After Syllis passed away, Aura took a few minutes. She stared at the secare nymph’s corpse, longingly.

“Why does everyone I care about die?” Aura said out loud. She hoped that someone would answer but of course, nobody did.

‘It doesn’t matter. There's no one to hear my embarrassing proclamation.’

Aura scratched at the side of her arm through her charred coat and sighed. She wiped her eyes and the inline of her nose, drenched with tears. Once she had composed herself, she spun around.

Clyde’s corpse was lying naked in a puddle of water. He was being almost cradled by a couple branches that his body had fallen in between. It looked like a mother embracing her newborn son.

‘If only that was true. If only they could be reborn. If only… Korman was here.’ Aura began to cry again. She was slightly shocked but did not prevent herself from crying.

Typically she was able to restrain herself from being too emotional but after Korman’s death it was like all of her experience doing just that had vanished. It was frustrating but also nice. She felt relieved through this sort of catharsis.

“What do I do now?” Aura spoke out into the world. There weren’t too many options. ‘I could explore the city more, I can try rummaging through some of those drawers or I could…

‘No, I promised Syllis that I would keep trying. I regret that now. This isn’t like Korman where he only wished for me to live, I promised that nymph… At times like these I wish I had chosen a different religion.’

Aura let out a long sigh as she looked out through the transparent dome. Down below, the city was composed of smooth shapes contoured by large roots that now—armed with her current knowledge—seemed to stem from this very tree.

‘Now it seems clear why the tower is in the center of this city. As well as why the city did not expand further, merely building atop already existing structures. This tree’s roots grew in all directions and could not grow any further.

‘It feels like our journey, in a way. Try as we might, there isn’t much further we can go. Below the main surface of this fable, we cannot ascend to the surface again. The chasm will soon be rendered unfit to cross. The only option is to investigate the city and head further into this second Abyssia.’

Aura let out another long sigh. She felt a ping of pity as she wondered what could have befallen this city’s people. They could not have been the flaming legion, they were unsophisticated, being unable to speak any words.

‘Could they have wiped this civilization out?’ Aura wondered, gagging as she thought of the legion tearing this long extinct civilization’s peoples’ limbs and devouring them in front of their family and friends.

Aura shook her head. It was not the time for negative thoughts.

‘In an environment so dim and hopeless, every day still starts with a night's rest.’ She repeated the saying internally as she rounded the room.

The woman looked down at Syllis. To an unassuming stranger, they would think her to be peacefully sleeping.

A couple more tears dropped before being wiped away. Aura sat down beside the secare nymph, finding a comfortable spot. Then, she layed down and let herself rest. It had been over an entire day since she had slept.

As her consciousness began to fade she felt a warmth over her entire body.

----------------------------------------

‘So welcoming…’ Syllis thought upon feeling her body in its entirety. It felt like she had awoken from a thousand year slumber. Her body did not ache and it was not difficult to breathe. Instead, everything came easily to her.

‘I wonder where I am?’

Syllis’ eyes flicked open. She had expected to see a wide open sky that worshippers of Halarion Holis referred to as ‘heaven’ or perhaps she—as a non-believer—would find herself within a constrained cave with flames rising all around her.

“I guess it would be fitting for me to end up in hell,” Syllis said. She laughed heartily as she peered above, seeing the pure black underground through the top of a transparent dome of sorts. “But you two… Clyde, aren’t you a believer of Halarion Holis? Why have you ended up here?”

Clyde looked at her with momentary confusion before reaching a hand down to her.

Syllis eagerly took it, rising to her feet. Her first course of action was to further inspect Clyde.

He was wearing long white robes, akin to the ones worn by the flaming legion. His expression was not one of a man who had been dead for a few days. It was brand new, like he had taken the time to—slowly wake up, take a shower and practice skincare—all before greeting her.

“So eager to tease…” Clyde muttered, his expression grew uncomfortable. “I’m afraid hell would be a little too nice of a fate for us.”

“Hmm?” Syllis squinted, scrutinizing the man in front of her. “Then where are we?”

“Exactly where you think we are.”

Syllis looked around. She felt the branches of the once withered tree.

Now, it was not disheveled and stained the same, inky-black color of the abyss. It had turned pale white and grew beautiful red leaves. The branches twisted and grew thicker, as though they were nourished over a long time.

“It would seem that this tree has enjoyed the same cushy revival as both of us,” Syllis said. “Where’s Aura, by the way?”

“Here!” A voice called out from what appeared to be an entirely new part of the room.

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The abyss had receded or been pushed back where it had previously cut through the dome. Now, there was an entirely new section of the spacious room. There was a large staircase that was attached to this section and extended upwards further than the eye could see. Sitting at the bottom of this staircase was a beautiful black-haired woman. Her hair was luscious and seamlessly smooth and her skin, a beautifully pure tanned color.

“Nice, someone who can explain something.” Syllis looked around again, skeptically. “So what exactly happened?”

It was a beautiful scene but Syllis also found it uncanny. She could not feel ecstatic to be able to live again, to talk to Aura and Clyde. She didn't even know if this was real. As she had learnt from the entirety of her life—Fate has a peculiar knack to screw you over, again and again.

‘Still, it can’t be that bad…’ Syllis reconciled. ‘I could have been stuck in endless darkness forever. I would give everything to keep this ‘light’ on forever.’

“To be frank, I’m not too sure…” Aura said, her voice wavering. It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “I went to sleep beside you on another branch and then Clyde woke me up.”

“That was an awkward experience to say the least…” Clyde said as he turned away from Syllis.

