After Kenar and several other members of the Justavir agreed to work with the Tidesetter crew things moved rather quickly. None of the bodies they occupied were adept at fighting so they weren’t a huge threat even when left to their own devices. They were still bound to Shark Tooth Island which meant that any plans of escape were pointless and they knew this. This made things rather convenient for Eliana who had taken full control over everyone present. After some deliberation they moved their camp to a place they spotted alongside the river coming from the south. There was a small cliff that was at just enough of an angle that it provided some protection from the rain. Utilizing that with some of the materials they had on hand already they managed to make a pretty sizable camp. Some crew members would stay on the Tidesetter and the ghost pirates would stay on the Justavir whenever they let the human bodies they had possessed rest. The remainder of the group would sleep in the camp itself. Throughout the day everyone would work on their own tasks, be that searching for the key, planning where to search next or collecting food and other necessities in the jungle that covered a large part of the island. That search plan was probably the biggest priority right now which was why a small group was now sitting around the meeting table that Eliana had moved from her quarters on the Tidesetter to the central tent of their camp. Present in the tent were Eliana, Kenar, Cobal, Mana and Fareh.
“Bring us up to speed,” Eliana started the meeting. “What have you done in the past couple of however long you’ve been bound here?” She was looking at Kenar as the representative for the crew of the Justavir since Bartew – their captain – still wasn’t coöperating. He had been released alongside the rest of them, but his attitude stayed quite hostile throughout. Kenar on the other hand just appeared to be tired. He seemed very much willing to work with Cobal and the others if it meant being released from this curse. From what Cobal had gathered so far, the same was true for most of the others. It was the greed of their captain that got them into this situation and although all of them were responsible for their own actions during their life, most of them could admit that they made a mistake. Bartew seemed to still hold on to the idea that he was wronged.
“Well, we were limited in our capabilities for a long time. At first we couldn’t leave the island itself. This took decades, although we lost track of time during this period, so who knows how long it truly was. In that time we checked every little bit of the island, although we were unable to touch many of the things that fill it. Before we took over these bodies we were unable to interact with anything that wasn’t either our ship or the ground. So if the key to this tower is hidden in bushes or somewhere that we’d need to remove an object to spot it, then we couldn’t have found it. That made it very difficult but until recently we simply had no other choice. Once we could leave the island on our ship, we found that we could also walk along the sea bottom, but again we couldn’t actively interact with anything. Our feet left no imprints and although things held our weight when we stepped or sat on them, hands or any movement with the intent to actually move them didn’t have any effect. Only very recently, when we found out we could possess the bodies of living people, did we start to properly comb over things. So to make a long story short, we have done a pretty significant search of everything we could see without moving things, but anything that’s obscured by the surroundings was outside of our reach.”
Eliana nodded along.
“Have you tried to open the door by force or break in through other methods?” Mana asked.
Kenar nodded. “Everything we could think of, but with our lack of bodies it was fruitless. We tried a little bit recently but truth be told we didn’t want to hurt the people whose bodies we took over nor did we want to lose them since they make our search much more convenient.”
Eliana looked at Mana. “Would that be something to look into?”
Mana nodded. “I think it’s worth a try, although I wouldn’t be surprised if a powerful mage has ways to prevent this from happening.” She paused. “How did you even get into the tower the first time around?”
“The door wasn’t locked.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, I’m right. It was sold to us as just a forgetful mage who didn’t bother to lock the door, but I’m pretty sure the person who told us was in cahoots with the mage or at least knew that we were walking into a trap.”
“I’m going to be honest,” Eliana said, “but you don’t sound like the smartest bunch.”
“I have no defense.”
“Either way, Myself, Fareh and Bolar will set up three different divisions for our search efforts. One group will work with Cassandra on ways to improve our search methods. The second group will search the island and the third group will start searching the sea floor, starting with the central lake and the river leading south. Before joining any of the other groups, Cobal and Mana will go with Jarred to inspect the tower. Any complaints?”
None came forward.
Thus three figures stood in front of the menacing looking tower. Seemingly completely carved out of a single block of stone, the tower was an impressive structure by itself. What made it stand out even more than any of that were the windows. On higher floors of the tower – which looked to contain five or six floors above ground – there were these beautiful windows that were made of much more refined glass than even some of the palace windows. Despite their high quality, it was almost impossible to look through them.
“These sorts of windows are blinded to make sure you can look outside but not inside,” Mana explained. “They’re used in several places in my world, but most notably as windows in prison interview rooms, where they want to be able to observe someone without that person being able to see them observing them.”
