Chapter 316: Re-exploration of the Stone Tower
The moment His Highness left the hall, Lightning seized Maggie by the wrist and dragged her into the corner.
“Goo?”
Maggie’s white hair fell nearly to the floor, so that when she moved she looked less like a person than a sheet thrown over a ghost. She’d pushed the curtain of it aside just enough to reveal her puffed cheeks—and the crisp pork chop still dangling, half-swallowed, from her mouth.
“I found a place,” Lightning said, keeping her voice low. “Inside the Concealing Forest. Hidden. I’m going tomorrow to explore it—will you come?”
Maggie swallowed. “I want, I want!” She nodded rapidly. “What do we need to bring?”
“Three things—” Lightning caught herself. She’d been spending too much time around His Highness; his phrasing kept bleeding into hers. “The three essentials. A flint, dry food, a dagger. The place isn’t far. A day’s rations is plenty. And don’t fill your whole pack with food like last time.”
“Okay goo,” Maggie said, patting her chest. She turned to go back to the table.
“Maggie.” Lightning caught her arm. “This is our secret. Don’t tell anyone.”
She watched Maggie’s retreating back—the hurried shuffle toward the food—and curled her lip. Tomorrow, she thought. We leave at first light.
It was not simply about a place inside a forest.
The bombing run had gone well. His Highness had said so himself. But since that flight—since the moment she had hit her top speed over unfamiliar terrain with the feeling of something behind her that wasn’t there—her flying had changed. A hesitation lived in it now. Something in her body that had not been there before, flinching before she’d even decided to flinch.
Fear, she recognized. And she recognized the shape of it precisely because her father had named it for her years ago: fear of the unknown.
The Stone Tower. She had been inside it—she had heard the voice, seen the shape in the basement doorway—and she had fled without thinking, the way prey fled, and she had hated herself for it all the way home. An explorer who could only be brave surrounded by an army wasn’t an explorer. She was just a passenger.
Fear is not terrible. The terrible thing is the unknown. To overcome it, you must approach it first.
She repeated her father’s words until they felt like walls she could lean against. Tomorrow she might find real danger waiting in that basement. She was going anyway—just the two of them, her and Maggie—not because it was safer than waiting for the First Army’s scheduled expedition, but because it wouldn’t mean anything if it were safe. If she could only face the Stone Tower with a hundred soldiers at her back, she would never know whether she had actually conquered the fear or merely buried it.
His Highness would probably confiscate her ice cream. Her sisters would worry. She had decided to accept both consequences.
She was the daughter of Thunder, the greatest explorer the Fjords had ever produced. She refused to be anything less.
Still, she was not reckless. She made careful inventory: the revolver His Highness had given her, the honeyed meat wrapped in cloth, torches, water-skins. She had a far better understanding of the Devils now than she’d had on the first trip. And she had Maggie—who could not take her demonic beast’s form against an active enemy, but who could fly, and two people who could each fly independently were not easily cornered.
An explorer doesn’t need a brigade for courage, she thought, but she can still have a trusted partner.
Before first light, she climbed to the top of the castle. Maggie was already sitting on the parapet, waiting, her pack open in her lap for inspection. The food had been cut to half—but the flint was there, and the dagger.
“Qualified,” Lightning announced. “Let’s go.”
They rose into the grey morning air, a girl and a pigeon angling northeast toward the wall of dark trees.
She had flown the route so many times in her mind that the real thing felt redundant—a rehearsal she was already past. The overcast sky was gentler than the storm that had shadowed her first approach. Still, as the forest rose up beneath them and the shape of the tower’s broken crown emerged through the branches, a coldness settled in her chest that had nothing to do with altitude.
“Is it an eagle nest?” Maggie asked from just above her head. “You said it was more interesting than an eagle nest.”
“It’s a ruin. More than four hundred years old.” Lightning kept her eyes on the tower. “A stone tower. There might be ancient books inside—bring one back to His Highness and he’ll give you a whole basket of eggs. Steamed or boiled, whatever you want. Three a day for weeks.”
The pigeon perked up instantly. “Really? Then we must hurry—googoo!”
By midday they were circling the tower.
It looked unchanged—moss on the stones, vines reclaiming the mortar, the surrounding forest quiet. Lightning made three low passes before she trusted her own eyes and set down in the clearing. Maggie landed on a branch overhead.
