The next few weeks passed by slowly. Changes did not occur immediately, perhaps Anahita was going to keep things mostly the same, or maybe she was only waiting for people to get used to her reign.
Anahita attended various public events and spoke to her people. Syllis had to admit that if she were a regular citizen, that she would be impressed and moved by her leadership. The usual promises were made to help the outer ring, though they never arrived. This was how it always was, just an idea to get the public to view the ruling family in a better light.
Syllis continued attending her classes at Lurgica. She paid nearly no attention to any classes, safe for combat proficiency where she dominated all of her fights. The only close rounds would be between her and Aura, and Ansel. Clyde had grown predictable and Korman was closer to the lower echelon of A tier. It was essentially split with the top four students being much more proficient than the lower six-ish in the A tier.
There was no point in attempting to learn in ritualism class. She already knew the entirety of the foundation from Clyde’s ritual room. The old professor that ran the class could hardly function. It seemed like Lurgica was only keeping her around because it was a hassle to find experts in ritualism.
“So, any plans tomorrow?” Clyde turned around, walking backwards as he asked his three companions, Korman, Aura, and Syllis.
“Why?” Aura responded with another question.
The four of them were walking to the Boorne estate. They wore long black coats that easily protected them from the chill from Asanoch’s false winter.
Pellets of snow gently wafted in the soft breeze that flowed through the massive city. The nearby passerby laughed at the—still relatively new—snow. Some tried to catch it on the tip of their tongue, some tried to catch it, folding it into a ball.
This pristine powder was caught by roofs and other buildings. Several fake trees were created and set up for the sole purpose of catching snow on it and dropping it onto unsuspecting victims.
Syllis and the others rounded the side of a makeshift frozen lake in the middle section of Asanoch. There was much more open space in the middle section compared to central Asanoch.
This frozen lake could barely be considered a lake under that massive sea that housed Asanoch, the Nethirian sea. This frozen lake was at least a couple hundred meters in diameter yet paled in comparison to the super-massive sea.
‘Now that I think about it… I’ve never tried to go down. I wonder what it would be like?’ Syllis mused, thinking of several creatures she could potentially meet, the horrors that would lurk in the abyss.
“I want to do something, anything really…” Clyde’s voice trailed out, hinting at the meaning behind this thought.
It was obvious why he was acting like this. He had been spending more time with Anahita. Syllis inferred that with the heir’s ascension to ruler, she wanted to get married soon and needed to patch things up with Clyde for that.
‘It never gets any less creepy…’ Syllis’ eyes twitched.
“I guess I’m not doing anything in particular… But what would we do?” Aura inquired in an intrigued tone.
It was a valid question to ask. Any time that all four of them were together, they eventually decided on holding a sparring tournament. What else was there for juvenile kindred to do?
Their bonds were essentially their entire life, tying in with their goals. Clyde needed to surpass Anahita, Aura wanted to become a renowned nomad, Syllis’ job was to spar with Clyde and prepare for her fable rift. Korman was the only one who did not have a concrete reason to spar, so he was dragged along.
These tournaments were boring though. They always ended in one of the same few ways, Korman would be last, Aura or Clyde would be third, if Aura made it to second then she would have the potential of winning against Syllis. The usual ranking at the end was: Korman, Clyde, Aura, Syllis. Sometimes Aura could overcome Syllis, one out of maybe six times.
What was confusing was the fact that Clyde could sometimes overcome Aura, but never Syllis despite the fact that Aura could overcome Syllis.
It was almost like a game of rock, paper, scissors. Clyde’s bond failed against Syllis, but succeeded against Aura. Whereas Aura would succeed against Syllis and fail against Clyde.
If external factors were removed, this would be the case every single time. However, personal factors changed the results. A person’s intelligence, strength, speed and other factors often meant the difference in a fight, bonds were a mere piece of the larger puzzle.
“I don’t know.” Clyde kicked a couple pebbles as all of them continued to circle the frozen lake, subtle cracks formed along its surface. “It doesn’t matter. We could go visit some specialty restaurants, or play cards…”
Clyde listed various activities, but none seemed to gather enough traction. His expression fell as he faced the bitter reality that tomorrow, he might just have to see Anahita again.
A slight ebbing and flowing jolted all four kindred from their somewhat tired states.
The ice on the river cracked as the slight force that grew and pulled back turned stronger. It tugged on the four kindred like Korman’s mutated bear arm. It did not seem to want to lessen its grip.
Distant screams erupted from a nearby plaza, without a second to waste, the four of them exchanged glances before chasing after the screams.
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They hurriedly ran across the frozen lake, Syllis mended its surface to form a solid pathway. They twisted around the corner of a tight alleyway and stood still.
A shimmering purple rift swirled like the sky that loomed above Ethrailia. It constantly shook, rumbling with the sound of twisted lightning. It was consistent, no more than a second of delay between each cycle.
Though, in the few minutes that Syllis and the rest of her companions were staring, whimsically, this delay decayed. The almost portal-like tear in space looked like it wanted to swallow the world as it shook more violently, pulsing twice as fast as when the four of them first arrived.
Three of them instantly knew what was about to happen. They shared horrified glances, Syllis only looked at them with wide eyes.
This information was not taught at Lurgica, it was expected for children to be taught this common knowledge at home. Unfortunately for Syllis, her family had mostly kept the knowledge of fable rifts secret. It did not help that Clyde had forgotten to tell her when they first met.