Syllis pondered for a moment before smiling and saying, “that would be an awkward experience.” She remembered that Clyde was lugged around without clothes for fear of their bacteria degrading his corpse.

“So this is truly not some form of afterlife? Have we really been given a new lease on life—along with this tree?” Syllis spoke with great skepticism. It was far too good to be true. “In a fable that has beaten us down at every turn, why would there be such an act of benevolence?”

Clyde laughed heartily before responding, “perhaps it was not the fable’s fault. Maybe it was fate all along and in order to inflict several times more suffering, it brought its puppets back to life.”

“Clyde, don’t be so gruesome,” Aura reprimanded, remaining focused. “Syllis, take a look out of the dome, at the city.”

“Alright,” Syllis said as she began walking.

What was equally as unnatural was her complete lack of an appetite. Whatever had resurrected rid her of her—then current—hunger. Much more bizarrely was the complete restoration of her sanity. The body was a complex being but simple in comparison to the mind, something which had been entirely mended.

Syllis placed her hands against the transparent dome and peered over the city. It was basked in radiant white. The buildings which had been formed of abyss looked to have been transformed to marble. The roots that wrapped around these structures transformed similarly to the withered tree. They were an equally pristine white with crimson streaks in them.

“This is,” Syllis found herself momentarily speechless, “incredible.”

As she turned around to face her companions, a tick of worry bubbled in the pit of her stomach. Clyde and Aura shared a couple of uniquely worried glances.

“Just say it,” she said, calmly. “Whatever it is, just say it.” Syllis looked at Clyde, waiting for him to respond.

“You aren’t… a nymph anymore.”

‘What?’ Syllis thought. ‘Not a nymph anymore! Surely something like that is impossible… right?’

“What do you mean ‘I’m not a nymph anymore?’” Syllis demanded an explanation.

The woman looked down at her body. She was still as tall as a nymph and the rest of her body seemed to have remained as it had always been, slender, catered to swimming.

Clyde approached her slowly and tactfully. He shot her a nervous look before asking, “may I?” He gestured to the side of her neck.

‘My gills?’ Syllis was taken aback. ‘That would be the simplest way but…’

“No problem.” Syllis exhaled which would normally cause her gills to flare open.

Clyde ran his soft hand across the length of the side of Syllis’ neck.

Syllis’ eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had felt nothing. Her gills were very sensitive. There were a couple instances of thieves trying to reach into them to subdue her. These attempts had not ended well for the thieves but they taught the—previously secare nymph—a valuable lesson.

“Surely not… right?” Syllis herself exhaled and reached for the side of her neck… nothing. “Isn’t this a little too bizarre even for this fable?”

The woman fell to her knees in a slight fit of panic. She began to hyperventilate which her prior self—hindered by her punctured lung—would have killed for. Now though, it was merely a means to navigate through this mind breaking news.

“Syllis,” Clyde said, “Calm down.” He reached for her shoulder.

“Would you calm down!?” Syllis shouted and pushed his arm away. She let out a long exhale and said, “if you had your entire being torn away from you, would you calm down?”

Clyde remained silent.

“It sounds like you were right about fate’s cruelty,” Syllis said. “So, what did it take from either of you?”

Aura and Clyde shared another glance, this one was almost guilty.

“Nothing, really…” Syllis muttered, mostly to herself.

“Finally, I can see the surface!” Aura cheered before her face contorted into a grimace.

“Aura, what’s wrong?” Clyde asked, walking over to her.

“You both know those four inconveniences that have been bothering us, right?” she joked. “There’s only a single one now.”

“What!?”

“What!?”

Clyde and Syllis simultaneously yelled in disbelief.

“It’s true,” Aura said. “There is only one, teeny, tiny sun now.”

“Isn’t this too absurd… our revival, the restoration of the city and now the four suns’ collapse?” Clyde said in disbelief.

Syllis laughed as she rose to her feet again. She ran over to Clyde and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Normally it would all be too absurd,” Syllis said. A wild grin curved on her face. “However, think about it like this. What if there was a single event responsible for it all?”

Clyde criticized her with his gaze. Aura on the other hand, remained quiet. It was apparent she was deep in traversal utilizing one of her ephemeral crows or something similar.

“The lights in your estate run off of power, whatever that may be. Our bonds deplete our sanity and relinquish parts of our mind. We can heal from injuries at the cost of pain. There’s a ‘price’ attached to everything in this world.

“The four suns were the ‘price’ to mend our broken bodies and restore this city. The reason that this city and tree were so decrepit and withered in the first place was because the civilization here died off.

“Every tree needs sunlight and whatever civilization was here must have placed their wounded here to ‘draw’ this sunlight to this tree,” Syllis spoke in a crazed manner. The subject within was even more bizarre, like the ramblings of a lunatic.

Still, Clyde and Aura could only tilt their heads in response as they mulled over the details.

“It’s not like I have a better idea,” Clyde said with a sigh.

Aura shrugged and said, “Anything is possible within a fable. This doesn’t seem too far-fetched…”

As each of them tried to refine this scenario that occurred while they were unconscious, they felt a tug inside of their mind. It pulsed with sharp pain but held within it a hint of bliss. Much akin to a siren’s call, the allure was tantalizing.

All three of them looked upwards, instinctively, upon feeling this ‘pull’ on their mind. Their pupils dilated as their minds spun. This was no mere siren’s call. This was not the result of some injury or migraine.

This was the call of a fable rift, beckoning them to approach, to enter.