When I first went into the portal, I kept my eyes closed as I continued to pass through, so I had no idea what would surround me as I passed through it. I could only feel a cold gentle breeze pass over my body as I continued to walk through this unknown location. A few seconds went by, to which I eventually opened my eyes. As I laid my eyes upon my surroundings, I couldn't deny that it surprised me to some extent. What surrounded me is what seemed to be swirling currents of purple energy, almost like I got sucked deep into a liquid pool that's filled with poisonous water.
However, the most unusual thing that I noticed upon entering the portal for the first time were the sounds and how this energy swirled around me. To be more precise, the purple liquid that surrounded me couldn't actually reach me, instead just seem to only be able circle around the outside of what looked to be some invisible barrier between me and whatever this stuff is on the other side.
I could also hear something akin to the sound of gushing liquid, but I couldn't quite tell cause of the muffled noises. Hearing this made me wonder what exactly is on the other side of this barrier.
I became so engrossed with what's going on around me that I didn't pay any attention to anything else around me, not until I heard Yasue calling out to me from a distance. When I looked towards her, I could see Yasue standing near a cluster of light that's spherical. Even though it seems that I'm safe from whatever is outside the barrier, it didn't stop me from feeling any more uncomfortable seeing that purple liquid moving like it had a mind of its own.
My legs moved quickly towards Yasue, and out the corner of my eye I could see the liquid's current following me, knowing this sent a shiver down my spine as I tried my best to ignore it.
“We shouldn't be wasting time here, this place has a way of getting to you, and not in a good kind of way”. Seeing Yasue briefly look at our surroundings made me wonder what she could mean by what she just said, but regardless, she made it obvious that we shouldn't stay here for any longer.
Yasue walked into the light before us, disappearing like she did when entering the portal just moments ago. I followed closely behind, not wanting to spend any more time in this place. As I walked through, I didn't know what to expect on the other side, at this point, I didn't bother trying to figure such things out. As I made it through, I immediately greeted by a strong wind that cut through the area. The air current was strong enough to make stumble a few steps, as I wasn't prepared for such a thing. I could also feel the wind blowing my skirt upwards, so naturally I tried to keep it down as much as possible.
“Hurry, they don't like to be kept waiting” Yasue called out to me. I saw her in the distance, standing on a bridge that looked let's just say the last place you want to be walking on as it swayed side to side along with the current of the wind. I took a step forward, looking down, only to see a bottomless black pit. Standing so close to the edge at such an unimaginable high height made me feel dizzy, making falls backwards where I felt the hard rock hit against my rear.
I quickly stood to my feet again, taking another glimpse down that endless pit beneath us before hurrying steadily and slowly across the bridge. It wasn't until then I noticed that the bridge itself looked like a part of an overly large vertebrae. Every inch of this bridge looked like it had been made of bone, and with this thought going through my mind, I couldn't but feel unsettled by this.
I had moved so quickly across the bridge itself, I walked straight into Yasue, it shook me so much that I stumbled over my feet. But before anything seriously bad could happen I felt a firm grip around my wrist holding on to me. I looked to see Yasue holding onto my wrist before pulling me gently back to my feet.
“Watch your step, if you fall…” I could see a glimpse of amusement appear on her face for a brief moment, “…well, let's just say you won't be coming back”. Hearing her say that made my mind race with speculation about what exactly that pit actually is.
“What is this place?” I had to ask because this place looked like nothing I had ever seen before, let alone read about in any of the books I had since in the mansion's library. This entire situation felt like I had once again been transported to another world entirely.
“We're in a place called the Grand Void…” Yasue started walking towards the other end of the bridge, I followed in step close behind her, “…you could say it's a place that exists in an area outside our own understanding”.
The Grand Void? This would be the first time hearing about this, before now, I had never heard of it and I definitely didn't see the name mentioned in any of the books that I had read from the library. Especially considering that I had already read quite a number of books at this point.
“W-Why does this place look so creepy, though”. I had this thought in the back of my mind since arriving in this place, but I expect to get an answer from Yasue as she stopped in front of me. Which made it even more surprising when she suddenly let out a short chuckle before deciding to speak up in response to my comment with her own personal answer.
“Let's just say that the people here have a unique sense of style”. To be honest, I couldn't deny what she said, after all, I had never seen anything that looked so eerily grey and creepy ever. If I had tried to explain this to someone they would most likely not believe me, after all, this didn't to be a place that every day people would be willing to visit even by choice.
Before I could say any more, Yasue suddenly started walking again at her usual fast pace. But me, being young for my age, had trouble keeping up with her as I hurried to try to keep pace with her the best I can. It didn't take us long to reach the other side of the bridge, when we did we both came upon what looked like a pathway that had been carved into the environment. I would have originally thought it to have been a natural occurrence, but from a simple glance, the surfaces of the rock were too smooth to have occurred naturally.
