Dream - Rise of the Castle on the Rock (18)

Now the rise of the Castle on the Rock came about after the First Migration. That’s what they called it when a whole convoy of ships—merchants, soldiers, sailors, traders, diplomats, scuffs and Blues alike—all managed to get pulled in by the storm. Over the course of half a year, the mountain spire’s population grew to the largest it would ever get. Nine full boats shipwrecked just like the Girl had been, left to wake up and start anew. Now, the folks who already spent their days and nights on the spire, they were welcoming at first, but soon enough, there was a rising tide. A group formed, led by a merchant from the Rim and one of the more charismatic Blues, and they schemed to escape. They fixed up a ship, took a small crew, battened down their sails as best they could and made for the top of the storm to hop over it. They couldn’t get high enough, so they tried to bolt right on through. Storm tossed them right back out, so they tried again, and the storm tossed them into the desert at the foot of the spire. They crashed into the graveyard, the landing point without soft sand to pad the fall. Only one of the crew survived. He went on to rally all the new locals to follow him. Said it was the time for a new beginning. The spire was going to be their home, so they might as well dig in new, and dig in hard. They spent he next year building the castle, higher than Blackwing’s Roost tower, to be the highest house of the rock, the Castle on the Rock. There wasn’t much anything to protect or defend against—everyone shipwrecked stayed—but as a symbol, it went a long way. It was a common point, a candle of progress flickering in the darkness. What treasures and relics were built or unearthed, they found their way to the Castle. Everything of interest, every item of intrigue, every person of note, eventually, they all made their way to the Castle on the Rock. And now it’s the Girl’s turn.