The Towers of Azhalis

Behold the desert of Azhalis! For miles there is nothing much to see but endless dunes of sparkling blue sand, deep gorges in the terra and the occasional night traveler. The sky above is filled with millions of stars, and the three moons— actually the world of Kinzood has four moons, but the fourth moon only cycles the Dome of Heaven only at midnight.

On the plain blue sands, ten towers rose majestic and tall, even from a far distance one could not fail to see the majesty and glory of the great Kingdom, nor fail to appreciate the ingenuity and skill of the builders who sculpted the castles and towers out of the mountains.

For a thousand years, the ten towers have stood apart from one another, they were the abode of the ten ruling rival factions of Azhalis and home of the ten sultans.

Venga is the King and sole arbitrator of the Kingdom of Azhalis, his ancestors were not native Azhalians but conquerors from Ilyo Aragah, who brought sanity and civilization to the desert Kingdom. His main job was to maintain peace between the ten ruling factions and call the ten sultans to order, but it seems they have plans to get rid of him so they can continue their war in peace.

The Azhalians are a naturally aggressive people; they shout on top of their voices day and night as they hardly sleep, but even amidst the noise of the city, Venga could hear a more subtle noise—the sound of a powerful divine technique.

“I should have executed all the alchemists long ago!” he said to himself as he watched the sprawling city from the top of the citadel. Soon, a brilliant wave of light shone from one of the towers and Venga had to shield his eyes. The intensity of the light was so great that the city went quiet for a moment, soon the earth began to rumble.

Venga cursed in ancient Azhalian, he could recognize at least twelve terra based divine techniques and one lightning based technique and they were aimed at the citadel—his palace!
“The entire city rumbled violently and this time, there was no mistake—the city was on the verge of collapse, Venga leapt into the air and with inhuman dexterity dodged falling stones and flying techniques, until a random stone brought him down.

When his consciousness returned, he found himself hanging upside down from the talons of a monarch eagle the entire city was in chaos and a few towers were on fire—only his self-discipline kept him from screaming.

The entire desert shook but the city of Azhalis did not fall, instead the sands parted to reveal gigantic walls connecting the towers at the base. And as the city shook, the walls rose till the entire city was completely sealed by phantom white stone walls.

Then was the secret of the ancient towers revealed and the true purpose of the builders discovered…