Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

She shook her head. “Pretty sure he’s not. A climber, probably.”

I knew that term; it meant someone who was trying to reach the top of the tower. There were legends that anyone who reached the top of one of the six Shifting Spires would receive a blessing from Selys, and that someone who conquered all six towers would be lifted into the skies to reside with the visages.

Most people didn’t take the latter legend seriously, but there were plenty of people who claimed that they had reached the top of a tower and been given something by one of the visages: wealth; enchanted items; maybe even an additional attunement. The stories varied from person to person. It was likely there was something at the top.

The promise of a divine reward was a tremendous temptation. There were hundreds of climbers in each city, many of whom already had attunements. Climbers entered through different gates than the one used for Judgments, so they could go inside in groups.

Sane people kept their groups to a half dozen or so, though. The tower punished anything it saw as a threat, and everyone knew the stories about what had happened when it did.

The Kingdom of Feria had once tried to invade the fifth tower.

It was nothing but dust and ruins, now.

We continued walking down the hallway. In the limited time before we reached the next room, I’d have to gather as much information as I could.

“Do you think he’s a danger to us?”

Vera shrugged. “Of course. But we’re still better off following in his wake.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”

She put a hand on the nearby wall. “Because we just broke out of a prison so, this is a threat to us, too. The tower doesn’t like it when you break the rules.”

I frowned. “You make it sound like the tower is sapient.”

“How else do you explain the constantly changing layout? The treasures that appear for one person who completes a challenge, but not another? Do you really think Selys is watching every room in every tower simultaneously, hand-picking who gets attunements and re-sculpting chambers?”

“I tend to lean toward Bermer’s spectral theory of tower design.”

“Oh, you’re a little scholar. How adorable! I haven’t read that one, so you’re going to have to fill me in.”

“Incorporeal minions, essentially. Dozens of them for each tower.”

Vera nodded, running a hand through her hair again. She looked disheveled, which was unsurprising if she’d been here for days. “Yeah, I could see that. Amounts to about the same thing as a thinking tower, though.”

“Sort of. If there are multiple entities, they might have to communicate with each other, which means some routes might be safer than others. And maybe they wouldn’t all be in agreement on how to handle us.”

“Mmm.” She gestured toward Keras. “Looks like we’re about out of time, kid.”

Keras reached the door at the end of the hall. I rushed forward just as the door opened, remembering the trap a moment too late.

The pendulum arced through the doorway, thousands of pounds of swinging stone. Keras’ hand blurred. The sphere, now sliced into a dozen pieces, clattered harmlessly across the floor.

I blinked.

I really need to stop being surprised by what he can do.

I’d seen a lot of attuned using magically-enhanced swordsmanship over the years. My Father took me to watch tournaments on a regular basis, both ones he competed in and otherwise. I’d seen championship bouts between experienced veterans.

A lot of them had been fast.

Keras was definitely faster. I’d been paying attention this time and I still hadn’t seen him draw his weapon.

I fell back to where Vera was inching forward. “So, uh, if he does decide he doesn’t like us, do you think you could handle him?”

Vera made a half-snort, half-laugh, and slowly shook her head. “No, kid. I’m attuned, too, but I’m not a monster like that. I’m not even specialized in fighting.”

My hands flexed in the air. “Well, at least if he decides to kill us, he’d probably do it quickly.”

“So bleak,” she noted. “Let’s focus on the positives, yeah? Looks like he’s solving the room for us.”

Keras was, in fact, “solving” the room… by slicing the other pendulums in the same way he had the first. When he was done with those, he grabbed the swinging scythe by the bottom, stopping it without difficulty. He yanked downward, breaking the chain that attached it to the ceiling. The blade fell to the floor.

I looked back at Vera. “I’m pretty sure we were supposed to use those pendulums to break through the crystal sections on the walls.”

She waved one hand back and forth dismissively. “It won’t be a problem.”

We made it into the room, stepping over the rubble from the destroyed traps, and watched as Keras moved to the red crystal section on the wall. Another blur in front of him, with no obvious immediate impact this time.

When he kicked forward, a large section of wall fell away. Not just red crystal, the solid stone surrounding it fell away. Enough that a crude doorway had formed in its wake. I couldn’t see anything but blackness beyond it.

He walked through and vanished.

I looked at the other crystal sections on the floor and ceiling. “We could split up from him here.” I patted the dueling cane on my hip. “I think there’s a good chance I could blast through that floor section.”

She shook her head. “As dangerous as Keras is, he’s our best chance of making it through here alive. C’mon. Gotta follow him before the rooms shift.” She grabbed my hand, leading me forward.

While she led me by the hand, I processed her statement. Would the rooms change while we were inside them? I hadn’t seen that happen, but it wasn’t impossible. In fact, with a large enough number of people inside the towers, it seemed likely that it had to happen on occasion.

I’d have to research that more when I got the chance.

Vera vanished the moment she hit the boundary between rooms. It looked as holding hands hadn’t caused me to be included in the teleportation effect. I briefly wondered how Keras and the kid he was carrying had been affected, since they had appeared to vanish together. Was it based on consciousness? Or maybe proximity?

Either way, I was alone amid the shattered traps. Another window to break off from the group if I wanted to.

Vera had warned me about the shifting rooms, but I figured I could spare a few seconds to try to get some more information. I hastily pulled the book out of my backpack. I probably wasn’t going to get another chance at this.

You are in one of the tower’s holding chambers. Do not interact with the prisoners. Leave immediately. The people contained within the cells are not to be trusted.

I flipped to the next page.

That was a mistake.

You are risking a great deal, Corin, and I will not be able to protect you if you continue down this path.

No one is placed in a chamber like that one without a good reason.

And the next.

You are in the Room of Arcs, or what remains of it. You see now the power of one of the people you have freed. Recapturing them would be beyond your present abilities. Your best hope is to escape them.

That was not reassuring. I wrote a brief reply…

Thank you. Why are you helping me?

…and slammed the book shut. I would read more when time permitted.

I stepped into the next room.

I arrived in what looked more like a noble’s manor than another chamber of the tower. The walls were painted white and adorned with paintings and hanging weapons. At roughly equal intervals between the paintings were standing suits of armor with intricate etchings of silver and gold.