Upon entering the block of flats, we started our ascent to the floor I lived on; since I was on the second floor of the building, I opted to take us up the stairs rather than the elevator. I wasn't entirely sure how Farinosa would react to such a thing; a restrictive metal box that made strange noises and moved hardly sounded like something she would be comfortable experiencing. Additionally, the elevators here had a nasty habit of getting stuck, hardly an ideal situation at the best of times, but combine this with our predicament, and one could easily imagine the myriad of issues that could arise.

While walking up the stairs, I grounded myself in the sound around me, how much it felt like home. I could faintly hear the gentle hum of central heating pipes working away behind the walls, hundreds of litres of hot water puzzling its way through the maze-like piping of a building such as this. I could faintly hear echoes of people walking around on floors above, the occasional shout or raised voice, all part and parcel of living in a block of flats, unfortunately. Still, at the very least, one could not argue that it was a dull place of residence.

We reach the second floor in pure silence, the only noise we made being the tread of our shoes and the rustling of a textile-filled shopping bag. I looked over to Farinosa to see if she was okay; it was rather unlike her, albeit from what little time I had spent with her thus far, to be quite this quiet. Perhaps she was taking in the sounds or was anxious about other, unknown humans being nearby? In truth, it could have been a number of different things, but what I knew for a certainty, however, was that this place must have been as alien to her as her land was to me.

"Hey, hold this for a moment," I ask Farinosa while passing the shopping bag to her. "Let me get this door open." I fished around in my pockets and retrieved the key to the flat. It was a spindly looking thing that threatened to snap off in the lock every time I turned it; why exactly anybody would make keys that thin or that cheaply I'll never know. After a sight click and the lock going limp, I push the door open and retract my key, which I checked immediately on the off chance that this was the time it would break. To my amazement, the key survived to open the door for another day.

Once both Farinosa and I had entered the flat, I close the door behind us, leaving us in the main hallway for my flat, home sweet home at last. While we stood in the hallways, I heard that TV in the mixed living room on. From what I could hear, it sounded like somebody was watching a football match, and an especially exciting one as well, for that matter, judging by the commentators' shouting. The air was heavy with the smell of chilli, one with far, far too many spices for my liking, and I could practically feel my nostrils burning with every inhalation of chilli powder and paprika laden air.

"I thought we were alone here." Farinosa jabbed me in the rib with her elbow. "Why does it smell like there is food being cooked, and why am I hearing voices coming from that room over there?" She scowled, eyes locked upon the open doorway towards, flickers of amber light cast upon her pale skin, and I was starting to get nervous.

"It's a flat system, I have my own private room, but the rest of the living facilities are shared," I hastily explain; I shouldn't have expected her to know what kinds of living arrangements existed in this world. "So that person in there is one of my flatmates, and if it is who I think it is, there's absolutely nothing for us to worry about." I pause and snicker. "Well, other than spice burns being inflicted upon our nostrils, of course."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense." She mused. "Quite similar to the barracks system we have, only this here is on a much smaller scale." The light in her eyes dimmed down to normal, and the rays of light ebbed away, returning her gaze to normal. "I'm glad that fragments of life from my own home can be found here; it would make my stranding here a lot easier to cope with if this becomes a more long-term issue."

While we approached my room, we would have no choice but to walk by the open living room and kitchen door, usually not an issue. But with Farinosa wanting to remain inconspicuous, this presented a problem. While walking past the door, I looked inside to see who it was, I already had a pretty good guess who was in there, but I looked all the same to confirm it. Just as I had expected, I saw Dan standing by the hotplate, stirring something in a large stockpot, which was most likely chilli judging by the smell.

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Dan was one of my flatmates. He was a finance student from France who was in his second year of studies, and, from what I gathered from overhearing conversations, he certainly didn't enjoy studying it. In his spare time away from his studies, Dan was often found in one of the many small rugby clubs and societies based within the university and would be seldom seen within the flat for longer than absolutely necessary. Because of his highly active lifestyle, Dan would eat a lot of food, and I mean a lot of food; the guy would routinely eat two, if not three, people worth of food in one sitting yet still fail to gain weight. The guy was build like a brick, and part of me wondered if he would end up abandoning his study entirely to pursue his rugby hobby.

I can't remember too much in the ways of his appearance, other than his skin was dark, and his brown hair was short; I saw him so infrequently that I never built up an image of the guy, unfortunately.

