I stand at the tallest point of our base camp resting in the Wardurn Prairie. To my west, the prairie goes for miles and miles the green land pretty much treeless but for a few patches of thin sticks. Even with such a clear view, I can barely see the wall of Papilio the largest city on this death planet. I came from there, it's my home and I'm a week away and at the edge of Ridge Back Pass to my east. 

RidgeBack Pass is a dangerous island-like land pass connecting to the Old Feilds. It's surrounded by deep oceanic waters hiding beasts inside, and the land breaks into broken valleys caused by earthquakes that are fragile to the touch. 

A month back, a Tower fell from the sky landing right in front of the pass. It blocked trade with Cossidea and Cecropia but it wasn't deemed an imminent threat. Then for some reason, it Matured. 

Towers are these horrible strange buildings cast into this world by the evil god Malkuth above. The one who kidnaps people, who keeps us all hostage here, and forces us to fight disastrous creatures called Uraqur and scale the Towers. Towers influence a Uraqur's power by producing Miasma. The more Miasma there is in an area the stronger the Uraqur is. It is this Miasma we use to level the maturity of a Tower. A Level One tower is common and easily climbed. Even a newbie group has a high chance of survivability in one. But when a Tower matures it triples in strength. A tower that hits Level Two is on a vastly different scale of difficulty than a lower level one. The tower here fell as a Level one, and in just a month went to a Level three. If we leave it, it will become a level four. 

To prevent this, the government in Papilio ordered all the guilds to unify into a single raid. All the guild captains and their best went into the tower to scale and retrieve the key and core. They left behind their Vice. Captains to maintain unity between us all. 

From my lookout post, I make a sweeping scan. My well-trained eye and beautifully made spyglass rivals that of even elves, known for their keen eyesight. I keep an eye out for Wilders from RidgeBack Pass and the continent beyond it, The Old Feilds. Wilders are crazy people who decided to form anarchic groups of bandits that traverse across the Old Feilds and Wardurn Prairie. Their pathetic tactic is to wait for guilds to finish climbing a tower and ambush them when they exit. 

I see a plume of dust drift from a part of the pass. Swinging my vision back, I shift the spyglasses with a few good twists and button pushing. It adjusted over a dangerous part of the pass. It's a layered sandstone valley with dangerous slates that have fallen and split people in half. It used to be a river connecting the lands but something happened and it dried up leaving behind this area. From one of its many exits, the first wave of an army comes into view. Wilders riding on the back of various boar-type Uraqur. I raise an eyebrow shocked by this reveal. How did those dull barbarians get the Uraqur to listen to them? 

There's a tap on my leg, "Isabella? What do you see?" I glance down to Naertho, a guild mate of mine,  and a squad member. He's a kind elf, and strong warrior with his pike and shield. He usually joins me in scouting missions as he's quiet and much stronger than I am. Two-man teams are a must in this world. 

He pushes back his long black hair so that his long half-foot ears can keep them in place. He hates hair being in his face blocking his bright blue eyes. He's a Malkuth Native Born unlike me. I'm from Ivinor. 

"It's not good," I tell him, "We have Uraqur riding maniacs coming from the Pass. I give them an hour... maybe two if we are lucky." 

Naertho frowns, "I'll inform Vice. Captian Isaac." 

"Good, and we need to inform him about a Sweep forming over Papilio." I shift my vision back over Wardurn Prairie. What was once just a blip in the distance has become a huge storm. It's getting twice its size every hour and soon will engulf us and maybe Old Feilds. "It's a big one, I don't know what level... Does any of the other guilds have a Sky-reader?" 

"Um... I want to say the Thunder Hawks do." 

"While on your way to delivering the message can you ask them to send over a Sky-reader for me?" 

"I'll ask, who knows if they'll listen." 

I snort, "We all are supposed to be allies." 

"Allies..." He trails off, "More like rivals with a common goal."

"That is why guilds are no good, it's like the gangs back home... a military would do more for everyone." I declare watching as several long tornados touched down around Papilio, Ailanthus, and Litocala. I've never seen so many Sweeps happening, and I bet they are attached to different worlds. 

Sweeps bring items, water, minerals, and people from worlds beyond. These Sweeps are spitting out mostly large items like trains, cars, huge containers, ships, and people. I call them poor souls and pray to the goddess they survive their falls. 

I too am a victim of the Sweeps, I was walking home and a freak storm happened to take me and half of my neighborhood to this world. I was one of the survivors and adopted by Papilio. I had a few choices, stay and become a citizen and lose my rights to leave this world, or become a guild member. I want to go back home. Back to where my children and my husband are. I was thirty years old when I was taken... I've been here for ten. I'm sure my love has moved on, I hope he has, and my children may be having my grandchildren... I can only pray they are living a good happy life. I still want to return, to see what they made for themselves and pass away in peace. 

The only way back home is to scale the Towers and collect the keys inside. Every Seven Keys and a portal is opened. It will only take so many people away that is why everyone fights so hard every single day. A level one tower has one key, a level two has two, and so on. The tougher the towers the greater the reward both monetary and mental. 

A woman climbs up my tower and slightly wiggles her way next to me. "Sorry, I'm from The Thunder Hawks, you asked for a Sky-reader?" I point to the storm and she drops her magic item, the Anemonter. I catch it handing it back other. "Sorry, thank you." She takes it back and reads it eyes getting wider and wider. She foams at the mouth silently screaming, "I have to inform everyone!" 

I call after her, "Hey, tell me at least." 

"It's a level eight sweep!" She screams darting away almost hitting several people including Naertho who's come back to guard me. I'm not new to this world, but I haven't really learned much about the Sweeps besides what they do. Sky-readers are the only people able to understand the truth of a Sweep. Her fear tightens my old heart and my blood chills. It has to be bad if she's treating it like this. 

Naertho climbed my watchtower and handed me a sandwich and a large full waterskin. I gratefully take it. "Thank you," 

Naertho takes a bit of his food, "I informed all the Vice. Captains. Guess what, The Rebirth of the Clows is in charge of the shields." 

"Those weirdos?" 

"Those weirdos happen to be the best magic guild alive." 

"Still weird." 

He chuckles, "I was also to inform you of your tasks. Vice. Captain Isaac is leaving this in your hands." He hands me what looks like a small desk bell. "You are to use it for emergencies, or when the wilders get a mile away."  

"Easily done," I say flinching as a huge bucketload of people is thrown from a tornado. A neighborhood just like my own... "There is going to be a lot of deaths with this Sweep. Do you know the importance of a level eight?"

He tilts his head his ears flopping slightly, "I know it's high, I think I've only personally seen a level five Sweep."  

That means something like this hasn't happened for the past 2,000 years. Naertho is an elf with a very long lifespan, though he acts much younger than I do. The maturity of the longer-living races is as slow as a tree blooming in winter. 

I shake myself free from the grip the Sweep has over me. I have to watch the pass, I cannot allow the lives of strangers to influence my work. I have people I have to protect, if I see even a hint of a sneak attack, or the army getting closer I will ring the bell. "If you could would you go through a Portal?" 

Naertho shakes his head, "I have a family here. I can't leave them. I joined the guilds to protect them from the wrath of the towers and Malkuth above." 

My old face cracks into a rare smile, "You are a good elf."