Awakening into Dreams: Part II of the Fabula Fereganae Cycle

  Chapter V: Lost to The Fog

  Stefi, along with Cédes, the last of her companions, set out across the new land with only an uncertain and useless compass and the river to guide the way. It was no ordinary river, she soon found. A closer look revealed the bottom to be paved with flat stones, almost like a road, while its banks were buttressed with massive stone blocks. It was not natural. Someone had made it.

  “An aqueduct, perhaps,” Cédes said.

  “Built by whom?”

  “History was never my strong point.”

  “So I've heard.”

  The two walked hand in hand all day beneath an overcast sky that only made the bare landscape all the more monotonous and depressing. Barely a word was spoken. Neither could find the strength.

  It was around evening that the land suddenly fell away before them into a deep chasm that stretched towards the horizon. And just barely, through the gray haze, Stefi could see the other side. She stopped.

  “What is it?” Cédes asked.

  “A big hole,” Stefi said, her voice shaking.

  “And the river?”

  “It keeps going across a narrow bridge.” She stepped to the edge of the chasm and peered into the yawning abyss. “Ah! It’s a long way down. I think. I can’t even see the bottom.” She imagined pitching forward and falling… falling forever. At least until she hit the bottom.

  “If it frightens you, do not look,” Cédes said sagely.

  “Easy for you to say,” she muttered. But she swallowed her fear and set foot upon the bridge that bore the water across nothingness, upon a path beside the water just wide enough to accommodate her and Cédes.

  “Don’t look down, don’t look down,” she repeated to herself like a mantra to the beat of each cautious footfall. Soon she found Cédes’s voice, a soothing echo, accompanying her own.

  “Don’t look down,” she said again. “Don’t look…”

  “Down?” Cédes offered.

  Stefi suddenly found her mouth too dry to respond.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Yeah,” Stefi said once her voice returned. “The bridge is gone.” Indeed, the stone before her vanished, leaving the water to rush headlong into the abyss. Nearly two meters away the aqueduct continued on its way, now empty.

  “Not good,” Cédes said. “Can we jump across?”

  “It’s not too far so I guess I could. But you?”

  “Of course I could. The only trouble is that I cannot see when to.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll go first.” She removed her pack and tossed it and her staff into the aqueduct on the other side, followed by Cédes’s gear. “Now we have to jump.”

  “Just one thought,” Cédes said. “We do not know where we are going. Or even if this aqueduct leads to or away from anywhere inhabited.”

  “You said it’s an aqueduct, though.”

  “Yes?”

  “Then it must be ducting the water somewhere. You don’t lead water away from your town. And it’s more reliable than the compass. Not that it’s useful if we don’t know where we’re going, anyway.”

  “Good logic. Let us hope we fly as well as it does.”

  Stefi nodded and backed up several steps, trying not to think of what would happen if she missed. Before she realized what she was doing, she found her legs propelling her forward and then upwards until, for a few terrifying seconds, she hung in the air before landing hard on the other side.

  “Ha! Easy!” she shouted back, giddy with adrenaline. She knew Maya would have loved the thrill.

  “If you say so.” Just like Stefi did, she took a few steps backwards. “I shall start running,” she said. “You tell me when to jump.”

  “Run. And… now!”

  Cédes launched herself, strangely calm. It was almost peaceful, she thought, suspended in the air, seeing and feeling nothing but emptiness. Just as quickly she found herself landing upon a hard surface and tumbling into Stefi’s arms.

  “My, that was fun!” she gushed, breathing heavily. “You know, I would like to have looked down and seen what I just jumped over. What a rush that would have been!”

  “Trust me,” Stefi said, setting Cédes back on her feet, “you don’t want to see down there.”

  “I would like to see anything at all. But mostly you.”

  They shouldered their packs, took up their staves, and resumed their following of the now-empty aqueduct. With the rushing water gone, silence took its place. They had barely gone a dozen steps before a new sound made itself known: a slight cracking that eased closer and closer.

  Stefi turned to look and what she saw made her blood chill. “Run!” she screamed and dragged Cédes after her. She gripped her hand tight and pulled, afraid of yanking her off her feet.

  “What… is… it?”

  In reply the noise grew louder, rumbling and crashing into a thunderous roar like a beast snapping at their heels.

