Chương 221: Chapter 215: Zodiac Stronghold

Will and Brianna landed on top of a building on one of the outer islands, where they simply stood and admired the network of light-bridges keeping the islands bound together.

"How do you suppose those bridges of light work?" Will mused.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Brianna replied with a shrug.

"Where the hell did you two come from!?" A voice caught their attention, where a man was leaning out a window, hanging long johns out to dry on a pole. Will silently pointed out into the sky.

"Fliers, huh? Well, new arrivals is over thataway," The man grumbled, pointing out ahead of them.

"And on the other hemisphere of the island. You can always tell where arrivals is because it's the tip of the constellation, with three light-bridges coming out of it."

"Much obliged," Will said, nodding.

"Party of two? Freakin' idiots who think this Floor is safe enough to bring a girl on a date, I mean seriously…" The man devolved into envious grumbling as Will took Brianna's hand and flew the two of them away, orienting on the tip of the constellation, where three light-bridges came together on a single busy port.

The two flew over and down until they reached the other side of the disc and gravity flipped, then they flew up against the pull, stomachs angry as they reoriented themselves on the new facing of the bundle of seven crystal discs. On the other hemisphere of the stronghold was a massive greenhouse that dominated the central island, seemingly made of clear crystal or glass.

They swept past it and oriented on the dock, where several ships were currently disembarking and their occupants were filing up to a single clerk who was processing them with outrageous speed. They landed and slipped into the line, marching towards the clerk. When they arrived in front of the clerk, Will noticed a subtle change in his inner ear, and he glanced over his shoulder to find the surrounding people frozen. Somehow the clerk applied a speed buff to everyone who stood in front of his desk.

So that's why the line is so fast. High-level Clerk skills were awesome.

"Name and purpose for visiting? If this is your first time and you've got any fish bone or crystal, the exchange counter is that way, " The clerk said, his pen hovering over a sheet of paper on its own while the man in question flipped through a romance novel. He was wearing fingerless gloves, a wool hat, and a heavy jacket, seemingly warding against cold that Will hadn't noticed. Perhaps it gets dark here at night, Will wondered.

"William Oh and guest, for the wedding." Will said. The man glanced up at Will, then back down at his romance novel while his pen filled in the form. …

"Shit!" The trashy novel was flung aside as the clerk shot to his feet, digging through his desk before coming back with a badge made of suspiciously familiar miasmatic crystal.

"Let me just confirm your identity…" The Clerk said, his eyes flickering blue for an instant.

"And your guest…" The clerk glanced at Brianna and nodded, then handed the badge over to Will.

"That badge will serve as your I. D., and gives you access to most places in the Stronghold, milord, um.." he said, seeming a bit jumpy.

"Your accommodations are in the palace, which you um, can find by following the light bridge to the left. Just, um, show the guards your badge and they'll show you where to go."

"Thanks," Will said, taking the badge and walking off. Most people went to the middle or right-hand bridges, so Will and Brianna broke away from the stream of Climbers early, singling themselves out for a quiet stare from the pair of guards standing in front of the light bridge leading to the palace… which Will couldn't see. Will arrived in front of the guards. They stared at him. He stared back. Brianna put a gentle hand under the arm holding the badge and lifted it up, where the guards could see.

Their expression twitched before one nudged tother and they stepped aside.

"Milord." one said, gesturing to the fancy wooden bench on skis behind him.

"The Palace awaits." Where'd they even get the wood? Will wondered. Packing that shit up to the 11 th Floor must've been expensive. Unless it came from the greenhouse? As usual, Brianna was more interested in the experience than the logistics thereof.

"Is this the tram!?" Brianna asked, climbing onto the bench and leaning over the edge, staring down at the bridge of light underneath, glowing brightly where the wooden frame touched it.

