Ian awoke blearily and slowly, giving him time well enough to experience a situation he was quite unused to. Sandwiched between two exceedingly damp and heavy down quilts, he could still somehow feel the hard ground beneath him, which he imagined was mostly responsible for his sore neck and back (aside from the obvious lack of pillow). Upon groggily opening his eyes, his surroundings came into further relief – situated in what appeared to be a tent, he was framed on all sides by a great number of wooden boxes, all stacked as high as the small shelter would allow. The only ground remaining uncovered by these storage vessels was quite literally blanketed in someone else's bedding, and although there were signs it had been used, whoever had slept there appeared to have left some time ago.
Having fully absorbed the setting, it seemed very likely to Ian that the events supposedly having transpired the night before had simply been a strange dream. None of this accounted for his current location, however, and so he remained in clouded pondering until a head poked through the tent's flaccid doors.
Her dark face mysteriously half-covered by a black blindfold, the brunette's juvenile pigtails snagged slightly on the entrance flaps as she stepped further inside. "Guess you're awake, huh," she remarked casually. Without providing time enough for a reply, she elaborated, "You're needed outside," forcefully taking the adolescent's wrist and pulling him out of the tent with surprising strength.
Still far from conscious, Ian followed without resistance to be met with more unfamiliar scenery. Two other tents had been erected nearby, and the remains of a campfire lay undisturbed on the charred ground. Standing nearby were three people, who seemed to have been conversing prior to his intrusion. One of them he recognized immediately, and baffled thoughts flew through his mind as he was dragged closer.
"Sleeping beauty's finally up," Win said with some chagrin.
"You may be blind, but none of us are," the only male of the trio replied in a demeaning tone, rolling his grey eyes contemptuously.
"Just shut up, Juree," Win snapped in return. He scoffed, and flicked his taupe bangs from his eyes.
Appearing quite used to such squabbles between the two, Lucille commented calmly, "You're both acting rude around our guests." She cast an apologetic glance towards Ian, but he was none the wiser, having locked eyes with Evan some time ago.
Remarking upon their prolonged gazes, Win suggested duly, "So you guys do know each other."
"No, I…" Ian reacted immediately, hastily facing away and trailing off.
Evan began to protest in turn, only to be rudely interrupted by Juree's disbelieving rebuttal.
"Well, from what I've heard, that's not a likely story."
Frustrated at the man's attitude, Ian bursted, thoroughly flustered, "It's true! I was following my brother to the city, we got separated, I mistook her for him, and somehow we both fell! I don't even know where I am, or how I survived!" Clearly upset, he stared at his feet, attempting to rein in his emotions as well as his scattered thoughts.
Juree simply gave a short chortle at the unintentional insult sent Evan's way, while Win and Lucille genuinely considered the boy's words.
"This doesn't make any sense," Win eventually decided. "Earlier, she said that she slipped and that he cast a spell to save them both, but he says he doesn't know anything at all!"
"Their stories definitely conflict," Lucille agreed. "Either one of them is lying, or this really is just some big misunderstanding."
"Either way, that doesn't explain what Evan was doing so close to the edge of Matyrlowe to begin with."
At this, three pairs of curious eyes focused on the woman in question. She squirmed visibly, struggling with her words, mumbling embarrassedly after much difficulty, "I was going to jump." When met with immediate alarm, she hurriedly assured, "But not for the reason you might think!"
Unconvinced, Juree shrugged, "What other reason could there be? You wanna die, do it right next time."
Win glared disgustedly at him from behind her blindfold, and after a brief glance of similar nature, Lucille pursued, "What was your reason?"
Very much ashamed, Evan's face reddened. "There was a prophecy," she stated. "If one sharing Araeia's blood descended to the land that had once been hers, their life would protect the country's citizens just as she had." Admitting to her foolishness, she sighed, "Even if the prophecy was true, I don't have the green eyes signifying the goddess' powers."
While by no means rude enough to express her disbelief with a loud snort as Juree did, Lucille too appeared sceptical despite her effort to disguise it. Win, however, eyebrows raised, had come to a realization.
"You're from Zhefir, aren't you?" she asked, awestruck.
Sharply regarding the petite woman, Evan asked, "How did you know?"
"All this talk about goddesses, and 'saving', and so on… I'm familiar with your religion, and the place has been at war for at least half a year, hasn't it?"
"But still, how do you know of my beliefs? Are you—"
"No," came the quick response. "I passed through once, though."
Although far from satisfied with such an answer, Evan was by a landslide more concerned about the fact that what had first been a dispute over territory was already common knowledge beyond the mountains separating the expansive desert from the western world. Despite their great numbers, the peoples of her country were steadily being driven back from land that was rightfully theirs- defence on the opposing side had at some point become an invasion, and she was most distressed that news of this impending defeat had spread so far.
"… Hm. So you were trying to end the war, huh?" At such nonchalance, Evan opened her mouth to issue an angered reply, but never had the chance. "Hate to break it to you, but there's no way the 'forgotten people' you guys are so fond of over there could possibly exist. Anyone capable of performing magick is strictly prohibited from boarding Matyrlowe. Ask anyone you like; you'll get the same answer."