  “Oh. It is collapsing.”

  The two ran, spurred on by the incessant clamor behind them, not daring to slow or glance backwards. Only when they were sure they had reached land again did they allow themselves to collapse in a sweaty, panting heap as the last of the aqueduct’s bridge tumbled away behind them.

  “We did it!” Stefi said. “We’re alive!”

  “Yes. Yes we are.”

  Stefi laughed, still high on adrenaline. “Is that all you can say? We just about died there. Whew!” She threw her arms about Cédes and planted a hurried kiss upon her cheek before falling into her lap.

  “Quite exciting, wasn’t it?” Cédes said.

  “Yeah. But now we know who built it, don’t we?” she said as she looked up at Cédes.

  “We do?”

  “Quality like that… must’ve been Furosans!”

  Cédes swatted Stefi’s head playfully. “Maybe. But I bet they paid humans to do it.”

  As their heightened states wore off, the night came rushing in and before they knew it darkness had descended. With it came the chill of the night, carried upon a whining, mournful wind from the distant sea to the south. And even worse was the rain.

  The only shelter they could find was the empty aqueduct, which they discovered was deep enough to keep out the wind and provide some cover from the rain. The two huddled together, human against Furosan, beneath their blankets and Cédes’s dirty spread out robes, their backs against the wall. Cédes tried to use her stone to warm them, though it only gave out a dim glow. Raphanos, it seemed, still hadn’t recovered from what had happened at Sol-Acrima.

  “Do you remember that little kiss you gave me earlier?” Cédes asked once they were completely covered and quite warm despite the occasional flurries of rain that found their shelter.

  “Oh, that. What about it?”

  “Why?”

  In the red glow of the stone Stefi couldn’t tell if she was blushing. “It was just from relief, really. Wait… you didn’t think it was like what Ifaut would give Sansonis, do you?”

  “O-of course not!” Still, she thought…

  “I really miss those two,” Stefi said, fighting the urge to sob that overwhelmed her as suddenly as the cold night had.

  “As do I. Ifaut would have come in quite useful right now.”

  “Why’s that? Her resourcefulness?”

  “No, the way she was always so full of hot air.”

  “What was all that about, anyway?” Ifaut demanded as Sansonis’s gray eyes fluttered open.

  No response from the Kalkic.

  “Fine. I’ll leave you tied up until you give me an explanation. If you’re still in there, of course.”

  Surprised, Sansonis struggled and found his wrists and ankles bound tightly with rope. “Hey, what gives?” he said. With the words came an ache in his jaw.

  “What gives? What gives?” she shouted. “You trying to kill me, that’s what gives!” Then in a lower voice, “What does that even mean?”

  He started, suddenly remembering what had happened. But… it w
asn’t him, was it? There was something else, no, someone else, moving him, trying to hurt Ifaut. Kardin.

  “It wasn’t me,” he said weakly. “That darkness of mine, it took over. Said its name was Kardin.”

  Ifaut’s eyes shot wide open and her tail puffed. It would have almost looked funny, Sansonis thought, if the circumstances were different.

  “You meany!” she shouted and leveled an accusatory finger. “You get out of my boyfriend right now! I mean it! Go on! Firik aniei!”

  Sansonis just smiled. “I think it’s gone. For now, anyway. But since when did I stop being a kamae and start being a boyfriend?”

  Her face reddened and the supports in her tail melted away. “Since just after we first met, when I asked you to be my dance partner at the festival” she said quietly. “At least, that’s how it was in my stupid little mind.”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s right. I’ve liked you since we first met. Immature and silly, I know.”

  “I liked you too,” he said, forgetting for a moment that he was still restrained. “Otherwise I would’ve left you hanging from that tree. Or turned you in.”

  She smiled, and one tooth hung out lopsidedly.

  “Now there’s the Ifaut I know. Will you let me go?”

  “Of course.”

  “Thanks. Being tied down with you is one thing. Being tied up is another.”

  She cut his bonds and hauled him up. “Listen,” she said awkwardly, not making eye contact, “I’m sorry I didn’t want to tell you about the house and that it set off… whatever that was.”

  “And sorry I tried to kill you. Even though it technically wasn’t me, I’m sorry all the same. Are we even now?”

