The Chained Watcher

Backstory: Privacy (pt1)

So sometimes I get an idea for these things, and I just... start writing.  And then I finish and it's like, where did it all come from? Because I swear this chunk of backstory was shorter in my head. Should I have been working on the next present day scene? Yes, probably. But I made this instead, so... enjoy!

Oh, also, I'm breaking this up into a couple chunks cause it's 13k words long. Inspiration is a fickle friend...

~~~

Holding the paper fan gingerly, the Watcher carefully folded it and went to set it in a drawer. Or at least, that's what he would like to do.

The fan in question is one he just finished enchanting with a wind element, and now threatened to throw everything in his workroom into disarray if moved even the slightest bit too fast. He opened the nearest drawer, but it was... very full. And full of fragile things, too. No matter, the next drawer should have some room.

Ooooorrrr not. This drawer is stuffed full of sensitive enchanted items too. He could have sworn there was still room there for one or two more things... Looking around the room, he takes in the sheer quantity of magic items cluttering up the space.

Yeah... he might be out of room. Sure, the privacy enchantments on his room are personalized and keep any unwanted visitors out, but he can always remake them. Besides, he outgrew this level of workspace several Tiers ago, but just hadn't bothered to get his own place when he could just improve his current one.

But where would he go? Most already made places big enough to store his projects are either private retreats or compounds, and he'd need to either kick out the previous owner or run the compound if he chose one of those. Making his own, while an option, was more effort than he really wanted to put into something. He'd need to think about architecture, layout, aesthetics, and more, or pay someone else to do it for him.

He decided to indulge in a common pastime of his, wrapping an invisibility spell around himself and wandering down the halls of the compound he'd neglected to move out of. Technically, he was the highest Tier living in this particular compound, but he'd made it very clear that he had no interest in participating in the management of it.

The Watcher who actually is in charge, apart from a few ruffled feathers, mostly tolerates his presence here. It's not like they can kick him out, and his habit of wandering around while invisible keeps the lower Tiers alert, lest they be caught slacking.

He doesn't even need to say anything or show himself, since weighting one's gaze comes easily to Watchers, as does sensing gazes settled upon one's self.

Meandering his way through the identical-looking hallways of the fortress, he listened to the idle conversations of the lower Tiers as they gossipped. Most of their topics were things he had expected. This Watcher was feuding with that Watcher, that one base got raided by Listeners, etc.

One of those normal, "you wouldn't believe who died!" conversations caught his attention. It's been a while, but the Watcher they were talking about was one that had paid him several rare resources to set up protective enchantments around their private retreat. A private retreat that, as they had apparently died, was currently unoccupied.

Dredging through his memories, he recalled that the retreat was quite spacious, though some redecorating would most likely be required. Their sense for aesthetics was not the most refined, and clashed quite strongly with his own. Yes, that should do nicely.

~~~

As expected, the retreat's decorations looked horrendous, though he could deal with that easily enough. Too many depictions of violence and gore for his tastes.