“Hey. Heyyyyy.”

A bothersome and incessant voice did its best to cut through the fog of sleep which clung to Verin. When it failed to rouse her, a firm poke to the side soon followed. As obnoxious as it was, Verin did her best to ignore it, her pounding head demanding further rest.

“Look, you asked for it…” Unrepentantly, the voice whispered directly into her ear.

Asked for wha- AH!

Verin jerked awake, reflexively summoning a burst of frost to protect herself as she shot upwards. When her mind finally caught up to her body, however, she was equally relieved and bemused to find her attacker unharmed. Cal stood off to the side sporting a cheeky grin.

With as stern and unamused an expression as she could muster, Verin locked eyes with the rogue and patted at her side where a small bead of blood had formed.

You have been stabbed for 3 damage!

Delightful. And she cut through my dress as well. “I feel compelled to ask: Was that entirely necessary?”

Cal shrugged. “Did you want to be sleeping here?”

Slowly, as was often the case immediately after waking up, the preceding events caught up to her. The archmage. The teleportation. Instantly, Verin’s mind perked up, and she scanned her surroundings expecting to see the archmage or perhaps his master.

Instead, all she saw was a nondescript cave. Deeper within, Tess sat cross-legged, listlessly staring at the wall.

Curious. “Did the archmage place us here before going to fetch his master?” She was surprised he would have left them at all, but she supposed she’d forfeited the right to an explanation when she’d fallen asleep somehow.

This time, Cal shook her head. “Don’t think so. When we got here, he was nowhere to be seen. Just us three, and you two were asleep. Was having trouble waking you up, so I did some quick scouting and found an empty cave to drag you into. Just a heads up though — this place is weird. Freaky sky. Overall bad vibes. So far, not a huge fan.”

Verin ultimately paid the rogue’s words little heed. Considering they’d teleported to the location of some grand magus, she’d expected a little “weird,” so to speak.

“Very well. You have my thanks for assisting us here.” Even if that assistance involved dragging her. “I trust the archmage will be able to find us shortly, so it would be best if we simply stayed put for now.”

The archmage had already admitted that he had a tracking spell on a bracelet he’d given Tess. Regardless of what he was doing, surely he would arrive soon. Of this, Cal seemed somewhat skeptical, but she didn’t fight Verin on the issue either.

Naturally, Tess withheld her input as well.

And so it was that the three of them found themselves cooped up in a cave.

Cal slumped to the ground, back against the wall as she picked at her fingernails with a dagger.

Tess sat unnaturally still.

And Verin stood ramrod straight, as was befitting a noble of her stature. If the archmage were to return with his master, it would not do to make a bad first impression, after all.

Just like that, they waited.

And waited.

And after a good deal of waiting, they continued to wait.

Given what Verin knew of Cal, she kept expecting the rogue to strike up a conversation at any moment. Instead, she merely sat there with an amused and somewhat infuriating smile. Bit by bit, the expression succeeded at ratcheting up both Verin’s intrigue and annoyance, until at last she chose to broach the subject.

“You appear as though you have something to say.”

Cal pointed to herself as if mortally shocked by the accusation. “Me? Perish the thought. I was just making a bet with myself on how long it would take before you admit the archmage isn’t coming.”

Not coming? Preposterous. The amount of trouble Xander’Callis would get in for abandoning Tess would be sizable, let alone Verin herself. He would certainly be coming.

Although… Perhaps if sufficiently regal, a chair would be acceptable as well? Verin’s physical stats weren’t particularly high, and though she was loath to admit it, she wouldn’t mind resting her legs.

I believe I have something that should work nicely. She thought of the object in question and channeled a few points of mana into one of her storage devices, waving her hand before her to summon it.

Rather than a chair, however, it was a window that appeared.

Error. Storage device inoperable.

For longer than she’d care to confess, Verin stared unwaveringly at the message. Hoping it was a contained event, she rotated through the other storage devices and spatial pouches she kept on her person.

One after another, they all returned similar errors.

For the first time since she’d awoken, Verin started to worry.

Calm. I’m sure the archmage can fix whatever is wrong with them, or barring that, I’ll manage something when I’m home. Everything was still fine. Perfectly, utterly-

“Squawk?” Verin’s self-assurances were rudely interrupted by a flash of movement from the mouth of the cave, coupled with a hushed and inhuman cry of confusion.

