Fitted in the latest by Myri we were as ready as we would be for the second circle.

At least physically that was. 

Maua had reverted back to the absentmindedness that had me concerned…and reminded me once again to check on her once this literal trip to hell was over.

Not to mention my own mind was going for gold in mental gymnastics over what I just saw.

Months of training and experimenting all for naught. We couldn’t get the faintest spark to light in the little girl’s hand. Or the smallest drop of water. Or the dimmest ray of light. Or even the most meager smidge of darkness. Absolutely nothing.

And then she gets kidnapped, and apparently performed some sort of mass teleportation spell? I believed her because it was Maua telling it to me, but I have never heard anyone doing anything close to teleporting. The closest thing I could think of is some wind users being really fast. And after asking those close to me , including but not limited to my genius girlfriend and the literal grandmaster of the Guild, I can almost certainly conclude that such a spell has never been used before. 

If that wasn’t enough, my little niece did another one of her grand spells in front of me. This time she made a giant tree erupt from the ground.

Again, I’ve never heard anything like that. Unique attributes are uncommon, but they are a thing. Hell, I have one myself…that being gold. But what type of attribute could that? 

And what was that language? I think I heard something similar in my adventures…but where?

Realizing that asking myself questions that I didn’t have the answer to would get me nowhere fast, I decided to do the smartest thing I could.

Sidling up next to my two-headed girlfriend, who seemed to be preoccupied with something in her brains, I tiptoed up and pressed a kiss into one of her foreheads. 

The action shook her out of her internal musing as she tilted both heads and looked at me.

“Rua? What’s up?” she asked softly.

“What did you think of that spell Ve? What the hell was that?” I whispered back.

“It was incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it,” she replied. “That cleared up any lingering doubt about the teleportation spell too.”  

“I feel the same way,” I nodded. “But what attribute do you think it was?”

“Hmm,” she hummed, both heads tilted cutely. “I haven’t the faintest of a clue, babe. But considering it’s Maua…it could be something absurd like reality or something like that. Or even still make something a bit tame…but out of everyone else’s reach like nature?”

That’s true…there's no reason why the creator of magic would have to abide by the same rules as we do…

“Well still…any clue on the language…I feel like I heard something similar before.” I continued. “Maybe on one of the further away jobs?”

“Hmm,” she contemplated, looking like both of her brains were running at a million miles a second. “I’m not sure, but I had to say…maybe Angelish? But more ancient and archaic sounding? If that's even possible.”

I again nodded in agreement. 

“That's what it was!” I said in hushed excitement. “It totally sounded like the language of the angels. I wonder why though…and where was she even getting the words from…and-”

“I don’t know Rua,” my lovely girlfriend cut me off with a shrug. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

My initial questions were answered, but a slew of new ones that we had no clue about quickly replaced them. Deciding that there wasn’t much we could figure out,our conversation tittered off.

With the seriousness of our talk dropping, as well as the obligatory flirting, the rest of the way to the second circle went by in a flash.

Before I truly realized it we were at the opening. 

I peered out to take in the scenery…it was just like I recalled.

If I had to describe the second circle of hell in one word, that word would be grey.

Everything was grey. 

The sky was completely overcast and full of grey storm clouds.

The rugged terrain, full of jagged cliffs and mountains, was of course different shades of grey.

The few animals and plants that could survive the near constant storming…were also, yep you guessed it. Grey.

Like all of Hell, that I have seen thus far, it was quite beautiful in its own way.

Wow, that sounded so wrong.

But anyways, unlike the other circles, the scenery here got old…rather quickly in fact.

I’m not sure what makes me not like it. Maybe it's the unforgiving and unrelenting weather conditions. Or maybe it's the vicious flora and fauna, that want nothing more than to make you meet your end early. Perhaps it's the precipitous terrain that would be hard to venture across in the most optimal circumstances.  Possibly it could be the wind spirits that were known to push people to their demises. 

Hell, it might just be all of them. Whatever the case was, the place sucked.  

But I wasn’t going to let my past experiences get me or the group down. I was actually feeling rather optimistic. 

We were prepared for the weather, thanks to my sister.

And we knew mostly what to expect, due to both my own and Kn’Ave’s experience.

We even had our own lucky charm in Maua. Well, she’s a lot more than that, but as Mayari would say, cuteness is always a plus.

Considering all that, I thought that our chances of having a good voyage through this part of hell were pretty good.

And I was right…at first.

The weather was bearable due to the ponchos. The terrain was still very annoying, but at least we had an idea of where we needed to go. Our little charm seemed to be working.

At first at least. It started slowly. 

A few gusts of wind blew, ruffling our hair.

Then the wind began to strengthen a bit, making the petite Maua to stumble a bit as we traversed. That prompted a scolding from her mother, saying that the girl was too thin and she needed to eat.

We pushed forward.

The winds picked up some more, causing the rest of us to stagger a bit with our steps.

Even still, we continued.

Based on what happened next, I think it's safe to assume that the spirits weren’t too amused by our persistence.

The wind picked up several notches suddenly, blowing us both off the ledge that we were on and knocking the breath from our chests.

Normally this would have been no real issue. Actually, we expected hard winds, so we planned for what we would do if we happened to get thrown off.

Unfortunately, the wind spirits had other plans. 

Right after thrashing us with the burst of air, they promptly stopped all airflow around us.

With no oxygen in my system and no way to replenish it, I could only accept our fate as my vision darkened as we fell.

Lulla

Hey guys! Sorry for the disappearance. My internet connection has pretty much been shot for the past two weeks....but it's been fixed for now? At least until I can switch my provider. So thank you for reading if you're still around.

On a related note, I'd like to give a shout out to a very good friend of mine and a amazing author. The lovely Princess Kay. She's helped me nail down some of ideas and given me some more to play with while I wasn't able to access my work...so look forward to that. Not to mention her own work is great. Being the people of culture that you are, I assume that you've already read it... but if not. This is your sign to do so now...Its really good.  And also support her if you can, here!

Now let me stop, cause I'll keep going on and on. But again, thank you for reading!