《Mundinem》


 Ch 1: A Strange House

    The thunder of battle resonates as a man clad head to toe in platinum armour is eclipsed by a cloud of red sand, raised and then thrown from a ground shaking explosion a great distance in front of him. Surrounded by the upturned debris, he had just barely regained his footing when a shadow rushes low to the ground and to his side with intent, hidden by the thick veil of dust just barely beginning to settle. Though, the visage''s attempt is in failure as the man notices in time and swings his sword in a rising arc, staining his blade black and stopping the figure dead in its tracks.


    The man takes a moment to rest as the particles of sand fill the air and limits his breathing, though it is short lived. The ground is shaken once again, not by an explosion but by something heavy landing in front of him, re-stirring the dust and keeping the man''s vision impaired. The force of the impact violently pushes the air out of the man''s lungs before he could pull up his shield to block and not giving him a moment to spare, a large blade, almost the size of him, slices through the curtains of dust to cleave the man''s head from his shoulders. It seems his fate is sealed, the air in his lungs gone, his footing lost, and his death is fastly approaching.


    Neither his shield or sword is close enough to block, but, in the split second that he has to react the man tilts his body in the direction of the swing, causing the blade to deflect off his shoulder guard, but hook his helmet, ripping the latches and sending it disappearing into the rippling wall of dust. He rises quickly, not a moment to ponder the closeness of his death, his long brown hair thrashed about and his face of fair complexion stung by the turbulent wind and accompanying debris, though through the rough sands his eyes remain focused, sharp as daggers and darker than obsidian.


    The same man wakes up with a jolt, the thump of his heart hammering away fills his ears. His body is tense for battle but all that lay in front of him are a ceiling and wall of stitched leather. His eyes are tired and unlike the memory a red ring sits in the middle of the iris, neither touching the sides though emanating a faint glow. Eventually he sits up and pinches the bridge of his nose, the effect of which seems to calm his heart and body, his muscles relax, his breathing regulates, and when he opens his eyes we see that the rings are reduced to mere dots, like red stars standing alone in the night sky.


    His body now calm, he spends little time deliberating the memory and casually starts his day. Without much of a pause he stands up from his bed and onto a wooden floor that creaks with age. After doing something akin to a morning routine (stretching and the such), he walks over to a bucket of water on a stool that acts like a sink, and his shield, dented flat and then attached to a lone pillar, that acts like a mirror.


    The room itself doesn''t have any solid walls, but instead large patches of leather are stitched together and stretched across four wide pillars and the rafters. There are no candles or lamps either, instead, the leather is thin enough to allow light to come through, illuminating the room with the ambient light from outside. Said room also has little in the way of furniture and decoration, on one wall is his bed and the makeshift sink, on the opposite end is a large chest, and a closet, from where he pulls out and dresses for the day. He dons long pants, a long sleeved button shirt, and a vest, and then tops it all off with slip on leather shoes. All in all he would be rather fashionable if not for the general tatteredness of the clothes, their colours are dull and lost and small patches of sewing show the attempt to keep it all together.


    After cleaning up and getting dressed he walks over to the centrepiece of the room, a desk carved out of a grey stone whose inside is a pearly white, not well mind you, either from not caring or lacking craftsmanship the table is covered in hard edges and angles, with only a thin wooden finish at the top to act as a level surface. The rest of the stone is about as tall as the man and half as wide and reaches further past the wall, its back hidden by the leather nailed to it. under the table and at either side, drawers of mismatching size, shape, and make, lay matching the poor craftsmanship of the table quite well.


    Pulling the chair aside he does not sit but instead begins searching for something. He sifts through an ocean of parchments that extend onto the rest of the stone like a mighty wave hitting a cliff. Written all over the front and back of the parchments are lengthy paragraphs of cursive and tall textbook calculations that seem to use every centimetre of available space.


    Finally he finds what he''s looking for, a small booklet meant to be carried around with a stick of charcoal wrapped in cloth strung to the books back. he reaches for it with speed and in doing so accidentally knocks a jar over the edge of the table, though he thankfully grabs it moment before it hits the ground. After breathing a sigh he raises the jar up to eye level to check if its contents are harmed, those contents being an eye, slightly bigger than normal and with a dilated pupil submerged in a clear liquid and held in place by metal wires pressed upon the inside of an air tight jar.


    Thankfully the eye is unharmed and he places it back on the table. But, as he goes back to grab the booklet the desk has changed back into the mess it was moments ago, all of the papers are disorganized and the booklet is again buried under, though this change does not seem to bother the man very much and now that he knows were the booklet is he uncovers and grabs it with little fuss. Pocketing the book he walks through a cut in the leather opposite the desk.


    Pushing the leather aside he is greeted by a long hall with a high ceiling, on the left of him two more cuts in the leather lead to rooms unknown with the latter in the middle and much taller. At the end of the left wall an avalanche of boxes lay in a dip and are sectioned off with chalk. To his right there is another cut in the leather which sits close to the corner and very out of the way, the rest of the right wall of the hall is full of cupboards and drawers that reach the end and rise to also fill the top, supported by the skeleton of a partially completed wall. Finally and in the middle span three picnic tables surrounded by an unorganized mess. like a string of islands left stranded by a turbulent sea. Finally, sprinkled on some of the flat surface are those jarred eyes, staring blankly at the sea of everything and yet nothing in particular, all at once, all the time. Through these high waves of boxes and debris and the blank gazes of the eyes the man successfully navigates his way to the right wall where in between the long line of countertops the makings of a kitchen can be gleaned.


    After reaching the kitchen he pushes aside enough of the items to create an island where he could walk comfortably and he dons on a patchwork leather apron that was most likely part of the wall at some point. In Front of him are various cooking tools, not the best but manageable. From the cupboards underneath he pulls forth teethy potatoes, spiralling carrots, navy blue onions, writhing parsley, and a completely normal white radish. And then, for a lack of a better term, he un-dements them promptly.


    He first stabs the parsley with a knife to stop it from wiggling away and lets it bleed out on the side. While that is happening he peels the onion carefully to not pop its ink sacks and after removing the first layer it reveals itself to be a normal white onion. Placing the scarps in a special box he grabs a pair of pliers to pull out the many teeth''s of the potato, and then he rolls the carrots flat with a rolling pin. finally he puts back the white radish after much consideration deciding that it wouldn''t work well with his recipe.


    That recipe being a stew, the exciting part, the meat, which he pulled out of a drawer and unraps. Thankfully it is not much different then what normal meat looks like, but it seems to be of a lower quality, with little fat along its sides. After removing the raping''s from under it he pulls out his knife from the now very dead parsley and hovers it at around one third of the total cut of meat as he considers how much to add. He deliberates this for a ten seconds or so and decides after looking behind him at the first smaller cut in the leather out of the two, to cut the large slab of meat in half, and then into cubes.


    Now with all the ingredients ready he begins cooking, he brings out a skillet and a pot and places them on a copper coil, where with a switch they begin to heat up from an energy hidden within the mechanism. As the coils turn red and heat up the air around them, the man fills the pot with water from a barrel and takes out a small amount of fat to melt on the skillet and use as grease for the meat. Placing them carefully on the heat he lets them cook for more than a minute on each side, though he doesn''t get far in his cooking when through the cut in the leather he looked at moments ago a figure russells forth.


    A small child stumbles into the hall, no older than seven, with pale skin, white messy hair, and red jewelled eyes that he is in the midst of rubbing from just waking up. He is wearing an off-white shirt which is a few sizes too big for him, and a pair of dark blue shorts that reach to below his knees. He doesn''t say anything as he walks to the middle table of the three, pushing bits and bumping bobs along the way. The man hears the sound behind him and without turning to face the child, he greets,


    "Good morning Elio! How did you sleep?" he says in a chipper tone, but Elio as he is called doesn''t answer, instead he climbs onto the bench and slumps his head on the table, still very much drowsy from just waking up. The man seeing Elio on the edge of going back to sleep says,


    "I see, well don''t nap for too long, breakfast will be ready in a moment, but fi-'''' he is cut off as he is turning to his left and sees Elio attentive with a bowl in his hand, the cupboard from where it was brought from still in the midst of closing. There was no sound of Elio rushing to the man''s side, as if he had just appeared, but the man isn''t bothered by this in the slightest and it seems to be a normal occurrence for him. Without missing a beat he grabs the bowl from Elio''s hand and tells him,


    "But first, wash up!". Elio does as commanded and navigates to his room as quickly as possible. A minute later he comes back, hairs brushed, face clean, and hands washed, ready to start the day. But Elio doesn''t get far from his room when the mans asks,


    "And your bed?" in an inquisitive tone. Elio stops and circles back around to his room with a rush in his step. At the same time the man had just put everything together and now has to wait a few hours for it to simmer, but he doesn''t wait, instead he takes a pot lid and places and removes it from the pot in quick succession. Every time a new result would burst forth, black smoke, steam, nothing at all, and everything in between, all until he removes the pot lid to reveal a stew cooked to perfection, turning a multi hour long task to barely a minute, and a very well timed minute as well, as moments later Elio walks out of his room having done his bed,


    "Finally, clear the table" the man says as he pours both their servings. Elio does so with gusto and hops on the bench to clear the table by pushing the items off either side, creating a waterfall of metal, wood, and leather. Eventually enough has been placed aside that the man can place both bowls down. He says as he sits at the table with Elio.


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    "Now, be careful Elio, the stew is hot-..." the man stops as he notices that right on the cusp of finishing his sentence Elio had scooped the largest cube of meat into his mouth and is currently regretting it. He spits it back out as quickly as he ate it and the man stands up to bring a cup of water for Elio and a cloth to clean up the mess. Talking along the way, "you could have at least waited for me to finish my sentence".


    After cooling the food Elio takes a spoonful, and this time is actually able to enjoy it, and enjoy it he does, smiling from ear to ear he begins downright shovelling the stew into his face, thankfully limited by the size of the spoon, the man on the other hand takes a more savoury approach but seems dissatisfied about something, he comments after tasting the meat,


    "Could have done with some flour..." to which Elio perks up and momentarily pauses his meal, he doesn''t say anything but tilts his head to communicate interest to what the man said, and he elaborates,


    "Oh i must have not told you, umm, let me remember...flour... was like a white powder you get from grinding up a plant, and it can be used to make stuff like bread, and help make a thicker stew" as he talks he spins the spoon around in the stew and it is as he implies, watery, not only that but the meat isn''t staying together and fray easily when pressed with any amount of force. Though Elio doesn''t seem to mind at all, and goes back to scarfing the rest of his stew after the man is finished talking, the man seeing as Elio is enjoying his meal, decides he should do the same, and he goes to grab another spoonful,


    "I guess it''s not that bad, anyways make sure to eat up, we have a lot to do today so your going to need a lot...of....energy" as the man was talking Elio had already finished his bowl and was waiting patiently for the man to end his sentence to then slide his bowl across the table to him for a second serving,


    "I''ll give you points for waiting for me to finish but we''re not on a time limit" Elio nods as the man stands up and pours another serving for Elio.


    After having a hearty meal Elio is standing at attention as the man says their chores for the day, he opens his little notebook were on the first page is a list of chores, and reading the first he says with a heavy heart and a deep sigh,


    "*sigh* The first thing is organizing" to which Elio also copies the man''s movements with a sigh of his own, their tasks, in a somewhat literal sense, surrounding them with dread. Though, seeing as both of them don''t wish to organize the hall the man suggests,


    "How about we do another chore instead, i mean, we still need to do it eventually, so what''s wrong with moving the list around..." he says and Elio agrees, as such he reads the next chore on the list, "gardening?" he asks and Elio excitedly nods, he confirms,


    "Gardening it is!!" and they both get ready by wearing gloves and leather aprons and walk through the cut in the leather on the right side of the hall, (the one with all the cupboards and the kitchen, close to the corner). They enter into a greenhouse and are greeted by a great deal of dark and gloomy greenery, graciously spread from plot to plot and growing with glee. The room itself is shorter than the hall but wider to compensate, averaging the same volume. One long continuous table hugs along the walls, only stopping at the door that they entered from and another to its right side. The centrepiece of this room is a large willow tree, its bark is a deep purple colour, its leaves tipped in red and shaped like an arrow, its roots strike deep into a plot of red sand and further beyond, raising some of the planks of the floor up and bending others.


    "Alright, you know the drill! I got the herbs, you got the vegetables'''' the man declares. Elio nods and they grab baskets and set off to work, the man to the table to his direct left, and Elio to the table right in front of him and past the other door on the right wall. Elio is the quickest to start his work, he jumps onto a preplaced stool and sets off collecting the plants of various plot, he first pulls out a potato, small and green, it is still not rip but otherwise it looks normal, on the surface, Elio doesn''t trust the colour and looks closer at it to see small bumps from which the teeth would form. Seeing as they haven''t popped out yet Elio sets the potato back into its plot and checks the next and so on.


    The man on the other hand has to be much more thorough, not only do the various herbs react and move out of the way, but they also lash out in response to being cut. As such the man has to take his time, and he aims for the herbs that are fully grown, and have lost their young spirit. Other than fighting plants, he also checks the metal bearings that hold their plots down and stops them from uprooting themselves and leaving, as well as general maintenance.


    The work is long but not arguise, and a good two hours pass before they are both finished collecting and planting in their respective fields. Elio places his last and third basket of vegetables on a table that sits in front of the willow tree, as the man finishes up planting seeds behind him. After stepping down from a box, placed to help him reach the tall tables, he looks up at the great big willow tree, and notices through the thick leaves a small fig like fruit hidden within. Excitedly he brings the man''s attention to it,


    "Really? About time", he says, and then walks up to the tree, pushing aside its sharp leaves to pull the fruit out, when he does so the tree shudders slightly in response but otherwise doesn''t seem to fight back. Bringing the fruit closer he uses a small knife to make an incision, and then squeeze it, causing an eye to plop out onto his gloved hand, not only that but the eye itself is incomplete, more elliptical, with the lens still not firmly stuck in place. As the man observes closer the eye keeps sloshing around in his hand and eventually the tethers that hold the lens breaks, causing the fluid of the eye to spill out and the man to cup his hand to contain it,


    "Hmmm...not ripe yet, it still needs time. Elio can you check how many pins we have" he asks, and then throws the gel-like fluid as well as the now drained eye into a compost bin. In the meantime Elio rushes past the tree to a plot of plants with a cupboard underneath. Opening them up he is greeted by more of those eyes in jars, their pupils shuddering from suddenly being exposed to light. He counts them quickly and then rushes back to the man who is checking the tree for more of the eye bearing fruits. Elio communicate his findings by raising his hands up with two fingers in one hand and three in the other, the man reads them in a questioning tone to make sure,


    "Twenty three?" Elio nods, "I see, well then, there''s nothing to worry about, the tree is probably going to take a month before the eyes are ripe, maybe two but even so the stock will last us way past that point. Anyways, let''s put the baskets away", and they move them into the hall where they are organized in the kitchen cupboard.


