I opened the door at the top of the tower and light came pouring in. I stepped through the door and onto the roof of the roof of the black tower. It was surrounded by white clouds and all above us was a bright blue sky with the unencumbered sun beaming down as if it had never left.
"It's magical," said Eldwyn.
"Don't be fooled, Eldwyn," I said, looking around for any signs of danger. "This could be an illusion brought to life by the Oblivion Witch." I looked in the far distance and saw her castle. It was miles wide and made of black iron. It looked like it should have broken through the clouds and drop to the ground below. "That's where we are to go." I pointed at the castle unflinchingly and walked towards it. At the edge of the tower, I pressed my foot over the edge and tested the solidity of the clouds to make sure it could support us. Once I was certain, we walked towards the castle with careful footsteps.
All of this had felt like a dream. It was what I had imagined haven to be like, only with celestials flying in the air and without an evil castle lurking on the horizon. I could almost hear the melodic sounds of harps and light voices beckoning me, and I shook my head side to side and sent them away. This wasn't haven, this was more like the underground dressed up as something beautiful and I needed to remember what hid beneath the veneer.
"What do you sense, Eldwyn?" I asked, looking over at him.
"The Oblivion Witch is...very powerful," he said, as if he didn't want to say it. "The winds are crying, knight. She has the ability to warp reality to her will. She rose from the underground, older than time itself and brought about this cloudland."
"And what is her aim?" I asked.
"I don't know. She should be powerful enough to bring destruction to our world at any time and yet she doesn't. Maybe she can be bargained with. Maybe this doesn't have to result in death."
I didn't have the heart to tell him that avoiding violence was unrealistic. One side was going to win and the other side was going to die. There was no way around it.
We were halfway to the castle when I felt a shift in the winds and I knew that Eldwyn felt it too. It had to mean something. The winds grew stronger and I looked to him in preparation for an answer when a wave formed in the distance, like this cloud plane was a violent sea. Eldwyn and I backed away from it, but we both knew that there was no escaping it. There was nowhere to run or hide from its' immensity. I wanted to fight it, to protect us, but I felt helpless. I looked to Eldwyn, grasping his hand and looking him in the eyes. If this was it, at least I was going out with him.
As it got closer, Eldwyn's grip tightened and then released mine. He stepped in front of me, holding his hands out to his sides. I felt the winds gathering around us. He pushed his hands out and screamed with all his might as he blew a hole in the wave, allowing the wave to pass us around over us.
I looked back at it as it continued to go and then I looked at Eldwyn in disbelief. "That was brilliant."
"Yea, it kind of was."
We turned back around and continued walking toward the castle. If Eldwyn needed a message about how the Oblivion Witch felt our being there, this was it. Beings made of such darkness could not be reasoned with, they could only be thwarted. Power only bows before power.
"What will become of us after this?" asked Eldwyn, keeping his eyes down.
"What do you mean?" I knew what he meant, I just didn't want to know. We had never talked about what we were to each other after our time in the Village of the Wind, it had become all the more unclear. We made love and it was the greatest moment of my life, but our adventure had been a bit of a dream. Alone together, we were unchained by restrictions from the outside world. Always on the run and escaping the laws of the land. In the kingdom of Sentria, however, nothing had changed. The same rules applied as before.
"I mean...our feelings for each other."
"I care for you Eldwyn," I said and then paused for a long time, looking out into the deep blue vastness.
"I know that this is all just a dream, knight. You have another life and another love to address."
I stopped right then and there. It hurt hearing his candidness. This wasn't the way we wanted things to go. We were both victims of circumstances, but what I knew for sure was that I couldn't bear life without Eldwyn.
"Listen to me, we will find some way to be together. I will soon be king and I will have ultimate authority throughout the land. Relics and civilization will be as one. They will be invited into the kingdom and treated equally. Of this, I can promise you. I care most passionately for you Eldwyn, never doubt that."
"But—"
Before he could finish, cloud walls rose up all around us, one after another like building blocks and a roof was formed overhead. I took out my sword in case something came to attack us. I then looked to Eldwyn, he had got us through the wave well enough with his wind powers, maybe he could do the same. But as I was about to ask this of him, the walls changed form and color; they became black brick and the clouds beneath our feet became a dirt floor.
"What sorcery is this?!" I asked, spinning around and looking in all directions.
"The Oblivion Witch must have changed this place. We're in a labyrinth, knight." Eldwyn walked over to one of the walls and knocked on it, testing its resiliency. "And we will have to go through it to reach her."