The mountain lands of Peak and Spire had once been one, founded by a great ruler whose name was now lost from all record. The two lands, as their name suggests, were each built upon towering crags high up in the mountains. On a clear day they could see one another, but those days were few since a thick blanket of clouds were nearly ever present. It was those clear days, so the saying goes, that had inspired the rivalry that would eventually blossom into hatred for one another. Each one focused on building larger, grander, and more impressive structures.

Tal, who had been born and raised in Peak, wasn’t quite sure if he hated Spire, but he certainly bore no good will for them. He blamed Spire for pretty much everything that was wrong in his life. Day after grueling day, he and the other laborers toiled away, rushing to ensure that the next grand edifice would be complete before the next clear day. Homes and fields had to be cleared away to make room for the new construction and that was the crux of Tal’s most recent problem. He was among those who had lost their home. Promises were made to build them new homes, of course, but such promises were always made. It didn’t take a genius to know not to trust such promises. The demand for labor on the next grand edifice was simply too great to allow much time or resources for much else.

“If only Spire would stop building so quickly,” was a common refrain from Tal.

If Spire stopped, or at least slowed down, perhaps the rulers of Peak wouldn’t press Tal and the others so hard. The worst part of it all, though, was the fact that so few of the buildings were ever completed. Countless hollow shells lined that side of the city. The Spire facing walls were always built first before anything else out of concern that a clear day might come sooner rather than later. Yet once a clear day did come, what was the point in completing any of the current structures? Spire had seen the façade and would have no way of knowing that the rest of the building hadn’t been completed.

“Do you think Spire does the same thing?” Tal once made the mistake of asking.

He was overheard by one of the task masters and was beaten. It wasn’t until later that he realized that by asking that question, he’d implied that he assumed Spire wasn’t doing the same thing and therefore infer that Spire was the superior builder. It also brought attention to Peak’s failures with regard to finishing their own structures.

These and other thoughts were what greeted Tal each morning when he awoke and this morning was no different. He lay in the quiet gray of early morning, looking up at the sky. Around him were the dozens of other laborers who, like him, no longer had a home and were forced to sleep on the ground near the building site. They all used various building materials to make their beds. Tal had settled on a pile of sand and gravel left over from when they’d been working on the foundations. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but few people ever fought him for it.

It took him a while to realize that the sky above him was clear. He could see the stars and twin moons. Glancing towards Spire he could just barely see its outline against the paling sky around it.

“Get up!” barked a loud and angry voice. “Clear day’s come and we’ve not finished the roof!”

Apparently, Tal hadn’t been the only one to notice the clear sky. Task masters began moving through the area, slapping and kicking anyone who wasn’t waking fast enough. Not wanting to be among those that earned a new bruise that day, Tal leapt to his feet and immediately got to work. There was perhaps another couple of hours before it would be light enough for anyone from Spire to see that they were still working. If they hurried, they just might be able to finish their work. If they did get it done in time, there would be a hero’s feast waiting for them. Otherwise, there would be strict punishments.

Just as Tal and the others were getting ready to scale the scaffolding that would take them up to the roof, something else caught their eye. Even the task masters paused in their shouting when they noticed it.

A gleaming ribbon, shining in the faint light, stretched from Spire to the lower foothills of Peak. All throughout the shimmering light were smaller, more distinct lines that glowed more strongly. They were not orderly lines, however. Instead, they were jagged and crisscrossed everywhere. There didn’t seem to be any sort of pattern to it all, and yet it still somehow had a natural sort of look to it.

“What is it?” Tal heard someone whisper

“Some sort of cloud?” another voice guessed.

“Can’t be a cloud,” Tal said.

“Why not?” the second voice asked

“Clouds are never that still.”

There was no further response as they all just continued to stare in wonder. Before too long, word of the strange sight spread and more people began to gather. By the time the sun rose over the distant horizon, it had become clear what it was that they were seeing.

A glass bridge.

Not only was it made of glass, but it appeared to be made of broken shards. It wasn’t that the bridge itself had been broken but rather that it had been built from broken shards, each carefully positioned and arranged so that they locked together in place.

Numerous people let out a gasp of “How?”

Others seemed to think that this was built by Peak, kept secret even from their own people, but that idea was quickly put to rest when the rulers of Peak arrived and were just as shocked as everyone else.

“Someone’s coming!” shouted a voice.

Tal looked and could just make out faint movement along the bridge. The distance between the two lands wasn’t terribly great but it was still hard to make out much in the way of detail. He could see that there weren’t many people coming. The bridge itself was only wide enough for two or three people to walk side by side and given what it was made out of, Tal doubted it could support more than a few people at a time.

“What do we do?” a nervous task master near Tal asked of the newly arrived rulers.

The task master had a piece of masonry in his hands and seemed to be contemplating what it might do to the bridge if thrown with sufficient effort. Tal felt himself tense up. There had never been war between the two lands, and it didn’t seem like this bridge was a precursor to any sort of invasion. That said, he was pretty sure breaking the glass bridge, especially when people from Spire were on it, would be as good as any excuse to begin a war.