As both me and Yasue walked down this claustrophobic pathway, I decided to brush the tips of fingers against the surface of the rock that surrounded me on both sides. And as I suspected, the surface of the rock was smooth too much so for it to have happened over the course of many years, however, it had just enough of a jagged texture to give that illusion. My attention then went to the sky where I could still see the dark grey clouds while I could still hear the sound of the strong wind blowing above me, yet, I couldn't feel the wind where I stood.
“We're almost there, make sure you stay near to me at all times, understood?” Yasue stood there, I could see the stern, serious look under the hood of her cloak. Hearing what she just said made me wonder what we were really getting into, to be honest, I started to doubt whether this had been a good idea to begin with.
“Why? Is this place dangerous?” I needed to know, that's why I asked Yasue. It may have been a stupid question to ask, I'll have to admit, but for the entire time I have known Yasue she hasn't really been forthcoming with information. If anything, it seems she would be more willing not to say anything just to fuel her personal amusement.
“They have a particular interest for the unknown, so they tend to get a little too interested for your liking”. Everything that I had been hearing about this place started to make me wonder what both the place and its inhabitants were really like. The more that I was being told about this place, the more worried I became, cause at this point I didn't have a clue what to expect.
Yasue, without saying any more continued walking down the pathway within this gorge like landscape, as for myself, I quickly followed behind her feeling too anxious to walk all by myself. Because I'm afraid of what would happen if I were on my own in the unknown place. Mostly because I had this unnerving feeling that something would happen to me if I strayed too far away from her.
For the most part, our journey through the gorge turned out to be mostly uneventful aside from the odd creepy movement of shadows in the surrounds accompanied by the unsettling sounds. I had been so on preoccupied with my own thoughts that I didn't even realize that we had already reached an opening in the gorge. As we both walked out of the gorge, I was once again met with the intense force of the wind and light that obscured my vision. I instantly put one hand on my skirt to stop it blowing upward with the wind, and a hand in front of my face to block the light going into my eyes.
However, as soon as we stepped out from the gorge, it didn't take long for the wind to suddenly die down. After a few moments, it was as if the weather from before had never even occurred in the first place, as the wind itself slowly and surely died out. It didn't take long for the intense source of light before us to also slowly dwindle enough that I could move my hand away from my face. When I did move my hand away, my eyes were met with an extraordinary sight to say the least.
“Welcome, to the Tower of the Damned”. I look at Yasue upon hearing what she just said for a brief moment before looking back ahead of me. Again my eyes laid upon the tower as it did moments ago, it reached high into the skies to a point that I couldn't see the top of the tower amongst the grey clouds that covered this entire area.
Hearing footsteps, I see Yasue walking on ahead, I immediately after her while glimpsing around at my surroundings. Looking up to the sky, I could see the grey skies slowly swirling around the tower, they were moving around at an unusual speed. When I shifted my vision down to the tower, I could see multiple faint sources of light which I could open presume were fiery braziers like we had back at the family mansion. Before I realized it we were already just a dozen feet away from the tower. I glimpsed behind me seeing the ashen pathway back up to the gorge that we were at just moments ago.
When I turned back around to face the tower I could see large double doors that were made out of the same stone material as the rest of the tower. As I looked at the architechture of the tower itself I noticed how worn and eroded it had become it made me wonder just how it was able to stand upright. As both me and Yasue stopped before the doors leading into the tower I could hear the sound of grinding stone taking over my hearing as I watched the doors slowly swing open.
I didn't know what to expect on the other side of these doors, after all, I've had nothing but an unsettling feeling in this place as it doesn't really give the impression of being welcoming to just anyone. The doors continued to slowly open before us I expected it to take a long time till they were fully open, however, it didn't take long at all for the stone doors to finish opening up. Upon doing so a rush of cold air suddenly came bursting out through the entrance enveloping my body in the freezing wind currents. I immediately started wrapping my arms and clenching my legs together to keep what little warmth my body had left.
Looking towards the entrance once again I could spot a dozen small flickers of what I could only presume to be sources of light in the form of fire braziers. They were all so faint that you couldn't make out anything around them. Lost in thought for a few moments I suddenly noticed from out the corner of my eye Yasue walking ahead of me before stopping to look back at me.
"We're here..." she paused for a brief moment "...remember the people here don't follow the principles that we have in our own world, so you need to watch what you say and do when around here". I instinctively nodded having already heard about this not so long ago from Yasue herself. My mind instantly began to race with various thoughts what I had gotten myself into.
Yasue turn her attention back to the tower she was quiet for a few moments, "Come along, Edona".
"Okay". Without hesitation, we both walked closer towards the entrance of the tower, at this point, I noticed that sudden surge of cold air from before had drastically died down in that short amount of time. It almost seemed as if the tower had been encasing a large pocket of vacuumed air into the structure itself. Just the thought of such a thing suddenly made me feel as if there was something similar that I had witnessed from my previous life, yet, I couldn't put my finger on it.
