The Witch, The Wizard, and The Out-Worlder

A Dark Tower, A High Rise

"There it is Felix." I was stating the obvious at this point.

The Out-Worlders tower, and the witch's tower would have been identical, if his weren't white and hers black. There was one feature that stayed the same between the two though, the doors. The same gold trimmed red doors with large knockers on either side sat before us, only this one was already wide open, revealing nothing but darkness inside.

"Do we just walk in?" I asked Felix as we inched closer to the ominous opening.

My question fell upon deaf ears, as Felix was fixated on the tower. He studied it scrupulously, looking for any clues in the shadows. I wasn't sure what it was that he was looking for, but he was focused on nothing else.

"This doesn't feel like someplace anyone would live." He observed out loud, still moving closer to the entrance.

He was definitely right about that. "This is where we were told to go though. Maybe she doesn't know the doors open?" I couldn't imagine it was an accident, but I could hope.

We were at the threshold, peering into the darkness beyond. Felix held the torch inside, trying to light up the darkness, but to no success. I could, however, make out faint outlines of furniture with my strengthened vision. "It doesn't look too dangerous, just a bunch of furniture." I informed him, full well knowing that he didn't have the same vision as I did. I searched for anything suspicious, but I was coming up short, which I didn't mind at all.

"Let's get this over with then." I let out a deep breath and walked through the open doors and into the dark room. Felix said nothing, but was clearly unhappy about going in. He huffed loudly and immediately cut me off to take the lead.

As soon as we were inside, the doors behind us slammed shut with the loud bang echoing through the large room. "That can't be good." I thought out loud, leading Felix to shake his head in frustration.

As soon as he opened his mouth to talk, purple flames billowed up from the sconces on the wall all around us. One at a time, they lit up from front to back, illuminating the room in a bizarre purple hue. The flames were erratic and fairly far apart, causing the shadows of the room to dance around.

"I think it's safe to say that she knows we are here." He said as he moved slowly forward, following the lit path.

The room was certainly large, longer than it was wide. At the end, there was a set of curved staircases leading to a large, closed door. The raised floor was lit up considerably more, as there were more sconces. It was hard to tell what color anything was, as the purple light made color difficult to single out. I even took a glance at Lute, noticing that his green fur now had a purple tint. All things considered; he was being quite mellow.

"If it's as similar as the Out-Worlders tower as I hope it is, she should be just ahead." Felix assured me as we followed the lit path towards the door ahead.

The tower was as silent as it could get, even our footprints echoed off the walls. Lute was so nervous, he took to hiding in my backpack again, his little eyes peering out through a small opening. As we got closer to the door ahead, we walked past vanities, large pictures hung on the walls, decorative vases, ornate pots filled with varying dead plants, as well as a variety of weapons hung on plaques on the wall. Her tower would have been strikingly pretty I would imagine, if not for the unkept manner of everything.

I led the way up the curved staircase, lighting the steps slightly more with the torch. The steps appeared to be made of marble, yet the were rough and dull. The siderails were straight out of the Victorian era, capped with large newel posts on both ends. The witch clearly had better taste than the Out-Worlder, that was certain.

Just as we reached the door, I felt the tickle in the lungs again. The coughing was much worse the second time around, once I started, it felt like I couldn't stop. My body started to feel week and I fell to my hands and knees, still unable to control the cough.

Felix rushed to me and put his arms around my shoulders, "What's wrong, what are you feeling?" He asked me, but I couldn't respond, I could only cough. Instead of pressing me with more questions, he took the remaining bottle of water from his pack and handed it too me, "Drink, maybe it will help your cough." He pushed the bottle towards me. I didn't think twice, I opened it up and swallowed a big gulp of water, which quelled the cough almost completely.

"I don't know what happened, it just hit me." I tried to explain as I handed Felix what was left of the water. He quickly resealed it and placed it back into his pack.

"I'm just glade the water helped. Hopefully the witch can help you more. We don't have much water left." He said as he helped me back to my feet. "Keiko, you're skin is hot to the touch.

I raised my arms to take a closer look. I didn't feel any different, but my skin was red and clearly irritated. I started to rub my skin, but it was incredibly sensitive. Whatever was wrong with me was quickly getting worse.

"I need to find the witch." I panted as I quickly pushed the door open and barged in.

The room was similar to the Out-Worlders, only there was no throne, instead there was a square platform with four thick chains holding it in place on each corner. The familiar purple sconces lit the room well enough, though there wasn't much to reveal outside the platform. I followed the chains up, but I couldn't see where they led it, they simply faded into the darkness above.

"Quickly." I demanded as I grabbed Felix by the arm and pulled him with me as I walked to the platform ahead. I wasn't sure what was happening to me, but I knew something needed to change.

Felix followed me without question. As soon as we were both on the platform, everything jolted and the chains began to life us up. There were no guards, which was very unsettling, but it rose slow enough not to be knocked off balance.

"Here." Felix took off the ring and handed it back to me. "Put it back on, just in case." I handed him the torch and placed the ring on my other hand this time, not that it was likely to make a big difference now that both my arms were inflamed.

I let out a disappointed sigh, "Nothing." I observed, as I was hoping the ring would help with whatever was happening to me.

The elevator-like platform rose higher and higher with no signs of slowing down. Felix walked closer to the edge and held out his flame, lighting up as much of the darkness as he could, but there was nothing to reveal.

As we were ascending, the platform gave a slight lurch before slowing down slightly. My stomach went cold when I noticed a light above. It wasn't much brighter, but there was clearly an opening we were approaching, glowing the familiar orange light from below.

"We're almost there." Felix assured me as he gave me a feint smile of support.

I took in a deep breath and waited to see what was on the other side of the light. She had to be up there, and she had to be able to help me. My head was pounding even worse than before, my skin felt like it was on fire, and my chest was throbbing now. The platform came to a crawl as we rose just above the threshold to the new room.