The Cursed Titans by Ricardo Victoria

Author:Ricardo Victoria
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artemesia Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Restless Voices Carry into the Night

Harland was mentally and physically exhausted after the bad day at the talks. After the abrupt end to the meeting from Fionn’s outburst there were calls to resume the talks, once tempers had cooled down. Harland had gone to his hotel room, changed into comfortable clothes and then walked to the nearby subway station. He took the next incoming train with no apparent direction in mind. He rode for a while and finally chose a random station to get off at and walked around until something caught his eye. Trekking uphill, he found himself staring at Kyôkatô Tower. He smiled, as it brought back happy childhood memories.

Built on a deserted hill a few decades ago, the area was now full of buildings and houses. Kyôkatô Tower was built to enhance the communications across the city through the transmission of signals into the Aethernet, above the interference of the power lines. In a single day, Kyôkatô Tower had managed to connect the sprawling city. It was a symbol of technological progress. However, these days it was more of a touristic attraction, as new technologies and a new building—the SkySpire—had replaced the old tower. He entered the building at the base of Kyôkatô Tower and went to the ticket counter where he bought a pass to the observation deck, two hundred and fifty meters above.

As he waited for the elevator, Harland examined the leaflet with the map of all the amenities inside the new base building and the tower itself, which included both an indoor amusement park for children, and restaurants and bars with slot machines for beleaguered parents. For a second, the temptation of going to the bar, drinking all the beer and spending all his money gambling mindlessly at a slot machine grew stronger. But as the elevator door opened with a ding, he cleared his head. Years ago he had gotten into serious gambling debts and Fionn had to intervene to stop Harland from selling his family’s heirlooms. Since that day Harland had learned how much that help had cost Fionn. And yet his friend had done it without a second thought, asking only that Harland went clean and attend a support group to deal with his gambling addiction. And he had done that. He had been clean for more than a decade. No matter how bad things were, Harland would not succumb to his worst instinct. He owed Fionn that much.

After a few minutes the elevator doors opened and Harland entered the observation deck. The place was practically empty, probably because most people were more interested in the tournament.

It’s a shame, he thought, the city does have great views. He had been here as a child. His father had brought him along on one of his trips and he had fallen in love with the views from the observation deck. On a clear day, such as today, it was possible to see the volcano in the God’s Eye Island almost fifty kilometers out in the bay.

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