The woman’s eyes narrowed, her aggression turning to suspicion as she studied me further. In the tense moments of silence that followed, the other warriors present began looking at her as if unsure how they should deal with me.

Finally after several minutes had passed without another word between us, the young woman stepped away from me and addressed her two nearest companions. They spoke quietly, in a language I didn’t understand, then she turned toward me once more.

“Who are you?”

I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that. In some ways I still felt more like Sam than Silvon. That aside, these beings heavily resembled Illudrasile. It was possible he had some relation to them and therefore likely they would be biased against me if they discovered my relation to saint Mirin.

Swinging her blade back toward me, the woman spoke with menacing authority. “Speak now, or I will rend you limb from limb.”

“S…Silvon, my name is Silvon.” I stuttered. I wanted to avoid revealing much before knowing anything about this world or its inhabitants, but I thought mentioning Illudrasile might set them at ease and possibly get them to tell me how to get back to Aeros. “Do you know Illudrasile?”

One warrior moved forward, his spear aimed directly at my chest. Another appeared behind him ready to back up his strike. Their faces betrayed little, though someone behind me clicked their tongue. The young woman held up her hand to calm the situation, letting her staff float in place beside her. For a moment, tension remained heavy in the air until finally the older male nodded curtly towards the female leader. Then she asked, "What do you know of Illudrasile?"

Their hostility made clear that the light spirit was a sensitive topic, but I couldn't tell if their reaction was out of respect or fear of him. I chose my next words carefully, revealing only what was common knowledge on Aeros. "He's a spirit of light..."

"What else?"

"He has a divine power and blesses the people of Aeros with protection from evil."

The woman sighed and lowered her hand. Looking behind me, she icily commanded "Bind him. We'll take him back to Crysallnum for now."

Without warning three of the fighters surrounded me and bound my arms together. With my hands tied behind my back, my captors formed a semi-circle around me. At the helm of the formation, the commanding woman opened some kind of portal. On the portal's surface, I could see only darkness before one of them shoved me through. Stumbling into the darkness, I slammed against a wall.

"Make yourself comfortable," the beautiful woman said as the portal shrank shut.

With the portal closed, there was no light in the space. Even after sending mana to my eyes, I couldn't see anything, so I stopped trying to look with my eyes. When I was a core, I had been able to somehow see through mana itself. It could have also been due to the absurd level of ambient mana, but in either case I figured it was worth trying.

I closed my eyes out of habit, but it wouldn't have mattered if I left them open given how dark it was here. Sensing the mana around me was simple, making sense of it was much more difficult.

There was so much mana packed throughout the atmosphere, which made it difficult to distinguish the various elements. Like before, all I could make out was a blur of colors. I did at least find the borders of my prison. I was in a room roughly ten feet by teen feet.

Whatever material it was constructed from was sturdy, smooth and mana retardant. Despite an abundance of mana within the chamber, there was absolutely none within its walls, ceiling, or floor. I couldn’t sense anything beyond them either. It felt as if this room existed outside of reality altogether.

I was left there, my hands still bound, for what felt like hours. I hadn’t seen what they used to tie my wrists together, but it felt painful and it was constantly draining my mana. It also effectively prevented me from casting any spells.

After what felt like a torturous time alone, an opening appeared in one of the walls. The sudden flood of light forced me to close my eyes. I began opening them again slowly, holding my hand in front of my face.

When finally my eyes adjusted, I could see into a brightly lit hall; there was a strange door directly across the way, but nothing else I could see without approaching the exit. I watched the door for several moments, hesitant to move toward it in case this was some sort of test. My time alone was more than long enough for me to imagine several worst case scenarios—but eventually curiosity won out. Without thinking too hard about what I was doing, I stepped forward.

It took exactly three steps to reach the opening, one more to cross the threshold and half a second to make me wonder if I should have stayed inside. Immediately, the wall closed behind me. Down the hall to the left was a dead end; to the right, leaning against the wall where I never would have seen her before exiting, was the radiant beauty who threw me in there to begin with.

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"You took your time coming out... were you plotting something?" she asked as she pushed herself off the wall.

I shook my head.

She shrugged and said, "Wearing those cuffs, you wouldn't have gotten far." Obviously she didn’t believe me.

She turned toward a staircase leading up and motioned for me to follow. Despite some apprehension, I put aside my anxieties and followed after her.

catching up at the base of the stairs, I said, "I really wasn't plotting."

