The band looked like four climbers who were good at music more than they were at climbing. They called themselves 'Wyld Ryde', painted in huge white letters that looked like monster scratches. They had uniquely shaped acoustic guitars that sounded about halfway as distorted as electric ones. Their drum kit looked like it was salvaged from a warzone. The members themselves had a theme; they were all reptilian mutants at various levels. The vocalist had feathers on his jaws, a hybrid with some amount of avian in him.

  They started their small concert with an original alternative rock song called 'Climb baby climb', which was way more enjoyable than Arcen thought it would be.

  They didn't have polished vocals, clean instrumentation, or any sort of audio production. It was just four dudes hammering out an honest song about kicking ass inside towers and sticking together through thick and thin. The crowd sang along almost right away, and they threw their chairs and really got into dancing.

  Arcen wouldn't have enjoyed anything like this if he weren't in a tower. He'd been to concerts a total of two times in the last eight years, always dragged there by his siblings, mainly Kysa. Crowded places weren't the best for his mutation and the last time he nearly got into a fight with a drunk after they yanked his tentacles.

  Even if he wasn’t a mutant, concerts were sweaty, slimy places often full of horny people. It didn't work well with his aversion to touch. Kysa was an expert on surviving and thriving in such locations, having spent a lot of her teen years on them. She had a lot of backup dancing gigs on stage that she wanted him to see. Kylan was there to find girls with daddy issues, his relationships usually crashing and burning within two weeks afterwards.

  He got off the chair when everyone around him started dancing. It was purely a defensive move. He wanted to find a safe corner if things got out of hand around him. Climbers were the last people he wanted to get into a bar fight with in a lawless tower. There was no telling who possessed the contract that could vaporize you on the spot.

  What the fuck is she doing up there?!

  He couldn't imagine what song a middle schooler would want to sing to a crowd of drunks in a tower. There were several things wrong with it at a fundamental level. He'd been too focused on Colin to notice that he came to a bar with a twelve-year-old, a very questionable decision outside of towers.

  Wyld Ryde sang through five songs, and he was shaking his head along without even realizing it. They were good at singing about towers and revolting against the government. There was at least one love song in there, but he wasn't paying enough attention to the lyrics.

  The vocalist switched halfway, and three new people climbed to the small stage. It was two women, one nearly or fully human, and one with an insectoid mutation. They were accompanying a tall man with gray, fish-like skin. Dressed in similar ripped black outfits, they introduced themselves as a new trio from Europe. They sang a weird fusion of folk and heavy metal that Arcen had to sit through about three songs to start to enjoy.

  After that, a few more vocalists came and went, singing various covers of popular songs, mostly alternative ballads from the early 2000s. He heard Blink-182, Foo Fighters, and The Killers.

  It reflected the majority age bracket of climbers in the tower.

  Arcen found this concert more enjoyable when songs that he had listened to a thousand times came up. He was just getting into it when Elena showed up.

  He had zero expectations, but whatever expectations he could've come up with were toppled the moment she opened her mouth.

  She sang a popular song from Paramore—one that he forgot the title of—with such energy that it redefined what he thought middle schoolers were capable of. He didn't know much about singing, but what he heard sounded way more polished than all the adults who sang before her. The two girls from Europe joined in as backup, and the original vocalist sat on the ground, nodding along with a huge smile on his face as if he already knew this would happen.

  Some in the audience looked as impressed as Arcen was, pointing and clapping excitedly. Others were already singing along as if they knew how good she was.

  Damn, this little shit should be on the TV, not a tower.

  She sang four more songs, popular ones from Flyleaf, Avril Levine, Thirty Seconds To Mars - The Kill, and one song so niche and unexpected, it reawakened nostalgia from a completely different life. He couldn't even remember what song it was, nor what band it was from; he only remembered it in a series of memories that he could almost 'smell'.

  He didn't even want to know what song it was. It belonged to a past that he couldn't even imagine anymore; it deserved to stay forgotten exactly as it was.

  She never made a single mistake, nor did she seem to run out of energy. Singing aside, he would've been dizzy if he just screamed for a whole minute. He couldn't tell if it had anything to do with whatever mystery mutation she had.

