"Did we get transported? But to where? And how?" Ayd theorized almost feverishly as he jumped off his quasir, running a hand over its feathers as he looked around. Feyrith climbed off his own as well, having no idea what to say.
How would they even begin to understand what happened to them? He had no experience with deserts, they were simply incredibly rare, located almost exclusively in the mountains in the east. But he had read about them enough to know that they were also very dangerous. There was no water or shelter from the glaring sun, which meant they might die before they could even get to relative safety, not to mention the kinds of beasts that could be living here.
Except it wasn't hot, as if the sun wasn't heating the landscape at all. And the more he looked around, the more everything seemed to shimmer and grow hazy. Even the sun itself was much easier to look at than it should be, barely forcing Feyrith to squint as he stared up at it. He could almost not see the horizon with how blurry everything got the farther he looked. He didn't remember reading about anything like that, but given the way they had gotten here, perhaps he shouldn't assume this desert would be at all similar to the ones elven explorers had talked about.
He was about to say something to Ayd, even though he had no idea what, but that voice he'd heard all of a sudden spoke to him again.
Not real.
He blinked, knowing that Ayd was looking at him now with concern, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. Instead, he focused on the voice and only the voice.
What do you mean?
This place. Illusion. Reflection.
Oh, this desert was an illusion of some kind? That would explain the oddness of it all. But it didn't explain how to get out of here. Or how they entered this place in the first place. But now that Feyrith knew this, he couldn't even manage to be worried about either of those things next to the profound fear that was now threatening to overwhelm him. If this were an illusion, then magic was at play here—a show of magic on a scale he had never seen before. And that shook him to his core.
"Fey? Are you okay?"
Feyrith blinked again, focusing on Ayd who was now holding his shoulder. How had he completely missed him touching him? He'd been so focused on the voice that he hadn't even realized Ayd had come up to him like this.
He nodded, even though he wasn't sure he was okay, but how he felt right now was not important. He needed to explain what just happened to Ayd.
"A voice just spoke to me," Feyrith said, bracing himself for Ayd's reaction as the other elf took his hand off his shoulder. He needed to explain as fast as possible because he wasn't sure how Ayd was going to react. He wasn't sure how he'd react if someone told something like this to him.
He saw Ayd's eyes grow wide with shock and alarm, but Feyrith didn't let him say anything before continuing. "It spoke to me once before. In the jungle. It warned me before the attack that made us rush to the ruins."
This time Ayd managed to get a few words in, a grimace on his face. "Fey, hearing voices, especially in the jungle—"
"I know, it could be dangerous. I do not blindly trust it," Feyrith cut him off, sighing. "But...it has not given me a reason to distrust it so far."
Ayd narrowed his eyes, his lips pressed together into a displeased line. "Has it said something about this place?"
Feyrith nodded, his eyes drifting over to their surroundings at the reminder of where they were. Whatever this place was, it was likely not safe. "Yes, it said it is not what it seems. An illusion of some kind."
Old memory.
Feyrith almost flinched when the voice spoke in his head again. It was more difficult to understand now, even more garbled than before but also almost...upset?
What do you mean? he asked, but the voice ignored him.
Still in the jungle. Look right. Head there.
Feyrith immediately looked the way the voice had said, not seeing anything special about the direction, but he supposed there was very little idea of where to go aside from this. He didn't understand the comment about them still being in the jungle, though. Illusions didn't work this way. They would be able to hide the vegetation, the ruins, but not get rid of them. And yet he felt as if he was standing on sand. It shifted beneath his feet when he moved.
Unless he was misunderstanding what the voice was saying, of course.
Still in the jungle? he repeated, but there was no reply. Feyrith sighed, turning back to Ayd, whose brow was furrowed in worry. Feyrith grimaced. The elf had probably said something while he'd been focused on the voice, and he'd completely tuned him out.
"The voice says to go this way," Feyrith said, pointing in the direction he'd been given. Ayd narrowed his eyes, looking in the same direction with what seemed to be a deep displeasure. It was clear he didn't like what was happening here, but Feyrith was just glad they had something to get them started. He had no idea what they'd do without the voice. Go in a random direction and hope something worked out, he supposed.
