PART lll: THE TOWER

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie

So blend the turrets and shadows there

That all seem pendulous in air

While from a proud tower in the town

Death looks gigantically down.

“The City In The Sea”

Edgar Allan Poe

1

When Emma and Jordan returned to the team, Harper was awake and back on her feet. She had acquired the Song of Distraction spell from an Epiphany cloud before it died out. As they were getting ready to inform the group of their discoveries, Emma caught Brett glaring at her reproachfully. It gave her an odd sense of dread, and she made a mental note to ask him about it later.

“Well, did you find a place?” Damon asked impatiently.

Emma and Jordan glanced at each other, smiling secretively, wanting to hang on to the news a bit longer while the team’s anticipation increased.

“God damn, did you find us a camp or not?” Ethan barked.

Emma sneaked one more look at Jordan. “No, we didn’t find a good place to camp…” she replied apologetically, curling her right foot inward, “but, um, that’s okay, because we can stay at the village instead.” She grinned, expecting an outburst of reactions.

The members gaped at her in stunned silence.

“What do you mean ‘a village’?” Angie asked.

Emma and Jordan brayed with laughter, unable to contain their excitement. “We found an actual village, with buildings and everything,” Jordan exclaimed. “It even has a well for water!”

The team went ballistic.

Harper breathed the letters, “OMG.” The three orcs jumped and shook the earth below them. Miguel sauntered over to Harper and hugged her while Janna high-fived Brett. The big male nurse lost his sour expression and started laughing along with the rest of the group. When the excitement subsided, Emma described the town in greater detail. She told them about the end of the realm and the tower that waited for them there.

“Just the one tower,” Angie reflected. “Where’s the other one?”

“The second could be a dungeon,” Harper replied. Her dry cough was gone, but her voice was still hoarse. “It could be underground.”

Jordan gestured at the trees that circled them. “If it wasn’t for these, we would have already seen the tower… and the black glitches too.”

“You saw more glitches?” Angie asked.

He nodded grimly. A silence settled over them as their enthusiasm waned.

“In any case, let’s get a move on and have a look ourselves,” Damon said quietly.

They headed west in their V formation through the orchard and toward the road. They equipped their weapons and listened attentively for any telltale sounds that might signal more Dryads, but the trip was uneventful and within ten minutes they were on the road.

2

The three orcs stood on the beaten dirt road, maintaining their line at the front of the group. They gazed up at the dark and foreboding tower that loomed over them and the neighboring landscape. “Any idea how many stories that thing is?” Ethan asked no one in particular.

Jordan stepped forward. “Well, that depends on if you like high ceilings,” he quipped, but the joke fell flat. From their position, the tower gouged a line through the sky and looked very intimidating. The black quantum masses that shimmered around it didn’t help, either.

Ethan turned to his brother. “I guess we’ll know about Dad soon enough.”

Jordan nodded.

They marched forward, shaking their heads at the Dryad warning signs they’d missed. As they got closer to the village, they caught glimpses of the humanoids between the cabins. The shadowy figures lumbered up and down the town’s main road, two men and a woman, but their bodies appeared to be misshapen.

A flock of ptero birds took off from a nearby pear tree, spooking the members with their reptilian squawks. Damon watched the birds fly toward the tower. It reminded him of the birds he’d observed at the beginning of the realm and the one that had disappeared into the border.

The team arrived at the intersecting road and turned west, toward the cabins. Emma and Harper groaned. The three humanoid creatures were badly deformed. They wore just the bare minimum of canvas undergarments, likely because their armor could no longer fit on their frames. They lurched unevenly across the pounded dirt, their knees frozen at right angles. Their dusty feet curved into twisted masses of flesh. Their arms were likewise locked at right angles; they hung from their bodies like immovable holiday ornaments.

Still, it was their faces that were the worst. They looked like melted wax visages of the faces they’d once had. Everything sagged. Their eyes elongated and settled on the top of their cheekbones. Their mouths drooped in a surreal imitation of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

“Are those supposed to be NPCs?” Miguel whispered from the middle of the group.

Harper shook her head. One of the humanoids looked up, saw them, and moaned loudly, alerting the other two. They started shambling quickly toward the team. Saliva dripped from their open mouths. The larger male was clutching a sword in his disfigured hand. The orcs gripped their own swords tightly, ready to defend the members, but their would-be attackers were truly pathetic.

“This is gonna be like putting down a sick animal,” Zack muttered disgustedly.

The large male lurched forward.

Zack raised his sword but stopped when the man spoke urgently.

“Beassse. Cab oooo heb me?”

3

Miguel stepped forward to engage with the humans. The first thing he wanted to determine was if they were NPCs or actual human beings. He figured that an NPC could believe that it was human, so asking the question outright wouldn’t work. Instead, he asked a string of questions and automatically thought of a movie reference. Answer me these questions three! Miguel shook the wild thought from his head. “We’d… like… to… help… you,” he slowly spoke, as if he was communicating with a child.

Harper snorted beside him. “Hey, dial down the kidspeak, #39,” she teased.

Miguel glanced at her and continued. “First, what is the capital of the USA?”

The orcs looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but the older man responded. “Wasssshhhheee… boob.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Miguel replied excitedly. “Okay. Next question. What is a MMORPG?”

Harper scoffed. “Now, that’s just mean, Miguel,” she said hoarsely.

The younger man answered. “Mabbbbibeee… mubbbbeee…”

“Massively multiplayer online role-playing game,” Harper interrupted. She shook her head at Miguel, clearly annoyed with him.

Hasta, it’s nice to see you feeling better! Miguel telepathed to her.

Oh, shut up, Harper thought back.

“Last question, if you’re not NPCs, tell me, what was your occupation?”

“Ro MBE!” the young man yelled. “We hooman… hooman!”

The older man eventually told them he had been a lawyer, and the woman used to be a pharmacist. They said they had been locked in the game along with sixty other people, all of whom perished over the years they were stranded on Epiphany. They explained they didn’t know how long ago that was. The seasons in the earth realm never changed, and they’d lost track of the days and months. Ethan asked if they saw any other humans coming through recently, hoping they’d caught a glimpse of his dad, but they shook their heads.

“Do you remember your names?” Harper inquired, her voice sounding almost normal now.

The woman answered as she pointed at each human with her deformed arm. “Riiiiab… Michaaaaab… em me, Obivvvveeeeaaaa… Bebbings.”