2 Starry Night

Lights flashed past her as she gazed at the beatiful night sky. A magical scene played out before Topia's eyes as she looked down and found that the sky surrounded her. Dark blue faded into blackness as the various stars in her eyes glowed brighter than before, but quickly faded away into a dark black void. The void grew cold and suffocated Topia as it invaded her body, but she could not stop it. With the void's prensence growing ever stronger in her body she woke up in a cold sweat. She had woken up from a nightmare. She was completely shaken and brought back to the idea forcefully. 'Am I really a demon?' She thought with a shudder. Climbing out of bed she looked out the window at the City of Iklash which was founded around the 6th trial. The sun made the sky showing behind the surrounding buildings a bright orange color, showing Topia that it was still early in the morning. She stuck her head out the window and looked upwards. While there were not a large number of buildings in this city they were all over 10 floors tall and they were wide too. They were all connected by many bridges every few floors. Topia noticed all but one of the buildings were constructed entirely out of stone, and the last was made out of a strange black marble like material that oozed out darkness. Topia recognized that the black tower was the trial she was planning on completing. With the fresh air from the window as well as her ambition in sight she recovered from her nightmare and prepared for the day. As for how she got here...

~~~

Topia, her dad, and Maxwell escaped the city without any trouble. After Maxwell showed his identification to the gate's guard, the guard only took a brief glance in the back of his wagon before he let them pass. Having not even having the need to close themselves inside the barrels, when Maxwell came to check on the two they climbed out of hiding and found a comfy place to sit. After a few more minutes of riding Maxwell came to speak to them.

"Alright I smuggled you out of the city, so pay up and get out." His evil smile returned while he stretched out his hand in a way that looked like he was offering to help them out of the wagon, while also looking like he was asking for money.

"Can we figure out where we want to go first?" George asked politely.

"Dad, I want to go to the closest trial from here." Topia said in response to this question.

"I can take you there, for the right price." Maxwell said before George could say that it was a bad idea.

"It is the 6th trial, it is too dangerous to not go in order!" George got his voice in only to be refused by the two that were talking about the price.

"30 drachmal for smuggling you out of the city and 50 for taking you to Iklash." Maxwell said

"Deal." she replied

"Make youselves comfy back there." He said while returning to the front of the wagon.

"Topia! What do you think you are doing!" Her dad shouted at her.

"I just want to complete more trials. Is there something wrong with that?" Topia responded with a poor attitude.

"You do know that Iklash has the 5th trial right? It isn't the second trial." He spoke quieter after taking a deep breath.

"I don't care, I just want to complete them as fast as possible." She said without improving her attitude.

"You're doing this for him aren't you! You should know now better than before that your uncle didn't become a god, the cruel truth is that he died!" He shouted at his daughter.

"I am sorry, I can't stop you." He said looking at the tears flowing from Topia's eyes.

"You and Mom said that you lost contact with him?" Topia asked wiping her tears.

"That is only part of the truth. He completely vanished off of this planet. So either he is in hiding, he is dead, or he managed to become a god. I don't want to get your expectations up though." He said with sadness in his eyes.

"Don't worry Dad, I will find him. If I become a god, I will be able to bring our family back together. Mom won't have any reason to think I am a demon, I will bring uncle back, and I will stop putting myself in danger for you three." She began to smile with her eyes still red from crying. Seeing this her dad knew that he wouldn't be able to force her to do anything.

"I'll be waiting." He said while showing his daughter a forced smile. She nodded, and they remained silent for the remainder of their journey to the city. It only took 7 hours of travelling, but that was long enough for the sun to now be dropping below the clouds in the sky. Topia looked at the city they were entering with curious looks.

"Could you stop here to let us off?" George asked Maxwell. The wagon stopped immediately and light shined through the back soon after as a hand reached in, and gestured for the money. The hand retracted as Topia and her dad climbed out the back, and they looked at Maxwell's smile which was full of greed and had reached higher than all his previous smiles. His hand that retracted from the wagon reached out towards the two as his fingers began moving back and forth. What sealed the deal was the drool that drooped from his mouth as he watched 7 10 drachma coins get pulled from George's wallet and move towards his outstretched hand. The moment the coins entered his hand he walked away without a word and his wagon began moving again.

"He was pretty weird their at the end." Topia said.

". . ."

"I take that back. He was always weird." she said now thinking back.

"Well let's find a place to sleep. I don't think you are in tip top strength like you need to be in order to do a trial." He said while looking around. Spotting a sign advertising an inn on one of the buildings that was about 5 floors up, they went and got two rooms that are next to eachother.

~~~

Topia who had woken up from a startling nightmare calmed down by looking at the massive black tower that made up the next trial she would complete. She proceeded with getting ready by armouring up and grabbing her sword. She left her room and knocked on the neighboring door.

"Who is it?" she heard her dad's voice from behind the door.

"It's me Topia, I am going to the trial now." She answered. Before he could respond she immediately left. She walked down a spiral staircase to the ground floor where she exited the building and stared at the black tower. As she aproached it she never took her eyes off of it. She soon reached the bottom of the tower but found no entrance.

"Where is the trial at?" She asked someone walking by.

"It is at the top of the tower." They said.

"Thanks!" Topia said with excitement as she immediately started attempting to climb it. She heard people shouting at her but she continued to climb. Although people seemed pretty upset with her climbing the tower she was met with no trouble during the climb besides getting a little tired, but when she reached the top she finally understood why people shouted at her to come down. She looked at the stone bridge connecting the tallest of the buildings to the roof of the tower she felt a little disapointed that she had wasted her time, but she felt like she should do the trial in its natural form as well. She looked at the roof and spotted a white trapdoor on the roof of the tower.

Topia opened the white trapdoor and found a lightless space below it. She figured it was the trial and jumped in with little hesitation. Topia opened her eyes, she was a poor girl who had to beg on the streets for her whole life just to eat at night. She had been able to live so far but as she grew older she had obtained less and less from the senseless adults. Although she was now of an age where she could work no one would hire a girl who had never had a bath in her life, so all she could do was continue begging. With begging not providing her with enough food to live she knew that she could not go on for much longer.

One day she was begging as per routine when a grown man approached her. He whispered in her ear. Hearing the words brought confusion into her heart.

"If you kill that lady in the red dress I will make sure you are fed well." Was what the man said. 'Killing is wrong' was what she felt, but another feeling grew inside her. The growing feeling was 'I cannot complete my ambition if I die here' she stayed still thinking not with her head but with her heart. She stood up and walked towards the woman, but she stopped halfway. The man who told her to kill handed her a sharp knife. Looking at this tool she took another step forward but stopped. She looked backwards at the man who wanted her to kill, and then downwards at the knife. The previous thoughts faded from her heart as one overwhelmed them all. 'I must keep my family together. I must kill those who get in the way.' The previous two ideas merged to one as she ran up to the man who gave her the knife.

". . ."

He had multiple stab wounds in him but seemed unfazed.

"It is people like you who will hurt the people I care about!" Topia said with hazed over eyes. The man laughed as he vanished with the surroundings leaving only the familiar golden orb. Topia now remembered everything, she looked at her hands as she now realized exactly what the trials were capable of. It had blocked all her memories and stuck her in a foreign scenario with only her heart remaining from before the trial. She reached out and touched the golden orb, but this time instead of the pleasant feeling that went through her body last time. She felt a strong pain rushing through her. Now that she thought about it, there is no way killing that man was the correct answer. She didn't want to ever rely on her emotions to make her decisions from now on because she might end up killing someone else...