"That means we should probably go the opposite way," Ayd grumbled, turning to his quasir so he could grab its reins. The animal was digging at the sand with its claws, its eyes wide with curiosity as if trying to understand what sand was. "Who knows what kind of trap it wants to lead us into."
"If whoever is talking to me wanted us dead, it wouldn't have warned me about those beasts," Feyrith pointed out, mounting his quasir. Between that voice and discussing this with Ayd, Feyrith hadn't paid enough attention to their surroundings. And now he couldn't help but feel nervous, worrying about what might be hiding around them, or even beneath them in the sand. They should get moving.
"Maybe the trap isn't meant to kill us, Fey," Ayd pointed out, but then he sighed, climbing onto his quasir's back as well. "I don't like this. I mean, why is this voice only talking to you, and no one else? And why did it start just before we were thrown into this place?"
Feyrith wished he had answers to both those questions, but all he could do was try to ask the voice when it spoke to him again. "I don't like this either. But if this place truly is some kind of illusion, then I have no idea how to get us out. Whoever is talking to me might."
Ayd's shoulders sank as he let out another, longer sigh, before nodding. "All right. We will go see where it wants us to go. But we won't blindly trust whoever or whatever this is and stay cautious."
"Yes, agreed."
Feyrith couldn't help but feel relieved. He had hundreds of questions with no answers, but as much as he'd like to theorize with Ayd about it all, he wanted to get moving more. The sooner they found a way out of this the sooner they could reunite with the rest of their group. Feyrith hoped they were all right.
"I keep thinking about how we got here," Ayd said as they began to move across the sands. Both the quasir made unhappy noises, clearly not very thrilled about the new terrain, but they didn't seem to be struggling too much with it, only running at a slower pace than usual.
"That light," Ayd continued, his eyebrows drawn together. "I saw it hit you before it hit me. I think it was the same light that kept appearing all around us. That...flashing we tried to get away from." Ayd snorted, though there didn't seem to be any humor in it. "I was sure we'd die."
Feyrith couldn't disagree. He still wasn't certain what the flicker had been, but it had seemed dangerous. And given the fact that it had transported them here, he still wasn't certain it wasn't.
"Is that some kind of portal magic I didn't have a chance to learn about existing?" Ayd asked, throwing a puzzled look at Feyrith.
"There is no portal magic outside of theory." Feyrith truly wished there was, however. It would make the elves so much more effective in keeping the roads safe.
"Right, so that isn't helpful," Ayd replied, frowning harder. Feyrith knew that wasn't what Ayd had meant, but he couldn't help but feel a sting at the reminder that maybe if he had magic, they would fare here better. At the very least he'd have a way to make water, which would become a problem out here if they didn't get out of here quickly. "Can you think of anything? Have you read about something like this happening?"
Feyrith sighed sadly and shook his head. He had been wracking his brain trying to explain what had happened somehow, but he just couldn't. "This is not like anything I have ever thought possible. The sheer scale of this illusion, assuming it truly is one, is staggering. I don't believe any elf could do this."
His own words made his blood run cold at the thought of what could do it. They had no idea what hid within the depths of the jungle. He'd been too focused on stopping whatever was disturbing the beasts to even think about what kind of dangers there might be, aside from the animals. But he couldn't feel too guilty about it, either, because he'd never thought of something like this being possible.
"Well, that's not good," said Ayd after a short pause.
And then all that filled the space between them, aside from sand, was silence as they kept heading in the same reaction, hoping to find something, anything, other than dunes. At least the quasir climbed up and down the sandy hills with relative ease, more ease than Feyrith thought possible, but he supposed that was a blessing.
"I hope the others are okay," Ayd said suddenly and unexpectedly, making Feyrith look over at him, but before he could express a similar sentiment, something beyond the other elf caught his eye. A flicker of something dark. It was gone very quickly, but it had stayed for long enough for Feyrith to figure out what they had to do.
"Maybe it is a portal of some kind."
