The Fractured Tower

“What the fuck am I looking at?” Yoru asked, aghast at the pile of bodies in front of him.

“The one with the missing hand and leg is the Sildfall patriarch,” Vendis said. “I believe the others are—”

“I damn well know who they are! Why are they dead? Why are they here?”

The bodies weren’t that old, either—certainly less than a day. The tower didn’t keep corpses around any longer than that, though if there was a spot it was technically possible, it’d be a portal hub with its constant stream of traffic helping anchor the man-made changes to the environment.

“Perhaps the local traders could offer some insight as to what’s going on,” Vendis suggested.

“Killed by someone with a sword,” Yoru murmured to himself as he inspected the injuries that had led to either instant death or fatal bleed out. “One guess who.”

“It seems unwise to speculate, sir.”

Sorin had already gotten into one fight with the Sildfalls back on Floor 0. It wasn’t hard to picture him showing up here at the Floor 3 hub looking for Nemari, who was supposed to be waiting for Yoru to return, and finding a bunch of her family looking for her, too. They would immediately jump him, of course, if for no other reason than revenge.

And the result of that was apparently a completely one-sided slaughter. Yoru would have found it hard to believe if he hadn’t seen Sorin fight up close. As it was, the massacre just served as evidence that the perplexing man had indeed survived the void eruption on Floor 4. Yoru hadn’t been sure what to think one way or another, but he’d decided the first thing to do was report back to his father.

He hadn’t been surprised to be ordered to hold while the Telpike family head did some investigations of his own, nor that he’d eventually been sent back out to reestablish contact if possible.

It was too much to hope he’d just be waiting for me with Nemari, but I at least expected her to still be here. I suppose she probably fled into the desert when her family showed up. Presumably, they haven’t managed to find her, else they’d have no reason to maintain a presence here. And then what happened? Sorin showed up, realized what was going on, and decided to address the problem.

The real question is whether he’s still on this floor. Or did he collect his wayward teammate and return to Floor 4. That’s what the focus of our questions should be.

He had with him a powerful rank 13 retainer named Kashi, but he was under strict orders from Yoru’s father to serve as a deterrent against other climbers and to save Yoru’s life only as a last resort. The shame of needing to be rescued against monsters or environmental hazards would have been unbearable, but it still beat dying.

Unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t rely on Kashi’s help interrogating local merchants or climbers, at least not directly. Having a powerful shadow following him along would help him plenty as long as Yoru was clever about it.

And, despite the professional demeanor of his father’s vassal, there was the fact that he’d known Kashi his whole life. Kashi was practically Yoru’s uncle, albeit on less friendly terms than real family would be. If he really needed help, he was sure he could count on the man’s discreet assistance.

“Right. Let’s go see what people have to say about this whole mess. Somehow, I foresee my coin purse becoming considerably lighter in my near future,” Yoru said with a pained sigh. He did not miss Kashi’s brief smirk before the retired climber schooled his expression into careful neutrality.

* * *

Sorin stepped out through Liminal Gateway and appeared on the mountain above the portal hub. It took all of a second to confirm that the bloodstains were gone, which really wasn’t a surprise. The tower cleaned up, even here where there was a constant stream of climbers and merchants coming through.

A few minutes of walking showed the pile of bodies still sitting in a heap at the foot of the mountain. There was also a deep rut in the sand from people walking over to view the scene, and even now, two people were standing there gesticulating wildly as they argued.

Sorin took a trail down the east side of the bluff to reach ground level, where he quickly noted a familiar face inside a nearby building. It’s about time I had a good surprise!

Yoru was standing there next to Vendis and a third person Sorin didn’t recognize. There was another climber—a woman—behind a counter, and unless Sorin very much missed his guess, a small pile of coins between them. It wasn’t hard to guess what was happening there. Sorin had indeed attracted some attention, and luckily, it came from exactly the guy he’d been looking for.

As he approached the building, the mysterious third stranger shifted to look in his direction, then leaned in like he was whispering something to Yoru. Sorin was still forty feet away, and even though the place was made with canvas walls instead of wood, he was still impressed to be spotted from so far out.

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Yoru’s head snapped up, and he scooped the coins back up off the counter. Ignoring the shopkeeper’s protests, he led his team out through a flap pinned back to stand in front of Sorin. “So, there you are.”

“Here I am,” Sorin said, inclining his head.

“Why couldn’t you be here yesterday? Do you know how much money you’d have saved me trying to find out what was going on?”

Sorin started laughing. “Sorry? I’m sure your pocketbook will survive that traumatic experience.”

“You’d think, but these bastard merchants angle for every danir they can pry out of my fingers while giving me basically nothing to work with.”

Yoru and Vendis were known entities, and Sorin was confident they were both still rank 4 before they even got close enough for him to tell. The third person was a different story. He was older, maybe in his late thirties or early forties, with the lean, well-toned build of a professional climber, and he wore a brace of throwing knives across his chest. A quiver of arrows hung from a belt at his waist, and an extremely expensive-looking bow was strapped to his back.

