Stretching out before Zalia was a hellish landscape of strangely formed leafless trees and other plants. The air was slightly red, colouring everything in a crimson hue. In the sky above, vaguely humanoid figures floated through the air letting out dull croaks and cries. She realised that there was no sky at all, only the ceiling of the giant cavernous space she was now in.
She felt a sharp pain in her leg and looked down to see Boreal latched onto her leg with claws out. She felt a twin pain in her mind as what had been a dull pain began rising. She fell to her knees, holding her head with both hands as the pain didn't stop increasing. She could feel a similar pain through the bond with Boreal and instinctively began focusing her healing on the both of them. Immediately, the pain lessened to a dull throbbing in her temples and she began observing her surroundings once more. The air had a sulphurous taste to it, the ground beneath oddly squishy like the mud of a swamp. Lying unconscious on the dirt underneath one of the warped trees she spotted something she did recognise. It was Juniper.
Zalia knew what had happened to her. The last time she had a similar experience she had been brought from her world the the one she now resided in. Well, used to anyways. Now she was in a new world and she had a sinking feeling she knew where. Cormaine.
She crawled over to the still form of Juniper and nudged her, trying to figure out if she was actually unconscious or dead. She still seemed to be breathing so Zalia took the woman's belt that had a sheathed dagger and pouch attached.
“Should I help her?” Zalia thought.
She stood, looking down on the woman. Flashes of all the good times, fond memories and trust they had shared passed through her mind. Then, the memory of Juniper sitting on the bench in front of their cell as they sat imprisoned. She looked up to the hellscape around her and then back down to Juniper.
“Not this time,” she whispered, “you’ve lost the right to my kindness.”
She picked up the struggling Boreal and began making her way through the warped trees, keeping to the shadows.
Zalia had no idea what the shadowy forms floating above were but the constant croaks and cries made them sound like a chorus of tortured souls. She really didn't want to bring herself to their attention. Now that the initial adrenaline had worn off, her survival instincts took over. Emotions and thoughts could wait until later, for now she had to get safe. The very first thing she needed to find in an unknown and possibly hostile land was shelter. Food and water could wait until later, especially with her Survivalist skill, getting away from the eyes of anything hostile and any dangerous weather was priority one.
She moved towards where a large pillar stuck out of the ground, reaching up far into the air before meeting the stone ceiling above. Far off in the distance she could see a large shape floating in the air, slowly moving through the sky. Noting it as something to possibly check out later, she turned her attention back to the pillar and made her way as quickly as she could manage while remaining stealthy. She didn't know why she hadn’t gone insane or corrupted like the men and women who had performed or seen the rituals but she had an inkling it had to do with her Healing presence ability. Previously it had countered the strange aura that the corrupted deserter captain had emitted and as she thought of that, she could feel that same aura here, only it didn't have an origin. It seemed to permeate the air, land and trees around her, emitting a field of corruption that her ability barely managed to keep at bay.
Her healing presence had also managed to bring back the mind of the insane man within the war camp of the rebels for only a moment.
“I should have killed her,” Zalia thought.
Leaving Juniper alive might have been a bad idea but she didn't want to risk turning around to finish the job. With the pain and blood loss the woman had inflicted on herself to start the ritual in addition to the aura in this cursed place, she might be dead already.
Zalia reached the base of the giant pillar and began searching around it's perimeter, eventually finding what she looked for. A small cave sat nestled between two large boulders, the entrance barely big enough for her to enter. She set up some distance away, watching the entrance as she held Boreal close to her chest. The little feline seemed to be struggling more than she was, despite the constant dull throb in her temples.
Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Iron 13.
She hugged Boreal closer, keeping her eye on the cave entrance as she settled in to wait.
It only took a few hours for her patience to run out. In a situation like this she definitely needed to be careful but she also couldn't spend too much time waiting around. She steeled herself, not summoning her blade yet because of the dim light it emitted, and made for the cave. Nothing had come out of it in the time she had waited so she didn't keep her hopes up.
Before she got too close to the cave, she checked the sky again and saw the shadowy forms were still floating around. Their croaks and cries were constant and yet she felt the need to check if they had noticed her regularly. She had a feeling they would be a little louder than they were right now if they had though. She carefully moved to the boulder, shuffling sideways until she could peak her head around into the cave. She could vaguely see a small cavern with clumps of glowing mushroom-like plants scattered across the walls. There was no creature that she could see within the cave but she didn't let her guard down just yet as she spotted a small crack that led further in. The mushrooms could also be a threat though her Flora Identification should be able to tell her that.
