perhaps as if mocking that resolution to finally face her demons head on, the god of the tower extended a torch to her.

Deep in that forest, a single flame, a beacon of redemption, made itself known to her.

She followed that beacon with all the tunneled focus of a plane landing on the airstrip home.

It was a women, setting fire to the forest before her. She slandered the creation of god, and destroyed it as easily as pushing over a block tower. Everything fleed from her, animals, insects, even the earth seemed to corrode away from her.

Standing there, in the midst of that blaze, the women shone brighter than anything Rachel had ever seen before.

And perhaps that god wasn't so bad, because in that moment he blessed Rachel with the strength she thought she had lost.

A strange and mad desperation fueled her then, running towards that women.

She was surrounded by flames and carnage, the burning embers destroying all that was before her… as if saying she had dominion over it. As though it belonged to her, who shone too brightly for it to ever contain.

Agony, hot and ugly licked at her heels and her legs threatened to give out under the pressure and burning sensation they endured. But she pressed on, hot, heavy smoke raking against her eyes and clouding her throat.

And as she neared the women turned to face her, to see what creature had the audacity to approach when even the animals knew who ruled here.

When Rachel saw those eyes, beautiful and bright and shining like sweet honey, her breath stopped for a moment.

Then, a trill of fear devastated her and stole what remained of the air inside her lungs. Looking close now, she inspected her. Her clothes were that of a traveler, nothing more nothing less. Her beauty was captivating, but not frightening. Her eyes, on second look, gleamed with a glassy haze that spoke of a deteriorating mind.

But it was the bundle with her that was so frightening.

It was an infant. Tiny, hardly even a year old, if that. It's eyes were closed and a sense of other worldly serenity surrounded it.

And its skin was pale, so pale… Much too pale for anything alive. It's body too still. Across its forehead, in black thick lines and warding designs was strange writing, and cresting symbols that seemed to loop and tangle together to form some sort of sigil.

That things, was a demon that she had pulled straight from the underworld.

"Y..Youu!"

And in that moment, when beautiful, golden, honey eyes found her, and that women called out to her in some sort of hazy recognition… Rachel thought that this must have been what the god of the tower wanted from her all along. Why she had survived till now with nothing but average ability and talent.

To be killed by this person.

Sensing that feeling of immense superiority from her, that feeling like she was looking at a ranker, immeasurably stronger than herself… She accepted her fate with a calm look.

That women though… as she approached she did the strangest thing.

She thrust the baby towards her.

"You.. you can help me right!?"

And Rachel was promptly confused as her life did not end in that heartbeat.

"I— I'm… I'm searching. Searching for him, for… for my… for my happiness to be fulfilled…"

She seemed to have trouble finishing her words. Rachel wondered how long it had been since she last spoke to anyone.

She turned to her again, eyes alight with energy.

"I need to keep searching!… but… my baby."

She turned to that dead bundle in her arms. Rachel shivered at the sight of her motherly love, smothering a creature like that.

"I need to take care of him!… You, can you take care of my baby while I look?"

"I can tell. I can tell you can do it. You, you have nothing right? I can see it. I always know who needed my help… these eyes are kind after all."

She said it like it was a physical fact, and not just an observation.

"That's what he always said. Why he loved me, why he couldn't let me go…that devil in kings clothing…"

She had no idea how sane this women was.

"I can tell, because these eyes are kind. You need a purpose, and shelter? I will find you both, if you take care of my child."

And, offering her olive branch to her again, Rachel took her destiny.

The girl who was born to be food held that dead, cold infant in her weak crumbling hands.

Over the next several years, Rachel took care of the infant. She saw to it that it was watched, that no one came near, and monitored its condition. Sometimes she pretended it was alive, if just to make herself feel a bit more sane for what had become of her life.

She was told by Arlene that the symbols on its forehead was a curse, one that she used to rejuvenate and revitalize her boy, to keep his youthful appearance.

Rachel knew it kept the body in tact.

The cycle seemed like it would repeat endlessly. She prayed that her own old age may brake the monotony of it one day, but she began to suspect that the curse was preserving her own life by association with the child, as years grew to decades. Arlene would leave in the morning, search, and return in the evening. Every so often, she would take Rachel and the infant with her and move to a different floor of the tower, and they would search again.

It was on those days she truly got glimpses of the woman Arlene was. Being with Arlene all those days, as crazy and loose as she was becoming… She still knew that Arlene was someone great. Beautiful, powerful, undaunted.