Standing there was a ruddy-brown creature with a large bird-like head, a four-legged, fur-covered body, and two massive wings folded at its sides. A hunk of meat of indeterminate origin was clutched in one of its talons, and its entire body was pulled back and tensed as though startled to see them.

The feeling was unfortunately mutual. Immediately, Verin identified it.

Stonehide Gryphon: Level 23, 1150/1150hp

Hells below, that’s a high level for a random monster. Briefly, she entertained the idea that the beast was friendly and domesticated — she knew Chamber Head Astorius had a similar mount, after all. Indeed, rather than outright attacking them, the gryphon appeared to be considering how to react to their presence, lending some credence to the notion.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Her hopes were dashed only a moment later.

“KRAAAAAA!”

With a fearsome cry, the gryphon dropped its bounty and pounced. At a speed that belied its great mass, it bolted towards the noble interloper. In the tight confines of the cave, its movement alone was enough to create a strong wind.

Her composure dropping, Verin gracelessly backpedaled, sending out a few icicles and a wave of frost to slow the beast. To her horror, the projectiles impacted without a single dent, and the gryphon didn’t even seem to notice the frost.

Given the proficiency of her usual party, Verin was so unused to taking a hit that she barely recalled to protect herself.

Frigid Queen’s Regalia

At the last moment, she summoned a layer of ornate, ceremonial ice armor, and with a vicious swipe, talon met ice.

Talon won.

You have been slashed for 91 damage.

You are bleeding!

The sheer shock nearly made her freeze up, and she thanked the gods above that high nobles were trained to handle pain, or she’d have been done for already. Knowing she was at a disadvantage so close, Verin blasted herself backwards with an icy wind, freezing the floor as she landed to let her slide back even further.

She prepared to lunge to the side to dodge another attack, but none was forthcoming. The reason for that was rather clear, too.

“How’s this feel for you?” By some entirely ridiculous feat of stealth and acrobatics, Cal had maneuvered herself onto the back of the gryphon, straddling it right behind the neck. In a move normally ill-suited for dagger fighting, Cal hoisted one of her daggers up with two hands before slamming it down into the gryphon’s neck as hard as she could.

Verin cheered internally.

Or at least she did until she heard the metallic clank of the impact.

Much like Verin’s own blows, Cal’s strike bounced off the gryphon’s evidently stone-like hide.

“Well, shit.”

Cal did her best to stay atop the incensed monster as it attempted to buck her off. Even as she did so, so too did she call out to Verin.

“Get Tess and get out of the cave! I’m good at keeping things mad at me and not getting hit!” To illustrate that point, Cal winked in and out of existence, confusing the gryphon with her absence before reappearing in different positions on its back. Each time, it squawked with anger, Verin completely forgotten.

Even if her role in the fight embarrassed her slightly, Verin didn’t need to be told twice. “Come. Quickly. Come on.” She rushed over to Tess, beckoning her to follow before ultimately taking her hand. Thankfully, she was willing to move, and the two bolted towards the mouth of the cave.

Cal was true to her word. The two had to dodge — or in Tess’s case, be yanked away from — a half-hearted swipe as they ran past the beast, but it was far more concerned with its infuriating rider. Within moments, they broke free from the cave into some sort of rocky, mountainous area. Several eye-catching and impossible sights greeted Verin once she was out in the open air, but she steadfastly ignored them, having far more important things to take care of presently.

Easily catching up to them, Cal appeared beside the two shortly after. Expecting her to reappear on its back at any moment, the gryphon remained in the cave.

“Go, go, go!” Almost as a side thought, Cal tapped Verin, and a stream of white light flowed from one into the other.

Calilah has healed you for 50 health.

You are no longer bleeding!

The deep furrow the beast had left through her midsection mended itself before her eyes. Rather than using her now-healthier body to run, however, Verin paused.

“A moment.” With all three of them safely out, she targeted the cave entrance and began to cast.

Ice Wall. She dumped as much mana as she could into the spell before rapidly casting it again and again.

Ice Wall.

Ice Wall.

Multiple thick layers of ice formed before her, sealing the cave shut with such an abundance of ice that even the gryphon couldn’t immediately barrel through it.

