Tara screamed as they fell through a crack in the universe, her closed eyes barely a barrier for the blinding barrage of lights around her. She tumbled through a shrieking tunnel, a shifting array of lights achingly flashing all around her.
Desperate to understand what the hell is going on, Tara hesitantly opens her eyes and finds herself in a strange in-between reminiscent of the astral plane she has become so familiar with. Although this space is far more physical and real than the astral.
Tara tumbles down the tunnel, surrounded by reaching shards of twisted glass that point their sharp edges towards the center. Beyond that, strange-colored lights shine, giving an impression of something grand. Although most seem broken somehow, as if they were cracked open, their insides spilled across the cosmos.
Fascinated by the sight before her, Taras screams slowly taper off as she observes the strange place she is in. She intuits that the colored lights are similar but different than the blooms of emotions she is familiar with.
Wanting to know more about the strange lights that seem so familiar Tara invokes a touch of freedom to stop her fall, but strangely enough despite her fervent efforts she can't arrest her fall. Falling with incredible speed through this strange tunnel of twisted glass and light, frustrated, she screams anew, this time fueled by her pure frustration at the inability to understand more.
Yet Tara does not scream for long, as she soon sees another crack on the long coming floor, and she smashes through it to find herself in a strange cave, surrounded by monsters?
—
A shrill shriek resounds through the air as a strange woman plummets through the air, an enormous mound of curly black splaying all over the floor as she slams into the formation we are all kept in currently.
Above and Below, she's wearing something mighty strange, it looks like someone trapped the rainbows in the glass on someone's skin, although bizarrely enough, it doesn’t reach the soles of their feet.
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Although, considering all that is around me, she is not the greatest concern. Above and Below, I’m stuck in a dingy cave with a fish beastman, and a purple ooze shaped vaguely like a person. What do I care for a slightly strange woman.
I wonder if she’s one of those immortals Father told me about—the ones who live in the mountains above humble villages like ours.
A fire burns in my heart, if I make it out of this. I must seek a way to step onto the Path from her; even the tiniest smidgeon of power would mean a great bounty of providence for my village. Just imagine the smile my mother would give if she saw me plow a feel in less time than it takes for an incense stick to burn down!
My guts burning with the awkward silence that’s descended, I awkwardly stutter out, “W-what is your name, fellows? I’m not really sure what we could be described as, maybe prisoners since we’re in a formation, although we probably aren’t prisoners because who would imprison people who had just arrived? Maybe we are honored guests. We should be; it must be a storm of providence for us all to appear here, what are the chances right?"
In response, there is nothing but an empty cavern of silence.
Oh, all that is Above and Below. Why did I talk so much what are all these people going to think now. What do I do now. Unwilling to just leave this be I squeak out, "Well, I might as well start I'm Wu Gu, I wonder where did you all come from, I’m from the Chu province nearby the Wei River.”
Having spit out as much small talk as I could, I waited in baited breath and let out a sigh of relief when the strange woman getting off the floor says “My name is Tara, and well, you could say I’m from Earth, although frankly, it would be more accurate to say I came from the Astral Plane.”
A small sigh of relief escapes before I hear a gurgle. I turn and see the strange humanoid blob formed of purple slime, they were content to stay quiet earlier but now they rise from the puddle they were before and say “God when do we get out of here, I can taste the floor, and it tastes like a mix of copper, despair, and ash. Oh, and my name is Neauclix; I’m from a frontier town somewhere in the Beast Guards Territories.”
Taking the break inbetween there words to think. I ponder what the Astral Plane might be is that somewhere the immortals live? and where is the Beast Guard, That doesn’t sound like a province of the empire. An uncomfortable feeling creeps up in my stomach.
But it does not get a chance to truly fester as in reply to the complaint, a melodic trill bursts from the fish beastman, clad in scales of steek, several patches of their skin suddenly lighting up with the trill, as they seem to commiserate? With Neauclix's struggle, although I’m uncertain as to why, I doubt they are tasting the floor as well.
I can’t know what they mean exactly; after all, they seem to be communicating through some sort of music? But I heard the breadth of their words, although I wonder what they precisely said with their song. Communicating through song seems so beautiful, but I have no idea what those trills meant. Oh well, what will be, will be. It was lucky that the other two knew proper Imperial anyway.
Having gotten all of my answers, I begin to continue the small talk, but before I can, someone exclaims through a dark hole in the cave, "Well, dear children of chaos, you won’t need to taste the floor anymore, it’s high time we brought you in and processed you.”
I stare at the dark entryway as an ethereal figure with skin like the pale moonlight, wearing elegant pure white robes adorned with the simple design of a clouded eye, walks through the entryway. A beautific smile filled with vibrant glee dawns on their face like the first glance of the sun as they look down on us from above. And with that smile, I relax because I can just tell that everything is going to be okay.