The elmannise guards soon visited the church, finding Syllis and her companions within.

“Alright, you’ve been allowed your prayer. Now we must bring you to the high priest and priestess.” The aggressive guard mellowed out slightly, still retaining a confronting tone in his voice, with nicer words.

Syllis, Aura, Korman and Clyde each followed the guards in complete silence. Once again, they utilized their humorous way of navigating. They held each other's hands and followed the guards in a line. Aura, who was at the front, pretended to trip and nearly bumped into civilians at times. This was all to maintain her act, to show the elmannise that she did not have the ability to see through this abyss.

Syllis remarked on the fact that no buildings had shone with the same blue-purple glow that the church was painted in. “Those blue and purple lights, are they expensive?”

She calmly addressed the guards. Depending on how long they spent in the abyss, some expensive lighting would be no less than a complete necessity!

“They are the sheets of shimmer-trees. These trees possess an incredibly high resistance to the heat and are found at the edge of our Abyssia. These sheets only renew every six months, however they are not expensive. They require a mere 4 contributions for a single sheet. Even less than a day's worth of food.” The rational guard explained. He possessed an apt knowledge of these sheets.

‘Abyssia… So that’s the name of this place. Not very creative, is it? I wonder if the elmannise are plain creatures? They have to be to live in such a plain, one tone place. Or is everything vibrant and colorful behind the dark void?’

Syllis wondered if he could disclose more information to her before sighing. She had not found an opportunity to ask Aura about how ‘Abyssia’ looked. There were always elmannise around, and their hearing was incredible.

“Hah!” The aggressive guard inhaled a breath of confidence. “Not that any of our elmannise would waste their points on such useless amenities. Our superior senses drown out the need for light.

“The only reason they require even 4 contributions is because our priest and priestess did not want us to buy too many, so they have enough for government projects.”

This elmannise guard clearly had a lot of pride in his people. Syllis hated the way he expressed it, but it was similar at its core to herself. Similar to her pride as a nymph.

“How does one earn contributions?” Clyde inquired, his eyes wide. This was another part of his innocent act, though there was genuine curiosity behind it.

“Contributions are earned by completing tasks that contribute to our survival. Such as helping to mold our Abyssia, hunting, gathering, providing psychological help as well as physical help. These kinds of things.” The calm guard explained.

The system was nice, not excluding any of their own kind. It allowed everyone to work as much as they wanted to, as long as they could maintain their own living. Nobody was paid more or less from doing the same work, everything was even, only varying with how willing and motivated you were.

An ugly voice chimed in afterwards, taunting them. “Not like you people could ever survive here, unable to see. What tasks could you accomplish? Sitting on your hands, or would you lose them in the dark?”

“Hold on, Hermher. They might have hope at the chasm wall. You heard them, they fled from the four suns for quite a long while.” The passive guard placed his companion in check.

The aggressive guard did not speak again after this. It was like he was contemplating the scenario, whether he would be able to survive it. An encounter with the four suns was almost guaranteed to be a failure.

Eventually—after asking several more small questions about the inner working of society within Abyssia—they had finally arrived at their destination.

Syllis herself was unable to see the grand structure in front of her, along with Clyde and Korman. Aura though, was able to take in all of its beauty.

The structure looked almost like an organic tree. It had long winding branches which comprised hallways. Along with this, bone-like ribs hung from these branches, sticking into the ground like wooden stakes, maintaining balance. There were sloped, rippling roofs which connected branches together, railings lined the sides of pathways, these slopes for repair. Overall, the building was pure black and perfectly sculpted out of this… Void wall.

It almost looked hypnotic, mesmerizing Aura. Though she could only glean the sight with a stoic gaze. She was unable to show the guards that she could feast her eyes on their beautiful structure.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Entering the building, several turns were made. They twisted in unnatural ways, making sense to Aura, but tripping her companions. So, she needed to trip over these unexpected twists herself, it got annoying after a while.

They had moved through several branches in pure darkness before arriving in front of a grand door. The guards both placed their hands upon it and shoved it open.

‘Finally.’ Syllis let out a sigh of relief inwardly. She was incredibly glad to have some light.

