122. Golden Hour

"Are you sure you'll be alright?"

Isaac smiled wryly. That was the third time Mortimer had asked some variation of that.

Behind them, a few passersby mulled about on the silver line station platform. After seeing an image of it through the lake, the actual red sky, faintly visible through the exit, looked simultaneously more and less vivid.

“I’ll be fine,” Isaac said. “I’m just gonna talk with Lilith, sort things out.” His eyes shifted to the train tracks, currently empty. “It’s been a long time coming, I think.”

This time, he was going to make sure there were no stones unturned. He’d accepted his position as a distant, separate entity from the Underside for much of the time he’d been there, taking vague explanations and deliberately hidden details as a simple part of the “deal.”

Now, though, he wanted to know everything he could. After all, from the start Isaac had maybe always been more involved with the Underside than he’d liked to admit.

Mortimer nodded slowly, but his brows were still furrowed.

“I’ll come to Solonell City after I talk with Lilith,” Isaac assured. He raised an eyebrow. “I still need to pick up the flower.”

The half-undead man relaxed a little at that, seemingly taking the words as assurance. With a final nod and wave, Mortimer turned and exited the station, leaving Isaac on the platform.

The Traveler turned to face the tracks, shifting his weight while he waited for the familiar rumble of the train.

One stopped, and the other people on the platform got on, but Isaac stayed behind. That one didn’t go to the Golden Lands.

Alone in the station, he waited another eight minutes until the next train pulled up. The doors slid open with a rumble, and he could see, as expected, that the train car was empty. Inhaling, Isaac strode forward and stepped inside.

The trip to the Golden Lands felt at once longer and shorter than he remembered. But when he finally stepped out, the realm looked exactly the same as it was in his memories.

It was a relief, in a way, to know that it was unchanged. The rolling hills of flowers still bloomed perfectly, and the golden lights rising up into the inky sky felt comforting, like little, condensed pieces of warmth. At some point, he’d begun to associate golden light with the burning flares of system violations, with the chilling sound behind the door during Remus’s trial. He’d forgotten it could be soft like this, too.

Striding forward, Isaac made his way up the hill, flowers brushing at his ankles as he climbed. In the distance, the dark silhouette of Lilith’s home was an easy landmark, and he strode there without pause.

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Finally, Isaac came to a stop in front of the ornate door. He raised a hand and knocked. No answer.

“Lilith?”

Isaac called out, but it was hard to tell how much the woman could actually hear through the thick wooden door. The last time this had happened, she’d been busy in the parlor. This was probably a similar situation, Isaac thought.

He grabbed the doorknob, the metal cool beneath his skin. He pressed down, but it didn’t budge. Frowning, he tried again, and this time the overly complicated locking mechanism clicked. The door swung open with a long, groaning creak. Maybe it had been jammed the first time.

Carefully stepping inside, Isaac glanced around. The hallway was fairly dark, the draping cloths across the ceiling only adding layers of shadows. The torches lining the place were unlit.

Isaac shut the door and stepped further inside. His footsteps echoed loudly in the enclosed space. When he called out Lilith’s name again, his voice sounded unnaturally sharp and loud.

When Isaac reached the parlor, with its familiars couches and shelves and flowering wallpaper, it, too, was empty.

The Traveler’s brows furrowed. A creeping unease began to rise, and he turned, legs walking a little faster.

Isaac called out again, crossing the hall and opening every single door he saw, but still there was no one. He frowned, eyes running along the walls again. He bumped into a corner, and the edge of the tablet pressed into his stomach. Isaac’s eyes widened.

Fumbling a little in his hurry, he pulled the device out and clicked the screen open, scrolling to the map function. He’d nearly forgotten about this.

It took a few seconds of loading, but soon enough a detailed map of the Underside’s various realms appeared, different colored dots moving along its streets and highlighting all the residents of the Underside.

Isaac clicked the button to pull up the Golden Lands, but when it opened, there was only a single dot there, his own name drifting over it in tiny letters. He frowned.

He clicked the search bar, manually typing in Lilith’s name. It took a while for the tablet to respond, the loading circle spinning endlessly as it sifted through all the available data.

And then, finally, the loading stopped.

[0 Results]

Isaac felt his unease rise, and he clenched his fingers, shoving the tablet back into his pocket. It was possible that Lilith had never added herself as part of the map’s database, he reminded himself. After all, she was effectively the god of the Underside, so of course she wouldn’t be entered the same. Besides, he’d never tried to search her up before.

He’d never had to, a little voice in his head said, because she was always in the Golden Lands.

Isaac ran out the house, not bothering to close the door behind him. His head jerked about, scanning the flowering hills for movement. He raised his voice, calling out.

“Lilith!”

All that answered was his own echo.

Isaac ran through the flowers, scanning the darkness and the rising lights for any trace of movement. Still he found none. He kept going. He’d never realized how large the realm was before.

Up ahead, he saw a particularly massive hill about three times the size of the ones beside it. Isaac made his way up, his feet slipping a little on blossoms and scattered petals until he finally reached the top.

From there, the vast fields of the Golden Lands were laid out in front of him. To his left was Lilith’s home, unchanged from before. Slowly, the Traveler turned around in a circle, taking in the sights from every angle. Then he did it again. And again.

By the time he was done, Isaac slumped down, forced to come to a single conclusion.

Lilith had disappeared from the realm.