Interesting. Don’t see too many bow users at the lower ranks.

Disposable ammunition wasn’t good for more than a day-trip, not unless the archer brought a prohibitive amount. That was both expensive to produce and difficult to carry, though there were ways around those issues. It was far easier to just learn an elemental attack soulprint if someone wanted ranged options, though, which made physical ranged climbers a rarity.

Man-hunters, on the other hand, frequently favored powerful ambush weapons like bows. The exorbitant costs of enchanted ammunition were outweighed by the high bounties they claimed with them. It made Sorin wonder what exactly the man was doing following Yoru around.

The fact that he was rank 13 was another red flag. It wouldn’t be enough to defeat Sorin, but it was a big enough threat that he was afraid someone was planning on trying. He studied the man calmly, but whoever he was, his body language gave away none of his intentions.

“Who’s your new friend?” Sorin asked, deciding to go with bluntness.

“Kashi,” Yoru said. “One of my father’s retainers from his climbing days. He’s here to help me find you.”

“Mission accomplished,” Kashi said softly, his lips twisting into a small smirk as he gave a shallow bow.

“Did you manage to reach the rest of your team when… you know…?” Yoru asked.

Sorin nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave Kashi’s. “They’re with Nemari somewhere on this floor. They missed our rendezvous, probably because her family’s been hassling her again.”

It was with obvious effort that Yoru didn’t turn to look at the pile of bodies a few hundred feet away. “Then I suppose we ought to collect them as soon as reasonably possible so we can get on with our business.”

“I’d love to, but when I said ‘somewhere on this floor,’ I wasn’t trying to be vague. That’s as accurate as I can be about their exact location at the moment. I was hoping to find them here today, and if not, then I was just going to keep coming back and checking regularly.”

“That’s… not a terrible plan,” Yoru said. “I think we might be able to do better, though. Kashi, would you mind?”

“It’s not exactly what I’m here for,” Kashi said slowly.

“The faster we find the rest of the team, the faster we can get back home.”

“Speaking of that, can I assume the deal is still on?” Sorin asked.

“At least to the point where my father wants to meet with you to discuss the details of a future alliance personally,” Yoru told him. “I can’t promise anything beyond that.”

“That’s more or less what we were expecting, anyway,” Sorin said. “The only real surprise is the bounty hunter following you around.”

“He’s not a—” Yoru started to say.

“Technically, I’m retired,” Kashi spoke over him.

Yoru spun to face him. “Wait, what?”

“It’s not like we advertised the fact,” the bounty hunter told his charge.

“I’ve known you for twenty years!”

“He figured it out in twenty seconds.”

Sputtering, Yoru looked back and forth between Sorin and Kashi. Finally, he threw his hands up in defeat. “Anyway! Help us find the other three people on Sorin’s team so we can get everyone back home.”

“Not really sure that’s possible, kiddo,” Kashi said.

“Oh, don’t give me that line. We both know you can.”

“I usually have a bit more to start with than ‘somewhere in the desert,’ and besides, a desert is absolutely the worst fucking environment for trying to find people who want to hide.”

“Eh,” Sorin said. “Underwater floors are worse.”

“Fuuuuck. Yeah, they are. I don’t do contracts on floors with that much water.”

Sorin wasn’t super interested in trying to track his team across the floor, but a rank 13 bounty hunter who specialized in finding people probably would make the whole process significantly faster. So far, Kashi had shown no signs of hostility, and Sorin was provisionally willing to believe Yoru’s father had sent him along to keep Yoru out of trouble and help find Sorin.

That didn’t mean he’d let down his guard, but then again, that was always going to be true regardless of whether Kashi was present. There was plenty of danger outside the conversation he was having, and Sorin wasn’t yet to the point where he could stomp it like a bug.

“We can go visit the last place I saw them,” Sorin offered. “Maybe you’ll pick something up that’ll point us in the right direction. If not, we’ll come back here and keep waiting. They’re going to come back sooner or later.”

They’d have to, if for no other reason than to resupply. On any other floor, it was possible they’d just scavenge and hunt, but Floor 3 had the worst possible terrain for that. They had access to water, but Sorin couldn’t imagine them subsisting on monster meat indefinitely. It wouldn’t even surprise him to see Rue sneaking into town to pick up some supplies right now.

He swept his eyes down the streets, just in case thinking of her had summoned the girl, but of course Sorin was never that lucky. He’d still do his lap around the portal hub, just to be sure, but he wasn’t expecting to find them here. Running into Yoru had probably used up the rest of his luck allotment for the month, anyway.

Heaving a great, dramatic sigh, Kashi scowled at Yoru. “You know this isn’t what your dad had in mind when he asked me to come with you. But fine! Fine! How far out are we going?”

Yoru smiled back at the older man, doing his best to keep his twitching lips from bursting into laughter. Sorin was less reserved and started chuckling. “God, I’ve dealt with that same thing so many times. Don’t worry, Kashi, it’s a quick walk. We just won’t mention it to your boss.”

Still grumbling, Kashi beckoned for them to lead on.