(Kyla’s point of view)

Things were moving so fast that my head was spinning. I wasn’t even sure what it was I’d agreed to do, but Pyro claimed it would put my mind at ease.

After watching Gill get dragged off by enforcers I wasn’t so sure anything would put me at ease. I didn’t fully understand the exchange, but what Gill said before their fight shook my confidence in Pyro. It shouldn’t have bothered me; like Pyro said, Gill was under a lot of pressure as a hero candidate and clearly he couldn’t handle it. I just couldn’t figure out why that led him to distrust and even attempt to kill Pyro. If being a hero candidate was that stressful then how did anyone survive it.

“Keep moving,” a low baritone voice whispered from behind me. It was Quan, another of the twelve heroes and one of many people escorting me to the sacred ritual Pyro insisted would “open my eyes to truth and ease the burdens of doubt and fear.”

I quickened my pace to close the gap that opened between me and the person ahead of me. I wasn’t sure who she was but she was kinder and more understanding than anyone else I’d met today.

There were two more people in front of her, and another three behind Quan. Shuffling, quiet as mice, we made our way to the administration hall. The red cloaks we wore somehow kept us from view of the few students and staff roaming the halls late at night, or perhaps it was early morning? I wasn’t sure.

As we entered the grand hall I saw my brother racing out. He looked rough… like he’d spent quite a while in the wild. His uniform was torn and covered in black oily soot. His hair and face were also gross and smudged with dirt, but not enough to cover the bags below his eyes. He looked exhausted but at least he didn’t seem hurt.

Still his appearance was concerning and made me feel bad for not reading any of his messages. I had no idea what he’d been through over the last few days, and I hadn’t shared any personal updates with him either.

I wanted to throw off my robe and greet him, tell him everything that happened today and maybe even get his opinion on what I should do; but as soon as I slowed down again, Quan grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me forward. There was no turning back at this point. My stomach sank with the realization, each step forward making more sure this wasn’t the right path. Only the memory of Pyro, the dragon and the fear of what he might do to me otherwise, kept me moving forward.

When we reached the special teleport gate, Quan touched the smooth stone wall beneath the golden arch. In response to his magic, glowing amethyst runes appeared along the golden arch starting at the bottom of both sides and meeting at the top. The runes were slow to form and highly luminous, enough to light the dark hall.

During the activation process, several staff members passed by, but none of them seemed to notice anything.

While waiting I paid careful attention to the runes as they formed. The foreign symbols meant nothing to me. The only symbol I recognized appeared at the top of the arch, where the sets of runes met in the middle.

It looked kind of like an eye with a vertical line running through it, the same as the symbol on our cloaks. Once the runes fully formed the stone beneath the arch morphed into a shimmering liquid curtain.

Quan continued forward, pulling me along with him. Passing through the liquid was extremely uncomfortable. It felt like trying to walk through a thick gelatinous barrier that pushed back against us with every step. Wherever we were going my body told me it wasn’t somewhere we were meant to be.

Inside the liquid, I felt stuck and couldn’t move forward on my own. Quan practically pulled me the whole way. When I emerged on the other side, the space felt overflowing with mana.

We had crossed into a strange and wonderful new world. Everything was full of energy and vibrance.

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Somehow, the lack of a sun didn’t mean the lack of light or warmth. These things came from strange plants, aglow in a multitude of colors. Grass sprouted from purple soil and stretched out in every direction like a rainbow carpet covering the land. Trees of every hue rose up around the clearing, their light undulating against the backdrop of a black sky.

There was no moon either so I couldn’t be sure if it was night or day here; I got the feeling there’d be no difference either way.

It was, however, painfully obvious that this beautiful world wasn’t meant for humans.

With each breath I took, energized air vibrated painfully in my lungs forcing me to exhale, only to involuntarily take another painful breath at the behest of my suffocating body. Within thirty seconds my throat felt as if it were on fire, my body felt as heavy as steel and my head pounded to a steady rhythm, as if I was being struck again and again. I was convinced my brain would soon explode and I wanted to go back.

The golden arch stood, a few feet behind me, in the center of the clearing. The image of Sky Haven’s safe administration hall was painted on the shimmering liquid, beckoning me back to its livable atmosphere.

I lurched around toward it, forcing myself through the pain of movement, but I couldn’t break free of Quan. He continued to pull me further and further away from the portal, away from life. In this space I hung on the cusp of life and death, threatened each second with a fatal mana overload. It was a miracle I was still conscious. Quan didn’t seem to care.

Despite me stumbling and struggling to keep up, the brute wouldn’t slow down. He pulled me through the short field of luminous flowers, into a dense forest of the multicolored trees. Their thick trunks stretched so high into the sky I couldn’t see where they ended. At some point they seemed to just blend together into a rainbow canopy. Each one radiated a different hue. The ones with a warmer color also radiated heat while the colder looking trees felt almost freezing.

The air in the forest wasn’t as harsh to breathe, presumably these trees filtered out a significant portion of mana, but each inhale still hurt and burned.

As we moved between the trees I noticed all manner of odd creatures. Some were beasts, but most were a pure manifestation of energy. They took different forms, all of them lacked physical bodies though clearly capable of interaction with the environment and each other. Whether they had faces was debatable, and yet I was sure every one of them had their full attention on me.

“Don’t stare or you’ll anger the spirits.” Whispered the kind girl, who was now helping me to keep pace with the group.

“Spirits?” I whispered back, “But those creatures… they feel no different from magic. How can they—”

“Careful what you say.” She interjected sharply. “You’ll understand soon.”

It wasn’t much longer before we reached a clearing of sorts. The space with no trees wasn’t actually that wide and gathered around its fringes, more spirits and people in red cloaks stood between the trees. In the clearing there were only orange flowers, intentionally positioned to form the eye-shaped rune.

Standing in the center of the rune, there was Pyro. He wore no cloak, and his human form glowed white.

“Bring the girl,” he commanded.

The kind girl let go of my arm, and Quan lumbered through the clearing, dragging me behind him.

“Bring the elixir.” Pyro boomed again and another robbed figure brought forth a black vial.

“Bring the ritual blade.” Pyro said calmly, looking reassuringly, in my direction.

I didn’t feel reassured at all. Whatever was about to happen to me, I got the sense that it’d be equivalent to death.

When he had the elixir and the blade Pyro removed the hood from my cloak.

I wasn’t ready for what came next. Immediately I felt as if the flow of energy would rip my body apart cell by cell.

I had no idea how Pyro was standing there totally unaffected without a red robe. My mouth ripped open with an imperiled scream. Opening the black vial with a smile, Pyro placed the elixir to my lips and drowned my pain with the hot liquid.

“I’m sorry,” the kind girl said, her voice coming from inside my own head.

There was sadness in her words and a sort of disappointment as well. For a moment I wanted to console her and then two things happened almost at the same time.

First, I realized that I’d heard this exact voice before it was right after Pyro gored Gill; and then pain, unceasing, unimaginable pain wrecked my body so to the point that… my… thoughts…