Binary

Prologue: Monoliths in the Desert

The pale rings cast a ghostly light across the sandstone maze of canyons. In the day, the desert was hot, but at night the temperature dropped sharply. A lone rider made his way hastily through the narrow canyons. At times he dismounted to lead his horse along the more treacherous parts of the path. The path was tedious, but he had made it so many times that he could travel quite quickly. It helped that he was quite small, and the narrow canyons were less of a hindrance for him.

Gradually, the canyons opened up to a clearing, and in the center of that clearing was a tall, glass tower that had been broken off before it could rise above the line of the canyons, making it difficult to detect from a distance. The clearing it sat in was deep, and the network of canyons was vast, Most people knew better to stray this far into the Garden of Stone.

The rider approached the tower, dismounting a final time and leading his steed into the lowest level of the ancient building. This floor had been made into a makeshift stable. He tethered his horse among the others, and removed it's saddle, pausing to listen to the noises coming from the floor above. There were sounds of laughter and revelry.

The saddle was heavy in his arms as he made his way to the metal room in the center of the stable. He slung it over a sawhorse, next to several others, and paused in the heat of the room. There was a warm fire sitting on its roof.

The rider made his way out and around the glass tower, where one of the glass panes that formed its walls was laying out at a 90 degree angle. The panel was on the second floor, high out of reach. There was a man sitting on the edge of it, sharpening a knife, but he paused as he saw the rider standing down below.

"Oy! Rain is that you?" called the man. The rider nodded.

"Shit, we've been wondering where you've been," said the man, and with that he kicked down a rope ladder. Rain climbed up, and the watchman helped him up the last few rungs.

"Where'd you run off to? Felix opened up the good stuff, and they're cooking up a bunch of beef right now."

"I was at the funeral," Rain said quietly. The watchman's smile dropped and he looked way.

"Oh... that was today...?"

Rain glared.

"You've known for weeks we were just talking about it yesterday!"

He stormed off. The watchman shook his head and pulled a lever on the wall. The glass panel they had been standing on raised itself up and fell flush with the others that made up the wall. It sealed into place next to them and formed a perfectly smooth seal.

The interior of the tower was a wide open floor with tents set up in lieu of private rooms. There were large wooden tables that had been set up through the center of the space, where people were setting plates and cutlery in preparation for a feast. There was a makeshift kitchen off to one side of the tables, where several people were bustling around a giant cauldron. In the center of the room was a metal shaft, which had been turned into a fireplace. The metal doors were pried open, and a fire was roaring on the roof of the metal room below. In a wooden chair in front of the fireplace sat a broad-shouldered man with his hair greased back.

Rain was small and the room was crowded, but even all the way across it the man in the chair noticed him come in.

"Rain," he called, "Haven't seen you in a bit, I was starting to think that you had run off. You almost missed my election celebration. Not very respectful to your new gang leader, don't you think?"

Rain paused and looked around the room. He steeled his nerve, tucking his hands into his pockets to stop them from shaking. He hated being the center of attention, but he owed Tyler this. It would be downright disrespectful not to say anything about it.