by Jez Cajiao
“Stop.” I said. “Oracle, it’s all right; you just woke me up. It was a shock, that’s all. What’s wrong?”
“You aren’t mad at me?” she whispered, looking up at me through her long hair.
“Hell no. I was shocked, that’s all, like I said. Why are you so scared?”
“Are you going to break the bond?” she asked sadly, her voice barely audible. She looked down at her feet, wrapping her arms around herself, and her wings dipped low.
“What? No, why the hell would I do that? I didn’t even know it could be broken. No, I’m not breaking it…. unless you want me to?” I asked, hesitation entering my voice as a thought occurred to me. Maybe she wanted to be free?
“No! I…I just, I’m not good with humans, Jax. You’re all so strange, and I made you jump, I woke you up again, and you seemed so angry…”
“I woke up from a deep sleep, that’s all. I was surprised. Seriously, Oracle, you are literally the only friend I have in this world besides Tommy, and I have no idea where he is, or if he’s even still alive. I need you,” I said gently, as she tucked her hair back behind one ear and looked up at me with a small smile. Her wings lifted and began to twitch as she spoke.
“Really?” She sounded so hopeful; it made my heart ache for her. Poor little bugger.
“Really.” I said, “Now, come on. I’m awake, so why don’t we go wake a wisp up?” She clapped her hands together and took off, pirouetting as she flew up over my head and spiraled around me.
“Yes! And then we’ll have two friends! And Bob! Don’t forget about Bob!” She called out, flying across the room and landing on his head. Patting him, she looked at me sternly. “Bob shall be my trusty steed, carrying me wherever I need to go!” She looked so ridiculously proud of herself as she sat there, I had to smile at her. She was a mix of childlike and adult curiosity that I found endearing, even if I was only going to admit it to myself.
I gathered my gear and went to the door, sending Bob first as Oracle flew over to hover behind me. We entered the main room and swept it carefully, making sure nothing had come up. The door to the stairwell was still only slightly ajar, as I’d left it the night before. Bob was dispatched to guard it, and I resumed draining my mana to the Wisp well. Eating, drinking, and doing my best at cleaning the windows served to pass the time while I waited for my mana to regenerate. Heeding Oracle’s warning about the possible anger of the Wisp, I waited until it stood at three hundred and ninety of four hundred and stopped, waiting for my mana to fully regenerate before giving up the last ten. As the mana disappeared into it, I sat forward on the throne, staring with fascination at the mana well.
This transformation was slower, the mana seeming to ebb and flow sluggishly. A whirlpool started to spin in the center of the well until a small figure began to form, lifting slowly to stand on the liquid mana. It was humanoid, barely six inches tall, broad of chest, with small, stout legs, and a craggy face that lacked definition. As its eyes opened, it searched around the room before coming back to me, and it looked pissed.
“You awoke me?” it asked in a monotone voice.
“Oh yeah, I’ve got a token somewhere…” I said, starting to rummage through my bag until Oracle stopped me. She flew forward to land on my knee and spoke up quickly.
“He is the new Master of the Great Tower, and I vouch for him.” She said proudly, crossing her arms and smiling at the creature before her.
“Vouch for him, and bonded to him, I see. Traitor,” the tiny form said in a flat, hard voice as it glared at Oracle, then turned from her with an abruptness that made my anger start to heat.
“Traitor? I saved his life! He is our rightful master!” she spat out, taking a step forward, her hands flashing to her hips as she leaned over the small figure.
“You bonded him. Traitor to the Tower, you are no longer impartial. You no longer hold it first. Master will hear of this.”
“He IS the Master, you stone-brained fool! You are required to accept his authority. I am a recognized Tower Wisp, and I am bonded both to him and to the Tower. I declare him to be the Master, proven and faithful, and I cannot lie.”
“He is… the Master? Master told me to sleep, to protect the tower. Keep it standing. It stands.”
