9.1: Where in Zyrona?

9.1

Stellina

Everything is silent. Everything is dark. The air is cold and has a strange wetness to it. Damp; like a cave.

The tips of my fingers touch frigid, bumpy stone. The cold humidity seeps through my thin dress, causing a sudden bout of shivers shaking through my body like an avalanche trembles mountains. I open my eyes slowly, becoming aware of stone beneath me and stone above me as my eyes adjust to turn blacks into greys and greys to dirty whites. The cold encompasses everything. This space feels like a tomb. Or a prison.

I push myself from the frigid floor to observe my surroundings. There is not much; indeed, stone encases the space in a perfect, pointed arch. However, as I turn, I see that the wall to my left does not consist of rock but of a mass of entangling roots, bulging from moist soil to taste the musky air. 

A burst of shock zig zags through me like lightning striking metal: how did I get here?

The last thing I remember is…absolute disaster. Blood red spider webs, the city walls crumbling far in the distance, a whoosh of air like the quiet zipping of a hummingbird. Xada’s empty eyes. The window in my mother’s chest.

My heart beats rapidly in my chest. I turn back and forth rapidly as if I could spot something I had not seen before in a blur of grey.

Is this the afterlife?

No. It cannot be. I can see rock, roots, dirt, withered leaves, my unglowing hands in front of me. I can hear my breath, the shift of my feet on the stone, my dress moving around me as I turn, water dripping from the ceiling somewhere. 

The afterlife is supposed to be full of brightness with no shadows tracing the land. If I were truly dead, I would be seeing Zela by now, and she would determine my role for the rest of eternity. 

I draw a deep breath into my lungs, relaxing my muscles on the exhale. My head drops and as my sight focuses once more, I realise a sigil lies where I stand in the tracings of chalk. I step out of it to identify what it could possibly be and, as the familiar lines of the five pointed star joined by elvish runes slot into my head, a memory erupts with the uncomfortable sensation of it not being my own.

I would not have left my mother, but now I remember doing the exact opposite. The last memory of my own is my mother touching my hand. The imposter-like memory is filled with blurry fragments of woods, rumbling earth-filled sounds, and a sudden flash of purple light. 

My heart sinks, and my breath catches in my throat as the explanation unfolds layer by layer. Before I allow my thoughts to carry me away, I snap myself back to the present. Forget about the past for a moment, Stella, let us focus on the now. 

I need to get out of here, somehow.

I begin with what I know: I am in a private sommelnium hidden in the woods outside of Lumnia. Roughly, it is outside of the south-east city walls. The easiest way out would be back the way I came. However, this way is encased in an entanglement of vines and earth with an unknowable distance to the surface. There must be a path hidden in this chamber for the user. I must find it.

I leave my place of safety to circle the walls, hoping that the blood flowing through my veins will interact with a sigil and show me the way back into daylight. Sure enough, as I approach the mass of stone, which was facing me when I awakened, a curling, elegant sigil pulses into existence. Livertas. Free.

I press my palm to its face and feed a sliver of energy into its inner workings. A pulse of blue, as light as a daydreaming sky, is all it takes for my exit to be made. The roots of the tree grow by Adstrictor’s command, our Father God who birthed Zela, and, through her, my holy people. Before I step onto the earthy platform created for me, I bring my fingers to my lips to kiss the sigil given to me at birth and bow to my Goddess in prayerful thanks for the protection she gave me in this chamber. Then, I step upon my exit with a jittering sort of excitement that causes my hands to tremble and my stomach to twist nervously as I ascend back to my waiting city.

As I am pulled through layers of soil, flashes of memory whip across my eyes: most depicting the horrifying image of my mother after we escaped from the north-east sommelnium entrance. I shake it aside. She healed me when I was on the cusp of death. She is powerful, she would have fixed it as soon as she had seen me safe. And she said she would see me again. I have no doubt about that. My mother keeps her promises. My throat closes in dissent. I swallow the betrayal and shake my hands, letting the negative thoughts dissipate into the air and ruminate beneath me.

Questions swarm into my head. Summoned by empty time and vacant hands. Who attacked us? The necromancers, surely, there could be no one else. But the magic that had torn through walls and…people, was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was not Star magic, thank the Gods. It was not necromancy. Nor was it any kind of divine energy that I know of. And why then? Our war with the necromancers had been at a standstill for twenty some years. We had not had any sort of conflict with them or anyone else for the entirety of my life. We certainly had not warranted any sort of retaliation for any actions taken in the past few years. At least, not that I had been made aware of. Information is often kept from me it seems.

Nevermind all that, all my questions will be answered as soon as I reunite with everyone in the city. Perhaps everyone else had been awakened much earlier than I and did not know where to find me. Or, perhaps, they had and someone is waiting for me to emerge. I clasp my hands to my chest and pray that this is so. After the destruction I witnessed in my hometown and the deaths I saw, I would give anything to see one of my kind again. As soon as possible. I am positive too that the answers to all my questions are held by the citizens of Lumnia, by my city, or my parents who must be anxiously waiting for me. I hope it has not been too long after all.

At long last, light breaks from above me and light shines onto my face. I am brought back into the world.

The leaves are orange and green on the trees above me. A breeze ruffles through them. This was my forest. It is not.

Where in Zyrona am I?