She ignored me and kept walking.

"Where is this place, how far is it from Selatha?" I knew we had to be on a different continent; I even considered this might be a different world, but I wasn’t sure of that possibility.

"You seem awful comfortable for a prisoner, or hadn't you realized your situation yet?" she said simply.

"It would be hard not to…” I tried moving my arms, but couldn’t really. “…perhaps you wouldn't mind loosening these cuffs a bit? Or at least cuffing my arms in a more comfortable position." I replied, but she went back to ignoring me.

As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, she led me down a corridor lined with doors on one side. Each looked plain and simple but there was something about them. After passing the fourth, I realized none of them had any handles. They hummed with mana, perhaps more than most mages would use in a lifetime. I wondered what could possibly be behind them, and what sort of spells required so much mana to sustain them. That led me to wonder about who could've cast the spell in the first place.

At the end of the hall, a lone man stood with a spear. He wasn't like those I had seen so far, he was human—or he appeared to be. He wore a full suit of armor made from crystals, the colors of which I'd never seen before. It was beautiful, but looked more like a decoration than a protective armament.

Snapping to attention as we approached, he saluted the woman leading me. "Lady Aura," he said respectfully.

She nodded her acknowledgment and continued on though an arched doorway behind him.

"Lady Aura," I smiled, filled with joy just saying it. "it has a nice ring."

"From your lips, it sounds like the yowl of a dying sproot."

"A dying—what is a sproot?"

"Despite the pleasure I'm sure it gives you, please refrain from addressing me so casually."

My smile faltered slightly at her cold tone. It was clear that trying to be friendly was pointless; Lady Aura had no interest in talking, so I followed her silently the rest of the way. Aura may have been unwilling to speak, but I could still learn some things through observation.

I had already guessed we were in a castle of some kind. While passing a kitchen I saw more humans, an elf, and three dwarfs. None of them wore armor, instead they wore aprons and long robes. All carried crystalized bowls or plates piled with food. A cook, standing over a stone grill, roasted thinly sliced meats with an assortment of spices. The aroma was pleasant, though I wondered if there wasn’t some other way we could have gone or if Lady Aura chose this path with intent to tease my stomach.

Many works of art hung on the walls and crystal sculptures lined each hall. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I was fascinated by the moving portraits somehow reflected in the surface of an opaque rock. Some depicted battles, several showed coronations, but more depicted golden figures in these same halls or gathered on sprawling lawns outside of a crystalline castle. I did not recognize most of the people shown, but there was one familiar figure present in many of the images: Lady Aura.

We walked past at least a dozen more doors like the ones I had seen earlier, then we came to a large arch. The space beneath the arch was filled in by a single sheet of opaque crystal rock. It’s surface was smooth and like the walls of my cell, it contained no mana. Guards were stationed at either side, but these were beings of light, like Lady Aura.

I could sense nothing beyond the wall; it was like this wall was the edge of the world, yet I knew that couldn’t be true.

Reaching the guards, Aura extended a hand toward the wall and the surface of the crystal flashed with energy then it vanished as if it had never been there to begin with.

I didn’t sense any mana fluctuations or hear any mechanism activating, leaving me to wonder if the crystal reacted to Aura herself, or if she used some power I didn’t know about. I had no way of answering the question and I didn’t think Aura would tell me if I asked, so I put the question out of mind and focused on the scene ahead.

We walked through the arch into a grand hall, constructed entirely of similar crystals. Shining beings filled the space, moving to and fro just as servants and nobles would have in my own castle. Though I knew little about these luminous creatures, I thought I could tell the nobles from the commoners by the way they carried themselves.

I assumed those who moved faster and with more focus were the common folk, incidentally most of them were smaller in stature as well. Those who walked with their chest puffed out were probably nobles; the ones who stopped to stare and whisper as we passed definitely were.

We approached another, much larger, arch blocked by a group of soldiers. When we drew near, they parted immediately allowing access to an even grander hall. At its center, there was a wide circular platform atop a raised dais. Centered on top of the dais, was a throne carved from black obsidian. On both sides, columns adorned with intricate carvings rose toward the ceiling like arms reaching for a distant sky.

The pillars were eye-catching with gold, rubies and other gems adding color to their carvings; but the figure seated on the throne was infinitely more impressive.

“This is the one who confounds you so?” She said, her tone harsh and condescending yet also gentle and smooth. “He is certainly unique, but nothing special.”