Darkness. Where there once had been light, remained now only an oceanic realm of a shadowy, substanceless void. Where there had been a searing pain arisen from a deluge of inferno, remained now naught but a painless refuge.

Here lay Tolan. Sightless, and aimless. Like a leaf stuck on a gentle breeze.

Stuck next to him was Matheus, bathed too in the silent whispers of the darkness that surrounds them.

Both weren’t there though. Not entirely. For their minds lay adrift. Oblivious of their seared flesh, and the void in which they traversed. They floated unfeeling, unfettered, and free.

In this dead darkness that superimposed itself upon what once had been light, they went… somewhere.

It was difficult to make out where they were intended, but it certainly appeared that they were as such.

There was no starlight; for this was no sudden night. With no bright source of light in sight, and with their clear weightlessness, it was difficult to gauge they were falling, floating, or flying through this darkened realm.

But though this space seemed naked in anything but darkness, something else did live here. Out in the far corner, if anything here could be called that, moved small shadowy tendrils.

They slithered their way towards Tolan and began to float over and touch the loose robes that hung over his flesh.

And as they began to move beneath those robes, tracing the thin lines of his muscles, and caressing the pores of his skin, the void quaked.

Tolan awoke, screaming in great agony.

The phantom pain of the fire that no longer was lingered on his mind. To him, the tendrils superimposed themselves atop the fiery waifs of heat from prior.

In response to his outburst, the tendrils reacted and began to tear his bones, bend his body, and bite into the pores of his flesh.

He drifted along, alone, and cold: in companionship with this budding and rising misery.

Sensing the tearing and the now crushing feeling of this darkened cavity, Tolan begged for the end of this agonizing pain. But none came. And neither did his scream echo in this veil of darkness. No sound came at all.

As the concept of time waned, and his torturous mind wasted away in unbearable wails, there returned suddenly a sense of self.

Like a hollow thing suddenly given energy. He felt his dead mageheart beat, and the stone hidden in his palm echo its pulse.

Though this place ran bare of any of essence. He still reached out. Like a hand reaching for the formless air. And whenever he reached out anything, caught only tiny wisps of essence that broke upon contact.

There was nothing for his mageheart to absorb here. Nothing for it to purify. And yet, it beat still in tandem with the rock.

He looked towards Matheus, a few feet away from him, floating. He was encased in those shadowy tendrils completely.

Fear struck Tolan then. He didn’t want that - didn’t want to end up like Matheus. So, he screamed.

The roar of Tolan’s voice shook this darkened cavity. The tendrils recoiled at the increased vibrations emanating from his mouth, and then they floated, away into the darkness. Away from Tolan.

He tried then to reach for Matheus but couldn’t. He attempted to shout out his name, but no voice returned to answer. They drifted away apart. Away from each other.

Suddenly then, Tolan felt back in control again.

He ignored the pain, and with great difficulty, held out the rock in his hand. It shone out in a great burgundy light. Like a small beacon of hope amidst a sea of nothingness.

And that darkness, like a veil of smog, tried to smother its red glow. But it glowed still defiantly.

Tolan didn’t know what to do but felt this rock and his mageheart begin to beat louder and louder. Suddenly, the void stopped quaking and now pulsated in the same rhythm as his mageheart and the rock.

Suddenly his body felt… heavy. He stopped floating and quickly fell through the ether. He screamed again but felt now the weight of his body taking away the air from his lungs.

With each beat in the rhythm, his body grew heavier, and he fell faster. He looked downwards, in great difficulty, and saw around him cracks appearing on this shroud of darkness.

His hand opened and the rock flew away from his grasp. It dropped down, falling faster than Tolan himself. Suddenly, light surged from below. It pushed back the blanket of ether in a flash of burgundy light, and before he could say or do anything, he landed face-first into something hard. His mind collapses into the refuge of his mind. Another darkness traded for a new.

*

It was soft, warm, and heavy. Those were the first details Tolan noticed when he awoke. His eyes adjusted themselves to the blur of the dimly lit room.

Embedded into the walls were crystals emanating a soft white light.

But he was not at the Tower. For as his eyes fully adjusted, came the view of this room. It was a small, squared space, and above hung stripes of interwoven orange, purple, and black cloths.

The room was cold and laden with a myriad of objects he’d never seen before. It was messy, but it felt… homey.

Before he could do anything else, the door opened, and before him entered an older woman with red freckles.

The red dots sprinkled across her cheeks and nose. But that wasn’t the most unusual thing about her. What Tolan noticed first was her red hair and the heavy dress she wore.

She stopped immediately as she entered and smiled at Tolan.

