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Description
Stargazer

By Ardanian

“I can fly.” He told them, “And you will help me.” Their faces were eager as they stared at him on his dais.  Ten thousand faces, ten thousand minds and bodies united in one idea, one dream, in his dream. “We will build a tower so tall that it will graze the vault of heaven and when it is done it will launch me to the stars themselves.  The stars that we watch, the stars that through me we shall all touch.” And so they began.

They started in earnest, eager to please the wizard, but time and toil dulled their dreams.  Inch by tortuous inch the tower grew, stretching towards the stars.  Inch by inch their spirits broke.  Where once they served with love and pride now they slaved under whips and chains.  Men died, backs broke, their throats cried for water, but their only answers were pain and death.

Years passed before finally the wizard was satisfied.  His slaves looked up, backs stooped by endless toil, at the creation that they had wrought.  A tower of stone built with their blood and bone.  It reached the vault of heaven, but they had forgotten why, forgotten their master’s grand plan, his dream to break the bonds of gravity and fly with the stars above.  Now as they watched they remembered, the dream returned.  But it brought back none of the old passion, desire.  Their eyes followed the wizard as he climbed to the top of the world.  He reached the peak of his tower and to them if he just reached out his hand he could pluck the stars from the velvet dark of the night sky.

He looked down.  Far below him, dim in the light of the fires, his brothers turned their faces towards him.  He couldn’t disappoint these men who had given him their love and service, now was his time to fly after years of patient waiting.  He took a deep breath to steady his nerves then leapt.  For one instant his mind was clear, he felt the unadulterated joy of flight, for one instant he flew.  Then his joy was swallowed by dark terror as he felt his body begin to fall.

The slaves watched impassively as the shadow in the sky grew bigger.  They watched as the wizard fell to the ground faster than he could ever have dreamed.  They all heard the dull thud and the sharp cracks as his bones broke on the hard earth.  The cloud of dust obscured the spreading pool of blood around the broken body of the fallen wizard.  Far in the distance a rainbow rose above the horizon as the sun crept into the sky.  Now they were free, but free to do what.  Freedom and its sweet memories were crushed from their minds as surely as their backs were crushed by the unforgiving stone.  With no force to drive them, no grand plan to move them, there was nothing.  The rest of their lives spread out before them and its dreams contained nothing but the fall of the wizard.

Description
Stargazer

By Ardanian

“I can fly.” He told them, “And you will help me.” Their faces were eager as they stared at him on his dais.  Ten thousand faces, ten thousand minds and bodies united in one idea, one dream, in his dream. “We will build a tower so tall that it will graze the vault of heaven and when it is done it will launch me to the stars themselves.  The stars that we watch, the stars that through me we shall all touch.” And so they began.

They started in earnest, eager to please the wizard, but time and toil dulled their dreams.  Inch by tortuous inch the tower grew, stretching towards the stars.  Inch by inch their spirits broke.  Where once they served with love and pride now they slaved under whips and chains.  Men died, backs broke, their throats cried for water, but their only answers were pain and death.

Years passed before finally the wizard was satisfied.  His slaves looked up, backs stooped by endless toil, at the creation that they had wrought.  A tower of stone built with their blood and bone.  It reached the vault of heaven, but they had forgotten why, forgotten their master’s grand plan, his dream to break the bonds of gravity and fly with the stars above.  Now as they watched they remembered, the dream returned.  But it brought back none of the old passion, desire.  Their eyes followed the wizard as he climbed to the top of the world.  He reached the peak of his tower and to them if he just reached out his hand he could pluck the stars from the velvet dark of the night sky.

He looked down.  Far below him, dim in the light of the fires, his brothers turned their faces towards him.  He couldn’t disappoint these men who had given him their love and service, now was his time to fly after years of patient waiting.  He took a deep breath to steady his nerves then leapt.  For one instant his mind was clear, he felt the unadulterated joy of flight, for one instant he flew.  Then his joy was swallowed by dark terror as he felt his body begin to fall.

The slaves watched impassively as the shadow in the sky grew bigger.  They watched as the wizard fell to the ground faster than he could ever have dreamed.  They all heard the dull thud and the sharp cracks as his bones broke on the hard earth.  The cloud of dust obscured the spreading pool of blood around the broken body of the fallen wizard.  Far in the distance a rainbow rose above the horizon as the sun crept into the sky.  Now they were free, but free to do what.  Freedom and its sweet memories were crushed from their minds as surely as their backs were crushed by the unforgiving stone.  With no force to drive them, no grand plan to move them, there was nothing.  The rest of their lives spread out before them and its dreams contained nothing but the fall of the wizard.