"Sup man, how's it going?" I hear Dan call over his shoulder; he was in pure concentration with his cooking. "Hear you guys come in a few moments ago, with a guest to it seems." He looks over his shoulder to greet us.

"I'm just one of his friends, don't worry about me." Farinosa nervously responded to Dan's questioning before darting past the door at a heightened pace and hiding away by the door to my room.

"Huh, she's in a hurry." Dan mused while turning back to stirring his massive pot of chilli. "Didn't like what I'm cookin' probably; nobody appreciates my chilli as I do."

"Nah, she's not got anything against you, Dan," I try to cover for Farinosa, who was already glaring at me beside the door to my room; her eyes were laden with deep, aggressive concern for her continued lack of identity. "She's just very shy, not very sociable."

"Eh, fair enough, I suppose." He waves a hand to his back while stirring the pot of chilli. "Well, if she grows a pair and wants to be 'social' as you say it, she's welcome to come chat, man." It was a surprisingly abrasive response from Dan; usually, he's a much calmer individual, so it came as some surprise to see him so blunt about such a topic. "Before you go, does she want any portions left behind. I'm sure I'll have some spare to go around." Dan was notorious for the massive portion sizes he would dish out, though he's probably used to those portion sizes due to his hobby.

"Nah, I'm sure she'll be fine, but thanks for the offer, my guy." I glance over to Farinosa, who appears relieved by my attempt to cover up her arrival in the flat. "I'll see you around, Dan. Take it easy man."

"Alright, will do." He waved me goodbye while stirring some of the rice he had on the side into the chilli; the fantastic smell of his cooking grew more potent for a few moments while I walked towards the entrance to my room. Once I reached the door, I unlocked and opened it, prompting Farinoa to practically throw herself into the room and away from the eyes and ears of my flatmate.

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I walked through the door while Farinosa rapidly approached the desk while carrying the textiles bag. Looking around the room, everything appeared to be unchanged from when we left, save for the arc burns around the room appearing to have faded slightly during our time away. If the fading was indeed a legitimate thing rather than a trick of the light, the arc burns might, hopefully, fade away entirely before my next housekeeping search, although I had no idea when that next search would take place. The air still tasted of static and faintly smelt of those weird glowing flowers from the Abyss, but my room was still otherwise as expected.

"Thank you for dealing with him," Farinosa spoke softly while placing the bag upon the desk. "I didn't know what to do, and I knew he'd start asking some questions about who I am." She sighed heavily, and I could feel the anxiety radiating from her every pore. "I'm glad you took care of it; I'm surprised he didn't press for more details."

"You'll find Farinosa that a lot of people over here arent concerned by the minutia of detail; most people just want to go about their daily lives without the hassle of extenuating situations," I reassured her, although I must admit it is a shame that such a statement was a reality about humanity as a whole. "We may be a curious people, but our curiosity is seldom focused on issues which, in my opinion, are far more intriguing or possess greater potential for discovery and advancement."

"That's fair enough," She withdraws one of the fabric rolls and lays it upon the desk. "It's in our nature to be curious about the unknown, though I'm surprised that curiosity was not present in your friend back there."

"Oh, I'm sure he is. He's a very busy man, so he probably wouldn't have the time necessary for such an inquiry." I walk up to and sit down on the foot of my bed, where I bend down to remove my shoes. While sitting and removing the shoes, I turn to look out the window, noticing clouds almost overhead and a dark haze to the distant trees and fields. Rain was coming, and it was coming fast; it would seem we were lucky to avoid it. "Glad we missed the rain though, who knows what that would do to the fabric."

"If the rain here is anything like the rains in the Abyss, I can assure you that the state of the purchased fabric would be the least of our concerns." She chuckled while placing the small box of needles upon the desk and opening the lid. Within the blink of an eye, one of the larger needles erupts with amber light and yanks itself into the air a few inches from her face. "Well, as archaic as they are, I'm glad I can still manipulate these tools like the tools of my order." She remarked while the needed jabbed itself into the borrowed jumper and wove its way through the length of her left arm sleeve. "A little less precise than I'd like, though, but it's not like I have a choice here." She groaned while unravelling a bolt of thread, which the needle jumped over to and threaded itself, the very thread knotting behind the needle in an instance.