    A lot of time has passed when they were finally done with the gardening. The man guesses via the thin shadows cast by the light that comes through the leather that it is close, if not already high noon. With the hall still a mess and time not permitting he looks at Elio who does the same and says,


    "Tomorrow" while pointing at the mess, Elio nods and the man says again, "tomorrow it is! Well then, we still got half the day ahead of us so i might as well do some work outside, and-" the man looks down to see Elio waiting excitedly for something, the man obliges,


    "And of course, as a reward for a hard day of work, you get the rest of the day on the tower", after hearing those magic words Elio practically launches himself to his room to get ready, swiftly moving across the obstacles along the way, the man doing the same. He walks back to his room and to his desk where he sifts through the many papers, and begins compiling some into a folder and his booklet, along the way stumbling onto an old golden pocket watch. The man is surprised and concerned to find the watch sitting on the table and as swift as wind he grabs it and places it into the inner right pocket of his vest commenting,


    "That was close, I almost forgot you", then finishes up compiling the papers. He leaves his room and walks to the other side of the hall where another cut in the leather leads outside. Next to it he pulls from a coat rack a belt with many compartments, latches, and lengths of rope, similar to climbing equipment. At the same time the man is wearing the belt, Elio runs back into the hall, now wearing a thick oversized dark blue gambeson (a jacket knights would wear under their armour). The collar is big enough that even folded up it still covers Elio''s mouth, the jacket is low enough to cover Elio''s knees, and the sleeves are folded many times which create the illusion of wrist bracers.


    Still, Elio moves in the jacket with surprising ease and little hinderinse, as if the jacket isn''t there to begin with, and he runs to the large cut in the leather that sits a good distance away from his door and on the same wall. He attaches the leather to either side of some exposed pillars to reveal a circular room, and the biggest one yet.


    From just after the door and leading onwards a pair of tracks meet an elevator contraption square in the middle of the tower, directly around the elevator isn''t much but hugging the walls, or more accurately propping them up, is a truly monstrous amount of scaffolding. Up and down, without much rime or reason, and slapped on as an afterthought. The stupendous amount of planks extend up the tower as if a drunk spider was commanded to make a web by an equally tipsy engineer. Not only that but somehow they found enough space and structural stability to create a staircase that spirals up the side of the tower. Thankfully, it seems that the stability of the tower is saved by an enormous pillar of ashen black stone that, similar to the white stone in the man''s room, stands half in the tower, and the other half outside. To it the scaffolding connects, and acts like the back bone of the entire structure.


    After taking in the inside of the tower Elio rushes off to the elevator that sits on the floor, though he doesn''t climb on just yet, instead he places a foot on a metal seesaw mechanism that is in the elevator, and his hands on a handrail above it which is separated from the rest, after adjusting his footing he places his entire weight on the seesaw pushing a sleigh; of which Elio is holding the rail of; up and then down onto the track, removing an odd holding contraption with it.


    He brings the sleigh all the way back along the track were on the inside of the tower and next to the door a large stockpiles of quivers filled to the brim with sharpened metal rods, as black as the night, and as tall as Elio, stack wide and low like logs. As you can imagine lifting one of these quivers would be rather tuff on Elio but thankfully the man was already on his way to help, and he grabs the quiver and places it on the sleigh where it is held with the bolts aimed forward and tilted up. Elio thanks the man and then pushes the sleigh back to the elevator were it ramps off of the metal sheet seesaw, (as it hasn''t flipped back) and into the elevator platform with a *click*.


    Now with a quiver loaded into the elevator Elio climbs one the platform and reaches for a lever to send himself up, when he is cut of by the man beckoning to him,


    "Wait a second!!" he runs to the elevator, "you forgot your gloves again" the man hands Elio the gloves in question, and as he puts them on he begins rattling off warnings to Elio,


    "Now then, keep your hands in the elevator at all times, make sure to check around you in a consistent manner, don''t leave the tower open if your coming down, even for a refill-" Elio puts his hands up to stop the man from talking further and rattling his ear off as he had heard these warnings dozens of times before. The man complies,


    "Well if you get it I''ll stop" Elio nods and then pulls the lever to send the elevator up. Ropes tighten, gears move, and the sound of machinery bounces along the many scaffoldings until it is but a muffled hum, Elio is slowly taken higher and higher on the caged elevator, along the the way the man says,


    "STAY SAFE, AND HAVE FUN" to which Elio pops his hands out of a clearing in the scaffolding to give a thumbs up and then quickly retract it. The man stays standing at the base of the elevator shaft, watching Elio rise ever higher, and waiting for a counterweight to come down and stop a foot off the ground, signifying that Elio made it all the way up safely, only then does he leave the tower. In the hall he finishes gearing up. he replaces the slip on leather shoes with thick boots that have jagged metal soles, an old velvet coat, or so it seems, as it doesn''t look like it has been cleaned in the last decade, finally he check the belts compartment and places the booklet and file in one that sits in the back, and he takes a step into the outside.

 ch 2 : Tall Towers, Towering Walls

    The man takes a step outside, his feet sinking slightly into a path of familler red sand ladened with the heavy footprint of his boots. No animal or plant greets him, no hill, valley, landmark, or item sits anywhere in the distance. Only a flat field of pitch black and sharp gravelly ground surrounds the trail on both sides, each stone as thin as a needle and as sharp as a dagger, some of which trickle along the path and are crushed like glass by the iron soles of the man''s boots. A grim stillness fills the land, only a weak breeze to move it. A ghastly silence¡¯s grip is broken only by muffled steps and the occasional cracking of stone under his heel. If only to fill the dead air around him, the man begins to hum a tune to himself, a marching tune.


    More than ten minutes pass, and suddenly the breeze becomes stronger, picking up some of the sand from the path and scattering it into the field of black gravel, where they coat their blades in red and disappear in between their edges. He doesn''t pay the ominous visual much mind as something more important lay in front of him. Rising from a small pile of red sand brought by the wind, is a massive wall of a deep and dark purple, that casts no shadow on him but yet blankets him in darkness. There, a lone rope rises along its smooth surface, held down by pitons that are drilled deep into the wall, and kept taut by an anchor buried in sand. To the rope the man attaches the latches from his belt, and he begins to climb the wall.


    With a heavy *clack* The elevator comes to a rest at the top of the tower, only to be surrounded by partial darkness. For some reason the leather here is thicker, leaving only distant slits of light that slip through thin gaps where the walls separate. Even with the strands of day peering through it is still very difficult to see anything, and so Elio grabs a pin, (the jar with an eye in them), that was sitting on the elevator and shakes it violently, causing the eye within to glow a faint green, just barely enough light to see whats infront of him.


    With the pin as his guide he navigates over multiple tripping hazards and along a faint line of chalk to make his way to a large pillar of wood, reinforced many times over with metal rings. To the piller, dozens of manual winches are bolted on, with a mix of chains and ropes running up into the ceiling of the tower, or down into the floor. Either way it is very difficult to try and trace ropes to their purpose when you can''t see them, and so Elio doesn''t bother. Instead, with the pin in one hand, he tests the winches by spinning their hand cranks just barely, and listening to the response.


    Testing one low to the ground, Elio can hear the sound of metal on metal under him, testing another, the sound of metal on wood near him, another the sound of a chain becoming taut above him. Each test of a hand crank causes the sound of a different mechanism to reveal where they generally are, and yet, not a single one proves to be what Elio is looking for. Until finally he finds the right one, on the very last winch he didnt test.


    Spinning the hand crank slightly causes rays of light to burst forth from under four walls before plunging him back into darkness. Rather annoyed, Elio drops the pin and spins the crank as fast as possible. Once again rays of light come bursting through from under all four of the walls and it slowly grows until the room is basked in light and the walls, like curtains, sit folded at the top. Elio looks out to the world now open to him, a slow breeze and, even though the shadows cast by the sun tell of noon, the color of the sky is of a blood red dawn.


    Now with the curtains gone the inside of the tower can more easily be seen. As inferred from before, the top of the tower is a fairly large roofed square, in the middle of which lies a railway turntable (a circular platform with a rail track that can turn), that connects two of the four tracks that each run off in a cardinal direction. On the southern track, is where the elevator sits, ending up off center at the top of the tower, and implying the structure to be leaning. Finally, the pillar where Elio turned the hand crank to raise the curtains also acts as one of the four pillars holding up the roof, as well as the point where most of the hidden elements of the tower meet. The other three only holding one-to-two winches each.


    Elio runs to the sleigh and pulls it to the middle of the turntable, where he then pulls a lever off to the side of the elevator. After a seconds pause, the turntable spins slowly, filling the tower with the low rumble of gears. As it spins Elio hops onto it and runs along the circumference, not to anywhere, but just to enjoy moving with and against the turntables turning, and pass the time as it does so. Eventually the turntable automatically comes to a rest after turning a full one hundred and eighty degrees, and Elio pushes the now spun sleigh all the way to the end of the track, where standing just before the edge and looking over the great expanse is a complexe ballista, ordained by elegant engravings.


    Starting on the oval base, four deep curved cuts move with the ballista, before turning to all convene where the body meets the base. From there a masterful web of crossing lines snare the attention as they run along the length of the rectangular body and all the way to the bow. Where the lines end as soft and curving grooves that mirror the beautiful arch of the bow, and the two pairs of tension hands that sit atop and below it. The ballista is also filled with complexe machinery, all of which connect to multiple hand cranks and levers only an arms reach away from the chair. With all the elements in mind, the ballista looks out of place from everything around it, being of better craftsmanship and polished to a knife''s edge, and such contrasting heavily with the rest of the house, tower included.


    Elio pushes the sleigh into the back of the ballista where it slots in perfectly and the hand rail presses on the back of the seat, the arm that holds the quiver full of ballista bolts becoming parallel with the body of the ballista. He climbs onto the chair with the help of some thick leather back books and stays standing to be level with all the levers and handcranks around him, and after making himself comfortable, begins to load up a shot. He spins a hand crank to the right of the ballistas body, where a thin chain runs back and forth along multiple wheels, each one lowering the strength needed to pull back the string of the bow from monumental, to so low that even Elio can tension it. The chain pulls a metal slate where all the ropes attach too, though the tension hands above and below remain slack. The ballista signifies it is fully loaded by the audible *clink* of the metal slate locking in place, afterwhich Elio pulls a lever to his left, to cause the hand that holds the quiver to move above the ballista, and a hooked gear to rise out and grab one of the bolts forward, after which, Elio pulls the lever again, returning the hand and gear as they were and allowing the bolt to slide along the flight groove and into the embrace of the metal slate.


    With the ballista now loaded, Elio has to find a target, he looks through a telescope attached to a mechanical arm and scans the sky for any movement, and it doesn''t take him long to find one. A monster flys alone with hunger in its eyes, its skin is a dull and sickly gray with no feathers to hide it except for a tuft on its head that has long since lost its luster. Its bat-like wings are damaged and paperthin, and its maw is filled with black rotting teeth that overlap, making it unable to close its maw fully. Lastly, eyes of different sizes and pupils are scattered unequally along its head and body, some of which are empty sockets, others damaged.


    At the site of such a monstrous creature Elio is illated. He flips a reticle onto the telescope and then aims it up with a notch on the end of the ballista. With a different set of hand cranks he aims the ballista carefully, and then waits. He becomes focused, his red eyes training in on the target, he spins a hand crank ever so slightly to move the ballista higher and then checks again, estimating the distance of the creature via notches in the reticle, all for the perfect shot.


    Eventually, Elio pulls the firing lever, and the metal slate is released, sending the bolt flying as a thin layer of dust is kicked up by the force. The bolt zips through the air with little deviation, as such even with its many eyes it notices the small black dot fastly approaching to be a bolt far too late, and in its attempt to change its direction it is thoroughly skewered, through the rib cage and stopping two inches out the back. The sheer force of the bolt hitting it causes it to stop dead in its tracks and with the pressure the bolt is putting on the spine it can''t control its descent and flails desperately as it falls. It crashes into the gravel with as much grace as a bag of bricks into molasses, its hollow bones shattering under the concussive force, its flesh ripped and rendered by the gravel''s hundred blades. Somehow, the beast survives the crash, but as it rolls over to try and get up, its body is pierced even more, and soon all its blood drains into the ground, leaving the corpse to rest on a bed of nails.


    Elio sees this horror up close through a telescope, and then celebrates when it hits the ground, quickly reaching for the topmost book that is sitting next to him and flipping close to the end, were half of the lined page are filled with the big, bold, and messy tallys, describing the creature and the shots it took to kill it. He takes a thin piece of chalk and writes on a new line, ¡®normal, 1-1¡¯ and quickly puts the book back with new dots closing in on the horizon, all to meet a gravelly end.


    On the wall the man is still climbing ever higher, though the surface has changed greatly since then. Circles and shapes with runic designs are drawn with chalk and connected by thick lines that navigate deep cracks in the wall that at times create indents and caved in surfaces. In Fact with the varying depths and many ledges the man has ample footing and at times enough space to walk, and he no longer has to rely on the rope to climb. At one of these ledges the man stops in front of a blank wall where a ruin once sat, and after whipping away the remnant chalk dust, checks his booklet and begins to draw a new rune.


    Each line is straight and exact, every angle accurate and to the point, and every circle perfect, his hand moves with such precision that one would think it was being guided, but a simple look around shows that it is in fact skill, practiced to the point of perfection. He finishes up the rune by connecting it with the web of others around it, and after checking the booklet again he begins to climbs higher to fill out another space, but as he is climbing he hears a faint whistling behind him, just barely noticing it because of a pause in the breeze, and he turns to see the thin line of a ballista bolt hitting a flying speck, (one of the creatures) dropping it, and in the far distance the tower that it was shot from, and the house they live in, that used to live as well.


    The main hall is nesselled within the unmistakable remnants of an ashen black ribcage, its incomplete arches acting as extra support to their house, with the doors leading to the rest of the rooms existing in between the ribs. Most of the rest of the skeleton is gone, the skull and lower half (pelvis and legs) are nowhere to be seen, and the right arm has been rotted away, leaving only shards. Its left arm on the other hand has impressively stayed intact, and is propped up and kept standing by a rusted metal bracelet attached to enormous chains, each link as big as a person, and anchored to the ground by nails. The hand is then covered by scaffolding and leather and used as the very tower Elio is currently on.