“Uh, okay.” I said, once again proving why I was in charge, with my amazing grasp on things and articulating myself well. As they both turned to me, I cleared my throat and started again. “I mean, yes. I’m the new Master of the Tower. Falco gave me his token and told me to take control of the Tower as my own. I saved Oracle, and I reawakened you. I am the Master.”
The small creature stared at me for a while before finally grunting and turning away, looking around the room instead.
“The Sporelings… I see you’ve not cleaned them out. Or the undead. You cannot be the true Master of the Tower while a hostile force holds sections of it.” He paused for a moment, then said grudgingly. “I accept you as Master, though you must clear the Tower, grounds, and facilities of enemies before full access will be granted.”
“Okay, question: How do I ‘clear and secure’ an area of the Tower?” I asked the pair of wisps that still stood glaring at each other.
“You must kill any enemies inside the area, and then secure it against further invaders, obviously,” the miserable little one stated coldly.
“He is the rightful Ma..!”
“That’s enough!” I cut them both off as they started to argue. “I’m the Master here, yes?” I said, receiving grudging acknowledgement from the new wisp and enthusiastic smiles and nods from Oracle.
“Right, then. Let’s get this sorted, and then you can answer my questions properly. If I ask a question, I expect an honest and accurate answer from you. Feel free to elaborate on anything you think I need to know, and I’ll thank you for it. Keep acting like an asshole, and I’ll do everything in my power to make your life hell. Up to and including breaking your bond with the Tower, if I need to. Understand?” I said, my voice calm and cold, Both wisps stared at me in horror.
“Jax, to break his bond to the Tower… he’d die, and the Tower….”
“It’d what, collapse?” I said, receiving a hesitant nod from her. “That’s fine. I’ll be clear about this,” I said, leaning forward so I was closer to their level. “Either you serve me, and we can be friends and work together, or you serve me, and do as you’re told or you die. If I destroy the Tower as well, I’ll be pissed, but I’ll get over it. I don’t give a shit about you right now, so choose quickly.”
“Jax…”
“Quiet, Oracle. I want to hear from the little one,” I said, cutting her off with an upraised finger.
“I…will serve.” It responded, “I acknowledged you as Master already….” It ground the words out resentfully.
“And I remember that, but you will either be a willing part of the team, or I can’t trust you and I won’t turn my back to you. Why are you being so pissy?”
“Pissy?” It asked me in confusion.
“Miserable, grumpy, acting like an asshole,” I said. It stared at me before finally erupting and gesturing around the room wildly.
“Look at it! My beautiful Tower; it barely stands! Creatures infest it, more than half of it doesn’t respond to my touch, and they’ve covered it in…waste…”
“Waste?” I asked Oracle.
“The black stuff on the windows. It’s bodily waste from the Sporelings, Jax,” she explained.
“And I’ve been digging at it? Trying to clean the damn windows with my hands?!” I cried out, looking at my hands and then at the windows. “Oh, hell no!” I summoned the water from my magical spring with one hand, then quickly summoned a firebolt. Holding the firebolt in the spring as it flowed, I managed to create hot water that quickly heated to boiling and I began to scrub my hands clean in earnest.
“You have tried to clean the windows?” the little wisp asked cautiously.
“He did; whenever he has had the time, he has picked at them, breaking the w
aste away with his bare hands.” She sounded so proud. I groaned and redid the spells, scrubbing my hands again.
“Hmmm. You were trying to help the Tower, then. Very well. You may be unaware, Master, that the Tower has the facilities to construct servitors. They will enable me to repair the Tower and its grounds over time. For now, however, if we can restore the mana collectors, I will be able to begin repairs on the Tower myself. I require direct orders from the new Master, as the last orders of the Old Master were to prevent the mana collectors from charging the Tower.”
“Why?” I asked, “Why did he tell you to do that?”
“To prevent the SporeMother from feeding off the mana. She would have become far more powerful, spending centuries feeding off the refined mana of the Tower.”
“Right. You did mention that before.” I grunted, thinking. “Can the SporeMother access the mana collectors if we do this now? What’s changed?”
