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Memories	By : Asirainis Category: +A through F > Dragon Quest/ Dragon Warrior Views: 1615 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Quest VIII, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Memories
Chapter Twenty Three: Rydon's Tower
As they left, Draco sighed harshly, "We have to find the Kranbartles and ask for the Kran Spinels back."
Alistair thought back, "Something feels off about that. Like I should know what that is… and where they are…"
Airlia nodded, "Just relax and I'm sure it will come to you." He nodded in agreement as they left to find the Kranbartles.
Angelo looked at Yangus, "So where can we find these Kranbartles?"
Yangus rubbed his nose as he said, "'E said just go down one flight of steps, turn right an' just past the pub is their 'ome." They nodded as they went past the iron gates and back to the steps facing the church. Heading back down the steps, the group turned right to see the pub sign. Going forward, they saw a door just beyond it on the right as Yangus had described.
Draco knocked on the door, to see if anyone was home. They could hear someone shuffling about as a young man came to the door with a bowl cut hair style, a tunic and trousers with a smile. "Can I help you?"
Draco smiled as he said, "Is this the Kranbartle home?" The man smiled with a nod, "Yes, I'm Rowan Kranbartle, what can I help you with?"
Angelo spoke next, "Dominico needs the Kran Spinels for a spell to deal with an attacker. May we use them?"
The boy shook his head, "Unfortunately they're not in our possession anymore. My father, Rydon, might know where they went. However, he's not here. He's in his tower, making it bigger and bigger. I will gladly give you the key to the tower on one condition…" Draco nodded, hoping it wouldn't be too far out of his way as the man continued, "Could you ask my father when you see him to come and visit his family more often? It's been more than a year since I've seen him."
Draco smiled as he nodded, "I'll be more than happy to give him your request."
Rowan smiled as he reached to his left, likely to grab the key as he brought up a stone sword, holding it out to Draco to take. "This will get you into the stone tower. The long route is if you follow the path until it forks, then head southeast from there. However, if you leave town and turn east as soon as you can, and simply follow the mountain ridge to your south, it will bring you to the tower much quicker."
Draco smiled at him, "Thank you Rowan. I will deliver the message to your father for you."
Rowan smiled as they parted ways, shutting the door gently behind him. Alistair frowned, "So we have to go to this tower… let's hurry and get this over with!"
Airlia nodded, "I don't like the idea of being far from David, but for now, he's relatively safe with Dominico, although not safe from Dominico's anger or Leopold's mean streak." Alistair nodded in full agreement as they hurried back towards the pub, going just past it and up the flight of steps immediately on their left. They turned from the church, and went down the path that went past Dominico's home as Airlia took in the large structure, as gaudy outside as Dominico. It was two stories tall, and had dark blue brickwork that was lined with regular brick for detail purposes. She saw above the door was the stained glass with the same strange symbol that was in Dominico's hat. Along the windows were red overhangs which she supposed were for the days they wanted the windows open on a dreary day.
Turning right to go between the back of the church and the item shop, they saw a pathway as Yangus growled, "Why couldn't they do ramps instead o' stairs?" Airlia nodded in agreement as they went up that stairs.
She saw the pained expression in Angelo's face, echoed in Alistair's face as she said, "We will get her back, I promise that to both of you!" The men stared at one another, measuring the pain there. Alistair knew that Angelo seemed to have felt something for his sister, but seeing the pain there etched deeply into his face, it registered what the emotion was beyond pain. He nodded to the platinum blonde man with a determined expression. Once they went around the edge of the item shop, they saw the final flight of stairs up to another level platform…
Airlia shook her head, "The stonework here is amazing, but Dominico's attitude is taking away from any enjoyment we would have of looking around. Let's get this over with." The others nodded as they came to the level where the inn was and sighed when they saw to their left that another set of stairs led upwards again.
The thief growled, "Wot is it with this town?! So many stairs!"
Airlia shook her head, "They may be stonemasons, but they really should work on their ramps to make it easier to go about through the town."
Turning left, they saw the weapon and armor shops and to their right just after the inn, they saw the edge of town with a heavy sigh. However, like at the front of town, another small rock was the center of the open area surrounded by a ring of stone and a square ring surrounding the circular ring with grass and yellow flowers in bloom surrounding the stone structure. While another pair of pillars holding a stone with the town's name in runes laid over it, announcing the exit of the town. Gratefully, the team ran through it and into the mountain path. A few minutes after leaving town, they saw a bodkin archer of sorts wandering around, looking pale. Airlia kneeled down as she said, "What's the matter?"
He looked up at her, startled. "I'm not well. Do you have an antidote? I think that scepter made me sick…"
Airlia nodded as she used an antidotal spell on him. His color returning instantly as he smiled at her, "Thanks! Do you know someplace safe I can hide from the chaos in the world?"