Her father was a researcher in fable rifts so he knew of their horrors, he never wanted his daughter to have taken an interest in them, so he kept any knowledge secret. He even went so far as to pull Syllis out of school on most days that the school scheduled to talk about fable rifts. The only vague knowledge Syllis received was bits and pieces that could be understood from the odd time when her father was in a fable, unable to shield her from information about them.
Syllis felt like she understood part of why her father had kept most information on fable rifts under wraps.
‘This thing looks… Horrifying.’ Syllis’ eyes widened in terror, but also admiration. Their world was so reliant on logic and reasoning that seeing something so… Defiant and unique of this world felt admirable.
She could not help but compare this pulsing purple tear in space to herself in some weird way.
Aura turned to face Syllis, realizing that she did not understand what was going on.
“Alright Syllis!” Aura prepared herself to run Syllis through the basics of what she needed to know.
“Fable rifts merge into their environment, causing great harm to the ecosystem. When they are about to, they rage violently. We don’t know why this fable rift is preparing to merge so soon after appearing.”
Syllis suddenly turned to look at the rift with even more apprehension. This purple tear was unusual even compared to its fellow fable rifts.
“S-so what do we do?” Syllis tried to ask her question calmly, but her flusteredness seeped through, she was worried. There was supposed to be much longer before their first rift, surely they could not step in now.
“We have to enter.” Clyde spoke, determined. He had already made his mind up.
“Hold on Clyde.” Syllis urged her friend to slow down. “We don’t have any food, water or any other preparations. We wouldn’t have that great a survival rate.”
“It doesn’t matter! Other kindred won’t make it before the rift merges!” Clyde sounded even more determined than before, like he was the savior to all the citizens of Asanoch.
“Technically we don’t need it. There will always be some kind of way to sustain yourselves. Naturally, civilizations don’t spread fables with no chance to succeed, that goes against the very point of a story. There must always be a hero.”
Aura rubbed her own arm as she looked towards the floor. She tried to sooth her escalating heartbeat—a problem that all four of them suffered from.
“Still, this is our first fable. How can we go in without any preparation? Do you know how many kindred die in their first fable rifts due to overconfidence?”
Syllis attempted to dissuade her companions. According to herself, heading into a fable rift without adequate preparations was no different to suicide.
“It doesn’t matter!”
Clyde yelled, causing Syllis to jump. She had never heard him yell before. He was not like Aura or Ansel, or how she believed Anahita would be. Though, this situation had rattled him enough to cause him to erupt.
Korman and Aura kept their heads down as he continued.
“Tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands of people could die if we don’t step into this rift right now. Could you live with yourself if you let them die, Syllis?” Clyde looked into her eyes coldly, seeing their seafoam coloring waver.
This completely uncharacteristic shift shocked Syllis. She thought it to be aggravating.
“What do I owe to these people? They did nothing for me!” Syllis’ voice rose to match Clyde’s. Her usually even, almost cold tone faded with one of pure passion.
“In the outer ring, I starved. Everyday, I waited for these people to help me get out, but they never came! Am I not entitled to subject them to the same thing that they did to me? You think that I’m obligated to help them? No, I’m obligated to help you. Come on, let’s go, all of you.”
Syllis huffed as she finished and looked at the faces of her three friends. Korman showed slight emotion, a large shift from normal. Aura did not show anything, apparently having a deep battle with her own inner thoughts. Clyde looked cold, his expression could be the sole cause of Asanoch’s false winter.
“Exactly, you are obligated to help me. I am going to step into this rift, and you are either going to come with me, or you aren’t.” Clyde shot a cold glance.
Aura rose after resolving her inner thoughts. She was determined to enter the fable rift. Korman naturally stood after her, he would follow her to the ends of the earth.
“Syllis, we’re going.” Aura spoke to Syllis in a warm voice.
Korman nodded and Clyde said nothing, simply turning towards the portal. The three of them began walking forward as the portal shook even more violently than before.
Syllis desperately wanted to stay back, but she knew she could not. Clyde had knowingly shoved her into a corner. He pretended she had a choice, when in reality there was none. If she refused to enter, then she would be arrested for breach of contract.
This was not a choice that she could make, but one that was made for her.
‘What a bastard!’ Syllis spat onto the ground in front of her, Clyde tilted his head upon hearing the spit hit the ground.
Syllis cursed out his name, he was very possibly dragging her to her death right now and she had no say. This was a dirty trick. ‘I guess some people have a dirty part of them, no matter how pure they seem.’
The secare nymph stepped towards the portal, trailing slightly behind her companions as the rift pulsed. It seemed to tear more of reality. Glimpses of the fable could be seen within, but their color was distorted making it impossible to discern the details.
“I’m sorry.” Aura spoke softly as she stepped through the portal, moments after Clyde and a second before Korman.
The three of them disappeared from Syllis’ sight. She entertained the thought of leaving again before quickly throwing it away. There were kindred much stronger than her, Anahita was proof of this, and she was not even an adult kindred.
Syllis stepped into the violent rift, her body felt weird. It was like each of her limbs disconnected as they each entered the purple tear in reality. A whirring sound echoed throughout her brain, refusing to leave. Her vision dwindled and blurred, all sound was revoked. Every sense, gone. Touch, smell, sound, sight, even the taste of her saliva, gone.
The world fell away from her along with everything else she had ever known. It almost felt like the start of a dream. This was the beginning of her descent into her first fable rift.