The Stranger Stories Season - 1 Episode 4

Tower

I looked up, bending my neck backwards so as to be able to take it all in. The sun was bright overhead and I needed to shade my eyes to see it clearly. It, well, towered above the tree line. I smiled and reached out a hand, my fingers stroked the stones.

"You know what this is?" The stranger said with a touch of glee in his voice.

"I think so." I said in a voice full of wonder. "It's a wizard's tower."

---*---

Wizards live in towers. You know that. I know that. But do you know why wizards live in towers? A wizard's tower is never square, always circular, the diameter at the top ever so smaller than the base, always topped with a conical roof.

There's a reason.

Inside the tower you'll find that the wizard works at the bottom and sleeps at the top.

Wizards are like programmers - they are always looking for a better way - always looking for a more elegant way - always looking for a more efficient way. Programmers want to make better 'code, wizards want to make better spells.

"Making better spells" is inherently more complex, inherently more dangerous.

Imagine what it takes to cast a spell - the wizard must conjure an effect from "nothing" - the wizard's goal is to channel magic power to create an effect far beyond the effort required of him. The wizard will chant specific words in a specific cadence, whilst performing somatic motions and sacrificing something material - maybe a speck of sand, maybe a powdered gem, maybe a paper aeroplane. These things together channel the magic to create the effect. In normal circumstances the amount of magic is exactly the right amount needed to perform the task.

But when a wizard doesn't know the spell perfectly, or when the wizard is trying to make the spell more efficient there can be a smidgin too much, or a spec too little power conjured for the required effect.

Imagine that the wizard is attempting to teleport a dove from a cage behind a stage into a top hat on a table at the front of the stage. If you have more magic than necessary then that energy has to go somewhere, it might mean that the dove's perch is teleported along with the dove; or it might be converted to heat, and the dove might turn up a little more cooked than he'd have liked. Possibly even worse would be if the wizard doesn't conjure enough power - maybe he'll only teleport half the dove into his top hat. Messy.

When a wizard conjures power whilst within his tower, he will let any extra conjured power exude out from him toward the walls. Walls of a mage's tower are especially enchanted to contain the excess magic - the idea is to capture the energy in the walls, and for the energy to spin round, within the walls, gradually spiralling up the tower, so that it finally "spins out" at the top - where the wizard sleeps. The wizard will therefore soak up all the excess magic that he had conjured.

Useful stuff, spare magical energy. Just the stuff a wizard needs to... help power the next spell he casts. Many mages will have drawn a certain set of thaumaturgic runes on their bedroom ceiling. Runes that pertain to longevity.

So whilst a wizard is practising and attempting to perfect their spells; they are also charging up their youth.

---*---

Sunday; day before the bank holiday I was tidying up the garden when a voice spoke in my ear. "I need your aid."

I jumped. Literally.

A moment ago I'd been alone in the garden picking up some rubbish, suddenly there was an Elf whispering in my ear!

"Please." I said when I realised who it was, "Please don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sneak?" The stranger said, "I wasn't sneaking. I don't have time to sneak." His strange-shaped eyes bored into mine. "I need your aid."

"Okaaay." I said slowly.

"Good." The stranger said, "Meet me at Shenley Wood." He turned away from me and stepped up to the apple tree and... he stepped into the tree... and disappeared.

I ran to the tree and stared at it, how did he disappear like that? I shook my head. "Shenley Wood." I said to myself. I grabbed my car keys and was parked outside it in five minutes flat. I suppose I could have walked. But he did say he didn't have time to sneak.

I bleeped the car shut and walked towards the trees. The wood is quite dense, and I could see people wandering around - parents with children and dogs. Well, various combinations of those three.

I saw him walk out of the trees just out of the corner of my eyes. I couldn't tell if he'd done that trick with the tree again. But I suppose if he could walk into a tree, he could walk out from a tree.

"This way." He said when we were close enough so as to not shout, and he stalked off into the wood. I chased behind him. He walked a little way along the path and then turned off into the undergrowth.

"I'm gonna be scratched all over!" I called after him. He didn't respond. I "tched" and then followed him into the bushes.

The underbrush wasn't as thick as it looked and I caught up with him in a trice. He was standing staring at a ring of trees. I stopped next to him.

"Funny trees." I said. "Why do they look identical?"

He smiled and reached out a hand, it passed through the trees as if they weren't there.

"I can't do that." I told him. He shook his head, grabbed me by the arm and pulled forwards. We stepped through the ring of trees as if it wasn't there.

"They aren't there." He said quietly, as I gasped at what was revealed. "Illusion."

I looked up, bending my neck backwards so as to be able to take it all in. The sun was bright overhead and I needed to shade my eyes to see it clearly. It, well, towered above the tree line. I smiled and reached out a hand, my fingers stroked the stones.

"You know what this is?" The stranger said with a touch of glee in his voice.

"I think so." I said in a voice full of wonder. "It's a wizard's tower."

"The wizard has not been seen for over a fortnight." The stranger said, "I need you to go in."

"Why can't you?" I asked.

"I can't pass over the threshold of someone's home without permission."

I looked askance at him, "Like a vampire?"

He scowled. "I am not a figment of Abraham's imagination." He shook his head. "The fool took many stories and twisted them to create his horrors."

He pointed to the doorway - a massive oaken door with impressive iron hinges - just what you would expect from a wizards tower. "Please."

I stroked my way from the wall to the door. The whole structure seemed just so very real - it seemed more solid than me, more solid than my car or house. There was a heavy ring above a menacing keyhole.

"If it's locked I can't do much about it." I said, twisting the ring and pulling.

The door opened with a creak. The inside was in shadow - there was only a small window which didn't cast much light. A smell of something rotten wafted out.

I coughed and spluttered a little and stepped into the tower. "Smells like something's..." I saw a shape, something seated in a chair. I could just make out the body and I twisted round and managed to step outside, I bent over and threw up.

The stranger stepped past me into the tower. "Wha?" I said, wiping my face. "How?"

His voice came from inside. "He's dead." I heard him struggling with something. I was still composing myself when he walked out carrying what looked like a thousand-year-old corpse.

"Stay here." He said, walking off into the trees, carrying the body of the dead wizard.