Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

His lips twisted into a sneer. “The ‘Tyrant in Gold’ rules the entire outside world. A lie.”

He turned his face upward. “The goddess watches over us and guides us on our path. A lie.”

He gestured to the whole room around us. “The visages do her will in the world, and help us to achieve greatness. A lie.”

“It’s all lies. The foundation of our culture is rotten.”

“We’re taught to avoid the world outside of Kaldwyn, but it’s not because it’s dangerous. It’s not because the Tyrant is in complete control. It’s because if we saw the other continents, we’d see other perspectives. Places that still oppose the Tyrant openly. And other lands where no one has ever heard of the Tyrant in Gold.”

“We’re taught that the goddess watches over us, but when has she ever intervened, for or against anyone? Selys may have existed once, but in effect, she’s as dead as the other gods. More so, perhaps. And if she does live? Look at her teachings. Look at how much is hidden from us. We are forced to worship her, and her alone.

“We are taught the outside world is dangerous, and few are even allowed to leave. People who know too much of the truth are kept imprisoned, as your friend Keras was, or branded to prevent them from speaking. What does that sound like to you, Corin? Because, to me, that sounds like the work of a tyrant .”

His words came faster and faster, almost hysterical. “But that isn’t even the worst of it. The visages are always seeking greater control. Perhaps some of them still believe in bits and pieces of the message that they espouse, that they will raise humanity to a higher standard.

“But look at their actions. When a kingdom — like Lavia, for example — grows too powerful? They smash it apart. When a culture clings too hard to old traditions that predate the coming of the goddess to these lands? They stamp them out. I’m sure you’ve heard that Edria had a visage marching with them during the invasion of Kelridge. Why do you think the other visages allowed that? Because human society has never been free.

“Their goal has never been anything less than the complete subjugation of our species. We are nothing but tools to them, game pieces to be played against the other visages in their struggles for dominance.”

I didn’t know what to say to all that. I pondered while he took a breath, and finally settled for a question. “How do you know all this?”

“Because I was a part of it, Corin. I was a Whisper. I worked for Tenjin directly. I learned the functions of the spire — and I watched hundreds, even thousands of people climb the spires. And I saw that as they rose higher, the challenges grew less and less fair.”

I held up a hand for him to pause. “Wait. I thought you were a Whisper of Wydd?”

Tenjin smiled. “That part came later. An offer came to do some work for the Whispers of Wydd. I accepted, of course, but remained in Tenjin’s retinue the entire time.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“By that point, I’d been working for Tenjin a few years, and I’d already seen the unfairness in the spires’ designs.”

“Unfairness?”

Tristan shook his head. “It seems humorous at first, when a room subverts expectations. It’s much less funny when a group of climbers does everything right, and everyone dies. Because they were set up to fail. I know this, because I followed orders. I helped build those unfair tests. I watched the results — until I could watch no longer.”

“But some people do reach the top…don’t they?” My voice was quiet, uncertain.

“Every few decades, perhaps. Someone who is exactly what the visage is looking for. Someone who shows the right loyalties. The right amount of faith in the goddess. Someone powerful, but easy to manipulate. Reaching the top of the spire has never simply been about being the best. It’s about being someone the visages believe they can use.”

Tristan smiled. “Your friend Keras, for example, would never reach the top of this spire. They know his goals, and they would not wish for him to succeed. It doesn’t matter how powerful he is; they’d simply put in a room with no exits.”

“That’s…” I shook my head. “Why wouldn’t they want Keras to reach the top of the spire?”

“Because they’re afraid of the changes he’d cause if he managed to find a way to speak to the goddess herself. That is one of the few things I actually agree with the visages on.”

I blinked. “Why? What would happen?”

Tristan folded his hands in front of him. “Keras plans to ask the goddess to do something active in the world. I don’t know exactly what it is, but if he succeeds in drawing Selys back into world affairs, it could be catastrophic. I’m not convinced she’s even alive, but if she is, it’s better for her to remain uninvolved in world affairs. That is preferable to a being with her degree of power that may decide we’ve all been a failed experiment.”

That’s a grim way of looking at it, but he has a point.

I wanted to believe that if Selys was real, and she was made aware of our problems, maybe she’d make things better.

But I wasn’t the one who had been trapped in a spire of Selys’ design for the last five years. I could see why Tristan might be less excited about the goddess taking any further steps to intervene in human affairs.

If Selys was powerful enough to create the God Beasts and the visages, she was clearly much more powerful than they were, at least as individuals. If she didn’t like how a nation developed, would she simply wipe them off the planet?

I didn’t want to find out.

But I still had many other questions. “Wait. So, why switch allegiances to Wydd, then? They’re still a visage.”

“Knowledge. Forbidden knowledge, to be specific.” Tristan folded his hands. “I learned a great deal from working with the Whispers of Wydd. Things about the inner workings of the spires. The functionality of attunements. Monsters. Bits of information that could be used as tools to aid in my plans.”

“So, you learned these things…and what, started a revolution?”

“Ah, I wish I could take credit for such a thing, but no.” Tristan shook his head. “I’m relatively new to all this. People have been watching the terrors wrought by the visages for centuries. Planning. Paving the way for future generations to act. I am only one participant in this, and I am not even one of the leaders of the current movement.”

“How did you get involved, then?”

Tristan smiled. “Mother, of course.”

“Mother? She’s one of the people causing all this?”

He shook his head. “No, not exactly. Only in the loosest sense. She did not organize anything — that was already happening before I even was recruited into the spire. It started with Orden and her ilk, working within the Whispers, and other powerful organizations. They recruited high-ranking priests and government officials who knew the truth.

“No, Mother’s life changed when she reached the halfway point of the spire, and she was offered a deal.”

I frowned. “A deal?”

“As I said, the visages do not wish for anyone to reach the top of the spire unless they have the proper characteristics. Mother was powerful, influential, and dedicated. She had a singular goal. She would have pursued it to her dying day if she needed to.” He turned his head to the side. “But it was not to be.”

“What was this deal?”

Tristan turned back to me. “Tenjin came to her directly. He praised her for her achievements, having reached higher in the spire than anyone had in decades. And he offered her a gift — a boon that he would grant himself if she would never set foot in the spire again.”