    Similarly to the red sand path, their house is surrounded by the black gravel and nothing of note, but from his vantage point high up on the wall he can see that it does eventually come to an end. A cliff face rises sharply from the ground and surrounds the field in a perfect circle, keeping them caged within a pit, kilometers wide. On the cliff a desert of red sand melts with the red sky as it stretches into the horizon, from its dunes broken pillars of black rise in the hundreds, with their jagged ends pointing in various directions up above. But even in the rolling hills and massive pillars nothing moves except for the sand slowly trickling down the cliff into the pit, creating dust clouds that quickly settle into a barely moving pile that hugs the walls and disappear into the many spaces in between the gravel.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The wind suddenly picks up after a prolonged lull, bringing a gust of sand with it as well, he turns to shield his eyes and in doing so sees in the far west a castle, broken, and left to rot. Its gates once ordained in glistening iron now rusted and chipped away by the wind, its walls are cracked and broken, with sand quickly filling every nook and cranny. its once mighty towers lay flat and half buried in the sand or fallen into the castle. causing deep scars, all but one, rising from the middle of the castle and shrouded in a haze, the tallest towers still standing, the flag that it used to fly, lost, the banners that stood at its side shredded by time, their symbols long gone. The man stays staring at the castle, looking for any movement, the opening of a window, the sprint from shadow to shadow, but he only sees the sand move form the wind, and nothing more.


    Eventually the wind calms and the man begins his climb again, this time moving to the left, where he turns a corner to work on another rune, and the wall is revealed to be a piller, one of three that from a triangle, indecipherably tall as it is impossibly wide. It sits at the center of the pit, a massive and imposing construct that stands defiant of its own weight. It looms over the world, taller than the tower Elio is on, taller than the cliff, and even taller than the castle on said cliff, and just as wide, so that anywhere you may be for miles upon miles, it will be there as well, standing ominously in the distance. But even something as monolithic as this isn''t immortal. On one side of the triangle, deep cracks reach just before its highest point, and just below the middle, causing that entire section to bend inwards into the triangle. There the man works tirelessly, drawing runes on scars of ages long past.


    At the tower Elio is looking all round for another target, and as the flying creatures contrast heavily in the red sky he doesn''t need a telescope to see them. Coming from the east with the ballista facing north (away form the monolithic triangle) Elio notices two dots approaching, and with no other targets in the distance, Elio quickly hops off the ballista and rushes to the side where he kicks the brakes and the ballista begins to slide along the rail track. He puts his all into pulling the ballista along, at first with difficulty, but as it gains momentum, then with ease, and soon the low hum of iron wheels on the tracks fills the halls. He accompanies the ballista to stop it in the middle of the turntable, and with the pull of a lever the tower is once again filled with the low rumble of gears, this time accompanied by a few creaks complaining about the weight of the ballista.


    He waits for the rail track to spin into place, keeping tabs on the sky and the two dots slowly getting closer, when he notices one end of the track coming into view from behind him and it takes a good few seconds for his mistake to register. Realizing that he pulled the lever the wrong way and that the turntable is turning clockwise, (away form the targets), he pushes the lever straight to stop the turning and then right to turn it counter clockwise and correct his mistake, though in his panic, he was far to brash. Unlike when it is in row with the outer track it doesn''t stop completely, and before its momentum can disappear the gears begin to spin in the opposite direction and slam the turntable with a thunderous sound that shakes the tower. Elio thinks that he might have broken the turntable only for it to suddenly run as smoothly as usual, and he decides to metaphorically slide his mistake ¡®under the rug¡¯.


    He sheepishly pushes the ballista along where just before the edge it stops from brakes within the track, he then kicks the lock back on and loads up the ballista, his targets taking his focus away from his mistake with worrying speed. Looking through the telescope he gets a clearer picture of the two, and finds them mostly the same as the ones before, but that they are also bickering and seemingly racing forth to get to the tower first, oblivious to what awaits them. With the creatures in range Elio doesn''t have to wait and fires two shots, one after the other, meanwhile the targets are still fighting to get to the tower first, one of them flies above the other to strike it with its beak, only to find it far back trying to breath with a bolt rung through its neck, and before it can process the danger another bolt rams perfectly through its skull, killing it instantly, and causing it to glide, brain dead, to the ground, where its friend soon joins him.


    On the side of the triangle the man checks away at his small booklet in an extremely caved in part of the pillar, deep enough to walk into, and seemingly where all the cracks originate. A collection of many items such as a small barrel of water, rope, pitons, and other conveniences fill the cave, so that he wouldn''t need to return to the house if he ran out of any of them. But he doesn''t need any this time, and after checking off the last item on his booklet he instead packs up everything in the cave and begins his descent, removing the pitons and ropes that he had used to climb up the pillar along the way. It takes a while for him to get back down, and by the time he does the sun is beginning to set behind the castle''s one and only tower, casting a shadow into the crater that lines up all too well with the center of the triangle. In the east, night blankets the sands in darkness slowly seeps into the crater, even while the sun still faces it, the shadows creep and crawl ever closer, eager to rule its half of the day. The length of rope and bag of pitons weigh heavy on his shoulders but doesn''t seem to bother him as it should, instead it only deepens the footprints he makes as he walks, the sky above him remaining the same shade of red even as he reaches their home.


    Elio fires his last shot as the sun begins to set, and he sadly has to close up the tower. He puts the sleigh back, retrieves the pin, and climbs onto the elevator where with the pull of a lever he is sent back down. While wheels creek with age and the elevator lowers, Elio looks up as he always does to see the underside of the tower, were from the back of the giants hand an untold number of gears, ropes and chains facilitate its many conveniences, and is surrounded by the several inch thick rusty wrist brace that is bolted on to the palm and forearm.


    He stares at the conglomeration of gears, having memorized their placement by heart from all the times he passed it, though with never enough time to stay and figure out what they do as a wooden platform of many levels that is used to access the underside of the palm blocks the view when the elevator passes it. He decides to lie down as he descends, and he can see how the hand bends in an unnatural way, how the tips of its fingers are gone, and how the staircase spirals up to meet it. veiled by the monstruos web of scaffolding, it becomes noticeable only after he has passed it where the underside of the steps become visible.


    It too is then covered as he pases through the gap in the giant''s forearms and sees how the surface layer has been chipped away by nails and bolts to reveal the bone white inside. While he''s resting he begins to feel drowsy from all the work and fun he had today, but is shaken out of his sleep when the elevator comes to an abrupt halt on the ground. Rising from the sudden stop he is still a bit drowsy, and considers whether to go back to sleep on the elevator, besides, the view looking up is nothing to scoff at. But when he smells the scent of food being made in the hall he becomes wide awake, for rest can wait, but food comes first. He grabs the empty quiver of the sleigh and runs into the hall where he sees the man working away at their next meal. He greets Elio without turning around.


    ¡°Welcome back, dinner will be ready in a moment¡± to which Elio drops the empty quiver into a pile of more empty quivers and snakes his way to the middle table to sit down,


    ¡°So, how was the ballista? Did the wyvern ghouls give you any trouble?¡± to which Elio puts one hand over the other in an X, before quickly remembering the incident with the turntable, and he ends up making a less confident X instead,


    ¡°Is that sooo?¡± the man says with suspicion in his voice, having somehow guessed what Elio was thinking about without looking back still, of course Elio denies it, and the man lets it go but with lasting comment,


    ¡°Well whatever you did I''ll fix it tomorrow when we organize and clean the house¡±, and they both give a prolonged sigh after the man talks. Elio protests, but the man reluctantly reaffirms,


    ¡°I''m sorry Elio, but we''ve put it off for long enough! And there''s literally nothing else on the list we can do¡±, Elio slumps in his chair while he hears this, but not for long, as the man turns around to show what he has been cooking this entire time. Baked potato, detoothed obviselly, and filled with the leftover stew. Elio slides back up in anticipation but before giving him his food the man says,


    ¡°And how are you going to eat with the jacket covering your mouth?¡± Elio realizes that he hadn''t taken off his jacket and rushes to his room to return it as well as the gloves, in the meanwhile the man sets the food down and waits. Elio comes back out but before he can reach the tabel the man says,


    ¡°And wash your hands¡±, and so Elio has to run back again. By the time he comes back to sits back down at the table, the food has cooled enough to be eaten without Elio burning his tongue. of course, if the man tried telling Elio to wait it wouldn''t have worked, he probably wouldn''t be able to finish his sentence, and so instead he gave him stuff to do, and so Elio enjoys his warm but not burning hot dinner, none the wiser. After dinner and a long day the man finishes up cleaning the dishes only to find Elio in the process of dozing off. He walks over and says,


    ¡°You know, you can go to sleep right, you don''t need to stay awake so late¡± but Elio resists the man''s offer and tries to fight the urge to sleep, and what a fierce battle it is. Both the gardening and the ballista have drained a lot of his energy, and the surprise attack from the potato has him barely holding on. though he forgot one thing, the man, who lifts Elio up and carries him to his bed. The first thing of note as the man walks into Elios room is that all over the floor are toys that seem to be made by Elio with premade wooden pieces that have been taken apart and put back together in many different ways, some the man didn''t even now could work. Directly in front of the door is a shorter sink and mirror, and to its left a small table, carved from the humerus (bicep bone) and made to look like the man''s desk, with a wave of parchments with pencil drawings slapped haphazardly on the wall above it and two small boxes either side to act like the mans drawer. Also, the humerus runs along one side of the room and is covered in chalk drawings where the black outer layer hasn''t chipped away. On the other side of the wall are Elios drawer of clothes, the jacket thrown atop it, and bed, on which he sets the still ¡®fighting¡¯ Elio into, whose last act is a weak flail before he is taken by the sleep forces.


    The man quickly navigates out of the room before he breaks out laughing, and after he recollects himself, he is surrounded by darkness as the sun sinks past the horizon. The man doesn''t fret though and he reaches for a pin whose placement he memorized to violently shake, not only causing the eye to glow, but every eye within line of sight to react and glow as well. With The pins as his guide he finds and lights a candle that produces a far brighter light and he brings it to his room and places it on his desk (probably one of the neck bones of the giant). Sitting down, he pulls from one of the drawers a leather back book that has been ravaged by time and stitched back together just as many times, infact as the man pulls it out he notices the leather beginning to fray again, but he leaves it for later as he clears the papers and places the book down.


    Opening to the first page reveals it to be a record book, but with only one recorded sentence written on there, ¡®all is normal¡¯, repeated again and again, on every line, on every page, the dates that used to accompany them blanked out, and at one point they stop being written. The man keeps flipping along, the book, probably holding somewhere in the hundreds of pages, each with more the fifty lines each, all covered in the same sentence, over and over again, until, at the latter half of the book, he find a page with a line still free, and so he writes,


    ¡®All is normal¡¯

 ch 3: along the gravel pit

    The next morning arrives with the monumental task of organizing, cleaning, and maintaining the house, all of which ends up taking the entire day to accomplish even with the both of them cutting around corners. And so the next, next, day arrives, the hall now spacious as it should be, all is cleaned and neatly put away in boxes, and everything has been checked thoroughly and any damage repaired. Of course, with a job well done Elio has the full intention of lazing around today, fatigued from helping to organize the hall and doing most of the cleaning as the man wouldn''t allow him to help with the maintenance for fear of hurting himself, and so while spotting for damage with his sharp eyes he sweeped in the downtime. The man on the other hand had been climbing up and down, left to right, repairing everything Elio was able to spot, including things he didn''t want the man to spot, (the underside of the turntable), but unlike Elio he doesn''t seem tired in the slightest and is instead considering something very carefully near the stockpile. Moments later he walks up to Elio who is lying down on the comfortable middle bench having just had breakfast, ¡°Alright then, I''d say it''s about time we go collecting. Cmon, we need to start early to get as much as possible¡± he says, Elio looks up at him, scowling at the gall of the man who still wants to work after yesterday. He objects too having to go collecting, but his protest falls on def ears as the man asks,


    "You''re tired from yesterday?¡± as if it is something unusual, ¡°but the stockpile needs refilling and i need your help in doing so!¡± he points at the dip in the wall called the stockpile were it is as he says, barran, with more empty boxes then there are materials of use, he explains ¡°all that maintenance drained what we had in materials, and it''s safer to stock up now then suffer the consequences later¡±, and while he does make a point, Elio would rather suffer the consequences if it means getting some rest, and he firmly places his head back on the bench. Seeing as how Elio is not moving in the slightest, the man falls back on a tried and true trick, or more accurately reward,


    ¡°Well, if you do change your mind, the ballista is waiting afterwards, who knows, I might give you an extra da-, Elio?¡± looking down Elio had disappeared and is now next to the door that leads outside, already wearing his thick blue jacket and currently tying some iron sole boots of his own, annoyed, but complying. The man says,¡°I think that''s a new record¡± and readying to go out himself. Before they venture out, they take with them a basket, light to carry and size appropriate, with the man grabbing a slew of sinister tools, and Elio a small collapsed crossbow, wrapped in leather and with a glass bolt already loaded in, at his side.


    The late morning sun hangs past the horizon and cliffs but before noon, basking the sky in its usual red but not warming the land that it pases over. The black gravel of the pit is accompanied by an air not hot enough to warm the body and not cold enough to cool it either, instead staying in an uncomfortable middle. The mighty cliffs in the distance stand tall as always, with small waterfalls of sand streaming down its side, pushed into the pit by the occasional and ever welcome breeze, and somewhere along these desolate planes the man searches the land as Elio accompanies him, very much not ecstatic to be here.


    What would be the occasional and indifferent walk is made worse by Elio''s tiredness, now these gravelly planes seem endless and annoying, his boots that he usually doesn''t mind seem heavy and uncomfortable, and his jacket feels constricting even though it is loose and light. But even so he will bare any small inconvenience, push aside his laziness, and even be bored, if it means getting to go on the ballista once again, While they are walking the man looks to his side to see Elio subconsciously acting out his thoughts, from damming the gravel in front of him, to looking longingly at there house behind him, and he says under his breath as the scene comes to an end, "I wonder if you''d be an actor in the future¡±, Elio turns to ask what the man said, and he replies, ¡°We made it to our first corpse!¡±.


    Gradually approaching, they see the lifeless corpse of a wyvern ghoul shot down by Elio two day ago, given, it hard to discern whether they were dead or alive while they were still moving, but it is easy to figure out with this particular wyvern as it had suffered a very brutal death. The bolt shot landed directly into its neck, cutting off the head from its spine and causing it to glide down onto the bed of razors that is the black gravel, and cutting up what little flesh it had down to the bone. Though in a bat of misfortune it did not die on impact, and the upturned gravel shows the sign of a struggle after the fact, implying that the landing might have pushed the bolt enough to return some agency to its mangled body, and all the pain that comes with it.


