Page 46 of Capture of Capricorn

Tower went one step further than that. It sealed all outside egresses. The window suddenly disappeared, becoming a smooth wall of stone.

There went her view, and without it, she had no reason to stay in the room. “Guess I should check on Sage.”

Only she’d apparently waited too long. She emerged from the apartment to all the doors in the hall gone. Only the stairs remained intact, going down only, the upper floors sealed off. With no choice, she descended a seemingly never-endingstaircase. Gone were the various levels. Not even a landing remained to mark their location.

Good and bad. Good because it meant Sage, and whoever else lived in Tower, were well hidden. Bad in the sense Zora had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Unless…

If she could make it the main level, she could use one of the arches in the portal room to escape and get word to Capricorn or the others. Although she had no idea how she’d do that since she not only didn’t have a phone, but she also lacked contact information for him.

The bigger problem with that plan, other than convincing Tower to give her access to the portal room, was the fact she’d be right by the main doors. Hopefully, she could escape before they broke their way in.

“I don’t suppose you could zoom me to make this faster?” Zora asked as she kept skipping down the steps.

Tower shivered in reply, and the stone groaned ominously, which, given the gravitationally impossible height of the tower, caused some worry.

No bubble encased her. Tower must be too busy to help her chunky ass, or could it be running low on magic? No one seemed to know Tower’s limits.

Zora huffed as she jogged, in better shape since her arrival. Climbing a gazillion stairs a day would do that. However, it still took way too long to make it to the main floor—and even longer to catch her breath. She leaned over, hands on her thighs, huffing and puffing, but in good news, the main doors remained shut. In the bad, all the rooms were sealed just like the other levels.

Time to see if Tower could unlock just one room. “Hey, I don’t suppose you could give me access to the portal room so I can get some help?”

No reply and the spot where the entrance for the portal room used to be remained a wall of seamless stone.

“Fuck a duck,” she huffed. There went her plan to beam her butt out of there.

Tower once more shuddered. This time the shaking went on for a few terrifying minutes while Zora crouched with her hands over her head, as if that would save her skull from being crushed by falling stone. Luckily, nothing cracked or tumbled. The building remained intact, but when the shivering stopped, the lights extinguished. Zora could see nothing, and a hum she’d not previously noticed disappeared. A deafening silence ensued, which lasted almost long enough for her to start screaming.

It ended with a familiar sound, that of a torch plied against metal. In this case, the doors. She could do nothing but watch as a faint orange line appeared as someone cut through one of the doors, creating a jagged rectangle. Once the four melted sides met, the cut section got kicked hard enough to dislodge it. The discarded metal panel hit the floor with a clang.

Oh shit, the baddies were coming in.

Zora pressed her back to the wall. Maybe they wouldn’t see her.

A bright spotlight bathed her, and she shielded her eyes while blinking away spots. Even without seeing, she recognized the voice that mocked her.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the missing blacksmith.”

Zora lowered her hands and squinted before snarling, “Crius.”

“Surprise!” the asshole beamed as he entered with an entourage of armed men who formed a semi-circle around him and held their weapons at the ready.

“How did you get past Tower’s defense?” The question she asked rather than the more dreaded one of, did he kill Tower?

“Same way I nullified the warriors’ ability to access the stars. Black hole technology.”

The answer rounded her mouth. “You made a black hole? Are you fucking insane?”

“I prefer the term brilliant. And, yes, I found a way to create and contain them, and what do you know? Black holes, even tiny ones, nullify the Zodiacs’ astral power as well as the magic protecting their secret base of operation,” Crius boasted with a smirk.

Her lips pinched. “And now that you’ve forced your way in, what’s your plan?”

“Activating the last relic and harnessing its power.”

“You didn’t need to invade to do that. You already have the orb,” she pointed out.

“Ah, but you see, unlocking it requires an astral portal, and while I could have used one of the permanent ones scattered around the world, I wouldn’t have had access to the thirteenth Zodiac’s dais for the transference of power.”

His claim reminded her of the book she’d read when she’d first arrived, how the dais imbued the chosen warrior. The key word being “chosen,” not to mention close to death. It would seem Crius understood only part of how the imbuing of power worked. “Looks like you’ve wasted your time and effort, seeing as how the constellations are very particular about who they associate with. They only pass on their gift to heroes, not villains.”

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