An outraged glance at Lucille revealed this to be true. Any words the Zhefiran woman could have issued died immediately. Devastated utterly and completely, she found herself without the ability to speak coherently, shocked tears building up rapidly behind her eyes. As she fought desperately to fight them away, repeated recollections of her wasted efforts taunted her without reservation, finally coaxing the burning droplets down her flushed cheeks.
Juree having retreated to a tent some time ago due to lack of interest, Lucille quitted the scene despite her better judgement as well, very awkward at the turn in the conversation, walking to greet Claus as he returned from the nearby city. Win, also unsure of how to treat Evan's tears, addressed Ian instead.
"So, you both seem to agree that you're from Matyrlowe, at least."
From the time he had last spoken, Ian had been absorbing every word exchanged with the utmost confusion. Any attempts to string together yesterday's events and what he had recently heard resulted in naught but questions, which had thus overwhelmed him to the point at which he took several moments to answer.
"What… Is Matyrlowe, anyways?" he eventually asked distractedly, thoughts ever muddled.
Win seemed as equally confused, for a brief moment. "You've been living on it, and you don't know?"
"I've been living on a farm," Ian corrected, at least confident that he knew this.
"Yeah, on Matyrlowe," was the insistent reply. "Look, it's where you fell from. Nobody has a clue how the hell you survived, but the fact remains that that's what happened."
Win pointed far beyond Ian's gaze, and his eyes followed. What lay at the end of her finger was an oddly shaped, pale object floating just above the peaks of the mountains off to the east. Completely beneath the clouds and yet high enough for a fall to be nothing short of fatal, it had the shape of a giant spinning top, familiar, tall buildings placed at its centre. Its entirety was the same, eerie white he had witnessed the night before – undeniable proof.
Ian firmly shook his head in disbelief, even with the definitiveness of the sight presented to him. "No… No way," he repeated momentarily, before inhaling sharply and biting his lip lest his words became incomprehensible sobs.
"I-it's not like you can't get back up, you know," Win stuttered, unable to handle another case of hysteria by her handiwork. "It'll be a month or so before it comes back, but you can definitely go back home!"
The lost, wide-eyed emerald stare she received in return was no light blow to her suffering conscience. Before given a chance to make things worse, Claus stepped in to relieve the burden of maintaining such a strained conversation.
"I hear you know nothing of this land," he said to Ian, handing him a book. "In here are some things that should help in explaining your surroundings. Once you've a grasp on all this, you should have a feel for what you want to do next."
The shaken teen accepted the book, hands trembling ever so slightly, and wordlessly trudged to the tent he had awoken inside of (to which Evan had also fled at an earlier point).
Mildly surprised at the manner in which he had been answered, Claus gazed after the boy for a while before turning his attention to Win. "Yours is an art to marvel," he said, openly impressed. "I've never seen two people so upset in my life."
Cheeks quickly turning red, Win shuffled her feet a little and mumbled under her breath, "Shut up."
Once inside the shelter, Ian slid lifelessly to the ground against a stack of boxes near the entryway. A small distance behind him was Evan, wrapped in a blanket, forehead to her knees. Numbly, he turned the cover of the volume entrusted to him, its title a hauntingly familiar "The Origins of Magic".
He hungrily eyed the contents of the foreword, intent to focus on anything save for the choking despair having taken residence deep within him. As he proceeded to read, however, a horror like none he had ever felt began to replace his sadness, fear and lingering confusion. The words on this page – he knew them all, to the point of memorization. Having heard them, read them and spoken of them all his childhood, they were the details of his favourite bedtime story.
Flipping hastily to the table of contents, he was able to find the titles of other short novels he had pored over day in and day out, among them some he had never seen in his life. In a frenzy, he scanned the book's pages until reaching "Westward Expansion", a tale he had frequented quite often. The font it had been scrawled in instantly familiar, he scanned its entirety several times, terrified at the ramifications this discovery wrought.
The story spoke of a nomadic people, having been banished from its homeland for opposing the country's religion and forging pacts with nature's lesser sprites. Through these contracts, the nomads were able to harness the world's powers for their own. Using these new abilities, they crossed the mountains to the west, spreading their knowledge of magick to numerous kingdoms. Fearful of such power, however, the monarchies placed a strict ban on any association with these "spreaders of ruin", threatening any usage of the abilities they offered with death. The nomads, in return, founded their own city, independent from any crown.
The next chapter was one describing exactly how to contact the sprites, and how to form deals with them in exchange for their unique powers. Ian could simply not go on to read it, however. With the knowledge that all he had ever been told was myth as a child was in truth a part of history, the tears he had valiantly kept at bay began to fall.
Whatever vague war had occupied his thoughts for the past couple of months was now as nothing. An entire world had been kept from him his entire life, the unwavering trust he had built in his family over so many long years based completely on one enormous lie. Finally at terms with his immense grief, he buried his face in the book's pages, overwhelmed completely by the earth-shattering things revealed to him in so short a time.
Silently sobbing Ian and Evan together sat, defeated by the cruel twist of fate that had brought them into each others' company.