Floor 68

The Shifting Skies

Far below us was an ocean, one that had no life within it and instead merely served as a place of death. We were miles above the water, on floating islands made out of stone and dirt. The surface of each island was covered in grass, but aside from that there was almost nothing else.

Amongst the spiderweb of islands numerous bridges criss-crossed, allowing access to each of the floating isles. Further out sat a few more islands, but unlike the rest they had black obelisks centered on them.

By the time I arrived on the floor Lisa had already gotten into a fight, as a couple of drones had launched an ambush as soon as they saw her. Whether that meant they’d figured out about the executives dying, or were merely hostile toward any new entrants, it didn’t matter as she had already butchered the pair.

She used the clothing of the Architect to wipe her sword clean, her expression relaxed. I studied the corpses, making note of how she’d slashed them far more than was needed, but I opted to not criticize her until later. I didn’t need to undermine her in front of Samara.

“You mentioned you had a place on this floor?” I asked the Architect, as I kept a lookout for any more aggressors.

Samara gave a slow nod of her head, as she pointed at a distant island. “Acquisition of obelisk required.”

“I figured as much. Your little safe place is a sailing island isn’t it?”

“Indeed.”

We started to cross over the mostly plain islands, heading to the nearest one on the fringe. “How’d you get around the automatic return they do?”

“Nanite modification. Trium volunteered all of his for process.”

I came to a sudden stop at her words. “All of them? I thought your kind used those for everything!”

Samara didn’t respond, and instead continued to walk across the grassy plain. As we walked to one of the obelisk islands I noticed there were no metal domes visible, nor other signs of the Architects.

When we stepped onto the moveable isle I motioned at Samara to get her attention. “Where’s the outpost on this floor?”

“They located a mineable mountain, and converted it into a small factory. Somewhere west-south-west.”

We approached the obelisk itself, and when we neared it a part of the exterior slid open. Inside was a chair, and Lisa was the first to run inside to investigate it. A glance at Mika was all it took for my daughter to stick outside, while Samara and I followed my other child.

The interior of the obelisk was small, with a single chair. Along the walls were numerous runes engraved into the dark stone. It was a type of language I didn’t know, and one that Luticia had opted to not tell me about.

The chair in the middle was in a permanently reclined state, coated in a green light cast from above. There were no buttons, levers, or other means of interaction on the chair.

Lisa put her hand into the light and giggled. “It tickles,” she told me, spreading her fingers, “what’s it do?”

“If you sit on the chair you can move the island with it. There’s a camera on the top of the obelisk that lets you see the surroundings, and it connects to your mind via the light.”

She looked at me with a big smile on her face. “Can I fly it?”

“No. Samara knows where her place is, we don’t.”

The Architect lifted up one finger. “Moment, please,” she requested of us, “locator construction required.”

A black film spread over her fingers, and then gathered into a lump in her grip. As we watched the nanites formed into an odd looking device, one that had an antenna.

Samara stood there in silence for a short while, as she stared at the device. It didn’t seem to have any type of lighting on it, nor did it make any noises, yet I could only hope that she had some other way of using it.

That or it was a ruse, that she’d made an item to let the hostile Architects know we were around. The only reason I didn’t believe that was because of how she’d killed the other executives.

She suddenly crushed the object, and it disintegrated into nanites. The black film vanished as she absorbed it back into her body, and Samara strode over to the chair and settled into it.

“Come on, Lisa,” I told my daughter as I left the interior of the obelisk. We’d serve no use within, and I wanted to see how the rest of the floor had changed.

Lisa started to follow me, and then paused for a second as she instead stared at Samara. Then she ran after me, the door closing behind her.

I’d never cared much for the floating islands, or rather the basic ones that Lute had made. They were nothing more than flat plains, with grass on top and a stone undercarriage. Out in that vast sky were other islands, and they were the real treasures of the floor.

There was a small lurch as the island we were on began to move. The isle flew off to the north, though with a slightly eastward trend. Our progress was slow at first, but with the increasing distance we’d gone so too did our little spot of land accelerate.

Before long we were moving quick enough that Lisa and Mika’s hair billowed out behind them. They watched the horizon, their eyes nearly sparkling with excitement, as new islands began to appear.

The first few we came across had a few trees on them, as though a forest had been split over five different islands. Even from our place on the moving isle we could still see birds darting about the trees.

A few minutes later and the forest islands were behind, and our own continued on at the same speed. It didn’t take long before new ones appeared in front of us, and as we grew closer to them the small dots rapidly turned into vast expanses.

It was on these larger chunks of land that the majority of the animal life could be found. Animals similar to deer, rabbits, and numerous birds ran amongst plains and hills, with small copses of trees here and there.

Yet on none of them were any predators. While some of the small birds dined on insects, there were no wolves or cats, or even lizards of any type.

The reason for that became clear, as from beneath one of the islands long serpentine forms emerged. With wingspans that easily stretched out beyond the normal height of a grown man, the wyverns rose up on the air currents and approached our island.

I braced for the fight, but as the first wyvern of the group dove in Mika killed it instantly. Her wires made quick work of the serpent, slicing through their soft bodies like butter. With the death of the first most of the other wyverns backed off, intelligent enough to know better than to attack us.

A couple of the younger ones, at least that’s all I could assume based on how they were smaller, tried anyways. Once again Mika’s hands flicked upward, the wires thrown into the air, and bloody chunks of wyverns covered the grass near her.

