The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Keep - Entrance

Entrances to the different major sections of the tower were easy enough to find, but all the groups ended up inadvertently walking through the doorways of unpredictable torment tailored by the Alchemist's Guild. Beyond the doors they would find horrors that the guild's leader had intentionally released onto the tower to prevent the Prodigies from reaching the top before he could finish what he had planned since the beginning of this entire mess. He didn't need all these years of planning to go to waste.

. . .

Garvhoz and Celesta went into The Keep. It was the first major section of the Tower closest to them. Once they crossed the threshold of the door frame they found themselves in a dense and humid jungle with no door behind them.  A worn path of dark brown dirt lay before them. They heard familiar and unfamiliar sounds all around them. Various chirping, cawing, rustling, and whistling. Celesta was by far the most surprised of the sudden change in scenery. 

"What green hell is this?" The queen had immediately thrown a shield around her and Garvhoz. After a moment of gathering herself she let the shield down. Garvhoz didn't dare let his down, nor his sword poking over the top of his shield. They walked the long path forward cautiously. Celesta didn't dare take her eyes off of the path ahead fearing there might be some magic that would separate them if she did.

After a few minutes with no change in the path a new stone path came into view branching out from the left of the dirt trail. A small sign labeled "Mammalian specimen containment: Homo sapien derived samples. Garvhoz paused in front of the branching path, but couldn't comprehend what exactly he was looking at. The jungle gave way with no warning or clear boundary to cobblestone, wood, and wrought iron. It looked seamless as reality itself seem to slur its visual language to compensate for the smooth and unnoticeable transition from organic structure to artificial.

"I already don't like this place, but this might have answers about what to expect next. There has to be some kind of a reference or map to this place in there." Garvhoz grew uneasy from his own suggestion. His primal fear and caution only just gave way to logical reasoning.

"If there isn't? If there are infinite branching paths?"

"We've already failed then, haven't we? What point in staying on this path?"

"I'm afraid I can't argue with that."

As they walked down the cobblestone path to the wooden door before them Celesta placed a hand between Garvhoz's shoulder blades and turned to look behind. She felt immediate vertigo as the environs spiraled and fell in directions that weren't natural in any sense. She turned back to look at Garvhoz. His looming stature and unchanging form steadied and melted away her dizzying state.

"Don't go weak on me already, Queen. We have plenty ahead of us, even if this tower isn't infinite. I'm sure of it."

"Believe me, this isn't anywhere near my limit. Just focus on yourself, soldier."

The chamber they entered was clearly storage for a variety of things all related to the human body, but in ways they hadn't anticipated. Various fingers in jars of yellow fluid with labels ranging from "left index taken on year of maturation", to "supplementary phalanges" were the first thing that caught their eye. As they made their way towards the center of the chamber they found a desk with various leaflets, books, reports, files, and papers strewn in a chaotic order on top. One of these packets were labeled "Proposed order for The Keep subsections" with some writing underneath that read "Passed and in effect until further notice"

"This seems too easy." remarked Celesta as she started flipping through the packet. "Oh, it's purely words. Great."

"It's something. Let's get out of here. I wouldn't want to find myself in a jar labeled, 'Trespasser: Prodigy Sample #1'"

"Me neither, you'd be much too valuable for parts to be left to this guild. I would love to be able to wear your knuckles for a necklace when I reach 81."

"Thanks. That's exactly what I needed to hear." As they started walking to the door they entered from they heard a shambling and clinking cacophony behind them. A veritable behemoth of pickled, dried, grounded, and otherwise preserved appendages and extremities formed before them.

 Celesta held out her hand and said "Kip'dwə". The dismemberment giant turned to dust before them and filled the room with a violent smell of old vinegar, unwashed ass, and mildewed body hair. Celesta immediately started retching while Garvhoz barely contained the same reaction. He had smelled similar scents in the caves, but nothing of this caliber. Garvhoz grabbed Celesta by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder as he quickly stepped to the door. He made sure that his movements wouldn't lead to actual vomit on his back.

When they exited the chamber they both took deep gasps of the thick humid air from the jungle. Anything was better than the smell that had penetrated their beings. They couldn't quite catch a good rest as the rustling they heard throughout their walk became noticeably more aggressive and frequent. A large cat twice the length of Garvhoz's height pounced on the duo. Celesta didn't recover in time to protect them, but Garvhoz reacted just in time. He spun his body and clobbered the cat directly on the right side of its head with his shield. A loud audible crack and crunch sound and the cat landed heavy onto Garvhoz.

The cat was dead before it landed, but the soldier's arm and hand were numb from the force of the blow. The shield had miraculously survived the clash of tough bone and great force. Though Garvhoz was considered to be the strongest man alive at the moment, he had a fair amount of trouble pushing the large cat off of himself. He winced in pain as he slid his shield off of his arm and examined it for any sort of laceration.

The only thing he could see was bruising to a large portion of his forearm, wrist, and hand. Once Celesta had fully recovered from the smells earlier she had healed Garvhoz back into working order.

"I wouldn't call this a good start." Celesta sighed.

"I didn't say I was."

"What next?"

"We should take a moment here for you to read the map and get any relevant information you can about what that guildmember was talking about before he killed himself in that courtroom."

"Good thing I thought of that first." chuckled the queen.

"Sure. I'll just be here in case another cat shows up." he said as he rolled his eyes.

"I do greatly appreciate you volunteering. Saves me breath from ordering you to do it." Garvhoz looked back at Celesta as she stared down onto the map documents. He dared not think of words because he knew that Celesta could hear them if she chose to.