Trailing behind the large crowd of questers, Lyn lowered her head towards the petite woman next to her. "Do you have any idea what kind of treasures are in there?"

Cydney shook her head. "I'm not sure, but this cave feels..." Her voice tapered off as her frown deepened. "I don't know how to describe it... very familiar, maybe?"

"Familiar?"

Before Lyn could question more, the dark passageway opened up into a cavernous, dome-like structure. Runes similar to those at the entrance painted the walls, while streaks of sunlight lit up the interior like fiery spotlights.

In the middle of the cave sat the strangest object Lyn had ever seen: a giant, white cylinder, with windows along the rounded surfaces and a pair of flat, triangular wings on both sides. It looked like a very poor imitation of a bird made by a child for their art class. Except that the child was some kind of a titan, and the bird they constructed was the size of a grown dragon.

"What the hell is that?" Lyn blurted. Her confusion was shared by everybody else in the quest; murmurs broke throughout the crowd as they hesitated around the bird-like object.

Through the agitated mutterings came a soft, but clear, reply. "An aeroplane."

"A what?"

Lyn turned to face Cydney, but she was already gone. Pushing through the crowd, the hooded woman was the first to approach the aeroplane. She walked towards what seemed like a door and yanked it out.

As Cydney stepped into the structure, Lyn hurriedly followed suit. The other questers were emboldened by her actions and began to rip at the other doors and windows of the object.

It was even stranger inside the bird-like structure, if possible. Lyn was not sure what she had been expecting to see—perhaps a whole load of mush, or perhaps another poor imitation of a bird's organs. But she had not expected a mini theatre. Rows of red cushioned chairs filled the entire interior, with an aisle in the middle that was just big enough for a child-sized person to stroll through. Was this an elaborate theatre for a niche genre of play?

Cydney wasted no time in squeezing between the seats and rummaging through everything. Her hands reached into the little pockets behind each chair, scanning through the different pamphlets, letters, and magazines she found.

"Find anything interesting, Cinna?"

"I don't know." Cydney crouched awkwardly between the rows of chairs as she flipped through a magazine. "But it says here that it's 2014."

"The year 2014? That's a really long time ago." Lyn leaned over the seat separating her and Cydney. The magazine was written in another language that she didn't understand. "What language is this?"

"Chinese."

"Oh, you can read Chinese?"

"Mmhm. It seemed that they were trying to get from KL to Beijing, but got stuck here, somehow..." Her eyelashes fluttered as she trailed off.

"KL?"

"Kuala Lumpur. It's the capital of Malaysia," Cydney said as she passed a small piece of paper to Lyn.

The paper was faded yellow and slightly torn at the edges, but the faint words and timestamps suggested that it was a ticket of some sort.

"Flight MH370," Lyn read out loud. "Is that the name of the play? I've never heard of it."

"Me neither."

Lyn watched as Cydney continued ransacking the area, occasionally pocketing small trinkets and items. Her eyes wandered, and she began to realize that the color of the cushions seemed quite... uneven. She frowned—and then gagged.

The seats were not red in color. They were drenched in blood! Rusty, cherry-colored, dried blood.

"We should leave, Cinna, this place is—"

"Oh wow!" Cydney's sudden exclamation cut Lyn off. She held out a flat metal block the size of a large notepad, her eyes shimmering with excitement. "Look, Lyn, an eye-pad!"

"Eye-pad?" Lyn could not help but lean over again. At a closer glance, the item did look just like Cydney's eye-fone, but much bigger. "Does it do more than the eye-fone you have?"

The petite girl turned the metal block around as she examined it. "I'm not sure. I've never had one." Flashing a coy grin, she handed the eye-pad to Lyn. "Can you charge it?"

"Sure." Lyn smiled in response.

Just like the way she would charge the eye-fone, she pressed the thin block in between her fingers and generated a charge. Or at least, she tried to.

"Oh. I can't do it."

Cydney tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Lyn tried again. It did not work again. What the hell?

Dread crept up her pounding heart as she lifted both her hands. Clenching and opening up her fists, she concentrated. But to no avail. It was not just lightning; she was unable to summon any fire or wind to her palms either, two of the most basic elemental magic.

She was unable to summon any magic at all.

"Something is very wrong with this place, Cinna." Lyn's head spun as if she was hit with sudden fatigue. "I can't control my magic. I can't control any magic."

Cydney paled. "You what?" She hurried towards Lyn, holding onto her as she staggered on the spot. "This is really, really bad, Lyn, you should leave. We should all leave. You should tell everyone to leave."

Cydney's frightened tone slapped Lyn out of her daze. "Yeah, you're right." She wrapped her hands around Cydney's and stepped out of the metal bird.

Raising her voice to address the fumbling questers both inside and outside the strange structure, Lyn cried, "Everyone, let's get the hell out of here! This place is too dangerous!"

An awkward silence ensued as everyone turned to stare at her.

"What's wrong?" Irene, standing near the walls of the cave, was the first to respond.

"Elemental magic is blocked here, somehow."

The black woman frowned. She lifted her hands, and her eyes widened in shock. "Wait, what the fuck?"

"I know. This place is bad news."

A few questers next to Lyn snorted. "Elemental mages, am I right?" one of them teased, as they elbowed each other in glee.

