Gold that Glitters

We ran into the room weapons raised and the swarm leaped after us. Chum was right though- it worked just like the safe room door and the monsters were smashed against the invisible barrier separating the occupied classrooms from the hallways.

This classroom had its walls washed white, as with its ceilings, and the floors were of a lighter wood than the rest of the Tower. In the center of the classroom, amidst the desks and chairs, there was a large pool, like a hot-tub, made of a marble-looking stone. The lights above shone upon the water inside it and it looked like a pool of light. There was still the blackboard with the time on it- 47:11:43- and a closed supply cabinet. The theme of the Tower as a whole was clashing with the theme of this classroom, so that it seemed like this was both a marble hall with a divining pool in its circle and a low-budget high-school at the same time, each aesthetic clashing with the other and diminishing it.

"Could be something hiding in pool," Hannah said. She approached it cautiously with her blade pointing ahead of her in a high stance, me and Artemis behind her. I had the book open on the icicle spell, but I had gotten into the habit of casting flame ward on myself every time it was about to lapse. I wasn't going to get burned again. As we got to within about ten feet of the pool, the surface broke and a body rose up from its depths, and we all jumped, moving into battle positions right after we got over the surprise.

But what sat up in the pool did not seem threatening. It was a man that I could only describe as beautiful. He had pale green skin, foam white shoulder-length hair and a fit, lithe body with visible pecs and abs. His eyes were emerald green and he threw his hair back in a shampoo-commercial Fibonacci spiral as he sat back down in the tub and smiled at us.

"Greetings, travelers. I have treasure, if you have coin," he said and laughed at his own canned line. "Who are you, where are we, what is going on?" Artemis said, without pause. "Darling, I am your humble servant Morgan Monroe, you are inside my shop, and I am trying my very best to sell you my wares," Morgan said. "Do you know how you got here?" I said. "Ahaha, it seems to have slipped my mind. There I was, minding my business in a forest valley, frolicking about, and now I seem to be out here, extremely intent to sell you things," he said. "Don't you think that's weird?" Hannah said. "Oh, baby, I take life as it comes. Floating down with the stream is the only way to live," Morgan said. "What do you sell?" I said. "You mean aside from the waters of my pool?" he said. "Forest nymph bathwater? No thanks," Hannah said. "I mean, how much-" Artemis said. "No." Hannah said. "Let me see what I have underneath," he said and dove back into the pool with a flip. "What? It's probably magical," Artemis said. "It's gross," Hannah said.

Morgan returned not a minute later with an armful of wares. He plopped it all out on a nearby desk, then retrieved a gleaming golden sword and threw it back into the water, saying "I don't think that one's yours."

The wares he laid out were packages wrapped in kelp and sealed bottles of shapes and sizes from an eye-drop vial to a carry-on suitcase.

"Delicacies of the Faerie realms, wines, fruit and tinctures. Potions and cordials. If you are weary, I have been told that my massages are inimitable as well, and I have nothing but time," Morgan said.

We walked near by the desk and looked over the stuff he'd brought. Hannah saw the mana elixir first, and bought it with several golden coins to Morgan's delight. The rest of it mostly looked like food and wine. Our supplies would run low eventually, but we had all eaten back in the safe room. It didn't seem like a priority. Besides, while I didn't think it would apply to wares sold and bought with coin, I couldn't get out of my head the memory of faerie food being dangerous to eat, leaving the mortal that ate it in the service of the fae.

"Well, thanks. I think that's all that we need. If there's nothing else we should probably move on," I said. Then, I felt a tugging at my pants and saw that Chum was pulling at them to get my attention. So I leaned down and he whispered in my ear: "Push him on how he got here. Trust me."

"Actually, it's good to see a friendly face in this hostile land," I said, turning back to Morgan, "Could you tell me where you came from?" "Oh, I'm sure it would be ever so dull to you, especially since you wouldn't be able to see its beauty through my words," he said. "It must be a wonderful place if it produced an individual as pleasant as yourself. Tell me about your days in this valley," I said. "You flatter me, sir, but what can I tell you besides what I have told you already?" He said. "Thrice I ask and answer, where did you come from?" I said. I had taken the line from a half-remembered fantasy book, but when I spoke it I felt it come out with a rumbling power not unlike that which I infused in my spells. "N-no, I cannot- But I must- No, what of- You are what you are- Why does it- Ow, ah fuck ouch," he said. He thrashed in his pool and the light reflected from above was met by a darkness coming from beneath and the pool no longer looked like a pool of light, but a tempestuous storm in a bathtub. He turned right and spoke one line, then turned left and spoke as if in response. He grew increasingly erratic and furious and we raised our weapons once more, and finally, he screamed and jumped out of the pool, just as tree-trunk thick tentacles lashed out from the depths to grasp him.

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"You must help me. I have been taken here against my will. Oh, Queen, I do not have much time," he said.

The tentacles were still thrashing in the pool, and the whole room was darkened by a sourceless gloom. The naked man in front of me was looking up, pleading, and at the same time his visage was losing the confusion and coming into focus, realizing some horror and finding determination to overcome it all at once.

