Chapter 8 - The Scorched Axis
She couldn't remember how the summer sun felt on her skin. Try as she might, the perennial humidity and cold sank into her body, permanently expunging any trace of comfort. All that remained was the rain, the heavy clouds, the tower growing larger and larger as the procession slowly crept along the coast. The rags covering her shape were always damp, always frigid, always clinging to her goosebump-covered limbs. It was the same for the children in front and behind her. The weather worsened by the day, something that the glum adults herding her and the others seemed to expect. But that meant they could seldom keep dry as they marched. Only at night, when they were ordered to strip and sit around a bonfire, could they get some reprieve from the icy touch of the stinking fabric.
Every now and then, one of their number fell ill. The unfortunate child soon disappeared during the sleeping hours, and the line grew shorter. The remaining ones knew better than to ask any questions.
The girl knew she wouldn't die just yet, in any case. Since the first time the tower came into view, she knew she would enter it some day. Perhaps the others had a similar sense of certainty. Perhaps they were incapable of glimpsing their fate. But she knew. That tower was the pivot on which life revolved. The universe would spin for all eternity around her.
Spin... Cold colours oozing out from the spinning wheel, cold colours, pale skin draped in grey, a yarn linking all her lives in a web. The girl looked at her reflection in the water, and the ripples on the surface warped and segmented the white oval looking back at her until it was unrecognisable. Everything shattered around her, and she was Luka again, wading away from the incomprehensible visions. Her senses dragged her back into reality, tearing into the dream and shattering any remnants inside her. Her logic easily rejected it all. She was warm and comfortable, she had no reason to shiver. Luka agreed, eager to abandon the fading images.
Even with her eyes still closed, Luka now had a good idea of where she was: laying on a bed, covered by a blanket. A sensible, commonplace location. She rubbed the fingers of her left hand against the covers for a bit, tracing the patterns of the quilt under her. The room was quiet, except for the occasional sound of a page turning and the creaking of a fire.
Fire? Then she wasn't at home? Her bedroom didn't have a fireplace.
No, it did have one, obviously. It had been so cold outside during those first days, so much she suspected it was some kind of warning from the tower. So, she kept the fireplace lit, maintaining a little bubble of warmth that made it so easy to ignore her instincts and spend many blissful hours inside with him-
Luka opened her eyes and sat up.
"Ah!" Startled by her sudden movement, Gakupo dropped the folder he had been examining while sitting on the edge of the bed. The yellowed sheets of paper inside spilled over the covers and onto the floor. They were hand-written notes—many circular diagrams and long tables with numbers interspersed with long paragraphs of text, nothing recognizable even if she'd been in the proper frame of mind to pay any attention to it all.
"Luka!" After the initial surprise, Gakupo's face softened with relief, but Luka's shaken countenance immediately made him shift into concern. "How are you feeling?"
Still too unsettled for words, Luka held her head in her hands. For a brief moment, a second voice had layered over the usual monologue of her thoughts. Memories she couldn't claim as hers had superimposed on her own, so that she was certain that this was her bedroom and her home. And initially, when her eyes focused on Gakupo sitting by her side, a part of her had marvelled at the unexpected youthfulness of his face.
There was a readily available explanation, even if she hated it with every fibre of her being. The woman in the wedding dress was invading her mind somehow, like the man had done with Gakupo. It was all real, even if she hadn't the slightest clue of how such a feat could be accomplished.
"Luka? Are you okay?"
Gakupo's insistent tone brought her back to the present. She looked at him once more and although there was no incongruence between his appearance and her true memories, his face sparked something new inside of her…. Or perhaps not new, just augmented. Luka let that feeling guide her arms, stretching them towards him, and he answered, hugging her tightly. Her hand grabbed a fistful of fabric from the back of his suit, as forcefully as she dared. Finally, she managed to reply, "I'm fine."
"I've never actually seen someone pass out before," Gakupo said. "Not right in front of me, I mean." His tone practically begged her to tell him there was nothing to worry.
