In the tower above the earth, There is a view that reaches far Where we see the universe, I see the fire, I see the end.

Seven miles above the earth, There is Emmanuel of mothers. With his sword, with his robe, He comes dividing man from brothers.

In the tower above the earth, we built it for Emmanuel. In the powers of the earth, we wait until it rips and rips. In the tower above the earth, we built it for Emmanuel. Oh my mother, she betrayed us, but my father loved and bathed us.

Still I go to the deepest grave, Where I go to sleep alone.

-Sufjan Stevens

Bend around The wind silently Thrown about Again I'm treading so Soft and lightly Compromising my will I am - A Perfect Circle

Red Dragon Inn Several Days Ago The seer had blown in with the wind, all color and words for the room as she entered, her slipper-clad feet taking up a signature stride for the bar. "Cousin!" She cried, spotting Tara across the commons. "Viki! Watch your toes! Tara let lose poisonous snakes!" It was Gavilean who sounded the first warning. Viki shot a look to Tara, then let her gaze scatter, taking in faces both familiar and - not. Her fingertips twitched at her sides, getting a feel for the air, which was electrified with the sound of alarm. "Small poisons in comparison," was her soft reply. Tara seemed unaffected. "Hi cous!" She even waved. The girl's lips twisted and morphed into a smile. She mirrored her cousin's wave, but sidestepped, Manon-bound, and wary of those snakes. The Ancient's presence was strong in the spotlight. "Ages and ages," said the girl as she rounded Sid's table. For the moment, as if overwhelmed by Manon's company, she was oblivious to the notorious Mister Howe, who served as this particular night's dark presence and lurked nearby. His eyes, of course, were glued to her movements. The seer, for her title and her large eyes, did not quite see the true snake, but her fingers took up a familiar tap-tap-taping rhythm at her right elbow. Several other greetings were sounded before the girl lost track of reality. Hey, it happened every now and then. She stopped short, not quite reaching the Ancient, nor anyone else for that matter. She found her feet inexplicably glued to the floor. "Something, something.." Her singsong voice broke the silence of her non-motions, but perhaps it was swallowed by the dull roar of the crowd. Time marches without a coin for measurement. Giant snakes slither past her feet. Patrons and matrons alike had sharp words for her cousin Tara. Meanwhile, Viki rolled her shoulders and settled in the midst of it all, dead center on the floor of the commons. The position served an obvious purpose: here she could better see the tables and chairs and legs entwined beneath them. Who are we looking for" "A-hunting-we-will-go..." It was an appropriate choice of music for the moment, and she began to slink forward, on hands and knees this time, with shifting fabric to follow - that familiar skirt with its patchwork pattern and a heavy overcoat. Oh. There he is. Do you remember when Tasha lopped off his head" He grew it back since then. He found a second set of skin. Her shriek was sudden, but all encompassing, and it shot up from her crawl on the floor and outward to victimize all. It could've shattered a glass or two, if there were any in her path. "TARA! A SNAKE!" Differentiate girl. They don't think you mean Howe. Tara only sighed. "I know, I know." Tera was next. "We know Viki!" "Knowledge all over." Said the seer. Her face was colored appropriately, and she was pointing at the seemingly empty air. Howe's table was several feet away, but currently vacant. He seemed to have slithered off in her moment of discovery, but she was sure he had been there. "It sat right there and ate a cigarette." Finally her hand fell, and her fingers rolled into place, tightening into a balled fist. She sat back, first on her feet before falling to one side, perplexed and quiet for the most part. Cigarette" You confuse villains. "Or maybe did naut eat but rather held between lips although the tar told me otherwise." Her nose twitched with the notion, and already those large eyes were moving onto bigger and better things. Of course, it was then that Howe returned. He passed as near to her as he could manage without causing suspicion. But she was on the floor, transfixed as ever, but for what or who no one could tell. Every now and then, she murmured softly, some nothing-nonsense-singsong that let her loved ones know she was still there. Lenika passed through and sent a wave her way. That sudden movement was all she needed. She woke with a light tapping of fingertips on her bare knee - yes, bare knee. She weathered winter better than most. Though she realized the wave a bit late, she mimicked the motion, and she shot a smile to Lenika before shooting up, a bouncing ball of color and two-toned hair again. Wildly animated, she moved to the bar. "Oh-oh-oh.." At the very end, just where the corner came to a point, did she lift herself. Aqua eyes were a bit on the cloudy side that day- a chance of rain. Her slender legs took up a habitual swing as she settled comfortably into her new perch. Dainty hands came to rest upon the counter top, leaving handprints at the surface with each shift in her seat. Howe's associate, Mister Dewey, was not too far, and as he passed through the threshold, the walls wailed a warning that passed like a shockwave through psychic ether. That shifting air caught her attention - flesh slicing through atmosphere. The girl turned sharply, finally setting her eyes on Mister Howe. "I told her so." She whispered. Meanwhile, Dewey was moving through the crowd, his own eyes shifting to Viki and Tara before he reached his partner's table. Her brows dipped into a severe little frown, and caution crossed her fine features. "The bugses.." Yes. And they never understood that warning either. How they infested Sid! Time passed. The girl watched them watch her, then watched their exchange of words. Her courage was like a cloak, thicker than the outercoat she wore and made perhaps of metal - like that beast of Glanhelmion's. Thoughts of the guardian surfaced as she slinked along the bar, and when she came to a standstill between herself and a patron, she simply climbed over them. This was how she moved, spilling from the counter to the floor. Her slipper-shoes were barely noticeable in their soft swishing stride. When the overcoat started to sound her arrival by dragging on the floor, she slid out of it with a ballerina's grace. Then on tip-toe, she crept, weaving through the crowd, keeping her head low, herself to the shadows where they could be found. She caught only small parts of their conversation. "Have you seen whose sitting at the bar?" Asked Howe of Dewey. Seer-stealth-mode continued. Though Viki was not exactly clad in camouflage - her clothing was rather loud - she was well hidden by the wall, and by the heads and shoulders of those gathered patrons and matrons. Finally, feet from them, she stopped, and ducked beneath neighboring booth. "The barrister." "Yes. Him. He refuses to die." Once their attention was diverted, once their eyes were on Lucky, the obvious barrister, and not on their spread of papers and notes, did her hand shoot up and snatch the spine of Howe's nearest notebook. It vanished beneath the table in a blur of color, which raced across the room. Her feet were furious in their flight from the pair, and as her eyes searched for a sanctuary, she tossed the book into the very thick folds of her skirt. Later she would find that the only thing retrieved from her mission with any obvious value was a very long list of names. And much later she tore these pages free from the spine of the book. They remained, for the most part, folded in her pockets. One was even lucky enough to become a telescope. Of course, it lacked a lens and magnification, but it held another very important purpose.

