A roaring fire soothed Amais’ soul temporarily as he chewed nervously on his fingernail. His foot tapped continuously on the floor in an anxious rhythm. Eventually, he stood up, pacing around the room allocated to him as a master cleric.

  He supposed this was what they called excitement, energy surged through his body leaving him unable to rest. All he could think about was his former master, the one people thought had long since abandoned him.

  He recalled the conversation with the stranger known as Boaz, the man from the tower of Wynd.

  ===

  "How do you know this?" Amais yelled, grabbing the man's shirt in anger. It couldn't be true, his master had disappeared a decade ago, lost to what many believed to be a fairy tale.

  The man remained calm, staring deeply into Amais' panicked eyes as if he understood what the other was going through but that couldn't be possible.

  "As I've said, I've met him," the stranger said a bit more forcefully, the conviction in his eyes was enough to temporarily calm Amais. The hand on his shirt slackened, allowing the man to once again fall unto his cushion.

  "Where?"

  "You know where,"

  Amais' eyes widened, he stepped back and held a hand to his mouth in shock. The stranger chuckled, lifting his functional hand and displaying the three figures seemingly branded on his wrist.

  "The Tower of Wynd," he said.

  Amais shook his head, disbelievingly. The tower of Wynd was akin to a fairy tale, something parents would tell their children to get them to behave. Their holy books and ancient tomes only had vague mentions of it.

  One of the four treasures.

  The Tower of Fyre, The Tower of Aeryth, The Tower of Watyr and Lastly the Tower of Wynd. These four towers were treasures sent by the gods to test the strength and fortitude of the mortals under their care, with the Tower of Wynd being the most heretical.

  Those who made it out of their respective towers proved to be the mightiest and often returned with riches as the stories said.

  Many didn't believe they existed, especially the last tower.

  Amais swallowed. If this man was telling him the truth, it would mean his master had made it to the tower and had been there for the past decade, facing battle after battle. Amais didn't understand what had driven him there in the first place.

  Money? Power? Fame? Worldly possessions? Gaius was never such a man.

  "You know my name but I don't know yours, we haven't been properly introduced," Amais said.

  "I am Boaz," he said “I'm not the same as I once was, but I used to be a cleric right here at this temple.” the man said looking over the stone room he was being kept in.

  “How long ago was that?” Amais asked curiously, taking a seat beside the cot and listening with interest. He might as well hear the man out if he indeed had some genuine connection to his master.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Too long,” Boaz replied grimly. “I remember when the infirmary used to be on the other side of this temple,”

  Amais laughed in disbelief, ridiculous!

  “That would make you more than a hundred years old!”

  “One hundred and thirty I believe,” The man replied soberly. Amais’ smile vanished at the serious expression on the stranger's face. It was slowly starting to sink in.

  "You survived the Tower of Wynd," Amais gasped in awe, a throbbing pain developed in his head. He couldn't deny the reality of it anymore.

  Boaz laughed again once again showing the cleric three numbers on his wrist. It read 500.

  Amais held the man's palm, studying the numbers seemingly branded into the man's tanned skin. He touched it, discerning it couldn't have been done through man-made means.

  "To survive the Tower of Wynd, you must kill 500 Demons whilst preventing yourself from becoming one as well," Boaz said.

  Amais stared with his jaw slackened, to become a demon one must have first become a spirit of some kind, for a human couldn't turn otherwise. Demons though not uncommon were beings from another realm.

  They attacked unceasingly, often appearing seemingly out of nowhere, it was the job of clerics and paladins alike to deal with them.

  "My Master! Master Gaius, if you really saw him then what did he say?" Amais asked.

  "He told me to tell you to stop searching for him," Boaz said. Stone gray eyes met brown as Amais glared.

  "Do not toy with me!"

  "What I say is the very truth," with his arm Boaz pointed to his cloak which lay in tatters on a chair beside the bed. "In the pocket is a letter for you, when you read it you will understand,"

  ===

  Amais sat with the letter in his hand, it was a neatly folded piece of paper stained with blood. He hoped to the Holy One that it wasn't his master's.

  A stab of pain pierced his chest, he clutched it, gritting his teeth at the sudden pain that washed over him in tall waves.

  Before reading even a single word the tears had begun to fall. Master Gaius, after all these years, was alive. A decade of speculation was put to rest by the words of a stranger and a flimsy piece of paper.

  Amais opened the letter, his eyes roved over the handwriting he'd seen so many times from journals and writings in his Master's own tome. It was unmistakably the curved, flowing lines of his master's hand. Even in peril, Gaius still wrote for people to understand his words.

  [For Amais,

  Time flows differently here, it seems. I have been gone but I don't how long it has been since we last saw each other my student.

  You must hate me and I understand why, you should. I was a coward who abandoned his own acolyte to run off and chase something greater than I deserved.

  I'm sorry I abandoned you, I'm sorry I missed your Mastery ceremony, Amais. I'm sure you've made a fine cleric.

  It's times like this wonder what discipline you decided on, Master healer? Battle Cleric? I wish you well all the same.

  The journey through the tower is long and perilous but I do not regret it. My heart only aches for you who I left behind.

  I write to you now because might die here, it's odd to think that I came here searching and searching for something I could never hope to grasp, to never see again.

  How funny is it to be a healer tending to the wounds of others but unable to heal your own.

  I saw the Tower of Wynd as my second chance, I thought it was calling to me but I see now it is only another chain in the cycle, a cycle I must now break.

  And so I say this to you, my student, do not come here searching for me Amais. You must heal your pain. You must let me go.]

  Amais read the letter over and over again, each time he did a tear drop stained the already feeble piece of paper he currently grasped.

  However, he would not be deterred by the words of his master, after years of searching he had finally had his answer. His master was alive and within the tower, he would find him and he would bring him back.

  ===

  "So you have returned, I take it the letter did not sway you one bit," Boaz said as he sipped on some soup with his good hand. Amais stepped forward into the light streaming through the tall glass windows.

  "Tell me about the Tower of Wynd,"