Luka didn't reply at first. She didn't want to think about why and what had caused her to fall unconscious, not just yet. It wasn't just out of fear or the wish to avoid facing the unknown. Plainly stated, she suddenly felt starved for his touch, as if they had been apart for many lifetimes. The exact demands of that distracting, gnawing feeling were altogether too embarrassing to put into words—No, even acknowledging the intensity of her craving was mortifying. "Just...sit with me for a moment. Like this," she finally whispered and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Of course." The rest of the papers cascaded to the ground as Gakupo moved into a more comfortable position, but he ignored them in favour of petting Luka's head.
"How long was I out?"
"Hard to say without any clocks around, but I'd say well over an hour."
Luka held her breath for an instant. "Really?"
"Yeah. I thought that people only fainted for a couple of minutes tops, shows what I know." He played with the pink locks shrouding her neck for a while before continuing, "I didn't know what to do."
"I'm sorry."
"No, you don't need to apologise! I just… I figured I had to let you recover at your own pace, so I brought you inside." He shifted his position a little, making the papers under his left leg creak.
"...What's that?" For the first time, Luka gave the papers something close to an interested glance.
"I grabbed some papers from the lab to read while I waited, maybe learn something about this place." He gestured vaguely towards the mess on the floor.
"Did you find out anything useful?"
Gakupo snorted. "MIght as well be hieroglyphics! It might be my handwriting, but the words…Ah, I shouldn't be surprised that the language evolved in a different way here. Though, from what I can tell, it's about that tower, and the mechanisms inside." He shook his head slightly. "You'd think the calculations would be easier to figure out, but he didn't write down what the variables mean."
"You never do."
A short laugh. "No matter when or where, I'm sloppy?"
"You're the one saying it."
"I might as well be honest, at least."
"Honest and modest—not bad, maybe there's hope for you yet." Luka wondered if this was how it felt to be drunk. All of the sudden, frivolous words came tumbling out of her mouth without her permission, carried forward by the tide surging inside of her. Her body vibrated when he laughed in response to her words, and what she wanted finally crystallised inside her brain.
At once, Luka broke their embrace and scooted away avoiding Gakupo's gaze; the small sound of confusion he made when she pushed him away left a reproachful echo in her ears. Nevertheless, she quickly rose from the bed and began to straighten her dress, fussing extensively over non-existent wrinkles and hoping he wouldn't notice her reddened cheeks.
Only after she was sufficiently calm she dared to look in his direction, and found him staring at her with renewed worry. "Did I… Are you sure everything's fine?"
"Yes- We shouldn't be wasting time like this, that's all." Luka reasoned, looking to convince herself as much as Gakupo. "We need to keep looking for the girls."
Gakupo stood up as well, brow furrowed. "True."
He hardly needs to be reminded of that, she scolded herself. Get a grip, Luka.
"Then… If you can bear the walk, we should investigate that tower."
"Not a problem," Luka's mouth supplied automatically. It was the truth, at least in the sense of physical discomfort. "Do you think Gumi and Miku are there?"
"Seems to me that he was very interested in that place," Gakupo explained, pointing to the documents on the floor. "If nothing else, it might help us understand what he wants."
"And what happened here, why everything feels so lifeless."
"Right. In that case, let's fill a couple of bags with food and head out." Gakupo replied. "We'll be out there for a while, I wager."
Luka nodded in agreement, thinking back to the contents of the other rooms in the home, and the items she saw that might prove of use. It was nice to have something so concrete to focus her thoughts.
Vast, forlorn fields lied between the house and the huge tower. There were no other structures in the way; only a handful of trees here and there broke the uniformity of the rows of tilled soil.
The more Gakupo and Luka walked, the clearer it became that no animals roamed the wilderness: no birds crossed the grey skies, no insects buzzed back and forth between the few plants in their path, no cries or howls echoed in the distance.
The pair was following a dirt trail running alongside an irrigation ditch festooned with tall grass. There weren't any roads leading to the tower, deepening the sense of otherworldliness of its presence at the foot of the hills that circled the valley. It gave the impression of something dropped there unannounced, instead of being a place designed and constructed to rest permanently in a chosen location.
