Tower in Brightly

Elphius L. Doge

I drew back the curtains and was sucked in by the violent force of the wind. The mirrorworld of Bright took me in, reshaped me, and then hurled me back to dismal earth in a new physical form. I was tall, long, stretched out like string. My own gender was indistinguishable, but it did not matter, for I was a sexless creature.

One look around my surroundings told me I was trapped in England. Before, I was in India, Germany, Sweden, and so many other places. A deep longing to return to the Bright realm almost overcame my inhuman senses, and I retched.

Some passersby gave me reproachful looks, but I conveniently ignored. When my longing had dissipated, I turned down a dark alleyway. Tall, looming buildings made the small lane almost claustrophobic. The alley led to a dead end, but I didn’t stop to think; I walked straight through the grimy brick wall, through people, and I came to a gloomy room. There was a large chessboard, with white and black squares almost as wide as I was tall.

Upon entering, the black squares lit up with a fierce light, while the white squares turned a dull gray. The black squares were, in fact, holes poked through reality; the whitish-gray squares were dimensions. Dimensions held no interest for me though; it was the reality-holes I had come for.

With a graceful leap I flew into mid-air. There I glided around the room for a while, then dove into a reality-hole. When I emerged, I emerged out of the stormy waters of the Pacific. I was now a great fish-creature, both of fish and of man-like shape. I dove back into the inky depths, and twirled around in the water.

As I made pirouettes, I swam ever downwards, until I had come to the bottom of the great water. There was an area that shone with a slight, golden light. I crossed the borderline between time and space, to a world void of time or space. Once again I was in my native world, Bright. Before me stood the tower in Brightly, framed between two jagged mountains -; when I say mountains, I do not mean the silly things from earth, but the true monarchs.

I landed on the ground gracefully, and changed my form back into a bipedal being. I was of average, human height, with green skin, and black eyes. I had no mouth. The form I had assumed was far from being my true form, but as it is with my kind, we did not go around in our true form very often.

I knocked at the tower gates, and was greeted by the gardener. Incidentally, the gardener was also the one I was looking for. You see, I desired to be the gatekeeper of the tower, which was named Larkworthy.

I asked the gardener. He was called Malark. I surveyed him with my glittering black eyes, and was disgusted by him because he had a gender, which was male. Despite that I swallowed my pride, and was as polite to him as my own nature permitted. The curse of my kind just so happened to be that of a warmonger – we were so brash, bold, and rude that it was a wonder we hadn’t been banished by the Imperial Markistra. Of course, the Markistra did not hold the power to banish the creatures mothered by Bright, let alone any other world.

Malark left me for some time. When he returned I was impatient. The fact that there was no time in my true world was slightly vexing, as I was so used to the times of earth during my exile.

Malark looked at me in a rather sad and disapproving way. “I am sorry, but I cannot hire you. Goodbye Opus.”

My eyes grew wide. How could this old, rickety creature know my name? But what bothered me more was the fact that he had turned me down. Name or not, he held no inkling of who I was.