Though judging by the ear-piercing shriek that soon followed, it was certainly going to try. The beast seemed to have caught on to Cal’s ruse, and the ground shook as it collided with the ice blocking it in.

Wordlessly, and without knowing quite where they were going, the three of them ran.

They ran until the ground stopped shaking, until they couldn’t hear any more deafening cries, and then for good measure, they ran some more. With her low Endurance, Verin found the exercise almost as bad as the fight itself, but she did not dare stop. When at last they deemed themselves far enough to be safe, it was only her noble etiquette that stopped her from huffing and puffing. That, and her pride — the other two weren’t even winded.

“Good. We appear to be safe,” she declared once she caught her breath. They’d stopped in a small alcove of sorts, and while it provided them with some cover, it did nothing to obscure their view. Now that she wasn’t a single moment from death, Verin allowed herself to register the numerous sights she’d been ignoring thus far. She began by poking her head out and looking up.

“Creepy, right? Not normal for it to be pitch black like that.” Cal tilted her chin up, gesturing generally above them.

Black? But it’s not- Oh. Oh! Oh my.

The sky was black. Or at least that was how it would look to someone like Cal. An unnatural, empty darkness, devoid of any sun or clouds or anything that would mark it as a sky.

For Verin, though — someone who had passed the first Perception threshold — it was anything but empty.

In a greater quantity than she’d thought possible, a dense sea of mana flowed above her. Instead of a single, uniform color, the scene above her was a variegated patchwork of different types of mana.

Incredible. I wish I could draw this. Or no. This deserves a painting. Watercolors, she decided. Pastels. Vibrant blues, seafoam greens, dusky oranges, and muddy browns all collided and rebounded and fought for supremacy. So thick was the mana that it took on a sort of viscosity, hypnotically churning and roiling about like streams of ink in water. If that wasn’t enough, most of the mana types glowed from within, turning the complex tapestry above into an ever-shifting aurora. Overlaid onto the black background, the scene was three parts mesmerizing to one part unnerving.

I weep that she cannot see what I currently see.

There was only so long that Verin could watch the sky, however, as the earth was just as deserving of her attention if not more so. From the base of the mountain far below all the way onwards, the landscape was… wrong. Or perhaps “unnatural” would be more apt.

In the distance, a desert formed, sand stretching on as far as the eye could see. To one side of the desert, a forest sprung to life, while on the other, a boundless expanse of water sat serenely. Each area met the next at a perfectly straight line, entirely separate biomes existing side by side with no rhyme or reason.

And those were the normal areas. Here and there, Verin spotted patches of pure darkness, of blinding light. Squares which defied spatial reasoning, seeming at once minuscule and also infinitely large. Spots which seemed to mess with your mind, even just by looking at them from afar.

If perhaps having its own type of beauty, the entire view was an assault on the senses. More importantly, it confirmed that, wherever they were, it was somewhere Verin had no desire to be.

“Come. I do not know where we’ve ended up, but if the gryphon was not proof enough, this place is not safe for us. We will wait in Sylum for the archmage to return, and we will try again afterwards.” As was only to be expected, Verin had a few recall gems integrated into pieces of jewelry, precisely for situations like this.

In this case, Cal didn’t see fit to contest the point, and as expected, Tess had little to say on the matter as well. The three huddled together, and Verin took one last look at the strange scenery.

A pity, in a way. I should like to come back here one day if I can. But certainly not right now.

She activated her recall gem, awaiting the teleportation home, and-

Activation failed. You are within a spatial lock!

Verin stared at the notification, mute. Uncomprehending. With a rising dread that seeped into her bones, she rotated through the remainder of her recall gems. Just as had been true with her storage devices, each and every one of them failed her.

Without explaining, she broke off from the other two, stepping fully out into the open to take it all in. The chaotic mess below her seemed to taunt Verin for thinking she could escape it. As calmly as she could manage, she took stock of the situation.

We’re trapped.

And alone.

Surrounded by monsters that out-level us.

And with no sign that help is on the way.

It was objectively a downright abysmal situation to be in, made even worse by Tess’s condition.

And yet, through all of that, a single flicker of amusement managed to fight its way to the surface. Verin gazed upwards, wearing the shadow of a smile despite herself.

How delightful. It appears I may have time to paint the sky after all.