This Tower of Ours [Part 1]
Natasha Nalklov sighed as she rubbed her aching wrist, she'd lost count of how many meaningless trivial documents she sighed off on. At least a hundred, the stack to her right indicated as such as it now had enough papers to fill several large books, still, she felt obligated to thoroughly read each and every one of the documents before signing off on it. This new influx of paper work was the result of her newly created Commonwealth People's Parliament, the members of whom constantly write up bills, review, and vote on said bills to be sent to her for official passing. The Parliament didn't have any executive power but so far very few of the bills Natasha had to deny, the system was more or less working.
Taking a brief break Natasha placed down her pen and removed the reading glasses that she had recently been advised to purchase, she didn't like the spectacles, they made her look old, but she couldn't deny they eased the strain in her eyes. Rubbing the bridge of her nose Natasha's gaze wondered over to the picture frame that sat at the corner of her desk, Kosei's beautiful face smiled up at her and she immediately felt better. She touched the necklace that hung from her neck, a white talisman with the Outsider's mark pressed into it with silver inlaid, identical to the one Kosei wore. Natasha could almost feel her presence through the necklace, as if the Void connected them across thousands of kilometres, she wished she was here now so they could tackle the issues together, discuss them, Natasha longed for the light in her partner's brown eyes that came out whenever she talked of something she was passionate about. Alas dear Kosei had her own nation to run, and her own parliament to handle.
There was a knock from the large double doors that were the entrance to Natasha's monolithic office. Talia, her secretary, walked in, Natasha was lucky to have a dedicated aid like her. It also helped that the girl was easy on the eyes, had Natasha not been a married woman she could see herself perusing her. Oh well, Kosei was all the romantic company Natasha needed, even if she wasn't physically present all the time.
"Just finished the stack?" Talia asked, giving a sympathetic smile.
"Just barely, much more and I don't think I'll make it," Natasha joked.
"Well luckily for your continued rein my lady, that's all the paperwork for today."
"Thank Sithis," Natasha said in relief, rubbing her temples. "This isn't exactly what I thought governing the Commonwealth would be like, somehow I never imagined my uncle signing paperwork all day."
"Something tells me he didn't," Talia said, taking the stack of papers in her arms as if they weighed nothing. "To be honest I don't know what he did up here all day, besides perhaps torturing small animals."
Natasha could help but snort in laughter as Talia grinned and left, swaying those hips of hers that Natasha convinced herself she was not staring at. She was rather looking lovingly at the picture of her wife once again, yes, that is what she did. Once her secretary left she leaned back in her chair, sighing and enjoying the moment of relaxation. She stretched and rain her fingers through her silver hair before standing up, stretching again, and moving to the balcony.
Outside was the fruit of one of her many labours, after Kosei's visit and their almost systematic revelation of feelings. Natasha couldn't stop thinking about how much her love had enjoyed The Garden of the Mother, the biologically engineered park that bloomed year-round. It was protected from the elements by a large dome.
Natasha, with a little persuasion, was able to have the whole thing moved. Where there was once a wide open square around Chunwall Tower, used for military parades and the like. Was now a huge garden, lush grass flanked marble walkways, trees provided shade and fresh fruit. Birds and other animals moved along the plants, hummingbirds fed upon the rainbow of flowers and the whole thing shone a almost unearthly light. Statues were placed in several spots, depicting Sithis and his children and important Chadician figures including, Natasha knew, the smiling face of her late uncle.
As it was summer the garden was open to the sky, but in a moments notice a heavy dome could be raised that encompassed the entire garden and actually fit around the tower itself. Which was one of the ways Natasha was able to sell the idea, the dome was made of thick treated steel and lined with lead and titanium. In an emergency it could block incoming missiles from hitting the base of the tower or any of the land immediately around it.
It the garden Natasha could spot couples on a date, tourists snapping pictures of the statues, of the tower, and the Red Guard's outside of it. All of this in spite of the fact that most of what Natasha saw was illegal not three months ago. As she continued to look she saw several concession stands and other little booths that were scattered about, creating a small market of sorts. Foreigners, Chadician's, people from all walks of life were happy, laughing, merry. All within the shadow of the Grey Tower which was no longer a symbol of fear and oppression, but a silent stoic guardian that the people looked upon with fondness rather than anxiety. Suddenly the paperwork was inconsequential in the face of what Natasha saw, it made her smile.
"Nice flowers, colourful."
Natasha jumped and spun around, her hand flying to the hilt of her sword, ready to attack the intruder. When she looked around her empty office, however, she found no one, which confused her. The voice had been close, right by her ear as if someone had snuck up behind her and avoided her honed senses, it had been male and eerily familiar with a slight echo-like quality to it.
