Their steps crunched as they walked across the top of charred ash. They never stood still long enough for the small and slight embers to light them aflame. The ground sizzled with each step taken, fifty separate embers extinguished.

In the dark night, ebbing purple-blue light illuminated their path forwards. Their four glow-tree lanterns swayed back and forth as they furthered on their path to the end of the chasm.

Far in front of them were two ephemeral crows. Molten flesh fell from its bone, held together by nothing, yet it did not fall apart. They could not ride on top of them anymore. The nearly fifty jars of water were already heavy, adding another five hundred pounds between both crows would render them unable to walk after enduring for long enough. They shone like a couple of spirits, ready to guide dead souls back into the sea. At least that was what the scriptures of Natia, Goddess of the Sea and Fortune spoke of. Natia was the figurehead for any religion in the Nethirian sea.

In this tense situation, Syllis found it comforting to think back to any knowledge from Asanoch. The safety of the wall was gone. They had participated in well over fifty days of battle at the foot of the wall. But those times were predictable. Now that the four of them were crossing the sky chasm—a mostly unknown and peculiar area—Syllis could not help but be paranoid. The wall had become a second home to her. In some twisted way, her being forced to leave it felt like stepping into another fable rift.

‘Even now, my actions are not my own. I’m forced to act in accordance with a timer. Rushing to cross this chasm before these four suns split.’ Syllis thought. She cursed her fate. ‘Will I always be forced into decisions that aren’t mine?’

Syllis sighed before looking around her. It paid off to always remain vigilant. It had served her well in the past, on the outer ring. There were times when there were multiple attempts to rob her within the same day.

The glowing lantern swung around the back and sides of her. She checked to make sure no taran were stalking them, waiting for an opportunity to strike… nothing.

There were no taran anywhere around them. They could not find any or hear any rustling against the loose ash that compacted on top of white stone. This was likely because of their desperate attack on the wall.

‘Whoever died from being too cautious?’ Syllis thought.

They had been moving for more than five hours on foot when Aura spoke.

“Here,” Aura said, “this is our first pocket.” She pointed at what appeared to be a regular path of ash. Below that should have been regular white and then black stone.

“Alright,” Clyde said.

Each of them fully believed Aura. Her memory was exceptional. Far superior to Syllis’ own at least. Along with this her map—which was etched into thick-tree bark—was highly detailed with accurate proportions.

Syllis moved into position. She stood just outside of the range of the pocket, so that she would not be swallowed by it. Then, a large icy-blue ball materialized in the air. Cold air emanated from it as it grew larger. It fell, crashing into the ground. Ash was severed and the loose rock below which seemed to float on top of the Abyss. This rock shattered, splintering into several small chunks.

Screams erupted afterwards. The screams of taran. They were crushed under the weight of the ball of icy-blue and the chunks of rock that were forced into the abyss.

Korman threw his glow-tree lantern into the hole. They were unlike the lanterns in Ethrailia. These did not have gasses or flammable metal inside that were lit on fire. They were not fragile and naturally dimmed over time. So it was alright to be rough with them. Eventually, the four of their lanterns would entirely die out leaving them solely reliant on the ethereal glow of Aura’s ephemeral fiends.

The lantern’s glow illuminated tar and pink mush that appeared to almost bind the rocks together. There were no signs of movement nor any noise.

“Let’s start moving the water,” Clyde said as he approached both of the ephemeral crows.

The four of them spent twenty minutes moving the jars of water into the abyssal pocket. By the end, they were tired and battered. Aura dismissed her ephemeral crows and Syllis did the same with her shackles. All of them sat at the bottom of the pocket with a silence in the air between them.

Syllis stood, looking around the pocket. It was about four meters deep and six meters wide. There was easily enough space for the near fifty jars of water along with ample room for all of them to sleep.

This was what they expected and had recorded back in the days they were scouting out pockets. The closer that the pocket was to abyssia, the larger it was. Since it was closer to the source. The center of the chasm by comparison would have much less and small pockets. But they could not worry about that right now. They could not scout further from the edge of the sky chasm. If they wanted to learn more, then they needed to make it closer to the center.

The secare nymph finally dismissed the icy-blue steps they had used to descend into the dark pit.

The ground felt nice as Syllis sat down. It had been a long day. She had an especially draining conversation with vernim, then fended off an entirely new class of taran. Then they moved near fifty jars of water to and from the wall. Finally, they had walked for hours to find this abyssal pocket they now sat in.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Each of them were slightly fed up with the world at the moment.

Aura approached Syllis and sat down beside her. She took a moment before deciding to speak. “We’ve taken the first step.”

“Yeah,” Syllis said. “There’s a part of me that wishes we were still at the foot of the wall. That hoped that Hiolo and the rest would have talked us out of leaving.”

“I get what you mean,” Aura said. She leaned back slightly and stretched her arms in the expansive pocket. “If there wasn’t the pressing issue of the sun's splitting then we probably would have. I would have wanted to.”