"Can we walk on the light-bridge, or is it somehow only these trams that can touch them?" She asked no one in particular. A skinny man stepped out of a nearby booth, a moment of panic showing on his expression before he hurried up to the front of the tram, where he hastily took a seat and put his hand on a wooden pole jutting out from the side of his seat. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Greetings milord, milady," the skinny fellow said, giving them a gaptoothed grin.

"Visiting for the wedding? How exciting. Why, it reminds me of when I married my sweet Nancy some hours ago. Your trip to the palace is gonna be as smooth as butter, I guarantee it. I've been fishing these waters for decades, easily, and I know the weather like the back of my hand."

"…Reese?" Will asked. Reese's eyes widened, showing white all the way around his blue eyes.

"Will…How long have I been here?"

"Couple years, maybe?" Will said with a shrug.

"Huh." Reese grumbled.

"Guess that means Nancy's dead."

"Nah man, you got married like a week ago!" one of the guards shouted from the shore.

"Oh. Sweet." Reese asked, glancing at Will.

"That's recent, right?"

"Yeah, pretty recent." Will said.

"…wonder what she's like." Reese muttered, stroking his chin in thought.

"The woman you married a week ago?" Brianna clarified.

"Apparently. I've been married…um…so many times I've lost track, actually." Reese mused, trying to count the stars.

"it's hard to keep track. They blur."

"How do these bridges work?" Will asked, changing the subject. Reese jolted in place and fell into a professional tour-guide enthusiasm. There's gotta be some trick to it. I imagine it's similar to the Fifth floor, where the ruling family has taken advantage of a natural phenomena to make the space livable."

"Typically, when the islands get close enough to each other, a temporary light-bridge will form, and monsters will storm across, attacking each other or any Climber that might be taking up residence there. So, my guess is the Lord keeps a 'raid' going indefinitely by capturing some of the attackers and debuffing them until they are essentially statues, which preserves the light bridge…somehow. Just like the way they control kaiju spawning in Akul, actually." Reese paused.

"Wait, does he know that this time around?" Reese muttered, cocking his head.

"Well, whatever."

"Is that the control for the tram?" Will asked, pointing at the lever jutting out of the side of the seat that Reese was resting his hand on. Reese glanced down at the handle.

"Yep. Put Charge in and it makes the sled go. it's an uncommon skill nowadays, manipulating Charge, so it's easy to get a job doing it."

"How does it work?" Will asked.

"Probably doped a slice of giant bone to express its energy in only one direction and put a backing of Blessed Steel on it to keep it from shattering. But I could be wrong. This is a newer model. Tell you what, after the battle, we can ask the survivors if it's okay to take apart the tram and study its guts."

"…What battle?"

"Umm…you know, the battle where…Wait, how did it go this time? Is there even gonna be…Did you clean up…. what the hell was that? The thing. Did you clean up the thing?"

"Uuuuh…"

"Ah well, it's probably not important." Reese said with a shrug.

"I've never seen you die at this wedding anyway." Brianna gasped, drawing Will's attention to her, his hand flinching to his weapon. Freakin' Reese scaring the shit out of me, Will groused internally. Will followed Brianna's gaze to where the palace had seemingly faded into existence, the last traces of camouflage disappearing.

"They covered the palace with paint made from the blood of the monsters that live here." Reese said, peering over his shoulder at the palace.

"Makes it so that it's the last thing to be attacked, both by Climber and monster."

"What about that thing?" Brianna asked, pointing at the snake hanging motionless in the sky above them.

"What's the story about that?"

"That little guy?" Reese asked, peering at the continent-sized snake hanging above.

"I think he's got some pompous name like 'Vorus world-eater, end of yadda yadda something or other,' or…something like that, but I call him 'Steve'. Makes him seem a lot friendlier."

"He's kind of this Stronghold's blessing and curse." Reese continued.

"Despite appearing still, the snake is actively trying to eat the Stronghold, it's just so big and slow to change direction that it measures a single turn of its head in minutes instead of years."

