Amphira guides me over to the door, face covered by a shadow that shouldn't be there.
"Are you going to miss any of it?" She asks when we're about halfway, far enough that no one else can hear, but I can still feel them watching.
"I'll be dead, so I won't feel anything." Even though it's dark, there's still a spark somehow. That if I too become like Dad, I won't care anymore, everything will be gone.
Amphira doesn't reply, she stares at the ground as we make our way to the door. She's taking a lot longer than she should, and I'm barely matching her pace.
The door looks a lot taller up close, definitely bigger than the small shed that the second task ended up being housed in. It's worn with rot, it definitely hasn't been used in a while, or even been taken care of. This is a forgotten place. A place to be avoided.
There's a container nestled by the door, resembling plastic, yet more sophisticated. If this was any other time I'd inquire about what it was, so we could get some for the submarine. But the dread silences me, the feeling that I'm not on the edge, but already falling, and there's nothing to hold onto, even if I throw my arms out, even if I claw at the open air.
Amphira flicks a dial on the container and the top pops open. She glances inside, and then beckons me over.
Inside the box, there are swords. Real, sharp swords that could kill.
Is she going to kill me? Are we going to duel? Is this the actual challenge, and is the tower just an extravagant prop?
But instead, she selects the sharpest sword and hands it to me. "You'll need this, maybe." she says. "Depending on what the tower throws at you."
"What do you mean?"
She's still looking into the box, as if its depths hold the secrets to life itself, instead of just pointy metal. "The swords or the tower?"
Both, but I decide to pick just one, the bigger issue, the concern that's more immense. "The tower."
"The tower is a strange thing, it was here before we got to the settlement, before we built anything, just sitting carved in a cavern. We eventually smoothed the walls and added a cover, but otherwise, the tower has been here, long before us."
"So?"
"The thing is, the tower is not just a tower. It almost seems to be alive. Very few have survived it, but each of their accounts describe different things, different obstacles, both puzzles and traps. So I'm giving you the sword just in case you need it for anything, because it's very possible that you will."
This is messing with my mind, with my perception of reality. Towers should not have a consciousness. They should be monsters of stone, but still, unmoving, predictable, consistent. This defies what Dad has instilled in me, he would have probably collapsed at Amphira's explanation. But I'm not him, at least not in some ways. I have to be ready, and not let his opinions cloud my thoughts. I have to focus. I have to be present, in the moment, in order to survive.
"Interesting. Is it time now?"
My body is reacting strangely in all sorts of ways, going cold and hot, wanting to never move but to also run away. It erases me, erases everything until I am just fear and desire, the fear of the tower and death, the desire to get the disk fragment. They war with each other in my head, screaming and scraping against my skull.
"It is. I'm sorry you have to do this, if I could have just given you the Pluto fragment, I would."
"I understand." I don't fully, but I pretend to, because that's all I can muster.
YOU ARE READING
Beneath These Waves
FantasíaDell's sister Cal has always been the announcer of tiny disasters, so when she says that something is wrong with their father, Dell thinks nothing of it. But it's not nothing. Because their father is dead. After the short but difficult task of mo...