Caution naturally warned against approaching such a place uninvited, even if they had a good reason to do so. A part of Luka protested every step she was taking towards the structure, instead of running in the opposite direction. Gakupo confessed to sharing the same impression, when asked.
"Maybe it's a holy site, a temple of some sort," he speculated in a whisper. "Definitely a place you need permission to approach."
"If only we had a choice in the matter..." Luka mumbled. She was trying with all her might to keep her eyes focused on the lower floors of the tower, since looking upwards made her feel queasy. In any case, there was plenty to examine and speculate about near the ground.
Luka didn't know much about ancient architecture, and it probably mattered little since they were in a different world with its own history. Still, the tower was clearly old. The intricately carved walls had a worn-down look that became more and more apparent as they closed in. The figures in the bas-reliefs that decorated the lower floors of the minarets were rendered almost unrecognisable thanks to their deterioration. Little by little, noses, ears, hair, jewellery and what could've been more exotic features had been stripped away by the elements.
Interspersed amongst the reliefs, many windows dotted the surface in a capricious pattern, suggesting an equally chaotic interior. The closest to the ground were a couple of stories high, and each and every opening displayed nothing but blackness.
The tower grew and grew, until it filled the pair's visual field. The irrigation ditch flowed into a wider canal that seemed to mark the start of the foothills. A couple of rough wooden planks were placed to the right of the confluence, allowing access to the other side. Luka privately wondered if anyone actually used the makeshift bridge, given the untamed scenery before her. There were no more croplands beyond the watery line, or any indication of usage by the inhabitants of the town. There was nothing there besides a few thorny bushes and trees surrounding the unsettling structure, like specks of mould at the foot of a marble pillar.
Finally, the pair came to a stop before the herculean double-leaf door of the tower. It was as dark as the walls themselves and covered in carvings caked with dirt. It gave such an impression of disuse that Luka was certain it had remained closed for decades, perhaps hundreds of years.
"Hmm…." Gakupo took a step closer and gingerly touched one of the carved panels. It was twice as tall as him, and several times wider. "Do you think there's any way to open this from the outside?"
"No need." Luka walked calmly to the left of the massive door and pointed to a narrow alcove partially hidden behind a statue of a robed, anonymous figure holding a lantern. A similar figure stood to attention to the right of the door.
Gakupo stared at her for an instant, surprised, then went to peek into the alcove. The wicket inside was incredibly unassuming in comparison to the main entrance— just big enough to allow access to a single person at the time. Gakupo apprehensively tried the knob, mumbling something or another about locks, but the gate opened easily, revealing a narrow unlit passage.
"How did you know that was the way in?" Gakupo turned around to face her, wide eyed.
"Maybe I saw something similar in a documentary?" It had seemed obvious when she pointed it out a moment ago, although Luka wasn't really sure why.
"A documentary…" Gakupo echoed. He pondered this for a second, before shrugging it off. He knelt and untied the lamp he was carrying tied to his belt. They had found it in a corner of the cluttered bedroom, alongside some cans of fuel. Perhaps it was this world's version of a davy lamp. Whatever the case, Gakupo lit it after some struggle with its mechanism and stood up once more. "Stay close."
The long passage was completely unadorned, just rough stone walls without any carvings or light fixtures. Luka estimated its length to match or even surpass the length of her home, which filled her mind with questions. Were the walls of the same thickness all the way up? Was that even possible, in terms of physics? How tall could a tower be, let alone a stone tower of these dimensions?
"It's like we're going down the throat of a big monster, like Leviathan," Gakupo muttered, awe clear in his voice.
Luka couldn't help but be amused at the difference in their approach to this affront to rationality. She reached out and placed a hand on his back, with no other purpose other than to feel his proximity.
"Everything ok?" His profile was delineated with the golden light of the lamp, a familiar outline turned inscrutable and novel in the gloom. Then, he moved the lamp to get a better look at her and the light hit his face, dispelling the illusion.
"Yes," Luka replied. No problems here, not at all.
A few steps later, they reached the end of the passage. There was no door, the walls merely ended, and Gakupo and Luka found themselves standing in a darkened space of unknown dimensions. The light of the lamp was utterly insufficient to see anything beyond a small stretch of stone floor and the receding walls. Then, they looked up…
Luka's breath caught in her throat. Next to her, Gakupo blurted out a disbelieving, "Is that-?", before he fell silent.