"I think you got those backwards," Will replied.

"Sure. Anyway, Lord Zodiac adjusts the Stronghold every couple…" He glanced at Will.

"Years?" Will nodded.

"Every couple years, and WHIFF! Steve misses us again."

"What's the 'blessing' part?" Will asked.

"Well, other faster or more dangerous void-walkers maintain a healthy distance from Steve, so as long as we keep buzzing around his ears, we don't have to deal with the other floaters that might be more dangerous on an individual level."

"Ah." Brianna said, staring up at the face in the sky contemplatively. Bump. The wooden bench-seats rocked in place as they arrived at the other side of the bridge.

"Well, you kids have a good time at the wedding." Reese said, hopping to his feet and moving their luggage out onto the other side of the dock.

"Try not to start anything if you can help it. Lots of big names here that can and will cause you actual trouble."

"And Cass," Reese said, meeting Will's eye and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Under absolutely no circumstances should you reveal the method you're using to Nadia. She might seem like a friend, but she doesn't have your best interests at heart."

"…I'm Will."

"Right, umm…" Reese's lips moved silently as he glanced up and to the side, seemingly counting some unfathomable number.

"Will, Will…nah, I got nothing. Don't do anything stupid, I guess?" Reese patted Will on the shoulder before scrambling back into the tram.

"Are you coming to the wedding?" Will asked as the wooden sled pulled away from the bank of the crystal disc.

"Nah, I just got married meself! I'm gonna go find out who this Nancy lady is! If I know one thing, it's that I have a type, and thousands upon thousands of wives have given me a keen eye!" Reese receded into the distance, cackling as he propelled the tram back across the bridge.

"I hope nobody's tricking him," Brianna mused as Reese faded into the distance.

"Are you two here for the wedding?" A man in a snappy suit asked, approaching the two of them. Will raised the flickering crystal badge.

"Ah, William Oh. Right this way." The valet guided them to their rooms, which made everything Will had back in his Stronghold look cheap by comparison. I bet my lab's better, Will thought with a scowl as he dropped his luggage in the enormous room with a heated pool attached to the balcony. Will had never in his life seen anything like that. It just hung out into open space, allowing them to stare out at the distant islands while they swam.

There was a spot beside the pool with thing called a 'telescope', which was basically a more powerful version of a spyglass. They were told that every once in a while guests got the opportunity to spot islands bridging to each other, which was apparently quite a spectacle. Will asked the valet whether there was a market. The Zodiac Stronghold market wasn't the biggest, but there was no question that this would be the cheapest place to pick up Floor-specific products.

Will wanted to see how rare his giant bones were. If he couldn't find any of them at all, then he wouldn't even mention it to anyone. Too much trouble. The valet gave them instructions for how to reach the market, a simple map of the stronghold, some spending money, and bid them relax and enjoy the Stronghold until the wedding. When Brianna got tired of flopping around on the enormous, fantastically soft bed, Will changed into his undamaged clothes and the two headed out to the find the market.

Will's feet stopped mid-stride as a familiar mask came into view. A black void where a face should be was attached to a emaciated body, walking down the hall behind another valet, showing Marky Wyrd and company around the palace.

"And here is your…room." The valet paused, glancing between the frozen Will and Wyrd family. Will waved with his left hand, keeping his right firmly on the haft of his weapon.

"Mark, Amanda, Void." Will said.

"Will, Brianna." Mark Wyrd said with a slight nod as his wife pinned Will in place with her gaze. The two groups silently slid past each other, save for Void. The pitiless outlaw necromancer that had worked for Brianna's tormentor and tried to kidnap Will years ago leaned over as they passed.

"Good to see ya kid. Let's catch up."

"Well…this wedding is gonna be awful." Will groaned once the other group was shown into their room, which just so happened to be directly across the hall from Will's.

"Don't be silly," Brianna said, her expression cloudy.

"It can get a lot worse."