"What?" Ayd was now frowning at him, quickly looking behind himself to try to figure out what Feyrith had seen. But of course, whatever the dark phenomenon had been, it was gone. But Feyrith was more than happy to explain, feeling a surge of hope at this development.
"Maybe that light, that flickering we saw back in the jungle—maybe it was a portal of some kind." Ayd raised an eyebrow but said nothing, letting Feyrith continue. He did seem to want to point out that this was what he'd theorized had happened before, though. "Well, I believe I may have seen another."
Feyrith pointed to where it had been, Ayd looking behind himself again to follow his finger. "You did?"
"Yes, I think so," Feyrith confirmed. "It was dark, but it seemed very similar otherwise. Perhaps if we can manage to get through one of these portals before it disappears, we will get back to the jungle."
Not portal. A tear. But do. Way out.
Feyrith almost flinched, not having expected the voice to speak just then, but he mostly managed to contain his shock so as not to alarm Ayd again. He wasn't sure why the voice was calling these portals tears, though. A tear in what? Whatever it was, it sounded much more terrifying and was certainly not helpful.
Keep moving. More farther away.
"The voice agrees that is what we should do," Feyrith said, choosing to leave out what it insisted on calling these phenomena. "And that there are more if we keep going."
"Great." Judging by the deadpan tone and annoyance in his eyes, Ayd was still not happy about the voice, but Feyrith was glad they at least didn't have to argue about this. They had only seen one of these portals, tears, or whatever they were because they had followed the voice's instructions, after all, and as such, it made sense to Feyrith to continue doing so, even though Ayd was right in staying cautious.
The farther they went the more frequently the dark flickering appeared, but unfortunately, it never stuck around long enough to even attempt to rush at it to run into it. Assuming that would bring them back to the jungle, but Feyrith couldn't start thinking about that. If he did, he'd just grow even more anxious and start overthinking everything.
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But those portals were the only thing that showed that they'd traveled anything at all. There was nothing but dunes and sand all around them, and it didn't seem as though they were moving anywhere at all. The landscape did change as they went, but it still seemed all the same. But they kept going, not having much choice to do anything else.
But at last, as Feyrith spotted more portals in the distance, his hopes of getting out of here soared when he noticed these were staying for longer. The landscape behind them seemed even more blurry and unclear than before for some reason, but Feyrith was only keeping his eye on the portals. They seemed to disappear after a while only to reappear elsewhere. And the closer he and Ayd got, the more jagged and sharp they looked, like, well, tears in reality. What was this place?
He flinched as one of the portals appeared just a few feet away from him, but he wasn't fast enough to stop his quasir so it could change direction. He was however fast enough to see just how exactly the portals looked, and with it, his determination to go through one of them. Because the darkness he'd seen inside of them was the jungle. The dark leaves and vines he'd just glimpsed at made him almost desperate to get back there, no matter how dangerous the place was. Because this desert, whatever it was, was wrong. There was something truly unnatural about it. Feyrith wasn't even certain what he meant by that, but something about this place was simply disturbing to him.
As they ran up a particularly tall sand dune, however, these thoughts drifted away when he saw what awaited them down below. A massive, shimmering city, made of white rock and tall spires, and beyond, a small forest of strange, mostly bare trees and domes of leaves on top, surrounding what looked like a large lake.
Feyrith almost gasped at the sight, pulling his quasir to a stop so he could stare. He'd never seen anything like this aside from Aendor, and even then, the elven towers weren't as numerous as this.
Who had built this? And when? Feyrith would have assumed this was simply another illusion, something that was never real, except the voice had said this was all a memory. Perhaps there was a city like this somewhere out there. The only thing he didn't understand was why there was an illusion like this within the jungle.
"Goddess," Ayd breathed, having also stopped and was now staring down at the city below. "What is this place?"
Feyrith looked at him, wishing he could answer that question. But all he could do was stare at the glorious sight below them. It was truly awe-inspiring, especially given that this place was built in the desert. Even with the source of water behind the city, it seemed strange for any society to try to live out here.
And speaking of society, there weren't any people here, as far as Feyrith could tell. The city was too large to see fully, but he was sure that he should be able to spot the inhabitants of this place from here if there were any.