  She knew crowd work too, getting everyone riled up as she sang the choruses that everyone was familiar with.

  The concert ended with her last performance, which was the tonal and energy opposite of what she had done so far. She sang Drops of Jupiter.

  That tickled a wound he didn't even know he had, stirring memories that were buried in eight years of dust. He remembered a pleasant evening on a road trip. He couldn't remember when it happened or where he was going. He only remembered his mother's hair dancing in the wind over the driving seat.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  LOVE [10]

  +1

  ????

  PAST [3]

  +1

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  He'd remembered his mother. Hearing these songs was the equivalent of going down a waterslide that ended in a lava pit.

  She got off stage to chants of 'one more,' throwing high fives to everyone on stage.

  What else does this fucking tower have?

  Arcen looked at the unopened beer bottle in his hand, combing through his tentacles with his other hand. He would've been less shell-shocked if he had been punched in the face.

  This could still be a very elaborate hallucination.

  Maybe I actually died on that ground floor.

  Arcen walked out of the bar chamber completely sober, the opposite of what he thought he would do going in. Elena was busy drinking a purple jelly-like fruit juice after singing as long as she did.

  “Care to explain?” He asked as they were winding through the dark forest with glowing snakes. She handed the bottle to him and cleared her voice.

  “So, we're going to follow him around-”

  “The singing, dude!” He almost yelled.

  “Ah, what do you mean? like teach you how to or?” she asked nonchalantly.

  “No, have you always done that? how are you so good at it? what the fuck are you doing in a tower if you're that good at something? I have more, but start with that.”

  “Yes, and I can do more things if you want to see!” Elena said with a laugh. “I can dance too, and gymnastics, and figure skating, and play piano and violin, but not very good at the last two.”

  The kid had just called him functionally useless as a human being without actually spelling it out.

  “Did all that by twelve?”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Yeah? anyways, I don't do those things anymore.”

  “Why the hell not?!”

  “Don't wanna.”

  This was preposterous. If Arcen was good at anything, he would've never stopped doing it. All he had ever been good at was memorizing useless bullshit for exams that got him nowhere in life. His mother shoved him into a piano somewhere around ten, but he was so atrociously bad at it that she stopped wasting money on those classes only two months later.

  It didn't help that he grew up with two siblings who were good at doing at least one thing. His sister had started dancing as soon as she figured out how to stand on two legs. She was destined for it like it was the prophesied arrival of the messiah. She started modelling, and again, she just discovered she was really good at it in a week or two.

  His brother was a whiny loser by choice. He won several swimming competitions when he was younger. Post Mayday, he got really good at shooting people in video games, good enough to actually think about playing competitively.

  Arcen had never had a medal to show. Nothing that he ever did was captured in a photo that could be proudly displayed on a wall. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be, or what he wanted to be. He could remember it all with a grin on his face now like his life was a cruel parody, but it wasn't that fun when he had to live through it back then.

  “Is there like a reason why you don't want to do things?” He asked, curious to know a single valid reason. She could've been very well off without ever touching a tower. Even if she was bad at these things she claimed she could do, she had to have adoptive parents, or someone who loved her enough and were wealthy enough to fund everything.

  “I just don't like them anymore, except singing, as I said.”

  “Well, you could certainly get very popular doing that.”

  “I was popular doing that.”

  “What?” Arcen asked, trying to process this information in a digestible format. If he understood what came out of her mouth, this meant that he'd always had a popular child prodigy cousin from Russia. “Popular? I haven't seen you anywhere before in my life.”

  “Oh well, not that popular. I was a runner-up in a talent show two years ago. You wouldn't know me from that even if you saw it. I had a different name, different hair, green eyes, a little bit fat, no oil like this,” she said, twirling an oily strand of dark hair in her fingers.

  Wait, what does she mean, no oil?

  The math didn't add up.

  “Two years ago and no oil? How is that possible? You had to be what? three or four on Mayday. Mutations don’t happen late, do they?”

  “I wasn't this oily two years ago. I was more like, kinda too sweaty back then,” she said, demonstrating it by raising her hand, which was immediately dripping clear oil.

  “What changed?”

  “Wouldn't you like to know?” She asked, throwing her tongue out.

