The Keeper of Tower and Ruin

A Simple Beginning.

The land was grey and gently rolling. No sound touched the air, save for the hesitant hush of both wind and sea. The island was tiny from first glance but as one looked deeper into the hills and valleys it grew in size. A worn track beat its way toward the center of it all. The light of the dawn touched the horizon as the first footsteps in millennia touched the shore and took to the narrow path. There were only two, both in strange graceless suits built to protect against even the inhospitable clime of space. They trudged single file into the quiet land, only the ash blue grass disturbed by their passing.

The sun was fully in the sky when they stopped for the first time; the first pulled out a strange device and began to take picture after picture. The second began to scribble notes, hands clumsily gripping a pad and pen. The object that caused their halt lay just off the path, a stone deeply scored on all sides. The leader absentmindedly shifted to the side for another picture sending the second into an almost panic. The first paused, foot hovering above the unkempt ground and carefully replaced it on the path. After a long moment, they continued forward.

By the time the sun had reached its tenth position, the pair reached the center of the Isle. The path had become increasingly interrupted by stones, each one covered in strange markings, and exceedingly tall. Similar stones scattered the landscape but the two did not leave the path. They plodded along, occasionally snapping a picture or taking a note, until the leader abruptly stopped and gasped. As the minute sound reached the air, all other sounds ceased. For one brief moment all stood silent. Then the second nudged the first in apparent query and words broke the stillness.

"There it is," The second followed the first's pointing finger and spotted the strangest thing. A girl, stood motionless far atop the central hill, dressed in ancient garb and clasping a greatsword larger than a man. The second rocked back, eyes fixed to this curious figure, and then darted forward to catch up with the first who had begun to slowly traverse the hill.

The sun was perilously close to the twelfth hour before they gasped to the top. The hill had truly been a mountain, and their way had been steep. However the sight that met their eyes atop it surely took away their breath as easily as the long climb. For the girl was no less than 7 feet tall, and to her back lay a Ruin. A Ruin that lay covered in thorns and vines, twisting over the bare ground and gently clasping both the stone and the girl in their embrace. It lay as though Time had grown tired of its presence and simply tossed the stones every which way. Some great slabs leaned drunkenly, resting on one another's dubious support, where others lay like leaves or cards, seemingly blown about by a breath. Although at first glance the Ruin seemed liable to shift with any passing breeze, a second revealed that these stones lay solid in their precarious positions. They looked as though they had sat there a thousand years, entrenched against even the largest of storms. This perception of both everlasting security and imminent destruction warred greatly in the mind of the second, as could be seen by shifting steeps and wild eyes. The first simply moved forward, respectfully nearing the girl, a girl who seemed just as immovable as the great Ruin at her back. Only the delicate tendrils of her hair had shifted in all this time. As the first drew nearer, the second, shaking, stood ever closer, but both stopped a full span from the unnaturally still girl.

Here the second slowly began to calm, eyes taking in what lay before them; for the girl was arresting in a way that is rare to find in this world. Her eyes were closed, and her shoulders relaxed, but her light brows were pulled together as if in thought. Her mouth did not frown or smile and she gripped the sword, with a hold that was neither gentle nor fierce but capable. Her hair was unbound and glinted gold in the sunlight. Her garb was simple and well worn, a tunic and pants the only things that covered her save a pair of glove divested of their fingers, and the red tipped thorns. Her hands were another thing entirely. What little of their skin the second could see was intricately wound with symbols, complex and shifting? The second made to inch forward, squinting at the girl's hands when the first prevented the movement, much like their first encounter by the rock. With a glare for the second, the first looked up at the girl and spoke again, just as the sun reached the highest point of its arc.

"Keeper, we have come..." Her eyes snapped open and a breath entered her lungs, the first in all the time they had watched. The girl's eyes were fixed on the sea, her focus so intense that the first's sentence died before its natural end. She exhaled and breathed in again, eyes scanning the horizon steadily.

"You have come for answers." Her voice was deep and resonant, rolling from her mouth like the sea. Her accent was strange but clear and her eyes had shifted to the pair of oddly garbed strangers before her.

"Yes," the second choked out, full again of fear and apprehension,

"Ye-. " The girl glared, stopping them from speaking. She evaluated them a moment more and resumed scanning the horizon, her head as perfectly still as her body.

"It is best that you sit. T'will be a long tale, and I'll not be interrupted by fidgeting." She looked again at the travelers,

"No pauses, questions, or clarifications. I have told this story too often to be kind to your ignorance." Her eyes turned shrewd,

"and I am sure they have told you what happens should you be late, or return with a tale incomplete." At this the second blanched, while the first simply nodded. She resumed her search, hands shifting minutely on the grip of her sword. The hint of a smile pulled at her mouth as she spoke.

"Then we will begin."