In the city. Large tear. Escape.
"There should be a large portal in the city," Feyrith repeated for Ayd, receiving a rather displeased look from him. But then Ayd gave a nod, looking back down at the city.
"All right," he said, guiding his quasir down the dune slowly, and Feyrith following after him. "I just don't understand. What is all this?"
"I don't know." Feyrith sighed. It could all be fake of course, but if so, someone had created this illusion, so it must have meant something, even if this wasn't representative of an actual place in the world.
"That voice isn't telling you?"
Ayd seemed irritated, but at least he didn't seem annoyed with Feyrith himself. But Feyrith supposed he could try asking. The voice didn't seem to answer his questions often, and he had no idea how to tell when it was listening in or not, but there was no harm in trying.
What is this place?
As nothing but silence followed, Feyrith sighed again, assuming that he wasn't going to get any kind of answer, but then suddenly the voice spoke, somehow even more garbled than before. It was starting to become difficult to understand it.
Karyal. Home.
Karyal? Feyrith frowned, trying to place that name. It sounded familiar. He might have read about it at some point, but aside from being certain it was a location of some kind, he couldn't remember anything about it.
Is this where you are outside of this illusion?
Feyrith's immediate thought was that maybe the voice's owner was also the creator of this illusion, but he immediately pushed that thought away, hoping that the person talking to him hadn't heard him. He didn't want to be unnecessarily suspicious of them.
No. You are.
Feyrith scowled, having no idea what that meant. Was the voice making fun of him? It hadn't done that until now, but he supposed he must have looked foolish for all the questions he'd had so far. But that voice was the only thing that could bring some clarity—there was no one else to turn to.
"Fey?"
Feyrith blinked, focusing on Ayd again. They were almost at bottom of the dune now. "Apologies. I was talking to the voice."
Ayd's gaze turned darker, the annoyance on his face growing. "What did it say?"
"It called this place Karyal."
Ayd's displeasure seemed to grow even more as his lips formed a thin line. "Did it say something useful?"
Feyrith knew that Ayd wasn't taking a dig at him, but it still felt that way. He hated having no news to share. He looked down at his quasir's feathery head, his shoulder sinking. "It said that there should be a large portal around here somewhere. But otherwise, I suppose nothing useful."
"Sorry, Fey, I'm just frustrated." Feyrith looked over at Ayd again, feeling his insides twist at the guilty look on the other elf's face. He hadn't meant to make him feel that way. "This whole situation is.... It's making me tense."
Feyrith understood, not blaming Ayd at all for what he'd said, but he also couldn't seem to make himself say anything else as they entered the city, which took up most of his attention. The buildings in the distance seemed to sway, while the ones closest to them seemed more solid. However, they didn't look quite right. At first, Feyrith couldn't place it, but then he realized what it was—none of the structures around them seemed to be built correctly.
They were wide at the bottom and thin at the top, or vice versa, in ways that he didn't think should be possible, some even twisting to the side a bit, giving the impression that they would break up into a pile of evenly cut stones any moment. They hadn't seemed that way from a distance, but now Feyrith didn't understand how any of these buildings were standing. He didn't know that much about architecture, but he was sure all those twisting spires at the very least should have long since fallen to the ground.
Even with the lack of scorching heat and blurry distant landscapes, the desert hadn't seemed otherworldly until now. But these impossible structures truly convinced him. He wasn't sure if calling this place an illusion was accurate anymore. It seemed more like some kind of dreamscape rather than an illusion. Illusions had a point to them, and that point was to fool others. This was disturbing but certainly not convincing him of being real.
There was something else going on here that Feyrith simply didn't understand because he didn't have all the pieces to make it make sense to him.
"Let's find that portal and leave as quickly as possible," Ayd said, staring up at the nearest spire through narrowed eyes. "It had better not be high above."
Oh, Feyrith hadn't even thought of that. What if they had to go inside one of these buildings, or climb up? Their quasir might not be able to follow, but they couldn't leave them behind.