    At the sight of such a horrible scene Elio is not bothered and the man is ready. They set their baskets down, pull out the needed tools, and begin to dissect the corpse promptly. Walking up its sheer size becomes apparent, at its widest it is as tall as the man, and several times longer from beak to tail, one could imagine that it would be a formidable opponent up close, thankfully a clean bolt through the neck can take it down from a distance. The second thing of notice is the lack of smell and rot, there is no sign of decay, or the stench that comes with it, not even as they flip it over to expose its gravel ridden ribcage. With the corpse now flipped Elio walks of to work on the wings while the man breaks the ribcage with a gardening hoe, and pulling on each rib until it snaps and breaks, an easy task as it had suffered a lot of damage from the fall


    Meanwhile Elio is hard at work cutting up the wings of the wyvern, with an oversized scissor he glides its blade in between the finger bones of the wings and along any cuts and tears to get the biggest piece of leather he can, think of a game of connect the dots, but i is with the dilapidated corps of a several meter long wyvern. After that he places the newly acquired leather into his bag and pulls out any long and spindly finger bones that aren''t shattered from the impact as well as retrieving the bolt that was logged in its neck. On the man''s side of things, he eventually opens up one side of the chest to reveal a black organ within, and once again no smell, and no blood either, infact, through the entire process not a single drop of blood was spilled or splattered, and in the ribcage, it is unusually dry. Either way he clears out the dry rib cage with a shovel sees-.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.??Attached to the spine is a cancerous lump of flesh that pulses like a heart, even as the corpse around it is being cut open. He climbs into the ribcage and with a knife carefully cuts the lump open to remove a glowing red crystal, in that moment the entire body of the wyvern deflates slightly, all the muscles loosen, the skin wrinkle, and the eyes fill with a black pestilence. He wipes the fresh blood of the crystal, whereby he can see radiant red glow reflecting off the dry inside of the ribcage''s white bone, an energy unknown. The man brings the crystal closer, and closer, into a padded pouch, and then hops out,


    ¡°I''m back out from its insides, what''s next-oh¡­.huh, i see¡± he says in surprise as Elio had already done all the work taking apart the mostly undamaged left wing, and he stands next to his work with a sense of victory, hands crossed, chest puffed, and head aimed high. The mans responds, ¡°Well now it looks like i didn''t do much¡± and so as a compromise he would move all the materials to his basket before they both take off to the next corpse. As they are walking along Elio''s eyes begin to wander about the sky and land, before landing on the monolithic triangle that they are walking away from, and with nothing else to do he decides to inquire to the man about it, by pulling his sleeve and pointing at the monolith, the man responds.


    ¡°Oh the gate? It''s so-and-so, i just finished all the edits and am preparing for another test¡± he says with voice of tempered expectation, Elio on the other hand becomes excited at the mention of the test, infectiously so, the man responds as to calm Elio down, ¡°We can celebrate after-if the test goes well, but at the moment i just need to collect enough crystals to go through with it¡± as he is talking he pulls out the crystal from before and holds it up to the sky, looking at the reflection of light coming through it, Elio too looks up at the crystal and points at it as they walk, ¡°Hm, sorry what is it?¡± the man asks and places the crystal back into its bag while Elio elaborates further by waving his hands around as to show distant, and imaginary, explosions, the man says with a hint of concern,


    ¡°Elio, I told you this, no magic! and besides you can''t use it with these crystals¡± to this Elio seems sad, his head begins to hang low and so the man reassures Elio, ¡°I''ll teach you magic when you get older, so don''t worry your little head about it¡± and he ruffles Elio''s hair as, like the flip of a dime, he becomes excited, looking forward to firing bolts, with his mind. The man on the other hand is just glad that Elio isn¡¯t sad anymore, and before they know it, they are already at another corpse, the man places the bag down and takes out a slew of tools. ¡°Alright, this one is a bit cleaner¡± he says, and in front of them is a wyvern that landed dead on the ground, its wings aren''t any more tattered from being dragged along the gavel, and the ribcage is mostly intact, making it easier for Elio and harder for the man. After flipping it over the man climbs onto its chest, were takes out multiple meat cleaver like blades with thick backs and no handles, and digs each of them into its chest in a line, just off center, and on the ribs, an easy task as the outline of the ribs is rather prominent from the seemingly shared malnutrition of the wyvern ghouls.


    After setting all the cleavers up, he brings out a makeshift sledgehammer and begins to slam the cleavers deeper into the ribs to break it. Once broken at the top, the man jumps off and pulls each one down, breaking it at the base exposing its also dry insides. But as he clears out the organs he notices to his dismay that the bolt shot had pierced through the chest and into where the crystal lay. Removing the bolt and cutting open the crystal reveals that the bolt had indeed broken the crystal into shards, though he still pockets them while commenting.


    "Damnit! If only it didn''t hit the middle, ahhh whatever, we''ve got more to go¡±. coming back out he begins to work on the other wing just as Elio is finished with his, and then move to the next corpse and so on, luckily for Elio they have now reached a point were the bodies are close by and so he doesn''t have enough time to get bored, they keep collecting until there bags are full of items, and then to switch out those item with ones of better quality, and then round it out just for the crystals, they eventually return home at sunset, bags full of okay quality leather, bone, teeth, crystals, and some usable meat from the wyverns who had any. In the distance, the wyverns that they began collecting at, give out a haze of a sickly green that wasn''t there before, as rot and decay take over quickly, now that the crystals are gone.


    On their return, Elio is very much tired and happy to be back, meanwhile the man is energetic as ever and spends no time preserving the meat and then sorting through the leather to remove any fat or tendons that remained (there isn''t much). A good minute later and after feeling returns to Elio''s legs he walks to the man to retrieve his prize, the man says as he sees Elio approach, ¡°Yes?¡± he asks inquisitively while placing another leather in an ever increasing stack, Elio points up as to ask to go on the ballista, however the man replies confused, ¡°Hmm?¡±, Elio then nods his head towards the tower door thinking he must have misunderstood, the man notices, leans to the side to see what''s behind Elio, and then straightens back up, ¡°What?¡± Elio is surprised as the man never had any trouble understanding him before and so he directly points at the tower door and acts out firing a ballista, the man answers, "Pardon?¡± at which Elio figures out he''s just messing with him as inferred from the ever growing grin on his face, the man chuckles to himself a bit before answering, ¡°Right, Rigghhhhhht, the tower, well this time you did pretty well and worked pretty hard, so how about hmmm¡­four days! Four full days on the ballista!!¡±. At hearing the result Elio is ecstatic and thrilled by the prospect, he runs to his room to change but turns back remembering that he''s already wearing the jacket and gloves, he runs to the tower only to realize it is too late as the room is already darkened, the man notices this as well,


    ¡°It''s already this late? Shame, well I''ll start making dinner¡± the man stands up to cook, and while he does so Elio runs around the spacious hall, as energetic as ever.

 ch 5: splinters

    At the top of the tower multiple pins light up the scene of a hasty disassembly, a dozen or so of the elevator hand-rails lay stacked to the side as the ballista was moved onto the elevator and sent down to the bottom of the tower. There the man rolls the ballista onto the rails and after bringing it to a rest, tries to lock the brakes but to no success. He checks around the lever concerningly but quickly hides his worry as he sees Elio walking past with his head hanging low and tears in his eyes. He sits on the platform of the ballista, dusting off the wayward splinters that still remain and using his sleeves to clean the wayward tears that fall down every now and again. The man takes a step over to Elio, before stopping to think of what to say, his mind working away as he looks down at the jagged and splintered wood where the right arm of the bow used to connect. Not willing to tell the painful truth, he settles on lies and comfort instead, and sitting down next to Elio he says, ¡°c''mon kid, it''s not that bad, I''ll fix it easily I swear¡±. Elio brightens up to some success, breaking a small smile at the earnesty of the man''s words.


    Elio''s smile slowly fades as the man gets up and walks to the hall and he is left to simmer in his own guilt, but not for long. Not able to bear this feeling any longer he stands up and turns to face the ballista in hopes that he maybe can help and get rid of his guilt. Just by looking he can tell that most if not all the levers are broken as their handles hang off centre. Walking around to the other side, he shudders at a groove in the ballista''s, made by the string whipping back and striking the body, though that is surface level compared to the bow. In his morbid curiosity he also notices something else, looking towards the flight groove he notices the latch that would hold the projectile launcher is gone, but upon closer inspection he finds that it is broken, the L-shaped piece now unrecognisable. His heart sinks at the realisation, another cornerstone of the ballista''s design broken, possibly forever. Moving before he thinks he begins to rush out of the tower and to the hall to find a way to fix it, but stops short of reaching the door as he realises, he doesn''t even know where to start, and even if he did he is too doubtful of himself to even try. With no way to help, he sits back down on the ballista''s base, and waits for the man to return.


    The man silently enters the hall, the red dot in his eyes flaring into a thin ring which then spreads like blood in water. his hands clenching into a fist, frustration spelled clearly on his face, as he enter his room he breaks his silence, ¡°why did i let him go up the tower¡± he says in frustrated whispers, ¡°he was clearly tired before hand, and tired after, and never once did i think to stop him, or go check¡±. he rubs his temple as his monologue subsides, and he begins searching his room for some blueprints of the ballista.


    He had retrieved everything, from the floor plan of the house, to the blueprints of the towers mechanisms and everything in between, and as all has been accounted for, the chest emptied, every drawer swung wide open, it leaves this large sheet of blotter paper as the blueprint of the ballista, or more accurately what''s left of it. He stares at the blueprint, his eyes slowly moving from smudged ink, to smudged ink, before calmly folding the paper, and pinching the bridge of his nose for an equal amount of time. From what he could gleam the paper was subject to water at some point and the ink had been ruined as a result. ¡°This complicates matters," the man says as he tosses the paper onto the table and goes into the hall to retrieve the tools and materials with not but a faintest understanding of the ballista to go on.


    In the tower, the man had gathered plenty of materials and a slew of tools. Placing the last of many planks down, he turns to the ballista to see that Elio had taken the medical box that he brought; just in case; and has begun to bandage parts of the ballista, the man with neither the heart or willpower to stop him. With everything gathered the man begins analysing the damage further, just to get a clear image of what he needs to do. starting with the arms are the obvious, the right one shattered, and the left brought to the breaking point, he will most likely have to make a new set with planks, though it would be weaker. next is the levers, and from what he can see, it''s not good either, opening a small panel he can see that the inside of the ballista is a mess of loose and rusted gears, and from the way he found the ballista, it is not much of a surprise. When he came up the tower, the ballista was sitting perpendicular with the rail track, derailed from the force of the arm breaking, and while the ballista is designed to handle the force of its bow, it isn''t designed to handle that same force from its side.


    As he works, he is constantly putting up a fa?ade to hide his worry, though Elio isn''t concerned about the internals of the ballista as he is about the latch and he bow. In his mind, gears can be pushed back to place, the levers readjusted easily, but rebuilding the bow? Making a new latch? He¡¯s not so confident about those, and can only imagine the time it would take to replicate them, and that''s ignoring their quality. And as if the uncertainty isn''t enough, he has no way of helping, and can only look on with hope, and frustration. Of course it was only a matter of time before the man noticed the broken latch, and very much like Elio, he too is worried. It would take some difficulty to remove the piece, as both the latch and the bolt that held it in place were warped beyond measure, and he would end up having to open that side of the ballista just to remove the piece. Even then the bolt and the latch still remained together, nothing less than bending it back to free them, though it would risk breaking the bolt.


    The latch on the other hand, was irretrievable. Holding it up in the light he can see that it is a one inch thick, and composed of an alloy unaffected by time, compared to the bolt the metal shines as if newly made, though now missing one side. Analysing the damage, he notices Elio''s gaze in the reflection change towards him and the latch, his eyes constantly darting at the damage of the latch and the reaction of the man. Seeing Elio''s attention squarely at him he turns to place the piece on a small wooden round table, with Elio quickly following. The man says ¡°well then, I''m done looking, and I''m going to start fixing, I''ll start with the inside of the ballista, and-¡±, as he talks, he notices Elio''s attention turning to the latch, ¡°and don''t worry Elio, I''ll fix it, I always do¡± Elio turns up at the man, and seeing his unflinching smile nods, and smiles back.


    Later the man has been slowly disassembling the ballista, and at every turn writing down what he has done in his notebook in hopes of reverse engineering the ballista. On the ground the admittedly old gears lay organised and numbered via a chisel, and slowly but surely the man is beginning to discover how the ballista works. Meanwhile Elio has been bouncing back from his room and tower, he has left the ballista to the man, but has consistently come back to check, frustrated that he can''t help. Not being able to focus on anything else, he walks past the line of gears and behind the man working on the ballista he sits on a chair and fiddles around with the latch.


    No use, he just feels terrible again. The duality of wanting to stay and wanting to leave he is stuck in a paradox of discontentment and tries to occupy himself with something to do. Eventually his search stops on a line of wrenches, and seeing one of them missing decides to go looking for it. Entering the hall he doesn''t find it under or on the work table, and thinking back remembers the man leaving the wrench on the tower after disassembling the elevator handrails. Climbing onto the elevator he hears the man approaching. ¡°Going up?¡± he says, and Elio nods, the man replies, ¡°alright, keep your hands down at all times, don''t walk to the edge, and stay in the middle alright, and¡­. Here, take this pin, there''s more up so you''ll be able to light your way much better¡±.


    Elio nods as the man gives him the pin and he pulls the lever to move higher, making note to stay away from the edges due to the lack of railing. On the ground floor the man is making absolutely sure Elio doesn''t do anything dangerous. On the settling at the top of the tower Elio shakes the pin, causing the eye to glow and the others to glow as well, and lighting the area with a tint of green. using the light he dodges all the wayward screws and handrails in search of the wrench and finds it quickly, its surface reflecting the green glow. as he does so notices another metal reflecting the light, and after closer inspection he finds that it''s a bolt. It''s not the oddest thing in the world, the man has a tendency to use different screws here and there, most of the time in response to running out and being too lazy to get more of the same type, but this one here, it is familiar and he can''t remember why. Wishing to return the wrench as soon as possible but not wanting to ignore this feeling he grabs the bolt of the ground before taking the elevator back down.


    After the elevator comes to a rest Elio gives the missing wrench to the man, who is surprised and thanks him, ¡°i was wondering where i left it, thanks Elio'''' and then returns to work. Elio goes back to sitting near the small table and pulls the bolt out of his pocket, staring at it as he tries to figure out the familiarity. Looking at the bolt in the light, he notices that the end of the bolt has a ring at the bottom, which is when he notices the broken latch with the bolt still in it on the table, he lifts them up and compares, finding them to be a match, in fact an exact match. Quickly he gets off the bench and rushes to the man to grab his attention.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ??¡°Yes?¡± the man says as he pulls himself out of the ballista, Elio shows of the latch and the bolt next to it, but the man misunderstands and says ¡°I''ll fix it later Elio, let''s focus on the doing what we can first-'''', Elio is confused as to why the man doesn''t notice, but realises quickly that he is holding the bolt at the bottom, and so after readjusting his grip, shows it again. The man''s eyes widen as he opens his booklet and checks all the items confirming quickly that the bolt in Elio''s hand has to be a spare, and he looks at Elio, ¡°where did you find the bolt?!¡± he asks with surprise in his voice. Elio explains that he found it near the elevator railings.