"Try using basic magic and tell me how it goes," snapped Lyn.

One by one, every quester began to panic. Clamor and curses filled the air as they realized they were unable to start a fire, or pull water from their water bottles, or send messages on their notepads, or use any of the safety items they had brought to the quest...

Before the fluster spiraled out of control, Lyn lifted her hands. "Okay, okay, everyone, calm down." Her voice echoed across every corner of the dome-like cave. "It's probably just some sort of spell cast in this area. Maybe something to do with those runes. Whatever it is, we should all leave for now and only come back if we have a counterspell, okay?"

She let out a small sigh when the questers, even the ones who had mocked her, rushed towards the exit.

"Let's also go, Cinna, I don't know what's up with this place."

"I think I do," Cydney admitted with a small, strained voice. "I should've known the moment I set foot here, but this entire island is not from this world."

"Not from this world? What? Like a parallel world or something?"

"Sort of, yeah..." There was a short pause before Cydney added softly, "Hey Lyn, t- there's something I want to tell you."

"What is it?"

Before Lyn could get a reply, the ground trembled. Bits of dislodged rocks fell from the ceiling, striking the aeroplane with a few loud thuds. Quickly, she pulled Cydney into her arms to shield her from the plunging gravel.

"Lyn, look!"

Lyn's head darted towards where Cydney was pointing at. Near the exit, anguished screams erupted. A slab of stone had risen from the ground, sealing the small opening that they had all come from.

They were trapped. Not just anywhere, but in a place where she could not use any of her powers. A lump grew in her throat as she gritted her teeth.

"Oh, thank you all so much for coming!"

Lyn spun around to see a man standing on top of the metal bird. Tall, slender, over-the-top fashion sense, he had his hands in his pocket, and a gleeful smile plastered all over his ashy, punchable face.

Han.

Neil had been right; he really was here on this island. Lyn glanced at Cydney, whose nose was scrunched up into a scowl so intense that she seemed like a completely different person.

"Cinna..."

"Who are you?" a quester shouted.

"Yeah, what have you done?" another yelled.

"Let us out of here, damn it!"

"Wow, you guys are so talkative!" Han laughed, pushing a few locks of his black hair away from his eyes. "But don't worry, you won't be trapped in here for too long." His grin widened. "You'll die here instead."

That statement caused a bigger commotion, which Han was clearly relishing.

"Well, fuck you! You'll die instead!" A daring fighter held out a spear and leaped towards him.

Han did not move from his position. Instead, he lifted a hand and waved. A large piece of metal ripped off from the metal bird, flew right into the fighter, and slammed onto the wall. What used to be an indecipherable script was now a white metal plate with bright red splotches all around it.

The cave turned uncomfortably silent.

"Now, now, there's no need to fret," Han drawled, pocketing his hand again. "But if you want to die earlier than others, feel free to jump at me, though."

"What the fuck..." Lyn's stomach churned.

But seriously, what the fuck was that? This was just a treasure hunt, why was Han killing people? Her first instinct was to strike Han down with lightning, but she remembered her current disposition and cursed silently again.

Her second instinct was to get the hell out of here.

She grabbed Cydney's hand and looked around for Emily and Irene. "Come on, let's get the hell out of—"

A handful more fighters dashed towards Han, one of them being Emily.

"Em, no!" Lyn screamed.

Han stifled a yawn before lifting his hand lazily. A few more chunks of metal came flying out. This time, the fighters knew what to expect and tried their best to either dodge or parry. The speed, however, was still too fast—some fighters were struck to the ground, while a few ended up with the same fate as the first guy.

Thankfully, Emily belonged to the former category.

"Em!"

Lyn let go of Cydney and bolted towards the fallen fighter. Emily's body was sprawled onto the ground, and she groaned in pain as Lyn lifted her up.

"Em, your leg..."

"I'm fine." Emily spat out a mouthful of blood. "Those pieces of metal are a lot heavier than they look. How is that skinny man controlling them like this..."

"Doesn't matter, let's get out of here."

"In case you didn't realize, we're stuck here!" Emily barked, pointing at the smirking man. "Unless we kill that motherfucker!"

Han chortled. "Big talk for someone whose legs don't work anymore!"

He raised both his hands and twirled them around. As if following the motion of his fingers, the few metal plates that were floating around him swirled and coiled into three sharp spears twisted around one another.

"You pesky little things all deserve to die!" he yelled as he smashed his palms downwards.

The spears headed straight towards them.

Lyn's heart stopped beating, but despite her fear, she managed to pull Emily behind her. She closed her eyes and waited.

The pain did not come. Instead, a few loud crashes were heard from a mile away.

Lyn opened her eyes to see the spears broken in pieces and scattered around her.

"What the fuck?" Han's face contorted into an uglier scowl, if possible. "Who the fuck is messing with me? Show yourself! I will fucking take you down!"

"Me."

The voice—soft, mellow, but steeped in fury—reverberated throughout the entire cave. Lyn watched as her Cinnamon Cake marched towards the metal bird. Pulling down her hood and tugging away her face veil, her hair slowly turned black as if a bottle of ink had poured over her head of blonde hair.

"You want to fight, then fight fair," Cydney said. "Fight with someone with the same type of magic as you, coward."