“She would need to take this location to feed properly.” The wisp said, and Oracle nodded in agreement.
“And you can stop her from taking this?” I asked.
“We had no warning before, or I could have then. I can repurpose stone to close stairwells or doorways. It will take several hours, but once they are done, this section will be secure.”
I didn’t miss the phrasing. ‘Secure’ was exactly what I needed; not just for the quest, but to make sure I didn’t have to clear the Tower repeatedly, searching it each time I changed floors to keep from being ambushed.
“Okay, can you close off the Tower from the Hall of Memories down? Make sure we have that floor safe, and from there up?”
“I can, but it will take several hours, and I will need to activate the collectors to have enough mana for it. The SporeMother will also respond by attempting to take the Tower. Maybe start at this level and clear down over time?” it suggested, and I noticed the sudden shift to deference. Now that it believed I was interested in saving the Tower, its surly attitude had changed to one of interest.
I thought about it, but ultimately decided it would be better to have a safe point lower down. Once I knew it was clear and safe, I could start to sort out the rest of the upper floors, plus I would know the Hall of Memories was safe for times when I could use it.
“No, I want you to seal the upper floors of the Tower, starting at one level below the Hall of Memories. That way, we’ve got plenty of the Tower to ourselves.” I said decisively.
“Yes, Master,” the wisp said, dipping its hands into the well below and closing its eyes. It knelt for several seconds before looking back up at me and speaking again.
“I have begun to grow a wall across the stairwell, but it is using my mana reserve. May I reactivate the mana collectors?”
I cursed myself for a fool. How many times did I need to be asked?
“Yes, sorry. Reactivate the mana collectors and seal off the lower half of the Tower. Begin cleaning and repairing as you can.” It returned to its position, kneeling in the rapidly reducing well as thin tendrils of glistening mana wove out from the pedestal, crossing the floor in the blink of an eye and racing up the walls. As they reached the ceiling, they began to branch out again, first in ones and twos, then in dozens, and finally hundreds of filaments as they formed a pattern overhead. I watched as it moved, one color glowing brighter, then another, until entire sections seemed to shift
and grow bright with a golden light. The entire room shook faintly, and dust fell in rivulets. A grinding noise began outside, and I rushed to the window, looking out of the small cleared sections as I tried to make out what was happening. Several levels below me, long stone spikes were sliding out of recessed areas. As they moved, birds screeched and took wing, circling the Tower as their ancestral roost changed. The spikes continued, becoming pillars as they lengthened, until a crown seemed to ring the top of the Tower.
From each of the pillars’ tips, a single faint light began to bloom. At first, it seemed tiny, barely visible against the greater light of the rising sun, but as the seconds passed, it intensified. Each light became a tiny vortex, sucking in the ambient mana of the world around it.
I felt the Tower pulse again, this time with energy, as mana began to flow back into it. Stone long starved of mana drank it in greedily and began to change. Where I stood, the weathered, pitted stone smoothed, the crumbling edges reforming and taking on the luster of marble. I felt the damage under my feet slowly beginning to fix itself as I spun around.
Small crystals set in the walls, which I had not noticed before, began to glow, softly at first, but quickly bringing the room to brilliance. A chandelier hung from the ceiling in the center, holding a single huge crystal that began to pulse and glow with an inner fire.
“It is begun, my Master.” A voice came from behind me, one I didn’t recognize, and I spun around again, facing the small wisp that had knelt in the mana well. It had changed, becoming more defined, less craggy, and more polished. It had also grown slightly, reaching Oracle’s shoulder now, and it spoke with a rich timbre that made the air vibrate faintly.
I looked at him, consciously deciding to see the wisp as male.
“It’s beautiful. Do you have a name, wisp?” I said, returning to the throne and shifting the bedroll to a more comfortable position.
“I do not, Master. Our last master simply referred to me as ‘Tower’.” His voice showed no concern either way, but there was a hint of curiosity as he replied, and I grinned at him.
“Well, then, you need a name! Do you have a preference?” I asked him, watching as he turned to Oracle.
