The Raven Tower
775 Words
The aircraft shot into the storm without a sound.
Within seconds, Beijing disappeared beneath a sea of clouds.
Alina sat motionless, gripping the edge of her seat. The cabin looked nothing like a normal aircraft. There were no windows, no visible controls, and no pilot. Holographic displays floated in midair, updating themselves in dozens of languages.
Lucien Vale stood at the front of the cabin, staring into the darkness beyond the glass.
He hadn't spoken since they left the apartment.
Finally, Alina broke the silence.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Home."
"I've never been to your home."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"No. But your destiny has."
---
Twenty minutes later...
The aircraft descended toward the tallest building in Beijing.
Raven Tower.
Officially, it was the headquarters of Vale Dynamics, the most powerful technology company on Earth.
Its quantum processors controlled global banking, artificial intelligence, orbital satellites, and nearly half of the world's communications.
Unofficially...
It was the fortress of the Obsidian King.
As the aircraft approached, thousands of security drones formed a perfect corridor through the rain.
The tower recognized its master.
The rooftop opened like the petals of a flower.
The aircraft descended into the heart of the building.
---
The doors slid open.
Alina stepped into a vast hall unlike anything she had ever imagined.
White marble stretched endlessly beneath her feet.
Water flowed through glass channels in the floor.
Living trees grew beneath a ceiling that displayed an artificial night sky.
There were no guards.
No employees.
Only silence.
"This place..."
She looked around in disbelief.
"...is inside a skyscraper?"
Lucien nodded.
"It is one of many things the world isn't ready to understand."
Before she could reply, a warm female voice echoed through the hall.
"Welcome home, Master Lucien."
A woman appeared.
Or at least...
she looked like one.
She wore a white dress woven with threads of light. Her silver hair floated weightlessly around her shoulders, and her sapphire eyes glowed with quiet intelligence.
She smiled warmly at Alina.
"I am EVA, the central intelligence of Raven Tower."
Alina blinked.
"You're... an AI?"
"I was."
EVA tilted her head.
"Now I am something more."
Lucien spoke quietly.
"EVA has been with me for one hundred and eighty-two years."
Alina stared at him.
"That's impossible."
Lucien didn't answer.
---
Deep beneath the tower...
A hidden laboratory awakened.
Rows of black capsules lined the walls.
Inside each capsule...
slept a warrior.
A red warning light flashed.
HEART OF OBSIDIAN DETECTED.
One by one...
every capsule opened.
Dozens of silver-eyed soldiers stepped into the darkness.
Without speaking, they knelt.
Their king had returned.
And this time...
he was not alone.
---
Meanwhile...
Thousands of kilometers away...
Inside a forgotten monastery carved into the Himalayan mountains...
An old man slowly opened his eyes.
The monks around him immediately bowed.
"Grandmaster?"
The old man looked toward the north.
"The Queen has awakened."
His voice trembled.
"After seven hundred years..."
He stood for the first time in decades.
"Prepare the Guardians."
A young monk hesitated.
"Master... if the prophecy is true..."
"...then the Shadow Emperor will awaken as well."
The old man's expression darkened.
"I know."
"And when he does..."
"...even Lucien Vale may not be enough."
---
Back in Raven Tower...
Alina stood before a massive wall of glass overlooking Beijing.
The storm had passed.
The city glittered beneath the stars as if nothing had happened.
Lucien walked beside her.
"Everything you believed about this world is incomplete."
"I don't even know what's real anymore."
"You will."
He pressed his hand against the glass.
The transparent wall transformed into a holographic map of Earth.
Then...
Hidden locations began appearing.
Ancient temples.
Underground cities.
Floating islands hidden by advanced cloaking technology.
Unknown civilizations.
Places erased from every map in human history.
Alina whispered,
"These can't be real..."
"They are."
Lucien looked at her.
"And every one of them..."
"...is looking for you."
Before she could answer...
The black crystal hanging around her neck suddenly became unbearably hot.
A voice echoed inside her mind.
Not Lucien's.
Not EVA's.
Someone older.
Someone imprisoned.
"Find me, Alina..."
"Before he does."
A shadow appeared behind the holographic Earth.
Not a reflection.
Not a glitch.
A man.
Watching her.
His eyes burned like molten gold.
Then...
He smiled.
The hologram shattered.
Every light in Raven Tower went dark.
EVA's calm voice was suddenly filled with urgency.
"Master Lucien..."
"I have detected an unauthorized presence inside the tower."
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Impossible."
EVA answered only four words.
"He is already here."
Far below...
in the deepest level of Raven Tower...
a pair of golden eyes slowly opened in the darkness.
- Writer
