Chapter 11: Three Days, One Gate
They camped on the tower's shadow edge, where the air grew too thin and the sky too close. The mountain pass behind them had collapsed—the Teeth had seen to that. Ahead stood the gate of the Tower of Pale Fire.
It wasn't made of stone.
It was bone.
A vast arch, fused from the skeletons of beasts that had never walked the world above. Every rib, every spine, every skull seemed frozen mid-scream, as if remembering something that hadn't yet happened. And at the center, sealed by symbols written in gods' blood, was a door that hadn't opened in a hundred years.
Elaria traced a sigil in the dirt, silver blade across her knees.
Anterz stood still, sword across his back.
"I can feel them," she said softly. "Not just the Teeth. Others."
He nodded. "The tower's full."
"No," she whispered. "It's alive."
---
The sun never rose here. It only brightened, then darkened, like an eye blinking slowly above the tower.
And on the third day, just as the strange sky turned from dusk-red to ghost-pale—
He returned.
Rayn Al Myst.
He stepped through the fog like a man untouched by time, coat flowing behind him, blade still sheathed. His white mask gleamed even in the sick light.
"You waited," he said with a slight bow.
Anterz said nothing. Just watched.
Rayn's eyes flicked to the Tower.
"Good. Because now it begins."
---
Elaria stood. "You said you followed signs. Dreams. That they led you to Anterz. What did they tell you about the Tower?"
Rayn tilted his head. "That it is not a prison. It is not a vault."
He paused.
"It is a heart. And it beats still."
Anterz stepped closer. "You've been here before."
Rayn nodded. "I was one of the ones who tried to seal it."
Elaria's eyes narrowed. "You're old. But not that old."
Rayn's mouth curved faintly behind the broken side of his mask.
"No. But I died once. That helps."
---
Rayn unsheathed his sword.
Not silver. Not steel.
It was glass—a blade forged from the memory of ice, its edge shimmering with false reflections. It hummed with stillness.
Anterz raised Valteris slightly. "You're not just a rogue."
"No," Rayn said. "I was once a Warden of the Pale Flame. I swore to guard this tower."
He looked at the gates.
"I failed."
The moment those words left his mouth, the bone gate screamed.
Every skull lit with fire.
---
Chains burst from the arch.
Three of them—twisting, smoking, barbed. They shot toward Anterz, Elaria, and Rayn all at once.
Rayn moved like water—sidestepped, blade flashing, severed the chain in two clean cuts.
Elaria dropped low, her own sword blocking the strike. The silver fire flared, forcing the chain back.
Anterz did not move.
He caught the chain with his bare hand.
It burned through glove and skin.
He didn't scream.
Valteris ignited along his back.
And the chain melted.
---
The gate pulsed.
Symbols along the arch began to spin—like eyes rotating in place.
Rayn frowned.
"This isn't the door I remember."
Anterz stepped forward.
"Because this time… it remembers me."
He raised Valteris.
> "Open it," the blade whispered.
Anterz didn't speak.
He simply swung.
---
The impact split the silence.
The sword didn't hit stone—it hit memory. The runes on the gate flared red, then cracked.
The center of the gate unfolded—not open, not broken. It peeled back like a mouth.
Inside was not a hallway.
It was a bridge of black glass, stretching into darkness, flanked by statues of gods that no longer had names. Each statue held a weapon—and each weapon whispered as they passed.
Anterz walked first.
Elaria second.
Rayn followed, slow, watching the statues.
"I remember these," he murmured. "They were real once."
"What are they now?" Elaria asked.
Rayn didn't answer.
---
The bridge ended in a circular chamber. No ceiling. No floor. Just space stretching infinitely above and below.
In the center hovered a platform of stone.
And upon it stood a knight in crimson armor—its surface cracked, leaking light. Its helm had no face. Just a jagged hole that bled fire.
Its sword was longer than its body.
Its name came in a voice neither human nor divine.
> "I am Rathuun, the Gate-Wound. The First of the Tower's Teeth. The one they could not bury."
Anterz stepped forward.
"You knew me."
Rathuun's blade lifted.
> "You created me."
---
He charged like thunder.
Anterz met him at full speed.
Steel to ruin. Light to shadow. Their blades collided with force that cracked the platform in half.
Rathuun roared. Each swing left burns in the air. His sword was not metal—it was time made solid. Each strike aged the place it hit by years, turning fresh stone to dust.
Valteris resisted, howled against entropy, but it strained.
Anterz struck high—Rathuun blocked. He spun low—Rathuun countered, slamming his blade into the floor and sending a wave of age outward.
Anterz leapt to avoid it.
Elaria moved in from the side, her silver blade carving through the knight's ribs—steam hissed, light bled, but Rathuun did not slow.
Rayn appeared behind him.
One thrust.
The glass blade slipped through the knight's side.
Then shattered.
Rayn stumbled back.
Rathuun turned and punched him across the chamber.
---
The knight turned to Anterz again.
"You abandoned us," he said.
Anterz gritted his teeth.
"I ended you."
> "You unmade yourself," Rathuun snarled. "So we were left—chained, forgotten, half-alive. You called us your last breath. And then you ran."
Anterz raised Valteris.
"Then let me finish what I started."
---
Their clash turned red.
Faster now. Harder. Valteris and the timeblade screaming against each other.
Rathuun roared and brought his blade down like a god's hammer.
Anterz caught it with both hands.
Every bone in his arms screamed.
He twisted.
Valteris ignited.
And the blade cut through Rathuun's weapon.
Through his helm.
Through his soul.
The knight's body crumbled.
Ash. Light.
And then—
A second voice from within the fire:
> "The tower is opening."
---
Elaria dropped to one knee. "I felt that. Something shifted."
Rayn stood, clutching his side, blood dripping from his mouth.
"We just opened the first seal."
Anterz looked down at Rathuun's remains.
A ring of runes burned into the platform.
One began to glow.
Then another.
Then—
A second door appeared on the far side of the chamber.
This one bled light.
---
Rayn limped to Anterz.
His voice was cold.
"If we go through that door, we don't come back the same."
Anterz looked at him.
"I've never been the same twice."
Rayn smiled faintly.
"Then let's see what's on the other side."
---
And above, in the highest chamber of the tower, a woman made of mirrors watched them approach.
She turned to the empty throne beside her.
And whispered:
> "He is nearly whole."
> "Shall I shatter him again?"
---