The darkness was riddled with drops of light, from faint stars to bright beacons close enough to be identifiable as stone braziers filled with flames. Their light managed to insinuate many floors circling a central chamber, and fragments of stairs and bridges crossing the void in every direction. However, the uneven placement of the braziers left many levels in darkness, creating huge zones submerged in utter mystery.
The closest lit brazier was about 20 metres up, Luka estimated. It was to the right of what appeared to be a great staircase facing them, though she could only see the top steps.
"That's good luck," Gakupo muttered.
"Hm?" Luka asked distractedly. Her eyes were drawn once more to the pinpoints of light above her head. Like the sight of the top of the tower piercing the cloud cover outside, this spectacle brought home how utterly impossible this place was. Nothing on Earth came close. She was almost grateful for the darkness that mercifully made counting the floors above her an impossibility.
"I mean, it would be pretty dangerous to walk around in here without some point of reference to get back to the exit." He traced a semicircle with the arm hand holding the lamp, as if trying to part the waves of an ocean of tar.
"Ah." It made a lot of sense, given the size of the atrium. Once they left the great door behind, it might be very hard to judge distance or orientation.
Gakupo took a few steps to the right and examined the huge crossbar latch on the door. There were a few rusted links of chain hanging from both ends of the beam placed on the metal brackets. "It's been shut for a long time." He raised the lamp as far as he could, perhaps looking for the other end of the chains, to no success. "Pity…"
"Where should we start searching?"
"Let's follow the wall for now, see if we find anything," Gakupo replied and started walking, right hand tracing the carvings of the door as he passed by.
Luka followed him, chewing on her lower lip. 'Anything,' was casting too wide a net, as far as she was concerned.
The actual results of the search were scant, at first. Regular-sized doors appeared before them at irregular intervals, all of them locked. Gakupo pressed his ear against each one after trying the handles, but there was no indication of movement inside. After a while, Luka turned to look upwards once more. Given the angle of the illuminated steps, they had only traced less than a quarter of the inner wall.
"How long have we been walking?"
"I... don't really know." Gakupo followed her gaze with a pensive frown. "I thought we'd be closer to the halfway point by now. It's like we've been walking inside a dream."
Luka lowered her gaze until she was staring at her shoes. A certainty was emerging from the bottom of her mind, presented to her like an invitation on a platter. The tendrils of a growing migraine were prodding at her brain, carving a burning missive behind her eyes. Climb the stairs. Go up. The ground level is fully abandoned and presided by nothingless, and it will remain that way until…
Until…?
Gakupo's hand landed on her shoulder. "Luka, tell me what's bothering you. Please." Like a taut string snapping, the not-a-voice inside her abruptly stopped at the sound of his plea.
"It's happening again," Luka said, despondent.
"What?"
"The woman in the photograph. Her thoughts, they come to me at times."
Gakupo's eyes widened. His dilated pupils searched the darkness around them, as he whispered urgently, "Do you sense her around here?"
Luka shook her head. "It's like she dropped pieces of her memories all over the place." She rubbed her arms, suddenly very aware of the awful chill in the air. "And the pieces keep latching onto me."
Gakupo seemed completely at a loss on how to respond to this.
"There's no point in searching the ground floor, we should go up," Luka blurted out. Why not be truthful, after all?
"Why do you say that?" Gakupo cocked his head a little to the side. He looked so young in the lamplight.
"This level houses offices and record vaults. There's nothing else down here," the words escaped her mouth like a well-practised speech, except that Luka had no idea she was about to say them a second before. She covered her mouth out of reflex, as surprised at her explanation as the young man facing her.
"Offices? What for? Who worked here?" Gakupo leaned in even closer, like an archaeologist stooped over an ancient relic.
There was something in the intensity of his stare that made Luka extremely self-conscious, in a way she had never felt before. It made it even harder to solidify the nagging ideas clinging to her brain. Luka thought hard, but ultimately it felt like trying to hold onto the retreating tide. "I don't know."
