One of the winners of the #WallsandTowers Contest 2020

💗💗💗

She lets the night wind take off the hood of her black cloak. There is no need for a sorceress from the Highest Orders to hide her identity now that she has reached this cursed place. Cursed, she calls it, although it is much adored and revered by the people, including the practitioners of magic.

Sneering in disgust, she looks at the tall gate decorated with lines of gold and silver in front of her. The words "Tower of Avarice" is written on it in old sorcery language. Out of the seven Towers of Serendipity (Vanity, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth), it is the most famous.

The sorceress places her hand on the cold, glimmering gate of steel and commands, "Open." It does with a screech.

The towers refuse no one.

She gathers her mudstained skirt and starts to climb its cemented stairs that are lit by crystal orbs. The nauseating odor of left-over enchantments, sweat, and blood assails her nostrils. An ordinary human, with a greedy heart, won't be able to smell such and blindly continue making their way to the top of the tower.

"What do you desire? Let me satisfy your greed." The eerie voice of the tower echoes as soon as her feet reach the rooftop. Here, she is magically shielded from the strong night breeze, the cold, and all the judgments of the world. Here, one is free and is the master of their own desire, as long as they are willing to pay the price.

Invisible from the naked eye, she sees the corpses around the top of the towers, skeletons of those who were sacrificed, souls stuck and could not go to the afterlife. She clenches her fists and prepares herself to break the oath she took under the Highest Orders.

"My desire is this." The sorceress takes off her cloak and turns it into an ax. "Too many you have lured and too many you have cast into doom. Disappear, ancient Towers of Serendipity!" She hurls the ax on its walls with all her might, but it only bounces off the wall, leaving nothing but a trail of sparks.

The seven towers' voices join together to say, "Fool! The Towers of Serendipity have been strengthened with years of dark magic from the human's selfish cravings. No single mage could destroy our fortress."

As if prepared to hear such a response, the sorceress, then, relentlessly throws the ax, turns it into dust and sends them around the towers. Chanting solemnly, the specks of dust reach the grounds and from there spring walls so sturdy and enormous that they connect each tower and close their gates with the impossibility of future entry.

"So it shall be that from now on, no one shall enter this cursed place!"

The towers howl in rage.

The sorceress smiles though her body is also being turned to dust. She looks at the trapped souls. "Very soon, I'll lead you out of here." They nod at her.