It was after their deaths the over wyverns left, instead going back to the larger islands. I relaxed at their departure. While they weren’t dangerous, they were quite content with picking up and dropping their prey into the distant waters.

I had never seen anything survive a fall of that distance before, and it was why the ocean was nothing more than a graveyard. I’d never felt the urge to explore the water, in part due to the fact that I feared the millions of corpses I might find deep below.

It was a thought I opted to not dwell on, and instead I once more watched the horizon. As we continued to head north-east there were no more floating lands to see, and instead merely clouds that stretched on seemingly forever. The sun, behind us, had already begun to settle and darkness started to cover the world around us.

Before night had fully set in an island appeared in front of us. It had an obelisk in the middle, and was identical to the one we were on in basic design. What set it apart were the buildings that were around the obelisk, metal constructs that shone in the dim light of the sunset.

When our island neared the other there was a gathering of figures near the fringe. Most of them had white hair, but a few had brown and even blond hair. They watched us warily, as our islands gently touched, and a couple of the Architects approached with weapons in hand.

“Greetings,” the one in the lead said, though with narrowed eyes, “identification?”

In response to the question the obelisk opened, revealing Samara. The Architect walked out of the tower and strode to her friends, her presence enough to send a ripple of relief and joy amongst the gathered.

The Architect in the front hugged her, an act that I’d rarely seen from any before in my lives. My daughters moved in close to me, probably unsure on what to do next.

“Everyone,” Samara said as she raised her hands, “these are allies. Victorious against executives!”

The response was a bit more muted than I might have hoped, but everyone who was present showed at least some type of cordial smile to us. I didn’t bother with wasting my time on them, and instead approached Samara.

“About getting us to floor ninety-nine?”

She frowned, but gave a small nod of her head. With one hand she motioned for everyone to step aside, and began to walk in the direction of the center of her makeshift city.

We followed her, but as we entered the city I whispered to my daughters, “Go look around. Make sure this place isn’t just a trick.”

Mika didn’t argue and moved to leave, but when Lisa paused she grabbed her hand pulled her away. “We will be careful. Contact us when you are ready to move on.”

They vanished down one of the streets of the town, vanishing into the crowd of Architects and humans. I knew that Mika would keep her sister out of trouble, and if there was anything suspicious about the place she would find it.

Samara led me to the obelisk in the center of her city. When we reached it the door opened, and revealed a much different interior than I’d expected.

While there was a chair in the middle, and the light from above, there was more furniture. A bed was tucked to one side of the room, and a table with a regular chair weren’t far away from it. A dresser was on the other side of the chamber.

A single Architect was seated at the table, a small crystal in his hand. He seemed intent on studying it, and when we walked in there was no response.

“Trium,” Samara called out to the other Architect, who looked up in surprise, “I have to request your assistance with a task.”

Trium smiled at her as he stood up. The crystal that’d been his focus was left on the table. “How can I help?”

Samara motioned at me with her hand. “You will help guide…” she started to say, then realized a fact that’d eluded her, “designation?”

“Call me Fenix.”

As though he was only seeing me at that point, Trium stared with wide eyes at my face. It took me a few seconds to realize what’d drawn his attention were my pointed ears.

“Not human?”

“No, I’m an Elf. From the first floor.”

That bit of information caused even Samara to look at at me with widened eyes, but she shook her surprise off. “Trium, escort Fenix and his two daughters to floor seventy-five.”

Trium balked at the request, about to argue with her, but a strong glare from Samara was enough to quiet any dissent before it was spoken. “Confirmed.”

Samara turned to look at me. “Once you arrive at the designated floor wait before commencing assault. I will contact operatives and have them assist.”

“But how are they going to know when to attack?” I asked, “I’m going to use the portal on seventy to skip back down for repairs, and I’m not sure how long that’s going to take.”

In response Samara formed a new object in her hand, a small one, and she handed it to Trium. “Communication device, return when mission is completed.”

Trium grasped it with two hands, so gently that it seemed like the most fragile object in the labyrinth. He nodded to Samara and brushed past me, heading out of the obelisk.

I turned to follow him, but I paused to say one thing to Samara, “Thanks.”

When I left the obelisk I sent a quick message to my daughters, to have them meet back up with me. Trium and I walked in silence as we worked our way through the city, though we weren’t heading back to the island I’d rode on to get here.

“So what’s the plan?” I finally asked in an attempt to break the silence.

“Your daughters will require false collars,” Trium said, “modified collars when scanned present as proper.”

I stopped walking at those words. “You’re going to put collars on my daughters?”

Perhaps a bit of my anger at the thought had transmitted through the shell, because Trium flinched at my words. He half-turned to hesitatingly look at me, his voice much quieter, “They will be attacked on sight if they don’t have collars.”

There was a logic to it, but at the same time asking my daughters to wear slave collars didn’t sit well with me. “Fine,” I muttered, “but if anything happens to them because of the collars…”

The unspoken threat was more than enough to cause a shudder in Trium. He hastily turned forward and continued to walk through the city, every so often peeking over his shoulder at me.

My daughters met up with us before we reached the place Trium was taking us, and I quickly explained what was happening to them. Neither seemed to care much, but I could only assume that was because they’d never seen what the Architects had done to their slaves.

We picked up the two collars for them, and then headed back to the obelisk island that we’d used to reach Samara’s base. Trium took the initiative to control the island, and we were well on our way in no time at all.