The Tower's Secret

11. [Part 2] Seeds of Adventure

Kyn descended to the ground, his feet lightly tapping the floor as he scrutinized the area of his manifestation. His golden eyes scanned compendiously. It was dark. Glowing spiraling paths and staircases surrounded him, a tortuous web of stone and metal structures ebbing and breathing seemingly alive. A thin mist had settled in the air, clinging to his skin and swathing his vision; it absorbed the luminescence from the light rimmed paths.

The structure around him was moving slightly; he felt it in his feet—the dim tremble of the ground.

Kyn was standing at the bottom of one of the staircases, and he gazed up and down at the endless loop of pathways, some leading to doors, some leading to open areas, some too far for him to discern shrouded in the light mist.

What intrigue.

He noted the characters materializing around him. A few were unconscious or asleep. Others who were awake were confusedly looking around, peering at the completely different setting. No one seemed strong enough, but Kyn knew not to underestimate anyone yet—sometimes, with a little luck, even a weak person could be lethal. Besides, the characters had all gained enough Light to move up, so they were probably able to kill without problem.

Kyn ran his fingers through his white hair. Too white. He did not want to attract attention yet; the time would come later. He reached into his bag and pulled out a dark cloak, tying the soft fabric on his neck as he ducked into the shadows, away from the glowing staircases.

He glanced around more carefully and noticed a white circular shape attached to the wall from afar. Kyn narrowed his eyes. He reached into his bag yet again, rummaging until he found it—a small lens. He gingerly took the lens between his thumb and pointer finger, placing it in front of his right eye. Once Kyn looked through, he found the white circular shape once more.

It was a clock, nondescript and plain, more or less inconspicuous among more flagrant structures. The clock was encased in glass. All the numbers on it were the same color and font...except for the number twelve. That number was red and thicker; it was bold, as if trying to say something. He wondered what.

Investigating even closer, he noticed that there were four hands, the hour and minute and second hand—he knew those—but the other one... it wasn't moving, stuck in a stationary position pointing left at the number nine. Was it broken?

A shout dragged Kyn's attention elsewhere. To his far right, two men began to fight, aggressively grappling at each other's necks. And with that, the sudden violence snapped other people into a frenzy as well. Soon, within a few seconds, a large scale battle had insinuated. Kicking and stabbing and killing all boiled in one mindless concoction.

Despicable, really. The characters weren't even intent on discerning their situation, merely attacking blindly and resorting to pure animalistic instinct. Kyn would not take part in that.

He refocused his attention on the clock. The time was approaching twelve o'clock soon, the three hands slowly revolving into the same place. Strange. There had to be some significance in its implication... Kyn stared for a few more moments. The unmoving fourth hand pointing left; the big red twelve number; the time slowly ticking to twelve. He added the pieces together.

Realization dawned upon him rather quickly.

Kyn knew he needed to leave the area as soon as possible. The Floor had already given enough legible hints for him to understand the situation. When twelve o'clock hit, something bad would happen in this place—as insinuated by the bolded red twelve—and the fourth unmoving hand was pointing to the direction he should take: left.

It was simple, really. He surmised that there were multiple clocks situated in different areas—or at least if there were no clocks, other types of small tests and hidden clues substituted in for the clock. Anyone with a discerning eye would have noticed something wrong, put two-and-two together, and started acting. If not, then the person was not worthy of traveling up the Tower.