New Story: The Royal climber Chapter 1

Unedited. 

Sorry this was supposed to go out yesterday, but I put the wrong date in. Working on the new DM chapter now. It will be out this weekend. New Sage of humanity will be out middle of Next week. 

Thank you for sticking with me. This means a lot.

Duck

Royal Climber

Chapter 1

The Tower

“In the news today, King Jasper has elevated the station of thirty common climbers of Bightmore’s Tower in keeping with his promise to elevate those who make it to the thirtieth floor. This marks the single largest increase of Tower granted commoners to be knighted in twenty years. The King of Boston faced sharp criticism from the Bostonian Earls for his actions, but the court of Lords praised his majesty's actions. Lord Harrow spoke in support of the King asking his fellow Bostonian Earls to support the rising Climbers as they continued their climb in the Tower.

In other news, Benjamin Franklin, the renowned Bostonian Artificer, Climber and diplomat to King Louis the 14th, the Sun King Climber, was released today. Mr. Franklin was arrested five months ago in the Tower Kingdom of Franco in the old world for adultery of a Noble, lewd and lascivious behavior, and spying. He had been scheduled for execution, but  was given a pardon by the Sun King Climber on Tuesday. The Palace in Boston has put out a statement in support of the Franco King as tensions rise among the Franco Nobles and its commoner Climbers. Mr. Franklin is expected to arrive back in Boston in three months on the Bostonian Naval airship HBM Iron Heart.

Mob violence broke out today at Bunker Hill St. as the Sons and Daughters of Liberty marched in protest ....”

Kat tuned out the rest of what the radio announcer was saying. She really didn't want to hear anything about the sons and daughters of liberty. She despised them. She had seen their true colors a long time ago. While no one was saying it yet, she knew the group had already committed several treasonist actions. They talked like they wanted to support the commoners, both the general people and the climbers, but she knew first hand that they only wanted power for themselves. She had seen things in the past that she didn’t want to think about. Things that had been covered up to protect the group.

Instead she examined everyone around her. There was an annoying man in dirty worn clothing who smelled of old stale alcohol sitting on the floor next to her. He had his eyes closed and he swayed as the ship they were on rose and fell as they rode the waves on Gloucester bay. It took her a few seconds to realize that the man was asleep. She guessed, just from his looks and smell, that he was a dock side laborer.

On her other side, also sitting on the floor, was a woman in a clean, but older looking blue dress. She had a white bonnet on her head that was slightly oversized, but still fashionable. The woman looked to be in her early thirties, but looked tired and worn. The worn down looking woman was currently staring down at her hands as she knitted something. The bag where she had a large ball of yarn, which slowly spinning as the woman knitted, looked old and worn. She was also sitting on a nicely folded, but older looking rug. It was, Kat guessed, to keep her dress from getting dirty from the not so clean floor in steerage.

Looking away from the woman, Kat looked at the rest of the room in steerage. The room was large. If she had to guess, Kat would’ve had to say it was thirty feet or so long and about ten or so feet wide. There were a few long benches that ran down the middle of the room, but they were all taken. There were far too many people stuffed into the room than there were seats to sit on. Most of the people were standing, but a few like Kat, who were near the wall, were sitting with their backs to it.

Most of the people in the room were wearing worn clothing, like the woman next to her, that indicated that they were laborers. There were a few women in the room, and they were all dressed like shop-women. The type of woman who worked in the shops near the Tower as mannequins or sales people. One might guess that the early morning hour was the reason why so many people looked worn down, but Kat knew that the people here were temporary workers looking for coin on the isle of Brightmore.

The room was lit by a few hanging brass lanterns. Since they weren’t giving off the normal smoke of oil lanterns, Kat guessed that they were the more expensive Mana crystal ones. Growing up where she had, she hadn’t seen many like them until she came to the capital. They weren’t new, but the mana crystals that powered them either came from beyond outer edges of the Kingdom of Boston or inside the Tower. Either way it was much easier to get oils than pay the price of shipping the crystals from both places.

