Enormous stalactites hung down from above, fervently living up to the name of Gray Rock. He couldn’t tell how large the cave was from this angle, but it certainly wasn’t small, and it seemed to extend around the castle.
‘There,’ said Garovel. ‘See that rock ledge?’
He did. It wasn’t very far, just slightly below him. He made a bridging staircase for himself and descended. His light illuminated an extremely steep drop off as he walked, and when he reached the ledge, he looked back toward the castle, finally seeing it from the outside. Or part of it, anyway.
It almost seemed like the tower was upside down. Wide at the top, it became incrementally thinner in rivets toward the bottom, where it found support from a mound of natural rock. But even now, Hector still couldn’t quite see the bottom because of the rocks in the way. Additionally, the hole that he’d exited from was even larger than he’d thought, and it now granted him a view into several different rooms and hallways. A whole chunk of the tower was missing, he realized.
‘That’s a little suspicious-looking,’ said Garovel.
“Is it?”
‘The center of that hole is about even with the ledge you’re standing on now.’
“Hmm.”
‘I’m wondering if it was really caused by an earthquake. It’s fairly symmetrical, too. Makes me think it could’ve been made by an explosive.’
“You think someone attacked this place?”
‘That’s often why castles are built, so maybe this is just an old wound that was never repaired. But y’know, I just think the whole earthquake story is strange. I imagine that someone skilled enough to build a place like this would know better than to choose a location that has an earthquake problem.’
“It’s really old, though. Maybe the builders just didn’t have that kind of... uh... surveying technology? Or something?”
‘Maybe. Let’s go see what’s on the other side of this tower.’
Hector considered his options. The rocks below looked rather perilous, so he figured that materializing a staircase on top of them would be annoying. Instead, he made a single giant platform and jumped to it. The force of his landing caused it to fall forward, but that was as planned.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
" where it found supported by the natural rock." did you mean "was supported" or "found support from"?
ReplyDeleteYep. That's what happens when I poorly merge two sentences together. Fixed now, thanks.
ReplyDeleteAlso, someone just donated $100. So. Holy shit. If the donator happens to read this, thank you immensely. Surprised the hell out of me. And now I've gotta schedule even more bonus days. MAY IS GOING TO BE A BUSY MONTH, APPARENTLY.
I decided to join the caught up club. I had given myself a buffer, but not anymore. I will read updates as they come now.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but feel Hector did NOT consider his options. Or at least not well.
ReplyDeleteSeems like there would be much safer ways to cross it.... And if he's going for dangerous, I'm sure..... Oh! Brilliant idea! For his future power developments, perhaps he could make iron cables, would have far more tensile strength than a long length of plain iron, as well as being flexible. So many possibilities! That is if you go down the advanced control route. There's also the increased power route, the increased creation and destruction route, the previously mentioned different states route, etc. so many possibilities.... I have to say, giving him the power you did was pure brilliance.
I'm completely unable to visualize what's going on here. You're trying to describe what hector is seeing and the bigger picture and I can't put all the pieces together at all.
ReplyDeleteSo..he came out of a tunnel, looked back and saw the whole castle? Huh? And he sees a hole level with the ledge in a separate cavern he found down that long tunnel...this is making no freaking sense to me. You'd better post a map or something.
ReplyDeleteOkay...struggling here...so the cave he came out into, it's like a giant ring around the castle, which extends underground in an inverted tower. Thing is, that puts the castle behind him...OH
ReplyDeleteThat ledge, you made it sound like it was below him - as in on the same wall as him. Not across the cave. Clarify he is crossing this encircling cave and standing on a ledge on the far side looking BACK, and this should make more sense to the next guy like me (whatever like me means in this case) (it's not like I have visualizing problems, visualizing is a key feature of my profession)
I don't want to be insulting or anything, but there's an edit button under your own comments. You can just add to the first comment when there's something to add. Keeps the "recent comments" section cleaner and stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, you're right, it is quite difficult to imagine.
Typo: "fervently living up the to name of Gray Rock" -> the/to are flipped.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note: Loving the story. My plan to take a break has failed. <3
Hell of a catch. Fixed now, thank you.
ReplyDeleteDon't have really anything to say here. Loving the story
ReplyDelete