Syllis awoke to the same, familiar darkness as the day before. There was nothing in front of her, or there could be everything, she had no way of knowing.

She turned to her side, hoping to see Aura, or Korman. Clyde was the last person she wanted to see, she despised him. No one was to her side, or all of them. Again, there was no way of knowing.

Syllis knew that she had been treated. Her body no longer ached, and the flames that felt like they lingered on her skin were no longer there. Even if this was phantom pain, then it meant her sanity had recovered.

‘Thank the lord.’ The secare nymph was not religious, but if she had the slight potential of benefiting… ‘Why not credit this recovery to a potential benefactor?’

Below her, the slightest tinge of light emanated from a bioluminescent sheet. It glowed a purple-blue color, resonating warmly with slight pulses that could be felt through its tough skin.

This ethereal light slightly warmed the fur that was wrapped around the makeshift beds. The materials were not optimal by any means, but the elmannise had surely done the best with what was available to them.

“Aura? Korman?” Syllis asked with an unease. She was moving a decent amount, one of her companions should have heard her by now.

Nothing, she did not know where her companions were. For a moment, she was rife with worry before quickly relaxing. There was a simple but effective reason to know they were unharmed. Syllis herself was still alive.

‘What reason could there possibly be for killing all but one of a group of intruders? And why would they not keep the most cooperative one alive?’

Syllis—without any mental corruption left—decided to invoke her bond. She had thought about multiple ways to enable it to walk out. Most notably was the frost that permeated the area around here, to see where it felt colder, that would be open space. Closer to walls which presumably would absorb the heat, it would get warmer.

‘That is assuming these walls function in a typical way. That would be a blessing in this fable…’ Syllis sighed, she needed to resort to a different method.

Instead, she would use a primitive form of getting around. All she could do was conjure a stick, then flail it in front of her. This would give her the knowledge she sought. Though, it would make her uncomfortable, acting in such a different way.

As well as offend those who needed to use a similar form of navigating in their day to day lives, for Syllis to borrow it would be disrespectful. Though, she was not too worried about offending the elmannise.

‘These people can see straight through this darkness. The likelihood of any of them suffering from the visual impairments that we do is nearly zero.’ Syllis surmised internally.

Syllis stood up from the slightly glowing bed and turned to her right. This was the side of the room they had originally entered from.

The secare nymph swayed and was met with an odd sensation. The familiar copied movement of her coat was nowhere to be found.

Syllis was perplexed and calmly sat down, she reached for both sides and picked up her coat. After putting the coat back on, completing her nomadic outfit, she rose again.

Gradually, she condensed a javelin of ice, spending a while making sure it was sturdy. ‘After what that wall did to Korman’s bond, this javelin needs to be stable!’

Eventually, Syllis had found her way out of the hospital building. It was a nightmare, taking her nearly twenty minutes. To her, it was less of a hospital and more of a maze.

Syllis could tell this was the open abyss when she spun her javelin and it had not collided with any walls. This brought a new question though.

‘Where do I go?’ It was difficult for Syllis to decide. She could not see where to go, and she could not see where the elmannise were walking to avoid prodding them with her navigating stick.

This was less of a concern. ‘Surely they would just… Step out of the way, right?’

Syllis wondered, the burning suns eliminated any possibility of water turning to ice. So would the elmannise even understand what was approaching them?

The secare nymph felt a chill within, unusual for her.

‘If the four suns burn the sky and everything it touches, is there water?’ This was a crucial question. If there was no water, then the four of them were as good as dead.

Syllis shook her head. This was not something she needed to think about for the moment. Instead, she needed to locate her allies. Her brilliant solution to this problem was to roam the side of the wall aimlessly.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

After thirty minutes of walking alongside the pitch black, abyssal wall, some glowing sheets entered her view. These glowing sheets emitted a harsh, violet light.

Syllis nearly gasped at her ability to now glean the environment in front of her. The floor of the abyss was made up of tar-like slight, calm waves rippling. They were in a desolate cave, the wall beside her extended upwards, well beyond the reach of the violet light. It was impossible for her to know just how tall the inside of the ave was.

‘Well…’ Syllis had thought it to be impossible, when an idea popped into her head. ‘I could throw a javelin and count how long it took to arrive at the top.’

This was a relatively complete plan, she only needed to account for the initial burst and loss of speed over time. She quickly dismissed it though. ‘What’s the point of knowing the height of this cave? It’s not like we would be exiting through the top again. Those four suns are much too dangerous.’

Upon further examination, Syllis found that the violet sheets were anchored to the side of a building, stretched around windows.

The dark door of the mysterious building was vastly more difficult to push open than a typical door. Though, this did not matter to a kindred such as Syllis.