Above her she heard the sounds of those who were a lot more well off than the rest of them in steerage. She had seen their accommodations when she had come aboard the ferry. While her ticket only granted her passage below, those who could afford it, could walk the deck, sit in their warm little room with portholes, or if they paid a bit more, their own room. It had taken almost all of her money just to get to the capitol, and then buy a ticket so Kat didn’t have that luxury. Even if she hadn’t spent all of her money, she wouldn’t have been able to afford those pricey tickets anyway. Most commoners, like herself, traveled to Brightmore on a ferry in steerage.

A loud horn sounded, taking Kat by surprise. She looked around the room, but no one looked concerned. In fact the smelly man beside her didn’t even wake up. Even woman knitting Beside her didn’t react. All she did was sneeze off to the side away from everyone. She hadn’t, Kat noticed, stopped knitting the whole time. The only difference that had happened in the room was that some of the conversations that had been going on had gotten softer or died away completely.

Roughly five minutes later, the horn sounded again, but this time twice. The man who had been asleep woke up and started to stand up. The woman who was knitting, stopped what she was doing and put away her supplies to also stand up. Kat, after hesitating for a few seconds, stood up as well. It was hard to tell, but Kat thought the ship was slowing down.

Not long after she had stood up there came a muffled call, “Linesmen...out!” There was a long silence then there came a muffled call. “Alright you bullyboys, pull!”

The ship started to move sideways, which felt odd to Kat. The rumble of the engines, which had been very loud for the past hour of the trip, suddenly went silent. It was suddenly oddly quiet for a few moments before there came a slight bump as the sideways moving ship hit something. Kat swayed a bit, but it wasn’t hard to remain on her feet. She did noticed that both the drunkard, and the shop-woman both had braced themselves by putting one foot slightly forward. She slid her own foot forward, but there was no need. The ship had stopped moving.

“Gangway,... out!”, came a muffled cry.

A few seconds later the horn sounded three times, and the sounds of boots above her got very loud as those who were better off started to leave the ship. Some of the people in steerage move closer to the two doors at either end of the ship, but they weren’t allowed out quiet yet. They, and the rest of steerage, had to wait until those above them had disembarked before they were allowed to leave. Their wait was only a few moments, but Kat got anxious as she waited for them to be allowed up the stairs. She was so close to her goal that it was hard to wait even for a few moments. Then the crowd started moving.

Kat followed along the crowd as she left the room and started up the stairs. The drunkard walked in front of her, leaving a trail of fruity alcohol smell in his wake. There was a sailor standing on the landing where the stairs split. He looked bored as he watched the people split up and continue on their journey on the smaller stairs on either side of him.

The doors to the deck were open and the smell of the ocean lofted in. Stepping out of the door Kat found herself in the gray of predawn. There was a slight cold wind that kissed her cheek and blew her hair into her face as she took a second to look around. The line she was following grind to a stop as people waited to leave the ferry. She couldn’t see much of the island yet because there was a lot of fog. She was limited to roughly twenty or so feet in front of her. Which was mostly only the bow of the ship and the white painted wooden building of first class seating. What she could do is hear the sounds of the ocean slap against the hull of the ferry, the smell of sulfur of old seaweed, and the cries of seagulls as they flew overhead. Something about those sounds made her relax a bit.

The line started moving again, and Kat followed. The gangway was three long boards that were attached together by a bunch of smaller pieces of plank wood that formed a ladder of sorts. There was a rope that ran along the gangway and down to the docks. It was a braided rope that was almost as thick as her wrist. She took hold of the rope and started her way down the surprisingly stable gangway. At the bottom of the gangway she took a step off the ferry and took her first step on Bightmore island.

Kat didn’t stop long as people were still coming down behind her still wanting to get off the ferry. She looked to see if she could see the tower, but the fog was too thick. She mentally shrugged and followed the people walking towards the archway that led to Thacher city. The only city on Brightmore.

The neat and proper line that she had followed off the ship broke up a bit as those who were walking faster moved off to the side to bypass those who were walking slower. Kat didn’t walk all that fast as she had all the time in the world now that she was here. She was headed towards Brightmore Tower, and there was no set time to be there. It had been there long before her people had come to these shores from the old world. and it would be there long after she took her place among the dead.