  “Secret?”

  “Mhm,” She nodded aggressively like a cartoon character.

  Interesting. I wonder what happened two years ago that made her a tower-climbing freak.

  “Does this have anything to do with Helene?” Arcen asked before any other thoughts could interrupt it. He had found something to poke at, and he wanted to take the risk just to see what would happen.

  Elena looked at him wide-eyed for a moment. It was clear she hadn't expected him to bring that name up. The one that she wrote on the piece of paper that she hung on that mysterious tree. The one that she said was going to die soon.

  Arcen didn't even guess what these things had to do with each other. He was throwing it out there as he did. This was exactly the sort of thing Elena would've done to him if he had anything like it.

  She curled her lips and started biting her upper lip, as if she was trying to hold something in. She wanted him to know as much, made apparent with these elaborately weird facial expressions that looked like she had eaten something too sour.

  “Come on, I don't need to know all the details. Just tell me one good reason why you're climbing these damn things.”

  Elena sighed, relaxing her face, still keeping her eyes on him.

  Time to cash in that cousin check.

  At first, he was going to do it completely unironically, but he couldn't come up with a sincere sentence fast enough for it to work. He decided to say it in the most unserious way possible.

  “We're cousins, don't you know?” He said, curling his lips to hide the smile.

  Elena scoffed, grabbing his hand just to squeeze it in hers. “Fine...I'll tell you some stuff, I guess.”

  They walked down the path in utter silence.

  “Anytime now...” Arcen said, shaking the hand she was holding.

  “I'll tell you soon, not now!” she said, without even looking at him. “Before that, did you see where Colin went?” She asked as they turned to the main path that led back to base camp.

  She had brought the conversation back to Colin after he tried to put her in the spotlight. He couldn't allow her to be that slippery. This matter with Colin was certainly important to him because of Jenna, but that wasn't as important as the black egg. He had to dissect what Elena was.

  “Uh, no. I was too drunk and flabbergasted with your singing to notice anything,” he said, rubbing his forehead.

  She laughed. “Good thing one of us can't drink then!”

  “I lied. I didn't even drink anything.”

  “Oh wow? I sounded that good, huh?” she asked, smiling ear to ear. “Thank you for saying that!”

  She said it like she had heard it a thousand times before, being as young and talented as she was. She had the opposite problem that he had at this age. She had been praised too many times by too many people, to the point she developed a knee-jerk 'thank you' line just to get it out of the way.

  “Didn't the lady in the supply depot say Colin was doing a delivery from the bar to the doc?” he asked, letting her change the topic, but on his terms.

  “Yeah. And that's where we'll go.”

  Basecamp was quieter than they left it by the time they arrived. Most of the climbers had retreated into their tents, and Rika's tent was in complete darkness with some sort of energy bubble blanketing it from top to bottom. The chamber was dim, lit only by a few small floating lights.

  There were two campfires in the distance, one surrounded by four climbers who were talking quietly with each other and another in the camp's middle where two Echo Raiders stood, warming their hands. Elena waved at them politely.

  “Rika's already gone; she's above us right now,” Elena said, looking at the dim tent. “I wondered why she wasn't at the bar. She always goes crazy when I sing.”

  “She knows who you were?” Arcen asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, it's not easy to hide things from her. You'll be surprised if you did.”

  I might be fucked then.

  He had hidden a crucial piece of information from her. The only hope he could have was for it to have gone unnoticed because it was personally insignificant to her.

  “Where is everyone?” Arcen asked, looking around. It felt like everyone had gone to sleep, but the tower had no such day-night cycle. It was always dark unless lit. Someone had made the chamber dark on purpose.

  “It's nighttime, like past midnight right now.”

  “Huh?”

  This has genuinely not occurred to Arcen since he was on the ground floor. He had lost track of time completely. He couldn't tell how many days it had been, or if he slept every day. He was sure he stayed awake for like three days straight at some point, fear and adrenaline keeping him going.

  The measurement of time only mattered in a civilization; it hadn't been that long since he arrived in one. In fact, civilization only began once he set foot in the doctor's chamber. That place felt like a perpetual evening.

  Where did I even sleep?