"I'm not entirely sure how I should feel about you levitating needles and small sharp objects apropos of nothing." I express my concern at Farinosa suddenly and without warning, being able to manipulate things in such a direct and precise fashion. "And if this isn't precise and archaic as you say, then what the hell are order tools, as you call them, capable of?"

"The tools utilized by the Order are designed to perform a preliminary ensorceling of the given thing they are designed to process." She explained. "So, for instance, Order weavers tools are designed to imbue the very fabric and the very essence of said piece of attire on a thread by thread basis before the clothing is even ready to receive sorcerous enchantments formally." She waved her left hand to the side, causing the needle to jolt to her left side suddenly. She waved her right hand, and the needle obeyed once more. "Take textual warding, when one creates warding for clothing, it's often desired for the clothes to have been imbued with protective sorcery to promote the development and attachment of the warding, like how a gardener would fertilize the soil to encourage plant growth."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Well, when you put it that way, that does make a lot of sense, actually," I remark, perhaps the Amethyites weren't quite so alien as I had expected. After all, they appeared to operate in ways that made perfectly logical sense by human standards, albeit in an entirely unfamiliar context. "So, that allows for stronger wards, right?"

"In a way, yes." She elaborated while the needle danced around her, thread trailing behind it in gravity-defying spirals and corkscrews as if the very fibrous line was alive and dancing to her immaterial, unseen and unheard orders. "Though it's less about guaranteeing stronger or more complex warding, but rather to lay the foundations for an attempt to be made. Enchanting anything is inherently dangerous if the enchantments are being performed in unsafe ways, but preliminary ensorceling of the item removes that risk almost entirely." She paused, causing the flying needle to halt, only to then double back and unwind the spirals of thread it had left suspended around her. "Funny that, for such an archaic piece of metal, this needle here is a very willing and very obedient piece of equipment."

"Oh, please don't tell me you can talk to the bloody inanimate objects as well as the myriad of other fanciful rubbish you can do." I scoff, only for five of the other needles to fly out from their box and impale themselves in the wall adjacent to me, prompting me to jump from my bed from fright.

"I wouldn't be so disingenuous about their intelligence." Farinosa looked over her shoulder and smirked. "Just because they are inanimate doesn't mean they have to stay inanimate; a tiny little bit of Protasi energy can turn even the most unthinking of things into living, thinking beings, restricted as they may be."

"Alright, I'm sorry." I turn to the needles currently embedded in my wall and ask them for forgiveness. Much to my equal parts dismay and bafflement, the needles withdrew from the wall and returned to their box. "Do you think you could perform such enchantments in this world? Or at the very least, is it even remotely possible in this place?"

"Plausible, but I don't have a way of knowing without the correct tools." Farinosa reluctantly answered. "You have to understand, to perform such sorcerous and ritualistic processes requires both a massive quantity of Protasi energy and a considerable array of specialist tools; without the tools, I can't confirm if that quantity of Protasi energy even exists in this world."

"Is there any way I could get you those tools from the other side?" I tried to ask, only for her to laugh over my offer.

"Human, your aspirations are as impressive as they are narrow-minded." She complimented me, I think, or would it be more accurate to classify that as an insult? It matters not. "Such tools are exceptionally well guarded, even by the standards of my kin. You'd be lucky to even see the tools with living eyes, let alone touch them, and let alone escaping with them."

"Well, is there anything I could do to help?" I implore her. "Is there no other way to perform this mystical process you speak of?"

Farinosa stands still, appearing to be in deep thought for a few moments, or so I thought; the floating needle ceased all motion and appeared to await her cognitive return.

"Yes, yes actually, there is another way, but it's a bit less..." She took a deep breath. "Refined or civilized, for that matter."

"Okay, and what would that be?" I pressed for answers. "If it gives you a chance of remaking your robes and getting you at the very least part of the way to going home, what needs to be done?"

"The only other way to pre-enchant materials, and the only way to ensorcel anything outside of specialist tools, is through the creation of an alchemical soak and imbuing the material in an arcane fire." She looked back to the desk. "In other words, I'll need an array of herbs, means to pulverize them into a paste, access to boiling water and a method of starting a fire on demand." She sighed. "It's a slow, tedious and annoying process. But, it's probably the only way to get around not having tools in this place, plus it's not restricted by the presence of Protasi energy, which is a nice bonus, I suppose."

