I had just completed another request when I suddenly heard a thump.

“Seriously!? Who keeps moving these damn walls!” I heard from down the corridor to the panel room. The Unseen Maze shifted yet again. I then heard the pitter patter of light feet approach the panel room, and there at the source of the sound was Obscura.

Obscura seemed to have mixed things up a bit, donning a red nightgown instead of her usual white. The biggest change however, is that she appeared to be around 15-17 years of age now, rather than a young girl. She was a fair bit taller, at about five feet four inches, rather than the previous four feet I estimated her at. Her hair was Now a lustrous deep black, and appeared soft compared to the frazzled and wild look it had before. Her dark eyes seemed to shimmer with quite a bit more life.

“Oh, you are looking… better. What happened?” I asked her inquisitively.

“I got some more worshipers recently… somehow… You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” She countered with another question of her own. I see, so her appearance is tied to her power then?

“I’m not sure. Maybe the balance is shifting? Who knows?” I decided to play innocent to be safe. I couldn’t know what reaction she would have if she knew I was spreading her name as a symbol of worship.

“Right… Well, you have been working hard, so you should take a break. Do you know about the elemental tavern?”

“Ah, I believe Tranquil mentioned it to me before. I should go there, then?”

“I would recommend it. Be sure to report to me as soon as I call you back for work though!” With that, she haughtily stormed off, her now wider hips swaying with every step.

At that, I chose to take her advice and shifted to the tavern, thinking of the darkness surrounded by multiple other elements, just as Tranquil described. I found myself in what appeared to be a reception lobby of massive proportion. There were various seats made up of multiple elements, such as flame, stone, and even darkness. The room had no windows or door leading outside, only one that lead further into the structure. The gray walls looked sturdy, thick, soft, and smooth. I would describe it as stone, but that did not seem quite correct. The door leading deeper into the structure was ornately carved with multiple symbolizations for the different elements. It was made of the same thing as the walls, and was held ajar.

As I observed all this, many other elementals shifted into the reception area and headed straight inside, towards the rambunctious noises coming from within the tavern. I was about to follow suit when a hand passed through my shoulder.

“Ah! Oops! Sorry, forgot you darkness types aren’t easily tangible.” A familiar voice spoke from behind me. I turned around to find Tranquil clutching her hand, as though she had just slapped someone.

“Ah, Tranquil. It’s alright, it's not like it hurt or anything. You are on break too?”

“Yup! Pluvia gives me plenty of time for myself. What about you?”

“This is the first break Obscura has let me have… She’s a slavedriver I tell you.”

“Right… Well, lets head on in together, shall we? I took Tranquil up on her offer and head inside the tavern with her.

Once we stepped through that doorway, I was bombarded by a cacophony of sound. The tavern itself was as large as a gladiatorial arena, and it was filled nearly to the brim with tables, chairs, and varying degrees of rowdy elementals. There were around five total island bars, one towards each corner of the tavern, and another in the center. One thing, however, stood out the most. It was the lack of darkness elementals.

“Are there no other darkness elementals?”

“Well… lets go get a seat and a drink and I’ll explain that.” Tranquil guided me to a corner of the tavern that was relatively calm. We found an empty table and seated ourselves. Nearly as soon as we did, there was a gentle breeze, and along with it came a wind elemental.

“What will you have, Tranquil? The usual?” The swirling winds that were faintly visible asked in a gentle deep voice.

“Ah, yes, thank you Mitis.” Tranquil agreed readily.

“Ah, I am Mitis, good sir. I wait on the elementals here. Peculiar, haven’t seen one of your kind in millennia. Ah, but reminiscing aside, what will you be having?” He promptly addressed me next.

“O-oh… I am Kage, a relatively new elemental. Pleasure to meet you. I’ve never been one to drink alcohol, so anything other than that is fine.” I returned his greeting in kind. As soon as I had vanished, Mitis was literally gone with the wind.

“Well then Kage, to answer your question. As you just heard from Mitis, there has not been a darkness elemental in millennia. When I started as Pluvia’s secretary, there were still many, but even then they had begun to dwindle. I imagine they had chosen to reincarnate. You see, once you have given your services for the balance a certain number of years, you are allowed to reincarnate without your memories. Rumor also has it that they were being pressured, strong-armed by another god. Some of the gods attempted to question Obscura on the subject, but she didn’t give up any information. Eventually the gods gave up trying to help her, and she ended up alone…” Tranquil said in an increasingly somber voice.

Stolen novel; please report.