“Let’s wait a moment,” was the reply and Tal relaxed a bit.

The crowd of onlookers continued to grow until it seemed everyone from Peak was there, watching in silence as the people from Spire drew closer and closer. Spyglasses were fetched and soon word was spreading that there were six people coming from Spire. They didn’t seem to be carrying any sort of weapons but they were finely dressed.

No one said anything, but everyone began to make their way down to where the bridge connected with Peak. The foothills of Peak had been abandoned long ago in favor of higher reaches but there was nonetheless still a path that led downward. After what seemed like hours but was probably much shorter, the six people from Spire reached solid ground. Everyone took a moment to look one another over. The people from Spire, three men and three women, were dressed in very fine clothes indeed. Even the rulers of Peak weren’t so finely dressed. The six also looked quite happy at the meeting even though Tal had no idea what they had to be happy about. Two of the six, a man and a woman, stepped forward.

“Our brothers and sisters,” the two spoke in unison, “we are overjoyed to finally be reunited after these many centuries. Long have we watched with joy and amazement every time the skies cleared and we could see your many accomplishments. Truly you inspired us, just as we hope to have inspired you. We decided that our separation had gone on for too long, and so we devised the means of rejoining our two lands by means of the Broken Glass Bridge.”

They fell silent, still looking around eagerly towards Tal and the rest of the people from Peak.

“You bring fair words,” the ruler nearest Tal replied in terse, almost angry tones. “And fairer faces, but tell me, why do you speak as though we have been friends these many years?”

The smiles on the six visitors faltered.

“We are sorry if our intentions were not clear,” another pair from the visitors spoke, also in unison with one another. “We of Spire have never held any ire for the people of Peak.”

“And yet you continually build!” cried the ruler. “Always presenting such fantastic structures in your attempt to outshine us, as if we were your inferiors.”

The six wavered and exchanged looks with one another. The final pair stepped forward to address increasingly angry crowd.

“Such a contest was never in our mind,” they said together. “The building of our land was simply a natural process, one that any civilization goes through. We must build to accommodate new people, new ideas, new industries, do we not? Surely you have built up your lands for the same reasons as well.”

Tal stifled a derisive laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time anything new had been built besides the occasional hovel that wasn’t one of the many unfinished structures that faced Spire. He doubted very much that Spire had fared any better, and yet, looking at the bridge and the fine clothing, it was hard to ignore the nagging doubts in his mind. Perhaps Spire hadn’t just been building to show off to Peak.

“We have heard enough,” the ruler said with a dismissive wave. “Your claim of ignorance is revealing. You have come here only to gloat and we will not have it. I will give you until midday to remove yourselves from our land and cross back to your own. After that, I will see to it that this bridge is destroyed. You will have no satisfaction from us this day.”

With that, the ruler turned and walked away. Many followed shortly thereafter. The six visitors from Spire were left, dumbfounded at their reception. Tal remained where he was and watched as the six spoke amongst themselves. A part of him wanted to approach closer to see if he could overhear them but he worried the taskmasters might see and mistake his curiosity for treason. Eventually the six turned around and began to make their way back towards Spire.

“Sure have a funny way of talking,” another laborer, Geth, said. “You think they can talk on their own or do they always have to speak together?”

“Don’t know,” Tal said.

“You think it’s true, though?” Geth asked. “You think they really weren’t competing?”

“If they weren’t,” Tal replied, “it means they have a lot fewer empty buildings.”

“Half built, you mean,” Geth spat.

Tal looked around quickly to make sure no one had overheard that last comment.

“You want to be more careful,” Tal hissed his warning. “Never know who’s listening, or what they might do to you for saying that, especially right now.”

“It’s true, though,” Geth murmured, and then added after some thought, “How do you think they did it? Make the bridge I mean.”

Tal could only shrug. Such a feat was far beyond anything he had even dreamed of, and Spire had built it in such a short amount of time as well.

“It’s hard to imagine,” Geth said with a sigh. “We scramble to get ­that built,” he waved his hand up towards the buildings they’d been working on, “and in the same time they build that!” He gestured towards the bridge. “It just sort of makes you feel like a child playing a game, thinking they’re doing alright, only to find out they were playing with a bunch of adults who could have beaten you any time they wanted but had decided to play easy for you.”

The longer Geth spoke, the more certain Tal became that someone would overhear and get them both in trouble.

“Shut it,” he told Geth. “I’m going up.”

Tal left Geth there. He wasn’t sure what would be waiting for him higher up. There certainly wouldn’t be any building to work on that day, but other than that he didn’t know. Maybe he’d be sent to help break the bridge. As much as he didn’t like the idea, it did at least seem like it would be fun, throwing rocks and such and watching as more and more bits of the bridge broke away. Maybe he’d volunteer.