The steady wind was loud in my ears, and once my eyesight had adjusted to the brightness, my breath caught in my throat.
It was that place. That place in my vision. I was standing atop a hill with a view of an endless meadow of green and blue skies where the clouds formed and whooshed by in a hurry.
Except this time was different.
I bent down and ran my fingers through the green, green blades of grass on the ground. I could feel them.
I wasn’t just hallucinating. This time, I was really here.
Swallowing hard, I gave my hands a curious glance before dropping them again. What did I just do? I stepped back. How did I get here? What is this place?
Eerie white mist was obstructing a tall tower across the field. It was the only structure within sight.
Curious, I took a step toward it and stopped short as the wind blew in my face and I was suddenly at the foot of the tower itself.
What the—?
I tilted my head to see up the structure’s full height, wondering what was on top of it, wondering why the entire place again seemed so awfully familiar.
I shooed the white mist away from my path with my hands and took another step—another step that instantly took me to the very top of the tower.
I gasped again.
The wind was blowing harder that I had to gather up my hair in my hands to keep it from lashing at my face but I could see clear across the meadows in all directions through the giant white brick archways. Except the further out into the horizon, the blues and greens began to meld into more indeterminate white mist.
I was all alone in the massive, long chamber hall—its ceiling so high up that the headroom could probably comfortably fit the ancient redwood trees from my Forest, each column flanking the hall sculpted into beautiful, ornate fountains and waterfalls, with water that flowed from nowhere to nowhere.
Elaborate mosaic tiles were cold underneath my bare feet. I was about to walk toward a dais of some type at the other end of the room but stopped again in mid-stride hearing footsteps.
I spun around, already moving to a defensive pose just in case.
Whatever was approaching was forming out of the indistinct white mist from the other end of the room.
A figure of a person.
I squinted to recognize who it was when it got close enough and I gawked, dropping my arms.
“Iris?”
“Welcome home,” she greeted with a vacant smile.
I narrowed my eyes. “Where am I? Why did you bring me here? What do you want from me?”
Iris’s mouth curved into another vague smile. “I did not bring you here. You brought yourself. You are freed.”
I shot her an annoyed look. I seriously wasn’t in the mood and I was beginning to get angry again that the High Council was still trying to play games with me. Hadn’t I been punished enough?
“What do you mean ‘freed’? What place is this?” I demanded. “Where is the Council? What do they want now?”
“The Council is in another plane of existence,” Iris explained, her voice hollow. “This place exists beyond it. As do you.”
I blinked, feeling a stir in my stomach as a realization dawned on me and I breathed my next statement, “You’re not Iris.”
“The mist sees you. And you are no longer bound by their magic. You are free.”
What the…?
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Bound? What are you talking about? I have to get out of here.” Dread gripped me as I whirled around to ask, “Is there a way back?”
“Back?” Iris looked mildly surprised. “Why do you want to go back? You are home.”
I shook my head in resolution and almost ridicule. “No, no. My home is the Southern Forest. I don’t even know this place.”
“They have kept many things from you. Your power and your greatness are beyond imagining.”
I stuck my chin up. “You are mistaken. I am merely the guardian of the Mystic Lake, created centuries upon centuries ago,” I informed her. “My purpose is to guard the legendary relic. To ensure that it remains safe and protected within the bounds of the Southern Forest.”
Iris gave me a hauntingly serene look as if she was mocking my words.
“Is that all?” she drawled. “A relic with no purpose. A task so discrete. You believe you have been merely charged to safeguard the relic within the Mystic Lake. Now that it is not so, you cannot be what you once thought. So what are you now?”
I frowned in deep thought, her words piercing my mind as they sounded a lot like Josh’s…
You could be so much more…
I shook my head again. “This doesn’t make any sense. The Council—”
“They have succeeded in hiding you, contained your essence, controlled you with this charade for thousands of years. You have been feared for too long.”
“Feared?” I echoed, half-incredulously. “What exactly do they fear from me?”
When I stepped back, almost instinctively, my gaze dropped to my feet again, at the mosaic on the floor, the thousands of tiny little chips of different colors which from up-close meant nothing.
The next moment, I somehow caught a glimpse of myself from the ceiling, the vantage point enabling me to see the enormous mosaic in its entirety.
My blood ran cold as the image cleared.
The mosaic on the chamber floor formed an image of a giant shimmering serpentine creature coiled around a circle of blue and green. The creature was spewing out a violent flare of potent fire, appearing to completely decimate the world.
I stared at the interlocking tiles on the floor at the same time as I held my arms up. Both shimmered in the rays of the Great Star, reflecting bands of light in all the colors of the spectrum.
When I looked up, I met Iris’s vacant gaze again and my heart pounded in my chest. I already knew what she was going to say next.
“Death bringer.”
I staggered back in complete horror and bafflement.
Iris went on. “You must fulfill your destiny and unleash the fire upon this land.”
My eyes widened. She wanted me to what? My stomach churned at the memory of all those wailing souls from my vision. I was to be the cause of their suffering? I was the dark shadow that would destroy everything?
I heaved in distress, feeling overwhelmed, nauseous. “No, no, no, no. This is all a mistake. I have to go back. Send me back!”
“Back? But you are home.”
“No! I don’t want any part of this. I don’t know anything about this,” I insisted.
Iris smiled yet again. “But don’t you want to know?”
I stiffened. “It’s not true.”
But Iris only repeated herself. “Don’t you want to know? What you are? What you were? You cannot escape your destiny.”