Just as she finished her explanation, Mitis appeared with a gentle breeze. Levitating next to him was a tray. On the tray were two elegant crystal glasses. Within one glass was a pink liquid that looked cold and crisp, and gave off a pure sort of scent. In the other glass was a liquid that seemed to draw in and consume the light around it. It looked soft and pleasant somehow, and it did not give off a scent.

“One glass of Furian Tranquility for you, Lady Tranquil. For you Sir Kage, one glass of Obscura’s Void. You have no idea how happy Peron was about being able to serve that again. Oh, Peron is one of the bartenders. Well, if you need anything else, just call my name, and the wind will carry it to me.” He directed that last bit at me specifically since I was new here. With that, he vanished as quickly as he appeared.

I took a hesitant sip of the odorless liquid. A burst of sweet flavors burst through my entire being. I was particular to sweets, and my whole body shivered with the sensational burst of flavor.

“...Wow…” Was all I could comment. I glanced over to Tranquil whose calm watered form now appeared to ripple.

“Ahhhh! That always does me good!” She exclaimed, slamming down her half empty glass. “You know Kage, Obscura doesn’t have many friends. The only person she can go to is Pluvia. They are always getting into some mischief or other. The other day I even returned to find Pluvia drunk! A goddess! Drunk! She was trying to work too! She accidently increased the fertility rate of goblins to an extreme on one planet! Ku...hahahaaa! That was a messy fix!” Tranquil abruptly began to rumble. Was her drink very alcoholic? Her form continued to waver, never settling to its usual calm.

We ended up bantering for quite some time. A few glasses of Furian Tranquility later, and Tranquil was incapable of a full coherent sentence. At that point she called it quits, bid me farewell, and shifted back to… whatever Pluvia calls her area.

I also chose to turn in, and asked for a bottle of Obscura’s Void to take with me. Peron, another water elemental, readily agreed and Mitis brought me a bottle. I shifted back to the Unseen Maze. I mentally located Obscura and headed for her. During my conversation with Tranquil I realized just how alone Obscura really was. I figured I would share this bottle named after her and have some fun.

I found her with those devices again. It was a different scene than last time. She seemed to control a fat man dressed in colorful red and blue. I assumed she was controlling him because everytime she pressed her thumb down on the same area of the device in her hand, the fat man would jump.

“Obscura?” I spoke out softly, so as not to spook her.

“Kyaaaaaaa! Wha-wha-wha-what the hell are you doing!? I told you not to do that! What are you doing back here so early anyway!?” She was clearly surprised. I even tried not to spook her…

“I figured we could share a bottle of ‘Obscura’s Void’.” I replied to her, holding out the bottle I carried to her. She hesitantly took the bottle, staring at me.

“O… Ok! On one condition! You have to play a game with me!”

“A game?”

“Over here, look. This is a television. And here, this is the console. You put a cartridge into the console, and then you plug this, a controller, into the console. You turn it on, and you play the game. Easy right?” She had explained to me, but my head was swimming in confusion from all the terms. “Here, just take this. I’ll pick the game!”

She pressed down on the front center of the thing she called a console, and the thing she called a cartridge popped out. She then put another cartridge thing that was sitting beside the television device into the console. She pressed forward on a purple portion of the console, and the television flashed.

Mortal Kombat II was displayed on the television for a moment. ‘That is not how you spell combat...’ I thought to myself.

“Alright! Now you can pick your character! I’m choosing Raiden!” Before I noticed it, there were portraits of people displayed on the television. I was not sure what to do, so I just pressed on the controller device.

“Raiden. Scorpion.” A man’s voice came from the television. As I pondered on who was speaking, the voice abruptly spoke again, “Fight!”

“Bring it, Kage!” Obscura roared and began pressing in seemingly random places on her controller device. I chose to do the same, and press in random positions. “Wha? How are you - no stop! Kage! Cheater!”

Abruptly the man spoke again. “Round two.” I pressed randomly again, whilst Obscura continued to fume. “Finish him!” The man spoke again. I just continued to press randomly when the atmosphere inside the television abruptly changed. The man I was controlling seemed to pull off his mask.. and skin. His skeletal head emitted a fireball at the feet of the man Obscura controlled. He was aflame and screaming for a brief moment before exploding into a pile of flaming bones. Along with the explosion another man spoke up with “Toasty!”

“Fatality” The man spoke, and the man I controlled stood triumphantly, skull staring straight at us.

“Wha-wha-wha-what!? Rematch! I demand you to a rematch, you cheat!” And so, like that we passed the time, enjoying these games and the bottle of Obscura’s Void.