    The man thinks for a second, the gears in his own mind turning Elio watching intently with baited breath. Suddenly the man stands up with incredible speed, not unlike a lemur, and says ¡°I have to go check¡± before rushing to check the boxes of screws and bolts within and outside of the tower, with Elio following closely. Sifting through the pile it doesn''t take the man long to find another bolt akin to the one with the latch stuck in it. At the same time Elio finds another two bolts similar in make but different in shape, the man says, ¡°those look similar as well, and then there''s the in my hand, come, let''s compare!¡± They both rush to the neatly arranged pieces where Elio is instantly able to find matching pieces. The man says as Elio points them out, ¡°they match, and by my guess, they are not the only spares¡±, and so the ballista repairs are pushed back and with a new found vigur they begin to sift through the boxes.


    As they search they find more than just bolts, hinges and the such, all of which match with those on the ballista, with the only difference being that they are shinier from lack of use. Elio begins to glow with hope once again. If they are able to find this many bolts, then it''s not completely out of the realm of possibility that there is a spare of the latch. With energy in his step he rushes to the hall to grab another box from under the table to drag it out when he notices a large rapped disc was sitting in between it and another box. He climbs his way under the table to pull it out, but struggles from how heavy the gear is, and he ends up having to roll it out from under the table having barely been able to lift it.


    At the same time the man enters the hall and looks down and asks ¡°what''s this?¡± as he takes a closer look. The disc is about the size of a dinner plate and half an inch thick, the entire thing is also covered in an old cloth, brittle to the touch. Still very much curious, Elio begins to unwrap, or more accurately break away, the cloth, though he never could have imagined what''s inside. As the brittle cloth is brushed away Elio sees a glistening surface, and speeding up he finds that it is a gear, so spotless that Elio can see his reflection on the metal''s surface.


    Elio looks up, and sees the sheer surprise on the man''s face, and they pause for a moment as they gawk at the gear, before rushing to the tower to see if it is a match, and to the joy of them both it is. After matching the gear the man looks up to see Elio with fire in his eyes, now more than ever the latch seems in sight, for if there is a chance to help he¡¯ll take it. The man smiles as he sees Elio happy, and seeing as this is more important he says, ¡°Well then, let''s turn this house upside down, shall we?¡±.


    They begin their search in the man¡¯s room, leaving the hall for last as it would be the hardest to do. They finish searching in the room rather quickly as there aren''t a lot of boxes or drawers for the pieces to hide in, and as a result they don''t find much and are able to cross the room off the list quickly. As they search though, Elio is keeping an eye out for the latch, knowing its importance it is top priority, any other pieces are just extra. Either way they move to searching the greenhouse and then the barrel room, the former giving some select parts, while the latter nothing much. After that they move to Elio''s room where his toys prove bountiful with bolts. The tower is excluded because it would take days to check every single strut and beam, and the bolts aren''t as important as the gears, the top of the tower unable to provide. And so with all other rooms checked, they begin searching the hall.


    All the cleanliness and tidiness of the hall is quickly undone as they search through boxes and cabinets with speed and fervour, as if prospectors finding a goldmine. In every box, on the wall and in the handles of pans there seems to be another bolt, a hidden gear, and even hinges, but even as they disassemble the kitchen counters, the latch that Elio so wishes to find eludes him. They eventually finish up the search as the sun is setting behind the tower, the hall a great big mess of emptied drawers and half disassembled kitchen cupboards. As the man moves the last of the gears into the tower Elio rests on the middle bench within the hall, dead tired from today in general, the ballista breaking feeling like so long ago even though it was this morning. But even as he is in the midst of falling asleep he simply can''t, not with his mind stuck on the latch. With how many spares and unique metal pieces they found it is very much within the realm of possibility that the latch should be somewhere, it has to be, but where.


    The ceiling rafters were searched, the bottom and the top of the kitchen counter checked twice, under the tables, the legs of the benches and practically any ninety degree angle was checked to no avail. Even the tower is out of the realm of possibility as by the man¡¯s own words there aren''t a lot of ninety degrees along its scaffolding, and even if there were, he wouldn''t use a perfectly good L-pierce when he can just nail them together. Not willing to give in, he pushes aside his fatigue and scans the ceiling rafters once again in hopes that he will find the latch somewhere there, when his focus is cut off by the sound of something creaking. Turning to his side, he sees one of the partially disassembled kitchen cupboards, its door with its missing top hinge slowly swinging open from a loose shelf pushing out a pot. Naturally enough Elio walks to the cupboard to stop the pot from falling and puts the shelf back, but stops as he sees the shelf pins, and a realisation hits him. they haven''t checked the underside of the counters. Going even lower and looking up and towards the corners he sees multiple L-pieces holding up the counters and the cupboard walls, and so reinvigorated Elio begins to search each counter thoroughly.


    In the tower the man stands up after organising the pile and walks back into the hall where he finds that Elio has disappeared from the bench he was resting at moments ago. looking around he is about to call out when he notices Elio pop out from behind the table and then disappear back down with a sense of urgency, when only moments ago he was half asleep. Curious he walks around to the other side to get a better view when he hears a loud *thud* and the clanking of metal rattling on the counter and rushes along to see Elio crawling out of a cupboard while holding the top of his head, he asks in surprise, ¡°Elio! Are you-¡± but is cut off by Elio grabbing his sleeve and pointing towards the inside of the cupboard. Concern subsiding and Elio compelling, he enters into the cramped cupboard and searches around in confusion, only to notice in the corner a rather large looking L-piece.


    Another loud *thud* is heard as the man jumps with surprise as well and after crawling out of the cupboard looks towards Elio, and says ¡°the latch¡­¡± before they both rush to grab some tools. A few minutes pass of baited breath as the man disassembles the awkwardly placed L-piece, and Elio paces back and forth. Suddenly the sound of a screw dropping is heard and Elio stops as the man crawls out, and looks at the L-piece in the light, and the man declares, ¡°it''s the latch!!¡±. Elio jumps into the air in joy, but instead of landing is suddenly picked up by the man, ¡°and thank you for helping Elio, thank you so much¡± he says, a well of emotion rises from Elio as he nods, happy to help. The man lets Elio down to go and place the latch with a pile but while walking into the tower stops short as he remembers, ¡°RIGHT, dinner!!¡± doubling back, he rushes to the kitchen to see what he can prepare quickly and as he does so asks Elio, ¡°Elio, where''s the pan, where''s everything?¡± but looking back, I find Elio in the midst of falling asleep. ¡°Right, today happened¡­huh¡± the man comments as he goes silent while navigating to the bench where Elio is resting to lift him up, and quietly place him in bed, before whispering ¡°sleep well¡± and walking back into the hall. The man walks along the mess floor, his eyes focussing on a rusty lantern that was retrieved in the search. He fills it up, lights it with his match as darkness falls across the house, lantern in hand he walks into the tower and sets it to his side, as well as a slew of shaken and glowing pins, he begins working on the ballista, losing track of time.

 ch 4: nine to five

    The next morning the man is up and early with work on his mind, having harvested the wyverns only yesterday his chores are rather cut out for him with tanning leather and preserving bones, though breakfast comes first. Walking into the hall he dons his apron, a patchwork of leather probably made from the remnants of a wall, and starts cooking, adding a bit of salt there, mixing this here, but as he cooks he starts to feel that something is inexplicably off. Tasting the food, he finds nothing odd, and looking through his notebook, it''s not some chore he''s forgetting about. Suddenly he snaps his fingers in realisation, ¡°it''s Elio!¡±, he says aloud, or rather the lack of him. Looking over his shoulder he scans the hall and can''t find Elio anywhere, not sitting at the middle table, or standing silently next to him. This is surprising to the man as he doesnt make an effort to be silent in the morning, and the smell of food should have spread to Elio''s room and woken him up already, as long as there wasn''t a hole in the roof somewhere, and so with breakfast almost ready the man calls out, ¡°Elio!!!¡±.


    Seconds pass, and all that the man hears is the sound of something hitting the floor as well as some faint rustling, he calls out again, ¡°Elio, WAKE UP!!¡± This time the reaction is instant as the sound of slow and methodical steps get closer and closer to the door, when finally Elio stumbles into the hall. Unlike most days, Elio is dead tired, struggling to even keep his eyes open, he wipes away the line of drool from the side of his mouth and hobbles over to the middle table. The  man asks as returns to cooking, ¡°Elio, what happened? You didn''t sleep well last night?¡±. A few good seconds pass of silence, the man turns and finds Elio is once again gone, and after scanning the hall, he eventually finds Elio lying down on the bench on the verge of going back to sleep.


    With the man close to plating the food he says to try and wake Elio up, ¡°if you go back to sleep, your going to miss breakfast¡± to which Elio does attempt to get up, the top of his head clearing the table just barely, before he gives up and goes back to lying on the bench. The man sees how tiered Elio is and decides to let him go back to sleep, he begins walking to the middle table, and as he does so says, ¡°if you''re this tired, you can go back to sleep, breakfast wont disappear, and I won''t count today as a ballista day either so don''t worry¡±. Turning the corner he is stricken with confusion, as he finds Elio gone, seconds later he hears the sound of fast footsteps in Elio''s room, blazing back and forth to get ready. The man smiles as he walks back to the kitchen to plate their food, and when he turns once again he sees Elio sitting patiently at the table, hair brushed, face washed, and ready to start the morning.


    After blazing through breakfast Elio rushes along to the tower to load up the sleigh with quivers, but runs into a problem. With a long day ahead of him, he intends to load up multiple quivers to save time and get to the ballista as fast as possible, but the problem is that he can''t carry them all at once. The man sees Elio considering his conundrum, and asks reasonably, ¡°can''t you just move them one at a time?¡±. Elio looks at the man, then back to the quivers, and thinks about it long and hard, the gears within his mind turning, before he ignores the suggestion completely and attempts to lift two of the quivers by himself. Elio pulls with all his might but he can barely drag the quivers along the ground, let alone lift them onto the elevator. The man, seeing his suggestion enter from one ear and fall out the other decides it would be easier to help Elio then try and convince him further. With ease the man is able to lift both the quivers up and even carry a third under his arm, and with a forth in the sleigh being pushed by Elio, they set the quivers into the elevator, and Elio is sent up the tower.


    After waiting for the counterweight to come down, the man walks back into the hall but before he begins any work, he stops and reaches into an inner pocket that sits on the right side of his vest to pull out a pocket watch. he holds the watch in his hand, its golden surface scarred and dented with the insignia that once sat on the face long since unrecognisable. opening it up reveals it to be broken on the inside as well, as the watch doesn''t tick, and under the cracked glass the arms don''t move. There are no pictures on the inside of the door either, neither any writings or reminders, but still the man checks the time, before setting it back into his pocket.


    He start his chores walking into the barrel room were the leather has been sitting in a salt bath to cure, and after loading them up in a wheelbarrow and wearing his iron sole boots, he walks through the button door to the back of the house, were a field of wood and bones are used to hang the leather out to dry. The expanse around him is empty, as all the wyverns that were harvested yesterday have disappeared, exempt for some wayward corpses that sit sunken into the ground and barely noticeable. As he throws another leather onto sticks he can hear the whistling sound of the bolts flying overhead, and in the distance wyverns dropping closely after. The man eventually finishes up outside and enters the hall to start work hollowing the bone, and so on.


    With many things either waiting to cure or waiting to dry, the man works on a mundane but time consuming chore in the meantime. in the hall, he grabs the bag of red crystals and empties them out into a box with a soft and padded inside. Opening the bag, the illustrious red that seemed to shine so prominently when the crystals where harvested are now faded and dull, but return as they lightly hit each other. after slowly and carefully emptying them into the box. With the bag cleared the man sits down at the table and pulls from underneath an indented sheet of metal, not unlike an egg carton. At the bottom of each dent lies a small copper cap that connects with several strands of copper that combine to form thick wires on either side.


    With that to his side, a soft mat in front of him, and a magnifying glass attached to an arm brought to his eye, he begins to grab a crystal from the box, and one by one checks for damage. The ones that are cracked or broken are placed in another box in front of him, and the ones that pass are placed in the tray, carefully. As soon as the crystal touches the copper caps, the crystal glows once more, at first a bright flash, and then a faint but remaining glow. Slowly but surely the man moves through the piles, and one by one the crystals are placed and metal sheets stacked atop one another, until the forest of crystals tint the hall in a thin shade of red, and the pins that litter the house begin to flicker with their green glow. He would remain seated for hours, checking the crystals time and again, and again, and again. His eyes were blank and soulless, not following his hands but constantly looking ahead at the same exact spot unchanging and unflinching. Meanwhile his hands moved with an uncanny precision into the box and out, bringing a crystal in front of him, and after being checked, passed along to the other hand to be placed into the tray delicately, and perfectly. Time flies by as the man is lost in a trance, but is interrupted when after checking another crystal, he passes it to his other hand only to find his pocket watch firmly in his grasp.


    While he was observing the crystal mentioned before something odd was happening, after his left hand placed anther crystal into a slot, it had began to move to his inner chest pocket, all the while he wasn''t looking or acknowledging it, furthermore the hand moved in a way similar to that of a thief stealing from someone in a deep sleep, slow and methodical and without sharp movements. all to pull out the pocket watch, after which it opened it and kept it firmly in its grasp as it laid motionless on the mat, seemingly giving back control and leading to the events right now. the man, surprised to find the watch in his hand, places the crystal safely on the soft mat and stares at the watch for a good moment, he looked at the crooked and unmoving hands, and cracked glass that distorts his reflection back at him. he was still seated, and his face was blank and emotionless, when suddenly he snapped! His fingers then said aloud, ¡°oh right the leather¡± before pocketing the watch and walking to the ¡®backyard¡¯ to bring in the now dried leather. Walking outside, he notices that it is now far past the afternoon and nearing sunset, and so he rushes to bring the leather inside to cook dinner/lunch in time.


