The Brink of Creation

Chapter 13 - The Royal Remnant

"The Sentry? This is an untainted depiction of Fortitude, my friend," The Mythspeaker informed The Scientist. "This is what he looked like before he was entrapped by The Shadow."

The Scientist threw his hands into the air. "What do you mean, entrapped? I've only been in this world for a few months. How am I looking at a statue of the friend I crossed The Brink with?"

One of the guards approached them. He, like the others outside the Spire, wore golden armor with a quartz facemask. "Follow your business, or you will be removed. You are being watched at all times.

The group made their way to the northern corner of the building, on which was fitted a brilliant bismuth staircase, and began to climb it.

The Mythspeaker glanced at the Scientist, her eyes squinted. "Fortitude was alive long ago. It was he who built Deltafront with the remains of a gemwhale, should you believe the tale. How can he have been your friend?"

The Paladin looked around helplessly with her blood-red eyes as she was led by her friends. "Can you tell me where we are? I see only mists. They dash to and fro like waves disappearing into the seashore."

The Destroyer looked up into the spire to describe it to her. "Well, Paladin, we're in the most prominent building of the Capitol of the World of Light. Underneath our feet are bismuth steps which lead up, up, up, stretching further towards the sky than I can see. The bismuth has this sort of rainbow glint to it, which is not quite on the surface, but glows intimately underneath it. There're torches lighting up the inside of the spire and on both sides of us as we ascend the stair. They're on fire with a hue I've never seen before, almost a flickering indigo, but brighter than that. They're how I might imagine the stars may have been, once. The whole place reminds me of The Visionary's Tower with how cold and rich it feels."

The Paladin coughed on a stray hair as it draped onto her tongue. "Who is The Visionary?"

Her words turned The Scientist's attention towards her. "Milady, The Visionary is our dear friend and a heartfelt brother. He was taken many months ago, before we crossed into this world, by some voidlike force. My soul aches to see him again."

"It seems that he was a good friend. Why don't I remember him?"

The Scientist hid a tear back into his eye. "I don't know, milady. I don't know."

The second floor of the spire was lined with various markets and traders' joy-makers. The Some passed by a forge and anvil set up near the corner of the spire. It was still warm from a hard morn's toil.

The Mythspeaker pressed The Scientist more earnestly, raising her voice as they began to mingle with crowds of humans, Selenites, and guards. "How did you cross the Brink with Fortitude?"

"The Sentry is his name," The Scientist tried to listen for her voice as they made their way to the next set of stairs. "He is a sentient Golem marked with the same numeral that statue had. That's how I know they are one and the same."

"Do you think he was approached by Fortitude in the Brink, like The Paladin encountered Selflessness? Do the Gods watch the Brink, somehow?" The Mythspeaker scratched an itch underneath her plate. The crowds made her want to tear her skin off.

There was a singular man dressed in fine linens across the way to the next staircase. His comically long and wiry mustache peered from his silk facemask and drooped down to one side, grazing upon the wood splinters of a two-sided display box he had roped around his shoulders. His voice rang out, sing-song through the chatter of the go-byers.

"Ketchums! My lovely dears, would you like some ketchums?"

The Destroyer suddenly started a bit. "Hey, you!"