Chapter 16 Eder
EDER
E der walked the quiet road of Bridgetop, his faithful Celebrant at his side.
When the Tower Majestic cracked in a forgotten age, the upper half had fallen toward the nearby cliff.
There it rested, wide and enormous, forming a bridge connecting the Tower Majestic to the grand city of Racliffe nestled against the rocky edge.
Over time, homes had been built atop the gently curving surface, growing taller and more densely packed until it had become a full town in its own right.
“I’m getting worried about the reports I’m receiving from our more distant preachers,” Madeleine said, walking stiffly beside him.
Her black vest and trousers seemed to glow in the starlight.
“Reception toward them has soured greatly with our recent annexations. The western people view the church as synonymous with the kingdom.”
“They are synonymous,” Eder said. “It is they who took too long to learn the obvious.”
Madeleine glanced at a leaf of paper in her hand, scribbled with notes. A habit of hers, for it was much too dark for her to read it now.
“A mob in Cevenne hung one of our shepherds from the rafters of his church, then set fire to the building. We might want to delay sending out preachers until we can better assess where our faithful will be in the most danger.”
Eder paused to admire a mural painted along a storefront, a lovely dance of stars across a blue backdrop.
During the day, Bridgetop was a crowded bustle of trade, particularly with goods flowing into the Tower Majestic.
Here at night, it was pleasantly calm, the waves crashing against the distant cliffs the only true noise.
Taverns, gambling halls, and most other nightly activities were banned from Bridgetop.
Eder much preferred to traverse the expanse at night.
“Those who join the Voice of the Father know the risks they face,” he said, referring to the branch of the church that dealt with sermonizing and proselytizing to the nations.
“It is where people react with violence that we must focus our efforts. That violence reveals a fear in the heathens that our preachers carry wisdom, and that their brothers and sisters will be open to our words and the healing touch of our hands.”
Madeleine hesitated. A patrol of two soldiers approached holding torches above their heads, and she waited until they were gone to speak.
“I suppose we could require the most threatening lands in the west to be voluntary assignments only.”
Eder smiled at her. “If that is what you feel is necessary. But do not worry. I know my faithful. We will not be short of volunteers.”
They resumed walking the half-mile stretch connecting the Tower Majestic to Racliffe.
It always made Eder wish he could have seen the tower before its collapse, when it had been almost triple its current height.
A finger of giants, rising out of the ocean to point accusatorily at the stars.
Or perhaps Eder was assigning too much of his own biases to the image.
Eder paused beside a nearby home. There was but one road knifing through the center of Bridgetop, forcibly kept clear by law.
All else was pushed up against it as closely as possible, the buildings stacked around and atop one another, layer after layer, with some even overhanging the edges on wooden platforms braced with ropes and propped up with wedge beams that connected far below.
This particular home had hung a long flower box underneath a window.
Eder wondered how often the owner must fertilize the soil to allow the beautiful flowers blooming there to survive.
Fresh water would be difficult, too, in these summer months.
Not easy, or cheap, and yet the owner put in the effort to see it done.
Eder’s pale fingers brushed the petals of a thorned mistflower, their blue shade almost purple in the moonlight.
“A new age approaches,” he said softly. “Should the world come crumbling down, would you stand with me, Madeleine? Would you accompany me to the end of all things?”
“Of course I would,” his Celebrant said, much too quickly. He turned to her and let her see the radiance in his eyes. If she lied, he would know. The truth would not be denied him.
“Easy words,” he said. “Spoken in confidence, not wisdom. You gave no thought to it, Celebrant, and so I ask you again. If the path I walk leads us to oblivion, would you still walk it with me?”
The blond woman crossed her hands behind her, and for a long while she met his gaze, unflinching.
This was what he liked best about her, and why he had elevated her to his church’s highest station.
If pushed, she would set her mind to any task, any problem, and attack it more fiercely than starving dogs would a scared hare.
“I do not believe you lead us to anything but paradise,” she said, breaking the silence.
