Chapter 9 - Going Home

The journey from Laurence’s hill to the gateway took close to a month, and passed through a variety of vistas that both Laurence and Fen stopped at to record; even though he had a purpose, and his target was clear in sight he refused to let the strange sights that existed all over the Tower go unnoticed and unrecorded.

At each stop, Laurence would take several pieces from the surroundings and transform them from scrap materials into sculptures or paintings that expressed his view of the world before him. He made waterfalls that seemed to glow in the setting sun, miniature lakes made from glass and gems, even model forests that replicated their surroundings perfectly. Each piece would ease the mind and spirit of anyone in their surroundings, but they were intentionally immovable. Laurence assured that each one would be as much of a part of the surroundings as his views had been.

Fen, on the other had, spent his time with his wooden statue. It was slowly coming to life, and with each chance he got to form it he would spend all his given time revealing the creature within the block of wood. Flakes of wood would collect between his crossed legs as a small metal knife danced over the surface of the wood in the boy’s hand. At the end of their time at each place that appealed to Laurence’s sensibilities, the boy would collect the flecks of wood left behind and bundle them up before placing them inside his ring in a small but ever increasing pile. Laurence occasionally glanced at the progress of Fen’s creation, but held back from commenting in case he tainted the outcome of the creation. That had always been his way of teaching; he would let the boy complete his work, and then together they would go over the parts that were good and bad, and the parts that Fen found either hard or easy. This way the two of them worked on improving Fen’s mechanical skill with minimal impact to his creativity.

All the while Peter spent the time whispering to Rose as she stared into the distance, unblinking and unflinching in the odd man’s presence. At idle moments he would sit her down in front of him, lower her hood and spend the time brushing her hair. Thanks to his care there was still an obvious beauty to the woman, despite the obvious lack of life behind her actions and continuous blank expression. Given the longer stopping periods of time Peter would often spend the hours making sure that her body was intact and that the wear and tear that the body naturally healed throughout a night’s sleep was repared and that her entire form was in top shape to continue the journey. For a reason that Laurence simply could not fathom, he refused to put her body inside the ring that Laurence had given him.

“It’s a form of refusal,” he said when pressed on the issue one evening. “By putting her in a storage device that will not accept living things I can keep on believing that there is nothing wrong. This way, for as long as she’s dead, she can be alive to me”.

After hearing that Laurence left Peter while holding his crystal pendant, lost in thought and soon enough they were back on route towards the gateway.

The gateway itself was in a picturesque field in the middle of nowhere. There was grassland for miles around, uncluttered by trees or stone. The black marble of the gateway stood out against the horizon like a monolith splitting the sky in two. A thin layer of dew glinted on the surface of the gateway in the morning light, giving it an ethereal air and made the entire object seem truly otherworldly.

They approached the gateway and pulled it open, the six sigils of the great clans seemed to greet Laurence and Peter as they faced the doorway. They stepped through into the light as Rose and Fen followed, into a stone-paved courtyard lined with conifers. There was a bitter wind in the air that made Fen shiver as he walked through in Laurence’s wake.

In response to the boy shivering, Laurence immediately pulled out a fur cloak and draped it over Fen’s shoulders, immediately insulating the boy from the biting chill that presided over the biting region. They walked through the courtyard, past the bodies of the various challengers lining the floor, shivering through the cold. One man desperately reached out towards the hem of Fen’s cloak, but with a simple glance from Laurence the man flinched away and let them pass. Their boots crunched under the soil as they walked over to a statuesque woman with ice blue lips and a cold stare. She easily stood out amongst the crowd of people that surrounded her as she was the only person capable of resisting the extreme cold in the region. Without a doubt the realm they were in was ruled by this woman.

“Greetings fellow Challengers,” she said, her voice cutting through the cold like an ice pick. “I assume you’re here to take the trials? IT won’t be much of a challenge for either of you though”.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t really need to go to the twelfth floor,” Laurence replied. “I actually need to travel back to my Origin, with these three in tow”. He pointed behind him before turning to face the ice-woman properly. “I’d appreciate it if you’d sort that out”.

“Alright, there’s four of you, I take shards or specialty items. You should be able to afford a diamond shard each”.

Laurence frowned at the woman for a moment before pulling out four blank pieces of paper. The paper was fine, made of the pulp of a rare tree that he had spent time growing before harvesting in order to transform specifically into pulp for that paper. With a moment’s focus the three pieces of paper began floating in front of Laurence, he raised his hand and the image of a hammer appeared around him before imprinting on each piece of paper. Images of chains wrapped around the edge of each piece of paper, and an overwhelming pressure began leaking out of the pages as the chains connected together.

“Three Immortal break talismans should cover the costs right?” He smirked as the talismans landed back in his hands. He thrusted his hand towards the woman and held them out as she was forced back by the strength of the objects that Laurence had just made.

“Yes... Yes of course,” she stammered. Her hands vibrated as she grasped the talismans before placing them out of sight. The moment they left her hands she seemed to gain an awed expression whenever she glanced at Laurence. “Are... Are you a member of a clan?”

“We all are. I assume you’re a Tower Immortal by your expression”.

“Heaven ranked clan members come through all the time, but Immortals are so rare, I never expected to see one in my entire time here”.

“I do not envy you at all. How long is your time left here?” It was no secret that any Challenger who became an Immortal through the trials of the tower was dealt a poor hand upon becoming an Immortal. They all had to serve their time as an Adjudicator for a floor before they could attempt to climb the last few floors and truly reach the peak of the universe.

“I only have a hundred more years this cycle, but I have two more cycles to go before I can continue climbing”. Touching the edge of the door and Laurence’s hand, she quickly began channeling mana in a way that Laurence did not recognise before pulling her hands away. “The door should be calibrated right now, just walk through and the lot of you will arrive back at your Origin. I wasn’t expecting such a small plane to be a clan Origin point, but I’m not one to judge. Thank you for the talismans, they will be extremely useful once I’m done in this dire task”.

Laurence smiled softly at the woman before ushering Peter and Rose through the doorway. Fen took one last glance at the world of cold before following, his eyes alight with inspiration, after which Laurence finally stepped through the gateway into a building he had not seen in far too long.

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