Still, he kept these thoughts to himself for now. He didn't want to stress out Ayd for no reason. Maybe they would be lucky for once. As they ventured deeper and deeper, Feyrith couldn't help but get lost in the sights around him, fascinated by both how alien the white-stone buildings looked on their own, and their odd proportions. They almost seemed to move in the air incredibly slowly, but that somehow wasn't making Feyrith feel anxious about them falling on him. He wasn't sure why, but he was happy about at least that.
He wished there were some identifiable aspects to this city, though, just so he could maybe try to research what they were experiencing, assuming they got back from their jungle quest alive. There didn't seem to be any writing on any of the buildings, not any decorations that would stand out. But then perhaps a desert city might be enough of an identifier.
"Is that it?" Ayd said, bringing Feyrith's attention to him instead. He followed the other elf's gaze, quickly noticing the large, dark, jagged shape of the portal. It was much bigger than the others had been, and while it flickered sometimes, it seemed to be staying in place. The only problem was that it was in the air. Not too high up, but enough for them not to be able to reach it.
"How are we going to get up there?" Feyrith found himself asking, at a loss as to what to do. If he had magic, he'd use wind to throw them up there. But like this he was useless.
"There's a balcony," Ayd said, pointing at said balcony. It was quite large, attached to one of the buildings facing the portal. But the balcony was a bit farther away from the portal than Feyrith would have liked it to be.
"Can our quasir even jump that distance?"
Ayd stayed silent for a moment, simply watching the portal, frowning in thought, before he turned to look at Feyrith. "I'm sure it will be fine."
Feyrith swallowed. He somehow doubted that Ayd was as sure as he was claiming, but he was probably saying that for Feyrith's sake, so he would take it. It would be fine. It had to be. Now they just had to get inside the building with the balcony. He truly hoped the quasir would be able to get on the balcony also.
As they approached the building, he was already having doubts when he looked at the narrow wooden door. His quasir shook its head and let out a displeased noise, as if also dubious of this. But they had no choice but to try. Feyrith jumped off his quasir's back and approached the door, hesitating for a second before grasping the door handle. But nothing out of the ordinary happened, making Feyrith relax his shoulders a little.
The door creaked as he pulled it open, revealing an empty, narrow room with a spiral staircase in the middle of it. It swayed as Feyrith watched it. It almost made his head spin looking at it, but he swallowed, trying not to let that intimidate him. He just hoped it wouldn't fall apart the moment they stepped on it.
"That looks...." Ayd trailed off as he stuck his head in the room to look as well. He didn't need to finish the sentence for Feyrith to know what he was thinking, though. It looked incredibly unsafe, almost unsettling, and if Feyrith were to be honest, likely unwise to try to ascend the staircase. But what choice did they have?
Feyrith pulled on his quasir's reins, coaxing the animal to walk into the room as well, which it did with an annoyed caw, squeezing through the doorframe with not too much trouble. At least there was that. Now they had to figure out if the quasir could walk up to the balcony.
Feyrith got out of the way, waiting for Ayd and his quasir to join them before approaching the swaying staircase. The first dozen steps or so seemed solid with no movement to them, but the farther up he looked, the more the stone stairs seemed to wobble and lurch from side to side.
Tearing his eyes away and keeping them fixed on his feet, Feyrith took a hesitant step, trying to ignore the way his hands were sweating and shaking. But to his relief, the stairs were firm and steady beneath his foot. Perhaps the movement was an illusion as well.
"Careful, Fey," Ayd said from behind him, sounding worried. Feyrith was touched by the other elf's concern, but he didn't respond, focusing fully on the staircase, taking a few, cautious steps up. Thankfully, nothing was happening even now that he was fully standing on the strange staircase, and so he gave his quasir's reins another tug, getting the mount to follow him.
The beast shook its head, letting out a low squawk. It was clear that the quasir didn't like participating in any of this, which was something Feyrith fully understood, but unfortunately, they had no choice. Leaving the quasir here was unthinkable. Even putting aside the moral wrongness of abandoning them here to die of thirst or hunger, there would be no traversing the jungle without them.