“But the change you bring, it has already led to war. Should its fires spread beyond our control, and the Astral Kingdom come tumbling down, I will still stand proudly beside you, my Luminary. This body is transient. Why cherish this life, when my soul shall go to Father’s hands come its end? ”
Eder picked the mistflower and twirled it, purposefully letting its thorns poke his thumb and forefinger until blood trickled down the stem.
“Not yet,” he said. “This cycle of unending sin is not broken yet. But it will be, Madeleine. With your help, it all will be shattered, and humanity set free.”
He clenched his fist, thorns cutting deep, his blood dripping to the hardstone street.
The mistflower shifted in color, its blue petals darkening, turning black, and then suddenly blooming with light.
Little stars burst from its petals, until it was like a night sky contained.
He lifted it high above him as he silently addressed the heavens.
I know you are false , he told those distant stars. And one day, I shall rip through you like the smothering curtain you are.
Eder turned and tucked the mistflower into Madeleine’s breast pocket.
The shimmering light of the miniature stars had already begun to fade, becoming more like white pockets of color across petals now more a deep blue than black.
Still, a beautiful sight. As he adjusted her vest, his hands briefly brushed across her breast. He caught her looking away from him and blushing.
There was no hiding her lust, not from his eyes.
He was yet to grant her that desire. Perhaps he never would.
The possibility tempted her. The potential tormented her.
Lust, love, and loyalty blended together into a potent mix that made her, unquestionably, his.
But for her to maintain that hope, there must always be whispers, hints, and words spoken that could mean one thing, or another entirely…
Eder leaned over Madeleine, so much taller than her, so much more overwhelming a presence. His lips brushed her ear. His warm breath teased her when he whispered.
“Should it be our fate, then let us together walk into oblivion, you and I.”
She trembled before him.
“My Luminary,” she whispered, unsure of what else to say.
Eder pulled back, and he adjusted the angle of the flower in her vest.
“Come,” he said. “I would like to find Nem and be done with this business before the sun rises and the Hanging City wakes.”
Though the Tower Majestic had cracked in half, and the upper cylinder fallen onto its side, it had remained very much intact all these unknown years later.
This meant below Bridgetop was a second nest of homes and buildings built into the massive hollow space.
Given the inability to drive a single nail into the surface of the hardstone, the town was a mess of beams and ropes, supported from platforms built along the lower floor of the tower along with crossbeams running along the surface of Bridgetop.
The two sections were distinct and yet inseparable, a symbiosis Eder greatly admired.
A hollow cylinder cracked and lying sideways as a bridge, impenetrable to humanity’s tools, and yet they had carved out homes above the churning waters of the sea.
Collectively Bridgetop and Underbridge were known as the Hanging City, ruled over by Eder within the Tower Majestic as he did Racliffe across the way.
What had once been windows of the Tower Majestic were now entrances into Underbridge, and it was one such entrance Eder and Madeleine approached.
A lone guard stood bored before the gap, which had been surrounded with homes on three sides.
A bit of smoke drifted up through the opening from the eternal haze that blanketed Underbridge.
The rope ladder down was nailed to the wall of one such home.
The guard wore a plain gray tabard with five stars sewn in black, identifying him as lower in rank than the elite guards within the tower.
Upon seeing Eder, he startled to a proper upright stance, the sleep vanishing from his eyes.
“Greetings, Luminary,” he said, his voice cracking. The man was young. Eder wondered if he’d met him before.
“At ease,” he said. “I pray your night has been pleasantly uneventful?”
“It has until your arrival, Your Excellence.”
Eder gestured for Madeleine to go first and then followed her down the rope ladder.
It wasn’t far, just four feet or so before they set foot on a wooden platform that was the top of the mazelike scaffolding that made up Underbridge.
From there, it was a series of ladders descending the platforms until reaching the actual bottom, where the largest of buildings were built upon the sturdy, unbreakable hardstone.