The Drunkard turned away from the line that was headed towards the wooden archway that was the boundary to the city and the docks, and started walking down the docks. He wasn’t the only one, but their number was far fewer than Kat expected it to be. Most of the rough looking men continued on towards the wooden archway. None of the women, she noticed, had moved to follow the men going down the docks.

She found out why the rough looking men around her hadn’t gone down the docks to work, as she crossed under the wooden archway. Just beyond the archway was a bunch of trucks that seemed to be everywhere in the larger cities. There were men in nicer clothing holding clipboards. They were standing by their trucks yelling out calls for workers.

“I need ten strongbacks. Two pence for the day.” One man called out.

“Twelve strongbacks. Five pence. Two day’s work.” Another man yelled out.

“Looking for four shoppies. Must be young and good looking. One pence a day. Long term work.” Called out yet another man.

Kat ignored the men in nicer clothing, and kept walking down the street. Almost all of the rough men and quite a few women stepped out of line that was leaving the docks and started to clump up in small crowds around the nicer dressed men. It wasn’t long until Kat was mostly alone. There were a few women and a lone man still walking in with her, but they were all spread out now that most of the other passengers who were looking for work had left.

She looked down at the street and smiled. This was the most famous street, aside from King Jessup’s Lane, in the kingdom. Queen May road was oddly smooth. She knew from  school that it was made from an alchemy recipe called cement which has been alleged to be stolen from the kingdom of Britain. The Powerful old world king, King William the third who was a very powerful Climber along with his wife Queen Mary the second, was not pleased when it got stolen. According to her father, the old king was still making problems for their much smaller kingdom even though the news keeps reporting that they are our allies. Her father told her not to worry though, as the powerful Climber monarchs were too busy dealing with the Fey and their Celtic allies from the isle of Ireland.

Kat walked on the side of the road as the first of the trucks full of laborers started driving down the road. This close to the docks the buildings were mostly warehouses, but there were a few pubs here and there that looked closed for the day. A few people were setting up wooden carts with all sorts of different meats hanging down from the tops of their stall display. The meat looked fresh, but uncooked. It would, she imagined, be a while until the meat was cooked and the stalls were open.

The buildings were built like most buildings in the cities she had been to so far. They were very close to each other, and were either two or three stories high. They were also mostly made of wood. Something that her little village wouldn’t dare to do as it was very unsafe if a monster had broken through and attacked them. Then again her village had been in the seventh ring. Here in the first ring, she doubted they had that problem.

The warehouse faded away to smaller shops. The shops had large windows that showed all sorts of shoppies posing with tower looking products. Some were dressed in old fashioned looking armor while others were holding swords or other weapons used in the tower. The prices ranged from a few pence to a few pounds. While they looked authentic, she knew from her father and her uncle stories that these shops sold mostly knock off products. Stuff that looked real, but weren't. It was for those with money who wanted to look the part of a climber, but didn’t want to risk their lives in the Tower.

The wooden store slowly faded away and stone stores, the kind she was used to, replaced them.These were, according to her father, crafter shops. These stores and restaurants mostly sold crafted quality products from climbers who had given up their main skill for a crafting one. They were also far more pricey than the previous stores. Most of them were closed, but a few of them were open. The Shoppie woman in the windows of the open shops looked younger and more beautiful than the other woman in the wooden built stores.

Finally, Tower road ended and King Jessup’s Lane. The fog was still too thick for Kat to see the Tower, but she could feel it in the distance. It was like there was something heavy pulling at her to fall towards it. As if she was standing on the side of a hill, and she was feeling the gravity wanting to pull her down.

King Jessup’s Lane was like most of the streets she had seen so far in her life. It was a cobble street, but unlike most streets she had been on this one was very clean. It was said that King Jessup, the first king of Boston, had enchanted the stones to repel dirt and filth. Looking at the stones she could see how the rumors might be true.