Aside from an occasional grumble and caw, the quasir slowly followed Feyrith up the staircase, thankfully fitting well enough on it so that it wouldn't be uncomfortable for the animal, though it did seem to be struggling with the stairs a little, its hind claws slipping down the stone every so often, making it nearly trip.
But while it didn't help the quasir's mood or willingness to do what Feyrith wanted, at least it was a minor inconvenience at worst, and soon they reached the second floor, which was as empty as the room below, aside from a double door right in front of him.
Leading his quasir toward it, Feyrith grasped the doorknob and pulled, praying to the Goddess that the balcony would be on the other side. A relieved breath left him when he saw that it was, the glaring sun outside hitting his eyes now that the way out was open. He looked over his shoulder at Ayd, who was just about to reach the second story as well, before leading the quasir out onto the balcony, pleased that it was large enough to easily accommodate both him and his mount.
Just a few feet away from them, a little below the balcony was the portal, its razor-sharp edges jerking as they moved around, while still keeping the jagged shape mostly the same. Would it hurt jumping through this? The edge of the portal reminded Feyrith of pieces of broken glass—even the noise it made sounded a little like glass shattering. It looked as though it might cut them if they even dared touch it, let alone jump through it. And yet the other portals he'd seen in this place seemed very similar, aside from the size. He had to hope that the one that had brought them here in the first place had looked like this as well. It had not hurt them in the least, and so this one wouldn't either.
Feyrith tore his eyes away from the portal edge and to the center of it, the trees and ferns he could see through it. He hoped that wherever in the jungle this portal led, it wouldn't be too far away from where they entered this place, even though he knew that was unlikely given how much distance they'd traveled to get to this mysterious city. Though, perhaps that didn't matter. There was no telling with this kind of magic. He had no frame of reference for any of it.
"So, do we jump?" Ayd asked as he came up to Feyrith at the edge of the balcony, leaning down over the stone railing to look at the portal as well.
Feyrith nodded, taking in a few deep breaths. The railing was short enough that it shouldn't be a problem for the quasir to jump over it, but what he was worried about, aside from everything else, was that the beasts might refuse to jump. Even with that calming spell, they might not be calm enough to fight their instincts. The height wasn't such that the quasir would kill themselves by jumping, but they could still injure themselves, and there was no explaining it to the animals that they would be transported hopefully safely to the jungle before they could hit the ground.
But there was no use standing here and worrying. They needed to get going.
Feyrith climbed onto his quasir's back, stroking the beast along its neck to hopefully calm it as he gave Ayd a nod. The quasir still seemed fairly angry, its ears flat and posture rigid, but stroking its feathers seemed to calm it at least a little. His grip on the reins was so tight it almost hurt as he nudged the quasir to make a circle around the whole balcony to gain some momentum. It was now or never.
As the quasir reached the railing, Feyrith pushed it to go faster, fully expecting it to stop and likely throw him off its back, but to his shock, the beast jumped with no hesitation, flying over the railing and into the portal before he could even properly realize that was what was happening. And then they were tumbling out of the portal and onto the jungle floor.
The quasir cawed in anger as it fell down, jumping up immediately and stomping in anger as it made a full circle and flicked its tail. Feyrith shook his head, somehow managing to hold onto his mount throughout all of this, and glanced around, feeling his shoulders sink with relief. They were in the jungle again. And as far as he knew, they were unharmed.
But...wait. Where was Ayd?
Feyrith jumped off his quasir, taking a quick, sweeping glance at his surroundings, but all he saw was a mass of trees, plants, and vines, a silent jungle with Ayd nowhere in sight. And neither was the portal. It must have been here to transport him to this place, surely. He could swear it had been here when he'd come through, the bright light of the desert lighting up the dark jungle. Had it disappeared, just like all of the smaller ones they'd seen before Ayd could jump in?
Feyrith felt his stomach turn. Whatever had happened, he had no idea if Ayd was back in the jungle, let alone if he was safe. And he had no idea how to make sure of either.
But there was one thing Feyrith did know perfectly well—he was alone, sooner or later to be attacked by hungry beasts, and with no idea which way to go.