Relief for the burning ship came in the form of a hundred city guards. People still poured down the ramps onto the dock. Important-looking figures barked orders as they all rushed the ship. Individuals were drawn from the sinking wreckage and saved. Then they were clapped in chains and shoved into carts. Cutlery looked away.
They sped away through the harbor. A wagon on the road fell alongside their ship. Noticing they pulled into a nearby dock. The wagon also pulled to a halt there. A minute later they were being healed by a cleric inside the wagon as it rolled back to the Tower. Asim and Gill had nasty wounds from their climbing and the explosion.
Cutlery wondered what she had just done. She wasn't much different than those guards. It was hard to watch people in need being arrested. Hadn't she done the same? Walked in, fulfilled her orders, and left whatever was left behind.
When they got back Cutlery was in a slight daze. She had killed people, right? They had died because of her? Why did she do this? Cause it was called a quest? Physically she was fine. Even when she had been wounded the sliver dulled the deepest of her wounds. The sliver didn't numb her mind's distress.
Outside the window Cutlery saw horses coming alongside the wagon. Soldiers, perhaps even slivered ones. The escort took them all the way to the tower. Once inside they were even so nice as to guard till they reached their rooms. Inside their rooms had been packed.
"Oh." Cutlery said. Angela wasn't in bed, she was probably out training still. Late into the evening. Cutlery grabbed her things and stepped back outside. Two soldiers waited for her there. No one said anything. The familiar path to the spiral vault came and went. Once more she kneeled before the dead man on the throne. Cutlery went through the motions. Her thoughts were elsewhere. Two new golden soldiers performed the ritual.
There was a buzz in her muscles and mind. The blindfold and earmuffs came off. The third sliver slithered inside her body like a ghost. The vault door clicked open behind her. She turned and the soldiers strode across the gap. She was led out of the vault and to the stairs once more. Just like the last time, she was led to the floor just above the previous one.
The ceiling of the third sliver floor was tiled and painted. A chandelier of hourglass-shaped beads dangled over a circular chamber. The bedrooms were along circular edges. They faced one another. Cutlery peaked into one room and saw the same setup. Just like the second sliver bedrooms in size. Fancy materials like dark wood and patterned rugs made up more of the chamber.
Based on the number of rooms, only eighteen others lived on this floor. No one was here to meet. Fish, Gill, and Asim had gone together to eat. Cutlery felt lonely.
Suffering from success. That was what Cutlery was trying to say. Settling into a home would be nice. She just wanted to lay in her drawer again. Like she had a month ago. She wanted Mome to carry her and threaten to eat her. She missed running from guards and slipping into cracks. Rega had felt more at home than anything else in this tower.
Cutlery curled up on herself. She peaked over her knee's around the chamber and saw a stack of papers on her desk. They were covered in squares she had learned to read. It was a calendar. They had helped her learn to understand it. The whole calendar ended with the Temple coming. Which was soon.
They also figured out her birthday using a spell to read her memory. It was today. She was seven. Seven years old. No parents, no orphans, no Rega to celebrate her being alive again.
Happy birthday, Cutlery, she thought.
'Thanks, Cutlery', she thought. She went to bed for dinner.
Daylight burned away the layers of her slumber. Her mind still echoed yesterday's feelings. Slowly her body took in the sensation of being in an alien bed. Right, she was on a new floor. For once in her life, she had no roommates.
The room's door was open. No one had disturbed her. She could see four other closed doors. The lights in the circular center chamber were dim. Cutlery got up and changed clothes to soft loose clothes. Her hair was brushed and forced into a bun before she stepped out. Fish and Gill we're speaking at the edge of the room.
They stopped and looked at her. Fish smiled.
"You're alive! Looks like you feinted once we got her yesterday!" Fish said. Cutlery nodded.
"Food?" She said.
"What are you a dog or goliath? food." He said with a grunting low voice. Gill pointed out the door and then jerked his hand left. Cutlery thanked him and walked out. She was in a survival loafing mood.