“Hush,” Lightning said sharply, before Maggie could speak. In the silence of the trees, a voice carried far. “There could be Devils inside. Climb to the top of the tower and wait. I’ll check first.”
Maggie’s tail shot upright.
Lightning moved across the dead grass alone, revolver in hand, until she stood at the tower entrance. The cluster of vines she had cut last time still hung there, withered now. She stepped over it and followed the interior wall to the passage descending into darkness. When the stairwell opened before her and the cold rose from below, she heard her own heartbeat.
Fear is not terrible.
She lit a torch. She went down.
At the corner of the passage she stopped and looked.
The basement door—what remained of it—hung in splinters. No shadow blocked the threshold. Only darkness, deep and still, like a held breath.
And then: barely audible, eerily familiar in its cadence—
A voice.
Every hair on her body stood. Her legs, of their own accord, shifted her weight backward. The urge to run was so immediate and complete that she had to consciously override it muscle by muscle—grip the wall, plant the foot, stay.
She bent toward the sound and listened again.
“Help me…”
The interval. The tone. Exactly as before, months ago. Unchanged—as though whatever spoke it had been saying it in the same breath the whole time she’d been away.
Lightning pressed her back to the wall and did not move.
Chapter 316 Re-exploration of the Stone Tower
When Lightning saw His Highness leave she pulled Maggie to the corner of the hall.
“Goo?”
Maggie’s hair was almost hanging to the floor, giving her the appearance of a floating ghost whenever she moved. Pushing aside the white hair covering her cheeks, Maggie’s high puffed up cheeks and the half swallowed crisp pork chop dangling in her small mouth became visible.
“I found a fascinating place,” Lightning whispered. “It’s hidden inside the Concealing Forest, I intend to go and explore it tomorrow. Would you like to come with me on an adventure?”
“Guru,” Maggie swallowed the food in her mouth and nodded again and again, “I want, I want. What should we prepare?”
“To go on an adventure, you need three items… Wrong, three of the most commonly used things,” Lighting discovered that from time to time she has started to use His Highness’ strange vocabulary. “You need a flint, dry food, and a dagger. The place isn’t far from here. So it will be fine if you just take along enough food for a day. Don’t fill your whole pocket with it like you did last time.”
“Okay goo,” Maggie patted her chest, ready to leave, but Lightning stopped her once again.
“Remember, that this adventure is our secret. Don’t tell anyone else about it,” the little girl said, “We’ll start early tomorrow morning.”
Looking at Maggie’s back, who couldn’t wait to get back to the table full of food, she curled her lips and began to think about their plan for tomorrow.
Despite the success of the bombing mission and meeting His Highness’ expectation, she found that her flying has become much less flexible than before, as if something was holding her back. Whenever Lightning raised her speed, she would always have the feeling that a Devil was chasing her.
This obstruction was brought by fear, she realized. Furthermore, the source of her fear was the exploration of the Stone Tower, when she saw the horrible figure in the basement doorway, she had lost her cool and calm. At that time, her only thought had been to flee from that place as quickly as she could. Ever since then she had started to question her identity as an explorer.
“Fear is not terrible, terrible is the unknown. If you want to overcome it, you must approach it first.”
Within her heart, Lightning silently repeated her father’s teaching again and again. Tomorrow she might encounter real danger, but an explorer should not be afraid of risk, nor should they shrink back. If she couldn’t get over it, she was scared that she would never be able to fly freely again.
This was also the reason why Lightning decided to keep the adventure hidden from His Royal Highness and act without authorization. According to His Royal Highness’ plan, the exploration of the Stone Tower was scheduled for after the Months of Demons and would be a cooperation between the First Army and the witches. However, she was worried that by that time, even if they visited the Stone Tower once again, it would be hard for her to see it as somehow fulfilling the idea of “conquering the fear” – only daring to approach the danger zone by relying on the strength of everyone, just couldn’t be called an adventure.
Afterward, His Highness may scold her, even going so far as confiscating her ice cream, and her sisters from the Witch Alliance would surely also be worried, but she was still determined to go through with it.
As the daughter of the Fjord’s greatest explorer Thunder, Lightning just couldn’t accept her cowardly self.
But it didn’t mean that her decision was a reckless act. Compared with her unprepared attempt a few months ago, she now had a revolver -a gift from
His Highness-, possessed a greater understanding of the Devils, and lastly, she was being accompanied by Maggie.