  He remembered where he would've gotten the rest that he wanted. When he was knocked out by that thing with the huge beak in the spicy water chamber.

  “Holy shit. I don't know the time at all!” He said, hands over his head.

  Elena laughed. “That happens, don't worry about it!” She said, reassuringly. “I don't know the exact time either. I just know like the...rhythm.”

  “I-if its midnight, don't you want to sleep?”

  “I'm good to go for another day. You can sleep if you're tired. Although we'll miss Colin,” she said, pausing to look at him. “Oh, but wait, you don't have a tent here, do you?”

  Arcen's eyes widened when she stated the obvious. It hadn't occurred to him, just like it was with time. He never had a tent. He'd just been living in other people's places all this time. Gareth's cave, Zuhara's tent. He'd never imagined he could lead a life in the tower. He'd just been tossed from trouble to trouble until he forgot everything about how he was supposed to live.

  “Oh my god, I'm totally homeless,” he said, hand over his heart.

  Elena burst out laughing, grabbing her stomach. She laughed until she started coughing, and she only stopped because her sides ached.

  “It's not that funny,” Arcen said disappointingly. He had to admit what he said was funny, but he couldn't laugh that hard at himself.

  “I forgot to tell you to buy a tent. Mr. Barnes has them in storage. Can’t wake him up now, he’ll be pissed. You can sleep in mine if you want. I can just hang around outside,” Elena said, rubbing her stomach as she breathed hard to control her laughter.

  I kinda am sleepy, but do I want to?

  Hauling those rods had been tiresome. He had a bit more juice left in him if he wanted to chase Colin. Elena clearly wanted to continue as fast as possible. The way they pressured Colin with their questions would have rattled him. The man could sneak away now and reinvent his identity in a floor below, or even in a whole different tower.

  “Thanks. I think I can make it to the doc's.”

  “Ah, you can sleep on a real bed there, and I'll keep an eye on that guy while you do. Let's get going then.”

  One of the climbers walked up to them as they walked near. He handed a piece of paper to Elena, just like she always got work. He smiled and nodded at Arcen and went back to join his friends at the campfire.

  Elena opened the paper with her oily fingers and brought it closer to read it like an old lady would.

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ SKILL ╰︶

  ????

  RADIATE

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯

  Arcen activated it right next to them, instantly lighting everything around them. Elena jolted, looking at him with wide eyes.

  “What? The tower gave me a torch. I'm using it.”

  “You know what? fair enough,” she said quickly, reading the piece of paper before it blotted with her oil. It was written in large pink letters. She scoffed after reading it and tossed it away.

  “What was that?” Arcen asked, surprised.

  “It's just Rika. She'd passed by the bar before she went up and heard me singing. She's kinda pissed about missing it. Now she wants me to give her a concert when she gets back,” Elena said with a sigh. “Maybe I'll take Gold from her for that one...”

  “You do that. She's got the right idea. I'll definitely be there.”

  “For free?” She asked, grinning at him.

  “I can do five Gold.”

  “Really? You just got a hundred thousand today, and five is what you think I'm worth?!”

  “Alright then, ten big ones. That's like thirty dollars.”

  “No!”

  “Fifteen?”

  They walked out of the base camp chamber arguing about how much she should price her concert tickets.

  Halfway through the next chamber, Arcen started seeing things wobble around him. It was subtle at first, small lights moving weirdly in the distance. It only got worse as they neared the chamber veil, taking the marked path through the darkness.

  Wait, I've seen this before.

  He'd seen these spatial distortions when he was coming towards the basecamp, when Rika was squeezing Gold out of her fist into a tank. It suddenly occurred to him that she wasn't here anymore. She'd even left a note for Elena before climbing up.

  He interrupted their ticket price banter and grabbed Elena's shoulder, keeping his eyes peeled for any creature in the distance. These distortions didn't appear around creatures with a hundred million Aura; it had to be higher, and it had to be much higher to travel further.

  He didn't want to keep walking towards some tower demon.

  “Rika's gone, right?” Arcen asked in a panicked whisper. “What the hell is making these distortions?”

  “I think I know already,” Elena said, frowning.

  More layers of the onion that is Elena.

  Next chapter on Friday.

  Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!

  Advance chapters on