I clenched my fists.
“Don’t you want to know…?”
The sound of Iris’s voice was fading away and when I looked up, her image was floating backward, dissolving as it reintegrated once again into the thick white mist.
I didn’t call her back. I didn’t know her. I didn’t know this place.
But don’t you want to know…?
Her voice echoed all around me, echoing in my ears, within the deep recesses of my mind.
I started to heave again. I clutched at my head, squeezing my eyes shut, and screamed as loud as I could to drown her voice out.
When I opened my eyes, I was once again standing at the top of the meadow where I’d begun, the wind still blowing as fierce.
I looked around the empty vast expanse, on the verge of panic. I could just imagine how small and inconsequential I must have looked, alone on top of a hill surrounded by nothing but the infinite sloping fields.
What if I could not get out of this place either? What if I could not get back to the Forest? What if this was my new prison?
That’s when I heard a different sound.
I strained to hear it, already bracing myself for whatever the new threat might be.
What is that now?
It was yelling. A loud shout of someone calling. Calling my name.
“Magenta!”
I spun around, spotting him amidst the tall grass. He was still clear across the meadows.
“Josh,” I breathed in humungous relief. The next moment, I was in front of him. “Whoa—”
“Hey, what the—?” Josh jumped, startled too when I appeared out of nowhere, but when he saw my face, his eyes lit up. “Maggie!” He threw his arms around me.
I blinked, unable to move as he clasped me even tighter. “Um, hi.”
“I’m so glad I found you.”
I pursed my lips, almost in amusement at the release in his voice. Incidentally, I was glad to see him too. I shifted my face in the hollow of his neck, relaxing against him.
His questions were spoken over my shoulder. “What is this place? How did we get here?”
“How did you get here?” I asked, incredibly surprised that he was here at all. Then I stopped, narrowing my eyes. “Are you really—?” I bit my lip in caution and gave him a great, big push away. “Who are you?”
He shot me a have-you-gone-insane look. “What? It’s me. Josh. What’s wrong with you?”
I shook my head slowly, evaluating him, trying to seep into his mind.
“Oh, come on.” Josh threw up his hands. “Ask me anything.”
I shot him another guarded look. “What do you think of the master of the Kingdom of Cephiron?”
He stared straight at me with a blank look. “He is the most commendable of soldiers, the noblest of leaders—”
My jaw nearly dropped.
That’s when Josh’s stoic expression gave way to a grimace. “Lance is a douche. You know it. I know it.”
That made me almost choke to stifle my laughter and all my suspicion and unease melted away. “All right, all right.”
But how come he was here too? I mumbled in wonder, “Perhaps because the relic is connected to you now as well.” I met his gaze again. “Do you remember what happened?”
He shrugged, looking around. “There was a light around you and the next thing I knew, I was in the middle of this meadow. I mean I’d seen you glowing iridescent like that before but—”
“What? When have you seen me glow like that before?” I wanted to know.
He jerked his chin backward. “When you fought off that Wraith guy and you did the move with the lightning—super freaking cool, by the way,” he interjected with his two thumbs up, looking fully impressed.
I couldn’t help my shoulders shaking in mirth. Yup, it was definitely Josh.
“So where the hell are we?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I thought this was merely an imaginary place that existed only in my dreams.”
His forehead creased as he spotted the misty tower from a distance and he motioned toward it. “What’s that?”
I glanced back, my expression darkening. “I don’t know either but we have to get out of here right now.”
Josh watched my expression. “Okay… Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” I waved his concern away. “I just want to get out of here.”
“Yeah, I don’t see any exit signs out of this theme park.” He looked at me again, his eyebrows furrowing. “Do you remember what you were doing back in the forest? Before we arrived here?”
“I was doing… something with my hands.” I brought both my hands up and a smoky violet glow manifested around them.
Josh’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa. Are your powers growing or something?”
You are freed…
I swallowed hard. “N-no, it does that sometimes,” I lied.
He tilted his head, unconvinced. “You know, back in Erisea, I heard they have some kind of spooky seers in the kingdom. They’re supposed to be in touch with all kinds of magic. Maybe if you met with them, they could tell us what’s happening to you, what it all means.”
“No, no.” I backed up. “We don’t have to ask them.”
Josh shot me a strange look. “But don’t you want to know?” His question made a chill run up my spine as he had just echoed the ghostly Iris’ message.
I stared at him, my skin prickling all over.
He went on, giving me a prompting look. “What it all means, I mean?” he added with a shrug. “I do.”
As if on cue, the wind blew even more fiercely around us, like a signal, or perhaps a warning.
I fidgeted in my stance, looking away.
Sensing my distress, Josh regarded me with a worried look. “Or, hey, you know what? Don’t worry about that right now,” he dismissed. “Let’s just…get out of here first, okay? Try to do the thing with your hands again.” He clasped his own hands together. “It sorta looked like this.”
I watched him with narrowed eyes again. I could sense absolutely no doubt in his essence. He truly believed I could do it.
Josh had that much confidence in me.
I met his encouraging gaze and couldn’t help a small smile.
“Yeah?” he urged. “Just try it. Bring us to Erisea.”
“Erisea…” I took a deep breath as I clasped my palms together again, trying to remember exactly what I had done in the Forest.
I watched the daylight shimmer off my skin as I slowly pulled my hands apart, feeling that compelling energy manifest before me yet again.
Josh cracked a smirk and his eyes widened as the light came and enveloped us once more.
“Awesome…”
***