Prismatic

Secret

The place was colorless. I could not see even a splash of color aside from black and white. It was the mirror image of the checkpoint. It was the time of construction and some of the structures were already standing. The Lutins were working on building the inns, the dojos, and recreational areas and the shopping place. There were no bridges built yet to connect them. I was standing on haphazardly laid stone, they were not formed yet. The weather was still the same. I could not feel the air from this area. It was like watching a memory of someone.

Bry, Aina and Tyke were standing there blending with the scene and saw my presence. They looked at me with lifeless eyes. They seemed possessed by an unknown entity. They all pointed at my direction and slowly approached me. I fell on the ground on my behind and I slowly crawled away from them. They were trying to grab a hold of me. There were suddenly surrounding me at all sides with their hands outstretched towards me. I was quivering in fear while I covered my eyes. I felt a sudden warm hand touch my shoulder. I screamed and looked around to see it was Bry.

“Hey, what happened?” Bry asking in a soothing voice.

“Huh?” I was bewildered but I slightly recovered, “Nothing, everything’s fine. I think I was just seeing things.”

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Bry looked worried.

“I’m fine, I promise”, I bit my lip with eyes on the floor.

“Well, are you ready to go back?”

“Was your training finished? How did it go?”

“Yeah… Nothing much happened. I just learned some body reinforcements.”

“Oh. Will we be able to go back here later?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

I got up to my feet and followed Bry back to the inn. I kept on thinking about that place even when I cooked dinner. Bry had already prepared the meat in marinade earlier after we ate lunch. All I had to do was fry it. I made a thick soup of creamy white with some minty greens for garnish. Dinner was served on the table. I was absent on the lively conversation. I was deep in thought on what the book was trying to show me. When I didn’t respond, Bry tapped my shoulder. “What?” I was back to reality, confused.

“Aina was asking you if you want to come with us to the recreational areas later”, Bry looked worried, “Is there something wrong?”

“No, no, no. I’m fine”, I stumbled to regain myself and I cleared my throat, “Yeah, I will go. I think that would be great.”

“Hey, Jo… Did something happen at the dojo?” Tyke looked concerned, “You look spooked.”

“Yeah, Jo… You look very pale”, Aina doubled in.

“Look guys, nothing happened”, I composed myself. “I was just reading books there maybe that drained me.”

“Oh, so that was what you were doing”, Bry seemed suspicious.

“Look guys, it’s nothing. Really”, I tried to look convincing.

“Hey, if she said it was nothing. It’s nothing”, Tyke changed the topic. “Anyway, we should get ready to go.”

“Don’t you ever get tired?” Aina rolled her eyes. It’s so obvious that she’s very excited to go, too.

After the dishes were done, we went to the recreational areas. It was like a festival of fun. There were multicolored fireworks at the background. Before we approached the area, a street sign was posted at the center. It read, “All of the pain, sorrow and sadness are oblivious for a moment. A moment is all you need to escape from them for a while. We value happiness above all.” Inside, there were stalls with different attractions, activities and food.

The first one on the agenda was the Flying Rider. It was a ride for about ten people where your legs hung and your only safety was the soft metal that held your upper body. It was a swift ride of twists and turns, loops and spins, dives and dashes. It repeated three times in a row without stopping or slowing down. I almost felt my soul slipping away from me when it finally stopped. Next was Swan Dance. It was a ride for two people. Aina and Tyke went on ahead of us with her pulling him in as he struggled. So that was the plan, I thought to myself. I felt Bry tug my wrist to the next one. I guess I have no choice, then. We rode the silvery white swan with two heads forming a heart. It stayed afloat on the water and it felt as if some force was pulling it forward. I grabbed Bry’s arm in case something happens. The swan went through a dark tunnel and then there was complete blackness. Sweet sounds were playing around us. I felt a slight touch of his lips on mine. I pulled away to get a better look at him. What I saw horrified me. A slight lime light brushed his face and I saw his rotting face of bluish green. I screamed so loud that it echoed throughout the attraction. When we saw light again, I saw Bry’s shocked face. He was staring at me like he did something wrong. I pulled my hair to my face in abashment. It all went awkward until the end of the ride. I still grabbed onto Bry’s arm even after the ride. The last one on the list was the Hall of Wonder. It was a gallery of the most beautiful places I have never seen in my life. They were mostly realistic illustrations that seemed too real to the touch.