A confused expression appeared on his face; for the woman before him was pale. Far paler than anyone he’d ever seen before. Was he dead? Had that place of darkness been the mythological stairway to the sky? But where are his ancestors, and where’s Matheus?

Many a question flowed through Tolan, and before he could ask any, she moved closer. Placing a wooden bowl filled with white gruel on his lab.

He looked at it, and then at the smiling woman. This can’t be the best heaven has to offer, right? Gruel?

“What are ye waiting for?” She asked.

“What?” His face shifted into a confused daze, and his brows furrowed as he tried to understand her.

The woman laughed and spoke whilst showing the whites of the teeth.

“Best git ‘er done before the man upstairs knocks on your door.” She said, laughing still when she left the room.

The man upstairs? Tolan looked up and saw nothing but the cloths and a roof. As he wondered what the woman meant, he heard the echo of laughter bounce in the hallway.

Was she joking?

More confused than ever, Tolan looked down at the bowl placed on his lap and asked, “What’s going on?”

The warmth of the bowl and the pleasant smell it bore elicited a growl to emerge from his stomach. He was hungry. And he wouldn’t let a meal go to waste. If there’d ever been any lesson he’d taken to heart from his days in the lower quarters, it was that.

He ate the gruel in silence and felt himself lighten up. Though his body remained a bit sluggish, he felt fine. Too fine in fact.

The pain? It’s gone!

Thinking this, he stopped eating and hastily set aside the bowl of delicious gruel. But not before placing one last order in his mouth.

He removed the soft blanket placed on him and saw now fully the clothes he’d been placed in.

Did they – why did they give me pants?

His eyes shook slightly, and he felt slighted. “How barbaric!” He hissed while continuing to examine himself.

They’d also placed him in a coarse tunic, and he thought that this ought to be a joke. For whom would give someone something this warm to wear unless they’d wanted them to die of heat exhaustion.

He pinched himself and then realized that this was reality. His soul hadn’t taken the stairway. He was still alive.

What is going on?

He then began to search the room for his robes. He found nothing.

He removed the tunic and began to look over his flesh. The arm that should have been charred to a dark black wasn’t. There was in fact nothing on his body to indicate that he’d been attacked by flames at all. His skin was as tanned as it had always been.

He was fine. And that both worried him and triggered his confusion to grow. Tolan didn’t know what to do, and so decided that the best option he had right now would be to leave this room and seek some answers.

Though he was a Junior Mage, people still had to listen to him. The authority of the Tower was absolute. And an agent of it probably had some too.

He left the room through the door and entered a hallway. It was small and narrow and held another two doors akin to his. But he cared not for these, for his eyes froze upon the stairway where a boisterous sound of conversation emanated.

He was confused and intrigued. Where was he? He’d come through that darkened cavity and then lost his consciousness. There were too many unknowns and far too many questions as a result.

He moved down the hallway towards the noise and followed the staircase down. He entered a large open room packed to the brim with people.

He paused immediately and took in the noise, smell, and sight of his environment. On the lower floor of this opened room lay several tables and chairs filled with people. He could smell the horrific scent of alcohol in the air and saw the low cloud of smoke that hung in the air.

The upper floor stood raised by rounded, wooden beams. And on these beams, and the walls lay attached rows of small, crystals radiating light.

It was raucous and reeked. And despite the foreign design of the room, it was the small things that shook him deeply.

It wasn’t the fact that the men were drinking alcohol. Nor was it the fact that this place was made of wood – a luxurious material used largely by the Tower academy.

It was their clothes, the colours of their skin, and the variation in their hair colour that caught and held his eyes. He could see their worn heavy garments, and filth surrounding their faces and hands.

Are they beggars? But not even beggars would be seen in pants.

Intrigued, Tolan took a few steps towards the nearest empty table. It was made of wood, and he saw the grains on it clearly. Who were these people?

The stench of their beer hit his nose like a hammer. He coughed slightly and sensed then the warmth of the air on his skin.

This place was wholly different from anything he had ever seen, the people looked unfamiliar to him, and even the establishment looked strange to him.

But perhaps this was an underground bar? He had heard of them before, at least from the other students in the tower.

But it couldn’t be that. No. This is… something else. Something foreign.

This experience was entirely new to Tolan, and he gawked at all he could see.

And so failed he to notice the figure walking up behind him. A man from out a door to his right saw him standing there. Gawking.

How rude, he thought. He chuckled and smiled as his eyes turned on Tolan’s shoulder.

He moved deliberate towards him and let their shoulders strike. Pushing Tolan down into the sticky wooden floorboard. Hard.

