The air was thick and cold to touch as it wrapped around my body while I slowly came around; I could smell the fragrance of dozens of species of plants of otherworldly origin overwhelming my entire sense of smell; for some reason, today, the plant life was far more fragrant than normal, perhaps a short period of bloom for the various flowers?

All around me, I could hear the clatter of Ashen Bee’s taking off, a similar situation to what happened the other night, I assumed when I awoke with a few of them around me, probably curious about the presence of a perceived interloper. While my eyes slowly adapted to the environment and permitted my vision of the locale, I noticed a few of the bee’s rapidly withdrawing from my side and fluttering away to the hedge’s all around, nothing out of the normal here.

As my sense of feeling shifted back into gear, I noticed something rather strange about my sense of touch. My body felt abnormally dry, not just dry as in it’s a bit dry and slightly parched but as if something had drawn out the very moisture in my skin methodically from every single last centimetre of skin from all over my body. Funnily enough, my clothes, while they were dry, felt moist compared to my skin.

I sighed and propped myself up to look around. I was expecting drastic changes all around me due to the length of time I had been in the real world rather than here. At the very least, the obelisk and the sculptures appeared to be unchanged, a relative comfort in the changing and twisting world I found myself within. The only real difference I noticed was that the number of Ashen Bees in the local area appears to have risen significantly; usually, there were only a few dozen floating around. There must have easily been over sixty of them drifting from plant to plant all around me.

I looked down to my chest to check what I was wearing; I had only just then remembered that I needed to check if my new coat had carried over into the Abyss with me. Thankfully I found myself wearing that very same coat, not so much as a mark just like it was in the real world, though I did find that the fabric itself made me feel far more comfortable than anything else I had worn in the Abyss before now. Perhaps the knowledge that it was safer than a shirt was helping me somehow?

Running my hands down the coat towards the large hand-pockets on either side, I discovered that the notebook I had prepared had also come through with me. I made a mental note to inspect the book closely once I’d got my bearings and found myself in a calm enough environment to get to work taking notes.

Around this time, a familiar fluttering of wings approached me from my side; swivelling my head around, I saw Kliviero slowly drifting towards me. Surprisingly she appeared to be in good condition after my disappearance, though judging by her hands and legs gently shaking while she moved, it was abundantly clear that she was shaken by something.

“H-hey Kliviero.” I shimmied around a bit more so that I was able to face her while partially propped up, my eyes still adjusting to waking up in a far brighter place than I found myself sleeping in.

“O-oh, y-your Ali-awake?” She stammered, landing a few feet from me and standing on shaky legs. She eventually sat down after accepting that her legs weren’t quite able to hold her up with how nervous she was. “W-well, when you….” She giggled nervously. “… died last night, well, something h-happened.” She played with her hair in an attempt to work her way through the nerves.

“O-okay, what do you mean something happened?” I ask while readjusting myself to a sitting position.

“S-so, when the Zhivaq group came after you and, well, ‘killed’ you, s-something showed up out of seemingly nowhere.” She turned to look away as if she was wary of somebody, or rather something, overhearing her. “This bit ceramic b-being appeared, easily eight or so f-foot tall, l-looked similar to how The Forgotten One is described to look like. I-It rushed the Zhivaq and k-killed them, all of them, blood and shredded chitin e-everywhere….” Kliviero doubled over and held her head in her hands, she shook even more violently, and her voice trembled with every syllable she spoke.

“It’s okay; she’s gone now. She’s not going to hurt you.” I reach out and gently pat her on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. “I hope. She’s not here, is she?” I swing my head around to try and spot the figure that Kliviero described. “But, if that thing killed the Zhivaq, how did I get here?”

“I-It…” Kliviero’s shaking became significantly worse when she looked up at me, her eyes laden with terror and shock. “Its body broke down i-into a thick swirling cloud o-of dust, the d-dust enveloped your body and picked you up, t-then reformed a-around you. I-it absorbed you….”

I couldn’t hear the rest of what the poor girl was saying since I had unfortunately been cursed with a fairly weak stomach; hearing that I had been, functionally, swallowed whole by something that proceeded to wear me like a skeleton caused me to roll to the side and gag violently. Worse yet, this would explain how my skin felt so dry, perhaps a reaction between organic tissue and the insides of whatever the fuck that thing was?

“O-oh by the stars above, I-I am so sorry!” Kliviero shakily stood up and rushed to my side. She walked around me so that she was standing in front of me. She reached a hand up slowly and placed her frigid palm on my face. “A-are you going to be o-okay?”

“It’s good, Kliviero; you didn’t mean to.” I cough and choke a bit while rolled on my side. “I appreciate your concern, but it’s not your fault. Thank you for telling me what happened, though.” I paused briefly. “Wait, how did I get out of that thing? How did I get here?”