Airlia nodded, "Go to Morrie's Monster Haven. It's the next continent to the south east, you'll see a tower that descends into the land, sprawling safe for monster kind." He smiled at her as she gave him a chimaera wing. "Go there, you'll be safe! Tell him Ragazzo sent you." He smiled as he flew off towards the tower. Once he left, she turned to the others as she brought out her Baumren's Bell. She gave it a ring as the sabercats in the area roared in acknowledgement as they rushed to their side.
They all quickly mounted their cats as Trode and Medea came up to them. "Some of the masons saw us and said if we need to get through town to merely let them know so they can have some ramps brought out. They were exceptionally nice about helping us through as they put out some cement blocks to make a path for us up to where you all were."
Airlia nodded to him, a grim look on her face. "Jessica's after a boy named David. We have to help probably the most selfish man in town with making a spell that requires the Kran Spinels. In order to do so, we need to go speak with Rydon in some tower due east of us at current."
Trode sighed heavily, "If I had known… I'm so sorry Alistair, Angelo."
Both shook their heads as Angelo supplied, his blue eyes dark with worry. "Do not worry Trode. No one knew that the scepter would have possessed anyone."
Airlia shook her head, "I have a nightmare about that, but I wasn't with you guys yet. When I went to try and stop her… the guards of Argonia wouldn't let me out of the castle until morning, after she already left…"
Alistair put a gloved hand on her arm, "It's not your fault Air. Stop blaming yourself for it." She lowered her gaze to the ground as she looked up with a resolved expression. The sabercats nodded when the group gave them the signal to move, heading east. The group traveled through the trees, and back into the open area keeping the mountains just south of them.
They found the next forest of trees as Draco yelled to Trode, "Your Majesty, keep close to us, as we don't know what the terrain will be like." Medea whinnied in response as she kept the rapid pace up. There were minor slopes in the ground, not quite worthy of being called hills, until the tower came into view. When they finally saw the tower, the sabercat roared in alarm, apparently telling Medea and the others to slow down.
Airlia looked over the edge and saw a five foot steep drop. She rubbed along the cat's neck, "Thank you my friend for alerting us to this. That could have been bad…" He purred in response to her attentions and praise. He led them along the path until they saw the drop slope down into a gentle decline a few meters away from the tower. Once they went around, they merely followed the path up to the entrance to the tower. Once the cats were sure no one was around to bother them, they allowed the group to dismount as she looked at the cats.
They weren't moving… She tilted her head to the side, "Are you staying here to protect my friends?" The cat she had been riding nodded as Medea whinnied. Airlia blushed, not used to having such loyal creatures like them on their side.
Draco smiled as he patted the one he had been riding, "Thank you for protecting them."
Airlia looked upwards to the tower as she counted over ten floors. "This is going to be fun gentlemen."
They nodded in agreement as they all approached the tower with a growing sense of trepidation at the sheer height of the sandstone building. They approached the door and saw a hole. Draco pulled out the stone sword and placed it into the hole, and then with a turn, they heard a mechanical click of sorts as the sword became a door handle. The door opening, they went into a small inner stone chamber, where they saw a chest sitting in the corner. The floor had an intricate designed that was recessed from the regular floor. She saw another swordsman statue like from back in the labyrinth as she groaned. "I have a feeling we're going to be moving statues in here guys."
Yangus smiled as he made a muscle with one arm, "Nah, you leave that to me guv'ness."
She smiled as she took in the decorative brickwork, lighter brick making up a bulk of the wall while the first two feet were larger dark brown bricks with a slim trim between the two of a dirty yellow brick going all the way around. She saw two shrines on each side to a female that wasn't the goddess. Looking closer at one of them, she saw it was a woman who bared a resemblance to the statue in Alexandria tower. Turning to the chest, Airlia opened it to find a map of the tower!
She sighed in minute relief, before thumbing through it quickly to get an idea of how complicated the tower was. She had a bad feeling when she saw some were divided while others were blocked off… "This is gonna get complicated in a hurry everyone, let's get moving." Angelo nodded as they moved to the inner door leading into the tower which wasn't like a normal door, the design in it was interlocking chains forming several 'X's as a design, which oddly enough, was the design along the whole inner wall as they looked at it. Opening the door, they found that it was an open area that had trees spotted all around with a set of stairs leading up into the actual tower.
They went up the stairs, leading towards the second floor as she sighed, moderately worried that this was going to get much more complicated as they went deeper and higher into the tower. Looking around, they saw a statue of a swordsman and a slime walking around. He was smiling as they looked at him. He hopped over to them, tired. "It's no good, slurp; I can't move this statue, can you?"