He laughed at the sight of him on the unclean floor and spoke. “Well, I’ll be the monkey’s uncle, who let the kids out to play!” He shouted towards the room, and it suddenly burst into forced laughter.

Tolan incredulously turned and looked up at the man who threw a smug smile down at him. He was revelling in the attention he was receiving.

Tolan quickly pushed himself up and looked at the obese figure in anger.

This hadn’t happened to him before. Not since his days as a street rat. He could see the disrespect clearly in the man’s eyes. This person had pushed him down deliberately. He, a mage!

With fire in his veins, Tolan opened himself slightly and felt suddenly the essence in the room come towards him. And the essence's bite didn’t feel so… completely raw anymore. The essence moved like smooth water through his veins as it reached his mageheart to be purified. It still hurt though. But he was able to hold more essence than prior. But why, he didn’t know.

Those thoughts swiftly took a backseat as he pumped himself full of purified essence. Revelling in the intensity of the power within him.

And so, blinded by both rage and the intoxicating effect of his newly found strength, Tolan looked at the man and shouted, “How dare you! Do you know who I am!”

His essence powered outburst shook the tavern, and the laughter died as quickly as it came.

The man looked at him, and despite hearing the intensity of Tolan’s voice, allowed the alcohol that muddied his mind to ignore it.

His head tilted down at Tolan, “Young’un don’t you raise that tone with me, I don’t care for who you are, nor where you from.” He said. The smile gone from his lips, and he moved to slap him.

The fire in Tolan’s veins burst in response, and before the man could hit, he let some of the essence enter his hands as he threw out a punch.

It hit the man square in the abdomen and he felt the fat wobble wildly before he sailed backwards.

He flew through the air and hit the wall. Hard. Crashing into the wooden structure and collapsing into an unconscious state. The timber breaking around him.

The silence now hung heavy in the room, and Tolan heard several chairs scrape over the wooden floor. He looked around and saw several men looking at him with fire in their eyes.

A tense atmosphere grew between him and the ones that stood. Tolan could see the fear in their eyes but felt also that something forced them up. Something about that man.

He’d just started something, and before the nearest men could rush at him, the door to the establishment opened and the woman from before entered with a container of water in hand.

She noticed the silence and saw to her right Allen stuck in the wall.

“What is going on!?” She shouted. Seeing then Tolan at a table near the stairs, and the men eyeing him hard.

“Are you all stirring up trouble with one of my guests again?!” In disbelief, her eyes looked over the men.

One of the guys who stood, and wished to move against Tolan spoke, “Myria, the kid- he attacked Al-!” As he tried to stammer out a response, Myrna cut him off.

“And he probably had a good reason to. Allen is a prick, and you all know it! Look at the sizes of you and him, how dare you act up in my tavern! Do you think you own the place!?” The man grumbles in response.

“You didn’t see what he did, he-“.

“Don’t care! Has the mead loosened them ears away from your head!?” She walked towards Tolan as she replied brusquely in the direction of the man.

She looked at him and saw the fire in his eyes. She placed her hand on his shoulder to ease him away from his fury and turned to the men who still stood.

“If you touch one hair on his head, then you’d better not set one foot in my tavern ever again!”

The men who had stood up looked towards her with indignity in their eyes. But did so for only a second. This was the only establishment in the area serving drinks this cheaply. So, they’d rather swallow their pride than be kicked out and never allowed back again.

They thusly returned to their seats and folded their arms in defeat. Bending their heads down into their tankards and continuing with their conversations.

Some of them though moved over to Allen and with great difficulty got his unconscious body up and tried to step outside the tavern. Though not before throwing Tolan a look. Imprinting his appearance on their mind.

Both they and he knew this wasn’t, and so did Myria.

“Leave, don’t you throw them eyes towards the kid. And don’t you come back till you’ve learned your lesson!” She walked swiftly towards the door and kicked the unconscious Allen out. They all fell and left without a word after that.

It didn’t take long before the room then burst into conversation again and Myria returned to Tolan.

His anger had begun to dissipate, and he inhaled slightly as she came before him. “Ma’am, I need to return to the Tower. Can you tell me where I am?”

Myrna furrowed her brows at him and placed her hand on his shoulder again. He wanted to move away from it but let her hand rest on his shoulder.

She cocked her head at him. “Before I answer any of your questions, I think you might need to come to the back with me. Away from these guys.” She took hold of his arm and forced Tolan to walk with her towards the counter at the far back.

They weaved through the tables and moved behind the counter and out into the back through a door. They came into the kitchen and Tolan took in the messiness of it all. It was filled with a myriad of jars and pots and the smell was horrid.

She noticed him grimacing, “Don’t you dare tell me that smells bad, it smells wonderful!” She shouted towards him.

