Looking up, the highest point of the main pagoda was daunting. Though it did not pierce the clouds, it certainty felt to Tyhr as if it could. He knew that were he to have an accidental fall from such a height he would inevitably die. He also knew that once he started climbing it would not take long for people to notice. He had a finite amount of time to reach a certain elevation lest he be apprehended by Shidai or his father. Though he was uncertain how high either of them could jump he imagined it to be rather high.

As he looked up at the central pagoda the awe that he had felt upon first seeing the city of Ahkari in his infant form came back to him in a rush.

The central compound of the castle complex of Ahkari was composed of seven pagodas, one representing each of the seven nations of Diadem. There was the central pagoda, which was the tallest, hemmed in on two sides by the other six. The castle complex itself was at the center of Ahkari, constructed atop the highest pillar in the conflux of mountain formations that composed the ground upon which the city was built.

Since the day he had arrived in the city Tyhr had been examining the main pagoda. He had wanted to be certain of his route and analyze any hurdles he might face along the way.

He paused.

Surely a few more deep breaths couldn’t hurt?

…

Now he felt ready, or at least, less panicked.

He grinned an expression not unlike his usual one, only slightly wider. Removing his sandals, rolling up the sleeves of his robe, and slinging his cord over his shoulder, he placed one foot against the stone wall and began to climb.

Closing his eye he took one deep breath to steady himself.

It was a good day for such a venture. The wind was unusually calm and cool.

He had counted twenty floors.

Only twenty floors.

At first the ascent was not too difficult. Tyhr made sure to pace himself and check that his grip was firm with every movement. The difficult part, he knew, would be the sloping roof between each floor of the building. Fortunately for him, there were also the vines crawling up and down the building that had grown in recently, and he intended to take full advantage of them.

When he reached the first overhang he knew it was time to put his strength to the test. Tyhr hoisted himself up until he could wrap his legs along a ceiling beam and pull himself along. When he reached the end of the beam, tentatively, he extended one hand to the outer edge of the tiles.

For the moment he wasn’t too high up, with each floor being about eight or nine paces in height. Even if he fell now, it probably wouldn’t result in much save for a few bruises.

“No time like the present,” he whispered to himself before releasing his hold on the beam.

His momentum carried him outward, but he managed to hold on. Tyhr exhaled a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding.

Slowly, he pulled himself up to the second floor.

After that he simply repeated the steps for the next four floors. When he reached the fifth floor, he stopped for a moment and peered down at the ground below.

He whistled with appreciation.

He was fairly certain that neither Shidai nor his father could jump this high. Tyhr mentally patted himself on the back for making it this far. He was a quarter of the way to the top. Turning away from the ledge and back towards the wall, he found himself face to face with one of the small porthole windows, and face to face with a monk staring at him through it.

The monk looked… Surprised to see him.

Their faces were separated by an arms length or two of space and the outer wall of the pagoda between them. Tyhr and the monk locked gazes for a moment, the monk sputtering out things that were probably supposed to be words. His jaw was slack, his eyes were wide, and Tyhr heard whatever he had been holding thud unto the ground at his feet.

Tyhr waved.

Without saying a word, the monk turned on his heels and darted off.

“Oh…” said Tyhr. “Oh no…”

In all likelihood the monk was on his way to inform Tyhr’s father. Though his father had not expressed any anger towards Tyhr up until now, Tyhr thought that perhaps this might be the occasion that put the old man over the edge. That being said, Tyhr was not about to stop. It was a nice day outside and he could feel the sky calling.

As he continued his climb his breath began to heave more and more with each successive floor. The first dozen or so floors had been straight forward enough but he was growing tired. Was it possible that he had miscalculated? Perhaps he had not taken his own stamina into due consideration?

Occasionally he would cast glances down. He remembered thinking that the height of the pagoda had been daunting from the ground… But that was nothing compared to this. From so high up everything looked so small. Including the crowd that had formed. It was hard to tell, but it looked like a sizable group of gawkers. Tyhr squinted against the sun but couldn’t make out any distinct features on any faces. Everyone looked like an ant, so spotting his father or Shidai should have been a simple matter of finding the biggest ant.

When Tyhr finally reached the top he felt half dead. Pulling with all his strength he swung one leg up and rolled, practically throwing himself bodily against the tiles.