    After dusting the salt form the leather and placing them in the stockpile he packs up the crystal by placing a lid on the two boxes, and then placing the tray of crystals into a unfolded box with a spiralling copper wire at the bottom that connects to one side but not the other. Closing the box the hall is now free from the red tint and the pins glow begin to die down, and then he begins making dinner. Some time later Elio finally comes back down form the tower, as he enters the man greets him without turning around, ¡°welcome back, and right on que too, dinners right about done¡±. Hearing that Elio throws the empty quivers off to the side before taking off the blue jacket and sitting on the middle tables bench, the man plates the food and brings it over to the table, and notices Elio both tiered and incredibly giddy at the same time. the man asks with curiosity in his tone ¡°Looks like you had fun, did something interesting happen¡±, and Elio confirms before playing out the event.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    With his finger he starts at one side of the table and arks up, stopping just before hitting the table again, indeed it was just as the sun was setting when the spectacular event happened. Elio had only a few shots left and the targets had become sparse, with large swaths of time in between firing. He was considering closing up the tower early as he had a very fulfilling day when he noticed a dot in the distance. Looking closer he thought it was two wyverns, but when he scoped in he realised it was one, but with two pairs of large wings, a strong build, reinforced by a tough and rocky hide. In its claws was the head of another wyvern ghoul who he dropped in pursuit of the tower, the only mark from the fight was a light graze under its chin. It retained the dozen or so eyes on each side but they were slightly more symmetrical and none of them were missing. its toothy maw was covered in blood from its last meal, but was also more tidy, allowing it to close it fully. It had colour, life, as well as amply ferocity as it sped up towards the tower, each beat of its giant wings speeding it forward. Seeing this Elio was about to jump back on the ballista when the man intruded, ¡°A mutant, and rather mean looking one baised on your description, so did you take it out?¡± He says, Elio pouts after the man interrupts, and puts his hand up to tell the man to stop it as he gets back to the story.


    After sighting the mutant he could not miss such an opportunity to take it down, he climbs back onto his ballista, and loads up another shot and fires, only for the bolt deflects off of its hard patch of its skin, seeing this he fire another shot this time aiming to hit a joint were it would be softer and after firing he doesn''t wait to see if it landed or not to fire another at its face. the first shot misses as the wyvern glides under it, the other shot however is much more successful, the mutant too focused on the first bolt had only given himself a few moments to dodge the second, it tries to lean its head out of the way but it''s not enough and the bolt rips through that side of its face taking out four eyes and showring the rest in blood, practically blinding the mutant on its right side. It tries to recover when to its dismay the shots are just heating up. two more come at him, but he is able to dodge one and the other hits a tough spot in his hide, lodging itself loosely in it.


    It ducks and weaves out of the way as a hail of metal rods force him into a serpentine motion to the tower, the mutant ducks, dives, rises and spins at every opportunity, and Elio is only able to graze and pepper the mutant as he isn''t used to the complex movement. But it gets worse as his ammo runs dreadfully low, and with how the battle is developing Elio is sooner to run out of bolts then take down the mutant and so with that in mind he is left with only one option; he slides the bowl to the man  for seconds and waits patiently for him to return to resumes the story.


    He disables the breaks of the ballista, and while on it he fires, launching the ballista back and to the middle platform where with a tug of the brake lever, sparks fly, and the ballista stops in the middle. After that he pulls the string back, and after it is tensioned he pulls another, very heavy lever with all his might. It takes a good deal of effort for it to move, and eventually he does so, and the four tension hands that stood atop and below the bow spread out, pulling their respective strings and causing the entire ballista to creak with tension. Elio then takes a quick breather before running to the corner pillar with all the hand cranks. He spins a crank with the red handle, causing a long wooden box to drop below the rafter onto the ballista. running back to the ballista he fiddles with a latch on the box, and after opening it, a bolt drops onto the flight groove. The bolt in question is two inches in diameter and covered in a glinting steel, capped with the black point. Elio throws the box aside and pushes the ballista forward, before locking it in and climbing back on. Looking through the telescope, he can see the wyvern far closer than before, and now flying straight, towards the tower, Elio scopes in on the target, takes a deep breath, and fires.


    the sheer amount of force released sends ripples across the towers leather and disturbs a large amount of dust and sand all along its flat surfaces, the mutant sees the dust being kicked and the entire tower rattle, suddenly a cylinder of black blocks its view as the bolt lands directly on its hard carapace face, cracking the bone all the way down. it doesn''t die, yet, for when the bolt was sent flying its lower half broke open and was left behind to reveal a thinner rode, that, with the sudden force of the impact, is launched forward, igniting gunpowder to cause, a hidden bolt to fire forward and create a valley through its skull.


    As the dust around Elio settles he sees a momentary flash of light followed by clouds of black smoke and a second later a loud bang as the mutant begins falling quickly. Elio lets the event settle in before celebrating by punching the air, but not for long as in the distance small dots approach, attracted by the sound. Elio ends up clearing the last of the bolts taking out the wave of wyverns, and after checking the skies and realising the sun is setting he quickly closes up the tower to avoid attracting any more wyverns. he takes the sleigh with him and down the elevator with the now empty quivers, on the way down the adrenaline settles and the accumulated tiredness creeps in, which leads to now, empty bowls, filled bellies, stories told. the man says as he takes the plates away,


    ¡°Well I''m glad you had fun, and that the special bolt was useful. from the looks of it the mutant was rather strong, so it''ll be worthwhile to get it in the morning, where did it land again?¡± the man looks behind him to find Elio fast asleep, the adrenaline form fighting the mutant and telling the story now gone and all the tiredness hitting all at once, the man places the dishes down and carries Elio to his room, tucking him quietly into his bed, he goes into the suddenly dark hall, and after lighting the pins he forgoes the dishes and after loosely putting on the iron boots he takes a step outside.


    he leans on the doorframe, there he reaches into a chest pocket opposite the pocket watch and pulls out a cigarette, one of a dozen, and places it in his mouth as he lights a matchstick. After lighting the cigarette he throws the matchstick away, where it disappears into the pitch black. there are no stars in the sky, nor any moon or any natural light source to speak of, simply a pitch black darkness that swallows the entire world, what little light the pins produce form inside the house only reaching so far, he breaths out clouds of blue as the end of his cigarette burns a alluring gold, for a moment, a small moment, the sparkle of red that always sits at the bottom of his iris disappears, and a new colour begins creeping in, his shoulders drop, and a calmness takes over, before suddenly standing at the ready and looking into the void, the red in his eyes coming back to form a half circle. He keeps looking, but nothing happens, pure silence as usual, bringing the cigarette to his mouth he finds that it burned out, and he puts it out, mumbling under his breath ¡°Can never get a moment of calm¡±.


    Next morning starts like any other for Elio, he wakes up, eat breakfast, gets dressed, and goes up the tower, while riding the elevator he dances to a tune that he doesn''t hum and with a spring in his step pulls back the curtains to the tower, he pushes the sleigh to the ballista when he notices something odd, he steps to the side to get a better angle when his entire body shudders in fear. In the daze of adrenaline and sleep deprivation he had left the ballista pulled the entire night, and the stress build up has bent the hands to their breaking point. He freezes up as he notices all the cracks and breaks, in that moment not knowing what to do, but eventually as one of the cracks spreads he panics and rushes to the elevator to ask the man for help.


    He pushes the sleigh back as quickly as he can on the rickety rail, when is foot gets caught on a nail and he falls, sending the sleigh back with his momentum, he gets up slowly and then notices the slay is still moving, he bolts to try and grab it before it hits the elevator but he''s too late, just as his hand is an inch away from the handles it crashes into elevator which sends vibrations up the rail and to the ballista. the sound of broken wood fills the tower as the rope swings forward and rips one of the arms off, Elio is luckily far enough to have not been hit by the splinters. He turns, only to see the right arm disappear into a thousand shards. Down in the hall the man is just beginning to work on the special bolt once more when he hears the sound of the elevator hitting the ground, he doesn''t turn around as he is in the process of pouring the gunpowder in but begins to stand up.


    ¡°Elio? Back so early, did you forget your gloves again?¡± he says, he places the powder down and turns around when he feels his legs suddenly get tackled, looking down he can see Elio hugging him tightly,


    ¡°Elio?¡± the man says with concern in his voice.

 ch 6: business as usual

    Elio is awakened by a grumble, not from something around him but instead of his own stomach, demanding food! At first Elio tries to ignore the rumble, tossing and turning as he does so, but eventually the hunger overwhelms him and he sits up from the bed, his brow furrowed with annoyance. Scanning his room, the happenings of yesterday begin to rush back to him, but is abruptly stopped by his stomach grumbling once again, and so compelled he gets off his bed and walks to the hall, skipping the sink as usual. Stumbling into the hall he finds not a sound or movement, and instantly he is concerned and looks around for the man, thankfully he finds him rather quickly slumped over and sleeping soundly on the middle table, under him a slew of large parchment and next to him a small lantern recently used. Elio is surprised to find the man still asleep, and so thinks of what to do with this opportunity, placing a hand on his chin it only takes a moment of thought before deciding to wake the man via a little mischief. He moves silently to the man''s side of the table, carefully dodging over the messes on the floor and navigating along the paths created by where the man walked before him. Eventually Elio gets to the right side of the man as the left is blocked by boxes, and then onto the bench ready to scare him awake, but in his excitement Elio had forgotten about his hunger, though his stomach made sure to remind him. all his plans are washed away as the moment he tensed up to jump his stomach rumbles so loud it wakes the man, who jolts in surprise before turning to the source of the sound and seeing an embarrassed Elio standing next to him on the bench, his body like a spring coiled and ready to jump. Slowly Elio drops his hands to the side as a silence begins to fall on both of them, finally broken by the man saying "hungry?" in a humorous tone, a smile drawn on his face as he puts together the puzzle of what was happening, Elio nods.After having a quick and simple breakfast they enter into the tower where the ballista sits disassembled, with all the new gears neatly organised next to it, and the old ones in a pile off in the corner. The man brushes away the fatigue and lack of sleep as if flipping a switch and looking to his side sees Elio is ecstatic and full of energy, the man asks, "you''re ready to repair the ballista?" and Elio nods enthusiastically. The man sits next to the ballista, grabbing another bolt and tightening another gear in place while consulting the blueprints that sits to his side. when he is done he calls out to Elio "Alright, i need number twenty two", to which Elio runs of to the neatly organised pile to find the gear in question via the numbers engraved in them by the man. he rolls it towards the ballista were the man catches it, "thank you-oh and a wrench two sizes bigger please", Elio nods as he grabs the wrench from the man''s hands, and then walks to a spread pile of mismatching wrenches that he quickly scans over, his eyes instantly locking in on the wrench in question, and bringing it back, before running off again to grab another gear. They keep this up until they finish ahead of schedule, and after tightening the last bolt, they begin testing, with Elio nervously sitting on the controls and the man sitting next to the open side of the ballista to watch for any mishaps.


    "Alright, first lever" the man says as he watches the gears carefully, Elio nods and pulls the first lever to his left, lifting the hand that would have carried the bolts. The rhythm of clanking gears fills the tower as the sound spills from the open side, and the man''s eyes follow the mechanisms closely as they move. Moments pass, the gears come to a rest, and nothing breaks, he looks over to Elio and says, "load the ballista like usual, and I''ll tell you to stop if something comes up". Elio nods, and then slowly and methodically goes through every lever and winch in the ballista, constantly listening out for a ''stop'' as he does so. But the man never speaks, and as Elio pulls the firing lever, and latch lowers causing the bolt thrower to anticlimactic slide forward slightly, the man smiles, "the test is complete, and it''s an absolute success!" Elio celebrates at the news, jumping off the chair in excitement and circling the ballista, the man smiles as he looks at Elio passing by, "at this pace, we''ll have the ballista up and running by the end of today".Elio runs even faster at the news, but as he comes back around he becomes confused after recalling him saying it would take days, that''s when the man perks up, "what, did you think i was only making a blueprint last night", and he points towards a neat stack of planks that were sitting unassumingly next to the wall. Elio walks towards the planks, and as his eyes focus in he figures out that the stack is actually one singular block of wood, put together, glued, and then bolted. Not only that, but on both end of the planks there is a metal mechanise that Elio recognizes as some of the old gear from the ballista, the man explains, "yesterday, you gave me an idea, so after you went to sleep rummaged through my table and looked through what I had, eventually I found a schematic for a pillar, one that could bend when burdened by to much weight" the man then places a hand on the mechanisms that sit either side "as for these, well it took some elbow grease as well as some workshopping, but with it we can hopefully adjust the tensions of the bow, so that you can maximise strength without snapping it like a toothpick-", the man is cut off by Elio suddenly hugging his leg, and looking down, he can see Elio smiling at him, and he smiles back.The next few hours fly by as they place the bow on the ballista and adjust the strength, using the mechanisms to move the string down to the inch. Eventually they get it just right and after closing up the ballista, they begin the slow and methodical process of moving it onto the elevator and to the top of the tower, an uneasy job as the man wouldn''t let Elio ride the elevator with the ballista and no handrails, and they had to walk up the stairs to reach the top. Thankfully Elios'' worry subsides as they climb through a trap door and see the ballista sitting there patiently, and after moving it back to the track, Elio begins to pack up all the pins while the man puts the handrails back on the elevator. As the last bolt is tightened, Elio walks over to the pillar to open up the curtains and use the ballista, just a small amount before the days end, but before Elio can reach the hand crack the man reminds him, "I''m sorry Elio but it''s a bit too late in the day right now, and besides you must be hungry, breakfast was a bit light and you didn''t eat dinner yesterday". Elio looks longingly at the ballista and disagrees, but the man reaffirms, "Elio, nothing is going to happen to the ballista if we leave, and besides, a celebration is in order, I''m thinking something like meat, I found some edible cuts from-Elio?" As the man looks forward again he finds that Elio had disappeared, but a small tug on his sleeve shows Elio right next to him on the elevator. The man nods as he pulls the lever, and Elio makes sure to wave goodbye to the ballista as they leave.They move back down through the tower and to the hall, the man dons his apron, but is surprised to see Elio doing the same with another, and rarely used apron, and raises an eyebrow "What brought this on?" he asks in curiosity, Elio points at the man and then acts out sleeping, and the man chuckles slightly, "Might as well teach you a few tricks, maybe one day i''ll wake up to the smell of food, how about it?" he says in a humorous tone, Elio in response stops sliding the chair to go and sulk on the bench, letting the man work all on his own, "You sure you don''t want to help? I might sleep in tomorrow~" Elio thinks about it but still a little annoyed by the man''s tone he remains seated on the middle tables bench, though the man still says in a joking manner "~Suit yourself~" and goes back to cooking, and while humming takes out pans, demented vegetables, and herbs, but when he goes to unwrap the preserved meat he find Elio has appeared back on the chair, still arms crossed and pouting but, more importantly wanting to help, this time the man doesn''t chuckle, and says, "let''s get started!"