Show me the dead stars, All of them sing. This is a riot Religious and clean Coma white: All that glitters is cold, all that glitters is cold - Marilyn Manson

Somewhere between here and there. Present Day

"Hullo' Hullo!" The soft shaking of her shoulders alerted her. The small boy's voice was an easy beacon toward the waking world.

"Hullo!" He said again, a slight boy of seven or eight, with a dusty complexion and ears shaped so similar to her own. His violet eyes gave her no cause for alarm. He laughed when she stared at him, then turned his back to her, his ecru locks unruly over his shoulders.

"Hi," said the seer, cautious as she crept to his side. The scenery was something to behold. The stairwell sat in the center, and she and the boy were at the top of a crystal landing. Several yards away was the tower, and all around it a black ocean of stars.

The structure itself was made of the same material as the stairs and the floor. The walls were jagged tiers, at odds with one another as they climbed into the overhanging darkness. The color of the thing was never a constant, and Viki found herself attracted to it for that fact alone.

Then, she returned her attention to the boy.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her singsong way of speech melting through even with the most awesome of encounters.

"Fishing," replied the child, and sure enough, in his right hand was a crude sort of fishing pole.

"For who?"

"Pisces."

Viki sat in silence, watching the little half-Drow at his work. For the first time in a while, thoughts of Howe and her family's troubles were far from her mind. It might've seemed strange how she didn't question her whereabouts, and perhaps it was because, also for the first time in a while, she felt right at home.

"Oh," the boy murmured softly, setting his fishing pole on the landing beside them. "Uncle wishes to see you. Come." He stood and extended his hand to hers, the proper little gentleman.

She took it and followed. It was all she could think of to do.

The door to the tower was also, surprisingly, not a door. The crystal siding simply parted for their passing.

Inside, there were more stairs. They coiled up to the very top of the tower, like something out of a fairytale. Thankfully, Viki's reflection remained unseen, devoured by the awkward angles of the glass-like paneling.

The single room was empty, save for the lone figure that awaited their arrival. He was a tower of a man himself, hairless, but with blue skin that glittered as he walked, though there was no light source. Strangely enough, the room was illuminated, but Viki couldn't figure out the origin.

"Hello Shimmer," he said with a smile that might've melted hearts and broken them all at once. He stretched his hand toward her, his palm facing up, then crooked his fingers in one obvious beckoning motion.

The boy broke ranks with her and scampered to the stranger's side.

"This is Icarus," said the blue one, ruffling the boy's hair in a manner that was quite fatherly. The boy's face lit up almost immediately, then actually lit, and he himself glowed a soft orange. Their flesh was one and the same, and that same radiance she too possessed.

It didn't take her long. She was a seer, after all.

"Icarus, go play," said the blue one to the boy, who, now a blaze of orange, sprinted past them and spilled down the stairs. The stranger's laughter followed in his wake.

"I forget how it is to be young," he said, moving toward her in a slow, confident manner. His whole person exuded confidence. He could've been likened to a modern day playboy if Viki was in tune to such things.

She got a better look at him as the first affects of shock and surprise died down. Still, there was that feeling of familiarity about the place, like she was supposed to be here. Her little slipper shoes moved across the floor before she could compel them to stop. When they did, he stopped his own advancements, his smile growing all the more intense.

His jaw line, nose, and cheekbones were well-defined and had all the traits of nobility. His eyes large were deeply set, and like his skin, a brilliant blue. To say he was beautiful would be an understatement, but the scale of his stature was enough to be intimidated by. He stood seven, possibly eight feet tall, a stark contrast to Viki's five-foot-something.

"I have waited a long time for you, Shimmer," he said, his voice a husky hum that grew wings and carried itself farther than what could've been called normal.

Finally, the seer spoke, but it was not singsong. "Only Manon calls me so." She had to lift herself on tiptoe just to look at him.

"Ahhh, Manon. Yes, I know of your friendship with the Ancient. And I know how you were able to get here. It was her power you breathed in that day, when your Lord Ayreg battled with the beast who murdered your friend."

"Here is where" Who are you?" She eyed the windowless walls and then the man before her.

"Forgive me Shimmer, or, is it Victoria" Would you rather me call you that?" He caught her hair with his two blue fingers and curled the white with its chestnut twin. The warmth from those digits acted like a natural curling iron, making spirals of her wild locks.

"I am Taariq. I am your grandmother's brother, and I am also a star."