Chapter 61 - The Tower

They looked down in awe. Although exhausted from the flight to the tower, they had finally reached their destination. It had not been a rumor, the tower was real, and there was an entrance to it.

Still, no one had the energy to move their legs to enter the tower. Night was falling, and they knew that they had to in order to survive the night, but they were still exhausted from the run.

Jude stood at the top of the hill. He called out to the people of the Free Council.

“We made it,” he said, in a calm voice that rang out throughout the rubble.

Cheers came from the crowd. And although no one had the energy to go down the hill to the bottom, they began running again. They ran down the hill, glee taking over their thoughts and feelings. They were here at last.

Kysandra was the first to reach the bottom, then Relik, and Jude. Uk’Yan brought up the rear, still tired from the sheer number of people who he had helped in the flight to the tower.

The doors were metal, just as the rest of the tower was. They had no handle, and the people did not know how to open them. Jude went and stood before the doors.

He spoke in the kryon tongue. “Open,” he said. The doors stayed where they were. There was no sign of a motion sensor, nor instructions written in any language of how to enter.

Tyra spoke. “Open,” she said, this time in the human tongue. That had no effect either.

Despair swept through the group. Yes, they had reached the tower, but now they were locked outside, with no hope of entering it. How were they supposed to bypass the doors and enter the tower?

Krynn, who was still remarkably energetic after the run, volunteered to run around the tower in search of another pair of doors. He left, and arrived again in twenty minutes or so.

“There are no other entrances,” he said, his face dropping in sadness. “We must figure out how to open these doors.

Uk’Yan walked towards the doors. He placed his hand on them, and closed his eyes. He entered into a trance-like state. Jude knew that he was trying to identify how to open them by using his mind.

He walked back over to Jude. “Jude,” he said, “Place your hand on the crease between the doors. Speak ‘open’ in the human tongue, as I speak ‘open’ in the kryon tongue. The simultaneous actions should open the doors.”

They both walked to the doors, placing their hands on the crease. They spoke, and a loud click sounded throughout the still air.

They back up. The doors were opening slowly, and an unimaginable light poured in from the tower. In just a minute, there was a passageway large enough for the group to enter the tower from.

Jude was the first to enter, followed by Uk’Yan, and then by the rest of the Free Council. They stepped slowly into the tower.

The inside was one enormous room, reaching up beyond where the eyes could see. Light streamed in from the top. The walls were made of plates of metal, erratically bolted together, forming a strange collection of shapes on the walls. The building appeared to have been made in haste, however it rose perfectly straight into the sky.

On the far corner was a plaque. Jude, Uk’Yan, and Tyra went over to examine it. It was written in aurora-script, in the kryon tongue. Jude read it out in the human tongue.

“To the humans who shall find this place: may the gift inside save your race. The dead shall walk.”

They returned to the rest of the Free Council with the news. No one knew what else to do, so Uk’Yan and Jude walked back to the doors, which were still open.

Wind was beginning to blow through the doors, and it was beginning to rain slightly. Uk’Yan and Jude walked to opposite sides, and spoke “close” in the two languages. The doors closed as slowly as they had opened.

They were now inside of the tower. Nothing appeared to be happening, and so the Council spread out across the metal floor to sleep.