“That sounds useful, how are they made?” Jarrod asked.
Mana shrugged. “Not a clue.”
“Can you destroy one and enter through it?”
“I don’t think I would be able to destroy something that they couldn’t destroy within several centuries, but I do want to try something.” She looked around for a few moments and picked up a small rock. With quite a bit of force, she threw it against one of the windows. At least that was her intent, but right before it connected with the glass, some sort of strange shimmering barrier blocked it, preventing it from hitting the window at all. “That’s what I thought.”
“What?” Jarrod seemed confused.
“I doubt a mage would create a window that can be broken by simple force, it wouldn’t make any sense. Whatever is keeping this window safe, it’s not modern technology from my world or something like that, it’s much more likely some sort of magical application.”
“Can you undo it?” Cobal asked.
Mana shrugged. “I can certainly look into it, but it’s not a field of magic that I’ve studied much. She took a few steps away from the window before using a hand motion to blast some wind into it. This seemed to also get blocked by whatever field was surrounding it, never properly touching the window itself. The rock of the building was still able to be touched. “Perhaps a pickaxe could break through, but I have no idea how thick these walls are or if there are any traps applied on the inside of the walls.”
“So long story short, we’re better off searching for the key?” Cobal asked.
“I’d say so. Perhaps we can get a handful of people to try and figure out a way in, but I worry that it’s much more dangerous than going in through the proper route.”
Jarrod looked up. “What about the roof?”
“It’s worth having a look up there for sure, but I doubt the creator of this tower left such a glaring flaw in their design.”
“You’re probably right.” Cobal looked at Jarrod. “Could you get a grappling hook and some rope, we’ll check just in case.”
Jarrod nodded and quickly departed for the Tidesetter, giving Mana and Cobal a moment alone.
“What do you think?” Cobal asked.
“It’s hard to say, but whoever this person is, they’re either from my time, or – what worries me more – from further in the future in my own world. I’ve thought about this a long time since Might was very clearly from much further in the past than I was despite only appearing here a century before me. What if there is a time irregularity between the two words and it’s possible that people summoned from vastly different times in my world could appear in your world at the same time. It worries me since our future didn’t exactly look particularly peaceful at times. Nothing of what I can see on the outside of this tower points to more modern technology that I’m used to, especially if we assume that it’s protected by magic more so than technology, but still.”
“Well, we’ll learn a lot more when we manage to get into this tower.”
Mana nodded. “That should answer a lot of questions.”
Jarrod soon reappeared with some rope and Cobal opted to be the one climbing the building. He made sure to avoid the windows since he didn’t know how those force fields would react to him. He did try and look into them, but other than some vague shadows there wasn’t much to see. When reaching the apex of the building, he was greeted by a rather unassuming sight. The roof was mostly flat, made from the same stone as the rest of the building. There was a small cabin or something of the sorts towards the back from where he’d climbed up which had a metal door in it. He tried the doorknob but other than rattle the door a little bit, nothing happened. It could be worth bringing more people up here and trying to enter through here, he thought to himself. Besides the small hut, there was some strange painting on the floor. It took Cobal a little while to realize that the letter H was painted very large. He wondered if that would have some meaning to Mana as he climbed back down or if it was simply the first letter of the mage’s name.
“And? Find anything interesting?” Jarrod looked almost like an excited puppy as he awaited Cobal’s findings.
“There does seem to be some roof access, but I would be surprised if it leads to anything. Besides that there’s just a large letter H painted on top.”
Mana’s eyes went wide and her face lost all color.
“What’s wrong?” Cobal asked.
“There’s no way it would have been spotted, right?” Panic filled Mana’s eyes as she frantically looked around, seemingly unsure what she was even looking for. Cobal grabbed her shoulders. “Calm down, tell me what it means.”
Mana snapped out of it, taking a few breaths to properly calm down. “A large painted H on a building indicated that it’s a landing spot for a helicopter. This would mean that this person has created a flying vehicle in this world. Either that or it’s a very twisted joke aimed only at other people from our world.”
“Let’s hope it’s the second one.” Cobal said.
“Yes, a helicopter would have been spotted.” She let out a deep sigh. “That’s a terrifying thought either way. At worst it’s a technological marvel that completely alters the history of this world and at best it’s a threat.” She shook her head. “It has to be the second option, else we would have known.” She nodded. “We would have known.” She didn’t sound confident at all, she sounded like she was desperately trying to convince herself.
Opal Kaharis 