“You have a name now, and this change in form. Why?” he asked her.
“Jax, our master, asked me to assume a distinct form, so I accessed his memories and chose this one. He granted me a name, and swore to provide me with freedom, if possible.”
“Freedom?!” he asked, twisting to look at me, “You would free us?”
“Yeah. Look, I’ll be clear on this. Where I come from, slavery isn’t allowed. Even if it was, I don’t care. Those that practice slavery are scum, and need to die. It’s kinda that simple. Even if you were still being an asshole with me, I’d free you, given the chance. It’s the right thing to do.” I shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed as the pair of wisps stared at me.
“You permitted a memory scan?” he continued, looking from me to Oracle and back.
“Yeah, why?” I asked.
“It is rare that one such as you would permit a lesser creature to touch your mind, let alone read your memories. I ask permission to do the same. I will swear wholehearted allegiance to you, provided I find the truth in your mind.” The small wisp looked at me, hesitation and fear radiating from him, but hope was there as well. I looked to Oracle, and she nodded.
“Okay, just… any images you find there of ladies with no clothes…” I started to say before Oracle interrupted me.
“He has a lot of memories of naked females, both his own memories and pictures of them, but he doesn’t like to talk about them. I picked this form from mixing some of them. Do you like it?” she explained to him, completely unconcerned as she tugged at one corner of her outfit and it dissolved into mist, her exceedingly voluptuous figure bouncing free. I froze, my eyes locked onto her nakedness as my brain seemed to short circuit. Oracle, of course, showed no hint of modesty as she looked from the other wisp to me, lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“He says he doesn’t want me to show my form off like this, but his heart rate just went through the roof and his….”
“Gah! Stop, Oracle!” I managed to get out, frantically trying to force my eyes not to return to her body as I locked them on her face.
“But you like to look!” She cried out, bouncing again. “You know you do, and I like you looking. Please, Jax, just enjoy looking at me!” She spun around to face the other wisp, her more pronounced areas almost throwing her off balance from sheer force of inertia. “You should take a form like this too! Then we can have different colors! He likes
different colors!”
“NO!” I shouted, then I took a deep breath and repeated myself more calmly. “No. Please, don’t take a form like that…Yes, you can look at my memories if you need to, but for the love of god, don’t choose a form like Oracle has. I have enough trouble as it is…” I shook my head and leaned forward to put my face within reach of the small wisp as he looked from Oracle to me and back again. I closed my eyes, seeing a rush of images, memories, scents, and sounds filling my mind as soon as I felt a cool hand being pressed against my head. In a minute, it was over, and I sat back, my head swimming as I tried to make sense of all I’d seen.
The small wisp before me began to change, growing taller, becoming a slim humanoid, and wearing a cloak that reached the ground and a helmet that covered his face. His entire figure appeared to be formed from a single piece of silver, reflecting everything perfectly and covering the wisp underneath. I was unsure, as the change finished, if I was pleased or disappointed. He had not become a hot, naked woman. I decided to go with relief and moved on.
“Nice; it suits you.” I said, looking at him as he inspected his hands . As his arms lifted from the cloak, it was clear that he wore armor underneath. Tiny, scaled, silvery material covered his body, and his hands were encased in black gloves.
“Thank you, Master. It feels…right. I still require a name, however,” he said, tilting his head to look at me.
“I… well, you run the Tower for me, so how about Seneschal?” I asked him, receiving a satisfied nod in return. He lowered himself to one knee in a single fluid motion, his head bowed as he began to speak.
“I, Seneschal, swear my loyalty to you, Master. I will aid you and serve you, until death releases me or the All Mother wipes me from the land.” I had no idea what to say, so I went for the memories I had of these things from books and TV.
“I, Jax, accept your oath of fealty, and will protect and raise you up as I would my own. I will not break faith with you, so long as you do not break faith with me.” I said, the words seeming foolish and badly phrased as I spoke them, but he seemed pleased, rising to his feet and looking to me.