"Did you miiissss me?" the voice seemed to bleed from the walls, it filled Natasha's head as her vision blurred a tad. There was movement as the edges of her vision, a talk dark figure, a bedrock of fear settled in Nat's stomach, she reached up and rubbed her eyes and nearly had a heart attack at what she saw. Only inches from her face was a pair of overly wide golden irises, oily black hair slicked backwards, a well-groomed beard that surrounded a large demented smile.
"I missed you," Chadwick Nalklov said as a insane laugh oozed from his mouth. Nat felt her skin crawl, her heart skip a beat and a cold sweat that broke out on her brow as she stared at the defiantly live face of her long-term tormentor.
"You're not here, you're dead!" Natasha said, with a ringing sound her sword came free and sliced through where Chadwick Nalkov was, he disappeared and Nat was given a moment to recover before his haunting voice reached her again. This time to her right.
"Loving the garden, really. Are the flowers poisonous? Maybe the birds eat human flesh? The possibilities are endless really."
Natasha stared at him, he couldn't be real, he was dead. She had seen his body herself it had been shot not to mention she and thousands of other watched as his body turned to ash in the cremation fire. Yet there he stood, looking as he did in his prime, straight-backed, an almost healthy glow to him with well-kept hair, clean uniform and a cane that was only an accessory rather than a necessity.
"Relax, you're just having a severe auditory and visual hallucination," The former Lord Commander winked at her as if they were sharing a private joke. "What is dead may never truly die my dear."
"This... This is just the stress," Nat said to herself, replacing her sword and putting her face in her hands and hoping Chadwick would just disappear. "I need to relax some more, yes that's it, maybe I should go visit Kosei..."
"And have some, ah-hem, private diplomacy? Gotta say you scored well with that one, good for you, I would have married her myself if I didn't despise human contact, and it I wasn't, you know, dead," Chadwick said casually, leaning on the balcony.
"If I ignore him, he'll go away," Nat said into her hands.
"You know, talking to yourself is arguably a more worrying sign of your worsening sanity than your current hallucination. I used to talk to myself and I'm not exactly the model of a sound mind am I?"
"I'm not going insane."
"Keep telling yourself that sweetheart, the Mad Tower will claim you in the end. Maybe it's the air, we are rather high up, oxygen starvation would explain a lot, particularly Gregory Dubanov the Mad. Before your time of course, the man once named his horse to the Lord's Council, he was just asking for a revolution I tell you."
Natasha didn't respond, she walked back to her desk and sat down, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. When she opened her eyes again Chadwick was taking a seat in the guest chair, he rested his feet atop Nat's desk and removed his cap. Tossing the thing over his shoulder and absentmindedly twirling his cane in his hand, like he used to do in his youth.
"So here you are, top of the tower, congrats. You beat the Prince, the Lawyer and the Soldier, and just to spite his memory you actually cloned Skalo to lead your armies, nice. It what I would've done I your position."
Natasha bit her lip in guilt, every time she saw Skalo, or rather Aron Salko as his clone was called. Their copy was just as fiery and as dedicated as the original, the only difference was that he was completely and unquestionably loyal to Natasha.
"No need to feel bad, you didn't kill Skalo and his double has no idea he ever existed. It was a smart move, I approve, really and now I hear your splicing together a child from pieces of yourself and your lover. I wonder if she'll be as mad as you or me?"
"What are you here?" Natasha finally spoke, staring defiantly at the hallucination.
"Sithis knows, not me. I'm just a figment of your imagination, here to entertain and to scare. Maybe it because you can't move on? We could speculate all day but what does it matter? I'm dead, you're in charge. All the power of the Commonwealth and what it the first thing you do with it? Build a garden, bravo. I'm glad you took my place to improve the local flora."
"I did what I did for the good of the Commonwealth," Natasha said.
"The Commonwealth, ha," Nalklov chuckled. "What is the Commonwealth but a lie we tell ourselves every night, a story we tell the children over and over until we believe it to be real? A story of a fallen empire, a glorious revolution, and a madman in a tower."
"And what's left once we forget the lie?" Natasha. "What happens when we stop telling that story? What's left behind? A gaping pit of chaos that swallows everyone, good or bad."
"I'm afraid you are mistaken, sweetheart, chaos isn't a pit" Chadwick said patronizingly. "Chaos is a tower, a tall tower with an endless staircase. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. In truth only the tower is real.... The climb is all there is."
"We both made that climb, and only one of us is alive."
"Heh, maybe you're right, see you later sweetheart."
Natasha blinked and Nalklov was gone, not a sign of his presence left behind. Nat sighed and once again massaged her temples, a stone of anxiety settling in her stomach.
"Outsider help me."