  “Hmm.” She thought for a moment. “Let’s see. You still owe me a last dance, remember? And I still owe you a favor. So no.” As she spoke a sharp-toothed grin spread across her face.

  “A dance? Since when?”

  “Since I fell asleep at the Festival of Lidae, silly!”

  “Oh yeah.” Even though it wasn’t very long ago, somehow it felt like an eternity with all that had happened. That meant he and Ifaut hadn’t even known each other for a month and already she saw him as a boyfriend. He couldn’t feel the same way back so soon. Not right now, anyway, with what had just happened. It filled him with guilt.

  Ifaut sat back beside the fire and began preparing more food for her and Sansonis. “You know, I could consider knocking you out and stopping that Kardin thing a favor.” She didn’t take her eyes off her task. “But I’m not going to. I’ve got too much to do right now.”

  “Hold on,” he said. “Just one more question. What do you see in me, anyway?”

  “Kindness,” she said without the slightest hesitation, still not looking up from her work. “Sincerity. Innocence. Most of all, someone who I can be me around, someone who isn’t just with me for my status.”

  “I’m just with you because you won’t go away. You’re like a persistent bad smell or something!”

  She turned to him and fluttered her eyes in surprise.

  “That’s good, you know,” he said, reading the uncertainty on her face.

  “That’s another reason why I love you. You can compare me to a bad smell and it still sounds romantic coming from you.”

  “Would you rather I compared you to a rose or something? I mean, you’re pretty but you definitely have thorns.”

  She giggled. “Nah, that’s what other guys used to say. I like your idea much better.”

  Even come morning the bad weather never ceased. Stefi and Cédes, managing to pry themselves from their wet shelter, found themselves uncomfortably damp; not wet enough to be a real nuisance, but wet enough to chill their bodies.

  After a breakfast of some stale bread and an apple between them, the two continued along the empty aqueduct. While the rain had eased off during the night, a persistent drizzle still sprinkled across them. It was a terribly gray day, Stefi thought. Gray sky, gray rain, gray stone, white Cédes made gray with water and dirt, gray fog rolling in. At least Cédes’s eyes burned through the monotony.

  At last, a little after lunchtime, something else happened to break the gloom. A few slender shafts of sunshine, like golden glass from the heavens, tore the clouds to reveal a gentle blue and let through some warmth.

  “Perhaps now we may begin to dry,” Cédes said.

  “Perhaps.” Stefi looked at Cédes. “You know, I feel something weird.”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  She took the dull stone of Fairun from her pocket, feeling that there was still a lot more of its energy left out there. A feeling much like it seemed to tug at her soul, reeling her towards it. “It’s like this, only stronger. You don’t think there might be another one nearby?”

  “I believe there may be.” Cédes parted her damp hair from her eyes–not so she could see better but because it was rather uncomfortable–and took a deep breath. “This aqueduct… Although I do not want to admit it, I am certain it leads to Alzandia. The Alzandians were famed for their construction, especially aqueducts.” She sighed and turned away.

  “Alzandia? Hey, so I was right about Furosans building that shoddy bridge!”

  “Yes, although now is not the time to celebrate that.”

  “Wait,” Stefi said. “Back up a little. What’s wrong with Alzandia?”

  Cédes stopped and took a few steps back before she realized Stefi has just used another strange human figure of speech. “Look at me,” she said levelly and spread her arms. “What is odd about me? What sets me apart from other Furosans you have met thus far?”

  Stefi hesitated for a moment. “Your blindness, I guess.”

  “Please, do not spare my feelings. I mean the more obvious differences.”

  “You’re albino?”

  “A common misconception, but no. My skin is more pale white than pink. But the white hair, fair complexion-”

  “Don’t forget the red eyes.”

  “Those too. The first traits are those of Alzandians. I am not pure Mafouran.”

  “And the eyes?” Stefi pressed.

  “An interesting feature of mine, I… um… guess, as you would say.”

  “If you’re really from Alzandia,” Stefi said as they resumed walking, “why are you afraid to return there?”

  “Because, for reasons beyond my understanding, I ended up a world away in Mafouras. No one knows how, no one knows why. No one really remembers my parents apart from their homes, and there are certainly no other Alzandians in Mafouras.”