"What can I do?" I said. "I- but no, you're new here, you must be," Morgan said, "Listen, I don't have much time. You will find people like me across the Tower. I did not come here by my will, and I am not acting with it. There is a way for us all to be free once more, but you have to go through this hell to get to the other side." "Morgan, listen to me, who did this to you?" Artemis said. "He- no, I dare not speak his name- he is a man of immense power. Two generations ago our Queen lead us into the multiverse through her magic and ingenuity. We prospered, were liked by our neighbors. He came to us, bearing ill tidings, foul winds on the air. A vision of apocalypse. Even if we trusted him, we couldn't help, and our Queen sent him away. He went. He did not come back. But instead, a spell was cast upon our realm, and we were stuck into a glass vessel, no larger than a span of raven's wings. Ever were there paths and shafts to go down, but never did they lead anywhere but back to our valley," Morgan said. "You said if we went through hell we could help you. How?" I said. "Walk the path of the spellcrafter. He is mighty, but his spells each hold but a mote of his power. Do not complete the Tower, but gain enough knowledge and power from it to crack the glass without. That was what our Queen was planning to do, before he came to collect the crop of our realm; my generation," Morgan said.

The tentacles were now seeking, thrusting out into the room, seeking to find what they would devour. They were like the tentacles of an octopus, but massive and black and with teeth within the suckers. They coiled and I could have sworn they sniffed the air.

"What kind of a monster would do this? To your people, to us?" Hannah said. "A man who has transcended morality. His insight into the workings of the multiverse is so deep that souls of thinking creatures seem like valves and gears in a cosmic clock to him. Do not think him insane. Remember this if nothing else: do not think him insane" Morgan said. "What is going to happen to you?" I asked. "There is nothing you can do. The Deep One Below will find me and pull me back down. Then It will breach my mind once more and make me forget. But it does not take who I am, but only steals the context of what has been done to me. When you next see me, remember both who I am and what I have been through, but do not make me go through this once more. I would rather forget. Forget until you come through and save me," he said. "There must be something you can give us. Some hint about who he is and what I should learn to defeat his Tower," I said. "He has a nation of apprentices, hundreds of millions across the stars. His failures and most promising successes he sent here. They all have to start over again, there hasn't been enough time in this plane for magic to mature enough that they may cast their most powerful spells. Seek his students and tear knowledge from them, for they will not give it willingly. Magics of space and thought- conjuration and summoning- will lead you to a better understanding of the Tower, but never forget that you are learning within his parameters," He said. "Tell us how to defeat his first challenge," Hannah said.

"Alright, you will need to- no! No, not yet, no, stay away stay aw-" a tentacle finally found him and twisted all about him within less than a second. He thrashed against the overwhelming force, but there was nothing for him to struggle against, nothing to hold on to as his arms and hands were grabbed and pressed against his body. We did not have the time to react enough to grab him, or even to follow his words, before his body was dragged down into the pool and the lights once more switched to bright white.

"This fucking place," Artemis said. She moved away from the pool. We all did. We stood there breathing for a while, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but after a minute we relaxed.

"That's a lot of new information, though," I said. "Yeah, a man did it. We were right all along," Artemis said. "What?" I said. "A joke! It's a joke," Artemis said. "I thought it was funny," Hannah said, perfectly deadpan, "One man, not too alien to have gender, super powerful." "Evil," I said. "Yeah, I don't buy that 'above morality' shit, when you use your power to make people do things against their will, that's what evil is," Artemis said. "So what is the point, you kidnap entire species, make one into NPCs, give another quests and levels, is it some kind of a fucked up kink or something?" I said. "The point is to make heroes. That's always the point of a demiplane of heroism," Chum said. "I thought you couldn't talk about that," I said. "You have all the information, I can help you put it together," Chum said. "Apocalypse," Hannah said. "You think that's not just an excuse?" Artemis said. "I mean, even if it isn't, couldn't he just ask for volunteers? I bet a billion people on Earth would have volunteered to come here just for the chance to cast magic and fight monsters," I said. "It probably has something to do with time. Chronomancy has weird limits that even the man downstairs cannot bypass, especially on universal scale," Chum said. "So it's just faster to scoop a few cities into the Tower than it is to run a quick survey?" I said. "I really doubt it's random. I don't know why you're here, but there has to be a reason. Or maybe the whole Earth is in here, space is weird in these places," Chum said. "I still don't get it. If the point is to make heroes, what does he expect, that we will join his team once we're out of here? I think I'd rather die," Artemis said. "Maybe ask one of his students. They should know more," Chum said. "Wait, Kalax the Vile, I bet he was one of those," I said. "Fuck. You're right. So Oz trained the man who killed all of my friends," Hannah said. "Oz? Oh, right, man behind the curtain," I said, "Well, at least he had the decency to brand him a Vile Incompetent." "Look, this is important, and not something we should ignore, but we sure as shit have a higher priority right now. People are dying, we have to help them," Artemis said, and she was right.

It was time once more to breach the hallways and try not to get killed.

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