Especially the last point… If they really did encounter a group of Devils in the Stone Tower and even if Maggie couldn’t change into her demonic beast’s appearance to drive them away, they would at least still be able to flee on their own.
An explorer doesn’t need a brigade of troops to increase their courage, she thought, but they can still have a few trusted teammates.
After dinner, Lightning gathered some pieces of honeyed meat and put it into a cloth bag, she then added torches, weapons, and water bags.
The successful completion of the bombing mission gave her some confidence, together with His Highness’s encouragement and her slightly cheeky reputation let her feel doubly courageous. And just like the blacksmith’s saying went, ‘it’s best to strike while the iron is hot’, tomorrow would be the best time for them to depart.
At first light, Lightning flew to the top of the castle, where Maggie was already sitting on the wall and waiting for her.
“Let me check your package.”
“I got everything you told me, goo,” she changed back to her original form, opened her backpack and held it in front so that the little girl could confirm its content. This time she had reduced the amount of food to half, but at least had also added a dagger and a flint.
“Alright, this can be counted as qualified… let’s set off,” Lightning said rising into the air, flying together with the pigeon toward the Concealing Forest.
…
In her mind, Lightning had already repeated the journey many times, reaching a point where she could find her way there even with her eyes closed. The
weather was a bit overcast today, but it was still much better than the dark clouds that had been there last time. As the color of earth slowly fell away behind them, the closer they came to the Stone Tower, the greater became Lightning’s nervousness.
“Did you say you found an interesting place last night, was it a new eagle nest?” Maggie asked after a while.
“No, it’s much more interesting than that,” Lightning shook her head. “The target we want to explore is an ancient relict, a stone tower that has been left behind for more than four hundred years. Since the basement hasn’t collapsed yet, we might be able to find some ancient books if we are lucky.”
“Ancient books?” Maggie shook her wings, “That doesn’t sound as if it’s more exciting than digging for eagle eggs, goo.”
“An eagle nest has at most two to three eggs, something which you finish up in a flash,” the little girl said. “But, if you actually can find such a book and bring it back to His Royal Highness, he will surely reward you with a basket full of eggs. Whether you cook or steam them, you’ll be able to eat three eggs every day for a long time to come.”
“Really?” Maggie was full of spirit immediately, “Then let’s hurry up and look for ancient books! Googoo!”
Around noon, the two successfully arrived at their destination.
The remaining half of the stone tower was still hidden within the woods covered in moss and vines. Everything around them looked the same as a few months ago, it didn’t seem as if anything had changed. Yet, Lightning still lowered her height and flew a few rounds around the tower to confirm their safety before landing gently.
“Have we arrived, goo?” the pigeon shouted from above her head.
“Hush–” Lightning signaled her to be silent, within the silence of the forest their voices seem particularly noisy, “Speak softly. There could be Devils nearby.”
“The Devil?” Maggie’s tail immediately erected.
“You wait for me at the top,” Lightning said with a lowered voice, pointing to the upper part of the broken tower. “I will go and take a look at the situation first.”
When she walked over the gradually withered grass, she could hear a slight rustling sound coming from her foot. Reaching the entrance of the tower, she saw that it hadn’t been covered by plants and that the small cluster of vines cut off by her dagger last time was still there. Holding her breath, she moved forward along the former road and entered the tower. Taking one step after another, she slowly neared the center of the tower with its passage to the basement. At the time she saw the stair leading into the darkness in front of her, she even heard her heart loudly pounding.
Fear comes from the unknown, to overcome the fear, you have to approach the unknown… the little girl constantly encouraged herself, then lit a torch and climbed the stairs leading down.
Reaching the corner of the channel, she quietly shot out a probing glance, only fragments were left from the collapsed wooden door. The basement entrance also wasn’t blocked by the Devil, the only thing left behind at the door was a thick darkness, like an open mouth waiting to swallow the people who enter.
At this moment, she suddenly heard traces of a voice floating over from the darkness, only faintly discernible but still feeling very familiar –
Immediately all of her hairs were fully erected, her body was grasped by shivers and the almost uncontrollable urge to turn around and flee came up once again! She grit her teeth and struggled to suppress the boiling fear at the bottom of her heart. Then, covering her mouth, she bent an ear and listened attentively one more time.
This time the call was much clearer, the tone exactly the same as last time.
“Help me…”