Nym's Arc

Chapter 6 of 41

The door swung inward. Behind it Nym expected a room, or a keeper waiting in a chair. Instead a staircase rose into black. Stone steps curled up and around, past her light, past sight. She could not see the top. Thora stepped beside her. "He waits up there." Nym looked at the nymph's calm green face. Thora had guarded this tree for longer than Nym had been alive. She had known Nym's mother. That fact still pressed on Nym's chest like a hand. "Come with me," Nym said. "I can't read these steps alone." Thora nodded. Vines trailed from her legs across the floor as she moved. "The tree can spare me for a while." Nym opened her palm. Blue fire bloomed there. She lifted it and started to climb. The flame lit five steps ahead, then swallowed the rest. Cold air pushed down from above. Their footsteps echoed and came back changed, as if the tower answered them. They climbed. The black cat slipped past Nym's boots and led the way. Her legs began to ache. She counted a hundred steps, then lost the number. The walls stayed bare. No doors. No windows. Only the curve going up and up. "How far?" Nym asked. "Far enough to test you," Thora said. "He seals himself where the weak turn back." Nym did not turn back. She fed the flame and kept moving. Sweat cooled on her neck. Her thighs burned. Still she pushed each foot onto the next stone. Halfway up, a marking caught her light. A single rune, carved into the wall at eye height. It glowed faint green as she passed, the same shade as the door below. Thora touched it. "Your mother climbed these too," the nymph said. "The stone remembers her." Nym stopped. Her breath came hard. "You never told me her name." Thora met her eyes. "He will. That is his to give, not mine." The answer stung, but Nym climbed on. The promise pulled her forward now more than her fear. Somewhere above sat a man who knew her name, her mother, her blood. The cat stopped first. Nym raised her flame and saw why. The stairs ended. A landing spread before them, wide and flat. A wooden door stood at its center, plain, no runes on its face at all. Nym pressed her free hand to her chest. Her heart slammed. She had climbed the whole tower, and the top held only this quiet door. "He is inside," Thora said softly. Nym let the fire shrink to a coal in her palm. She stepped onto the landing. Her boots met dust that no one had disturbed in years. She reached for the handle and stopped. "Whatever he tells me," she said, "I need to hear it." Then she gripped the handle and turned it. The door gave. Warm light spilled out onto her face.