It oddly seems like only the two of us can enter the strange barrier placed around the building because the instant Riley dove through, Imani and his weird creature rushed after him, but I see neither of them here.
“I most definitely didn’t dive on in. It… sucked me inside. Where the hell are we?” Riley asks.
“I don’t think we’ve switched realms, and yet… this whole place feels wrong. Like it’s… a mesh of here and there… wherever there is. And the magic…”
I glance over at him, since the first thing I noticed was the immense magic bubbling from inside him. It feels like the same magic exuding from this place.
Sothisis why they placed me with him.
Riley can manipulate magic in ways I’ve never seen before. Hell… they must think he’s strong enough to contend with a god all alone. He always acts confident enough to deal with it.
Yet now he’s standing there, back pressed against the wall, looking worried… What has made him anxious about this place when he’s never been anxious about any other?
“Let’s leave and come back when we’re more prepared,” he suggests.
“It’s like the building has been distorted. I don’t know how to get through the barrier placed around it,” I say as I look at it. “I guess we need to find a different way out.”
I step forward and find that when I do, he cocks his head and takes a step as well, but his movement is strange. When I stop, he abruptly halts.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, wondering if it has something to do with that magic inside him.
“Nothing,” he says, but when I take another step forward, he tilts his head and slowly follows me.
“Have I found something you’re afraid of?” I ask, looking around the room. It seems to shift between an open office building and a grand manor, depending on how I stare at it. I hum in thought, uncertain which way I want to go. “You are absolutely brimming with the strange magic of this place. What is it?”
“I don’t know,” he says as he timidly follows me.
“I thought you said you learned all about the magic every time you acquired new magic.”
“I usually do… but not this time. This magic… a person didn’t give this to me. I have no idea where it came from.I’ve never acquired magic without touching someone.”
“Do you know where to go? Can you feel a pull?” I ask while I glance around the confusing landscape, not quite sure where the best place to go would be.
He’s quiet for a moment, shifting uncertainly before nodding forward. “I’m being pulled up… but is that where we want to go?”
“No idea,” I admit as I reach the staircase. It flashes between an elaborate wooden staircase and just a stairwell, like my eyes are playing tricks on me with each blink.
I step up before I feel an influx of magic and the world shifts into the large manor and doesn’t shift back. I take another step when Riley falls forward, slamming into the stairs.
I turn quickly, pulling my twin hand scythes free as I look for whatever attacked him. “What was it?” I hover around him while he slowly stands up, blood dripping from his nose as anger crosses his face.
“FUCK!” he shouts.
“What is it?” I ask, still uncertain what is happening. “What attacked you?”
“N-Nothing attacked me. I just tripped.”
“You… tripped?” I question, reasonably confused.
“Yes. Just… forget it happened.”
“We need to keep moving. This place is unstable.” I hurry halfway up the stairs before discovering that he’s still working his way up onto the second step and then onto the third.
“What are you doing? This place is unstable and I can feel something here that I really don’t think we’re up for meeting.” I look up, wishing I had my power, but the only thing I can use are my scythes. “Riley, are you hurt?”
“No… fuck… I can’t see,” he snaps as he slides his hand up the railing and takes another tentative step.
“What do you mean?” I glance at the candles with flames flickering. The place is illuminated well enough to at least see the stairs.