She would fearlessly slay any beast or, if it so happened, person that happened to block her path. Never even once touching them, she used strange but brilliant talents such as curses and wide-range shinso skills to obliterate anything around her.

The world would burn from her wrath, every time. And Rachel delighted in that bright warmth, and coveted for that power.

It was startling inspiring. It was like watching the raw power of the sun fend away from the birds who rose too high.

It was the only reason Rachel lived.

It was on one of those days, where Rachel was all too bored and forgot that she should be afraid of this insane women, that she asked her the important question.

"Why do you want to find a way out of this tower, Arlene?"

The look she gave her, was for once less mad in the head and held more of a soft, somber tone.

"I want to make a wish."

Rachel paused in surprise. This was the first time she had heard of that, and it also sounded quite outlandish. "A wish?"

"Yes. I want to wish for my happiness back… I will get it back…"

And that was the end of that discussion. Rachel wasn't willing to pry any further when Arlene's manic glint returned, accompanying that somber look to speak of old pains better left unspoken.

Then one day, Arlene somehow found a way out of that place. Rachel got a glimpse of it… of a world outside of this one.

For the first and last time in her life, Rachel saw the stars. And, as if beckoning a real god, one of the stars descended and gave new life to that dead child.

That child… was alive again.

It was on an ordinary day like most others. She was watching that child, whose name meant nothing because they weren't even alive to claim it-

And then Arlene was back. Much earlier than expected, with such zealous energy that Rachel feared she had finally snapped.

"I found it, found him! Go, GO! Take the child, we must go there now!"

What followed was a haze of quick movements and hurried exclamations. Rachel couldn't remember much out of a mixture of fear that Arlene had finally lost her grip on her mind. Or even more frighteningly, she wondered if Arlene had done it.

If Arlene had actually found something.

The next part, Rachel remembers for sure. Remembers, and still envies, because in the far future she would try and fail over and over to replicate what Arlene did this day.

As she approached the edge of the floor, she somehow began to move wall and space before her. Seemingly as though shedding scales of space and time to allow her passage, sheets of shinso began to shave away and shift in front of her as the walls and sky themselves materialized and disintegrated like the waning winds were pulling them apart.

Sigils and crests lit the skyline and curses seemed to creep up from the earth. Arlene's wrath slowly but deliberately eroded the world in front of her.

As Rachel trembled from the power of the irregular before her, she was locked in place as her legs refused to move. She could not run, she could not hide, she could only watch.

A spectator to the end of her world.

And, as she thought the breath would leave her and never come back, a torrent of wind and strange, frigid air heralded the birth of her new world.

For the first and last time in her life, Rachel saw the stars.

They lighted the new world in a terrestrial light she had never experienced before. In every direction she could see sky went on into the void, never ending, not confined to the limitations of the next floor, but infinite like the passage of all time.

And elevated high above, floating like bright balls of shinso, those lights rested like divine creatures that orbited and ruled from a world so much higher than her own.

They were the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Wind blew in and out of the whole in the world that Arlene had crafted, signaling that this was indeed a new area that should not exist inside the tower. It was like a portal to a whole different place had opened up, Rachel still wasn't sure if she could believe it.

And as she sat there dumbfounded, wondering if Arlene meant to leap out of the tower and be gone forever, she turned around and came up to Rachel.

The power that still emanated from her, the light that radiated from her divine beauty and those golden eyes that seemed to hold the sun in their depths-

For the first time Rachel believed that Arlene may truly be an offspring of a goddess. She was someone who could possibly even reach those far away stars.

Without any preamble Arlene took the child from her arms, and went back to the portal she had opened. Lifting her child like an offering to her master, she brandished him with open palms high above her head.

"God of the outside world! I entrust to you my child, your divine instrument, grant him your almighty light so that he can serve you!"

Before Rachel and Arlene, as though beckoning a true god, one of those lights descended from the heavens.

Awe and euphoria took over Rachels body. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, could hardly stand to exist in front of that being. Arlene's own light was dwarfed by that divine light that was in front of her. Arlene still stood proud, presenting her child, but for Rachel, who was just an ordinary girl, it took everything in her to not fall unconscious under that pressure.

She had no idea what Arlene said next, couldn't hear, could barely see, wouldn't even dream of trying to get closer to that god. The stagnant power radiating from that thing trembled the air and threatened to destroy the ground they stood on.

And, as she stood by, she saw that boy lift up and away from Arlene's motherly arms. And while desperately reaching for her boy, the light filled the child and-

In front of Arlene, with Rachel as her witness, that dead child was given new life.