He laid there for a moment, breathing hard, sweat pouring from his brow and settling uncomfortably into the grooves of his scarred face. He stared upwards, saying nothing as he breathed slowly and heavily.

It was the biggest sky he had ever seen, soft blue in color with hints of green reflected from the fields below. The clouds looked more distinct from so high up. It was a beautiful sky, but it made Tyhr feel very small, not unlike the tower he now rested atop. He reached his hand out and realized that his palm, as well as the joints of his fingers were bleeding. For some reason this made him smile. Todays efforts would leave callouses, possibly even new scars, and those would mark his body as proof of his accomplishment. He had done something that no man had ever done, and he wondered how many more things he would be the first to do on his brief sojourn through this life.

He stayed this way for quite a while, listening to the slow rise and fall of his breath and the breeze blowing strong against the side of the building. These were the only sounds he could hear. Aside from that there was only silence.

It was a peacefulness that he had not known existed.

The thought came to him suddenly, and he welcomed it. The chatter of doubt and flashes of memory that usually plagued his mind were nowhere to be found. Tyhr was a child unused to silence.

This was probably what being dead was like.

With the utmost caution, Tyhr rolled unto his side and rose to his feet. First, he removed the silken cord from his shoulder, and tied it around the base of the roofs peak. The cord wasn’t particularly long, but was intended as more of a mark of his accomplishment in any case. He gave the cord a satisfied nod as it caught the wind and unfurled into the sky.

“Well done, me.”

Saddling up to the edge of the tiles, he peaked over to see the crowd at the base of the pagoda had grown even larger. Fingers pointed and hands waved in greeting, or at least he thought they did. It was hard to tell. The people were all tiny little specks on the ground below. Earlier that same day, he had been one of those specks, and if there was an even higher place, would he be the speck? He looked out over the city, casting his gaze over the wonders that humans had built.

Ahkakri was home to almost a million people, and according to his father, was one of the largest cities in all of Diadem. Rows upon rows of timber or stone houses, their roofs painted in a myriad of colors, lent the city an air of joviality and brightness. Ahkari was built on a conflux of narrow mountain peaks that cascaded outward and down from the central castle complex. Between the peaks were hundreds, if not thousands of bridges, big and small. Elevators, operated by pullies, ferried men and their cargo up and down between the various levels of the city. To even enter the city, one had to be ferried up from the jungle flood below.

“A good city. Very defensible… I wonder if that’s why I picked it?”

Turning his gaze out over the high and thin mountain range of the country of Tieran, they spread outward from the city like a sea of spears against the horizon. They were not spears, of course. Nor were they mountains, at least not in the technical sense of the word. It was likely that few people aside from himself knew what they actually were, but they were tall, and big, and therefore, considered mountains.

Tyhr wondered if Tiel, whoever she was, knew that they weren’t mountains. Did she also remember? Was her mind also a fragmented mess of bits and pieces?

Shaking his head, the corners Tyhr’s mouth crinkled into an even wider smile than was typical, though he felt no joy inside.

“Who is Tiel, and why does that name keep popping up?” Tyhr scratched at his own head in frustration. “Ah, I thought coming up here would make it stop!”

Even since he had opened his eyes as a baby, held in his father’s arms, her name had been on his mind.

“Tiel,” he said, as if tasting the word. “Or was it Tiellian?”

It was impossible to say.

Was she even still alive?

Whoever she was.

Could she even die?

Whoever she was.

“So many questions, and not the barest hint of an answer.”

Holding out his hand towards one of the mountains, Tyhr examined the myriad of scar tissue that was his hand, including his newest additions. Whatever he had done the last life around, he had really taken a beating for it…

Closing his eyes, Tyhr directed his focus towards the mountain. He held it image firmly in his mind, and channeled his senses inward. Then, in his mind’s eye, he made the mountain move. He tried to keep the image crystal clear as he did, not allowing his mind to stray or wander.

Nothing happened.

Tyhr opened his eyes and examined his hand.

“Why did I ever think that was going to work?”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Tyhr turned away from the horizon and made to step away from the edge of the roof.

Suddenly, the building began to shake.

Tyhr tried to shift his momentum in a desperate bid to leap away, but…

The roof tile beneath his foot slipped, and he tumbled backward, and over the edge towards the ground below. Time seemed to slow as he found himself falling, and he couldn’t help but think to himself.

“Huh… I guess this life was a short one.”

Before plummeting towards the cobblestones.