"And you think things will become clearer if we climb the tower?"
"Maybe." It sounded so unconvincing to her own ears.
Gakupo's eyebrows twitched a little when she fell silent, displaying his dissatisfaction with her answer. Even so, he just turned towards the stairs and started walking with a simple, "Up we go."
As they approached the centre of the atrium, he swung the lamp from side to side. The light found nothing but the same stone tiles under a layer of dust. There were traces of colour on some of them, in all likelihood part of an enormous and intricate design meant to be observed from above.
Then, quite suddenly, the tiles stopped and a rectangular ditch opened up directly in their path. Another step, and the lower steps of the great staircase took shape on the other side of the cut in the ground. Luka and Gakupo crept closer to the edge and discovered a narrower set of stairs going down. Unlike the upper floors, there were no light fixtures in the staircase shaft.
Gakupo crouched and leaned in so far that Luka felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably. He mused, "How far down does it go?", not really sounding like he expected an answer from her. Which was a good thing, considering she had no idea.
In fact, the sight of the narrow steps descending into nothingness gave her such a surge of anxiety that she quickly decided to focus her attention on the grand staircase instead. Guided by that repulsion, Luka grabbed Gakupo's free arm and tugged. "That's not the right way, Come on."
"Oh- alright." He straightened up and again gave her that attentive look, as if she was an abstract painting or a complicated algebra problem. It was beginning to unnerve her.
When they approached the front of the grand staircase, Luka discovered an identical shaft on the other side. She purposefully avoided fixing her eyes on it as she started the ascent, still pulling Gakupo along by the arm.
Up, up the cinnabar steps… The ditty sprung from somewhere inside her, a familiar echo emerging from an old well. She could easily imagine herself as a young girl singing it as she played at the foot of the stairs. The other Luka had done so, many times. And the brazier next to the top? Her hands could almost feel the weight of the fuel she fed it each day.
Luka quickened their pace. To her side, she heard a small grunt of protest as Gakupo almost tripped, caught by surprise. She didn't stop.
Faster than it was prudent (and she knew that was the case, but still didn't slow down), they reached the top. The brazier gave off more than enough light to see several doors as the tower's walls curved on both sides, but she knew which one was hers right away. They were almost running now, and Gakupo was saying something in an alarmed tone of voice, but the words meant nothing to her in the rush to go inside. As soon as he tried to stop her, she let go of his arm and ran forward.
He screamed some syllables that bounced away from her ears.
With spasmodic, frenetic movements Luka opened the door and stumbled into blinding light. Her momentum carried her forward until she fell to her knees in the middle of the room. Her eyes gradually adjusted to what in reality was just the grey light of the afternoon spilling in from a single window. Now, she could easily recognize her surroundings.
Once upon a time, she had picked this room, out of the many living quarters on that floor. Although it offered a good view of the distant town, it was fairly plain: an austere cube that contained a bed, a dresser and a workbench she had taken great pains to drag in from another section of the tower. There was a door on the wall to her right that led to a sitting room with a hearth and a second door leading to an identical bedroom beyond it. This was a pattern repeated several times in the layout of that floor, she now recalled. It was certainly disconcerting to have the room be familiar and new at the same time. What was so surprising about the room she had inhabited for so long?
A moment later, she realised the true source of her discomfort. Her shelves were empty and festooned with cobwebs, and the dressmaker mannequin she kept by the window was missing. Luka stood up and approached the empty corner, blinking repeatedly. She stretched out her hand, echoing a well-rehearsed motion. Every day she woke up and saw the dress there, waiting for another day of work. The dress of perpetual change, as she honed her skills over the years. The beautiful, silly dress that would never be used.
She turned towards the window. Her box of sewing tools was gone as well, but she still sat on the windowsill and brought her hands to her lap, holding an imaginary embroidery hoop. Her eyes stared at the empty fingers stupidly for a couple of seconds, then she raised her eyes and stared out of the window and-
watched the figure slowly approach the Axis. At first, it had been like any other ant crawling on the surface of that dry, ugly valley. The townspeople never came that close, though, and never from that angle. How curious.