The cobblestone lane ran in a circle around the unseen Tower. Around the Tower, the best of the stores and the greatest auction houses lay. Peeking into the fog, Kat couldn’t see much of that. She did spot the largest of the great auction houses in the kingdom, Lloyds, which was on the corner of Queen May road and King Jessup’s lane.

It was a beautiful building built with the same compound as Tower road was. The building had four columns on either side of it’s giant doors made out of very dark painted wood. She didn’t know much of the auction house other than its name. But even in her little village people knew of Lloyds. Her father, while he never had anything he could sell there or buy from there, had only spoken nice things about the auction house. That was very out of character for him as he wasn’t a fan of the great auction houses in general.

Even though the auction house looked close, there were Tower guards standing by the two giant doors. They were dressed in their trademark black uniforms. Her father, an old army sergeant, had very little good things to say about the Tower guards. With their only responsibility being the protection of the Tower, he thought they were parasites that needed to be folded into the regular army. It was a popular opinion of those who were serving or those who had retired from the Kings Army. It was not a popular opinion, she had found, outside that small circle of people.

After looking both ways, Kat started crossing King Jessup’s Lane. The fog slowly parted and half way across she started to see the outer building in front of the East gate of the Tower. The outer building was built by Queen May, the same queen who had built the road leading from the docks to the Tower. She was also the current king’s Mother. The same queen who had taken over from King Jessup, her father, to rule Boston a hundred years ago. She was still alive, and if the rumors were true, was climbing a Greater Tower in the Kingdom of New Amsterdam. Having a queen, even a retired one, who had completed a lower Tower was most likely why the Kingdom of Boston was left alone by the other seven Tower kingdoms of the new world. At least that was what her Uncle liked to say.

To enter the tower one had to enter the building full of Tower guards and pay the taxmen. There were two Tower guards standing guard by the open door of the tax building. They looked more alert than the two who were guarding Lloyds. They watched her as she walked towards them with sharp eyes. One was carrying a big wide blade ax that looked really heavy while the other one, a woman, carried a sword by her side. Her hand rested lightly on it.

They didn't do anything, nor did they stop her as she entered the tax building as she walked past them and entered the building. She found herself inside a very big room that had a wooden wall with cutout so one could talk to the tax people behind it. To her surprise the taxman was wearing an Army uniform with sergeant’s severons on his sleeve. He looked very bored.

He was an older looking man like her father. She knew not to judge a climber by their looks as what age they looked like didn’t mean much when it came to climbers. They tended to live longer than regular people. You couldn’t judge how powerful a climber was, or wasn’t, just because of their looks. Queen May still looked like she was only just now coming into her late thirties, according to the picture that had hung in her fathers sitting room, and she was over a hundred years old and had cleared a low Tower.

The Sergeant had lamb chop sideburns on his face that were salt and pepper colored. It was an old fashion style, but still could be found here and there in the older population. He looked just as fit as her father had been, but her father’s face had a look that was much harder than this man. The Sergeant looked up at her as she walked towards his window.

“Name and highest floor?” He asked as she stepped up to the window.

“Katherine Kelly, and this is my first time entering the Tower.” Kat told him a little nervous.

“Kelly?” The man asked, looking down at her from his tall seat. “Why is that name familiar?”

“Sergeant Douglas Kelly was my father. He was a Tower granted Lord, and a Knighted landed one by the King’s own hand eight years ago.” She told him, feeling a cloud of darkness descending around her.

“I know him. Got himself a village by the border, Right?” The Sergeant behind the desk said, breaking out into a smile. The smile quickly faded away and his expression turned to sadness. “Sorry for your loss, lass. He was a good man. Shame what happened.”

“Yes, sergeant.” Kat replied, fighting back the tears that threatened to leak from her eyes. Her father would not appreciate them.

“I remember he had a daughter, but I remember her only being sixteen. That true?” He asked, giving her a shrewd eye.

“No, sir. I’m eighteen” Kat said, starting to feel a little desperate. This man had the power to stop her accent, at least until she turned eighteen for real. He was off anyway. She had just turned seventeen a month ago.

He was quiet for a little while then he seemed to come to a decision. “Right.” He told her then picked up a piece of paper and placed it on the counter top between them. “Place your hand here. This is a truth spell. Once you touch it you will not be able to lie until the power runs out of it.”