"And let me guess, those plants are located in the Abyss..." I sighed.

"Correct, which is why this, naturally, raises a few problems." She turns from the desk to face me. "Here's the thing, due to the way Protasi energy works when it comes to interactions with other Protasi wielders, there is a way for me to send you to the Abyss to harvest some resources. However, I can't come with you, and I'll need to perform the trick twice, once for you and another for something you can use to come home." She crosses her arms. "And this, of course, assumes you're even willing to go trawling for plants for me."

"Not got a choice to be entirely honest with you." I stand up from the bed and nod. "We can't get you safe and help me figure out what the hell I'm going to do with these 'gifts' you speak of without them, and besides, I wouldn't mind learning about the flora from the Abyss."

"Perhaps," She mused while turning back to the desk. "I'll get that notebook of yours and write some descriptions for the plants I need. Go and get yourself prepared, get some food or something and let me know when you're ready to be sent over." She resumes her command of the needle, which floats around her at quite some pace while she takes one of my spare ballpoint pens and starts writing in my notebook. I could tell from here that her writing was hardly that neat, but I was glad to see that she was committed to this endeavour.

"I'll get my stuff ready and head out as soon as you've finished documenting what you need." I approach my wardrobe and throw the doors open, reaching a hand in to retrieve my jacket hastily. "Do you think I could also bring a backpack over?" I ask while leaning back out of the wardrobe. "Just checking since a backpack would allow me to bring a lot more stuff home, far more than I could carry in this thing," I speak up while donning my jacket from the previous night.

"That should be perfectly within the realms of possibility," She responds, only to stop writing and pause for thought for a moment. "Yes, yes, that should be fine. Can't see why it wouldn't be." Her hesitation and the fact she had to reconsider her answer for but the briefest of moments was not what I wanted to witness, but at the very least, it was worth a shot to see if I could bring my backpack with me.

"Right, I'll be back in a moment, gonna go get a snack before we go." I put my backpack on and exited the room at pace. Walking down the corridor and entering the kitchen, I saw that Dan had long since gone; he probably finished the chilli shortly after we walked past earlier and took his share.

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Not wanting to take anything of his without asking, while also maintaining a strong desire for the use of my nostrils to persist, I opened the fridge and helped myself to one of the packed sandwiches I had bought around a week ago and sat at the table by the window. I can't remember what kind of sandwich it was, but I remember it being one of the fastest ones I had eaten in quite some time. I reasoned that, by the time I had finished my snack, Farinosa would have finished jotting down what I needed to look for and roughly where I could find it during my temporary return to the Abyss.

Once I had finished my sandwich, I discarded the packaging and headed back to my room. Upon re-entering the room, I saw that Farinosa had been very busy indeed; several separate pens were levitated and working in unison, finishing off words she had started or sketched out highly detailed images within moments.

"Ah, perfect timing," She peeks over her shoulder, eyes narrow and focused on my coat and backpack. "I just finished scribing a few important notes into your journal here." She closed my journal, picked it up and passed it my way with an underarm throw. "I'm sure you'll pick up on the contents of the notes with little in the ways of difficulty, you're not an Amethyite, but you're far from stupid."

With that last remark, I flick through the first few pages of the notebook and take a brief scan of what I saw within its pages. Bound within the first seven pages were detailed descriptions of the plants I would be looking for and a short description of their appearance, what they are needed for, and why they're essential for her alchemical concoctions.

"Now, when you are ready, take a seat on your bed, and I can send you back to the Abyss." She notes while reaching for her seax-staff. Once in her possession, she presses a combination of engravings upon its shaft and unthreads the upper quarter of the staff, causing the seax head to come away as a single-piece knife. She sat the now headless staff against the wall and approached me. I grew anxious considering the fact that this primarily anomalous and unknowable figure was now coming me with a sharp object.

With the seax in her right hand, she raises her left hand and grits her teeth. Through her gritted teeth and closed eyes, she utters something in the tongue of her kin, only to rest the blade against her left palm and, after some hesitation, she dragged it back in a sharp yank.

Her whole body tensed up for a moment, and a pained twitch caused her to jolt in place while the bloody blade was left in her right hand. The fingers which grasped it appeared to slip away partially. Her eyelids flung open, and her lip curled back, her jagged teeth locked in a tight bite, with nought but a pained growl passing them by.