    The Next day and after having breakfast the man stands over the box of crystals at the third table still incomplete as throughout the last two days he had little time to work on them, and even still is delayed once more. The ballista has been on his mind since waking up, practically speaking it should be safe, all the strength testing and tension adjusting from yesterday proves that point, but even so he can''t clear the cloud of anxiety from his mind, and so opts to go up with Elio and make sure of no hiccups, as well as ease his worry. Elio blazes back and forth to get ready as the ballista has been on his mind since waking up, it has only been two days when last he used the ballista but to him it felt like two weeks, and he dare not wait any longer. He runs into the tower to pull back the sleigh and load up another quiver, when in turning around he hears the man to say "need some help?". Elio nods with glee and waits for the man to place one of the quivers onto the sleigh before running all the way back, the man carrying another three with him. He waits for the last quiver to be placed before pulling the lever to send them up, and then running to the handrails to say goodbye, only to find the man not there. He scans the bottom of the tower for him, when he hears a cough to his side. He is surprised to find the man on the elevator, and questions why he is here by giving him an inquisitive look, the man answers "i thought it would be nice to get some fresh air, that and i probably forgotten a wrench or two in the rush from yesterday", the man lies, thinking it wise to not spread his anxiety to Elio, who takes the answer at face value. At the top of the tower the man walks over to the control pillar, (the one with all the winches) and spins the hand crank for the curtains, raising them and illuminating the tower with light, meanwhile Elio is quick to push the sleigh to the ballista, even before there was light to see, and by the time the curtains are fully raised he is already seated at the ballista and scanning the sky. His eye darts across the horizon, and on rather short notice a wyvern ghoul is seen taking off from the desert beyond, Elio jumps into action to load the ballista, he spins the hand crank of the bow steadily, as to not cause damage to the bow, meanwhile the man takes this opportunity to watch the bow and the rest of the ballista. Elio pulls the loading lever and a bolt is dropped into the flight groove, after which he aims the scope with the reticule at the front of the ballista, zeros in, and fires the first shot of the newly repaired ballista, only for it to miss entirely. Elio''s face slowly turns red with embarrassment as he realises he missed and looking to his side he can see the man put a hand to his mouth to hide a laugh bubbling up before collecting himself and saying, "well the bow is new, it''ll take some time to get used to, so take as many tries as you need-" as the man was talking Elio had fired another bolt at the wyvern, this time the bolt lands true, puncturing through the wyverns neck and out the other side, and dropping it out of the sky, the man turns to face a rather smug Elio and says "well then, i guess all you needed was two". Elios ends his celebration short when he notices another dot in the distance left of the ballista, looking through the telescope he can see two wyvern ghouls approaching side by side, he turns to the man and points at the wyvern, the man looks down, "want some help?" he asks, and Elio nods, "alright, go to the turntable lever, I''ll push the ballista" he says, and Elio nods, before rushing off to the lever, while the man disables the breaks and pushes the ballista along. When the ballista reached the middle of the turntable Elio pulls the lever, spinning the ballista towards the western track, meanwhile the man positions himself at the back of the ballista so that when the turntable stops he can push it forward, with Elio rushing closely behind to catch up. In the distance the two wyvern are bickering and lashing out as they race to the tower, the former seeing the latter beginning to pass it from below dives down to attack it with its beak, only for it to miss entirely. It looks around to try and find where its foe went, but sees it dropping out of the sky with a bolt in its throat. It stares confused as it tries to fathom where the bolt came from, before it suffers the same fate, a bolt pierces through its chest and straight to its heart, breaking the crystal that sits within. As it descends, black and green spots of rot appear along its body as its eyes shrivel up and burst open, raining a black mucus as it crashes into the gravel like a puppet cut from its strings. Time begins to fly by as Elio shoots down wyvern after wyvern with the man helping, until suddenly he remembers the crystals right about noon. he checks the ballista one last time, and after seeing no damage or fault says to Elio "alright then, the ballista is safe and working" forgetting that he never mentioned checking the ballista in the first place. Elio looks at the ballista, and then back at the man and nods with confusion, wondering why the man didn''t know that already. "Anyways, I stayed for a long time and I have some work to do downstairs, so I''ll be on my way", the man says as he takes the elevator down, saying before he descends, "have fun!", with Elio waving goodbye as he does so. After reaching the bottom he pulls the lever to let the elevator rise again, and walks into the hall where he crystal sits waiting for him, he sits down, to get lost in his work once more. The man reaches into the box for another crystal to check, but finds nothing and is broken out of his chance. He leans the box towards him and sees it empty, the stack of trays next to him now runs high, he then looks around at the shadows around him, and guesses the time to be late in the afternoon, he ponders for a moment, before standing up and saying, "I''ve got time". He quickly sets the crystals into the metal box, gears up, and leaves the house to make his way to the gate. At the same time up on the tower, Elio is switching sides on the ballista and loading the last quiver when he sees the man having just left the house and walking along the path. He thinks it is a little odd to see him out so late but he merely takes note and continues what he was doing. On the red sand path, the man walks past the point at which he climbed and keeps going, and going, as he does so the complex runes that covered the side of the gate begin thinning out along the base of the triangle until they become simple lines that rarely waver. The monotonous trek finally ends as the man reaches a wide, wooden, and rickety staircase that rises up to a broken obsidian platform, once a half circle now remedied by wooden planks and skeletal scaffolding, not unlike that of the tower. Walking up the stairs the man is greeted by a podium, copper lining its cracks, sitting where the wood meets the platform, past it a square of metal rods are bolted to the obsidian like floor, and to it, all the chalk lines meet and connect from the right and the left side of the gate. The man sets down the box and replaces the divider with a copper cylinder that fits in perfectly, he slides the door to close the gap as a small reaction bounces around the inside and red light flickers through the thin seams of the box. He then places it onto the metal square on the floor where it fits perfectly, and the stuttering stops to create a consistent red glow, and a low hum. He walks to the front of the podium, on its slanted face the imprints of a tilted left hand lay, and placing his left hand onto the podium an energy runs through the chalk and to the runes, slowly climbing up the gate. watching carefully the red dot in his eyes flares up into a half circle, and under his breath the man asks, "ready?" to no response. Elio is closing up the tower, he fired a great deal of shots today, and had fun, but now it''s time to say goodbye, he removes the sleigh and pulls it back to the elevator were he tosses the empty quivers inside, he grabs the rope and is about to let the curtains fall, when he notice a light slowly climb the side of the gate. His eyes shine with curiosity, but looking around he can see a few dots (wyverns) in the distance and in response lets the curtains drop but not all the way, with the small amount of light peeking through the bottom of the curtains he rushes to one of the less used pillar to manually raise the curtain that faces the gate just enough were he can see the white chalk glow and emit a purple and alluring light, drowning out the harsh red of the sky, in the distance, the wyverns turn tail and run. On the ground The man looks up and sees the energy reach the top of the tower, small sparks of light emanating from runes across its body. He takes a deep breath, and steels himself, he says "on three, one, two" and then screams out "THREE" and pushes his hand into the podium. A ripple of force emanates from the gate creating a wall of dust and sand, but the man stands steadfast, lighting bursts from the box and excites the air around it as it dances across the gate, his shadow jumping around at the lightshow, and his resolve is tested when a small amount of the electricity crawls up the podium and shocks his hand, but he is able to wince past the pain as all the dancing electricity is pulled to the three corners, crackling with energy. The red in his eyes spreading to swallow his iris, he takes a brief respite to calm his nerves, and then twists the podium straight, suddenly all the electricity disappears into the gate, and for all but a second the air feels calm, before thunder shoots out from the corners within and to the space at the centre of the gate, from it a circle of pure void like black spreads out, the thunder dancing along it red edges, but just before the circle touches the corners, a part of the runes on the right side of the gate changes colour becoming red, and getting brighter and brighter before a cloud of black smoke bursts out from it and the red light spreads to other parts of the gate. Directly after the plumes of smoke appear, the black circle begins to stretch and malform, the man notices and quickly twists his hand back and tugs it out in one swift motion. The black circle shrinks rapidly and disappears unceremoniously, with it all the energy the gate held. He takes a few steps back and turns to his right to see the plume smoke rise from the right side of the gate and he makes an exhausted sigh before checking his left hand, he comments, "rebound again, a bit sore, but better then when it usually happens", before walking to the box that has been cooling off slowly, and opening the small door to let out all the hot air inside and then grabs it and begins walking back home. In the distance large plumes of dust kicked up by the gate settles fast, the cloud of smoke from the side of the gate dissipates into thin wisps of smoke and falling tufts of ash. As he gets past the gate he looks up and, after taking another deep sigh, keeps walking to the house, the world returning to its usual silent and unmoving self. At the tower, Elio is sitting still mesmerised by the incredible show, though he is knocked out of the trance when he notices the man walking back home, and he scrambles to close the tower before rushing for the elevator to go down, along the way throwing his hands around and imagining himself making electricity, the man on the other hand begins to jog as the sun sets past the tower and the shadows begin to lengthen, he reaches the house before long and walks in with a greeting, "I''m bac-Elio?" He asks in confusion as inside the hall he finds Elio on one of the tables, a random book in one hand and a broom in the other, acting out what would be to Elio casting a spell, and to the man manic flailing. at seeing the man walk in he drops both items and rushes to him playing out what he saw, or at least what he thinks he saw, the man places the metal box to the side and places the divider as well as the copper connector on it, while looking at Elio try to explain something only for his excitement to get in the way and for him to divulge into nonsensical movement. Confused, the man asks while taking off his coat, "I''m sorry, but you''re going to have to run that one by me again". Elio tries to explain his thoughts but all that comes out is the same odd movements, the man chuckles a bit while he sits down to take of his boots, "You always do that whenever i activate the gate, but you don''t ever seem to get tired of it" he says, to which Elio has no rebuttal and nod affirmingly. The man is comforted by that fact, and a genuine smile forms on his face as he hops up with a figurative electricity to his step. surprising Elio. "Come on now, dinner won''t make itself" he declares and wakes to the kitchen to make a hearty meal, Elio follows as well, suspicious to see the man so active, and not knowing the cause to be himself, he begins to rather obviously investigate the man''s good mood, the man dodging questions and laughing along the way. After the hefty dinner and as the man is cleaning up Elio seems to be resting on the bench as usual, or at least that what he wants the man to think, in reality he has the full intention to search the metal box by the door understanding it to be full of those odd glowing crystals, stretching his arms he waits for the exact moment the man puts the plates together, so that the noise, masks the sound of Elio rolling off the bench and onto his legs. he keeps this up, matching his steps with the plates clacking will keeping perfectly silent and low to the ground, but even with all these precautions the man says to him, "You can touch the box if you want, nothing will happen.", Elio freezes as he realises he has been caught somehow and he reaches for a random object, but the man knows Elios intentions all too well and as he finishes cleaning the last plate he turns to face Elio and tell him directly, "You know the rule Elio, no magic, alright, now come we need to get you to bed".


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    After saying goodnight to Elio the man walks back into the hall and takes a candle with him into his room, lighting up the desk where he toils away with a dull feathered pen and papers a plenty. He works late into the night, and at one point willingly takes out the golden pocket watch and staring at it in the candle light, when suddenly he answers "Same place as last time." to a question not asked, and no response is heard, but moments later he speaks again, "Yes, progress is slow, but tell me a time when it was ever fast." in a casual tone, another wait and he says, "Can you blame me? It looked promising this time." he tucks the pocket watch back into his shirt, and then seems annoyed, "Well I''m trying to be optimistic here, pessimism wont get me far." after which he leans back in his chair and looks up at the ceiling, "He''s been doing well as ever, the ballista''s bow broke, and it was an entire ordeal, but we were able to fix it." another pause, but this time the man raises an eyebrow, before standing up, commenting as walks to his bed, "I guess we all need to rest at one point or another".

