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376. Searching for a Tower
🕑 Added 2025-04-28 14:00:18 +0000 UTCBack to the place Scar had led him first. As expected, when Ike twisted the knob (casually breaking the low-Rank lock in the progress), the only thing on the other side was a dusty storeroom. He turned, then leaped up, running across the rooftops toward the center of town.
“Ike, wait—” Scar sighed, then raced after him. “You know people hate it when other people run on the rooftops. It’s such an obnoxious sound, to just suddenly hear someone go tmp-tmp-tmp over the rooftops.”
“That’s other people’s problem,” Ike said.
Scar sighed aloud.
“You should learn to fly, like the superior me,” Mag offered, swooping by overhead.
“Don’t you start with ‘superior.’ I get enough of that shit from the little one with too many legs.”
“Hey! Who’re you saying has too many legs? I’ve already told you, not only do I have the proper number of legs, but humans have more appendages!” Wisp protested from his shoulder.
Scar looked around. “Where… I thought I heard Wisp, but…”
“Yeah, she’s here. She’s a spider, remember?” Ike prompted.
“I thought she was a big spider,” Scar murmured, half to herself.
“I can be a small spider or a big spider. I have many sizes and shapes,” Wisp bragged.
“Right, right,” Scar said, nodding slowly. “I forget how much body variability beasts have. It almost makes you wonder if we’re the weird ones.”
“Does it?” Ike asked, thinking of all the weird things he’d seen Wisp and Mag do throughout their time together. He wasn’t sure he could match up to either one of their weird, let alone someone as normal as Scar.
She nodded. “All beasts, by Tier 3, have at least three forms: a base animal form, a base human form, and a monstrous animal form. But humans only have one human form. If we practice for ages, or follow a particular technique, we might be able to obtain a second form, but a third form is almost unheard of. Meanwhile, most spirits also have two forms at the minimum—like mountain spirits, for example—and monsters like dragons who are born with mage rank eventually gain a human form. We’re the only ones who only have one body.”
“Yeah, but we’re so numerous they’re all taking human forms to blend in with us. Maybe if they were more numerous, we’d have to take second forms to blend in with them, but since we outnumber them, we don’t have to worry about it. Think of it like this: we don’t need to waste our energy and time on developing a second form, because we’re the dominant species. It’s an advantage, not a disadvantage.”
Scar frowned thoughtfully, thinking.
“Ooooh, an advantage, huh. It sounds like someone’s coping with the fact that they’ll never have more than one form,” Wisp mocked him from his shoulder. “What, you jealous? You jealous that we don’t have your advantage? Pathetic. Typical human behavior, through and through.”
“I’m not coping,” Ike said. He smacked his shoulder, knowing full well Wisp could weather the blow.
“That’s what someone who’s coping would say,” Wisp returned from atop his head, having completely dodged his smack. She turned to Scar. “Listen, this guy’s just jealous of our overwhelming might. Disadvantage? We’re born with weapons and inborn techniques that humans have to spend years learning, if you pathetic beings can learn them at all. Hmph. Ridiculous, calling being human an advantage. You want to try having a real advantage, try being a spider.”
Scar chuckled. “You make a convincing argument.”
“See? You can see reality. Ike’s over here in human land, going on about natural human advantages, like you humans always do. You naked pink upright piggies with no claws, no fangs, and not even any fur. What kind of advantage is that, huh? Human centric hecking humans.” Ike couldn’t see her, but he knew she was shaking her head to go along with the tongue click he could hear.
“If we aren’t human centric, who’s going to be?” Ike asked hypothetically.
“You make a good point, advantage-lacker,” Wisp replied.
He sighed deeply. “I’m going to hear about this forever, aren’t I.”
“Only as long as it amuses me,” Wisp said with unusual honesty.
“Humans aren’t pigs. We’re closer to apes,” Scar offered.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Wisp muttered.
“Don’t engage her. She’s already in the filth, you’ll just get dirty,” Ike warned Scar. “And speaking of piggies, who’s the one who never shuts up about eating this and that and everything?”
“Pigs aren’t the only animals with voracious appetites. You should know,” Wisp shot back.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“I don’t have to make sense.”
“I think you do.”
Scar laughed. “You two are such good friends.”
“Is this what friendship looks like?” Ike asked in exasperation.
Scar nodded. “Yep.”
“Can I opt out?”
Wisp giggled on his head. “Nope.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Ike shook his head. Up ahead, a tower loomed over the town. He dashed up to it, then climbed up its walls, slotting his fingertips into miniscule slots in the bricks to haul himself upward. It would have been unthinkable to climb this way as a mere mortal, using fingertips alone to lift his whole weight, but now, it was trivial, barely worth mentioning. Ike marveled at his newfound strength even as he climbed higher. It was crazy, the things he could accomplish now. If the younger him could see him now, he wouldn’t believe the things Ike could do.
I’m strong enough that if I met my uncle again, it wouldn’t even be a fight. I’d be able to kill him with my pinky finger, without thinking. It was insane that that man had posed such a threat to him for so long, that he’d struggled to imagine a world without that impenetrable wall looming constantly over him. And now… now his uncle was less than nothing.
Crazy.
Ike mounted the top of the tower and looked out over the city. A distant white building, up high on the city’s heights, caught his eye. Big and square, it encapsulated a big garden courtyard, and had the same large picture windows. “There,” Ike murmured, then leaped off the tower. If he was a betting man, he’d bet that part was still connected to the Tower. And if it was still connected, then he had a chance to follow it back.
It was time. He had to strike while the fire was hot. If he gave Brightbriar any longer, he’d lose all initiative, and be tossed around by Brightbriar entirely.
Before Brightbriar expected him to, while he still had everything in the palm of his hand, he was going to fight as hard as he could.
Brightbriar had had long enough to run off with his mad plans. Ike was done. He was done with the bullshit, the subterfuge, the secrets and double-crossings. He didn’t care about ‘those who opposed Llewyn,’ or Rosamund, or anything else; he was just tired of Brightbriar fucking around with him and his life. He wasn’t the kind to solve puzzles and scurry around in the dark. He was going to bull right through, and beat Brightbriar to death, simply and straightforwardly destroying all these complicated nonsense plans.
It was time to end this.
