章 6: Ivory Lighthouse
[Soul Core created…]
[Advancement complete…]
Emile opened his eyes and recognized Emma's vibrant teal eyes and light brown hair hanging in his face. Emma pulled Emile into an embrace and weeped onto his shoulder.
"What happened?" Emma begged.
"I'm not sure," Emile said, "the creature died and then vanished."
The fog had dissipated and the tower receded back beneath the sands. The strangely bright, gray sky hung overhead.
"What happened?" Emile asked.
"After I noticed you fainted I ran to your side. More of those spiders came near us, but none of them came towards me. They were all in some crazed daze, heading to the tower. You were out for awhile, maybe seven, eight hours. And the fog disappeared once the light went out, but the tower was gone before all the fog vanished." Emma explained.
"What about the spiders?"
"I don't know–" Emma shrugged, "They were gone too."
"Were you talking to me while I was out?" Emile asked.
"No? Why? Did you hear something?" Emma asked.
"Maybe? I don't really remember."
Even though they had survived the unexpected night, Emile and Emma were in the same situation as before. Where do they go?
The only new information they've gathered is that there's a tower that makes it night and attracts the spiders. After a few minutes of contemplation, Emile decided they should go to where the tower sprung from the ground.
His reasoning was that it was the only structure they had seen and that it contained life, or attracted it. What it did with those lives was a mystery, but the tower nullified the creatures it attracted so they weren't a danger.
Emma strongly refused, but with no better alternative the two youths set out towards the divot in the sand where the tower used to stand.
The ivory lighthouse was much further than Emile had anticipated and stretched much higher into the sky than they had first though. Two nights since they began their constant trudge through the white desert. Just like before, the tower emerged and the fog encompassed them. The spiders returned and ignored the two just like last time as well.
On the third day, about halfway through the day cycle, the two arrived near the pit that contained the mysterious lighthouse. Not wanting to be impaled or sent into the atmosphere, they waited a few hundred feet away until the rumbling began.
The first thing that sprung from the sand was a smooth, glossy spire. Then the top of the lighthouse broke through the sand and launched into the sky. The ivory lighthouse was unbelievably wide. It felt as though the whole tower contained the block of a street. Its surface contained etched engravings of hundreds of different symbols ranging all different sizes, smaller symbols at the top and larger ones towards the bottom.
As the rumbling subsided, the bottom of the tower finally revealed itself. Facing the ocean stood a colossal arch pitched together by two immensely large columns. The top of the arch contained some sort of mural that depicted a sun with angelic wings behind it.
As they approached the tower, they noticed that instead of it leading somewhere, some sort of film existed between the columns. An ashy colored wall permeated in the empty space, not allowing the two youths to see beyond it.
"Are we going in?" Emma asked.
Emile stopped and stared at the ashy film. The smoke within it danced between the columns, making it feel alive. Emile wanted to enter the lighthouse, he wanted to do it before any of the spiders arrived in case it was the ghastly like atop the tower that influenced them and, once entering the lighthouse, they returned to predators.
"Emile they're coming!" Emma pointed to the dark silhouettes approaching from the fog.
Emile frustratingly grabbed Emma and proceeded to the colossal gateway. He stopped inches away from the entourage of swirling smoke in the arch, but he still couldn't see past it. He looked back at the dark silhouettes, then took the last step forward.
Immediately, Emile and Emma bumped into something in front of them. Emile instinctively felt the need to apologize, but after taking a second glance he recognized the thing before him. It was the long hairy legs of one of the spiders, although this one stood three times the size compared to what Emile and Emma had seen in the desert.
Once again, however, the spider did not react. Its gaze fixed ahead at something in the distance. With a sigh of relief, Emile looked around. He and Emma were standing at the back of an increasingly long line of variant spider creatures. Some resembled the spiders found in the desert, while others were different sizes and even different colors.
This line existed inside a grand hall, its walls and ceilings the same crisp, white material that the lighthouse was crafted from. Fluorescent green candles were pitched on each of the columns supporting the hall and even more hung from identical chandeliers that littered the hall's vault ceiling.
Stepping out of line, Emile rushed towards the wall and stood behind one of the protruding columns. He peaked out and tried to see where all the spiders were going. At the end of the hall, five much smaller gateways existed. Each gateway had different symbols above it, and after observing for a bit, Emile noticed that the spiders went into the gateways in numerical order. One spider entered the first hallway, then the next entered the second and so on.
Next to these five gateways, at each corner of the grand hall, were two smaller, almost human sized paths. Of course, Emile could not read the symbols plastered above those doors, but he hadn't seen any of the dazed creatures pass through there yet.
Emile would rather have to fight something small enough to fit in the corner doors than something large enough to need the five main paths, so he carefully snuck from column to column until he eventually approached the right, corner hallway.
Him and Emma entered the hallway, which now more resembled a tunnel, and hurried towards the exit. After passing many soft, green lights, the two arrived at a real door with a polished, golden handle. Emile grabbed the handle, its smooth, cold surface sending shivers down his spine. Then he opened the door and stepped through.
Emile walked into another moderately large room with high ceilings, but this one reflected a much more human nature. Dark brown, almost black bookshelves lined two of the walls and rose to kiss the ceiling. A desk made of the same material was pushed against the wall directly in front of them and a royal blue velvet couch sat in the middle of the room paired with a glass coffee table. Everything in the room was perfectly human sized, perfectly normal. Except for the inhumanly tall bookshelves, but ladders existed for a reason.
Emma closed the door behind them as Emile went towards the desk. The desk was incredibly long and severely cluttered with an array of different things. In its center, a royal blue grimoire. Then, all around the center was a pitch black crystal ball, a jar with two bright orange eggs floating in it, and a plethora of various flasks were held together in a wooden contraption.
Emile picked up the blue grimoire and opened it. The first page contained a bulleted list read from left to right made up of more unrecognizable symbols, these however were distinctly different from the shapes etched into the outside of the ivory lighthouse.
Suddenly, the golden door knob turned and Emile and Emma both instinctively froze, terrified of who's fortress the two had invaded.
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