Rachel had no idea what Arlene and that god of the outside said to each other. Had no idea when that being had left, seemingly dissipating into thin air. Had no idea when that whole, that portal to that other world closed again, leaving her to dream and wonder if any of that had been real. She had no idea when Arlene and her had returned to their home, and Arlene went on and on to sing the praises of that god.

But Rachel new one thing for sure. That baby was alive.

It was alive, and it was hungry and it was crying. And they had no proper food for an infant (it was still unmoving and cold that morning!) and she was not equipped to actually care for a real breathing child-

But Arlene was happy for once. And Rachel couldn't help to feel that she shone even brighter now, since meeting that god. And she was happy as well, for the first time in her life, to say that she was proud to be under such a good master.

In those next months, their routine changed drastically, but it was quite a pleasant change in Rachel's opinion.

Now, instead of watching a still and cold child, she was learning to take care of a real infant. It was messy, but it wasn't lonely.

Arlene showed up more than once a day now as well. She emerged from her room to coddle the infant, all with a radiant smile that gave Rachel a warmth she was comforted by. Arlene also seemed to be applying curses to the boy, though she did not understand what they did. She believed it would help shield his presence from their enemies, and help his growth.

She never understood the curses, and probably never would.

The rest of the day Arlene mostly spent praying to that god from the outside. And often at the table, she spoke highly of the destiny that god had in store for them. A glorious and thrilling rising, they would topple those corrupt non-believers and reclaim the heights of the tower.

Rachel believed that she would be able to climb to the top of the tower with Arlene. That she would take her with her to that place when she fulfilled her destiny.

Rachel truly and sincerely, from the bottom of her heart, thanked that god that gave birth to her so she could fulfill this destiny of meeting Arlene.

And, in those days, after she had met that divine being from the outside, her master shined like nothing else.

She was like a burning light, almost as bright as the stars she yearned for so desperately themselves.

And she believed she could inherit all that.

That under her, working for her, that she would be given her light. Her great strength, her beauty.

Her brightness.

It would be her destiny.

And, one day, Arlene said it was time for her to go.

Rachel had no idea where she went, but she vanished.

Arlene told her, finally, what she had heard from that god. That faced with that ultimate power… it asked her. It asked her what was truly and deeply in her heart…

It told her that it could grant her and her child a new life free from the tower, if that was truly what she wanted. But-

I want to wish for my happiness back

Both she and that god knew that her true wish was not to go to the outside. If she would still burn inside, hurt from the betrayal and pain that ate away at her, slowly corroding her mind and spirit into the hallow shell she had become…

Even if she left, even if she reclaimed that child she had lost, she would never be given the happiness that was stolen from her.

Arlene burned inside. There was a deep and terrible pit, one that hungered and wished to devour. There would be no happiness, no good fortune, no bountiful and meaningful life. Arlene wanted the world, the one that had wronged her, to fall into the deep black abyss.

She wanted that world to crumble, forgotten, with only the lingering curse of her vengeance left to fan the embers so that no trace of that hideous empire would ever rise again.

If she wished it for it, that god would instead give her vengeance mortal coil, and take her child and morph him into the instrument that would destroy that tower.

"The god promised me one thing, that he would give birth and physical body to my desire to destroy this tower, and that god would send a messenger to deliver the thorn that would slash the kings throat."

Arlene's eyes radiated then, like they were often to after meeting her god. But not with the golden light like the sun, they had been stolen from her. Her brilliant light was no longer focused on that happiness, it seemed something far darker.

Arlene shown with a dreadful, hideous light. One that spoke of murder and death.

Rachel was loathe to admit she was still envious of that light.

"I have been making the preparations, I spoke to Luslec, who will aide him as he goes up the tower. He will help deliver the thorn to him one day."

Her light seemed to dim, but its power did not wane. The once sunny, golden color of her eyes darkened to a hungering amber. They did not shine, and they did not reflect the world around her. They only spoke of disaster.

"I have already fitted him with enough curses and spells to see that he survives. All that is left is to raise him until he is ready."

And so, both her and that boy, that monster, would not be freed from that curse of destiny. But they would one day make their own, and destroy that oppressor who had once destroyed their lives.

But before she departed, she gave Rachel her final command.

"This is what that god mandated to me:

This child, I shall name him Bam. Which means the night. And he will climb the tower, eclipsing everything until he reaches the true sky, and he will rejoin that god once again. He will serve that god, and everything he reaches for will sink into the abyss, and he will ascend higher and higher. One day, he will devour the stars themselves."