Yangus smiled as he nodded, "Course I can. Watch." He moved over to the statue and bent over to push it, moving it with surprising ease.
The slime jumped up and down in joy, exclaiming excitedly, "Not bad, for a human! Slurp… You're strong! You'll need to be in order to climb this tower!" When the group turned to the small blue slime, "I'm not a bad slime, you know! Really! I promise! If you're looking for Grandpa Rydon, I think he's right at the top. He'll be busy carving his stones."
Airlia smiled at him as she nodded, "Thank you so much."
He smiled as he thought for a moment before speaking to the group, "Slurp, watch your step on the platform, it's a special platform where weight affects it. Stepping onto it, if there isn't a counter weight, it will go straight down to the floor below. However, when no weight is on it, it will be level with the floor across it. I call it the wobbly platform for that very reason." They nodded as they progressed to the platform that had wrought iron fencing on either side of it, protecting people from falling below the twenty foot circle that went around the length of the tower. As she went to the iron fence, she looked down and saw the first floor was solid stone for the ground, but had a wrought iron fence dividing it in the middle that must have stood at least ten feet tall given the columns holding the wobbling platform in place.
They proceeded to the platform, finding an orange and gold carpet beneath them, lining the whole length of it with a curvy, almost wavy wrought iron railing to keep people from falling off the platform as it sank to the ground. Once they were all on it at the same time, the platform as foretold sank with their weight. Nodding to each other, they proceeded up the ramp and stepped carefully onto the other end of the ramp as it sank to the other side of the wrought iron fence on the first floor. They proceeded down the ramp as they looked around to see a flight of stairs going up. They went to the stone steps, going back upstairs to the second floor as they ran up to find a statue in front of a pedestal that was attached to the pathway. Airlia thought about it as she smiled. "Yangus, push the statue onto the pedestal, it'll keep the path in place for us to go to the third floor… But we'll have to go down to the first floor to use it…"
He nodded as the group gathered together and inched the statue of the soldier that was holding his blade upright until everyone was on as it descended. "Brilliant Airlia!" They got off and went around to the stairs leading up to the fourth floor which was lined in a red and gold rug.
Running up the more than twenty steps to the fourth floor, they found the room divided into three sections that had more than eight feet between platforms as Airlia shrugged. "Let's continue upwards, though I have a sneaky suspicion we'll be back here shortly."
They nodded as they went to the fifth floor and saw another unstable platform. Walking on it, they braced themselves for the descent. When it was done, they walked over the path to the other side, as the path released itself. Then Yangus looked at the others, "Wait here. I'll come down with the statue again."
Airlia nodded in relief as he hurried up the stairs to the statue on the floor above. She heard Yangus grunt with exertion as he moved the statue and himself onto the edge of the platform to begin his descent. Once he reached the others, she smiled at him, genuinely for his help in saving her energy. He blushed as he scoffed, "Wasn't anything special guv'ness." She smiled at him still as they rounded the platform to go up to the sixth floor.
Upon arriving to the sixth floor, they saw a ladder on the other side of the room, but iron fencing and a twenty foot span of empty space meant they were going back down to the fifth floor. They went down to the fifth floor as they looked around for sign of where to go when Airlia saw the ramp but no statue. Yangus looked around to see the statue was already downstairs, "Airlia, 'old onto the ramp, when it brings ya down, don't get off. I can push the statue on it." She nodded as everyone got on the ramp and began the descent downwards as Yangus ran down the steps. When the ramp stopped moving, Yangus moved the statue over and into place leaving the group free to go back up to the sixth floor once more. "While this is fun you guys, but let's hope that we're nearing the top."
Yangus nodded in agreement. Once they were on the sixth floor, they saw the ladder that Airlia had seen from the other side of the room. And under the ladder was a red and gold runner that hung halfway off the edge of the platform. It was the same runner that had been on the walkway they were just on as well as the steps that had led them from the third floor to the fourth floor. Walking over to the ladder, they looked up before they began climbing up. Once they were on the solid floor, she looked at the map excitedly, "Floor seven guys, we can do this!"
They nodded as she tucked it away while they figured out where they had to go. However, they had walked no more than seven steps when they heard a gravelly voice call out to them, "Well, there's a surprise. Making good progress, I see." They looked around and saw him two floors up. A short, heavier man could be seen ascending the steps to the third floor up from their current floor as they looked at one another.
Draco murmured more to himself than anything, "Rydon?"
Airlia nodded, "Who else could it be?" They went west and up the nearest set of stairs.
