Torn smiled broadly as Dalanesca said yes to performing the ceremony. “Thanks a lot, Dalanesca. I’ll repay you if I can,” he said, giving a bow far more elegant than his words.
When dalanesca got out of her seat, Torn frowned with slight disapproval. “The nimbus cloud can move while you’re seated, you know,” he said, before the smile returned to his face. He seemed to smile rather easily. “And to be blunt, I doubt I’ll be able to slow down for your sake, so it might be best,” he added, only half-jokingly. “As for sightseeing, I’ve already toured the two cities. I doubt they have more to show. But I’d like to see the rest of the place,” he said, confident that Dalanesca’s realm would be more interesting than two halves.
Marth looked at the young man with a perked eyebrow, taken slightly aback with his enthusiasm and energy. This guy is clearly hyper, he thought to himself, but offered the young god an option. “There’s the Tower of Redemption and Destruction. Slightly more scholarly than I think you prefer, but there are some interesting devices there,” he said, inviting Torn to come along.
“The tower of Redemption and Destruction, eh? Sounds interesting.” He looked around, and spotted the tower, some way in the distance. “That’s it, I assume?”
Marth nodded as Torn pointed out the tower. “We call it the Two-faced Tower for short,” he said, and began walking. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”
The group arrived at the tower a few minutes thereafter. Marth had spent the walk giving Dalanesca a shoulder and neck rub, to alleviate her tensions, physical and mental. Torn had been playing a song on his harp, recounting the tale of Myralla Meadow, a priestess who tragically died trying to save the life of a boy she spurned. Over the course of five stanzas, he sang about how she had spurned him, saying her life belonged to the gods. And how she’d come to ache for him, for he had truly been sweet. How she’d tracked him down to be united with him, and how he had attempted to kill himself with poison. She had tried to save him by brewing an antidote from something to which she was allergic, but choked before she could give it to him. As they finally arrived at the tower door, Torn smiled at the two of them.
“Moral of the story is that love is never wrong,” he said, making the harp vanish with a snap of his fingers. “At least I like to think so,” he continued, laughing a bit.
“Not bad,” Marth said unenthusiastically, never having been one for music. He preferred visual art, and martial arts above all. “Well, here we are,” he continued, dismissing the song in its entirety, and opening the door. “Welcome to the Tower of Redemption and Destruction,” he said, showing Torn inside.
The first floor lobby, with its clerics milling about, wasn’t very impressive. In fact, Marth intended to skip the first four floors and go straight for the observatory. “The interesting stuff is on the top floor,” he said, showing Torn the spiral staircase.
Once they got to the top floor of the tower, Torn actually looked a little impressed. “Wow. These are a lot of fancy-looking gadgets,” he said, looking at Marth. “You designed all this?”
Marth smiled. “Most of it. The Skylance, that great telescope there, is my design.” He went over to the skylance’s control panel, showing Torn all the buttons and levers. “This is where I control it. The Skylance can work as a teleporting device, or as a magic cannon,” he explained, showing Torn the buttons marked “Fire” and “Launch”.
Torn looked at the control panel, dazzled. Uneducated as he was, the buttons and levers alone were interesting. Being told that they actually worked, and could do magic, stunned him completely. “Wow. What do these wheel things do? And what’s that weird ball?”
Marth chuckled as Torn asked his questions. “They adjust latitude and longitude of the Skylance,” he said with a chuckle. “These levers control how fast the wheels affect the coordinates.” Marth then pointed at the ball. “That’s a globe, showing you where you’re targeting. It’s actually the size of a horse - what you see is just the magnifying glass,” he said, inviting Torn to look into it.
Torn held his eye close to the hourglass. “These are the streets of Adeluna! And this ball thing can show the whole world?”
Marth chuckled again, and began to spin the wheels. “Yep. keep looking,” he said, and span the wheels until the dials showed the coordinates of Wyllmochvar. “That’s the city I was raised in, in Pravpora,” he said.
Torn looked away from the glass, and up at Marth, his mouth open. “Amazing. Could you build something like that for me?” He looked thrilled at the prospect of having a device like that in his temple - while he’d obviously have no clue how to use it properly, it seemed he just wanted to have it because reasons.
Marth looked at Dalanesca with a smirk. “I suppose I could find the time,” he said.
Torn grinned broadly, and nodded vigorously. “Drop by anytime, both of you. You’ll have seats of honour at my balcony in the Dream Arena!” he exclaimed, turning back to the magnifying glass of Marth’s globe.
Marth looked at Dalanesca, and rolled his eyes with a smile. “I’m sure that’d be interesting. But for now, I must ask you not to linger. I think my wife is tired,” he said, with a smile. “But we might come visit you in not too long. What do you think, milady?”
Torn's god rules:
i: Torn can make anyone feel an intense desire to overcome massive challenges, even where logic dictates it should be impossible. This also incurs a blessing to help them succeed.
ii: If Torn approves of - or praises - a piece of music, that song will evermore sound more appealing to mortal ears.
iii: Torn has the ability to summon any creature he has personally slain, to serve any purpose - or transform into one himself.
Voice Actor: Jon Cozart (Paint)
Theme Song: Masatoshi Ono - Departure!
I am KeeXeyn.