Tower of Desires: Preview

Prologue

Climbing is only the beginning…

(Rain)

I didn’t ever want to see the light again. No matter how beautiful it was, it always brought me bad fortune. I had lost my confidence because of that light. All because I wanted it badly…And it would never let me touch it, always teasing me, always out of reach. I was so focused on it that I forgot why I wanted it in the first place: for my sister. So she could heal and get better, so that the disease would die away from her lungs. And she would stop hacking and my heart could stop pausing at every cough that she took: every cough brought her closer to Death. I saw him lurking near my sister; forget all those cheap charms that the fortunetellers sold on every street corner. They didn’t work.

Death was near.

(Qye)

I had always questioned things. Why was the sky the color it was? How did the moon come into existence? And most important of all, what was so special about that tower? The tower that was rumored to grant any wish to whoever reached the top: anything you wanted at all. I wanted knowledge. What was so wrong about that? Novels and stories weren’t enough…I wanted to know the secret of the universe. So I could make it a better place. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. But the light caught me: it caught me bad. Like those fish in the ocean harbors that the locals caught, I squirmed helplessly in the trap. I regret the day that I ever descended that tower…

It destroyed me.

(Zula)

In my country, a woman had to get married at the age of sixteen. I was turning sixteen in one week. The only exception? You had to climb your way up to the light. But it was only one in a million that you would be accepted. But I didn’t want to live my life cooking and serving someone that I barely knew. I would fall in love by myself. Of my own free will. I promised my Eja that. My soul. And people’s Ejas never let your promises go. What did I want from the light? Now that I think about it, I wasn’t really sure…I just had to get away. That’s all I knew.

But I did fall in love…

(Derrick)

I’ve seen people be accepted and rejected from the tower all my life. I hate seeing their happiness or their sadness. The tower controls people, makes them feel emotions that they shouldn’t. You either lose sight of your vision or you’re too focused on it. You need a balance of concentration and peace to be able to reach the light. Not many people have it. And none have actually reached the light…

The secret as to why? Nobody deserves their selfish wishes to come true…

Chapter One

Acceptance and rejection

(Rain)

I was born in a place that never had rain. What irony…my parents named me Rain when our desert of a land hardly had any. But then again, my parents were ironic people. Hippies, you could say. They believed that if they named me Rain, maybe my namesake would come true. They named their daughter Water. Not that original…

My country thirsts for water and yet our prayers to the gods never come true. Jorcal, the rain goddess is supposed to grant a rainstorm every time people sacrifice a lamb. But we can’t even do that anymore: we’re desperately dry, anxious for any sign of water. I think my sister was that sign.

I don’t believe in the legend: The legend of the tower. It’s supposed to be disguised and only shows itself to people who are “seekers”. People who want to look for something and who need their desire granted badly. If they want it enough, then the tower will show itself to them. For me, this legend is just a myth, something to give young children hope. I’ve had plenty of wishes: wishes for rain, wishes for other parents. Maybe I hadn’t wanted it badly enough but it seemed pretty unfair and unjust to me.