She looked around at the structure and nodded. "The way we're gonna get to the top is by removing the statue on this end, so the structure goes straight up, weighed by the other end, then up we go to those stairs he was on hopefully." Draco said as he followed her sight line. Yangus removed the statue that she indicated near them, throwing the wobbly platform off balance and sent the end straight up into the air to the ninth floor. They hurried back down the steps to the seventh floor and back around to the bottom of the rug covered ramp. Hurrying up the ramp, they found themselves quickly on the ninth floor where they had seen Rydon going up to the tenth floor.
Smiling, they ran up the stairs as they saw it had one last red and gold colored rug lining the stairs. Looking around, they saw the room was unfinished with a giant stone in the center with several scaffolding sections around it to help him to continue his work. It had a solid wall with more of that woman's image sculpted into it. However, the other half of the inner circle was supported by columns, telling her that the work on this tower was still ongoing. Along the solid section of wall, there was a ladder going straight up while the center of the room had a giant stone going upwards to the top of the tower. Airlia smiled as she said, "We did it!"
They hurried to the ladder and climbed up, relief pouring through them like liquid fire. They hurried along the south way and saw a chest. Airlia stopped to open it, only to find a Cherion's bow.
She looked at Angelo, "This is better than your current bow, don't discard the old one please."
He nodded as she gave him the better bow. "Use it to help remove the scepter from Jessica's hands without hurting her. I know your marksmanship… You can do it!"
He nodded. "I promise I will!" They continued to hurry until they saw a short tanned man carving on a block of stone across several boards. His meal was on the floor to his right, and his tools were on the floor to his left. She could see he was in comfortable work clothes, with thinning white hair along the back of his head.
The man was startled when he heard their footsteps, turning around, he spoke to them. "Wha!? You made it! All the way to the top, like!"
He was astonished for a moment before he puffed out his chest in pride. "Ha ha hah! If it's that easy, I've got more building to do! Can't have a novice like you getting to the top so easily next time! You're alright, young'un! I'm Rydon. And what do you want with a sculptor like me, eh?"
Airlia smiled as she said, "We need the Kran Spinels… Dominico needs them for a shielding spell."
He laughed, "Ah, those old gemstones is it?"
She nodded as Alistair supplied, "Your son mentioned they were gone, but thought you might know where they've gone to."
He nodded, "They've been out of my family for donkey's years. I've never even laid eyes on them myself. This is what I heard, like. One of my ancestors put them in a… ooh! Argh!" He bent over as he rubbed his aching back.
Airlia smiled as she came over to him, "May I sir? My hands can help a troubled back."
He looked at her, "Sure my dear. You remind me of my daughter-in-law, always so thoughtful." She rubbed the aching area, easing the pain with a small healing spell on top of it to ease the coiled muscles and prevent them from contracting again so painfully.
He looked at her, "Thank you lass. Anyways, I heard one of my ancestors used them in a statue she carved. It was the pinnacle of her career, they say. Her best work. She's the one I model in the sculpting you've seen below and on the ground floor…"
She looked at him, "Where is the statue now Mr. Kranbartle?"
He chuckled, "I unfortunately don't know, honest. You'll have to find it for yourself, young'un. All I can tell you is the lady's name. If this old block of mine isn't letting me down, her name was Alexandra. That's about it I'm afraid, unless there is something else I can help you with?"
Draco nodded as he explained, "Rowan said you should visit him more often."
Rydon chuckled, "There's no time for that! If a novice like you can get to the top of my tower, I've got my hands full here. I'll just have to build it higher! The only way is up, as they say!"
Airlia shook her head as the group bid Rydon farewell. She turned to Alistair, "What about Alexandria?"
He nodded as he said, "That's it! My town's name is Alexandria; I think it was named after her in some fashion!"
Everyone gathered together as Airlia casted her Evac spell, encasing them in a golden orb to bring them just outside of the tower where everyone was waiting for them. Airlia turned to the sabercats, "Thank you for protecting them. We have to leave now with magic to another town, please be safe in your travels."
The sabers roared in acknowledgement as they took off running. Trode looked at Draco, "Where are we off to my boy?"
He had softly casted the spell Zoom, speaking a little louder to allow Trode to hear him, "Alexandria." The blue magic enveloped them, bringing them back to where they had first met Jessica, Alistair and Airlia.
Soon as they landed Alistair nodded to everyone before running back into town. "I'm going to double check my facts before we go, but I have a feeling we need to go to the Tower of Alexandria." Draco nodded as Alistair ran off.
A few minutes had passed before they saw him running towards them with an excited look on his face. "Of course. Alexander was Alexandra's son. He was a gifted sculptor. The statue of Alexandria in the tower has the Kran Spinels now. Let's go get them!"
Everyone nodded grimly as Angelo said, "Looks like it's time to go back to where it began for us Alistair…" He nodded as they quickly ran down the short path, making faster time than ever to the tower, knowing that time was of the essence.
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Memories