And Arlene left. Claiming she had a duty to rejoin that god first, never to be seen again in the tower.

And Rachel, who was left once again, abandoned once again like those days she spent in that cave… cried herself to sleep once again.

But this time, she only dreamed of a deep and terrible darkness reaching up to tear down the stars from the sky itself.

She was left to take care of that child, that monster, and wondered every day if she should end him before he grew. If she should finish off the night while the day was still strong.

But Rachel was a smart girl, and she had no doubt. That if she were to lay a hand on that child, one of those curses Arlene placed would probably kill her. And, she also wondered, if she were to abandon it, like she had been abandoned all those times, would she be giving up all the good fortune that the god had blessed her with?

That god, who had given her nothing she could claim for her own, was giving her the task to raise the boy.

So who would she be to deny what she was given?

And so Rachel devised a plan. One that she hoped would transcend the faults of her own destiny, of her birth.

If Arlene would not take her to the top of the tower, would not take her to see those stars again that she yearned for so strongly…

Then of course the task should fall to her next of kin.

She would raise Bam, and he would surely climb the tower with her. And together, they would defeat destiny. She would raise him to be her loyal defender, and she would rise higher and higher. And, even if one day he devoured one star, or two, or even a whole legion of them… She was certain there would still be enough left for her.

As long as she could reach those stars… She could live this way.

But even if she had made peace with it, he was still a monster. And she would hate Bam for the rest of her days. For stealing her destiny away from her, and inheriting that light that she coveted from the bottom of her heart.

And as years passed, and Rachel taught Bam how to live for those who were precious to him, she knew that he would live for her. That Bam was someone who would doggedly die for her, if he thought he needed to. That he would be strong, for her, that he could become the platform that would carry her to the top of this tower.

She dreamed of standing on that boys shoulders while she was lifted into the sky.

Of being given the key to her own destiny, her light, her birthright.

She dreamed and dreamed until those dreams were shattered.

"Bam, I want you to imagine the stars with me."

"But I don't really care about those things…"

And didn't that hurt? To know that the things she craved and yearned for, that wonderfully haunting image that was right behind her eyelids, that she knew every time she closed her eyes… to know that none of it even mattered to him.

To the boy who would one day claim them.

"I want you to do it. Come on, it'll be easy. Just close your eyes."

So he did. The two of them, lying side by side in that cave, their home. Rachel had been raising Bam here for longer than she cared to think about. Abandoned here, never to see Arlene or her light again…

"Now picture this, that the ceiling above you is all gone."

"Huh? But then what's left there…"

"Nothing."

Freedom. Ultimate, satisfying, freedom from anything that could ever try to hold her down, there would be no limits. She could forge her own destiny.

"There is nothing above you, nothing blocks you. It's broad and empty and beautiful. It's the sky, and way up there, so far away you could never reach even from the tallest mountain, or the most beautiful sight.

Up there… are stars, too many to count, so bright they light up the darkest void, ever encompassing and radiant."

And in that place, where there was no limit to how high she could reach, where she could forge her own destiny, she would choose to join the stars, or at least admire them, for the rest of her days.

"I will go there for sure, one day."

"…"

Bam was speechless, watching her. He had given up on looking at the stars, never knowing how beautiful they could be. All he knew was home, and games, and Rachel.

And out of all three of those things, only one of them mattered to him.

"Rachel. Stop talking so much nonsense… besides."

And now she looked at him, and his smile was pure but those golden honey eyes (her eyes) so intense it sent cold shivers down her spine.

"To me, you're much more precious than any of those stars."

And he reached up, grasping for purchase to rip the sky out from the heavens, and turn the whole world upside down.

"If you were to go up, I would go with you for the rest of my days."

As he pulled his arm back down, she imagined him dragging her down into that deep dark abyss she feared so much.

And she felt it. Deep inside of her bones. That chilling conviction that Arlene possessed as well, that deep seated truth that said he was serious about her.

That realization, that she was his light.

The light, to that dark and terrible night, that would eat the stars.

And so she made preparation, and she left. And as she left, she heard him yell-

"I will follow you even if I die!"

Cold fear haunted her in the memory of that phrase. Rachel believed him. Believed that he would follow behind her, chasing her down. And one day, perhaps at the top of the tower itself, he would catch up.

And he would devour her along with all the other stars he was born to eclipse.