In Cael, 200 years before The Dissemination, a lone Redshifter Knight approaches the tower for their first day on duty.
In Cael, 200 years before The Dissemination, a lone Redshifter Knight approaches the tower for their first day on duty.
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Cael - The year 1767. 200 years before the dissemination.
The Redshifter tower still impressed him. Bold, strong, and almost defiantly crimson, Redshifter Tower shot straight up from the ground it was conceived upon into the Exosphere of Cael. In the light of Cael’s sun, the tower cast a shadow that stretched for miles. It had been a drunk compass for many in Cael, but ask any Empyrean how they thought about the Scarlet Keep and they would most assuredly speak about it solemnly. The title of “tower” always felt off to him. Redshifter Tower was definitely tower-like, but a large circular mass of billets, studios, and various Redshifter quarters surrounded the bottom 20 levels. Calling it a tower felt like a disservice, but no one was running around calling it “Redshifter Expanse” or “Redshifter Vastness.”
Seeing as it was his first day, he felt flush. The Watchperson scanned him with a sentinel-like stare. Up. Down. Up again. Then nothing. Then, as if it were an event, the Watchperson’s lips parted to make the only words of their shift. “My family was in the 9th district. Thank you.”
He was stunned. He had heard stories of the Watchguard being silent, only uttering complete sentences under extreme duress of intense appreciation. “I will see them when my watch is over, and tell them the hero Malcum was in my view today.”
Malcum could feel the words catch his tongue. Whatever response he might have returned was lost to the moment, and before he could reply, the Watchperson extended their arm towards the Keep. Malcum bowed, and proceeded.
More flush than ever, Malcum began auditioning responses in his head for when he saw the Watchperson once again. “No need to thank me. I was only doing what was right.” No, feels too rigid. “When you see your family, embrace them with love.” No, too formal. Too textbook. No matter what response he ran through in his head, he never rehearsed the truth. “I was scared shitless and did the only thing that made sense. I fought. The fact that I saved others seems...peripheral. I am ashamed of myself.”
Before Malcum knew it, he was in the lift being carried into the Exosphere. Half a dozen Redshifters gave him a knowing nod and beat their chest as he walked by, likely in a show of appreciation. “If they were there, would they do the same?,” Malcum wondered. Lingering thoughts drifted into the abyss as Malcum cleared the cloudgate and greeted the stars. From here he could see Cael in all its glory, beauty, and might. The Stone Citadel, north of Redshifter Tower, looked miniscule. Beyond that, the effervescent Wayfarer Promenade still had legions of excitable groups pouring in. It never ceased to impress him that he could witness such massive groups of Empyreans from this high up.
This is why he did what he did. Seeing the droves of Empyreans go about their day without worry, in total calm, is what put his mind at ease.
All at once the world shattered. The view of Cael down below began to slant, and that is when Malcum heard the crackling sound of red obsidian tear through the lift. Under instinct, Malcum encased the lift compartment in his shield and attempted to stabilize himself.
His mind began to scream “FOCUS” as he reoriented himself to the curve of the planet. He hadn’t the stomach to look down below and see if the tower had been damaged enough to fall, but he would become sick either way. Dead ahead, off in the distance he saw them. Waevin cruisers. Three of them. Gigantic, hulking, and dominant, their silhouettes casting something ominous in the light of the sun.
He didn’t think they were real. Today he understood a new fact: they were very real.