  “So,” Stefi said and took Cédes’s hand to guide her around the puddles that had formed about the sunken stones, “we might find answers.”

  “Sometimes we may want the truth, but we know that searching for it will hurt us. So we stop looking. Finding that my family wanted me gone from Alzandia, for reasons unknown, will certainly bring me grief.”

  “It might not be that way,” Stefi said. Then she thought for a moment. Cédes was right. The answer could be anything, but the fear of one option was enough of a deterrent.

  “But it might.”

  “If you don’t want to continue, that’s fine with me,” Stefi said. “We can turn around right now and try to find our way back home.”

  “I cannot. My whole life I have found myself somewhere not quite home. Now, finally, I am walking back there. I shall be all right as long as you are with me.”

  Stefi squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Hey, if you do this and find answers you don’t like, I’ll look after you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Just one more question. What’s the thing I feel ahead? Another elemental?”

  “If we are indeed headed for Alzandia, then it is undoubtedly Guratzu.”

  “You’re Alzandian. That means you can control it, just like with…” She trailed away, unsure of how to continue.

  “Raphanos,” Cédes finished. “If can hardly control one elemental, ought I really seek out another?”

  Not lo
ng after their conversation ended, so too did the aqueduct, opening out into space. Stefi continued walking right to the edge despite the dizzying height. She realized that, when it still carried water, it must have emptied into the massive lake beneath them. The lake sprawled out in a deep basin, all but hidden within the surrounding hills.

  “Is that running water I hear?” Cédes asked.

  “Yes. We’ve reached the end of the road, but it just drops straight into a lake.” She scanned the horizon and saw, through the persistent fog, ghostly outlines of more aqueducts dumping water into the basin. “You won’t believe this, there’s a massive building out on the lake. It’s just indescribable!”

  In the middle of the aqueduct-fed lake towered a building that made even the splendors of Sol-Acrima look like rustic farmhouses. It was a magnificent palace, a jumbled collection of columns, terraces, gardens, water-features, and so large it looked almost like a city. A city, at any rate, hastily assembled by a child with no care for symmetry or reason. And all hidden within the hills, set against a backdrop of fog, so that one could only find it if they knew exactly where to look. Or, in Stefi and Cédes’s case, followed the aqueducts.

  What struck Stefi the most was the lack of fortifications. The lake provided a natural barrier that even the fittest swimmer would take some time to cross. That is, if they survived the frigid water long enough.

  “Breathtaking,” Stefi said and gripped Cédes’s hand even tighter while she told her of the great sight before her.

  “Then it is Alzandia.”

  They clambered out from the shelter of the aqueduct, into the warming, foggy air. After much searching Stefi discovered a small path eked from the cliff zigg-zagging down towards the lake. Careful of the rain-soaked ground, she and Cédes made the precarious journey to the basin’s floor, thankful for their staves and each other for the balance.

  “It must be a beautiful view,” Cédes said.

  “Very. Still, looking down scares me.” She shuddered.

  “I would love to see it, all the same.”

  “Better add it to the list then.”

  “List?”

  “Remember back in Valraines when I promised I’d show you the sunset when I find a way to get your sight back?”

  “Very much so.”

  “How about we make up a list of places to visit together?”

  “That would be very nice indeed,” Cédes said and was seized by a sudden warmth despite her still-damp clothes.

  At the bottom of the path, upon the shores of the lake, they found a little wooden jetty, rotten and leaning drunkenly. The decayed skeletons of several canoes and dinghies wallowed in the reedy shallows. One boat, still afloat, lay moored to the end. And beside it sat…

  “Cédes?” Stefi called. The figure rose as her friend replied, “Yes?”

  But the other white-haired Furosan perched precariously next to the boat didn’t answer. It picked its way amongst the broken boards, looking for all the world like Cédes: same lithe build, same white hair, but a different Furosan altogether.

  The Alzandian leapt to the soft mud of the shore and approached Stefi and Cédes. Her piercing purple eyes flicked from Cédes, to Stefi, then settled back on Cédes.

  “So, the White Demon has finally made return home,” she said, surprise in her voice.

  Stefi felt Cédes jerk in shock so she released her grip on her hand and put a protective arm about her shoulders. “Not quite the welcome home you expected, huh?”

  “No. I expected much worse.”