The Ivory Tower

[Ziona]

Something I pulled up from another forum that I wrote like in 2004... Long time ago....

Introduction: The Matter Is Something, Though Nothing Apparant

It was one of those days were the rain was not quite falling in a steady, heavy downpour, but it was not like it was just drizzling as well. It was more of a sheet that did not get you completely soaked but still chilled you to the bones. I do not know if any of you have every had this feeling before, but I know what it feels like. You just know that something is behind the next corner and for the sake of everything you cannot quite figure out what it is. It just sits there and nags at you, pulling at the strings of you essence, trying to tear you apart.

That is the sickening feeling I got as a I walked down the vacant street, my emerald green cloak wrapped tightly around my shoulders. I got the feeling of dread, like a shadow was cast across my body, leaving me in the dark shadows of the unknown for which I had no map to navigate. It was one of those days. It was one of those half dreams, half nightmares which came to haunt your mind and bring you to your knees.

" You seem a bit upset," a gently, soothing voice came from over my shoulder, chasing away some of the dark shadows which had been trapsing along behind me. I turned my eyes on the origin of the voice. " What might be the matter, Nefarious?"

" Nothing is quite the matter... nothing quite obvious as of yet." I tilted my head back a bit to look into the light blue eyes of my friend, Osiris. He smiled lightly at me, but I could still see the uncertainty in his eyes.

" Nothing be the matter? It looks to me as if you have just seen the likes of things which no one should ever see?" Osiris leaned on his walking staff, glaring at me with his all-seeing clear blue eyes. I pulled my cloak closer around my shoulders, hunching them over as if to ward off his icy-blue gaze.

" Nothing is the matter Osiris," I spoke quickly. " Now, I must be on my way. I have things to do and I do not have time to fratinize on this day."

Osiris' lips pursed in a curious way, as if questioning me without saying a single word. But I left him as he stood, continuing my way down the serpentine road which led through the dirty little village where I lived and worked my days away on this planet.

As I continued down the street I could still feel Osiris' blue eyes burning holes in the back of my neck and in my back. It was almost unnerving how he could be hundreds of yards away but you could still feel his eyes on your back and shoulders. I quickened my pace and continued on my way down the road, trying to shrug off the feeling of impending doom and Osiris' blue eyes.

[Ziona]

Chapter 1: Red Sun At Morning Part 1

The night was one of those nights that cut through you like a knife. You cannot escape the feeling that the air is full of small serrated knives, slicing through your skin and eating away at your skin.

I slept outside, just inside a doorway. I did not want to sleep in an inn... it was a waste of my money. It was waste of my income. All the income I recieved was precious to me, as I did not recieve money very often. I kept the small coins of gold and silver tucked deep in my cloak, sown into the cloth by gold thread. It was my being and my essence.

I did not exactly like the way I worked. I did not exactly like how I earned what money I did. It was dirty work. It was horrible work. I did what I could, but I was good at what I did. It earned me enough to keep going. And there were enough customers to keep the money coming in almost every seven nights.

I was expecting a customer the next morning, possibly early in the morning, possible later the next day. All I knew was to look for the crimson red cloak and jet black hair of a woman who had not yet lent her name to my ears. She had contacted me through messanger, though the messenger never returned to her with the answer of yes, I would work for her.

The messenger was a sickly man who had died shortly after reaching my temporary outpost in the city of Duram, just twenty miles west of here. He would not have survived much longer under even the best of circumstances. But I saw the terror in his eyes and I knew from that moment that this lady of which he spoke was someone to be feared. Yet, I would not fear her. I do not fear any human or daemon being in existance. I am fearless.

The night was cold and it kept me awake the entire night into the early morning as fingers of crimson blood red seeped from the east, spreading across to the west. The town had yet not stirred and I glanced up and down the street, trying to see if my customer had yet arrived. I saw nothing and I heard nothing. It was as if the entire village had disappeared in a blink of an eye and left no one behind. It was a strange and eerie sort of silence.

Then, from the left, came the trampling sound of horsehooves on the cobblestone. A chilly wind rustled in the east, bringing with it the sound of snorting nostriles and whispering voices. I turned my eyes on the east but saw nothing. My ears and my senses must have been playing tricks on me. I had gotten no sleep and my mind was dillusional. The cold wind and the sounds disappeared as quickly as they came and I sat at my spot, holding my cloak to my sides.

" Nefarious..." My name came to me on the winds, as if chanted by something not human yet not daemon at the same time. The voice was a woman's voice and I turned to face my customer.

On the distant track of the village road I saw a black horse, spitting fire and seeing flames standing just outside the village. The woman who rode such a stallion held reins of fire and a whip of thorns. Her red eyes glowed from a black featureless face surrounded by a red cloak and whispy black hair. The stallion reared, kicking fire with his hooves and pawing the air definately.

Yet I was unafraid by this spector.

" Nefarious... I come to seek your many talents." The woman's voice came to me on the wind again and she decended the small hill, heading towards me on her steed of flames.

As she entered the village the buildings burst to flames behind her stallion, emitting sreeching screams of protest as the villagers burned in the wake of the fire stallion. The red in the sky proceeded forth after her, lighting the sky as it went, yet the west remained as dark as night, the light never quite touching the stallion nor his mistress.

" You are the one who sought me through the sickly messanger." I spoke, standing to face her. The woman simply nodded, her ruby red eyes burning from beneath the cloak.

" I seek you to find the one whose name is contained on this parchment of gold." The woman spoke. She extended her small and tapered hand, handing me a glistening paper of gold. I took it carefully, afraid that I, too, would be burned much like the village behind her. " Find this named person and you shall be rewarded."

" What be your name, lady? So I may know who I serve." I spoke carefully. The woman remained silent, her stallion tossing his head restlessly.

" My name is of no importance to you. Go and seek out this named person... hurry... this village shall be burned to the ground by full sunrise, and you with it if you do not flee immediately..." The woman's steed stamped his hooves furiously and I nodded, leaving her behind quickly.

As she said, the entire village burned to the ground that day and I watched from a hill top nearby as the red morning spread across the entire sphere of earth, warning all passers that blood had been spilt on this ground in the coming of morning and the passing of night.