Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
My mother?
“She’s the enemy.”
I’m ready to dismiss this last comment as absurd, but I can’t. Because she’s one of them. She’s one of those culty Matrons. And the last time we spoke, she was walking away from me. Not just… like… moving to another building or whatever. Not just… going on a little retreat to pull herself together.
She was walking away from me.
Like I meant nothing to her.
Like I was a job.
And like, with the death of my father, that job was now over.
I stop my descent and stand in the dark stairwell dazed and confused. Shattered, maybe. With the realization that my life has been a lie.
Then something else hits me. An idea. An… explanation. An answer. One I wasn’t particularly looking for, but which presents itself nonetheless.
The first thing my father started explaining was the opening of the god’s tower doors. “The Looking Glass controls the tower doors,” he said. “It opens them. But more importantly, it communicates with the god’s world, Finn. Without the Looking Glass, there is no connection.”
Which was pretty clever, now that I think about it. He told me the important part first, but then distracted me with the part about the connection to another world.
Another world? I mean, in my defense, it’s a life-altering thing to say. So it’s no wonder I succumbed to his distraction.
But the real betrayal didn’t come from my mother and her allegiance to a cult of dried-up Spark Maidens. It came from him.
If the Looking Glass controls the tower doors and the Extraction Master controls the Looking Glass, this means… the Extraction Master opens the tower doors.
I lean on the metal railing, looking down at the darkness. My head spinning with the realization that my father is the one who called Clara into the tower.
He took her from me.
I don’t know how, but he did. He rang the bells. He called her in. And now that I think about it, this is probably why he was murdered. I mean, he made the message. He set up the countdown for the Extraction Tower’s destruction. But that’s not all he did. He set up another countdown. One that would ring those bells and force Haryet and Clara to enter the tower.
And someone killed him for these things.
There’s a part of me that understands that something bigger than me and my love for Clara is happening here. That my father was doing something important. That he didn’t call Clara in for no reason.
But there’s another part of me that doesn’t care about why he did it.
I just want to hurt him the way he hurt me.
Which is dumb. Because he’s dead.
So I force myself to straighten up and continue my descent.
There was a lot of other stuff in the message but this is all I can remember. Jasina took notes, though. She also took them with her when she left, so I need to find her. I need those notes.
I pause, because I’m at the bottom of the stairs now and there’s a faint glow up ahead. I shine my torch at it and find a sign that says ‘exit’ in red letters.
But the tunnel splits here, right below this sign, leaving one uncertain as which way to go. Which is stupid and I spend a moment being annoyed because doesn’t that defeat the whole fuckin’ point of an exit sign?
Now I have to make a decision. And I’m not prepared because fuckin’ Jasina has the notes. My father gave very explicit instructions on how to reach the trains, which is literally my only goal, and if she were with me, we could just look it up.
But noooo. She had to go exploring all by—
My internal complaining screeches to a halt when I spy something small on the ground to my left. I shine the torch on it as I walk over and pick it up.
It’s Jasina’s slipper.
Which is another thing. Silk slippers? For a job like this? We should’ve prepared a pack or something. At the very least, she really needed a different pair of shoes.
Then again, if she did have a more appropriate pair of shoes, one would not have fallen off her foot. Which means I would not have a clue as to which direction I should go.
And now I do.
I turn left, looking for more clues. Who knows, maybe she’s leaving a trail of clothing behind so I can find her? Maybe when I do find her, she’ll be naked and we’ll have a little tryst—which would be pretty exciting considering the fact that we’ve got like forty minutes before this whole place blows up.
Kind of a fun way to end things, but then again, I’m annoyed.
This is when I hear chanting. And at first, I’m thinking this is the riot of people on the God’s Tower stage because I figure I’m pretty close to being right underneath it.