The sun sat low in the sky and painted the endless sea of clouds above  in soft pinks and gleaming golds. Asher closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the evening sun embrace him. He was taking a break, stealing away a moment to enjoy the sunset. The cart could wait a few more minutes to be packed. 

Asher often found himself pulled away from his duties by the brilliance of the afternoon sky. From here out in the family’s fields he could see everything. There was the impossibly tall ivory Tower that stood as the centrepoint of his hometown, The city itself which sat in the shadow of the Tower, and sprawling fields which expanded almost as far as he could see, ranging from right outside the city all the way to the boundary of the forest which marked the end of their lands. 

The sky over the sprawling landscape seemed to be endless. Asher felt as though if he just allowed himself to revel in the sights he might just be able to drift away. Unfortunately chores, and his brother, beckoned. 

“I hate this place Ash.” Ben complained. 

“The farm?” Asher replied with a grin, he knew that his little brother wasn't talking about their fields. 

Ben met Asher’s eyes with a thoroughly unimpressed expression. “You know that's not what I mean. I hate this city, every inch of it.” 

“Astradel is our home Ben, besides where else would you go? Going to try your luck with the Tower? Or maybe the Wilds between here and the next city?” Asher returned to packing their tools away in the cart. They had finished their chores a while ago and had been packing up getting ready to return home when Asher had become distracted by the sky. 

“I know you're making fun, but just watch. As soon as I'm strong enough to hold my own I'll be off, and you all will see. Maybe the next town won't be so rotten.”

Asher half listened as he returned to packing. It wasn’t that Asher didn't have sympathy for his brother and his problems, but rather that they had this conversation almost every day. Ben would get into some kind of fight or argument with the other boys in the town, he would lose, and then lash out. He would blame the city guard for not stopping fights, or the parents of the other boys for allowing their behaviour. It was unfortunately all becoming a routine. 

Asher struggled to find the right words at times like this. He wanted to tell Ben to just avoid the other’s but that wasn't really possible living in such close proximity to each other. Since finding the right words was proving difficult, Asher gave up and just went with what came naturally instead.

  “If you can’t take on the pampered city boys, what makes you think you can take on the Wilds?” Asher honestly wanted to discourage this idea. It would be suicide for Ben to try to make the journy from one town to another. The beasts and wildmen would tear him apart. 

To Asher’s surprise he noticed a tear forming at the corner of Ben’s eye. “I don’t know what else to do.” Ben said, voice cracking as he pushed out the words. “I’m not strong enough to defend myself, the people in the city don't care if they see a kid getting beat up, and there’s nowhere else I can go.” Tears were streaming down his face now. 

Asher had been caught completely off guard by the outburst. They had spoken about these problems over and over again and Ben had never shown so much emotion. Asher walked over to stand by his brother, he reached out and put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. 

“What happened?” He asked gently. 

Ben did his best to wipe away his tears and prevent more from falling. “It’s nothing, I just need to figure out how to get out of here.”

“Something must have happened.” Asher argued. “We have talked about this a hundred times but you've never been like this before”

A moment passed in which Ben looked as though he was weighing up the pros and cons of telling the truth, eventually he reached into his pocket and pulled something out, the object caught the light and glinted. 

  “What’s that?” Asher asked as he tried to reach out to grab the object. 

Ben pulled his hand back protectively. “It’s just a stone.” He said sheepishly. “I found it yesterday. Dirk found out about it and he and his friends have been coming after me ever since.”  Ben sniffed, clearly focusing on holding back his tears. 

Dirk was a real piece of work, but he wasn't the only issue. Asher understood why the other kids picked on Ben, he was the smallest in his age group, the other boys had hit growth spurts and seemed to grow overnight, Ben on the other hand still looked more like a child than he did a teenager. Asher had never had the same troubles, where Asher was tall and leanly muscled, Ben was still short and a touch on the flabby side. Asher knew that would change soon, Ben was due for his growth spurt as well, he just happened to  be a bit behind the other boys.

In many ways Asher and Ben were opposites. Where Asher had always been tall for his age, Ben had always been short. Where Asher had near black hair and bright green eyes, Ben had blonde hair and blue eyes. Where Asher had never had an issue with bullies, Ben had dealt with them as a part of his everyday life. The differences made it difficult for Asher to understand all of Ben’s problems, but he still tried his best. 

“How do you still have it?” Asher asked, genuinely curious. “If they were harassing you all day, how did you keep it away from them?” 

“I hid it in our fields, just here.” Ben pointed to a place a few paces over where a small hole had been dug out. “I knew it would be hard to find out here and I thought they would leave me alone when you came out here with me.” Ben replied. He was turning the stone over in his fingers as he spoke. “When I wouldn’t tell them where it was, they started throwing rocks at me.”  Ben held his forearm up to show Asher, the underneath of his forearm was black and blue. A stone must have caught him while he was running away. 

Asher felt a wave of anger wash over him. “Why would they go so far just for a stone?” He struggled to keep his anger out of his voice. 