“Well…” Kliviero cleared her throat and took a step back, probably fully aware of the real possibility that I could throw up from finding out what exactly happened. “I-it ran all the way back up here, reached the obelisk, and looked around to see if anybody had followed it up here. Its chest then like broke open into hundreds of little leg-like things and kinda just spewed you out...”

This was nearly too much for me to handle; another violent twisting knot formed in my stomach as my stomach prepared to eject every last drop of fluid from my body. I coughed violently for a while, struggling to inhale enough air afterwards to permit another coughing fit. The story was supported by how dry my skin felt. Perhaps the process whereby this thing absorbed me caused it to start to suck my moisture in?

Kliviero covers her face and turns away briskly, taking several weighted steps back while her body recoiled in horror. She trembled like a leaf while walking away, her body twitching with discomfort as her wings dropped down to the floor.

“O-okay, I…” I garble out between coughs and churns. “I think I’m going to be okay….” I shuffle around to reposition. “Think being the keyword….”

“I-if it makes you feel better, the thing sprinted away rather quickly back to the Sail-woods.” Kliviero turned back nervously and slowly, her eyes sunken and partially closed. “I don’t think it’s coming back for a while, especially since my previous masters own the garden here.” She cautiously walks back to my side. “Whatever it was clearly wasn’t happy that it was here, only stayed long enough to drop you off and bolted immediately afterwards.” She shrugged. “I don’t know where it went after that, only that the thing is long gone by now, and the bees have nought the faintest clue where it’s gone either….”

“Okay then, it might be best if we avoid that place for a while.” I reason, sitting upright after nearly clearing my stomach out violently. “Who knows where that thing has gone or what it’s planning, could be laying in wait to ambush us for all we know.”

“Probably for the best.” Kliviero’s wings returned to her sides, raising from the ground by her ankles. “Best to not tempt the tolerance and motivation of that thing more than is necessary.” She paused for a moment of thought, turning back to me afterwards. “So, if not the Sail-woods, what should we do now, where should we go?” She asked. “I’m not entirely comfortable lurking around this place. The sculptures are making me jumpy….”

I wonder for a moment about the possible options we had in this current situation; with the Sail-woods entirely out of the picture, and I was left with only uncharted land or the one path that led back to the white building I was within back during the first few days, assuming it was still there of course. After some consideration, I thought it would be best to investigate what little space of this place I was familiar with first before diving into the unknown once more.

“Well, there’s a place back that way which I showed up in the first few nights I found myself here.” I pointed towards the arched passages that I walked through not many nights ago. “Might not be a bad idea to go check on that first; maybe it’s changed a bit since I was last there.” I reasoned while carefully standing up since the building was on a tiny floating island, perhaps it had drifted away over time, or maybe the Sail-trees had caused the larger island to drift away from it.

“That should be interesting.” Kliviero flutters up from the pavement. The clacking of her wings sounded louder than before, though maybe my ears were getting used to the acoustics of this odd place. “I’d like to see it for myself, assuming it’s still there, of course; the tides and winds of the abyss may have moved it far from here by now.”

“Tides of the Abyss?” I ask Kliviero while she gracefully lands on my shoulder, crossing her legs and folding her arms while listening to my question. “I’m guessing that it’s a weather phenomenon in this world?” I take a deep breath and start walking away from the obelisk while continuing my questioning of the metal pixie.

“It’s a catch-all name for the flow of air around the Abyss, as the waves and ripples in a pond,” Kliviero explained while watching the reflection pool around the obelisk; her head tilts gently when she notices that the pool was entirely motionless. “Much unlike the fluid here.”

“On the topic of this reflective pool here, does it ring any bells?” I respond, stopping by the side of the pool and looking down into it. Interestingly there was a lack of reflection in the pool, rather ironic considering its reflective property…

“Not really, unfortunately.” She sighed, leaning forward to look down into the pool. “I have this feeling that I’m supposed to know, but I can’t for the life of me remember….”

“Perhaps it’ll come back to you in time,” I reassured her while tilting back from the pond and resuming my walk, approaching and crossing one of the floating bridges at a slightly heightened pace; I was still unconvinced that they were entirely stable to walk across.

While walking around the garden and working toward the old passage to the weird white structure, I felt the cold nip to the air gradually melt away. It was rather unusual since, with the coldness ebbing away, I felt my body warming up and becoming more accustomed to this place as if I was getting used to being here with each passing day.

“So, does anything here make sense to you?” I ask Kliviero, hoping that she could shed some light on the weird assembly of sculptures. “Since you told me the other night that your kind worked on engraving and carving things, I am curious if you recognize these statues here.” I stopped before one of the statues and stood not far from its base, looking up at the masked figure standing as a silent sentinel for the obelisk.