Purple glowing glow-tree sheets were draped across the back of the room, illuminating a couple of figures sitting at the end of a table.

Syllis could not help but wonder whether or not the elmannise had some way of filtering out harsh light, the violet color waned on her head, it was starting to ache.

“High priest and high priestess, we guards of the elmannise worship the living stone and revere our great Abyssia.” Both guards crouched down and lowered their heads, towards the later part of their sentence, they held their hands up, high in the air.

“Rise honorable guards. Quick, tell us who these people are?” The high priest and priestess alternated how they spoke.

The violet hues that radiated from behind and to the side of them highlighted their beautiful features.

Both the priest and priestess had incredibly long brown hair that cascaded down across their olive bodies. The priest had a muscular, toned and bulky body while the priestess had a very curvaceous body. She could surely have been within the ten most beautiful women in Asanoch. With the dichotomy of both the priest and priestess, they were like the embodiment of male and feminine traits respectively.

“Yes, high priest and high priestess.” The guards addressed them again before continuing.

“These are four envoys, they arrived through a void. The blazing suns chased after them and they fled to our Abyssia. They have been very cooperative and demonstrate no threat to the elmannise.”

“Honorable guards, do you have the ability to decide whether these people are threats or not?” The high priest spoke in a condescending manner.

“No high priest and high priestess. We apologize profusely and sincerely!” They kneeled down further, nearly burrowing their heads into the floor.

Syllis and her companions followed suit. It was unwise to anger the leaders of the elmannise. These people were their only potential hope in returning to Ethrailia.

“Hmph!” The high priest turned his attention to the three humans and single nymph. “Guards, you may leave.”

The high priest dismissed his guards, leaving the word ‘honorable’ out of his sentence. He had lost some respect for his guards.

Once the guards left the room, both the priestess and priest looked at the peculiar group of people. Syllis and her companions could feel their gaze burning a hole into their faces.

“You four, what are your names?” The high priestess spoke, her voice soft and also seductive.

Clyde spoke up as he was the closest thing to a leader the group had. “High priest and high priestess my name is Clyde. And from my left to right is Aura, Korman and Syllis.”

The mediatorial Clyde made sure not to lift his head too far from the ground to introduce his companions. Being disrespectful or causing the elmannise to feel threatened was a sure way of getting cast out into the four suns.

In this sense, the elmannise were almost being treated like a wild animal. Clyde and his companions needed to carefully approach it without causing it to become afraid and flee.

Both the high priest and high priestess recited the names quietly, likely remarking on their peculiarity.

The high priest and high priestess shared a glance before turning back to Syllis and her companions. “What is your goal?”

Her single question sounded dangerous, like their answer would change the entirety of their time within this fable rift.

They all knew the answer to this question inside and turned to each other before facing the high priest and priestess. “We want to return home.”

“Well then, join us for a feast. We will exchange stories and can perhaps provide some insight on how to escape from this horror-ridden world…”

The high priestesse's seductive voice rang out into the air. Moreover, she did not phrase the feast like a question. They needed to join her and the high priest for a feast. Lest they be cast out to bear the heat of four suns.

A mere thirty minutes or so later, the four of them were sitting across from the high priest and priestess.

A variety of dishes were laid out in front of them. Most of them were nearly entirely meat.

It was difficult to grow crops in the abyss, and the amount of crops that could be grown under the gaze of the four suns could be counted under a hand. These crops needed to be entirely encased within glow-tree sheets to even stand a chance of surviving. This was expensive and would easily increase the cost of glow-tree sheets by a hundred-fold if civilians were permitted to use them in such a manner.

The high priest and priestess had sat at the high end of the table, the typical seat of the head of a house. They established their place above Syllis and her companions’ own. There was a world of difference between them.

Everyone assembled their plates. Though no one on Syllis’ side of the table dared eat first, out of fear of offending the leaders of the elmannise. Instead, they waited for the high priest and priestess to take their first bites.

An especially long silence was withstood before the high priest and priestess took their first bites. They were testing their guests, and they had passed.

“So, why don’t I tell you the story of our elmannise?” The high priest spoke in his deep and commanding voice.

It almost seemed like they did not have a choice in the matter.