Ben hesitated before speaking. “Just look.” He said finally as he held the stone up for Asher’s benefit. Asher was just now getting his first proper view of the rock and as he did he saw that it was actually some form of uncut gemstone, it was translucent white with what looked like wisps of black smoke trapped inside. As Ben held the stone something began to change, slowly but surely a new colour began emanating from within. A dim yellow appeared out of nowhere, as if it were light just hovering in the gem playing among the smokey wisps.  A moment  passed with Asher staring slack jawed, and then, in an instant,  the light was gone. 

“I can only make it appear for a second or two.” Ben sighed and let his hand fall. 

“What in the world was that?” Shock was written plainly across Asher’s face.  “What do you mean? You did that?” He stuttered out. 

“Cool right?” Ben replied with half a smile. “That’s why Dirk wanted it so bad.” 

That snapped Asher back to reality. “Whatever that is, it's amazing Ben, it really is. But that doesn't make what Dirk and the others did any less terrible.” Once again Asher began to feel his passion rise up against his will. He pushed that feeling down and focused on what he could do. “I’m going to have to talk to those kids, maybe even their parents. This is crazy Ben.” 

Ben smiled up at his older brother. “Thank you.”  As he said the words his smile quickly faded. “There's no point though, don’t worry about it.” 

“But - “ Asher began to say but he was cut off as Ben continued. 

“Hazel already did all of that.” Ben finished. 

Asher burst out laughing, his anger fading away. “What did she do?” he asked while wiping away a tear. 

“She saw this happen.” Ben said as he gestured to his bruised arm. “She yelled at all the other boys and threatened to take it up with their parents.” 

“Good old Hazel.” Asher replied. 

“It isn't so great as all that, whenever she helps they just bully me more for needing to be rescued by a girl.”

The sting of irritation caught Asher off guard once more. “Come find me next time.” He said. “These kids need to learn a lesson, I know you don't want to be rescued by your big brother but this is getting out of hand.” 

“I can’t” Ben began to reply but he was cut off by Asher’s stern voice. 

“I’m not asking, I’m telling. Come find me. We’ll sort it out Ben, I don't know exactly how right now but we will sort it.” Asher smile, he hoped in an encouraging way. 

Ben didn’t respond right away, instead he turned aside, hiding his face once more.

“Okay?” Asher asked. 

“Okay “ Ben replied, a weak smile, finally, making its way onto his face. 

* * *

Asher and Ben set out from their field, following the path back into town. The fields which sustained the population of the town were located just outside the main city. Een though the fields began just outside the city, the trip back would still take them the better part of half an hour. Between their allotment and the city gates were a few other fields, and adding to that, their beasts of burden were aging and unable to keep up with much more than a crawl. 

Ben always complained about the slow pace, griping at how unfair the price of new oxen was. Asher on the other hand didn't mind the trip. The plodding pace allowed him to rest his body while keeping his mind occupied. The whole journey home held the Tower as the centrepoint and Asher wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Tower had no known origin, it had been here before their people arrived and began recording their history and it would likely stand long after they were dead and gone. It stood impossibly tall, its structure disappearing into the clouds above. Its grand scale was matched by its pristine state. Regardless of what had occurred below it, be it the building of, tearing down or even reconstruction of new cities the Tower stood eternally and completely unmarred, its surface never anything other than pristine white stone. Asher found the impossibility of the Tower fascinating, he could ponder it for hours at a time, lost in his own daydreams about what may lay on the other side. 

Aside from the alien magnificence of the Tower, the town itself, it had to be said, truly was a beauty of its own. Nearby rivers and streams had been diverted to provide running water and scenic lakes in the richer areas of the city. The Tower might put their efforts to shame, but they wouldn't allow themselves to be a stain on the scene.

Asher was pulled out of his reverie once more when he began to hear what sounded like shouts, coming from the direction of the city. The sound was faint enough that he wasn't sure if he were perhaps just imagining it. It didn't take  long however before it became clear that he actually was hearing screams, the sound having been carried unnaturally far on the wind. Asher shared a glance with Ben and before he could second guess himself he had hopped down from the cart and begun running. 

Asher noticed right away that Ben had joined him after a moment's hesitation. He had initially been able to catch up to Asher’s head start but it wasn't long before he began to lag behind. Asher’s legs were significantly longer than his brothers and so he was unable to run at his full speed without losing Ben. 

“Go.” Ben shouted out between gasps.

Asher just kept running, he wouldn't just leave Ben behind during an emergency, whatever it was.

“I know you are holding back for me. Go, find Ma. I’ll lgo home and wait in the cellar.” Ben really was struggling to get the words out between breaths. 

Asher felt stuck, he didn't want to leave Ben behind but he also wanted to go make sure their mother was safe as fast as possible. A few precious  moments passed by as he struggled to make a decision, eventually he determined that hesitating and making no decision would be the worst option of all. 

“If whatever this is gets too out of hand and you can't stay home, meet me back in the fields ,you should be able to stay out of sight out here. If you need to run you can disappear into the woods behind the field.” Asher panted out.

“Yessir.” Ben squeezed out as he began to slow down, he was struggling to catch his breath at all. 

As soon as Asher began running at his full speed Ben was left behind.