 ch 7: grim mishaps

    The next few days prove peculiarly busy for the man as he takes notes on the burnt patch of runes and tries figuring out what caused the failure and how to fix it, eventually concluding his theory and works on drawing the new runes, an equally time consuming process of resetting the pitons, cleaning the burnt chalk and ash, and editing the other runes to work with the new ones. In contrast Elio seems to be rather unbusy, as after spending the rest of his four days on the ballista he finds himself in the inbetween of chores and rewards.With nothing but time to fill up he thinks on what to do, he could draw, but he already did so for multiple days, he could play with his toys or make new ones, he always enjoys seeing the man try to guess what conglomeration of pieces he randomly puts together are, but that got old after the fifth conglomeration. he is about to give up when he suddenly remembers, magic! Throughout the last week and fey days, the idea of learning magic has been stuck in the back of his head, not as anything sinister but because it''s magic! Magical magic, you can do whatever you want and make whatever you want, he wouldn''t need to load shots manually or push the ballista, all he would have to do is...draw? and it shall perform as commanded! Of course that is a gross oversimplification, but even so the thought of working with magic the same as the man pushes him to try.Elio walks to the place most likely to hold the keys to learning about magic, the man''s room, and having searched there before for ballista pieces he already knows we''re all the documents are held, the desk and a chest, he decides to start with the latter first as it looks the most interesting. He swing the door open and scrounges inside the chest like a racoon in a trash bin, excitedly pulling out handfuls of scrolls and large papers, but soon finds they have little to do with magic and they turn out to be blueprints for the house, the elevator and so on, he does find a pair of interesting scrolls tied together, and opening up the first he is taken aback by the drawings. They look like runes, but not any on the gate, for one the black ink is drawn around the symbols, and they seem more artistic than anything, lacking any hard lines or writing, but still very visually complex. Opening the other scroll he finds that it is exactly the same, except the colours are reversed, with the runes drawn in ink. Elio gawks at the other scroll, when he notices the other begins to move in the corner of his eye, he turns to face it, but sees nothing changed, only for the same thing to happen to the other scroll. Suddenly he is caught in a loop, where every time he focuses on one of the scrolls, the other begins to move from the corner of his eye like an optical illusion, until, eventually his eyes hurt from constantly darting back and forth, and he closes up the scrolls.Quickly searching through the rest of the box only gives a map of the pit that disappointingly doesn''t show anything new and so he gives up, and moves to the desk. There he is greeted by dozens of papers whose rest he dares not disturb, though he does pick up a few wayward sheets and tries to read them, which he can, but understanding them proves a degree above what he can manage. circles, lines, and calculations a plenty and though he recognizes a few symbols to be similar to the drawings on the gate there purpose eludes him greatly, it doesn''t help that they are all written in an italicised cursive that he isn''t used to reading, but he isn''t going to rest at something so unsatisfactory as this. he pulls the drawers open in a, ''ah-ha!'' motion only to find a book of cooking recipes, quickly scanning the pages he recognise a lot of the meals to be familiar and the paragraphs to be written in a penmanship that is easy to read, though interrupted by red circles that lead to notes written in the mans cursive. Reading along he finds some unfamiliar ingredients and new meals he has never heard of, but he eventually remembers what he''s here for and closes the book before he starts to become too hungry.In the second drawer he finds instructions for tanning leather and working with metal and medicine, all with easy to read penmanship and less notes, but not a magic explanation in site, until finally he opens the third drawer of four and is greeted by thick books with no names, taking the first out and opening it he is greeted with the same sort of perplexing drawings as the papers on the table and flipping through them he finds that this is no book, but a folder that holds failed runes for future reference with the cause written in red, skimming through the pages he sees the runes go from complexe, to ridiculous, and then some, the paragraph of red ink growing longer and longer until there are entire pages of just writing and calculations, theorising the cause of failure and ways around it, returning to the drawer he finds more of the folders with varying amounts of papers in them and even some files but at this point his goals have slightly changed, and now he seeks a book that he can actually understand, so that instead of spending hours on trying to decode what the runes mean and, you now, maths, he is trying to find something akin to a beginners guide, or anything simplistic for that matter.Eventually and through his diligent search he finds a book, one much older than the others, most of his the man documents are very well maintained if a little messy but this book has been forgotten or at least left to rot, the metal edges have become rusty, the papers are crumbly, and the hardback cover has been folded diagonally from being pressed by the side of the drawers. Elio is very confused at the decrepit nature of the book and feels compelled to investigate further, he flatins the folded cover and sees through the tattered leather one word still surviving, ''magic''. that simple word creates a sparkle in his eyes and as swift as the wind he shoves the rest of the books in the drawers to close them up and runs into the hall not even bothering to check if anything was misplaced, and forgetting to organise the chest, the prospects of finally learning magic being far too exciting.In the hall he set the book down on the bench of the first table from the mans room because he is not tall enough to put it on the table without sitting down first, but as he does so who walks in but the man, "Hello Elio, i see you''re messing around with some metal, don''t forgot your gloves" the man says oblivious and with his body turned to take off his boots, at first Elio thought he was busted and had froze in surprise, but the man''s greeting proved otherwise, he recognizes the opportunity and slides the book off the bench and onto one of the boxes under the table, were it would sit fully out of view of the man, he then walks over to the man to ask why he''s here, trying to be as unsuspicious as possible, "Hmm? I''m back to get more chalk", he says, and Elio begins to panic as he realises the box of chalk is under the metal working table, where the book is also currently under.He breaks into action, darting over to the table to ''help search'' for the chalk, he reaches the table just as the man does and slides the book off the box, standing it up in between the legs of the table and the same box so that it would be out of view, and just in time as well as moments later the man would have seen the book, they quickly find the box and the man takes out a dozen or so sticks which he places into a specific compartment already filled with chalk dust, before taking his leave and waving goodbye as he does so, with Elio doing the same. As soon as the man is gone Elio takes a sigh of relief and walks over to the table to grab the book, when the man pops back into the hall suddenly, scaring the daylights out of Elio, he turns around and sees the man swiftly grab his booklet off the closest table to the door and walk out, "sorry Forgot the booklet, goodbye!". After recovering from the shock Elio waits a bit and checks how far the man has left before retrieving the book and bringing it to his room for safety.Setting it down carefully he reads the cover again, and confirms no other word then ''magic'' written on it, he then flips to the first page and is introduced to a few details, in the middle of the book the words ''owned by:'' sits next to a light smudging of ink, and directly under that the faint line of a simple magic circle can be seen, crossed out by a spray of ink that blankets the middle in black. Turning to the next page he is introduced to some scribbles, damage, and emptiness, he flips to the next page which provides the same result and so flips to the next and next and panic begins to befal Elio, he had not considered that the book has withered to the point of unreadability, most of the pages have been degraded by time and are brittle to the touch, the ones that arent have there writing incomplete, not blacked out per say, but at random points in the paragraph the words thin out and then reappear several spaces down and for only a few words at a time, the pages that do remain intact fill the end of the book with more of the same indecipherable writing as the documents on the man''s desk, but Elio isn''t going to give up just like that, he flips to the earliest page that is still intact and tries to read the cursive handwriting,


    ''Description: Ballistic flame cylinder, also known as gatling fire barrage, is an advanced combination spell between the Main use of a wind spell and simple fire use, the spell allows the user to create a more powerful and consistent flame attack as a projectile, although the spell is strong and efficient it has trouble with accuracy, the spell in turn tends to be used in large quantities and/or in a constant barrage;How to do it: After the use of the advanced wind magic and the use and creation of the vortex cylinder spell, type 1 [look to the previous page for more information]''Eio proceeds to flips to what was mention in the brackets only to find that said page had been devastated, leaving only the degraded jagged edges of the paper still stuck on the back of the book, Elio stares at it for a few moments before flipping back and continuing his reading,''To begin aim one side of the cylinder away from yourself [The output] and one side to face you [The input], create a simple fire, Warning: Make sure it is not too week in which case the flame would get extinguished, and be sure to not make it too strong, the fire could consume the cylinder and detonate which may harm the user if not careful, it is always suggested to begin with a weak fire and put it through the cylinder, then repeat the process while increasing the strength of the flame little by little until the desired result is achieved: and insert it into the The input, the result should be apparent instantly, a concentrated bolt/ball of fire will launch out from the output at high speeds, t-''At this point Elio stops reading, his head hurting from trying to understand what it was talking about, and this didn''t even have maths, a quick peek into the other pages shows complex algorithms and formulas that he doesn''t even bother to try to understand, desperate for anything that resembles simplicity he recalls the magic circle on the first page and quickly flips back to it, too quick in fact, and he injure his thumb on the sharp and rusted metal, breaking skin drawing blood. Elio quickly puts his thumb in his mouth to stop the bleeding and then when the pain calms, checks the book to see where the blood landed, but is relieved to see the first page stain free, and the edge of the book also stain free, and the floor, and when he takes his thumb out to check on it, also injury free, he is confused and could have sweared he actually cut his finger, but that to hurts his brain and he chalks it up to placebo, though he doesn''t know such a word exist. he tries to decode the magic circle further, only to find it fuzzy and more incomplete then he once thought, at this point he gives up and solemnly closes the book, having had his dreams of magic dashed, he checks if the man is in or close to the house and sees him still on the gate working away and so goes to return the book.


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    along the way being struck with a sudden tiredness which he blames all the thinking for, he places the book into the drawer and doesn''t get two steps away when he is hit with an even bigger wave of tiredness which has him barely being able to keep his eyes open, he ignores sorting the mess and stumbles back to his room, but with every step he grows more tired, more sleepy, more sickly. he begins to sweat and his vision starts to blur, he has to lean onto the wall to stay upright, and the distance to his room feels infinitely long, he eventually makes it in and he''s so tired he can''t even keep his eyes open and he has to walks with a hand raised forward, dragging his feet one step at a time and pushing all the toys aside, if he can simply reach his bed it will all be ok, but the distance keeps feeling longer and longer, he wishes his bed was closer, brought to him, suddenly, heeding his command the bed begins to slide forward to Elio, dragging along the wood, pushing everything aside, until they both meet in the middle, Elio doesn''t even notice the movement, deaf from a ringing in his mind, too tired to open his eyes, and too feverish to even notice, he only wishes the man was here.The man works away, climbing incredible heights and drawing on precarious ledges, slowly but surely getting closer to completing his new theory and testing it, but his work is interrupted when while climbing higher, he feels the rope get tugged from under him, he stumbles slightly but sticks his landing on a ledge, and looks down with confusion written on his face, but sees nothing. Thinking it to be a fallen piton dragging on the rope he decides to climb down, but he doesn''t find anything of the sort and he reaches the bottom soundly. He feels anxious, like something is wrong but not what, and unable to focus on the gate he opts to go back to the house to hopefully clear his mind.Entering into the hall he doesn''t see Elio, and so says audibly, "Elio, im back!" to no response, he doesn''t think much of it until he finishes taking off his shoes and turns around to find Elio still not there, he says aloud while taking of his coat, "Elio!" and he waits again for a response, but does not hear the whisper of the slightest movement. He suddenly he feels a knot in the pit of his stomach and he rushes towards Elio''s room, entering he is surprised to see the bed dragged to the middle of the room and Elio on it, sweating profusely and heaving for air, at that moment the man''s iris flares into a ring as he tries to wake Elio again but to no avail, in his attempt he finds more worrisome symptoms, Elio''s hands are cold even though his heart is beating extremely fast, his face turns to one of worried panic, the red ring around his iris spreads.He launches into action, grabbing a towel and dipping it in cool water to place it on Elio''s forehead but that only alleviates the fever slightly, and to do anything meaningful he will have to figure out why Elio is in such a state, without skipping a beat he dashes into his room and to his desk were he slides the first drawer so fast it flies off its hinges and dumps everything onto the floor, but he doesnt find the medical book he is looking for, he opens the second drawer and its still not there and he eventually finds it in the third, he grabs the book and turns around to go back to Elio''s side when in the corner of his sight he sees his chest, wide open and obviously searched through, he looks at it with further confusion, a million different thoughts clouding his mind, he is about to leave the room when a realisation hits him, he freezes in place as his eyes flare into a red glow.He spins around and accidentally knocks his chair over with his hand but doesn''t care, he rushes to the fourth and last drawer were the cause of Elio''s sickness sits slowly healing, the magic book, its edges reforming, its metals slowly gaining back its lustre, and it''s pages regaining its pearly white, he grabs the magic book and leaves the room, the red glow in his iris breaking through and spreading into the rest of the eye and pupil, like blood in a puddle. The man enters Elio''s room and places the magic book close to Elio and he instantly seems to get better, his breathing eases, warmth begins to return to his hands, and his heartbeat lowers, but the fever and its effects still linger.Seeing as Elio''s fever is still high the man goes to change the towel when he notices his right hand shaking, he grabs it with his left to stop it and he takes a deep breath, the redness in his eyes retreating back into the iris. And in its place, focus, he replace the towel on Elio''s head and goes back to the hall were he opens the medical book and begins working on a medicine of sorts, he grinds up the shards of the red crystals, there colour faded, as well as an assortment of herbs that he consults the book for, and then distils them in water under a low heat, this goes on for multiple hours and into the night until he deems the mixture complete and he pours it through a sieve, a thick red liquid not dissimilar to blood, and after letting it cool he brings the cup to Elio who is still in the midst of his dazed fever but still stable, propping up his head he slowly pours the mixture in and though Elio seems disgruntled by it, his health betters and his frow relaxes. The man also calms down greatly, the red ring dissipating.But his work isn''t done, he looks over at the magic book and sees that it is a long way from fully repairing, and with no crystals left or light in the sky still visible, he prepares the collection basket next to the door and sits at the side of Elio''s bed with a candle to light up the room, he doesn''t get much sleep. The man slowly opens his eyes as the morning light begins illuminating the inside of the room, the first thing he does is check on Elio whose fever has gotten worse since last night but not anywhere near as bad as when the man found him, he changes the towel and reluctantly goes outside to collect more crystals.The day is young, but forever silent, in the sky the borders of the night is slowly being pushed back by the day in a quite literal sense, half the world still blanketed by darkness, the other bathed in light, and were the two meet only a few shades of the either is created before the extreme resumes, there and on the edge of night the man walks from corpse to corpse as they themselves are slipping into the day, only for the crystals to be taken away and there body rudely left, it''s not like he would have a place to hold the items as he had only brought the bare minimum to rip them open and nothing else, he keeps going until he has close to a dozen and then wastes no time in going back home, walking next to the line were the day ends and night begins, tantalising the shadows with his own.He comes back into the hall almost with a greeting as a habit of his, but he stops himself before he says anything and falls silent. after checking on Elio he quickly starts making more of the potions, he grind up a portion of the crystals and goes through the same time consuming process, hours pass until the first cup is done and feeding it to Elio it only alleviates the symptoms slightly, and he has to keep making the potions throughout the day and into the next.


    Elio feels dazed, opening his eyes the blurry vision slowly subsides and in its place he can see the harsh afternoon sun filtering through the ceiling, a bitter taste fills his mouth, a damp towel cools his forehead, eventually he is able to sit up and remove the towel, he stays seated, confused as to his condition, he doesn''t understand it to be a fever, having not experienced, or at least forgotten, such a thing in his lifetime.Still in his daze he hears the rustling of leather from his right and tries to turn to face the sound but with the coolness of the towel gone he is struck with a horrible headache deep in his mind, and he doesn''t see the man drop a towel and rush to hug him, Elios headache calms enough to be placed aside and to wonder what is going on, the only words said by the man after seconds of silence is, "You idiot, i told you not to mess with magic" and it is spoken through gritted teeth, Elio is even more confused by the act of kindness and the words of frustration, and it only grows as the man lets go to look at Elio with a pained look in his eyes.His words were as filtered as he could make them, but at the same time he is happy to see Elio moving again, but as he lets go and steps back he sees the confusion on Elio''s face and a realisation hits him, he asks, "You didn''t know, did you?" to which Elio looks even more confused, confirming the man''s suspicions. He pinches the bridge of his nose as he sits down on a chair, and explains "You made a contract with a grimoire, in layman''s terms a book of magic, and when said grimoire is damaged, as one of many functions it begins to heal itself, the problem is, when it suffers critical damage, it will end up sharing the owners life force to heal, and-..." as he talks, he can see the interest within Elio grow, and soon he is enraptured by the concept of the grimoire being his own, but the man doesn''t share Elio''s fascination, no, the three day of worry and restless nights that were slowly burning through his facade rush forth and he stands up suddenly,"ELIO, don''t make light of this! You realise what that means? You almost-" he shouts on an impulse of anger but he catches himself. Elio is taken aback by it, having lived with him all his life and never seeing him like this, the man sits back down, a well of emotion swelling inside him he says with pain in his voice as if reluctant, but forced, "if i came back home too late, if i didn''t see the mess, if I turned the wrong way-" he stops talking, his right hand beginning to shake. in the silence of the past three days those scenes have been replaying in his mind at nauseam, he doesn''t want to confront the possibility of not having realised, that in his panic he would have never noticed the mess and wouldn''t have the cure, he tries to ease it by telling him it was going to be an eventuality, though that eventuality might have been too late, especially when he found Elio in that state, what could have happened, he doesn''t want to say, but, without meaning to he implied them, through gritted teeth and filtered word he inferred it, and Elio understood it, finally realising the detriment he was in, and how horrifying it was for the man he begins to cry, the man hugs Elio again, "i promised i would protect you, from any and everything, and i won''t break that promise again" as he speaks Elio digs his face into the man''s shoulder to hide his tears, and he doesn''t let go, not for a long time.Time passes, and Elio ends up falling asleep on the man''s shoulder, he rests him back onto his bed, and as he does so makes a promise to himself that Elio would never hear,"And I''ll never show my worry again, I promise".