The inside of the church was filled with equally as mesmerizing purple lights, they mixed together forming separate hues. These lights illuminated the vast interior. Three rows of wooden seats lined the inside of this room.

A large altar sat at the front of the prayer room, an abyssal rock sat flush on a pedestal. This rock was such a pure, black coloring that it was impossible for Syllis to make out any shadows. It only looked like a mass. The sole reason Syllis had even assumed it to be a rock was due to a mere assumption. In reality, it could have been flat, or perhaps a large weapon that the secare nymph only saw the base of.

On the left row of seats, Korman, Clyde and Aura were all sitting. Korman and Aura were seated ahead of Clyde.

Knowing that her companions were entirely safe—without relying on a rational opinion—was comforting. Syllis took a seat a little bit above the midway point of the church-like building, in the center row.

The secare nymph clasped her hands together, unnoticed by her companions who were at the several seats ahead of her.

Syllis felt the fabric of her silky black gloves rub against each other as she entered a prayer position.

Although she herself had never been truly religious. Her mother and father assuredly were. The both of them vehemently worshiped the savior and the eternal, Halarion Holis. His blazing fury cleaved the umbral abominations from the surface of Ethrailia, bringing about the ability for humanity to prosper.

Syllis did not believe this tale, she was not so naive as to take it at face value. ‘It’s much more believable that this ‘god’ is merely a kindred, with many transfigured anathema. Yes, such a figure should easily be able to cleave the umbral monstrosities.’

It felt, unceremonious and almost sacrilegious for her to be pondering over the reality of a presumed god in this church. So, despite her lack of belief in fate or karma, Syllis decided she would pray.

‘But who to pray to?’ Syllis had a very difficult time deciding, such a difficult time that she wondered if this was an even more sacrilegious thought process.

‘Oh well, whatever.’ The secare nymph shrugged slightly before thinking. ‘Not Halarion Holis, Naviia or Latehth. Definitely not Hal Symenoneth. Not Halar Moro, Lara and Kiri…’

Her thoughts trailed on and on before she felt like laughing. She had felt no inclination towards any god, aside from one.

‘Coryzan… If I need to believe in something it might as well be you. You were forcefully intertwined with my fate as I was to yours. Perhaps in some, twisted way, we are two sides of the same, quartz coin. Both tormented and shaken, only to rise from such a state.’

A smile spread across the face of this, secare nymph. This was a nice thought to her, the possibility that the entity closest to her was not unlike herself.

‘Right, this is nice.’

Syllis reclasped her hands together and recited the familiar invocation that was etched deep within her mind. This same invocation that she was unable to get rid of no matter how hard she had tried.

She closed her eyes for a minute, resting them as she gave a moment of silence for her prayer.

Then she got up to approach her companions who were speaking quietly, as if they were afraid to offend the other church visitors. There was no one in the church besides them though. It was far more likely they were speaking so quietly so that prying elmannise would not hear them.

So far, the elmannise had been mostly friendly. Sure, they were mildly aggressive at the beginning, but who would not be? Syllis and her companions had literally crashed through their roof, causing an immense disturbance.

Syllis took up a seat next to Clyde before leaning over the back of Aura and Korman’s seat.

She cleared her throat briefly before speaking. “So, why’d you guys leave me behind?”

The three of them acknowledged Syllis’ sudden arrival as if nothing had changed. Syllis had a habit of making sudden arrivals.

Aura and Korman had first experienced this in Lurgica, when Syllis had stepped in through the door of their classroom and taken Lerane away. It happened several more times, now, it was an expectation.

“You were sleeping, simple as that. Clyde didn’t want to wake you.” Aura spoke simply, it was a natural answer. “Though, he was fine waking me up…”

The black haired woman mumbled underneath her breath.

“I feel horrible about forcing you through this fable rift. You deserved the rest.” Clyde sounded defeated.

There was a time where his cheeks would have turned slightly rosy and his voice would stutter. This was not that time though. Fable rifts were dangerous and unpredictable, Clyde knew this, dismissing as much of his emotions as possible.

“Isn’t that thoughtful.” Syllis patted Clyde on the shoulder, harshly. She had in fact not believed this was thoughtful. “Next time, leave some evidence you haven’t fallen off the face of this world. A slight ephemeral animal or a shard of one of Korman’s thorns.”

The secare nymph grinned, much like how she had while laughing uncontrollably. While then she had been under the influence of mental corruption, now she was healthy. So, this grin was truly her own, not the influence of some fabled god. She was content.

Syllis put her hands together to pray, as did her companions. With a sudden warmth growing within her stomach, she thought.

‘Maybe this fable won’t be so bad after all.’