Gradually, the figure became a man. Even from a distance, she could sense his exhaustion. Every step seemed to be the last one before the unavoidable end. And yet, he stubbornly kept his slow pace. She craned her head, trying to capture every detail as his features became distinguishable. Without her notice, her hands dropped the hoop and her cheeks reddened.
The man was beautiful, despite his famished frame and obvious weariness. The knots in his tangled hair and the dust in his clothes mattered little, as far as her pounding heart was concerned. Even if his face hadn't been so kind and his smile so welcoming, he was the first person she had seen up close in ages.
He limped into the shadow of the tower, using a branch as a walking stick. There was no hesitation or fear in his eyes as he stood in front of the main door, looking upwards. His gaze reverently examined the intricate facade, joyfully taking in the figures and mysterious scenes carved around the massive threshold.
She watched him from above, a hand over her heart, urging it to slow down. But her body rebelled like it had never done before. Her blood was a torrent rampaging past a thousand canals, crashing against her bones, pulling her down, demanding her surrender. She had wanted this for so long. Her muscles urged her to run down the steps and open the door. Her tongue begged her to speak to him, her ears to hear his voice. Only her mind hesitated, parading around old orders and fears. The door had to stay closed.
And then, without any real warning, the figure below wavered and fell to the ground. The man's strength had only lasted long enough to touch the Axis with a trembling hand before fainting.
The sound of jangling keys reached her ears and she realised she had stood up without even noticing it. Her nerves, her heart, every part of her that had numbed during the years was vibrating. The presence of another human being had been dangled before her, like a promise made flesh and bone.
She had travelled with the spiral for so long, enduring the maddening isolation. But a sweet, tired smile had been enough to wreck it all. No more. She had to have him. She spun around and-
He was there already standing at her door…
That wasn't how it was supposed to be. She was meant to go down the cinnabar steps in a mad dash, almost tripping a dozen times, only to step outside breathing hard, almost ready to pass out herself next to him…
No, that wasn't right either. Or had been right once, but not anymore.
Why was he looking at her like that?
He had never looked at her with such fear in his eyes.
It wasn't right.
It wasn't right.
Tears clouded Luka's vision as the flood of memories folded in on itself, a fan where each fold held contradictory visions, past and present pressed together and tossing her consciousness around like a bird caught in the middle of a storm. A part of her wanted to scream for help, but her lips only gave out a strangled exhale. She wobbled away from the window, one hand holding her head, the other outstretched in his direction. His figure was the only thing still recognizable in her field of view, everything else in the room was a blurry grey mush. Then, he truly became the only thing she could see, and her brain belatedly realised that he was holding her, as they sat in a heap on the floor.
"Luka! Whatever you're seeing, it's not real! Luka, it's not real!"
It was merely frantic noise at first. She had to make an effort to weld together the sounds into a chain of words that had any meaning to her.
"Luka, speak to me!"
"Gakupo…" His name came easily to her. The rest of the world wasn't as firm just yet.
"You don't live here. This is the first time you step into the tower."
"I…"
"Repeat what I just said. Say, 'I don't live here.' Please."
"I don't live here." It sounded false, but she liked how it felt to say it.
"This is not your home."
"This is not my home." Her voice became more certain as she repeated the phrase a couple more times.
Gradually, the woman let go of her consciousness. Luka was herself and nothing but herself, truly alone inside her skin.
"Do you feel any better?"
"...Kind of."
"What did you see? The way you looked at me, it's like you forgot I was right behind you."
Luka shook her head. "It's not like that. You weren't inside the tower back then, she couldn't make sense of it all." She could see him struggling to process her words, and could hardly blame him. Before he could voice his confusion, however, he winced and turned his head towards the door.
"What is it?"
"My head… It must be him." A pained curse, and Gakupo shielded one of his eyes with his hand. "Dammit...not now!"
Luka looked past him towards the great staircase, as her chest tightened. Did the light of the braziers change somehow? Maybe it was the light from the window fooling her eyes.
Gakupo laboriously stood up and went to close the door. Just before her view of the central chamber was blocked, Luka became certain that something was indeed different, even if the exact nature of the change eluded her.
