Oroc followed him.
"We accept your deal," Oroc said, as he extended his hand. The Brooker shook on it and Oroc pulled away.
"Keys," he said, extending his hand.
"Meet me in front of the tower at nightfall and I will give you your keys."
The Brooker said and walked out of the cave. That night they all met The Brooker at the tower. They only had two keys left now. When they got there The Brooker was already waiting.
He handed Oroc 12 light keys the moment they arrived. He had a bag packed, the others came empty-handed.
"Follow me." The Brooker said, crouching they moved with precision. They evaded roaming guards. Any false move and they would have been captured and wiped.
They entered the tower. Oroc remembered the hallway but the others were fascinated. They looked around in awe. Down the hallway, they turned left and climbed the stairs.
It was a spiral staircase made of huge granite steps tha protruded from the walls. As they climbed they looked down to see the ground floor.
"This is fairly easy," Art whispered soon after they heard footsteps coming from above. There was nowhere to hide. Their only choices were to continue going up or go back down.
The staircase which were floating stairs had slabs twice bigger than regular ones. The height between slabs was slightly higher. The length was long enough to fit four people comfortably. Without focus one would trip every time.
"Let's go up," The Brooker said, materializing a gun. Pointing it in the direction of the sound they climbed.
"Are you sure?" Amir asked looking down, realizing how high up they were.
After a while, they heard the footsteps above them.
Since the stairs were just slabs on a wall. It was easy to see people floors above from the other side. The moment they were opposite each other The Brooker fired his gun. Unfortunately, he missed, and the patch guard ran down the stairs.
Aria materialized her now, ready to fire if the guard got too close.
The Brooker fired a couple of times. Missing each and every one. He might have not been that bad of a shot. The guard was fast, spending a second on each slab.
Fortunately for them, his run ended about five slabs away from them. A bullet hit him in the head. Before he could fall down the edge. Art materialized his spear. He stabbed him and dragged him away from the edge.
"Nicely done," The Brooker said then helped him sit his body against the wall.
After climbing for about 30 minutes more they got to the first landing.
It was like nothing they had ever seen. It was a whole town.
They smiled, this had been the closest they had seen to normal. People talking to each other. Arguing over the price of goods without fear of persecution.
This gave Amir hope.
"Where is this place? Where are the patch guards?"
Amir asked as he browsed through the market.
"This is First Landing, it serves as a rest stop for climbers. There are four more Landings before we get to the first floor."
The Brooker said, smacking Amir's hand as tried to take food from a store. Amir noticed everyone there had a glow in their eyes. All over the market, they traded with light keys. They traded memories for stuff.
"Has anyone seen my guard?" They heard from a distance.
They turn to see a man yelling. Harassing the sellers and buyers in the market.
"I will pay four keys for any information about a patch guard." the man said but people still ignored him.
"I know something about a patch guard."
Amir said and the man walked towards him.
"You should not have done that." The Brooker tried to drag Amir away.
"Hey, it is The Brooker. It has been a while, how is business? " the man said as he got closer.
The Brooker stopped and turned around.
"Gill, yes it's been a while. I was in the mines." The Brooker said he slowly walked towards him.
"It seems you boy knows something about my guard. Boy, tell me what you know."
Gill said as he got uncomfortable close to him.
"I saw it running down the stairs," Amir said, Gill put his hand in a pouch around his waist. He brought out four light keys and handed them to Amir.
As Gill was about to run down the stairs.
"It is dead," Amir said and Gill stopped.
"Did you kill my guard?" Gill said grabbing Amir by his shirt.