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Deciding to take the risk, Zalia summoned her blade just as she squeezed between the two boulders into the small cavern. The first thing she did was use Flora Identification as soon as she was close enough.
? (Helpful) - Bronze rank - Use in a ritual to add an element of Shadow.
“Wonderful,” Zalia thought.
It was a good start, at least it wasn't poisonous.
She carefully poked at it with her blade but the sharp implement simply stabbed into the mushroom, eliciting no reaction. Satisfied for the short term, she moved to the side of the cave that she could watch both the entrance and hole leading further in and sat down with her back to the wall. She gently put down Boreal, still holding her blade in the other hand. Noticing Boreal seemed to be struggling still, she brought out a little bit of Frozen Heart, the herb from the cold north of Endaria that assisted with healing. She gently fed it to Boreal and was relieved to see she seemed to be able to breathe easier immediately.
As she looked around her cave and felt just a remote bit of safety, she let the reality of her situation set in.
“Fuck,” she said, feeling absolutely lost.
It wasn't the first time she had been sent to another world but this place was meant to be, well, Hell. It was essentially the Endarian’s version of Hell.
Rather than let herself fall to misery, she tried to think about it in a logical manner. Sure, it was Hell. She had planned to go explore some really dangerous places after the war anyways so why not here?
She had already discovered one possibly useful thing here, it could be useful to find more as well. Deciding to try to maintain that mindset, though some horror and doubt resided in her mind still, she took stock.
She had her bow and sword bound weapon, possibly the greatest advantage she would hold here. She also had a small amount of each herb she was unable to replicate stored in her Stasis abilities spatial storage. Those would most likely prove to be invaluable in her first days in this new land. She didn't have her armour or spatial bag, having had both taken when they had been imprisoned. She had the dagger and pouch she had taken from Juniper and quickly opened up the pouch to see what was inside. It contained a small vial with a purple liquid, a few golden coins and a scroll. She took the scroll out and read it over, finding descriptions and instructions for the very ritual that Juniper had performed. The ritual required many things that Zalia did not have but it might just be her most valuable possession. It might be the only way she knew of to make her way home.
She carefully rolled it back up and put it back in the pouch, now much more protective of it. Her thoughts turned to the ritual that had brought her here and a vivid memory flashed into her mind. The sight of Zen on one knee, blade piercing through his torso. Her whole body shuddered and she told herself that he would be fine. She had healed him a little and Ember was there too. If there was anyone she trusted Zen’s life to when it came to healing, Ember would be the one.
“If she even survived,” Zalia thought.
Ember had been fighting another of the guards by herself as Zalia had disrupted the ritual and she had no idea how that had turned out either. She didn't even know if she had managed to disrupt whatever the ritual was meant to accomplish. She knew it was meant to open some sort of portal or summon someone from Cormaine because her reversal of it pulled her here. It was also part of a much larger and more powerful ritual. The effect her disruption on that one part would have had on the ritual as a whole was completely unknown to her. For now, all she knew was she couldn't see any portal or effect that it had on this side so she tried to stay positive.
“Alright, back to the present,” Zalia admonished herself.
The next thing she would need to do is find some source of food. She had the Water Lily Stems that would hydrate and nourish her a little bit but they couldn't keep her going forever. She hadn’t seen any animals she could hunt on her way here and she definitely didn't want to try eating one of the floating shades in the sky. She eyed the mushrooms suspiciously. Her ability hadn't told her they were poisonous but neither had it said they were edible or nutritious. Many of her herbs had a diminished effect when eaten directly, such as the Frozen Heart, so Zalia thought the mushrooms might do the same. What that would mean when the element they provided was one of shadow, she didn't know. She put it down on her list of things that might be worth exploring, along with the floating island she had seen far off earlier.
She checked on Boreal, who had settled down and was in the process of cleaning herself thoroughly.
“Good to see you doing better,” Zalia said, feeling relieved.
While she was quite alright being by herself, she had grown used to Boreal’s company and didn't want to be in Hell alone.
“What are we going to do?” Zalia asked.
All that Zalia received was an image of herself and the concept of faith. Boreal’s faith in Zalia.
“That makes one of us,” Zalia thought.
Zalia didn't quite have the faith that Boreal did but surviving in harsh environments was her specialty after all. She stood up and buried the pouch she had taken from Juniper in the corner under a small pile of dirt and rocks. It would be better if that stayed where she knew it was and not where it could get damaged while she explored.
“Let's find out if we are going to stand a chance out here shall we?” Zalia asked Boreal.
“Mreow,” Boreal replied.