“I’ll miss you.”
He smiled when I turned to kiss him.
Did Ineedto say it? The bond ensured we both knew exactly how the other felt. So Myel knew my feelings… but still… Perhaps?
“I l?—”
The wall of light came down.
“Are you ready to leave?” Safir asked, marching across the room.
I couldn’t help the little smile on my face when he saw the mess on his bed and grimaced.
“I’m assuming I can’t go back and get anything?” I asked. I’d be leaving behind everything I owned. Ever since I’d gotten here, I’d gone through cycles of having nothing, then buying things, then losing them. I didn’t know what it said about me, that I was starting to get used to it.
“No,” Safir said, gathering a few things of his own. “We can get you what you need in the capital. Let’s go, before Saldrea locks down the Sigil Point.”
Vyns came to me. “I won’t be gone long. I’ll ask Koar to come and get me in a day or two. Luckily, our spirit link doesn’t need any more than this.” And he kissed me softly. A warmth, like wet summer heat, filled me.
The kiss ended all too soon, then Vyns nodded to Koar, who put a large hand on the angel’s shoulder. The two of them spiraled in on themselves and vanished. Sothat’swhat it looked like when a dragon moved between worlds.
It reminded me of my trip to this world, with Myel and Svokol and a dragon lady whose name I didn’t know. We’d all had to touch, then the world had spiraled and dissolved around us, becoming a strange and twisted rainbow-filled darkness, like light on an oil spill.
I’d had no clue what had been happening at the time. Hell, I barely had any clue what was happening now. Everything moved way too fast.
Myel took my hand, drawing me from my reverie, and I smiled, soothed.
He took Safir’s hand and in a puff of shadow-smoke, we were outside again.
Stars twinkled above us in an inky black sky. No moon.
“Love you,” Myel whispered, then he was gone, swirling shadows barely visible where he’d been.
“Think of a city of pearl-white spires amidst vast towering trees,” Safir whispered. “Then say the name: El’Anderyn on the count of three.”
“Hey! You there! Stop!” some guard at the edge of the massive circular platform yelled at us.
“One… two… three, El’Anderyn,” Safir whispered.
I said the word in sync with Safir, voice hushed. I expected the same psychedelic colors over darkness like moving between worlds, but instead there was a flash of blue-white light and a sense of being pulled…
Then we were back on a large circular platform… still in darkness… stars twinkling above… but we weren’t on campus anymore.
Safir’s description of the capital had lefta lotto be desired. It was stunning!
Thereweretall, delicate, pearlescent towers. Yet what he hadn’t mentioned was how — even with the lack of moonlight — they glowed in the night, filled with their own inner brilliance.
And yes, trees towered all through the city, but I hadn’t expected them to bethatbig, nor that kind of tree. Back on earth, I’d heard of the great redwoods and giant sequoias, even if I’d never seen them myself. They were evergreens, tall but relatively narrow: pointy. The trees here weren’t pointy. They had massive sprawling canopies which were not only hundreds of feet tall but spread-out hundreds of feet in all directions. Absolutely gigantic!
And yes, those were the first two things which caught the eye, but the rest of the city was a sparkling wonder in the night. Most of the buildings were made of the same glowy-white stone as those tall towers, setting the night alight witha pleasant opalescent aura. And other buildings were built into those massive trees and out on their wide branches.
I slowly turned to take it all in… then lost my breath entirely when I saw the palace. That was the only thing this massive structure could be, too beautiful and colossal and wonderous to be anything else. White stone intertwined with massive trees as if they were one thing. A high wall stretched between trees, which acted like towers. At the corners, stood trees larger than any others I’d seen. Delicate webs of arching stone connected the outer tree-towers to impossibly high peaks farther back, within the walls.
My mind couldn’t comprehend how those white towers could be so narrow and delicate and tall. But then I remembered elves were masters of earth magic. If anyone could create stone minarets like these, it would be them.
“We must go,” Safir said, tugging on my arm.
I followed in a daze, still awestruck by this place. Then it struck me: this place was beautiful on the outside, like the elves themselves, but it was probably as corrupt and ugly on the inside?