The paper was a single sheet of thick paper. She knew what it was, and even saw one in the past. Her father used to get them from the government dispatch and use them in his job. The paper was blank now, but the moment she put her hand on it, it would activate. It was a magi crafter spell put to paper. She placed her hand on it.

Sparks lit around her hand and tiny flames spread out leaving an odd looking circular design on the paper. Once the design was complete, the tiny flames flickered out leaving her hand stuck to the paper. She looked up at the man behind the counter who nodded and started asking his questions.

“Are you a citizen of Boston?” He asked.

“Yes.” She replied.

“Do you have any contact with forein persons or will have contact with said people.”

“No.”

“Are you anyway being coerced in any way to climb the tower?”

“No.”

“Have you committed any crimes or plan on committing any, in the Kingdom of Boston?”

“No.”

The questions went on and on, and Kat answered them faithfully. She hadn’t done anything or was planning on doing anything that would go against the King or his laws. Her father was very patriotic, and had instilled the same sense of patriotism in her. She considered herself a good person and a good citizen of Boston. Her father had also made sure she could pass these questions when she came of age.

He made her memorise the questions when she was a child and knew that failing them was failing him. She had come close a few times of doing something that would make her eligible to enter the Tower, but she had either been caught or had stopped on her own accord before crossing that invisible line. Entering the Tower underage was not technically against the law, but she would have to have a piece of paper from a lawyer that her father had to have signed to let her enter.

Since she knew the questions and what order they came in, she knew she could get around it by lying. Kind of. She had a piece of paper with her fathers hand writing on it from a lawyer, but the dates were off. If he asked her how old she was, she would produce the paper. She had used her spit to smear the dates, so she could show him a paper with her authorization on it. It wasn’t illegal to do that. All he would have to do is not accept it until the lawyer who drafted it rewrote it. She also didn’t have to tell him what the dates were that were smeared. She didn’t plan on fooling the Sergeant. If he couldn’t read the dates, it wasn’t her problem. Hher father had told her that the easiest way to fool a truth spell was to omit things. As long as you didn’t try to lie you would be fine.

Luckily he didn’t ask for her age under the truth spell or to produce any paperwork. He just skipped over it, and continued on. She let some air out of her chest as the expected question came and went without him asking. She knew her reasoning was shaky at best, and a good interview would be able to easily find out the truth by follow up questions. Still, she had to chance it. She had nowhere else to go.  After that time seemed to speed up and in no time she was done.

“One pound, please.” The sergeant asked when he was done.

“I’m an orphan of the Kingdom, and a daughter of a fallen soldier.” She reminded him.

“Right, sorry.” He said, sounding like he meant it. “Twenty pence then.”

“I wish to sign up for His Majesty’s Army.” Kat returned with a smile.

‘Lass, you don’t have to sign up with either branch now.” He told her in return, frowning. “You only have to do that when you reach Massachuttes city.

“Then I will have to pay the Twenty pence, and I don’t have it.” Kat replied, tilting her head.

The old Sergeant signed and rubbed his forehead. Then he stopped and looked at her. “Because your old man was a good man, I’ll put you down for a probational army recruit. You won’t have to pay twenty pence now, but if you reach the city and decide to join the Tower guard instead you’ll then have to pay the fee.”

“Thank you, sergeant. But I plan on following my Fathers foot footsteps.” She told him. “I will honor my commitment.”

The old Sergeant chuckled. “Just like your da.” He told her. “I’m still going to put you on the porbational list. After you get through the first ten floors, then we will see if you want to face more. Good luck, Cimber Kelly. Do your da proud.”

“Thank you Sergeant. I will.” Kat said, meaning every word she spoke. She gave the old sergeant a salute her father would be proud of before turning away. She also knew her father would be proud of her decision to enter the Tower early. In fact he had always planned on her following him into the Tower. He had even trained her how to survive inside. The only problem was that he wasn’t here to see her off. His body, if it hadn’t been eaten yet, was on the forty-ninth floor with most of his crew.