With one last gulp of the drink she had in her hand, Marina began to speak for the first time since she had arrived in this strange place.

But only silence filled the air when she moved her lips.

She clasped at her throat, feeling the words, the confusion, the bewilderment caught in her throat only to remain there, disbelief lodged in her chest. God? What is this place?!

“It is believed that informed decisions are wise, and therefore I will tell you the rules before you make your decision. We only wish to have the willing be here.”

 ‘We’? Marina shivered. Despite the room being ablaze with candles, she felt cold again. Despite all of the food she had just devoured, she was hungry. As alone as she had felt stumbling upon the Tower and wandering through its vastness and grandeur, all of a sudden, she felt something else. Not the voice that had been speaking to her – that was everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. No, there were others here with her now. There were many of them.

“The rules are simple.”

Marina’s eyes searched hopelessly yet again for the source of this voice. Mama, please, where are you? Is that you? She willed her thoughts into words she could speak, but all that did was sit the unease in her chest, heavy and draining.

“One. What you bestow upon others, you will receive in turn.

Two. What you give to one, you must take from another.

Three. Your powers always obey time.

Four. Once you have begun, there will be no end.

Five. You are as free as you choose to be.”

As the voice recited the rules, a scroll of paper and a quaint feather quill inked the same on the table in front of her. The rules were clear as day, but rules for what? Rules for being God? A God is all-powerful, Marina thought. A God needs no rules. So what did it mean to be a God here?