I followed closely behind Yasue, as we entered the tower itself the echoed of both of our footsteps filled the hall. Walking through the hall I started to realized that the fire braziers illuminated more than I originally imagined as I looked around me I could see that on various surfaces of the tower's structure had indecipherable etched markings.
Looking around the braziers illuminated various stone-like statues that had been carved out from the from this unusual ore-like material. Many of these statues seemed to depict what I could assume to be humans and animals, however, it's hard for me to tell due to small area that these fire braziers lit up. It didn't take for us long to reach the other side of the hall, once there I could see another set of double stone doors similar to the one's from before except these were accompanied by an intricate set of deeply engraved markings upon their surfaces.
Standing in front of the doors I watched as Yasue took a few steps more towards them, she stopped before placing her hand upon the stone surface. I heard her muttering something but, I couldn't make out what it was as it was too quiet for me to hear what she said. A few seconds later though, the doors before us rumbled and shook as they slowly opened up. Upon surfaces of the stone doors I could also see that the engraved markings had started to light up as a subtle white hue slowly coursed throughout the entire doors.
As the doors continued to open on the other side I could glimpse a blinding white light which hit me square the face as I instinctively looked away flinching. A few seconds later, my eyes began to adjust to the bright light coming from the other side of these doors when they were fully open I was met with a sight that I had never since before. Both me and Yasue walked into the room before us a massive pillar of white light travelled upwards in the centre of this room.
Glancing to both sides I noticed that two set stairs spiralled around the the edge of the tower going both up and down the structure.
"We need to make our way to the bottom of the tower". When I heard Yasue say that I just had to walk to the edge in front of me so I could take a peek at the bottom of this tower but, as expected I couldn't see anything with only the pillar of light being the only visible thing besides from the spiralling stairways.
Suddenly I felt something warm grab my hand when I looked I could clearly see that Yasue was holding onto it which surprised me as I couldn't imagine her acting that in the slightest. When I peer my head to look at her face that's when I noticed her attention focused on something else in the distance. I followed her gaze but, all I could see were the dark shadows that littered the interior of the tower, at first, I thought she may had been lost in thought until I spotted a slight faint motion in those shadows ahead of us.
"Didn't expect you to already be here" Yasue clearly didn't refer to me but, to whoever is lurking in the shadows. A few seconds went by, before we got a response and say that it surprised me would be an understatement. The voice that responded to us had a very hoarse throat that I wondered if it was even possible speak like that.
Whoever had been talking to us slowly began to emerge from the shadows as I started to see their clothing come into the light, and it was then that I noticed they weren't making any footsteps as they moved which confused me as I wondered how they were moving without making any noise. It wouldn't take long for me to get the answer to that question as I watched this thing float its way out from the cover of the shadows. For a moment, my heart skipped a beat when it fully came into view.
This thing floating before me had black and grey robes covering it's body that were tattered and torn, it's face completely masked by the cover of its hood, and the only distinguishable of its body were the forearms and hands. When I looked at them it sent a shiver down my spine as the forearms were deathly thin and the fingers elongated with long chipped nails, what made it look in worse is the sickly grey skin. I instinctively got behind Yasue as she continued to hold onto my hand firmly.
"Your sneering remarks are annoying as ever I see". It's guttural voice almost sounded threatening but, seeing Yasue's reaction seem to suggest that if it were she didn't seem troubled by it.
"You're not the only one to tell me that" Yasue smugly responded. Watching the two of them interact made it pretty obvious that they both tolerated each other's presence to the best of their ability. Yet, seeing how this person before us looked you would have thought the idea of antagonizing them would be the last thing on someones mind yet Yasue didn't seem to care in the slightest.
The hooded figure let a sharp chuckle escape their lips for a brief second. I saw its hooded head turn towards me.
"This must be Edona, daughter of the House of Daeralei". It floated closer towards me stopping a dozen inches from my face, instinctively I took a step back not feeling comfortable enough to get any more closer to it than I already have to. It also surprised me that it knew about the noble family that I had born into.
The House of Daeralei was one of the many noble families within the Kingdom of Allnenor, and mine happened to be one of the more influenctial among them. If this hooded figure knew of my family just by having one glance at me that meant one of two things either House Daeralei were famous among those outside the kingdom or they had a means of getting information that no other could. Regardless, there's no point in me trying to figure this out right now considering I'm already dealing with plenty of things already.
"That's right, and not just that she's Niona's daughter". Upon hearing that I saw the hooded figure glance at Yasue for a second before turning back to me. It didn't say anything but, it became obvious from its subtle movements that something about me and Niona had piqued its interest even more.
"Then she must be here for the Inauguration Ceremony".
"Correct, I've been entrusted with her mentorship". Yasue responded swiftly to the hooded figure's comment. It continued sway side to side ever so slightly as it floated through the air, to be honest, it looked rather creepy.
"Then, if you please follow me". It turned around floating on ahead as it slowly descended the spiralling stairs. Without question, Yasue followed behind, and I followed closely behind as my hand was still in Yasue's as I wondered what I would encounter at the bottom of this tower.
Paypal
