When Uncle Friendly said they
had a lot to talk about he wasn’t kidding, and he did most of the talking.
Magic Rock asked him questions about what had been going on since everyone
disappeared—what Uncle Friendly referred to as “The Awakening”—and why all the
Vendors were gathered at the tower.
Most of what he said didn’t make
a lot of sense to Wonder since he hadn’t been around before and wasn’t as
familiar with Ur. He talked about how the Vendors already had a plan in place
to meet up if the world didn’t end when the Giants woke up. Once it was
apparent that Ur was still there they all teleported to Jethimadh Tower. They
had been near the tower since then trying to figure out what to do next.
As the conversation went on Wonder’s
earlier excitement turned to boredom and he found his attention drifting to the
Vendors standing at the base of the tower. They had mostly turned to each
other, coming together in groups to chat while Uncle Friendly figured out what
to do. Wonder wondered what their lives had been like before and what it would
have been like to trade with them if he had been given the chance of a normal
life.
While he was daydreaming Magic
Rock and Uncle Friendly had apparently come to a decision and were staring at him.
He slowly turned back to them and realized they had asked him something and
were waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying
attention.”
Uncle Friendly seemed
exasperated. “Of course not,” he grumbled to himself followed by something else
he couldn’t make out.
“It’s OK,” Mr. Trinkets said. “I
was starting to nod off myself.”
Magic Rock pushed on. “Yes, yes,
very funny. The long and short of it is Uncle Friendly here believes the Giants
are still somewhere between waking and sleeping and that if we can get them
back to sleep the world will be restored to its former balance.”
“Really?” Wonder was excited
about the possibility, but couldn’t see how they could put the Giants back to
sleep. “So, how do we do that?”
“Well, that’s where they’re kind
of stuck. There is a theory that we can somehow use the store of Wine of the
Dead that Hell’s Bartender brought up with him. Maybe make it into a
concentrated powder. It’s deadly to Glitchen and Vendors alike, but it might be
just enough to put the Giants back to sleep.”
“OK, so can we try that?”
This time Uncle Friendly
answered him. “We’d love to. The problem is we’re not sure how to deliver the
powder. How do you sprinkle something on a Giant when you live inside its mind?
That’s where you come in.”
Wonder was confused. “I’m
sorry?”
“We know that Glitchen in the
past have called the Giants into our world and talked to them face to face. We
think that if you can do that we might have a chance to dose them up and put
them back to sleep.”
The longer he listened the more
far-fetched Uncle Friendly’s plan seemed. “And how exactly am I supposed to
call the Giants?”
“Well, we don’t really know that
either, but we know it’s been done before. Our thought is that if there is a
way to call the Giants you’ll find that information in the tower.” Uncle
Friendly was waiting for a response.
It seemed to Wonder that he
talked a big game, but underneath his cool exterior he was extremely worried.
The plan would need several miracles, at least, if it had any chance of working.
On the other hand it was the only plan they had. “So why do you need me? You’ve
obviously been here a while; haven’t you searched the tower by now?”
“And now we’ve come to our first
problem, which you have easily solved just by showing up!” Uncle Friendly
seemed pleased to reach a question he could answer with confidence. “The tower
will only open for a Glitch. Until now we believed them all to be gone and our
hope was lost, but now here you are: the last Glitch in Ur.”
Wonder finally understood his
part in this conversation. “So you need me to go in, figure out how to call the
Giants and then come back here and tell you so you can put them back to sleep.”
“Yes, well, almost. We need you
to go in, figure out how to call the Giants and then actually do it so you can put them back to sleep.”
Wonder was shocked at Uncle
Friendly’s suggestion. “What? Why do I have to do it? You are all much smarter and
understand this world better than I do. I’m the last person that should be
calling the Giants!”
“That’s just it, Wonder, you’re
the last person, or at least the last Glitch. You’re the only one that can do
it. The Giants don’t listen to us, but they might listen to you.”