“But we don’t have that luxury,” Syllis said with a sigh. “All of you nobles have extensive education. Ever heard of a fable as absurd as this one?” she asked with dead eyes.

“More absurd?” Aura repeated the question to herself. “You can’t compare what defies logic so easily. How could you choose between this fable with its splitting suns and flammable sky compared to a fable where formless strays whisper corruptive thoughts to you, completely sapping any mental space for your bond to use?”

“Is that a real fable? It takes away the ability for you to use your bond?” Syllis asked. It was more than peculiar.

“Even worse than that,” Aura answered. “If you hear their whispers for long enough then your mind will be completely overtaken. Not only will you be unable to use your bond, but your body as well. You will lose your sense of self to whatever god you’re bound to, becoming a proxy.”

“How do you even combat something like that? How did anyone survive to tell the tale?”

“Keep moving.”

“What?” Syllis asked, confused. “That’s it?”

“That’s right,” Aura said. “The strays were absurdly slow. Even if you walked at half your normal pace, they would not be able to catch up.”

“Alright, maybe it wins out in absurdity,” Syllis conceded. “Ours is certainly many times more dangerous though. Without the elmannise, we might have already died.”

“Not by a long shot,” Aura immediately shot back. “They decided not to sleep to avoid the strays. But one of them broke this rule. Once the strays realized the man was asleep, unaware, they immediately moved at a hundred times their normal pace. The man was already converted to a proxy mere minutes after passing out.”

“So we’re not very special then…” Syllis said, dejectedly. She had been soothing herself over the course of their time in the fable so far by telling herself this was a one in a million chance. That this was unique and that it would not happen to her again.

Aura let out a small chuckle before she leaned in closer. “We’re still special. Everyone who heads into a fable is accompanied by thirty others. There’s the occasional story about someone going in alone, but those are fake. They’re conjured up whenever the people are losing faith in Asanoch. It helps to give the people something that everyone can believe in—one person triumphing against the unknown and invasive fables.”

“On the outer ring, that faith has never been restored.” Syllis thought about the ‘messages to the Lauriers’ that she had been told about. “Surely you’ve heard of the bodies of nymphs left pinned to trees in the center ring?”

“I have,” Aura answered. “Such a shame. Better to string up a human and nymph both, right?”

“Or none,” Syllis said. “Their skin was peeled back, revealing torn flesh and streams of crimson blood that poured out. At least that’s what a witness told me.”

“Yes, ideally all crime is purged from the world,” Aura said. “But that itself is a ‘fable.’ There is always going to be some form of crime, might as well restrict it to a couple gruesome victims rather than an entire group being crippled for example.”

“I hate it,” Syllis said before sighing. “But I have to agree.” She looked up, seeing the dark sky be ignited with pale-white flames that overlapped.

“About time to eat it seems,” Aura said. “Korman, come help me with preparing the food.”

Clyde took Aura’s place. He walked towards Syllis and took a seat. “How’s it going?”

“It’s worrying,” Syllis said. “What if there are no more pockets past the halfway point?”

“You know the answer.”

“I do,” Syllis said, solemnly, “we’ll die. If we head back towards the wall, then the suns will split and we could never leave Abyssia. And we would not be able to continue forward either.

“Why haven’t we found another fable rift yet, Clyde?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Clyde said. “Perhaps it's a part of fate’s plan. It seems, they don’t have good intentions.”

“Don’t be so quick to judge,” Syllis said. “Maybe we're being prepared for some great calamity. Anahita’s ascension seems to fit that description.”

“It does,” Clyde said, looking up at the flames for a moment.

Aura and Korman had finished cutting the meat and arranged it on a ‘plate’ of folded glow-tree sheets.

“Syllis, if you could, please?” Aura asked.

“Oh, right,” Syllis said. Then, four large steps formed.

Korman ascended the steps and held the ramshackle ensemble just outside of the protection of the abyss. The meat immediately began to sizzle and Korman sweat under the flame. A mere single minute later, the meat was finished.

They split the meat into four portions and together, the four of them ate. For every couple bites of meat, they would take a sip of water. Each jar of water held around ten liters. Korman had previously calculated the amounts and told everyone that they could drink one and a half liters a day. This would last them nearly three months.

After they finished eating, Syllis stood up.

“Within three months, we will have returned,” Syllis said to her three companions. “We have to.”

“That’s right,” Clyde said. He followed suit standing up. “Aura needs to get back before Archae starts.”

“It’d actually be a blessing to miss it,” Aura said, also rising.

“To be free again!” Korman said, uncharacteristically. He raised his thick-root cup.

Each of them repeated his words before they all held their cups up towards each other.

‘To be free again. I’m going to be free.’ Syllis smiled at the thought of being freed of her contract with Clark.

Syllis had long made up her mind on what she wanted to do when she escaped the fable. She was going to see the world. Asanoch was stale and harbored nothing but bad memories aside from the moments with Clyde, Aura and Korman. She was more than willing to give them up, especially after Clyde had forced her into the fable.

‘I want to sail the sea.’ Syllis thought before smiling and gulping down her cup of water.