One illustration particularly caught my attention. It seemed out of place as if someone hastily put it there to fill the gap. It was placed at the very back of the gallery. It was very different from the other illustrations as it didn’t fit the theme. It was an illustration of a decaying man of bluish green complexity. It was holding a prism on its open palm. As if by instinct, I touched the prism. The illustration shined an ethereal white and it made a silent purr. Everyone looked at me and approached and they also touched the prism. The illustration suddenly shook violently and a glossy wooden door replaced the painting with a flash of light. We all looked at each other and agreed to check it out. I braved the door open and everyone followed my lead.

The scene was still in black and white. This time, Konungroi was there inspecting the construction of the tower. They were at the base of the site. He checked the design time and again to make sure everything was in their right places. Odd materials for construction were also at the site. The construction of the first floor was quickly done. The second floor was well underway. The workers were obscured by the scene. The construction was done as fast as the first one. It continued on up to the last floor. An invisible force was preventing them to construct more floors. Konungroi was still planning on adding more floors. The next day, he called up all of the magic experts the kingdom could find to solve the problem. He was planning on hiding these floors in another space, the Ethereal Realm. These floors were planned as checkpoints and he thought that he could add more to them without consuming more height. He requested the experts to add some magic glow to the tower upon its completion. After the tower was finished, they were disposed of as part of the tower’s foundation. Konungroi offered them immortality in exchange. The magic glow that we saw was the spirits of the magic experts that helped Konungroi finish the construction of the tower. It was finished on the third day.

The scenery switched in the blink of an eye. There were no walls built around the tower. It was a flourishing kingdom. There were vendors who attended the stalls. Some of them were humans while others were of different species that I did not know. They coexisted in harmony until one fateful day. The taxes imposed upon them increased every month without giving them a valid reason. Half of them protested against Konungroi while the other half still respected his decision and did not participate. The protest had brought havoc to the newly built tower as they tried to infiltrate it. Konungroi awaited them inside the red floor. He put a curse on them and their forms changed into beings called Lutins. Those who did not join the rebellion were sent outside the kingdom and started building a village on their own. They didn’t have any memory of their life in Tregelheim. The rumor we heard from the village were based on what Konungroi told them before they left. The vision disappeared and we were back to reality. We were still dazed at what we saw.

“What was that?” Tyke looked puzzled.

“I think it’s the memory of the tower”, Bry answered.

“Why is it showing this? Why now?” I sounded hysteric.

“Those poor people… How could he?” Aina was furious.

The indigo crystal glowed inside my pocket. I took it out and it was shimmering. It was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t understand it. I focused on it and the book showed me the illustration for revealing the thoughts of the crystal. I traced the shape of the crystal and murmured, Detego Glossa. A woman’s voice was heard speaking through it, “The truth is close but the impending danger is closer. Be careful. Be aware.”

We decided to leave the recreational areas and went home to reorganize our thoughts. We sat around the dining area. “What were they planning?” I was frantic.

“Will we have the same fate as them?” Tyke was facing back and forth in the dining area.

“We must think of what we should do first.” Bry remained composed.

“Could we even trust anyone here?” Aina was violently quivering and might run for the door.

“Stop it, Aina”, Tyke hugged her tight around him arms, “We are all scared and confused at what we saw.”

“You all saw it, right?” Aina was loosing her self control.

Bry slapped them both in one swing of his back palm across their face. “Have you calmed down now? You’re getting on my nerves.”

“Don’t be too harsh on them”, I grabbed Bry by the arm.

“I’m sorry”, Bry calmed himself down, “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Aina and Tyke were in a shocked state. Bry blew a light blue powder on them. They seemed to have regained their senses. When everyone had calmed down, Bry opened his mouth. “I suggest that we continue on”, he looked at all of us, “all of you can abandon the quest and leave the tower but I can’t leave my sister up there. She is the only one that I have left of my family.”

“I will stick with you, Bry”, I put my arms around him. “You are the only one I can depend on.”

“She’s right, man”, Tyke reached for his shoulder, “it may not seem like it but we all depend on you most of the time.”

“I will not leave my man or my team, so count me in”, Aina reached for the other shoulder.

I was trying not to cry. Big girls gotta keep it in. I just had a realization though, it is not only me and Bry left in this world, Aina and Tyke was in the picture, too. We are family and we already built strong bonds with each other. We have come this far already and if we leave this tower now, there might not be any guarantee that we were permitted to leave the tower alive. We held our positions in this moment of silence. We gave hugs to each other and went on to our rooms. Oddly enough, I drifted easily to sleep. Maybe all the drama drained my mana.