The Pearl Fox

A creeping passage

They went on and on. Those white ever lasting corridors in the sky, made of a type of glass with crystal and hard metals, that defied any such logic he ever learned as a child attending school in Nee Town. Topaz wanted to explore them, and during a day that he was given duties guarding the upper floors of the castle. Yet, they didn't know he came up here. He avoided going to the place where he'd last seen Zara. Then changed his mind, and had to plan it. The corridors were very long and stretched for miles, so he didn't walk them. He went up those eagle stairs instead. Again, he found himself exactly where Zara had been when he last ever spoke to her. It made him feel sad, because she was gone and he didn't do enough to stop her. He wanted to know what happened to her.

The steep giddy stairs were transparent further up. The higher he went up those stairs, the narrower the stairs became. All around the glassy stairs further up were drifting clouds, and it started to get very cold. The stairs became wet, and as he climbed more, he found them slippery with frost. He'd known that it was always like winter high in the sky, and the stairs were getting treacherous. He wondered if poor Zara slid on the icy flooring and that was how she died. His grief about her death turned to anger, and it drove him to do this, when he would never have done it before. Topaz was quite scared of heights but usually it affected him if he looked out of a high tower window. This was different. It was more frightening, and he bit his fear and thought only of Zara.  

He reached the top of those stairs, and found only another cloud corridor, with a small light at the end. It was just a mile long, and there were white stone railings on either side. The workmanship was incredible, he realised, but it made no sense. It was so high up and he saw nobody else. The cloud corridor was covered in a layer of fine snow, and Topaz was already boiling in his metal armour and because he climbed up all of those stairs.

He walked to the end of the cloud corridor, and came to a small room filled with a beacon of white light, resembling a miniature star. The room was pale blue and white, with marble and ice walls and a floor with thick blue wool. Under the wool was a someone asleep, breathing. It moved, and a hand wearing a thick white glove appeared and lifted away the wool blanket. An elderly woman was revealed, and Topaz was startled and confused.

"Madam," he said. "Let me help you get out of here." He could see that she was frail and her skin was dry and blistery. "You can't stay here."

The woman slowly sat up and smiled at him with brown teeth. She wore a thick fur hat with ear flaps, a scarf, a heavy coat and dressed as though she'd suffered cold for too long. Her face was covered in ice burn. "You are a good strong man," she said, with a crackling voice. "I live up here, in this Star House. Please, let me rest here. I will die soon and join my husband."

"No, I won't let you die here all alone. Come with me and be warm. I will carry you if you're unable to walk," he wasn't going to allow this old woman to waste her life away in the gloomy place in the sky. He went into the room, and was ready to lift her up, when she protested, and banged her fists on his arms and chest, her fury noted. He felt nothing when she hit him but he decided to leave her and would go and get someone that would help her. 

"You mustn't remove me from my house, you brute! I've lived here for many years, it's my home! How dare you!" she cried. "Just leave, you foolish knight. Go and leave me be. I don't want to leave my home!"

"Very well," he said, but thinking of another way to force her out. He could do this while she slept, and she would wake up on the ground where it's perpetually warm. He wasn't going to give up on her. Then he turned, and the old woman shouted.

"You! I just remembered! You come back here, sir! I've something to give you! You know a girl came up here and she died of cold? A platinum guard threw her over the cloudy corridor, I know, I saw it. He didn't want her body rotting up here!"

"Zara!" Topaz ran into the room and held the old woman firmly by the arms. "Is that what happened to Zara? She froze to death and someone chucked her off the edge? Why didn't you go and help her?" He shook her, and the woman screamed.

"You are too monstrous! Go away! I didn't hurt her, it wasn't me. The cold did it, and she wore hardly a thing. You know, she was all the way over there!" The woman pointed at the arched doorway, towards the Eagle Stairs, so Zara had to have come this far.  

"I'm so sorry," he let go of her. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Zara meant something to me."

"You're sad for her, poor man. Poor Zara though. I couldn't reach her, but she was already dying. When she reached the top of those stairs, she looked ruined by cold. Her nose and fingers were black. She couldn't speak. She was dead the moment she looked at me."

Topaz wasn't so cold inside this little room. He noticed that the curious little white star was generating a warmth that saved the old woman from death. He could see that the room had doors, leading off to other rooms. There was warm running water and even candles and bowls of fruit. She spent days sleeping in this room, awaiting visitors, a platinum guard or a platinum maid, bringing food and clothes. It wasn't common knowledge, but Limarh employed a private staff to help the old woman in the sky. 

"Who are you?"

"My name is Lucilla Ben and I'm the mother of Limarh, who doesn't understand my decision to remain up here in the beautiful sky."

"The mother of Limarh?" Limarh never mentioned Lucilla. He never mentioned platinum staff, meaning, secretive staff for clandestine duties. In this case, Star House was connected to Green Rose Towers. "Who built all of this?"

"Oh, a bunch of wizards built it centuries ago," she replied. "But it's been abandoned. No one uses it anymore. They found it too cold and dangerous. I think a number of neighbours didn't like it with the sky walks above them. So now I live up here, and a few platinum guards come now and then. When I'm dead and gone, there won't be a need for all of this."

Topaz stood up, ready to leave. He wanted to summon authorities to help assist Lucilla in getting down to the ground, and she also needed healing. 

"Knight!" she called, "You are the first intruder to come up here without dying. You're not a criminal. You didn't come here to steal from me, or even hurt me. But you haven't died. You are worthy of a gift. Please go through the door over there."

Topaz was curious, but he wasn't going to fall for this trap. A platinum guard could be behind there, and he didn't feel like fighting anyone in the frigid sky. He unsheathed his dagger, and went over to one of the doors, and slowly turned the handle. Inside it was just a closet, with blankets and folds of fabrics, protected in there otherwise the cold would've destroyed them. He looked at Lucilla, and she was looking down. At the bottom shelf of the closet was a strange hulk of wood and metal. He lifted it out, and held it up. Strange. The object was wooden, made of black oak, and it was covered in steel spikes. It looked like a maul,  or a hammer. 

He carried it with him when he left the Star House. He felt it vibrate and he put this to the heaviness and the temperature. He descended the cold stairs, and now he was forced to look down. There was nothing he see further down except drifting white clouds. He glanced up at the Star House but couldn't see it anymore. It was gone. He reached the bottom of the stairs, and now the maul vibrated more intensely. He kept holding it, now he held it in both hands. There was a flash of blue light, and he found himself on his back, and saw a black plume of smoke drift up from the stairs. He looked at it, and saw that there were several dark burns all over the glass Eagle Stairs, caused by lightning. Within minutes, the Eagle Stairs completely dropped downwards, and it shattered into tiny billions of tiny fragments. On the ground, it appeared as if icy rain had fallen around Green Rose Towers.