He heard then from the corner, a sizzling pot. It lay on a stove; unlike any, he’d seen before.

His guide then poked his chest and he looked at her.

“Ask now.” She commanded. He observed her for a second.

“Where am I and how did I get here?” He finally said.

She turned then towards one of the pots. “I found you this morning in the backyard. I heard a crash and when I went outside, there you were. On the ground. You nearly scared the life out of me.” She laughed.

Tolan stopped briefly. “What do you mean you found me in the backyard?”

“I mean what I said. I found you, lying there on the grass. I even saw scorch marks around you, and the grassland was badly burnt too.” She answered, with her back turned to him.

Tolan stood stiff in dazed confusion. He wasn’t sure he properly understood her.

“Wait, wait, that’s not possible. You must be mistaken.” He repeated towards her.

“No, I’m sure of what I saw, boy. If you go back outside, you’ll see the scorched marks on where I found you. I even remember seeing a small fire there. It’s what got them thin clothes you had on. You should be glad that it didn’t reach the forest. It might’ve been a few of my bushes.” She laughed.

Forest? What? Nothing Myria said made any sense to him. Too many questions hatched every time she spoke.

“Listen, Myria, can I call you that?” He inquired, and she turned to nod at him. A smile was clear on her face.

He coughed then, “Alright, Myria. I need for you to stop joking. I am a Junior Mage of the Tower, and I command you to tell me where I am and how I got here.” He pressed while keeping a healthy distance away from the numerous pots that now splattered weirdly coloured liquid everywhere.

Myria stood frozen then and turned to him. Observing him for a good second. “A mage you say? I haven’t seen one of your kind in,” she thought about it, “ah, thirty years. And lad, I am being honest with you. Right now, you’re in Lishau, a small settlement.”

This has got to be a joke. Right? Tolan had never heard of Lishau before.

“Okay, okay.” He calmed himself, and then said, “I don’t have time to fool around. I need to get back to the Tower and tell the Elder council of something extremely important.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of any Tower or any Elder council. Are you alright?” She said as she removed the pot from the fire and turned to tilt her head at him.

A worry then began to gnaw at Tolan. A blurry sensation washed over him, and he attempted to take control of himself.

Myrna’s gaze turned to the door they arrived from, and she spoke after a brief pause. “Wait here and I’ll show you where you are.”

She returned sometime before with a brown leather book under her arm. She placed it on one of the tables and began to go through its pages.

The smell of aged leather and old paper drifted towards Tolan as he waited for Myrna to find whatever it was, she was looking for.

She reached a specific page, and simply pointed towards it and smiled at him.

“This is where we are.” She insisted. Pointing a few more times for good measure.

He moved towards her side and saw the book for what it was. It was a map. Or perhaps a repository of such. He looked down at where she pointed and started shaking.

Unable to hide the confusion and slight fear that tinged his voice, Tolan paused briefly and then inquired. “What is this?” Pointing to the words Myria’s finger lingered over.

It was in an unfamiliar script. In a penned language unfamiliar to him. And that should be impossible. For there was only supposed to be two written languages, and he knew both. But this one, he couldn’t read.

“It reads ‘Lishau, an Elodian settlement’. This book isn’t altogether new because we aren’t Elodian anymore. Not after the war. But it is official, mind you.

“My husband got it when he first arrived in the settlement as a doc-“ the world turned blurry before Tolan’s eyes as he interrupted Myria.

“So, this isn’t - no. That’s not possible, “ he didn’t want to finish the thought.

Myrna closed the book and looked at him with worry in her eyes. “Are you alright?” She tried to place her hand on his forehead, but Tolan moved away from her.

“I’m alright, I’m alright. “ He said, and then turned quickly out of the door. He jumped over the counter and moved quickly through the room and the loud noise that filled it. He reached the door and opened it.

His eyes were met with every shade of green. It was a forest. Just like the one’s he had read about. He saw the green trees, bushes, and a road of gravel split into two.

And as his gaze turned up, Tolan felt his heart skip a few beats. “What the- “his eyes had found the sun. A singular sun.

“No, no, no, no-” he said in slow repetition and began to hyperventilate.

Where is the other!?

His mind grew silent then. He kept his squinted eyes on the orange titan, floating high above the myriad of cotton clouds.

This must be an illusion!

And as moments turned to seconds, and then a minute where nothing changed, panic set in. This isn’t Ru.

The world that had already grown slightly blurry now did so fully. His mind raced, and his heartbeat quickened. He turned backwards and saw Myrna walk towards him with worry in her eyes.

Before he could say or do anything, the world grew black, and he sank into the darkness’ familiar and ringing embrace.