“He’s right, Wonder. We have no
idea if any of this will work, but right now you’re our best hope.” Magic Rock
spoke softly trying to convince him. “We’ll wait for you here, but this is
something you’ll have to do alone. So, will you do it?”
Suddenly Wonder felt the weight
of what they were asking. That morning he had been nothing more than a traveler
hoping to find some answers and now all of a sudden he’s the savior of Ur? He
couldn’t imagine how any of this could make sense, but at the moment he didn’t
have any better ideas. He felt his mind split. One part was completely numb
from the shock of what was being asked, but the other part was suddenly kicked
into overdrive. There were so many things he still didn’t understand about this
world; maybe they were right, maybe he is their last hope to put things back
together. Maybe this plan will work and everything will go back to normal and he
can lead a normal life with his own home street and his own butler. Maybe Uncle
Friendly’s idea isn’t crazy at all, it just needs a Glitch—any Glitch—to make
it work.
It was this part of his brain,
the hopeful, but slightly illogical part, that agreed to enter the tower alone
and look for a way to call the Giants back to Ur.
“OK,” he said. “I’ll do it. Just
tell me where to go.”
***
The next few hours were spent
discussing the layout of the tower and likely locations of knowledge and
resources that would be helpful. Magic Rock and Uncle Friendly did most of the
planning without consulting Wonder which irritated him until he realized
neither of them seemed to really know much about the tower and most of the
search was going to be up to Wonder and his instincts. This did not make him
feel any better about the plan.
As far as he understood there
were several rooms, likely near the top of the tower, which would have been
used as museums or libraries or something similar. Much of the tower was still
under construction and there were hallways that suddenly ended and doors that
opened into nothing, so he should be careful. Other than that his goal was to
head as high in the tower as he could get and search the rooms there.
When it was time for him to go
there was little fanfare. Though all the Vendors realized what was happening
and were watching him intently there were no announcements made or any official
words said. Instead Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets quietly wished him luck and
then stepped back. He took one more look around before opening the large front
door, taking a deep breath and stepping inside.
The entrance was not quite what
Wonder was expecting. For such a grand tower he somehow thought the inside
would feel bigger. Instead he was in a relatively small corridor warmly lit by
lamps hanging overhead. There were several doors along the walls and then the
corridor just ended.
“Well,” he said to himself,
“here goes nothing.” He opened the first door he came to and stepped through.
Jethimadh Tower was at least as
confusing as they had warned him it would be, if not more. He didn’t have a map
or a guide or really any sense of general direction other than up. The doors
all had signs, but they just seemed to be random numbers and letters; none of
them made much sense to him. He just kept climbing and going through door after
door, finding more hallways and more doors. After what felt like the hundredth
corridor he wondered what idiot architect had designed this place, and then
worried that even if he found what he came for he wouldn’t be able to get out
again.
He was beginning to feel like he
would never reach the top when he came to a door with a wooden plank across it
and a sign that said “Under Construction.”
Wonder thought to himself, ‘At
least this is something different,’ and decided to have a peek behind it. He
tugged the plank off of the door and pulled it open.
What he saw when he stepped
through was another hallway, but this one was clearly still being finished up.
The lamps weren’t all hung and the walls weren’t quite finished. Along one side
were two doors. One labeled “Interrogation Room: No Admittance,” the other
labeled “Mezzanine.”
Wonder thought a room where
interrogations happened was likely to have lots of information, so he tried the
Interrogation Room first. The sign wasn’t lying when it said “No Admittance,”
because the door was locked and he couldn’t get in. Disappointed, he turned to
the other door.
Wonder didn’t know what a
Mezzanine was, but the door was unlocked so he opened it and went through. He
was in another hallway, but he felt like she was close to her goal as the doors
here had signs that read things like “Hall of Records” and “Hall of Rejected
Concepts.” Hall of Records seemed like a good place to start, but as he was
reaching for the door knob another door caught his attention. The next door
over was labeled “Rook Museum” and Wonder’s fascination kept him rooted to the
spot.