She hadn't explored the floor at all! The halls here were thin and the curve more obvious. After walking for five seconds she stopped. Spices wafted from a double door set on her left.
Inside she found a small dining room. A chef worked away in a regular-sized kitchen over a huge pot. There were two tables that each sat eight at a time. All the seats were empty. This was the best sign that not many third slivers existed in the Tower. She walked over to the counter separating the kitchen from the dining area and sat at the closest of three barstools.
The attendant, a large hippo-like creature, turned around and placed a plate of biscuits in front of her. Then it ladled some white chunky soup on top. Then they turned back around and continued working on the pot.
Huh.
No picky bones were in Cutlery's body. So she guzzled the plate of unknown food. It was warm and meaty, with thickness and savoriness. Best she could describe it. She tried the biscuit below it. Dry. Together they worked. Odd. The food helped her start thinking straight.
She was at what, three, four, traumas now? She had been here a few weeks. Many minor traumas were sprinkled on top of the mass death. Not preferable. If her powers grew she was sure the scale of the conflicts would as well. So it was time. She would escape. Hadn't she thought that before?
The heretics had revealed much to her. The tower had enemies. Both sides had goals. Their enemy coffers were large enough to build a huge ass boat as well. They likely could hire a slivered person as well.
She shoveled in the rest of the meal. Biscuits and gravy. She read it off a chalkboard hanging inside the kitchen. She had learned to read recently as well. Useful stuff.
She hopped off her seat and thanked the hippo. He grunted and started washing her plate. Now outside the Kitchen Cutlery decided to tour herself. Left continued away from the bedrooms. She found quite a few smaller rooms. All were labeled.
Temple, archery range, spell ranges, martial chambers, simple weapons, armory, study, library, meditation, and more. Buildings that would be rare to find in the city were lined neatly within the tower. From what she could tell the floor was a half circle. A word she had liked to learn from intellectual training.
So they had half a floor. The other half must be the fourth sliver's space. Or perhaps something for non-slivers finally! Slivers might not be everything in the tower. The final most interesting doorway she found was labeled ballroom. It was unlocked. She went in expecting to see at least one ball but found only a tall chamber with huge windows looking over the city. A second set of doors sat along the same wall a few hundred feet to her right. They were locked. Cutlery couldn't help but check the lock. There wasn't a keyhole anywhere. The rest of the room took her interest.
The huge windows curved along the tower's outer wall. She walked over to look outside. The view was grand. They were a good twenty feet higher than the second sliver floor now. The windows top was much higher though. The third sliver floor was just above the highest nearby rooftops. Meaning there was an unbroken view of the city. She saw it as a patchwork rug hung on a wall.
The veins of roads, the glinting harbor, and she could see the edge of the mountain range on the far left of her view. It was rather stunning.
"I also lingered here before looking in the other rooms," Asim said suddenly from the doorway. Cutlery looked back at her. "Why do you look over the city?" Asim asked. Cutlery thought.
"Haven't seen it from here before, it's new." Cutlery said. The thought she had avoided had been, it was a good way to see the best way out of the city.
Asim nodded and came over.
"Sometimes a change in perspective makes one think in opposites," Asim said in an odd tone. Cutlery looked at her. She seemed to be implying something.
"Like What," Cutlery asked, probing.
"Down there you only see the hustle and bustle, the tower looming over you. From here, it's the opposite. Do you think those that live here see the city as theirs?" Asim asked.
Cutlery nodded. That seemed easy to believe from here.
"Probably makes goods sods into a-holes." Cutlery said. Asim smirked.
"Likely. I wish not to become an a-hole. I don't know how many times I can view this and hold out though." Asim said slyly. Cutlery thought she knew where she was directing this.
"Yea. We should break out." Cutlery cut to the chase. Asim looked at her with a microsecond of fear, then grinned.