“Now that you mention it, these statues don’t look like the kind I worked on.” She sighed, sounding frustrated at her lack of insight. “They appear to be of Amethyite design, but I can’t quite tell what they represent.” She looked over her shoulder. “But that thing, I know what that thing is….”

“Oh, the obelisk?” I ask, turning around to face it, the deep red text shimmering gently on its surface while we observed it. “Yeah, that thing is rather bizarre, isn’t it?”

“To an outsider who doesn’t know its function, yes it is.” She tutted. “But to the Amethyite Order, it’s something far more intricate and purposeful than a scenic prop.” She flicked her hair and took off from my shoulder, darting away to orbit the obelisk at some distance, only to return after a couple of seconds. “Yeah, my assumption was correct.”

“So, what is it?” I asked once she returned to my side.

“That thing is a Protasi wellspring.” She landed upon my shoulder and continued to explain. “It’s basically a giant magnet which both collects and distributes Protasi energy across this island.”

“I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.” I chuckled as I turned and continued to walk along the orbital pathway.

“Okay…” Kliviero sighed and place her head in her open palms, visibly frustrated by my lack of understanding. “In this place, there is a form of residual psychological energy which exists everywhere in the Abyss. However, it’s feeble, so you can’t do anything with it unless you can focus and concentrate it.” She explained. “The Amethyite order went around building Protasi wellsprings like this one to create a big web across the territory they lay claim to. This net captures the energy and stores it for use when needed...”

“Which can be drawn out through a rough hand-shaped opening at its base, I assume?” I interrupted her; I rem embed a while ago when I first approached the obelisk and touched it, how my arm was obliterated and overtaken with energy. Perhaps I had accidentally drawn energy from it?

“Well, yes, I think; it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen one in use.” She rolled her eyes. “Though it’s not quite drawing energy from the wellspring but rather siphoning it from the environment over a much, much larger area than you could without it. A bit like a giant funnel when you think about it.”

“That name is rather interesting, though,” I murmured with a lowered voice while I remembered what had happened when I woke up a few days ago in the real world. “I was visited by something in the world I’m from which looked awfully familiar to the sculptures here, said something about ‘Protasi’ and how humans are vulnerable to it if I’m not mistaken.” I paused my walk and looked up to one of the sculptures, my mind playing back the thing I had seen and comparing how closely it resembled the things depicted in the masonry here.

“Oh…” Kliviero gasped, sitting silently while her eyes fixated on me, the burning golden iris scanning me for something I could not see or discern. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are that they didn’t just kill you at that very moment?” She was exasperated, coming off as utterly dumbfounded by this revelation.

“I suppose I’m lucky in a way.” I chuckled, resuming my walk along the orbital path and reaching the entrance to the pergola passageway. “She was very cryptic when she spoke to me, and to be entirely honest with you, and I got far more questions out of her than answers.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right for an Amethyite Quire….” Kliviero snickered under her breath while she fidgeted idly, her hands betraying her nerves. “I don’t remember the last time an Amethyite reached out to another world. I always heard stories about the masters being able to reach out to other places with minimal effort, but I always assumed it was only done in times of need or when they were looking for something.” She explained.

Part of me was still curious about the intentions of the visitor. If what Kliviero was telling me was correct, this couldn’t have been some pure coincidence or some minor or otherwise trivial venture for the figure to undertake. In addition, the exact motive behind its decision to visit me at such a time appeared to be massively out of character for these ‘Amethyite Quires’, if these things were as proficient at the art of ending the lives of others as she was implying, then why didn’t the visitor kill me and be done with it there and then?

“As I was saying, they were very cryptic and spoke a lot without really saying anything, but they did leave me with a note, claiming that they wanted to be on civil terms,” I remembered about the visitor's note and asked her while I fished around in my coat for the notebook in my pocket. While I had forgotten to take a copy of the note for my notebook, I wanted to at the very least record Kliviero’s reaction to the news.

“Curious…” Kliviero scratched her head and thought to herself, her eyes tracking my hand while it fished around for the notebook. “I was unaware that they could write anything other than the old script, let alone well enough to perform complicated communication like that.”

“The old script?” I ask, finally retrieving my notebook and pen, flicking the book open to the first page. A smile stretched across my face when I noticed some of the short notes I had written in the real world were jotted at the top of the page. “You mean the cuneiform on the obelisk back there?” I look back at the obelisk to observe its flickering and shifting surface, writing out a few scratches at the edge of the page to make sure the pen was working in this environment, excitement gripping me tightly while I thought about the importance of the notes being transferred to the real world once I was done here.

“Cuneiform?” Kliviero looks at me, her head tilted and her eyes narrowed. “That’s what your kind calls it. Wait, your kind knows what it is?”