He knew almost nothing about the
Rook, except what Magic Rock had told him, which wasn’t much, but he clearly
remembered the fear in his friend’s eyes when they thought they had seen one. He
had asked about the Rook several times on their journey to the tower, but the
rest of the group had always changed the subject or feigned ignorance. Now here
was his chance to find out what they had been keeping from him. He was eager to
complete his task and get back to his friends, but he figured a quick peek
couldn’t hurt, so he turned away from the other doors and stepped into the Rook
Museum.
At first there was nothing to
see. The room was large, but it was very dimly lit. There was a small log
crudely carved with arms and a face lying on the ground next to the door. He
poked at it with his foot, but it didn’t move. Wonder stepped a little further
into the room, but couldn’t see much. There was a large picture on the wall
near him, but it was hard to discern in the dark. Looking a little closer he
noticed a small red button next to the frame.
He pushed the button and a light
flickered to life over the image. A crackling noise startled him and a voice began
speaking from the wall next to him. Wonder jumped back in surprise, but he
quickly realized the voice was narrating the story in the picture.
“Back in the early ages of Ur,” the voice began, “small islands formed spontaneously from the
primordial chaos.”
While the voice went on about
the dangers of the early days of Ur, Wonder examined the picture. It showed a
scene of some early Glitchen running away in fear from a darkness in the
background, and flying with them were several large black birds that looked
just like—
“Oh no! Koro!” In all the
excitement of meeting the Vendors and his new quest he had completely forgotten
he still had Koro tucked away in one of his bags.
Wonder tore open the bag and
lifted Koro out carefully. “Koro I’m so sorry! You’ve been in there for hours
and I completely forgot!”
Koro hopped down to the floor
and fanned her wings. She looked a little ruffled, but no worse for the wear.
“It’s OK, I’m fine,” she said. “Where are we?” By this time the voice had
stopped talking and the light over the picture had gone out so there wasn’t
much for Koro to see but a big, dark room.
“We’re in the tower! You missed
out on quite a bit. You really should have joined us. I know you said you were
nervous, but there was really nothing to worry about.”
“Where is everyone else?” Koro
asked.
“They stayed behind. I’ll fill
you in on all the details later, but I had to come in alone because they said only
a Glitch could open the tower. I guess you got in because I brought you here
with me.” Then turning to the picture on the wall he went on excitedly, “But,
Koro, look at what I found!” Wonder pushed the button and the picture lit up as
the voice began speaking again.
“Back in the early ages of Ur…”
Wonder pointed up at the
picture. “Look, it’s us! Our people, together, back in history!”
Koro’s eyes went wide.
“...The ancient Glitchen tribes suffered under constant threat to their
very survival…”
“Wonder, where are we?”
“I told you, we’re in the tower.”
“…But by far the most dangerous and terrifying of these was The Rook…”
“Where in the tower?”
“The Rook Museum, why?” Wonder
looked at his friend, confused.
“…The Rook, enemy of imagination, visited its wrath upon whatever the
Giants created…”
Koro was suddenly panicked. “We
shouldn’t be here!”
“Koro, what’s the matter?”
“…It was the very manifestation of fear, doubt and uncertainty…”
“We can’t stay! We have to leave
now!”
“Koro, you’re scaring me, tell
me what’s wrong!”
“… It pecked and clawed relentlessly at the periphery of the Giants’
domain…”
“Please trust me, we need to go!”
“Koro, what’s the big deal? It’s
just…“ but Wonder’s words fell short. As he looked back up at the picture
something in his mind clicked. He made connections he hadn’t been able to make
before. All of those odd looks between the others, Koro’s unusual behavior, it
all suddenly made sense. Those birds weren’t flying from the terror, they were
the terror.
“…Black winter to the Giants’ spring of creativity…”
“Koro…” Wonder whispered in
horror. “You’re a… a Rook?”
Koro looked up at Wonder pleadingly.
“I’m so sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted a friend.”
Wonder looked back at Koro as if
for the first time. He stared in silence for a long moment and then turned and
ran from the room while Koro watched him, defeated.
“…It
was—if I can say so myself—most awful.”
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