The need to hide was obvious, in any case. Luka examined her surroundings, but she immediately decided that the bare bedroom offered very little refuge. She opened the door to the sitting room and peeked inside. Everything in view was the same ashen tone due to months of disuse. The light behind Luka became stronger as Gakupo came near, revealing the soot-stained hearth and the far wall. "In here," Luka whispered. She covered her mouth and nose and went to crouch behind a table. Gakupo followed her after softly closing the door behind them. He crouched next to her and turned off the lamp, leaving them in complete darkness.
Their intrusion had filled the stale air with motes of dust that tickled their noses and throats. Luka felt on the verge of a coughing fit, and from what she could hear next to her, Gakupo wasn't doing much better. Still, she made an effort to steady her breathing.
There was nothing but silence for a while. Luka began to wonder if they had been too hasty when she heard the sound of a door opening, followed by footsteps. Gakupo's breath hitched momentarily. Whoever it was seemed to be pacing back and forth, stopping for a few seconds, then moving once more. There was no real urgency to their movements.
Another long pause.
A soft creaking.
Slight rustling.
And once more, silence.
Luka strained her hearing to the point her own head began to ache a little. But there was no movement she could detect. She mentally counted to sixty before asking as quietly as possible, "Still there?"
"...Yes," Gakupo slurred next to her ear.
Luka was suddenly reminded of Miki's tale about the whispering voice in the darkness, heating her earlobe with its breath. She involuntarily shuddered. But the voice next to her was the opposite of menacing. In fact, the raspy groan made it clear to her that they needed to move before Gakupo was fully incapacitated. She clumsily found his fingers in the dark and pressed a corner of her cape into his hand, urging him to follow her lead. Then, she began crawling across the room. Was the door on the opposite wall locked? What about the door of the unused bedroom behind it? Anticipation and uncertainty were like a ball jamming the back of her throat, but the intermittent tugs at her cape were all the motivation she needed to hurry along.
Closer than ever, something let out a horrid, almost metallic howl. Luka's arm shot up and her knuckles hit a vertical obstacle. She frantically explored its surface with her fingers and almost let out a cry of joy when she located a door knob. Just as the last echoes of the hideous sound died out, she flung the door open and continued forward.
This new room was in all likelihood a mirror of the one they had escaped from, but Luka still moved cautiously, swatting the air before her to avoid running into the furniture. The sound of her hands and legs dragging on the ground seemed very loud, now that the tower was once again silent. Gakupo's altered breathing was an even more obvious beacon in the noiseless environment.
Finally, her extended hand found a wall. A little to her right, Luka found the frame of the door. After exploring upwards and to the right, her fingers closed around the knob. It turned without difficulty, but Luka hesitated for a moment before pulling the door open. Was it a good idea to risk the sound of the hinges alerting the man and his beasts? The situation was plagued with so many unknowns that it was impossible to make a reasoned decision. Luka gritted her teeth, paralyzed by uncertainty.
A hand softly touched her side. It traced a line towards her shoulder, then climbed her arm and closed around her own and the door knob. Luka let out a small sigh.
They opened the door together.
The brazier was out. There was barely any perceptible difference between the darkness of the bedroom they were leaving behind and the great central chamber of the tower. When Luka looked up, she realised that the closest source of light was considerably farther than before. Somehow, the man had managed to snuff out the lights in dozens of floors in the time it took for Gakupo and Luka to crawl across two rooms!
Somewhere, eyes turned in their direction. Air was briefly displaced as limbs shifted position, awaiting orders.
Once more, Luka led the way, hoping her borrowed familiarity with the tower would direct her to the stairs. And it worked, more or less: her knuckles hit the bowl of the brazier and she had to bite her lip to restrain a gasp. From there, they found the handrail and began the agonising descent. Once they reached the next landing, they could use the lamp without alerting the man in the grey suit of their presence, and-
A cold hand grabbed her wrist. Luka turned her head to the right and found two fiery eyes staring at her, framed by a smiling face faintly tinted by their red glow. This time, nothing could've stopped her scream of terror.