"I've not done this for quite some time." She muttered through gritted teeth, her hands unsteady and her arms continued twitching from pain. She reached to the side and placed the bloodied knife upon the end table. "It's so strange to feel pain so acutely after all this time." She muttered while fishing my fountain pen out of a draw with her unbloodied hand.

"What are you doing?" I reluctantly request while I watched her darkened blood trickle from the freshly carved groove upon her hand. The eye end of the needle had collected some of her blood and was writing like a stylus upon the side of my fountain pen, scratching away something written in crude cuneiform.

"Scribing your pen with an incantation of resonance." She glanced up from the foundation pen, only to snap her view back down almost immediately. "In theory, unless I've messed this up somehow, you should be able to reignite the ensorceled cuneiform with your own blood, which should, in theory, reactivate the ritual and bring you back to the location whereby the cuneiform was scribed." She spoke while the needle came to a halt, returning to her palm to acquire more blood.

"So, you're telling me if I stab myself with that pen, I'll reappear here?" I asked for clarity; I certainly didn't want to misattribute what she was talking about here, especially if she meant what I think she did.

"Yes," She nods, the pain still rippling through her voice. "I think."

"Yeah, it's that last part I'm not so happy about." I chuckle anxiously and try to dismiss my concern as best as possible; it would get me nowhere to spend mental effort approaching and dealing with such worries. Farinosa has been partaking in this Amethyite sorcery for heaven only knows how long; I should be able to place my trust in her abilities, right?

"To be honest, it's probably the most reliable and least painful way to do this," She reasoned. "I could have ensorceled something far less efficient, like one of those books you have; you'd have to bash your head in to get the same result that way." Her eyes rolled to the side, and the amber flames within them flared for a moment. "And if I'm right, when you do come back, the wound should fade from existence, so it'll only hurt for but the briefest of moments, I think."

"Alright, beggers can't be choosers, I suppose." I reluctantly agree and take the fountain pen off of her. Looking upon its frame, I see the cuneiform engraved upon its length, her dark blood mystically dried to the scratches. I was no less optimistic or open to the idea of having to stab myself with it to come back home. But, if she was not mistaken, this could open a significant array of opportunities for my investigative research. "So, how are you going to send me there?"

"With a very, very old and primitive version of what I did to come here, albeit one which the caster can only perform upon another." She grunts as blood trickles from her palm. Her right hand reached for her left and dipped a finger in the blood, which then moved to my forehead. "Hold still; this won't take long." She murmured as she pressed the bloodied finger against my forehead. Her finger traced around like she was trying to draw something, but I couldn't tell what it was other than guessing that it wasn't the same kind of text that she wrote upon my fountain pen.

She started to speak in an Abyssal tongue, the likes I hadn't heard before. From what guesswork I could perform, it sounded like what we believe Sumerian or ancient Assyrian would have been like, yet it also felt so unnatural all the same. Her eyes burned brighter by the second, flicking in their sockets while the pupils lock into me. I felt like they were drawing me to look back through them, to see something deep within the recesses of her mind.

My head throbs violently, and my vision melts into her eyes in a way that reminded me of the Statue from the Abyss, how it felt like my soul was being torn free from its earthly, primitive shackles.

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When my vision returned, I found myself lying against the same wall I was thrown against from the previous night. I was still within the confines of the alcove, shade all around.

Interestingly, it appeared that my clothes carried over; I had different trousers to the ones I was wearing when I was here, though I thought that it wouldn't matter so much in the grand scheme of things...

Wait a minute, how did that last nightmare end?

Oh yes, I remember, the Statue threw me against the very same wall I was slumped up against at this very moment.

I looked up and, much to my dismay, it seemed that the flow of time had not gripped the Iridescent Abyss in ways which I was entirely in agreement with, for crouched no more than a few feet away from me was the blocky, marbled outline of something far too familiar.

The Statue appeared to be in the same boat as I was; fortunately, while it was precisely where it was when I was pulled back to the real world, it appeared entirely dumbstruck by my reappearance, unharmed and changed, seemingly renewed in the blink of an eye. Its marbled head slowly cocked to the side, eyes narrowed, and an audibly unsure hiss slowly crept from its mouth.

For once, it would seem that I wasn't the most bewildered soul to be found upon my arrival...