More of the Story. I was thinking to rename it...but to what?
I wrote more than just a page today, just wanted to finish the first part of Day 1.
the chapters will get short for a time after Day 1-Piece 2
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---Day 1| Piece 1---
The child of the tower was outgrowing the usefulness she once held. She had lasted for so long, longer than most- ten years within the tower, ten years of funneling souls to their side of existence, to living with them. Yet, as ten years passed, and this girl should be little more than a young woman in her teens, the body looked as though forty years had passed it by; a young woman in an older body, who had lost a name.
There had been a name once, as sure as any other. She had said it, the beings who lived there has heard, but as ever the one of the sky gave it no value- what was the purpose of a name to call something which would cease existing so soon? The being condemned to the shadows of the tower struggled harder to recall it- but the memories and the names of the past would cycle to mind, and he would give in to grief, guilty for the weight of lives stolen and the ever-increasing list of names in his mind. So they called her Girl; now she knew nothing else.
Illness ruled that form now, she bent double walking up and down the stairwells, lungs aching from what would otherwise be a simple effort. Her breaths came heavy and thick, pained, whole she was awake and while she slept. The being in the tower’s shadows would watch her then, eyes heavy with grief. But he was a being unable to shed any tears or sob- there would be no mundane release for the sins that he was carrying.
She would call out his name, from time to time. Jebel. Jebel. It was always to ask for help. He hated that name- it was known to the other half in the sky which carried none. “But other,” he would say, “The girls in this place must have something kindly to call you by. So take a name as they would, and I will take one when we wake our ‘father’ from rest, so I may be called on too. But accept that mundane name for now, other, it will suit you well.” So Jebel he was to be, name weighted by guilt and murder.
This day the dying girl in the tower coughed, long and hard from inside the body. When the fit was ended, away came a new redness. There was nothing but silence then, between the always-watching Jebel and the girl. If that was not a signal of death, they would both be fools.
The being of the sky was not noted- the shadow of the tower had been shirking that duty, ever-reluctant and more resistant than ever to stealing another child away from the world outside. But the condition of the current girl had been noted before, in curious glimpses at the silence inside. Later would come the time to confront his other- now was the time to search for the replacement- a task which he had been hard at work with for many days, weeks, past. None suitable had yet come into the path of the forest, and though the sky-being would fly to trap one a distance away, his power its limits, a set distance he could travel before his body began to weaken- an unforeseen flaw in the ‘father’s’ effort of freedom.
Luck came to him today; sensing a presence below he descended, landing in the woods beyond the sight of this newcomer. His legs, weak from disuse, nearly fell away beneath him upon his first step, and like a child with its first steps, he threw his arms out to maintain balance. To the sky-being, such an act was ungraceful and embarrassing; he flew so high normally, that being seen so was an insult, a mark against him. Nothing saw him now, however, not even so much as a little bug.
Pacing within the forest cover, the feeling and the memory of ‘walking’ returned. With confidence, the he strode out, into the sight of the presence he felt at the bottom of the tower- that which, judging by the ‘innocence’ about it, was a young child.
Impeccable as always- the creature curled at the base of the tower was a young girl, no older than five years. Her face was hidden within her knees, brought up to her chest with her arms around them. Thin, the bones sticking out so angular-no, this specimen was too weak to hold and capture. But the air about her was charged with so strong an air of childish abandon. Well, it could be justified. The one inside was failing, and a time without a channeler would be disastrous and difficult to manage with Jebel’s resistance. It would be a fool’s choice to turn down this child. So, the sky-being laughed in that thoughtless way he often did, making the child lift her head in shock, and stare wildly in front of her. He knelt, extending a hand as the smile he never felt grew longer across his features. “You lost your way small one. Allow me to bring you to a new home.”
Without hesitation, without the fear which marked her face, or the hearts of many children, the little one took his hand. She stood, weakly, tottering as he had when he first landed, eyes bleary now.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“I have none.” He answered, the smile never breaking.
“Do you do something?”
“I fly.”
“Then I’ll call you like the world above, if you have no name. “
“Oh?”
“Ilmari. It’s related to the sky.”
Such a gesture was not uncommon- many of the children had tried to give him names, but with the deaths of those who gifted them to him, they would always disappear. Jebel never cared to recall them either. So, he wordlessly shook his head at the small, starved human before him and pointed his free hand to the wall, splitting it open. That was the secret- only ‘Ilmari’ or Jebel could open the tower up, connected as they were. With no fear, the girl turned to stare into the shadowed inside, following the pull of the man’s hand into a cursed fate she was yet unaware of.
